Literature, ^laint and Curious.
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��Q. Are not all the people very able to pay those taxes ?
A. No. The Frontier counties, all along the continent, having been fre- quently ravished by the enemy, and greatly impoverished, are able to pay very little tax. And therefore, in consideration of their distresses, our late tax laws do expressly favour these counties, excusing the sufferers ; and I suppose the same is done in other governments.
Q. Are you not concerned in the management of the Post-Oftice in America ?
A. Yes, I am Deputy Post-Master General of North America.
Q. Don't you think the distribu- tion of stamps by post, to all the in- habitants, very practicable, if there was no opposition ?
A. The posts only go along the sea coasts ; they do not, except in a few instances, go back into the country ; and if they did, sending for stamps by post would occasion an expense of postage, amounting, in man}' cases, to much more than that of the stamps themselves.
Q. Are you acquainted in New- foundland ?
A. I never was there.
Q. Do 3^ou know whether there are any post roads on that Island .
A. I have heard that there are no roads at all ; but that the communica- tion between one settlement and an- other is by the sea only.
Q. Can you disperse the stamps by post in Canada?
A. There is only a post lietween Montreal and Quebec. The inhabi- tants are so scattered and remote from each other, in that vast country, that posts cannot be supported among
��them, and therefore they cannot get stamps by post. The English Colo- nies, too, along the frontiers, are very thinly settled.
Q. From the thinness of the back settlements, would not the stamp act be extremely inconvenient to the in- habitants, if executed?
A. To be sure it would ; as many of the inhabitants could not ffet stamps when they had occasion for them, without taking long journeys, and spending perhaps Three or Four Pounds, that the crown might get six pence.
Q. Are not the Colonies, from their circumstances, very able to pay the stamp duty ?
A. In my opinion, there is not gold and silver enough in the Colonies to pay the stamp duty for one year.
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Q. What number of white inhabi- tants do you think there are in Penn- sylvania?
A. I suppose there may be about 160,000.
Q. What number of them are Quakers ?
A. Perhaps a third.
Q. What number of Germans?
A. Perhaps another third ; but I
cannot speak with certainty.
Q. How many white men do you suppose there are in North America?
A. About 300,000 from sixteen to sixty years of age.
Q. What may be the amount of one 3'ear's imports into Pennsylvania from Britain ?
A. I have been informed that our merchants compute the imports from Britain to be above 500,000 pounds.
Q. What may be the amount of the
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