| Citation |
NP.779.013
15 Mar 1779:31,32 (6/284 [=285])
To the Honourable Fourteen, the humble petition of Tom Plain
Heart, Peter Poor, and Jack Importunate, in behalf of
themselves and many other brave fellows, humbly sheweth,
. . . [1/2 column]
That it ever hath been the custom, as far as your
petitioners have had the opportunity of observing, that they
who dance should pay the fiddler; especially they who stand
at the head of the dance. . . We should not have troubled
honourable ears with so vulgar a proverb as this. . .
We are also fully of opinion, that no gentleman standing at
the head of a dance, and conducting it, would exempt himself
from paying his quota of the expence of the entertainment,
although it was in his power so to do. The army hath played
excellently well on the instruments of war-musick, and we
have, all of us, been pleasured and profited by it. . .
We are now rather of the opinion that it [the poll tax]
ought to be wholly put on; and that there be no exceptions
in the hard times, (except the fiddler be excepted.)
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