It had cost an enormous amount of money to



264 THE ROMANCE OF AMERICAN COLONIZATION,

carry on the war against the French in America,
and the taxes laid upon the people to pay the
interest on the debt was very heavy. It was dur-
ing the reign of the Stuarts that Parliament had
gained this power of taxing the people and also
of dictating to the king. Charles I. and II. and
James I. and II. had vainly tried to raise revenue
without the aid of the peoples representatives.
In the struggle between the people and their
rulers, the monarch had to give up his powers, so
that the power of the chief servant of the people,
who sits on the throne to-day, is almost nothing.
The queen makes a good and obedient figure-
head and Great Britain is practically a republic.
Finding great difficulty in providing the revenue
necessary to pay interest on the war debt, the
Parliament of King George III. began to think of
taxing the colonists in America. So William Pitt
arranged a system, borrowed largely from that in
use in the republic of the United Netherlands when
fighting for independence against Spain from 1568
to 1648. The Dutch had been able to pay their
way during eighty years of war by taxing food and
drink, windows and chimneys, and almost everything
bought, sold, or used. They cheerfully paid their
taxes and had almost no war debt, when they had
ended their long struggle. This was because they
were well represented and voted the budget them-
selves.
