Thomas Paine: “It operates to preclude the consent of the succeeding generations; and the preclusion of consent is despotism.”

He writes neither in the character of a Frenchman nor an Englishman, but in the fawning character of that creature known in all countries, and a friend to none--a courtier.

A knowledge of the practice was then joined to the theory; and all that was wanting to give it real existence was opportunity.

Because aristocracy has a tendency to deteriorate the human species.

The object is not so much the produce of the tax as the justice of the measure.