The time is not very distant when England will laugh at itself for sending to Holland, Hanover, Zell, or Brunswick for men, at the expense of a million a year, who understood neither her laws, her language, nor her interest, and whose capacities would scarcely have fitted them for the office of a parish constable.
Paine criticizes the British practice of importing foreign rulers who lack understanding of England's laws, language, and interests.
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The object is not so much the produce of the tax as the justice of the measure.
When it becomes necessary to do anything, the whole heart and soul should go into the measure, or not attempt it.
To account for this sudden transition, it is proper to observe that there are two distinct species of popularity; the one excited by merit, and the other by resentment.
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.