Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/273

a 4 2 THE HISTORY Book I. ficer *. This praefeft, as aedile, muft have had the whole prae- torial authority over the town and its vicinity ordinarily dele* gated to him. But the garrifon in the ftation muft undoubtedly have been independent of him, and fubjett immediately to the prae- torial authority. And like the praetor he had his quaeftor with him, appointed pretty certainly by the provincial quaeftor, and authorized to receive the taxes of Mancunium ,0 . Thefe were officers now firft introduced among us, and neceflarily intro- duced with our towns by the Romans. By the former was all the difcipline of the Mancunian polity regulated. And by the latter was all the ceconomy of the Mancunian taxes adjufted. The taxes impofed upon the provincial Britons confifted of four or five different articles. One was an impofition upon bu- rials, which is particularly urged as a grievance by the fpirited Boadicia "• Another was a capitation -tax, which is like wife infifted upon by that Britifh heroine x A third was a land-tax, which amounted to two fhillings in the pound or a tenth of the annual produce in every thing that was raifed from feed, and to four fhillings in the pound or a fifth of the produce in every thing that was raifed from plants Ji . A fourth was an impofi*- tion upon all cattle 14 . And all the commercial imports and exports were fubjeft to particular charges l Such in general were the taxes of our Britifh anceftors beneath the government of the Romans. And as they were the badges of the RQman dominion over them, they were naturally difliked by a newly conquered people. As they were embittered to their minds by the never-failing haughtinefs of a vi&orious foldiery in general and by the native infblence of the Roman foldiery in particular, they were as naturally hated by a gallant nation. 'But they were by no, means opprefiive in themfelves. They were merely an . equivalent in all probability to the duties which they had for- merly rendered to their own fovereigns. The amount of them was fcarcely fufficient to anfwer the neceflary expences of the civil and military eftablifhments within the illand ,6 . And the weight of them was certainly light, as the fmallnefs of the col- lections at laft ftimulated the policy of avarice to abolifh all the provincial