Taxes on every Acre plow'd or dug, on every Cow, Horſe, Bullock, Sheep, Goat, Aſs or Camel throughout the Empire. Beſides this and the Pole-Tax, every Houſe, Boat and Ship, and every Marriage pays ſo much to the Grand Seignior; the Births indeed are Tax-free, to encourage them to breed; neither do they pay for their Burials for a very good Reaſon, the Grand Seignior being Heir in effect to every Man that dies in his Dominions. There are alſo Taxes on Paper and Leather, and in one Word, on every thing neceſſary to Health or Eaſe, or even Life it ſelf, and if it were poſſible, I am perſuaded, they would Tax the only Bleſſings they enjoy here, their Air and Sunſhine. Yet with all this grinding the Face of the miſerable oppreſs'd Subject, theſe Revenues are ſo ill manag'd, and the Officers employ'd in the Collection of them, ſuch wicked Stewards to their cruel and rapacious Maſters, that hardly one half is brought into the Treaſury of what is paid them. Indeed if it were not for the vaſt hereditary Revenue, the Baſſa's are obliged to pay in from their ſeveral Provinces, over and above all theſe Taxes, and the immenſe Wealth that the dayly Forfeiture of their Heads, to theirMa-
Page:Memoirs of the Twentieth Century (Samuel Madden, 1733).djvu/62
Appearance