In September of 1777, the gentleman at the right, François, Marquis de Barbé-Marbois was traveling from Boston to Philadelphia, as secretary of the French legation to the newly born United States.    On the 6th of the month, some 22 miles outside of Boston, he had this to say about the inhabitants of New England:

No form of activity is considered ignoble here as long as it is useful to society.  Sometimes, we learn that the keeper of the inn was a colonel in the forces of the State; sometimes we saw a priest himself getting in the crops or working in his fields…  One day we had a superfluity of provisions.   We said to our host, “Give this to the poor.”  He hardly understood us, and no poor could be found

… Here are no tolls on each bridge, no seignorial rights on entering or leaving districts, no salt tax falling heavily on some and lightly on others, no monopoly of good Dutch tobacco, no smugglers or dealers in contraband salt, and no farm guards.

…The countryside was covered with harvesters and mowers;  all of them cheerful people, healthy, well-nourished, and well-clothed.  We spoke to one of them who seemed to be the farmer and whom the others addressed as “major.”  We made him talk about his farm and his way of living….One of us asked him “who possessed ‘the low and high justice,’ how much rent he paid to the lord of the village, how much it cost each time a piece of property changed hands, who had the right to the payment of a fifth and the fifth of a fifth, if he were allowed to hunt and fish, if the cider press, the tower, and the mill were far away, if he were allowed to have a dovecote, if the tithe was heavy and forced labor frequent and painful, how many bushels of salt he was obliged to consume, how much was the tax on drinks, and if there was capital punishment for those who were convicted of having tobacco plants in their gardens.

At all these questions, he started to laugh.  He could not form a conception of so many obstacles placed in the way of free exercise of the right of property and the liberty of individuals…

– The Letters of François, Marquis de Barbé-Marbois, Duffield & Co, NY, pp 88-91

Here’s to hoping we might always, (or at least again?), find such questions “laughable!”