The same interest
required that they should unite in deceiving their own prince, and
all his officers, great and small, as to the real resources of their
estates; because they all knew that the prince would admit of no
other limits to his exactions than their abilities to pay at the
harvest. Though, in their relations with each other, all these
village communities spoke as much truth as those of any other
communities in the world; still, in their relation with the
Government, they told as many lies;--for falsehood, in the one set of
relations, would have incurred the odium of the whole of their
circles of society--truth, in the other, would often have involved
the same penalty. If a man had told a lie to _cheat_ his neighbour,
he would have become an object of hatred and contempt--if he told a
lie to _save_ his neighbour's fields from an increase of rent or tax,
he would have become an object of esteem and respect.[14] If the
Government officers were asked whether there was any truth to be
found among such communities, they would say, _No, that the truth was
not in them_; because they would not cut each other's throats by
telling them the real value of each other's fields.
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