text: "[2] There was no gainsaying the facts which amidst an agitated and breathless silence he proceeded to detail with dreadful clearness and brevity; and out of which the question instantly sprung into the minds of every one--_are we not on the very verge of national insolvency_? He proceeded to demonstrate that his predecessors had exhausted every device which their financial ingenuity could suggest down to their last supposed master-stroke the addition of 10 per cent to the assessed taxes--thus adding very nearly the last straw which was to break the camel's back--the last peculiarly cruel pressure on the lower orders