The sum, when proportioned out according to the several abilities of the people, can hurt no one, but an inroad from the enemy ruins hundreds of families.
Thomas Paine: “The sum, when proportioned out according to the several abilities of the people, can hurt no one, but an inroad from the…”
Editor's note · Context
Paine argues that a distributed financial contribution for defense is less harmful than the concentrated destruction caused by enemy invasion.
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The Parliaments on their part insisted that they had not only a right to remonstrate, but to reject; and on this ground they were always supported by the nation.
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 aristocracy has screened itself too much, and this serves to restore a part of the lost equilibrium.
The animosity of the English nation, it is very well remembered, ran high; and, had the true principles of Liberty been as well understood then as they now promise to be, it is probable the Nation would not have patiently submitted to so…