The donatories of crown property were to pay double their usual tax; owners of houses, half the rent for which they were let, or a proportionate sum if they inhabited them themselves; land-holders, two-tenths, in addition to the former imposts. The tax upon horses, mules, and servants, was doubled. The _Juiz do Povo_, under orders of the _Senado_, was to rate all trading bodies and booth and stall-keepers, and compel them to pay their assessments by distress; and shops which were not under the jurisdiction of the _Senado_ were to be rated in like manner by the _Mesa do Bem Commun_, ... the Board of General Good, ... under the inspection of the Royal Junta of Commerce. The few persons who had thus long obstinately persisted in believing or pretending to believe that France wished and intended to improve the state of Portugal could no longer deceive themselves, and dared not attempt to deceive others. The contribution thus imposed amounted to four millions and a half sterling; the population of Portugal was less than three millions: the sum demanded, therefore, was equivalent to a poll-tax at a guinea and half per head. Yet even this statement inadequately represents its enormity: from at least three-fourths of the people nothing could be collected; and the mercantile part of the community, who had been the most opulent, were already reduced to ruin. The sum required exceeded the whole circulating medium of the country; and the reason why it was permitted to be paid by instalments, and not insisted upon at once, was, that the money received at the first instalment might in the course of circulation find its way to serve for the second! It was levied with the utmost rigour. ♦OBSERVADOR PORTUGUEZ, 203.♦ The lowest hucksters, stall-keepers, and labourers, were summoned before the _Juiz do Povo_, to be assessed in their portion; and the merchants were ordered to appear in tallies before the Junta of Commerce, and there reciprocally discuss their affairs, and tax each other! The expulsion of the English, the emigration, and the general distress, had left a very large proportion of the best houses vacant, and rents in consequence had fallen nearly to half their former value; but every house was rated at what it had brought in before these events, and the owners of those which were untenanted were compelled to pay three-tenths of what they would have received upon that valuation; and the property of those who had neither money nor commodities to satisfy the demand was seized without mercy. Articles which were needful for the army were received in part of payment in kind. The French officers turned speculators: they purchased colonial goods, which they sent to France by land; and thus the money which they had extorted was re-issued, to answer fresh exactions, or serve as booty again. They carried on also a gainful trade in money; importing French coin, which they forced into circulation, and exchanged for Spanish