The following extract is taken from Act 2, Scene 2, as edited to allow for the Charles and the Moses of the original text to be replaced by George III and Lord North respectively. It is concerned with raising money to pay for the deployment of additional troops in the North American War and requires no further comment. Politics is the art of the possible, and the reader can be left to draw his own conclusions as to the longevity (and continuing obscurity) of the concepts of equity in the context of tax systems, and as to the true origins of (say) the United Kingdom Income Tax of 1799