Those
new men, exercising the powers granted them by the conservators of
public freedom, had, on his refusing voluntary contribution, seized his
best cart-horse, three of his fat bullocks, and the silver-tankard he
won at a wrestling-match, for which (after entering them at half their
original value) they gave him a memorandum, certifying that he was a
public creditor, "to be repaid at such a time, and in such a manner as
Parliament should agree." Besides this, the tax-gatherers, a race of
beings whom he abominated, took their circular range to collect the
weekly assessment, which Humphreys found would amount to nearly five
times the original sum required by the King to defray the expences of
government, though the insupportable burden of his demands was urged as
the greatest public grievance. The obstinate temper of Humphreys would
not indeed permit him to make so frank a confession of his errors as his
wife did, but he charged her to say, that, when turned out of his own
house, Dr. Beaumont should be welcome to the use of his, as long as the
King and the taxing-men left him one to live in.
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