In reviewing the history of the English Government, its wars and its taxes, a bystander, not blinded by prejudice nor warped by interest, would declare that taxes were not raised to carry on wars, but that wars were raised to carry on taxes.
Paine argues that an impartial observer of English history would conclude that wars were initiated primarily to justify and increase taxation, rather than the reverse.
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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.
The meaning, then, good people, of all this, is: That government is governed by no principle whatever; that it can make evil good, or good evil, just as it pleases.
The aristocracy has screened itself too much, and this serves to restore a part of the lost equilibrium.
It was become evident, that no constitution, worthy of being called by that name, could be established on anything less than a national ground.