By 1820, as Sydney Smith argued, the English believed that they were a heavily taxed people. There had been a large increase in tax- ation during the wars with France, and amassive increase in public debt, and the subject of taxation was regularly debated in Parlia- ment and vigorously disputed...

Max Hartwell’s paper gives us a picture of the good old days. Hav- ing just paid my taxes, or at any rate the federal-income-taxportion of them, Jam not inclined to view favorablyanyleveloftaxesother than none at all. Still, the paper portrays the closest we’ve come in modern times...