ficially employed. Their labour, under proper direction, will leave its full value behind, and no loss can arise to the state."

The fifth and sixth chapters contain a succinct account of the public revenues and expenditure, from the earliest dawn of our authentic history to the present period, It is very curious to observe the difficulties with which our earlier monarchs were supplied by means, apparently ruinous to the community, with 'sums which bear no proportion to the full tide of revenue now steadily flowing to the exchequer, and in its course not enfeebling, but stimulating the energies of the country in arms, in arts, commerce, and manufactures. It is most encouraging to the friends of our constitutional liberty, and our present national policy, to observe, that the difficulties of finance gradually disappeared when the foundations of the monarchy were fixed in the power and independence of parliaments; and that the current of our prosperity began to rise when we aspired to the elevation which we have but recently completely attained, in which we direct the counsels of Europe against any presuming aggressor who might attempt to destroy the general balance of states, set limits to the ambition of every powerful potentate, and sustain the efforts of the weak, by active co-operation against all encroachment.

Under this practical constitution, and never deviating from this liberal policy,

"The progress of the revenue during the last century, and up to the present period, furnishes the most incontestible proofs of the rapid increase of the wealth of the country. At the union, in the reign of queen Anne, the income of England amounted

to

It increased during the reign of George I. to

During the reign of George II.

During 53 years of the present reign

5,691,8031.

6,762,6431.

8,522,5401.

64,979,9601.

Nothing has been sacrificed to this vast revenue which has thus progressively increased to its present prodigious amount. It has at every period been raised upon the growing produce of the national capital and estate, without impairing either, but leaving both to be freely augmented. It has been by the great augmentations of both, that this increase of revenue has proceeded; and it now operates not as an insupportable burthen, not as a check to industry and commerce, but as an evidence of the extensive and incalculable resources which as a nation we possess. Yet during the whole period of the progress of this prosperity, ignorant or ill designing persons have continually complained, that our ruin was at hand, and inevitable. Wood, the secretary of the customs, said to George 1st.

"That

"That our trade was then expiring, our foreign commerce in many parts entirely lost, and in general suspended: what little was left us was become too precarious to be called ours.”

In 1725 Philip enumerated the detail of the taxes and asked,

"Can we wonder at the decay of our commerce under such circumstances? Should we not rather wonder that we have any left. All our pomp is false lustre, we owe more than we are worth, our money is diminished, we have little left but paper credit,"

But it is judiciously remarked by Colquhoun, that

"When through the medium of the facts which he discloses, the revenue of Great Britain and Ireland is contemplated, and when with these facts are coupled the gloomy prospects held out in the writings of the last century, predicting the absolute ruin of the nation, when the burdens imposed upon the people were not one twentieth part of what they are at present, and when the national debt did not exceed a tenth part of its present amount, how much would these gloomy pamphleteers be astonished were they to rise from the dust, and contemplate the events which have so com pletely falsified their predictions."

The expences are minutely detailed and the history of each branch of the expenditure is elaborately traced. It appears that at his majesty's accession, 800,000l. were allotted for the expences of the civil list, which includes his majesty's privy purse, pensions and allowances to the royal family, the support of the lord chancellor and all the judicial departments of the foreign ministers, of the board of treasury, and of various other departments which exercise immediately under the sovereign the functions of government. The civil list is now increased to 1,080,000l.; the charges of the navy in 1761, a year of extended warfare were 5,072,6021. in 1813 they were 21,212,01 il.-In the interval a navy debt was contracted amounting to 116,641,8621. The navy, our national bulwark, till the maritime powers were driven from the seas by our great superiority of force, was augmented in each succeeding war. In the last war there was generally in commission, refitting and in ordinary, 261 ships of the line, 36 ships of 50 guns, 264 frigates, 177 sloops, 14 bombs, 172 brigs, 46 cutters, and 64 schooners, navigated and fought by 140,000 seamen, and $1,540 marines. This is the naval force which some of our politicians within parliament and without, have considered as likely at no distant day to be overcome by the naval pre-eminence of the thirteen United States of America, consisting we believe at present of about 5 frigates, and several others in the dock-yards, intended to supply the want of the two or three which they lost in the late war.

In

1761, there was granted for military services, 8,344,0301. In 1813, 33,089,3341. The average expences of the ordnance at the beginning of the reign were 608,1791. yearly, in 1813 they were 4,464,2731. The barrack department in that latter year cost 460,5871. A particular detail of every other branch of expenditure is given by our author. At the end of the chapter is a table of the income and expenditure for the year 1813, which presents in a narrow compass the splendid results of the details given in the text.

The increase of the expenditure of the empire has indeed proceeded during the reign of his present majesty beyond the reach of possible anticipation, but let it be remembered for what great objects we have had to contend, and what great achievements we have made. We now assume the highest place in the scale of powers, and have abundant security in our great superiority. The civil expences of the state have increased in a very small proportion. We remember the sturdy republican who justified the rebellion against king Charles, by asserting that the trappings of a monarchy cost more than all the expences of a commonwealth. But we learn in the volume before us, that the long parliament divided among themselves out of the publick treasury, 300,000l. a year, and the lord protector expended 60,000l. a year, merely, in procuring intelligence. The privy purse, intended to defray all the personal expences of the sovereign, which may be considered as the king's salary, is 60,000l. A sum less than the income of some private indi viduals,

An interesting history of the publick debt ensues. At the death of king William it amounted to 16,394,7021. In the reign of queen Anne it was increased to 52,145,3631. It was diminished by George the first to 52,092,2351. At the peace of 1762, it amounted to 146,682,8441.

"It was during the first war of George II. that a practice, which commenced in the reign of queen Anne, of adding an artificial to the real capital which was borrowed, had been carried to any considerable height. And hence," says our author, it has often happened in many loans, that the state has acknowledged itself in 1001. to the creditor, when only from 54 to 601. were actually received. It is difficult to account for the adherence to a system on the part of experienced and able financiers of more modern times, apparently so injurious to the nation."

We rather deem it difficult to account for the great misapplication of terms which we detect in this short statement, proceeding from a superficial consideration of the subject, into which it is surprising that this able writer should have fallen,

and

and from appearing in this most respectable work, calculated to mislead the publick judgment.

The national debt differs in principle from all private debts in this respect, that when a private debt is contracted there is a stated time at which the creditor may demand the return of the full and exact amount of his advances, with the interest agreed upon to compensate his forbearance till that time. Government was never subject to any similar obligations. The publick debt originated in the granting of annuities for short terms of years, and in short anticipations of the revenue. Annuities for longer periods were soon after adopted. and it was soon found most beneficial to the state, because it was deemed preferable by the money lenders, that the annuities should be perpetual, subject however to redemption, upon certain high terms agreed upon. The value of an annuity redeemable at the pleasure of any debtor must depend not only upon the current rate of interest at the time of the original purchase, but upon the sum at which it is to be redeemable. Whatever is the stipulated sum to be paid for its redemption, will form parts of the basis of the calculation on which the original contract proceeds. If that sun be so low as to preclude the creditor from all the advantages, and to subject him to all the disadvantages of the fluctuations in the value of money, he will exact a higher annuity, and impose harder terms upon the debtor. At present government practically avails itself of every favourable fluctuation in the value of money. The price of redemption at par is a maximum, but all its purchases for the sinking fund have hitherto been the redemption of its annuities, at a price very far below that maximum. If government grants an annuity when the sale of interest is high, it would be most unjust that it should have the power of redemption, for the same price, when the rate of interest, from the greater prosperity of the country, shall have been greatly abated. "The experienced and able finan ciers of modern times," have judged more wisely than our author on this subject, and consult the best interests of the publick, and of the creditors of the publick, in fixing very high the price at which its annuities are redeemable; that high price is considered and paid for in the settlement of each loan, and the debt is, notwithstanding, to be repurchased (which is equivalent to redemption) at the current and inferior prices of the market. The justice of this theory is apparent every day in the difference between the value of the five per cent. and that of the three per cent. stocks. A loan might always be funded on more advantageous terms in the latter than in the former stock.

In the reign of his present majesty, previous to the American war, 10,739,7931. were paid off during twelve years of peace.

During that war a new debt was created of 121,269,9921. .... At its termination the price of the 3 per cents. fell to 52 and to 54, but in 1786 they rose to 76, and in March, 1792, at the commencement of the French revolution war, they were as high as 96 per cent. This great advance of the prices of the stocks is attributed to the establishment of the permanent sinking fund by Mr. Pitt, but is rather a proof of the great energies of the country called into activity under his wise. administration, for during that peace the debt was decreased only 4,751,261). which seems an inadequate cause to occasion so great an in, crease in the price of the stocks.

The increase of the debt during the French revolution war,

was

During the short peace which followed..
During the next war

....

Making the national debt on 1st. Feb. 1813..
But of this the sinking fund had purchased

327,469,6651. 40,207,8061. S41,784,87 11. 943,195,95 11. 236,801,7421.

Leaving the actual debt.. £706,394,209.

In the year 1814, 64,755,700l. were raised by loans, and 26,161,3611. of stock was added to the sinking fund.

These splendid statements raise the mind of our author to an enthusiastic admiration of the funding system, by which he states, that

"War may be maintained, and taxes prove an advantage to the state; the demand for labour be increased, and produce an aug. mentation of wages; the value of money be increased to persons possessing capitals, and trade, commerce and manufactures acquire an impetus not found to exist, to the same extent, during a period of peace. Loans are also to bring money from foreign countries, which is to afford a clear gain to the nation of five and a half per cent. and to render it unnecessary to exhaust the capital at home, by which its productive labour might be diminished. By loans, the surplus capital of the country is to be retained, without enriching foreign countries, the circulation of property to be promoted, and a stimulus given to productive labour, by which alone property is augmented." He deems it demonstrable," that every new loan creates a new artificial capital, with all the properties of a capital, which did not before exist, producing revenue to the state, and profit to the individuals, as real treasure applied in promoting objects of industry."

Our author here soars into a region beyond the reach of our feebler powers; we do not mistrust the government, or the people of England; we persuade ourselves that the one will never deem the country enriched by the augmentation of its debts, nor the other consider that its prosperity can be measured

by