Title page from Tyranny Unmasked: An Answer to a Late Pamphlet Entitled Taxation no Tyranny

Tyranny Unmasked: An Answer to a Late Pamphlet Entitled Taxation no Tyranny

Written in response to Samuel Johnson’s Taxation no Tyranny, this pamphlet dismisses Johnson’s arguments as unworthy of response, except for the fact that they are “irritating to Englishmen.” The author makes much of Johnson’s receipt of a government pension, calling him a “slave of state…hired by his stipend to obey his master in all things.” His most telling blow is to quote from Johnson’s poem ”London,” an earlier work in defense of liberty, as an argument against Johnson’s later pamphlet.

Show more

The text of these 18th century pamphlets has been converted by machine from scanned PDFs of the original microfilm copies. While the text has been machine-proofed, transcription errors may still remain. For example, the 18th-century long S, ſ , may be rendered as “f,” some words may be incorrectly transcribed, and there may be repeated words or phrases.