^ i&tx THE POLITICAL PROGRESS O F BRITAIN: O R, A N IMPARTIAL HISTORY r ABUSES IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, 1 N Europe, Alia, and America. FROM THE REVOLUTION, IN 1 688, TO THE PRESENT ft Mi THE WHOLE TENSING TO TROVE THE RUINOUS COXSE.U'ENCtS OF THE POPULAR SYSTEM OF' TAXATION, WAR, AND CONQUEST. " THE WORLD'S MAD BUSINESS." PART FIRST. . Z\)irt Cfciticii. PHILADELPHIA: 'rinted by ako for RICHARD FOLiVZLL, No, 33, A *795« fpHlCE HALF A DOLLAR.! iOLLEGE I _* .- Copy-Right: fecured according to Law, PERKINS LIBRARY Duke University Kare Dooks A D V E K T I S E M E N T. THE firft edition of The Political Progrefs of Britain was \ lifhed at Edinburgh and London, in Autumn, 1 791. fale was lively, and the profpect of future fuccefs flatten The plan was, to give an impartial hiftory of the abuies in v^rnment, in a feries of pamphlets. But while the author - preparing for the prefs, a fecond number, along will a new tion of the firft, he was, on the 2d of January, 1 793, ■■ ded, and with fome difficulty made hisefcape. Twebookfel who acled as his editors, were profecuted; and after 3 vet bitrary trial, they were condemned, the one to three tfioi the other to fix months of imprifonment. A revolution wall place in Scotland before the lapfe of ten years at farther!:, moil likely much fooner. The Scots nation will then deri \ think itfeff bound, by every tie of wifdom, of gratitude, and of juftice, to make reparation tothefe two honeft men, for the ty- ranny which they have encountered in the caufe of truth. In Britain, authors and editors of pamphlets have long condu the van of every revolution. They cempofe a kind of fojorn . on the (kirts of battle j and though they may often Want experi- ence, or influence, to marfhal the main body> they yet enjoy the honour and the danger of the firft rank, in ftormiftg the ramparts of oppreffion. The verdict of a packed jurv, did Rot alter the opinions of thofe who had approved of the publication. Five times its ginal price nath, fmce its fuppreflion, been offered in Edinburgh, for a copy. At London, a new edition vr. and Symonds, two bookiellers, confined in Newgate, for p liming political writings. They fell the pamphlet, and the fame tendency, openly in prifon. It is next to i z y for defpotifm to overwhelm the divine art of prii A copy of the firi n was handed to Z American Secretary of State. H of it, on ( fions, in refpectiul terms. He faid, tb iti\ <£ aftonifhing concentration of abttfes, thai.* he had *« in any government." He enquired, why it was not ; tted in ica ? and faid, that he, for one, wou dgl ' chafer. Other gentlemen have deii ..- m: opinions I fame effect ; and their encouragement w pearance of this American edition. In jnreparing it for • a multiplicity of new materials prefented thei collection cf the writer. Hence the Introd more than its former fize- By indulging 6C ( 4 ) as he went on, the author has found it impoffible to re-print the whole of the original pamphlet, as he at firft defigned. When he came to examine his performance at the diftance of two years, he faw many topics of importance that had been but flightly touched ; and whatever related to his native country, he was anxious to make as perfect as pollibie. Initead, there- fore, of correcting an old work, he has, in a great meafure, formed a new one ; but he has avoided any mention of fact s, or any reference to publications, pofterior to the date of the original Introduction. A mixture of this kind would have ctfnfufed lu3 narrative ; becaufc, fince it was firft written, the internal (late of Britain hath undergone a very great alteration. The fcene is jng every day ; and en a fubjecl: fo complicated, and, at ihe fame time, fo fluctuating, he cannot, at the diflance of a thou- i'md leagues, write and delineate with the confidence of an eye- witneis. He might alfo, with probability, have been fufpecled of partiality, had he attempted to touch on a fubjeCr, wherein he was fo perfonally interefted *, and where he might have forgot that decorum of ftileand fentiment, which the public a%e entitled to demand. The hiftory of the two lail years, is, therefore, en- tirely palfed over -, and the reader is here prefented with a kind of original ground-plan, of thofe follies and crimes of govern- jprent, which laid the foundation of a Britifli, and in particular, of a SeOts infurreclicn. This little volume, forms a general in- trodu&ion to the perufal of thofe trials at Edinburgh, for fedi- tion, that have been printed, and to thofe others, for high trea- fon, that will pofhbly be foon printed in the United States. The work was at firft intended for that ciafs of people, who had not much time to fpend in reading, and who wanted a plain*, but fubftantial meal of political information. The facts are r 'efore, crouded together as clofely as poflible. All the co- quetry of authorihip has been avoided. The ambition of the writer was to be candid, unaffected, and intelligible ; becaufe, truth is the bafis of found argument, fimplicity'the foul of ele- gance, and perfpicuity the fuprcme touch-ftone of accurate ofcmpofitioh. A report was circulated, and believed, in Scotland, that this production came, in reality, from the pen of one of the judges of the court of feflien". The charge was unjuft. His lord did not write a {ingle page of it ; but he laid openly, that its contents were authentic, and unanfwcrable j and that the public were welcome to call it his. For the extreme rafhnefs of his original plan, the writer can- not offer an apology that prudence will accept. A ihort ftory may, perhaps, convey the motives of his conduct. In 1758, the duke of Marlborough, with eighteen thoufand men, landed on the cortft of France* The troops, when difembarking, were cp.- ( 5 ) pofcd by a French battery, which was immediately filenced ; for it ccnilfted only of an old man, armed with two muikets. He was flightly wounded in the leg, and made prifoner. The Eng- lifh afked him, whether he expected, that his two mufkets were to filerice the fire of their fleet ? « Gentlemen," he replied, " I «* have only done my duty ; and if all my countrymen here, had " acted likeme,you would not this day have landed atCancalle." Philadelphia, November 14, 1794. POSTSCRIPT. A Third Edition of The Political Progrefs of Britain is now fubmitted to the public. Since the appearance of the fe- cond, in November laft, a pamphlet has been publifhed, end* tied, A Bone to gnaiu for the Democrats , or, Obfervations m a pamphlet entitled, The Political Progrefs of Britain. The author is offended at my prefumption in having predicted a Scots re- volution. The multiplied diforders in the government itfelf, feem alone fufficient for putting an end to it. Two years have now elapfed, fince the war began with France. The experiment has already colt Britain at leaft fixty thoufand lives, and be- tween the augmentation of her public debt, the capture of her merchant (hips, and the bankruptcies produced by the various calamities of war, at leaft fixty millions fterling. Fortheexpen- ces of a third campaign, fhe is contracting a debt of twenty- four millions fterling ; and of this fum, fax millions are to be beitowed upon Francis the fecond, that the lighting machines of Germany, may be led, or driven, to a twentieth defeat. The following paragraph in a London paper, of the 29th of April, 1793, dentonftrates how incapable Britain is of fuch convuliive exertions. u According to lord Rawdon's affecting ftatement,in his new " bill, there are no iefs than twenty thoufand debtors, one thoufand "three hundred wives 9 and four thoufand children 9 now in con " ment? The number mult at prefent be fuppofed far greater. The Public Ledger, of the 21 It of June, 1793, advances one good reafon for the alacrity of George the third, in commencing this war. " The hundred thoufand pounds, for which a treafury war- " rant has been granted, as part of the fubfidy for the Hanoveri- <€ an troops, has been added to the two millions, feven hundred (i thoufand pounds, already placed in the funds, in the name of " the lords of the regencv of Hanover." This is a minifterial newfpaper. Thus we learn, that this ami- able monarch felis the lives of one part of his fubjects, for the ( 6 ) money of another. In the prefent tempeft of political difquifi- tiofij it renot poffibte thatfuch a fyfeem as the Britifh conftitu- tion can long hblditfelf together. The church is, if poihble, more corrupted than the Mate* " An old woman, lad year, was confined about fix months, in <•' the king's bench prifon, and paid above one hundred pounds " cafisj for refufmg to pay church fees to the amount of two « /hillings and eight-pence"* The iirft campaign againft France, was to coft about twelve ions fterling to Britain, and the third requires twenty-four millions. By the fame rule, the fifth campaign mould coflfforty- cight. The regal and eqclefiaftieal plunder of the late French go- vernment, and the eftates of feventy-thoufand emigrants, have been computed at about three hundred and eighty-five millions fterling of property in the hsnds of the republic. If to thefe, we add the revenues ci Austrian Flanders, and other conquered countries, with the acquisition of perhaps fix millions of fub- je&s, we fhall foon be convinced, that Britain, fupported only by credit, can have but a poor chance in contending with the inexhauftible refou-rces of her antagonist. The contcft may be •protracted for three or four campaigns, but it can hardly fail to end in the deftruttion of the Britifh monarchy. JAMES THOMSON CALLENDER. Philadelphia, 3d of March, 1795. * Morning Chronicle, 6th May, 1793. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. Of Britijh wars fince the revolution — Immenfe jlaughter — Expence of wars — Nootka Sound — Oczakow — Tippoo Saib — Amount of national debt — Enormous ey.ient of its inte- reft in ihe next century — Scandalous terms on which it was fir;} contracted— Sketch of the civil If of William III— Profligate expenditure of the court — Hints for roya; c. . my — ®hieen Anne — A Jingle default of thirty-Jive mil- lions Jler ling — Lotteries — Earl of Chatham — Specimen of Britifi taxes — Lord North — His extravagant premiums * for money — Scheme of paying off public debt — Its futility — - Uniform abfurdity of modern Britijh wars — Jmprefs of Sea- men — Character and defign of this work. PAGE 9 CHAP. L Purity and importance of Scots representatives in parliament—* Parchment barons — Anecdotes of the Scots excife — Win- dow tax — Extracts Jrom an authentic report to the lords of the treajury — Herring fj/hery — Salt and coal duties — Dreadful opprejfion — Fate of Sir John Fen wick — Hijhry of the creditors of Charles the fecond—- 'Summary jf tloe public fer vices of the prince of Wales. 2§ CHAP. II. Fertility of the Hebrides — If ay — Its prodigious improvement — Immenfe abundance of fi/h-^-Afiferable effects of excife — Salt and coal duties — Specimen of Scots fnecures. 47 CHAP. III. Reports of the commi/jloners of public accounts — Crown lands— Afonijhing corn law — Britijh famine in the reign of Wil- liam third — Striking picture of Scotch wrcichednefs at that period — What Scotland might have been— -IV ar in general— Culloden- — The bloody Duke. 63 { 8 ) CHAP IV. Blachficne — His idea of the Engli/h confiitution — Default of U an hundred and fevcnty-one millions fie r ling — Powell — Bern- bridge — Mary Talbot — IVefiminfier election — Anecdotes of the war with America — Engli/h Diffenters — Their law- fnit with the corporation of Londm — So-ciety of friends — Unparalleled epprejfton of that Jed in England — Boxing. 82 CHAP. V. Civil lifi — Accumulation of fifteen millions — Dog kennels — George the firfi — His liberal ideas of government — George the fecond — His ho/pit ality at the burial of his eldefi fori — Excife. p7 CHAP. VI. Edward I. — Edward III. — Henry V. — Ireland — Conduct of Britain in various quarters of the world — Otaheite — Gui- nea— North- America — The Jerfey prifon-Jhip — Bengal — General efiimate of defiruclion in the Eafi- Indies. 109 .INTRODUCTION, OfBritiJh ivars fince the Revolution — Immenfe Jlaughter — Expence of wars — Nootka Sound — Oczakotv—-Tippoo Saib — Amount of National debt — Enormous extent of its intereji in the next cen- tury — Scandalous terms on which it was firfl contracted — Sketch of the civil Hfl of William III. — Profligate expenditure of the court — Hints for royal economy — Sjhieen Anne — Aftngle default of thirty-five millions flerling — Lotteries — Earl of Chatham — Specimen §f Britijh taxes — I ord North — His extravagant pre*- miums for money — Scheme of paying off public debt — Its futi- lity — Uniform abfurdity of modern Britijh wars — lmprefs of Sea- men — Character and defign of this work. SIXCE the year one thoufand fix hundred and eighty-eight, Britain has been once at war with Holland, five times ac war with France, and fix times at war with Spain. The expulfion, or flight of James the Second, produced a bloody civil conteft both in Scotland and Ireland. Since that time, we have alio been diflurbed with two rebellions in Britain, befides an endlefs catalogue of mafiacres in Afia and America. In Eu- rope, the price which we advance for a war, hath fucceffively extended from one hundred thoufand lives, to thrice that num- ber ; and from thirty to an hundred and thirty-nine millions flerling. From Africa we import annually between thirty and forty thoufand Haves, an eftimate which rifes, in the courfe of a century, to at leaft three millions of murders. In Bengal only, we deilroyed or expelled, within, the ihort period of fix years, five millions of induftrious and innocent people* ; we have been fovereigns of high rank, in that country, for about thirty- five yearsf ; and there is reafon to compute, that, fince our ele- vation, we have itrewed the plains of Hindoftan with thirty-fix millions of carcafesj. Combining the diverfified ravages of fa- mine, peftilence, and the fword, it may juftly be fuppofed, that in thefe tranfa&ions, fifteen hundred thoufand of our country- men have perifhed -, a number equal to that part of the whole inhabitants of Britain who are at prefent able to bear arms. The deftruftion of our French and Spanifh antagonifts, and of Ger- man, Sardinian, and Portuguefe mercenaries, purchafed by Bri- tain to fight againft them, has amounted to at leaft a fecond fif- teen hundred thoufand lives. Hence it follows, that Britifh * Dow's Hiftory of Hindoftan, quarto edition, vol. iii. page 70. f On the 23d of June, 1757, Colonel Clive defeated Suraja Dowla, Nabob of Bengal. This victory laid the foundation of the territorial grandeur of tke Eaft- India Company. i Infra. Chap. vi. B ( ro ) quarrels, in only an hundred years, have deprived Europe of three millions of men, in the flower of life, whofe defcendants, in the progrefs of domeftk fociety, mud have expanded into mul- titudes beyond calculation. The perfons deftrOyed, have in whole, certainly exceeded thirty millions, that is to fay, three hundred thoufand acts of homicide per annum. Thefe victims have been facrificed to the balance of power, and the balance of trade, the honour of the Britifh flag, the rights of the Bri- tifh crown, the " omnipotence of Parliament*," and the fecurity of the Proteftant fucceilion. Proceeding at this rate for another century, we may, with that felf-complacency, which is natural to mankind, admire ourfelves and our atchievements ; but every other nation in the world mud be entitled to wifh, that an earth- quake or a volcano, mould firft bury the whole Britifh iflahds together in the centre of the globe ; that a firigle, but decisive exertiori of Almighty vengeance, fhould terminate the progrefs and the remembrance of our crimes. In the fcale of juft calculation, the moft valuable commoditv, next to human blood, is money. Having made a grofs eftimate of the wafte of the former, let us endeavour to compute the con- fumption of the latter. The expences of Britifh wars, from the revolution to the end of the year 1789, has been ftated, by Sir John Sinclair, at three hundred and feventy-feven millions, twenty-nine thoufand five hundred and ninety-eight pounds fterling. The particulars are as fellows,. viz. Expences of war, during the reign of Wil- 7 r Ham III. 5 * -30,4473382 Queen Anne, ----- 43,360,003 George I. - - - - 6,048,267 Expence of the war begun anno 1 739, - 46,418,689 Ditto, of the war begun anno 1756, - - 111,271,996 Ditto of the American war, - - 139,171,876 Ditto of the armament refpe&ing Holland, 7 e in 1787, - - - - 5 3«>3«5 Total, tj£-377>° 2 Sk598 Since' this publication, a fleet has been armed again ft Spain, to enforce the privilege of killing whales at the fouth pole, and wild cats at twice that diltance. By the account of the minifter hirri- felf, as laid before parliament, the affair coft us three millions one hundred- and thirty-three thoufand poundsj. In point of economy, this project refembled the commencement of a law- fuit in chancery to recover half a crown. We have fince quarrel- * This vnodeft pliraff* was current before the Americas revolution. It hath, fince that time, been kid alide. f Hiftory of the public revenue of the Britifli empire, part iii. chap. 2d. j New Annual Kegifler, for 1 7 < y 1 . page i*,J> ( ti ) led with Catharine of Ruffia, for a few acres in the defarts of Tartary ; and the charges of this fecond armament mult alfo have been very cotifiderable. Thirty-three (hips of the line, and about thirty thoufand men, were kept up for four months, that the grand Turk might recover porTeihon of Oczakow, and after all, this notable fcheme was disappointed. At prefent. we are tearing afunder the dominions of Tippoo Saib ; and Mr. Fox lately laid, in the houfe of commons, that this war, which has juft how been ended, went on at an expehce to ourfelves of two hup Ired and fifty thoufand pounds fterling per month, or about eight thoufand guineas per day. Comprehending thefe frefh ex- ploits, the amount of money deburfed from the exchequer, on account of war, fince the revolution, mull exceed three hundred and eighty millions fterling. We are alfo to fubjoin the value of fixteen or twenty thoufand merchant-fhips, taken by the enemy. This diminutive article of iixty or an hundred mil- lions fterling, would have been fufficient for fcranfporting and fettling eight or twelve hundred thoufand farmers, with their wives and children, on the banks of the Sufqiiehannah or the Miffiflrppi. So numerous a colony of cuftomers could well have been fpared from the nations of Europe. They would foqri have rivalled the population of France, and have required a greater quantity of manufactures than tin's ifland has ever prepared for exportation. Infttad of fo comfortable a profpett, we are, as a >n, indebted to the extent of at leail two hundred and fifty millions. The annual intereft: of this fum, the necerTary expences cf management, and of collecting the revenue that defrays it, are, all together, above eleven millions and an half fterling. This burden is equivalent to a yearly poll-tax of one pound three (hillings fterling, per head, upon every individual inhabitant of Britain*. Befides what we pay at prefent upon this account, it is worth while to notice what we have paid already. From the revolution to the year 1789, incluiive, the intereft of tire public * In an affair of fo much importance, the utmo't accuracy may be expected. The exact amount of the debt, as flated by .Sir John Sinclair, is tzio hundred and. •wired and eighty-oee tboufat,^ y nme hundred and t^venty^fevev pounds, - - e. Hiftor) of the public revenue, Part in. chap. v. In another place, near the end of the lame chapter, he has thefe words. C1 1 hus,in- " eluding the linking fund, and the intereft of our unliquidated claims, our " public deots. at prefent, require the fum of ten Millions, fix hundred arid tbirty^tive m buHdred a ty-o,% >.ds fourteen /hillings, ana three half-pence per .'."' The expence of collecting this fum, in proportion to that 61 the whole British revenue, may begueffed at about nine hundred thoufand pounds a year, which, added to theiateceft itfelf, gives the eleven millions and an half, ftated La the text, 'ihe preface to the volume here emoted, bears date the 30th of January 1790. The Spanilh and Ruffian fquabbleS inuft, between them, have coft at leaft fix millions fterling. They took place after the preceding eftimate had been made of the extent of the national debt ; fo that the fums mentioned in the text are, both a? to the pnhcipal and the annual charges, much about the fact, even alter deducting v. hat Mr. Pitt may have paid off. ( 12 ) debts, and of the public loans repaid, including other inciden- tal articles connected with thefe matters, has been three hun- dred and ninety millions, two hundred and feventy-fix thoufand, five hundred and feventy-nine pounds*. But this is a trifle compared with the fums of intereft that we mull difcharge in the next hundred years. The burden hath now rifen to eleven millions, and five hundred thoufand pounds ftcr- ling per annum. Six yearly payments only, from the lit of January, 1792, to the id of January 1798, inclufive, with compound in- tereft at five per cent, from the firft of thefe two dates to the fecond, amount to eighty millions, nine hundred and fifty-four thoufand, three hundred and forty feven pounds, four millings and three-pence. The reader may profecute the feries of figures to the end of the next century. He will then difcover that feve- ral myriads of millions fterling are not for that time alone, equal to the preflure of this enormous load. We far excel the Greeks and Romans in the arts of induflry, and the refources of wealth; but it would be vain to fearch among ancient nations, for any in- ftance that rivals British debts, and Britifh folly. It is an object of the higheft curiofity and importance for every one of us, to enquire, in what manner fuch aitonifhing fums have been borrowed, and by what methods they have been expended ? In the courfe of this work, each of thefe queries will be explain- ed *, but in the mean time, a few detached particulars fhall be here inferted, to afTift the reader in forming a conception of the reft of the bufmefs. In the war of 1689, that feed-bed of the future calamities of Britain, money was borrowed upon annuities for lives. " Four* " teen per cent, was granted for one life, twelve per cent, for two « lives, and ten per cent, for three. Such terms were, in the high- " ejl degree extravagant j particularly as no attention was paid " to difference of ages\" The fame author adds, on the authority of Dr. Price, that " borrowing, at the rate of twelve per cent, for two lives, and « ten per cent, for three, is giving ten per cent, for money " in the one cafe, and nine percent, in the othert." From 1690, to the end of the war, the hiftorian fays, that, on the money borrowed, « eight per cent, was uniformly paid." To raife a far- ther fum upon thefe annuities, another expedient was, in the fe- quel, embraced. The annuitantswere oiTered a reverfionarv inter- eft, after the failure of their lives, for ninety-fix years t tobe reckoned from January 1695, on their paying only four and a half year's purchafe, or fixty-three pounds for every annuity of fourteen pounds. In 1698, the demand was reduced to four years pur- * Hiftory of the pnb'ic revenue, &c. Part 111, chap. zd. f Ibid. Part n. chap. 4. J Ibid. f ( 13 ) chafe \ or fifty-fix pounds for the annuity of fourteen. For our farther fatisfac~tion, « the fame fyftem was afterwards adopted " in the reign of Qiieen Anne*." Some of thefe annuities re- main, at this day, " to the amount of one hundred and thirty- " one thoufand two hundred and three pounds, feven {hillings, iC and eight-pence per annum, for which the fum of one mil- « lion eight hundred and thirty-fix thoufand, two hundred and i( feventy-five pounds, feventeen millings and ten pence three «< farthings, had been originally contributed -, and for the ufe tc of which, the public muft pay above thirteen millions before " they are all'extin&f." But even all this was only a part of the evil. i( Davenant " affirms, that the debt of the nation was fwclled more by high " premiums than even by the exorbitant intereft that was paid ; " and that its credit was at fo low an ebb, that Jive millions, giv- " en by parliament, produced for the fervice of the war, and " to the ufes of the public, but little more than two millions and " an halfX* In another paifage, he feems to contradict himfelf, and to reduce the loffes in this way to one million out of five ; but there is full evidence en record, that his firft computation was more accurate than the fecond. " In 1698, a propofal was made to parliament, of advancing " two millions to government, at eight per cent, provided the " fubferibers were erected into a new Eaft-India company, with u exclufive privileges. The old Eaft-India company offered fe- K ven hundred thoufand pounds, nearly the amount of their « capital, at four per cent, upon the fame conditions. But fuch " was, at that time, the fate of public credit, that it was more " convenient for government to borrow two millions at eight « per cent, than feven hundred thoufand pounds at four. The " propofal of the new fubferibers was accepted|| ." The two mil- lions coft an intereft of one hundred and fixty thoufand pounds. The feven hundred thoufand pounds could have been had at four per cent, that is, for twenty-eight thoufand. Out of the two millions, therefore, feven hundred thoufand pounds were only worth twenty-eight thoufand pounds, and the remaining one hundred and thirty-two thoufand of intereft, was the fum really paid for the remaining thirteen hundred thoufand pounds of principal. Thus, the latter fum, in fact, coft the public ten per cent, with an overplus, on the whole, of two thoufand pounds. Thefe details are perhaps dry, but they are fufficiently intelligible, and all men of fenfe will acknowledge, that they are extremely ufeful. If Britilh hiftorians had uniformly com- * Hiftory of the public revenue, &c. Part 11. chap. 4. f R>S4. \ Ibid. || Inquiry into the n3turc and caufes of the Wealth of Nations, Book V. Chap. I. Part 3d, Article I. ( u ) . ■ pofed thx?ir worfe an this plan, we mould long fince hire re- nounced entirely, or, at ieaft, in a great degree, the practice of fo- reign wars. With all proper deference to Quintirian, fuch a itile is preferable to that of any hiftorical writer in his ion? catalogue of literary heroes. Let us return, with thefe ufefiil cal- culations, to the reign of William. Xhe management of this money, when obtained, correfpon- ded with the terms of tlie loan. In the reign of Willi im the Third, the civil lift, that cup of a&omiftatibns, was fupported by certain taxes, appropriated for that purpofe, and which amoun- ted " at an average, to about fix hundred and eighty thoufand " pounds per annum*.' Trie public revenue^ of England, after every poihbie extortion, was only fcrewed up to three million-, eight hundred and ninety-fire thoufand, two hundred and five pounds-}- j Co that the civil iiit was lefs than one-fifth, but more than one-fixth part of the whole revenues of England. If the civil lilt of this day bore the fame proportion to the national income, it would extend to at lealt three millions Jlerling. Sir John Sinclair has given a complete itate of the whole expences of the civil lift, during the thirteen years of the reign of the Proteilant hero. A few articles may ierve as a fpecimen of the reft. To the robes, fifty-feven thoufand pounds. This money would have clothed two thoufand poor people, at forty millings each, per annum, for thir- teen years, w^ith a'reverfion of five thoufand pounds for the drefs of the royal family, which confided, properly fpeaking, but of two per Ions. Jewels fxty thoufand pounds* Plate, one hundred and tiuo thoufand pounds. Band of gentlemen penlioners, Jlxtynine thoufand pcunds.To making gardens, befides an account paid un- der a different head, one hundred and thirtx-three thoufand pounds. 'A letting apart thirty-three thoufand pounds for his gardens, William could have appiiecLtJie reft of this money much bet- ter. He might have parcelled out of the crown lands, which are to this day lying waftc, in the centre of England, two thou- sand fmall farms. On each of his tenants, he might have be- llowed fifty pounds to begin the world -, and the fifft ten years of a perpetual leafe, free of rent. To tfhe ftables, t*wo hundred thoufand pounds. To the great wardrobe, three red and nineteen thoufand pounds. This fum would have clothed an army of iixtv thoufand men j or, what is more efti- mable, ten thoufand tradefmen and their families. Privy purfe, h <°d and eight \ -three thou (and pound:. . For half this mone y, we might have had a beautiful edition of all the Greek and Ro- man ejafhes, with Englifh trandations. To the treafurer of the chambers, four hundred and eighty-four thoufand pounds. This fum would have bum of the utmoft ferviee, in paving and light- . r< m< '■■-'■■ in. chap. i. f Ibi 1. ( IJ ) . ing the itreets of London. To the treaiurer of the kte Queen] whofe filter, Queen Anne, William did not think worth a plate- full of green peas*, five hundred and fix thoufand pounds. To the prince and princefs of Denmark, a harmleis but ufelefs couple, fix hundred and thirty-eight th , h. Fifty-three thoufand debtors, at twelve pounds each, might have been reliev- ed from prifon by this money ; or a fund might have been f v a- blifned with it, for the annual difeharje of a thoufand pri- soners of that kind, on the birth-dav of his majeity, and an equal number on the day. when he figned a warrant for the maf- facre of Glenco. Secret fervices, feven hundred and feventy-five thoufand pounds. Fees and falaries, eight hundred and fifty-eight thoufand pounds. Penfions and annuities, //.v hundred and eighty- Jh; thoufand pounds. Cofferer of the houfehold, thirteen hundred thoufand pounds* In the end of the laft century one lhiliing went farther than three can go now ; fo that this fum was equal in reality to four millions at this day. The deliverer of England, therefore, fpent what correfponds to three hundred thoufand pounds per annum, on his houfehold, for thirteen years, while, during a confiderable part of his reign, his fubjects, by thou- lands and ten thouiands, expired of hunger}-. To the paymaf- ter of the works, four hundred and feventy-four thoufand pounds* The whole bill extends to eight millions eight hundred and eigh- ty thoufand pounds ; and it does not appear that one-fourth part of it was expended for wife and uieful.purpofesi. This was the frugality of government, at a time, when they were compelled to borrow money, at ten, per cent. In the next reign, the fyftem was not much improved. An Englifh houfe of commons informed Queen Anne, that " there " remained atChiiftmas, 1710, thirty-live millions, three hun- ** dred and two thoufand, one hundred and feven pounds of " pubHc money unaccounted for r o." In 17 14, one million, eight hundred and feventy-fix thoufand pounds were raifed by a lot- tery. Out of this fum, four hundred and feventy-fix thoufand pounds were distributed among the proprietors of the fortunate tickets. This was a premium of about thirty-four per cent, on the fum actually received|j. In 1744, the charter of the Eaft- India company was prolonged from 1766 to 1780. This wa? an anticipation of twenty-three years. The value of the compensation, granted by the company to government, did not exceed thirty thoufand pounds^. This was like Efaii felling his birth-right for a mefs of pottage. If the bargain had been de- * Anecdotes of the Duehefs of Marlborough. f Infra, chap. 3. i Sixteen hundred and feVent'y pounds for the widows of omcers, ap 1 .-.., like FalftatF's half-penny worth of bread, in a corner of one article. f § Hiftorv of the public revenue, Part ix. chap, 4. H Ifcid. ' f Ibid. ( »tf ) ferred till the expiration of the former monopoly, perhaps for- ty times that fum could have been obtained. Sir John Sinclair gives a " general view of premiums upon « the new loans," in the war of 1756.*' Thefe premiums amount in value to fourteen millions , two hundred and eighty-three thou- fand, nine hundred and feventy-five pounds jlerling. The total fum borrowed, and added to the national debt, for this premium, was feventy-two millions, one hundred and eleven thoufand, and four pounds. The premium is, within a perfect trifle, one- fifth part of the whole money obtained. Thus, out of every twenty (hillings of the loan, we gave back four {hillings as a reward for the lender. At this rate, the Britifh armies conquer- ed Guadaloupe and Canada •, and we continue to boaft of the glory of thefe exploits. Yet a perfon might, with as much rea- fon, burn his houie, for the fake of roafting an egg in its allies. We may fuppofe, that the reft of the national debt was created upon terms at leaft equally hard ; and the fifth part of the whole two hundred and fifty millions contracted, gives a pre- mium of fifty millions sterltng. After fuch work, it is not wonderful, that we are now harneiTed in debts and taxes, like horfes in a carriage. One-third part of the expences of a family confift in the payment of public burdens. Five hun- dred thoufand people in England are fupported by charity.f We mud give twenty-fix pounds fterling per annum for leave to keep a hackney coach ; and twenty {hillings per annum for leave to make a farthing candle, befides one penny per pound of excife upon the manufacture •, nine-pence per pound of im- portation duty for Peruvian bark ; and three guineas for leave to {hoot a partridge worth two-pence. Half the price of a bottle of wine, or a bowl of punch, goes off in taxes, for leave to drink it. This deferves not to be termed the language of ma- lignity. Thofe who pay the reckoning have a right to read the bill. I am no orator as Brutus is, To ftir men's blood ; I only fpeak right on. I tell you that which you yourfelves do know. * Part 11. chap. 4. f Dr. Wendeborn, a candid, and well informed writer, in his View of Eng- land, towards the clofe of the eighteenth century, fays, that " whoever lives " upon a thoufand a vear, is fuppofed to pay at prefent about fix hundred oi it * in government duties, taxes, excife, church parifh and pooF rate*." He alfo obferves, that of the people of England, " one million is fo poor it " mud be fupported by the reft." Thefe affertions have been confiderably foftened in the text, to avoid any charge of exaggeration. They do not apply to Scotland, where beggars are lefs numerous, and parifh and poor rates but little known. As a neceffary confequence of this enormous taxation, the author informs us, that " fifty years ago, a family might live very handfomely on five hundred " pounds per annum, but a thoufand will at prefent hardly go fo far :" ( »7 ) On the 27th of December, 1791, a bill for an additional duty on malt, came before the houfe of peers. On this occafion, lord Kinnoul faid, that " their lordfhips were not perhaps apprifed ** of the rate at which barley, in its various forms, was already " taxed ; if they were not, the enumeration would aftonifh «* them. As malt only, it was taxed at the rate of ten millings" k « and fix pence per quarter. The additional duty of three Xf . pence per bufhel would raife it to twelve millings and fix u pence per quarter. When to this were added the land tax, u and the duties en beer, which he feverally calculated, it ** would be found, that the raw commodity, which brought « the proprietor of the foil on which it was raifed, about ?iine Xi JJjillings, paid to government, in its feveral fiages, above two « pounds ten JlM!i?:gs\" Every perfon who advanced a part of "thefe two pounds ten millings, would make a feparate charge on his cuftomer for the advance of his money, fo that thefe two pounds ten millings would finally coft the drinker of the liquor at lead three pounds ten millings, perhaps four or five pounds \ and all this on an article originally worth nine ihillings. The caU culation of four or five pounds, being charged for two pounds ten {hillings, will not feem unreafonable, if we confider what follows. A tax of a penny per bottle, or fome fuch trifle, was once impofed by lord North on the retailers of wine. To the furprife of all men, the vintners of London inftantly raifed the liquor fix pence per bottle. If Britain pays at prefent eighteen millions fter* Jing of taxes to the crown, we may fairly compute that (he pays at leafr. twelve millions of an additional, though invifible tax, to the landholders, merchants, and manufacturers, who, in the jfirft place, advance the money. At the opening of a minifterial budget, there is never heard any notice as to this filent but moft inevitable and terrible of all taxes. Between this burden, and that of tide-waiters and excife-men, it may be feared, that every milling which goes into the exchequer, has, upon a medium, colt two millings to the nation. One other inftance only (hall be fubjoined in this place, of the manner in which public debts have been contracted. Irr 1^81, Lord North received for the national fervice twelve millions fterling. For this furn he gave eighteen millions of three per ant. ftock, and three millions of four^r cent, flock. The annual intereft of theie two fums is fix hundred and fixty thoufand pounds, or five and an half per cent, for the twelve millions actually received. Money is not commonly advanced in England, at more than four and an half per cent, of intereft ; and very frequently at four per cent. At the former of thefe two rates, the twelve millions borrowed by Lord North ought f Senator, Vol. I, page 245. ( i8 J ©nly to have coft five hundred and forty thotifand pounds' per annum. The one hundred and twenty thoufand pounds addition- al, at twenty-five years piirchate, make a premium of three millions fterling for the loan of twelve millions, it is not fur- prifing that Sir John Sinclair, Dr. Swift arid other writers, complain i'o loudly of the fcandalous conditions upon which the public debts of Britain have been borrowed. 1 he original con- tractors wirh government for lending of the money, remind us of a band of ufurers, embracing every advantage over the ne- cefiries of the Irate ; while the minhters of the crown feem like defperate gameiters, who care not by what future expence they iecure another call of the dice. From the facls above Hated, the public funds prove to be aflupendous mafs of fraud., profligacy, impodure and extortion. Behold that facred edi- fice of national faith, that political janfftim JhnBorum, which we fupport at an annual expence of eleven millions and an half fterling !* What kind of gentry fome of thefe creditors are, there was no body better able to inform us than the late Earl of Chatham. " There is a fet of men," lavs he, " in the city of London, il who are known to live in riot and luxury, upon the plunder " of the ignoiant, the innocent, and the helpfefe, upon that *' part of the community, which Hand's mofi in need of, and bed creferves the care and protection of the legiilature. To u me, my Lords, whether they be mrferable jobbers of Change- Alley, or the lofty Afiatic plunderers of Leadenhall Sticet, they are all equally detcftable. 1 care but litfie whether a man walks on foot, or is drawn by eight horfesj or' fix horfes ; if his luxury be fupported by the plunder of his country, I " defpifeand abhor him. My Lords, while I had the honour ** of fervinrr his Majeltv, / never ventured to look at the trea- '"* surv, but from a diftance ; it is a bufinefs 1 am unfit for, " and to which I never could have fubnrttecr. The little I know o ; " it, has not ferved to raife my opinion of what is vulgarly called the monied interefl, I mean that blood-suck- er, that muckworm, which calls rtfelf the friend of Go- vernment, which pretends to ferve this or that adminiftration, and may be purchaied on the fame terms by any ad mini ft ra- tion. Under this description, I include the whole race of comrnitlioncrs, jobbers, contractors, ckrthiers, and remit- ters')* •" * Of the original commencement of this- clt br, the charafters, motives, and emolu* merits of its authors, the reader may find an authentic Inflory in the Political Progrefs, Part Li, which will appear in a tew months. f Vide his fpeech in the debate on Falkland's Iflands, -which has been re-printed in the Anecdotes of his Life juft publifhed. 1 his quane" ended, like others, in cur dis- appointment, and perhaps difgrace. Befides much expence and trouble to individuals, tie nation fuuandered between three and four m-llie*. Berling, ( 19 ) The friends of Mr. William Pitt boaft much of the nm£ millions of debt, which, in a period of fix years, he is laid to have diicharged. The fcheme is an abfoiute bubble. He be- gan to buy- up three per cents, in April 1786 ; at which time they fold for fevenly. They role, a! moil initautiy, to feventy- feven, and upwards. They have (ince been much higher; and if the miniiter mall make any fubftantial progreis in his plan, they will very i'oon reach an hundred per cent, and very likely go higher. Thus, as Sir John Sinclair obfervei *' the more we pay, the more we (hall be indebted', every fhil- " ling that is laid out in pure run ngjtccfc, raifes the price pro* " porttonably" So peculiar is the nature of this national debt, and lb very hazardous an attempt to discharge it ! To make this quite plain, it may beobferved, that when Mr. Pitt full began to buy up itock, the market price of the whole three per cent, funds, was ail together but one hundred and levcnteen million^, fix hundred and 'oitv-three thoufard pounds. In two years and an half, he hid purchased a I'mall part of it ; but the prodigious parade that he made about this operation, railed the price of the remaining Jlock to one hundred and twenty-two millions, four hundred and twenty thoufand pound;. The iequel, in October 1788, was, that the miniller had expended or funk two millions and jeven hundred thoujand pounds, and yet, he left matters worse than he found them by Jour millions, Jeven hundred and Jeyenty- Jeven thoujand pounds. The follow- ing ftatement puts the matter in a ihort, and ciear view : In October, 17S&, the value of the whole remaining three per cent, frock was - - ^122,420,401 Mr. Pitt, at an expence of two millions, (even hundred thouiaud pounds, had before purchafed (lock to the amount of - ^£"3, 626,000 In -.April 1786, before he began to buy up at all, the whole three per cents, were only at fe- venty per cent, or 117,643,308 Actual increase of national debt, over and above the two millions, feven hundred thou- land pounds, cail away in the purchaic of ■»■ ■ ftock - - - 004,777,093 It mud be acknowledged, In favour of Mr. Pitt, that while he has augmented the principal fum of the national debt, he has reduced the annual payment of intereit. The three mil- lions and fix hundred thoufand pounds of three per cents, which are paid orF, colt, formerly, one hundred and eight thoufand pounds per annum of intereft, which is now extinguished. This is the fole advantage anting to the public from the trans- action. But there was a il orter way to have come at this tarae purpofe. Mr. Pitt and his parliament ought to have, (truck ( 2° ) number of ufelefs penfioners, fueh, ample, as the groom of the ftole, the mafter of the horfe, the matter of the robes, the mafter of the hawks, twelve lords and twelve grooms of the bed-chamber, twenty-four preachers in bis majefty's chapel at Whitehall, and the wet nurfes of the prince of Wales and the duke of York*. Inftead of abolifh- ing ufelefs places, to difcharge this annuity, Mr. Pitt fqueezed out of the people two millions and {even, hundred thoufand pounds, which, with the expence of collecting it, comes to at leafr. three millions fterling. The extinction of a burden of one hundred and eight thoufand pounds per annum has thus coll mere than it is worth. At four and an h?Jf per cent, three mil- lions produce one hundred and thirty-five thoufand pounds per annum ; which is itfelf twenty-feven thoufand pounds more than, the annuity extinguifhed. Here we mult obferve, that ten per cent, is but a moderate and ordinary profit on the capital offteck, either in husbandry, commerce, or manufactures. Hence, if thefe three millions had been furFered to remain in the hands of the people of Britain, they would have afforded to the com-. munity at large, at leaft three hundred thoufand pounds per an* Kium of additional wealth ; and perhaps twice or thrice that Aim. The ilighteft and mod necefTary taxes, are, therefore, \n their own nature, very deftrucrive. When a tobacconift, or a tanner, pays thirty pounds of excife, he does not merely lofc thirty millings per annum, as the legal interest of his money ; but he is iikewiie prevented from the chance of converting this capital of thirty pounds into an augmented ium of thirty-three, thirty-fix, or forty pounds. If the tradefman can (hove the tax upon his cuftomers, by raiting the price of his commodi- ties, it comes exactly to the fame point at lafl, as their active capitals are always, and with mathematical certainty, reduced in an equal proportion. Thus it is evident, that every fum raifed from the public as an impoft, or excife, muft in reality coit them ten per cent. This, by the way, demonftrates the raihnefs of wars undertaken in defence of a foreign trade, fmcc the fums levied to fupport the druggie are, every farthing of them, drawn from the circulation of domeftic commerce ; a, commerce always more fafe, and very commonly more profit-* able, than that which kings are fo frequently fighting for. A commercial war is truly cqjling our bread upon the waters, thab xoe may find it after many days. Now, as every million of pounds, railed by government from the people of Britain, is, upon an average, at leaft equal to an annuity for ever, of an hundred thoufand pounds, out oj" the pockets of thofe who pay * In the court and city calendar, for 1775, eight of thefe ladies are charged to the, ration, at falaries each of two hundred pounds per annum; befides dry nurfes, work- women, rockers, and other luggage of the fame fort. ( tl ) it, the inference is", that if Mr. Pitt had underftood or regard- ed the intereit. of this country, he never would have undertaken to diicharge a debt hearing three per cent, at an expence of ten j or, as before obferved, an annuity of one hundred and eight thoufand pounds, by paying a capital of three millions, pro- ducing a yearly profit of three hundred thoufand pounds to the holders of it. In this way Mr. Pitt pavs off the public debt. Since October 1 788, flocks have rifen prodigiouliy ; fothat the pe- riod here chofen for the examination of this celebrated project, is by far the mod favourable that can be taken. A full account of its fubfequent hiitory will be given heieafter. Mr. I itt might as well propoie to empty the Baltic with a tobacco pipe. But let us admit the cafe, that he at prefent had an hundred millions in the exchequer. The diicharge of the pul lie debt js, on his principles, abfurd andunjuft. Stccks would inftant* ly rife to at lcaft an hundred ; and he begins perhaps by pay- ing olf the twenty-one millions of three and four per cents, for which Lord North actually received but twelve millions. Thus, after giving, as above itated, five and an half pe r cent, for a loan of twelve millions, we diicharge that original twelve mil*, lions itfelf, with tzventy-ojie millions. The prefent fcheme for extinguiihing the public debt is therefore impracticable, if it were honeft, and, as an act of robbery againit curfclves, it would be difhoneft, if it were practicable. But, luppofing that Mr. Pitt had in reality paid off nine mil-* lions of debt, and leflened the public burdens of its intereft, yet, for the fake of an impartial and fatisfa&ory argument, his advocates ought to arrange, in ?.n epponte column, a lift of the additional taxes which he has impofed, and of the thou lands of families, whom fuch taxes have ruined.* A third doiumtl fhould contain a lift of the millions which this minifter has waited upon Spanilh and Ruffian armaments, on the unprovoked and piratical war againit Tipoo Saib, on the Chinefe embativ, the fucceffive elections for Weftmiiiiter, the creditors of the prince of Wales, and the nabob of Arcot, and the Baratrian fettlement of Botany Bay. The pretended plan of difcharging the national debt, on which Mr. Pitt fometimes expatiates to parliament, for two hours together, was but a forty trap for po-» puiarity ; and if " ths Jzvin?JIi multitude" had been much wife? * In T723, the tax on hawkers and pedlars in England, produced, in the grofs, ten thoufand, (even buarfred and feventy-three pounds j and eight thoufand, iix hundred 2nd four pounds cf net income. T. hus, one-fifth of the revenue was funk in the col- legion. In 1705, Mr. Pitt, cutting the feeond inch cut of a man's npfe, doubted the tax ; and, in 1788, the total amount cf it had fhrunk 10 Jii'c thvufinid, four hundred «nd Jixty one pounds. Of this fum, the net produce was but izvo thoufand, one hun- dred and [even ty pounds ; tii -ce-: fths of the produce of the tax, were thus funk in collevfting t. This diabolical isipoft was laid fcr the profetfed purpcie of extirpating pedlars. Crowds of them weve reduced to a fta:e of itarving. 1 he new addjuiou tc the tax hath fmce been repealed. Vid. i'enze Recount of it in the hiitory of the put hp revenue. Part III. clup. 3. ( " ) than the reft of their family, they mud, in a moment, hare feen through and deipifed theartihee. The dehts of Britain never will he paid ; they never can be paid ; and in the present way of dii'charging them, they never, in jufiice, ought to be paid. The hardinefs of the father of this dclufion, exceeds any tiling that was ever heard of; becaufe his arguments and ademptions are, as above explained, in a ftate of hoftility with the multi- plication table ; and becaufe, though religious impoftors have pretended to work miracles, yet none even of them has ever aflTerted that two and two make five. But though thele debts will never he extinguished by the attempts of the minifter, they have certainly pafletl the meridian of their exiftence. Had the war with America laftcd for two years longer, Britain would not, at this day, have owed a Ihilling ; and if we (hall perhlt in rufhing into carnage, with our wonted contempt of all feel- ing and reflection, it rr.uft ftill be expected, that, according to the practice of other nations, a fponge or a bonfire will hnilh the game of funding. What advantage has refulted to Britain from fuch inceflant fcencs of prodigality and of bloodlhed ? In the wars of 1689, and 1702, this country was but an hobby-horfc for the empe- ror and the Dutch. The rebellion in 1 7 1 5 , was excited by the defpotic infolence of the whigs. George the Firft pur- chafed Bremen and Verden, from the King of Denmark, to- whom they did not belong. This pitiful and dirty bargain produced the Spanifh war of 1718, and a fquadron difpatched for fix different years to the Baltic* Such exertions coft us an hundred times more than thef* quagmire duchies are worth, even to an elector of Hanover ; a diftinoiion which, on this buunefs, becomes" .neceffary, for as to Britain, it was never pretended, that we could gain a farthing by fuch an acquisi- tion*. In 1727, the nation forced the fame George into a war with Spain, which ended as ufual with much rriifchief on both fi les. The Spanifh war of the people in 1739, and the Auftrian fubftdy war of the crown, which commenced in 1741, were abfurd in their principles, and ruinous in their confe- quenccsi At lea, we met with nothing but hard blows. On the continent, we began by hiring the queen of Hungary to right her own battles a gain ft the king of Pruflia, and ten years after that war had ended, we hired the king of Pruflia, with fix hundred and feventy one thoufand pounds per annum, to fight his own battles againfl her. If this be not folly, what are we to call it? As to the quarrel of 1756, " 3t was remark- " cd bv all Europe," fays Frederick, " that in her difpute " with France, every wrong Jlcp was on the fide of England" * The (blitary muttering of Poftlethwaite, in his dictionary, is not worth naming as an exception. ( >| ) By feven years o r fighting, and an additional debt of fcventv- two millions flerling, wc iecured Canada ; but had Wolfe and his army been driven from the heights of Abraham, our grandfons might have come too early to hear of an American revolution. As to this event, the circumftances are almoft too mocking for reflection. At that-time an Englifh woman had discovered a pretended remedy for the canine madnefs, and Frede- rick advifesa French correfpondent to recommend this medicine to the vfe of the parliament of England, as they mitft certainly have been bitten by a mad dog. In the quarrels of the continent we mould concern ourfclves but little ; for in a defenfive war, we may fafely defy all the nations of Europe. When the whole civilized world was embodied under the banners of Rome, the moft diflinguifhed of her conquerors, at the head of thirty thbufand veterans*, difembarked for a fecond time on the coaft of Britain. The face of the country was covered with a forelt, and the folitary tribes were divided upon the old queftion Who f hall be king? The Ifland could hardly have attained to a twentieth part of its prefent population, yet by his own account, the invader found a retreat prudent, or perhaps neceiTary. South Britain was afterwards lubjected, but this acquifition was the talk of more than thirty years. Every village was bought with the blood of the legions. We may conhde in the moderation of a Roman hiftorian, when he is to defcribe the diiafters of his countrymen. In a fmgle revolt, feventy thoufand of the ufurpers were extirpated ; and fifty, or, as others relate, feventy thoufand foldiers perifhed in the courfe of a Caledo- nian campaign. Do the matters of modern Europe underftand the art o f ~ war better than Severus, and Agricola, and Julius Caefar? Is any combination of human power to be compared with the talents and resources of the Roman empire ? If the naked Scots of the firft century, refilled and vanquifhed the conquerors of the fpecies, what ought we to fear from any anta- gonist! of this day ? On fix months warning Britain could mutter ten or twelve hundred thoufand militia. Yet, while the defpots of Germany were fighting about a fuburb, the nation has fubmjtted to tremble for its exifierce, and the bloffoms of comettic happinefs have been blafted by crimps, and hibfidies, and prefs-gangs, and excife acts. Our political and commerical fyttems are evidentlv nonfenfe. We polTefs within this (ingle iiland, every production both of art and nature, which is necefiary for the molt comfortable enjoyment of life ; yet for the fake of tea, and fugar, and tobacco, and * Cseiar lays that he had with him five legions, and two thcut'and Ca-alry, v h! :h with the light troo t ;ano crian fuperftition, fo degraded below tbt btajlsthiit }>trijh, as to ccnlure hini for preemption in doing fo. ( 29 ) that fixteen hundred thoufand people ihoiild fubir.it to pay eleven hundred thoufand pounds per annum to a government, in the direction of which they have nothing to fay. It is very natural that a nation, abforbing fix hundred thoufand pounds a year of our money, fhould be a great deal richer than ourfelvcs ; and, at the fame time, it is likewife very natural, that they mould defpife the Scots as a people, the mod abject and contemptible of the fpecies.. To Hngland we were, for many centuries, a hoiiile, and we arc.ftill confidered by them as a foreign, and in effect a con- quered nation. It is true, that an extremely diminutive part of us are fuffered to elect almcfc every twelfth member in the Britifh houfe of commons ; but thefe reprefentatives have no title to vote, or act. in a fcparate body. Every ftatute proceeds upon the majority of the voices of the whole compound aO'em* bly. What, therefore, can forty-five perlonsaccomplifh, when oppofed to five hundred and thirteen? They feel the abfoiute in- fignificance of their fituation, and behave accordingly. An equal number of elbow chairs, placed, once for all, on the ministerial benches, would be lets expenfive to government, and jutt about as manageable. Thefe, and every minifrerial tool of the fame kind, may be called expenfive, becaufe thole who are obliged to buy, mult be underfiood to Jell ,* and thofe who range them- felves under the banners of oppofition, can only be confidered, as having rated their voices tco high for a purchafer in the par- liamentary auction. There is afafhionable phrafe, the politics of the county, which J'can never hear pronounced without a glow of indignation. Compared with fuch politics, even pimping is refpeclable. Our fupreme court have indeed interpofed, though very feebly, to extirpate what in Scotland are called parchment barons, and have thus prevented a crowd of unhappy wretches from plung- ing into an abyls of perjury. But, in other refpedts, their de- cision is of no confequence, fince it moll certainly cannot be of the imalleft concern to this country, who are our electors, and reprefentatives; or, indeed, whether we are reprefented at all. Our members, with tome very lingular exceptions, are * A icorthy reprefentatn - e was requeued bv his conftituents, to arend to their in- tereit in parliament. ** Damn you, and your inftructions too," laid he, " 1 have boccht you, and I will sell you." Political Difcfiiijiiior.s, vol.1, p. 2S0. About twenty years ago. Sir Lawrence Lunc'as wrote a letter to one of his agents ia the Scots boroughs, and enjoined him, at the approaching election for parliament, not to be outbidden. This epiftle was intercepted by his opponents, and, if I miftake not, printed in the newspapers. Sometime ago, a perlcn refided at Dumfries, who fubfiued on a la'.ary of about fifty pounds. Ke was a Bltttieus voter, and received this annuity for perjuring hlmfeif once in every (even years. His fituation was a common jeft, while the people in general had no more idea of the meannefs of tltir political condition, than an equal number of horfes in a ftable. E< cry Scotlowm may, without effort, recoiled zn hundred anecdote: of the fame nature. ( £ } the mere fatellitcs of the minifler of the day ;. and forward to ferve his moll oppreffive and criminal purpoies. It feems to have been long a maxim with the monopolizing di- rectors of our fouthern mailers, to extirpate, as quickly as pof- iible, every manufacture in this country, that interferes with their own. Has any body forgot the fcandalous breach of na- tional faith, by which the Scottilh dill Merits have been brought to the verge of deft ruction ? Has not the manufacture of (larch alio been driven, by every engine of judicial torture, to the laft pang of its exigence ? Have not the manufacturers of pa- per, printed calicoes, malt liquors, and glafs, been harraifed by the moft vexatious methods of exacting the revenue ? Me- thods equivalent to an addition of ten, or fometimes an hun- dred per cent, of the duty payable. Let us look around this infulted country, and fay, on what manufacture, except the linen, taxation has not fattened its bloody fangs ? In the excifc annals of Scotland, that year which expired on the 5th of July, 1790, produced, for the duties on foap, fixty~ five thou/and pounds. On the 5th of July, 1791, the annual amount of thefe duties was only forty-five thoufand pounds ; and by the fame hopeful progrefs, in three years more at far- theft, our minifters will enjoy the pleafure of extirpating a branch of trade, once flotiri thing and extenfive. Two men were, fome years ago, executed at Edinburgh, for robbing the exciic-ofF.ee of twenty-feven pounds ; but offenders may be named, who ten thoufand times better deferve puniihment. Oppredive ftatutes, and a mod tyrannical method of enforcing them, have thus, in a fingle year, deprived the revenue of twenty thoufand pounds, in one branch only, and have com- pelled many induftrious families to. leek refuge in England ; and then our legiilators, to borrow the honeft language of George Rous, Efq. " have the inlblence to call this govern- " MENT." Bv an oriental monopoly, we have obtained the unexampled privilege of buying a pound of the fame tea, for fix or eight ihil lings, with which other nations would eagerly fupply us at half that price*. Nay, we have to t:;ank our prefent iiluftri- ous minifler, that this vegetable has been reduced from a rate ftill more extravagant; His popularity began by the commuta- tion act. Wonders were pro mi fed, wonders were expected, an i wonders have happened! A nation, confifling of men who c f!l them fe Ives enligh'encd, have contented to build up their windows, that they might enjoy the permidion of Tipping in the dark a cup of tea, ten per cent, cheaper than formerly ; though llill at double its intrinfic price. * Tn Philadelphia^ tea is cheaper by one half than in Edinburgh. .At Gottenburgh a'.fo, the difference in favour of"' the Swedes, is very great. • { 3' ) Such are the ulorious confequences of our ftupid veneration for a miniiter, and our abiurd iubmiflion to his capricious dic- tates ! General uiTertions, unfiipported by proper evidence, defcrvc but little atteution. I mall therefore lay before the reader fome extracts from a book publiibed in 1786, by Dr. James Anderfon. This work is hardly Known, yet every friend to the profperity of Scotland ought to be intimately acquainted with its con- tents. in 17S5, this gentleman was employed, by the lords of the treafury, to make a tour anions the r cbrides and weftem cbafts of Scotland, for the purpofe of ascertaining the heft methods to promote the fisheries, and the conlequent improve- ment ot that part of the country. ^1 his comrhiffiori, Dr. An- derfon executed, with that' ardor and fidelity of invehigation, *br which he has long been diftinguilhed. It is impoilible, in a fhort performance of this nature, to give an analyfis of the volume ; but the following particulars will ferve to fhew, that the weften coafts and the weflern illands of Scot- land, groan under the rrtoft enormous oppreftion. Dr. An- dci-fon has printed part of a report, dated the 14th of July 1 78^, and made by a committee of the Honfe of Commons. They give an account of the cuflom-houfe duties collected for ten fucceffive years, in nine counties of Scotland, viz. y\rgyle, lnvernefs, Sutherland, Caithness, Orkney. Shetland, Crom- arty, Nairn and Mora v. The expence of collection, for thefe ten rears, from the ift of January J 775, to the 31ft of Decem- ber 1734, was £ 5 T £79 13 s 3-4 T he giols produce - - 5°;7.'7 2 J I_ 4 Payment:; exceed the produce by 942 11 7 1 -2* The committee add, that " they have little reafon to expect V a more favourable refult from their enquiries reflecting the " excife than the cultoms." The author fubjoins, that an account of the excife had fmce been publifhed, and confirtned the truth, of this ohfervation. But this is net the werft ; for there is likewife to be added a part of the expence of cVuffers employed under the beard of cuftoros in Scotland. On an average c( five years, preceding the year 1783, this charge amounted to nine thoufand eight hundred and feveutv-five pounds, rvrely-emTI lings and four-pence. " If," faysDr; Aii- derfori; " we fuppofe th.it one half of the above expence mould <£ be (idled to the account of the nine counties above mentioned, * I.- 63. There is an error cf :l.e pvefs Hi fiihtraftfnf &A one ere fcorre ( 3* ) u which I conceive to be an under proportion , then the expsnee " on this head would be four thoufand, nine hundred and " thirty feven pounds, fixteen {hillings and two-pence/'* This article is very near equal to the whole annual produce of the enftoms of thefe nine counties. If we take the different films in round numbers, we may fay, that the grofs produce of l!ie cultoms is five thoufand pounds, the cxpence of coileciing them five thoufand pounds, snd the expefice of cruifers, to prevent fmugg'ing, five thoufand pounds. Thus, in the courfe of ten years, government collected fifty thoufand pounds, by deburfing one hundred thoufand. There certainly never was fuch \ ihameful fyitem of robbery heard of, even in the annals of the Turks, the Spaniards, or the Eritiih Euft India compa- ny. Were the whole mats of Britiih taxes collected at fuch an expence, the government itfelf, would, in fix months, become bankrupt ; and maids of honour, and grooms of the bedcham- ber, and the whole cloud of finecure vermin, wou!d vanifh, like the exhalations of a quagmire, in the tempeft of revolutionary vengeance. " A fact of this nature, when thus fairly brought to .V light, cannot fail to flrike every thinking perfon with fome " degree of afloni'hment and horror. A croud of reflections " here prefs upon the mind. Why are thele perfons opprefTed " with taxes, when the ftate is no ways benefitted by tl em ? " Why are the other members of the community loaded with " burthens, to enforce the payment of thefe unproductive taxes *' here ? From what caufe does it happen that thefe people *' complain of taxes, while they pay next to nothing ?"f This mav be called the infanity of deipotifm. I thall now ftate, from the fame work, a few examples of the way in which this revenue is collected. •' A man in Skye, who had got a load of bonded fait, v. fed 11 the whole in curing filh, fave Jive bulhels only, but before " he could recover his bond, he found himfelf obliged to hire " a boat and fend thefe five bulhels to Oban, which coil him *' upwards of five pounds expences.'^ " One would imagine, that if a man paid the duty for his "fait, he might afterwards do with it what he pleafed ; but "this I find is not the cafe. Laft feafon (1784,) a veflel was V fitted out in hafte, at Aberdeen, to catch herrings* that were " then on the coafts. But as the owners of that vetlcl had no u duty-free fait, they were obiiged to purchase fait that had " already paid the duty ; but before they were allowed to carry 11 one ounce of this fait to fea, they were further obliged to " give bond for it, in the fame form as if it had been duty-free " falt."H * ImwxfnfVien, page 65. JReport p. 4*. i Ibid p. 63. U ibid p. i'u ( 33 ) " Again, in the year 17S3, Mr. James McDonald, in Por- ** tree, in Skye, purchafed from Leith,a quantity of iait, which " bad paid duty, and (hipped it by permit on board a veiTel for ft Portree. It was regularly landed, and a cuitom-houfe cer- '/ tificatc returned for the fame. With this fait he intended to " cure fiih, when he could catch them in thofe leas ; but not " having found an opportunity of ufiag it in the year 1784, he *f fitted out, at his own expence, this feaion ( 1 785,^ a imail " lloop, to profecute the tilheries. On board that ilcop, he " put fome part of this fait with the permit along with it. " A revenue cutter fell in with his veilel, and fazed veffel and " fait, provifiuns and all together!'"* There i^ an excife duty upon foreign fait, imported into the Wuicerri Iilancls, of ten (hillings per buihel, befides 3 cuftom- houfe tax of about two pence three farthings. f The excife duty is too high to be paid for fait employed m the curing of hTn. (Government, therefore, in order to encourage the Britiih fifh- eries, has promifed to remit the excife duty. But k is pollible that die fait thus difburdened of the ten fh lhngs of excife, might be applied to fome other purpofe than that of curing ilih, and in this way, the intended bounty might be converted into a fource of fraud agairfft the excife revenue. When the legislature, therefore, granted this indulgence, V all importers of foreign " fait v/ere required firft to land it at a cuitom-houfe, where .r " was to be carefully weighed by the proper oiricers, and the «' importer either to pay the duty, or to enter it for the purpofe " of curing jift)) and in that cafe, to give bond, with two fuiti- " cient fiueties, either to pay the excLe duty of ten (hillings "per buihel, or to account for the fait , under a penalty of twentv " millings per buihel. In confequence of th ; s bond, he mult " either produce the fait itfelj r at that cufiom-houfe on or before the " 5th of April thereafter, or cured nih in fuch quantities as " are fuincien: to exhaufl the whole (alt, which hih, he is obliged " to declare upon oath were cured with the fait for which he '< had granted bond. It is only after all thefe forms, ana \ fever al " others are duly complied with, that the bond can be got up , " and thefe bonds if not cancelled before they fall due, mult be ** regularly returned to the commiilioners of fait duties, by " whom an action muft be injtantly commenced in the court of u exchequer, for recovery of the penalties incurred in the bonds. " If any of this fait remains unufed, a new bond on the fame " terms, mutt be granted for it, however fmall the quantity " may be, nor can that fait be moved from the place where it " is once lodged^ without an exprefs warrant from the cuftom- * Report p. 4T. f On ^cots fait, the duty is one lhillingand fix pence per bufhel, on forei^a fait ten iLHlingB. The latter is chieflv confumod by the bufles. E ( 34 ) " houfe, and another bond granted by the proprietor, fpecifyitig, f% und: r heavy penalties, wbere it is to be landed •, which bond " can only be withdrawn in corifequence of a certificate fron «< the cuilom-houfe fpecifynng that it was there lodged. Nor " can it be (hifred from one veffel to another, did both veffels u even belong to the fame per [on 3 without an order from the cuf- M tom-houfe, and. a new bond granted ; nor can a tingle bufliel * of that fait, in any ciicumitance, be fold without a new bond " being granted for it, and a transfer of that quantity being "' made in the cuflom-houfe books."* This paflage paints, in finking colour.", the gloomy and ferocious jealoufv of EngHlh defpotijfm. An eternal repet tion of the word bond, may allure u>, that tie acl of parliament has been dictated by the very ge- nius of Shylock. Thefe regulations are attended with fo much expence, and intricacy, and fo great a hazard of ruinous penal- ties, that, in many cafes, they correfpond trf&H abfolute prohi- bition. In England, a fifherman grants bond but once ;f a dif- tmclion that afcertains the pitiful malevolence of our Jijhr kingdom. To give a proper comprehenfion of all the clogs w ; lE which the Scots fliheries, and they only are burdem d, would require fcveral meets of pv.per. A few particulars may ferve at prcfent, as a fpecimen of the reft. " If a veflel containing fait is loft at fea, or at the fifhing, proof " mud be ma^Je of its beingfo loll, before the fait bond can be re- " covered ; and in forhe cafes, the commimoncr$ are fo fcru- " pulous with re r pe tranfacYion happened., the fympathetic Dr. Adam 'Smith was a me nber of that qui nturnv irate, who fway the feeptre of fait excile in North-Britain. u No vcfTel can lend or give fait to any other at the rlfhing or w Otherwife, even though belonging to the fame own rs, becaufe the iC quantity (hipped per cooquet in anv veiTel mutt be regularly " landed at fome cuitom-houie or other, either in fifh or not ufed ; {i and if it muit bef-nt, muft be fo landed and bonded, and again 6( fhipped per cocquet anew. If hnt otherwife, the fait and vef- <: fel are feizabh."f This author obferves, that a bare lift of the profecutions, which have been raifed in Scotland, on account of the fait tax,, would excite horror. The moft trifling miftake, in point of form, is fufficient for reducing an induftrious family to beggary; yet in England, when the committee of fiiheries re- quired a lift of the prosecutions that had been raifed in that coun- try fince the inftitution of this law, the return was only ON':.i In c'onfequence of fo harm a fyltem, fait is fmuggled in im- menfe quantities from Ireland, where the duty is but three-pence per bumel. A perfon conferled, that, in a lingle year, he im- ported into one of the weftern iflands, nine hundred and feventy tons of fait, which are >"Cjual to thirty-eight thoufatid eight hun- dred and ninety bufhels. Several other people in the fame inane! followed that trade. § If the formalities on the remii'hon of fait duties, did not defeat the whole intention of the law, there could be no temptation to this traffic. Dr. Anderfon ailirms, as a cer- tain fact, that five hundred thoufand people in Scotland ufe no fait but that of Ireland. He tells us alio, on the fubject of cuitom- houfe duties, in general, that he once paid thirteen millings for leave to fend coaft-wavs forty millings worth of oat-meal. || Though the cuftoms, in the nine molt northern counties of Scotland, cannot defray the expence of collecting them, yet they are in themfelves, very exorbitant, when compared with the va- lue of the commodities on which they are paid. Bonds, certi- ficates, and other tram of thatkind,coft as much on a fmallcargo, as oil a large one. Dr. Anderfon was allured, thatin the Hebrides * the expence of the cuftom-houfe officer to difcharge a cargo u of coals, amounts, in many cafes, to more than four times the " duty on ihe coals > and if the cargo bejmdll, it will fometimes " double ihe prime cjjt"% The officer is to be brought from a diftance of perhaps thirty miles, at an expence which the par- * Illuflrations of the report, page 175. f Ibid p. 1-6. \ Ibid, p. 191. § Report, pag • 47. i| Introduction, p. 67. C Ilmi, p. 3i. ( 3« ) ties mud always defray out of their own pocket". This infor- mation explains another of his afiertions, that thofe poor people, loots Highlanders, " pay at lead //W hundred per cent, more ( f than die merchants in London, Liverpool, or Briitol, would " have id for the fame goods." »j The i €t of the Scots fifheries has already extended to all be relumed and doled in the next chapter. For the fake oi • ;riety, and as a relief to the feelings of the reader, Ictus, ic prefent, make a fhort excurfion into the <-f legiflative iniquity. Some people are m the habit of revering an act of parliament, as though it were the production of a fuperior being. To this cjaj's of readers may be recommended a perufal of the follow- in^ dote. In fummer 1789, when the bill for an excite on the n re of tobacco, was brought up to the houfe of peers, th . CI ancellor Thurlow " treated the enacting part " of it with a . ree of mixed afperity and contempt. He cc faid, that the vexatious precautions and preventive fecurity " of the excife laws, were unnecejfarily\ extended to the fubject " in queftion ; that a fit attention had not been paid to the " ejfential interefts end property of the manujacturcrs ; that the « greater part of the enacting claufes were abfurd, contrail 'iclory, «5 ungrammatical) and unintelligible ! He expreifed his widies, '.< that the houfe of commons, if they meant to perfevere in " their claim of having money bills returned from the houfe " of peers unaltered, would not infult them, by requiring their " adoption of laws that would difgrace fchool boys."% He accord- ingly moved for an amendment, which was rejected by a majo- rity of ten voices againftyWvw. So notably nras the bttfinefs nation attended ! The houfe of peers confided at that time, in- cluding biinops, of about two hundred and fifty-nine 1 fo that this was juft like one juryman prefuming to do the of fifteen. The bill however had been fo wretchedly condruct- ed, that an alteration appearing absolutely neceiTary, was urged a Cecond time by the Duke of Richmond and carried. But before this could be accomplished, the parliament were juit rifmg. The houfe of commons had not time to think of their pretended condiments. The alterations were fuppreffed, and the bili, with all its imperfections on its head, was difcharged on the devoted tohacconids of Britain. If that parliament had been feleeted from the cells of Newgate, they could not have acted, in this affair, with a more atrocious contempt for every part of their duty. § Introduction p. 66. || This exprellion intimates, that in the opinion of Thurlow, tobacco is an improper object of excife. He was in the right ; for the tax produced a fceae of ftupendous injuftice. A full account of it fliall be given hereafter. ^ Dodflcy's Annual Remitter, for 1789, p. 157. ( 37 ) There is no greater abfurdity in what is called our eonftitu- tion than this, that the mere ihreds and ballad of a Britiln par- liament have often executed, or betrayed its molt important duties. The houfe of commons confilts of five hundred and fif- ;ht perfons, including the forty-five make-weight Scots members. Of all thefe, forty form a quorum, and an hundred, or even fifty or fixty, have frequently tranfacled the moft in- terefting affairs. In the new constitution of the united dates of ■America, a very obvious and a very effectual remedy has been provided againft this abufe. By the fifth fection of the firit arti- cle, it is enacted, that " a majority of each houfe fhall conititute <« a quorum to do bufinefs." The conltitution of America is not like ours, a dream floating through the libraries of lawyers, and the imaginations of unprincipled place-hunters. It has been re- duced to an inltrument of only ten or fifteen pages, compofed by men of fenfe, and on a fubject which they had ftudied and di- gested. We return to the Mhieen of Ifles. In the reign of William the third, one Tilly obtained an act of parliament to enable Bromfhill, an infant, to fell his intereit in the Fleet prifon ; which intereit was purcha fed by Tilly. A report was fometime after made in the houfe of commons, which contains thefe words. " Mr. Pocklingtcn, from the committee " on the abufes of prifons, &c. among a variety of other matter, " reported to the houfe, that one Brunfhill, a folicitor, had in- i( formed the faid committee, that Tilly, as he was informed, " ihould fay, that he obtained that act by bribery and corruption. " That one Mrs. Hancock applying to Tilly not to protect one e pretend to call thefe people pirates, while the far more extennve enormi- ties of the Britifh navj , are burnilhed into pages of hcroifm. In ihc practice of fea-robbery England has exceeded every other nation. Yid. fome account of thefe three wars, infra, chap. 6th. ( 45 ) the expenccs. The king offered to make any man treafurer, who would remove his neceflities. Clifford embraced die propoial, and the exchequer was clofed. The Dutch wars were infinitely more criminal than even this action, but thefe were only pirat ies abroad ; the other was piracy at home ; and for that reafon on- ly has it been condemned. In 16^, Oliver Cromwell, without either provocation or pretence, attacked Spain ; and we {till ce- lebrate the Algerine victories of admiral Blake over the fleets of that injured country, which proves that the nation has not yet acquired more wifdom or honefty, than its anceitors. A very modern example of profligacy {frail clofe this chapter. Sixty thoufand pounds were granted by parliament to George the Third, that he might be enabled to make an eiiabliili- ment for his eldeft fon. Fifty thoufand pounds a year were likewife bellowed upon this young man for his perianal expences. An hundred and eighty-one thoufand pounds have mice been affigned by parliament for his works at Carltton-houie, and for the difeharge of debts which he had contracted notwithftuhding his penhonof fifty thou land pounds a year.f Ten thoufand pounds per annum, like a drop in the bucket, were alio added to his al- lowance, that he might never be under the necefiity of incurring new debts. It is faid, however, that the fum thus entruited, was never applied to the difeharge of his debts •, and at leaft one cir- cumftance is certain, that the prince of Wales continues to be on the wrong fide of the hedge, by many hundred thoufands of pounds. A gentleman, who had the belt accefs to information, hath privately (fated them to be at leaft a million ilerling. It is reported, that great numbers of London tradefmen have been compelled to (hue up their (hops, in confequence of their unfor- tunate connection with this bankrupt. His itud of hdrfes has more than once. been fold for much lefs than thefe animals ori- ginally coft him. The talk of recording his exploits, muft be re- ferved for the pen of fome future Suetonius. At the prefent time (^September, 1792,) it may be fafely computed, that in one fhaue or other, he has expended for the nation eight hundred thoufand pounds fterling. We may compare this mode of ex- haufcing the public treafury, with that employed in the high- lands of Scotland to rcplenifh it. On a fubject fo hateful, there can be no pleafure to expatiate. Indeed, the taite of the nation runs in a very oppoiite channel. We can hardly open a newfpaper, without meeting a rhapfody on the virtues and abilities of the prince of Wales. His admirers, like the fpaniel that licks the foot railed to kick him, are not con- tented with general praife. They tell us, in tranfports of exul- tation, that he gave a thoufand guineas for " an f HlUory of the public revenue, part 111. chap. 2. ( 4« ) box ;" that, upon a late birth-day, he appeared at court in a fuit of cloaths, which, including diamonds, coft eighty thoufand pounds ; that he bought a race-horfe for fifteen hundred gui- neas, and (old him for feventy pounds ; that he was prefent ibmetime ago at a boxing match, where a fhoemaker was (truck dead with a tingle blow •, and that he drove a lady round St. James's Park, or that ihe drove him, no matter which, in a phae- ton, with four black ponies.f For thefe ineftimable fervices, the nation has paid eight hun- dred thoufand pounds ; a fum loll in the bottomlefs pit of Cane- ton houfe. How many future millions are, like Curtius, to be fwailowed up in the lame gulph, time only can determine. Since this country had the honor of eftabliihing a houfehold for the prince of Y\ r ales, we have been burdened w ith additional taxes upon fnuff and tobacco, on paper, advertifements, leather, per- fumery, horfes, attornies, batchelors,ilage-coaches, gloves, hats, male and female fervants,1: pedlars and mop-keepers; upon win- dows, candles, medicines, bills and receipts ; upon newfpapers and partridges ; and if any thing can be yet more impertinent or oppreilive, on births, burials and legacies ; befides other im- pchtions beyond the retention of perhaps the ftrongei't memory. Now, it is remarkable, that ten of thefe taxes might be felected, which,by theirnett produce, could not, in whole, have difcharged the expences of this fingle private perfon. We are inceilantly deafened about our obligations to the houfe of Guelph. It would be but candid to ftate an eftiinate of their obligations to us, and to {hike the balance. In North- Am:riea } there are fometimes found the bones of a carniverous quadruped, which mull have been, when alive, three or four times larger than the elephant. This animal, which may likely have been amphibious, appears now to be extirpated. Per- haps it perifhed from an impollibiiity of obtaining adequate iub- iiifence. A forefl thirty leagues in length would have been in- iuilieient to furnifh food for lb formidable agueft. It is poilible that the [pedes of kings may, one day, come to be extirpated for a fimilar reafon. The gluttony of the mammoth, devouring fix buuuloes for a breakfait, bears no proportion to the ordinary f It is very generally whifpered and be • an ilkjirhus perfohage (hot pne ; drtls Jbotiifch dead with a piftol, for difrefpeeVto a woman. If (his be truej the life of I>r. Philip Withers has not bsea the only facrifice-at that flirinc; nor will Morocco be in future, the Oftly country in tfre world governed by an exe- cutioner. In the London Chronicle, I. read, many years ago, an article (fating, that a very Voting naval officer, «*! had (tabbed one of ids icrvauts. there Was never anv farther notice in the newfpapers of this itory ; but I have unoe learned, that the man died of his wound ; and that a faiior ou board of the flup where the murder w*s committed, underwent a (ham trial for it, and w r as difcharged. J The latter tax ought to have beer, entitled a receipt for female idlencfs, theft and nroftitution. ( 47 ) extent of royal rapacity. Two hundred families of fovereigns, like thole of France or England, would, of the mi elves, be iuf- fictcnt for cdnfuming the whole revenues of Europe. In the courie of a century, from the revolution to Michaelmas, I "88, the pilots of our molt excellent conflitution, have received into the Britifh exchequer, one thcufand millions, fix hundred and fertv-four thoufand, one hundred and fifty-four pounds fter- ling«* It will be hard to prove, that even a twentieth part of this monev has been expended on wife or ufeful purpofes. To this ■ uft add the charge of collecting the revenue for the fame pericd,which, on a medium, can be guelTed at fix hundred thou- fand pounds per annum. This rate extends, in an hundred year?, to fixty millions of pounds fterling, deburfed for the invaluable exploits of cuftom-houfe and excife officers. Such a fum, at a compound iritereft of five per cent, computing from the refpec- tive dates of its annual expenditure, would, by this time, have been large enough to buy up, in fee fimple, the Britifh iilands, with the laft acre, and the laft guinea that they contain. . CHAPTER II. Fertility of the Hebrides — I/lay — Its prodigious Imtnenfe abundance of ' fifo — Ivliferable ejjneffs cf excife — Salt and coal duties — Specimen of Scots Jinecures. WE have, in the laft chapter, learned forne of the circum- ftances that prevent the improvement of Scots flfheries. We fhall now return to that fubjeel:, by a farther examination of Dr. Anderfon's performance. Other writers have caft light on this queition, and well deferve to be quoted. But the prefent work embraces an immenfe multiplicity of objects ; and hence, it becomes requifite to condenfe and abridge our materials. There is not to be expected, in this place, a complete account of the fituation of the inhabitants in the northern counties, and in the iilands of Scotland. A few interefting facts only will be ftated ; fome (hocking abufes of government will be exhibited ; and fome obvious reflections will be fubmittcd to the public. By a fketch of this kind, the fpirit of curiofity and of enquiry may perhaps be excited ; and then every pcrfon is able, at his own convenience, to make himfelf matter of the cafe. This may be reiolved into three points, the natural advantages of the country itfelf, the miferable confequences refulting from the tyranny of parliament, and the numerous benefits that would arife from an honeft and beneficent admiuiflration. * Hiilory of the public revenue, part lis. ch:ip. I. ( 48 ) It has commonly been fuppofed, that the Hebrides were bar- ren and unfit for agriculture. On the contrary, Dr. Anderfon ftates,that they contain extenfive fields of unufual fertility. Many traces which have never been ploughed are capable to produce corn, and to fupply fubfiftence for a multitude of people. Arran excepted, which is very mountainous, the weftern iflands are for the moil part level. Tiree, for example, is one continued plain of fine arable land, with only two fmall hills. The well iide of Barra, of TJill, and of Harris, and the whole of the iflands between thefe, as well as the north-well fide of Lewis, are low lands. They are one entire bed of fhell-fand, and ex- tremely fruitful. Dr. Anderfon, who is himfelf a farmer of experience, obferves, that the fields of fhell-fand, when well cultivated, and properly manured with fea-wecd, give crops of barley, which cannot, as he imagines, be equalled in any part of Europe. He adds, that were he to fpecify the particulars, they would not obtain credit. The crops of peafe and rye are very luxuriant : and he fuppofes that turnips, lucerne, fainfoin, and wheat, might be railed in as great perfection there, as any where in this quarter of the world. Lime-Hone, marl, and fhell- fand, are every where to be met with in great plenty. The iflands of Cannay and Egg, confifl of feveral rows of bafaltic columns raifed one above each other. The ground is not \t\cl, but the foil is very fertile. The rocks of Lifmore confifl entirely of lime-ilone, and the land is fruitful, even to a proverb. The climate of the weftern iflands is more favourable, :md the har- veft for the moil part more early than on the oppofite coaft of Scotland. During fummer, the wind blows commonly from the fouth-weft, and of confequence it is loaded with clouds from the Atlantic. The high lands on the weftern coafls inter- cept thefe clouds, and the rain defcends in torrents. But in the iflands the ground is low.* The clouds pafs over them without obflruclion. There is ufually lefs rain in fummer than the in- habitants would defire. The harveft is more early and more certain than on the continent. In May, the crops are common- ly fecured before the end of September ; a more early feafon than in Eafl Lothain, the befl corn country of Scotland. Among the weftern iflands, whore the foil is not fhell-fand, the furface very frequently confifls of mofly earth. When manured with fhell-fand, it becomes at once capable of bearing excellent crops of grain. When afterwards laid into grafs, it becomes covered with a fine fwaird, con filling chiefly of white clover and the poa-grafles \ fo that this improved foil becomes in fu- ture equally adapted for corn or pallure. Thofe hills, which cannot be ploughed, are yet fufceptible of the greatell improve- ment. When covered with that fort of manure which is every where plentiful and incxhauilible, they immediately obtain a fine pile of delicate and perennial grafs. ( 49 ) As an evidence of what may be accornplifhed in the He- brides, by the joint efforts of induilry and judgment, we may confider the proceedings of Walter Campbell, Efquire, of Shawfield, proprietor of Iflay. About twelve years before Dr. Aiiderfon came to vt& it, this iiland, like molt of the Hebrides, at prefent, had no roads on which carriages could be drawn, no bridges, no public work of any kind. It contain- ed lefs than feven thousand people ; and it imported annually, between three and four thoufand bolls of grain. Thus, if fnut out from the reft of the world, the inhabitants mult have ex- pired of hunger. They were difcontented ; and they had be- gun to emigrate. Their departure was interrupted by the verv judicious war againft America, which commenced for a duty of three pence per pound upon tea, and terminated with an expence of owt hundred and thirty-nine millions fterhng* Now, let us confider the ftate of this iliand in the year 1785; In fpite of the intervention of a bloody war, that ladled for (even years and an half out of the twelve, and checked all forts of improvement in all parts of the empire, the population had augmented to ten thoufand fouls, Thefe, inftead of importing their fubfiftenee, exported annually, about five thouiand bolls of grain, three thouiand fix hundred head of black cattle, be- tween three and four hundred horfes, and about thirty-fix thou- fand fpmdles of yarn, all of their own produce and manufac- ture. Thirty miles oi excellent roads had already been formed. A great number of ufeful bridges were erected. A well- eonftru&ed pier had been built. A town was begun ; and its inhabitants multiplied with rapiditv. Markets were ooened for the produce of the land. Large tracts of barren ground were annually brought into culture. The people were induftrious and fetisfied. This rapid improvement was Achieved, in a poor and fequeitered idand,by the exertion? of a fingle private gentleman.* Hence, it feems evident, that if the reft of Scotland had been governed with equal wifdom, its wealth, population, impor- tance, and felicity, muft, at the fame time, have increafed in a fimilar proportion. From fixteen hundred thoufand people, we mould, in twelve years, have multiplied to two millions and three hundred thoufand. At the fame time, Scotland muft have * Dr. Anderfon pbferved to a friend, that part of the fuperior good f?n: r e of mr Campl ell arofe from his happinefsin being born u younger brother ^ He did not obtain the eflates oi the family till he had readied the maturity of his under- ftanding; when the death of an elder fon, without children, pit him into poi- feffion of them. Such is the ridiculous confequence of the right oi primoge- niture, that it not only half beggars the reft of the family, but in two caTe* out of three, the object of its favour has a very great chance for being a block- head. Everybody may remark, at a grammar fchool, that heirs are in general tile moftidle, ignorant, and vicious of all the boys. Out of thefe hopeful mate- rials our future parliaments are to be formed. G ( 50 ) been able to export grain in much greater quantities than what {he at preflnt imports. The agriculture of the country mud very foon have doubled its productions. The exiftence of feven hun- dred thoufand additional people, in twelve years only, hath been prevented by the magic wands of five or fix hundred cuftom- houfe and excife officers. It is remarkable, that though the free government of Britain cannot perform revolutions like that effected by Mr. Campbell, yet a talk of this nature has, within our own days, been exe- cuted by one of the molt inflexible defpots that ever menaced mankind. In the year 1763, the dominions of Frederick the Great had been reduced to the utmoft diftrefs. The king him-i felf, in his pofthumous memoirs, obferves, that " no defcrip- " tion, however pathetic, can poffibly approach to the deep, the fl afflicting, the mournful impreffion, which the fight of them " i?ifpired" Among other particulars, he tells us, that they had loft five hundred thoufand inhabitants. Thirteen thoufand houfes had been razed from the earth ; and the whole nation, from the noble to the peafant, were in rags that hardly covered their na- kednefs. In about eight years of peace, the breaches of popula- tion were perfectly repaired, and the whole country became as flourifhing as ever. Thus, what Mr. Campbell acfed upon a fmall fcale, was done by Frederick upon a greater. There is no doubt that Scotland itfelf might be improved as quickly as the ifland of May. For inltance, Dr. Anderfon remarks, that within the laft fifty years, a very great alteration for the better has taken place in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen. Many thoufand acres of the moft barren land that can be conceived, have been converted in- to excellent corn-fields ; and he computes that, in confequence of this change, the rent of this land has been augmented by more than thirty thoufand pounds fterling^r annum. The iron forge at Bunaw gives employment to feveral families. When they were planted near it, the foil was nothing but a bleak mofs with fome dwarfifh heath. Of this land, feveral hundred acres are now covered with grafs and corn. The deep mountain, at fort Wil- liam, feemed by nature incapable of improvement ; but is now overfpread with gardens and corn-fields. To thefe details by Dr. Anderfon, every perfon may, from his own obfervation, add others of the fame kind. The hiftory of the parifh of Portpatrick, in the ftatiftical account of Scotland, affords an inftance of how much may be done for a barren corner. What adds to the merit of the improvements in Iflay is, that they were accomplished un- der the moft oppreffive fyftem of taxation which can be devifed. The proprietor himfelf has encountered the moft rancorous info- lence in carrying on the fifhery, not only from the commiffion- ers of the fait duties, but from a petty officer of excife ; and if. he had not been a very able and powerful man, thefe harpies ( 5* ) might have reduced him to bankruptcy. We muft not, therefore, complain of providence, becaufe the Hebrides, and a confidera- ble part of the main land of Scotland, are ftiil in a ftate of com- parative defolation. Induftry lingers not for want of a richer foil, or a milder fky, but for want of fuch a legiflator as Frede- rick fometimes was, and fuch landlords as Walter Campbell. It is not merely by the quality of the foil, that the Hebrides may become valuable. Mines of lead and copper have been found in May; and in Tyree and Skye, quarries of excellent marble have been difcovered. Coal has been met with in feveral places, but a difcovery of this nature mult be ufelefs, unlefs to the iiland where it may be dug ; becaufe the coafting duty upon coal would effectually prevent its being exported, even to the neighbouring iflands. Their inhabitants live in fcattered hamlets. They can buy but a fmall quantity of coals at one time, poftibly only half a ton. The expence of bringing an excife officer for thirty miles, perhaps, to infpec?t the coals, an expence which the parties muft pay, would often come, as before obferved, to four times the price of the cargo. In the fame way, if the natives had any car- go fit for a foreign market, they muft, before they can fail, ob- tain a clearance from the cuftom-houfe. This would, in many cafes, coft more than the worth of the cargo. The circumftance by which the Hebrides have as yet been principally diftinguifhed, is that immenfe quantity of excellent fiih that fill the furrounding feas. It is unneceflary here to men- tion the names of perhaps thirty different kirrds, including a great variety of fhell-fifh ; but let us remark the idiotifm of the Englifh government, when pretending to remit the fait duties for the fake of encouraging the Scots fifheries. The perfons who receive bonded hit are not fuffered to catch any fifh but herrings. They mult carry their men, and boats, their nets, and fait, and cafks to the fifhing ground. They muft remain there for three months, and if a fhoal of cod or turbot, of haddocks, of mullet, of foal, of flounders, or halybut, comes in their way, they are not at liberty to take them; but are condemned to fpend thefe three months in perfect idlenefs,* unlefs they meet with a fhoal of herrings. Yet it frequently happens that, but for this prohibi- tion, they could load their veffels with cargoes of other fifth equal- ly valuable. At the end of three months, they muft bring their men, their boats, their nets, their fait, and their cafks, back to the cuftom-houfe, before their fait bonds can be relieved. If there had been no other fifti but herrings in the weftern feas, an excufe might have been made. But this is not the cafe. The dog- fifti are fometimes to be met with in fuch vaft numbers, that their back fins are feen like a thick bum of fedges above the wa- * Report, p. 43« ( 52 ) tcr, as far as the eye can reach. A boat-load in fuch a fhoal may be catched with a few hand-lines in an hour or two. A valu- able oil is extracted from their liver. A fiiherman at Iflay inform- ed Dr. Anderfon, that he frequently baited a line, with four hun- dred hooks, for the fmallef fiat-fiih, and caught at one haul, three hundred and fifty. They conhited of turbo*, foal, and large excellent flounders, of two or three pounds weight. As to fkate and halybut, he could fill his boat with them," when he chofe it, at a fmglc haul. The quantity of herrings that fome- tiines approach the coaft, in one body, almcit exceeds belief. In 1773, a fliqal came into Loch Terridon. Many hundreds of beats were loaded as oft as the owners thought proper for two months; and the quantity caught in a iingie night, has been com- peted, by Dr. Anderfon, at nineteen thouiand eight hundred bar- rels. Of the quantities brought afhore upon fuch occasions, a great part are frequently fufrered to putrii'v, for want of fait to cure them. The remainder are cured exciuhvelv with huh -alt; for, in Dr. AnderibiVs opinion, as already obferved, live hun- I tlioufand people in the north of Scotland employ none elfe. Thus, on the one hand, the heaviness of the tax defeats its own purpofe, and on the other hand, as the fmugglers of fait can- not obtain open leave to export their cargoes of fifh, the bu- iiueis ends in a mere waile and deftruction. What better in- I was to be expected, when the inhabitants of the weilern if ends came under the domination of an afiembly of parafites, at the diilanee of two hundred leagues, an aiicrnbiy who defpife interefts, abhor their profperity, and are fuffieiently dif- pofed even to exterminate their language ? If Qalgacus had fubmitted to Julius Agricola, he would not have endured any fuch abfurd defpotifm. At Locli Carron, about the year 1775, herrings " were fo *« throng, that though the loch, from the narrow entry, is above (< a league long, and in fome places above a mile broad, and " from lixty to four fathoms dee, it wa eat to the « crs wild her their nets were near the ground or lurface ; they iC were equally hire to have them loaded. Thiy continued in this « bay for live weeks. On the weft fide of Skye, I am informed, « they once fwarmed fo thick in Caroy loch, and fo many were " caught, that they could not be carried off"; .and after the bufles " were loaded, and the country round was ferved, the neighbour* « ins farmers made than up into compofts y and manured their ground « with them the enfuing feafon. This fhoal continued many years « upon the coair, but they were not in every year, nor in every << bay, fo thick as this lait ; but were, for a number of years, fo " much fo, that ail the buries made cargoes, and the whole coafts " were abundantly ferved. — At Loch Urn, in 1767, or 1768, " fuch a quantity ran on JJjore y that the beach, for four miles ( 53 ) u round the head of the loch, was covered with them, from " fix to eighteen inches deep ; and the ground underwater, fo " far as it could be feen a: . r, was equally fo. I believe " the whole bay', from the narrow to the mouth, about twelve " miles long, and a league broad, was full of them. I am aMb " of opinion, that the ftrongeft fifh being without, in forcing * £ aieir way into the inner bav. drove the lighteft and weakeft " on ihore. So thick were thefe lail, that they carried before " them every other kind of fifh they met, even ground-liih, " (kate, flounders, &e. and perifhed together.'** With inch inconceivable quantities of fifh at home, we can be under no neceffity for wandering in quell of employment, to Greenland,. to Newfoundland, to Falkland's iflands, or to Noctka Sound ; and of obtaining a permiifion for fi tiling fo far off, at an expence of three millions fterling. The true caufe for fuch conduct is fhbrtly this. At the union, Scotland came under the yoke of an lernv, bv whom (he was equal, ind'deteflfcdj rage to the empire in gone, compenlate to nd, for the mortification of having promoted Sects opulence. f In the year 1784, a fhoa! of herrings crane irito Lech Urn. Mr. M l Donell, of Barrifdale, gave it as V n, that in the courfe of feven or eight weeks, a qp . a, that, if fit to market fold fcr fiftv-ft ad pounds Double t] ::y might have been taken, but for the want of fait and of eaias. Were it not e interruption of an excife, and feme other obvious caufes, the fifhery bufi- neis, in that quarter, would be more fricratr than any other chat a labouring man can follow in any part of Britain.tf Thefe examples prove what immenfe loads of fifh might be killed, if the people had a proper fupply C id of calks for curing them, and a fuitable market for .hem ; fo that they might be able to continue at the fifhery during the whole time which it killed. At prefent, the mifchief that is left undone by the exorbitant excife ivion fait, is completed bvthe prepofterous terms on which the bounty is granted. When a bufs has comple- ted her cargo, Jhe mujl abandon thejijhing entirety ; and none cf her * Illuftxations of the teport, p. 158. f The pr »d of paving and lighting the ftreets of London, is, as an improvement, fcitiu the mofc fenfible manner by all ranks arid degrees of peo- ple. The plan of this work was borrowed from' the high ftreet ox Edinburgh, and the very ftones for the pavement were imported from Scotland. For the perfonal fafety of rhte gentlemen concerned, and their families, thefe circum- ftances were concealed from the rabble with the ftricteft caution. The ferocity of vulgar patriotism would not have fiiffered the acknowledgment of fuch an ob- ligation to North-Britain, a con • ry, on which they daily exhauft the vocabu- lary of Billingfgate. Vid. Dr. Wendeborn. I Report, p. 14. . v ( 54 ) hands can return to it again in lefs than eight or ten weeks, be- fore which time, the people of the bufs might have catched per- haps twenty loadings, had they been permitted to remain. From the complicated and oppreflive conditions upon which the bounty offered by parliament has been granted, there is ground to queftion whether a fingle penny of it has ever gone into the pockets of the fifhermen. Firft, the bounty would oc- cafion fo great an expence to many of the more remote inhabi- tants of the Hebrides, that they are entirely out of the queftion. Before a native of the weftern coafls or ifiands, can enter him- felf, even as a private mariner, on board one of thofe veiTels, that apply for the bounty, he mull go to Greenock, Rothefay, or Campbelron, and there wait till he is engaged and muttered. If this happens at one of the two former places, he proceeds to Campbelton to be rendezvouied. Thefc marches and counter- marches confume a month or fix weeks of time, and a great deal of money. At laft he returns to the very fpot from whence he fet out.* Thus it would be impofhble for a great part of the weftern Highlanders, ever to fend a bufs on fuch a circuitous voyage, for they would be obliged to difpatch her a fecond time to the fouch, to a fecond rendezvous, and to be at the charge of her making a fecond return home. She would thus be forced to perforin four voyages inflead of two. The door to the pretend- ed bounty, that ftoney piece of bread, is, by this means, both fhut and bolted. Even to the bufles that earn it, the bounty is but a mere delufion. On the eaftern coaft of Scotland, the cuftom-houfe fees, on fitting out fuch a vefTel of thirty tons, are about feven pounds. The bounty is only forty-five pounds. The time wafted in going to a place of rendezvous, before (he fails, and at her return, cod a month of delay, and a charge of twen- ty pounds. Thus, more than one half of the bounty is already funk. In the fecond place, fhe is prohibited from catching any ftfh but herrings. On that account ihe muft have neither lines nor hooks on board. Though furrounded by whales and dog- nfh, cod, ling, mackarel, and other aquatic tribes, that follow the herrings in vaft numbers, the men in thefe veiTels, when herrings do not come in their way, are kept idle for weeks to- gether, while charges multiply on the head of the undertaker.f A third heavy obftru£tion is, that all the hands in the bufs muft be muftered at the cuftom-houfe, not only before failing, but after the veffel returns. Thus many fiftiers muft be carried back to the rendezvous, who are fuperfluous for navigating the bufs, and who would otherwife be left on the fiftiing-ground till the end of the feafon •, and this regulation alfo is very burdenfome to the owner. The bounty is thus utterly confumed in comply- * Report, p. 44. f llluftrations of the report, p. 1 84 ( 55 ) ing with a fyftem of regulations, more fantaflical than the con- fulfhip of Caligula's horfe.* Thofe Hebrideans who cannot or do not embrace the terms of the bounty, are therefore at liberty to continue at the nthing as long as they pleafe. They are idle or bufy, juft as they are fupplied with fait. When a fmuggling falt-boat arrives, they will get perhaps fix millings per barrel for their herrings. As that fait is expended, the price falls to five, four, three, two, one milling per barrel, and fometimes to fix-pence or eight- pence. At other times, you may purchafe a barrel of fine frelh herrings for a fmgle quid of tobacco. f A barrel contains from fix to fixteen hundred herrings, according to their fize. It feems needlefs to enlarge much farther on the immenfe advantages that might be derived from this inexhauftible re- fource for the induftry and fubfiftence of the Scots nation. If the bounties and taxes were at once abolilhed, and the Dutch prohibited from interfering in the fiiherv, the Hebrides and the weftern coafts of Scotland, would, likely, in the courfe of thirty or forty years, quadruple their pre lent population. It might with reafon be expected, that tnoufands of the Dutch mariners, who are at prefent employed in that bufinefs, would come and fettle in the country. Multitudes would likewife flock from different quarters of Britain. Villages of manu- facturers would by degrees be eftabliihed, and the Hebrides would prefent a proipect of induftry, of profperity, and of * Foreigners unacquainted with the current ftyle of Britifh converfation, may con- demn companions like that in the text. Let us hear with what reverence the legi *- tors of this country fpeak and think of each other. I he Eari oi Buchan hath juft now pubiifhed the lives of Fletcher, of Sa'ton, and of James Thornton. He there tells us, that he once laid to Lord Chatham, " What " will become of poor England, that doats on the imperfections of her pretended con- *' ftitution ?" Chatham replied, " The goal wili difpofeof me foon esough to prevent "me from feeling the confequences of this infatuation; but, before the end of this " century, either the parliament will reform itfelf fiosn ivithin, or be reformed wkh " a vengeance from without." Thus ipoke one of the matters of the puppet-fhew. It is beyond the compafs of human language to expreis the depth of contempt and deteitatkm, couched under thefe few words. On the 2Sth of February, 1785, Edmund Burke addreffed the Houfe of Commons, concerning the aftonifblng composition made with the creditcrs of the Nabob of Arcor. In this affair, Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas were the principals, and he thus defences their conduct : " Let no man hereafter talk of the decaying energies of nature. " All the ads and monuments in the records of peculation ; the consolidated cor- " ruption of ages ; the patterns of exemplary plunder in the heroic times of Roma:* " iniquity, ne'-er equalled the gigantic corruption of thisfvgle aci ! Never did Neio, " in all the inioien: prodigality of delpofifm, deal out to his praetorian guar's, a •• donation St to be named with the largefs iliowered down, by the bounty of our " chancellor of the exchequer (Mr. Pitt, J en the faithful band of his Indian Sea- •' poys." A member in parliament, fome vears ago, told Sir John Miller, that he no more underload a fubjecl which he had been fpeatdng on, than the animal above mentioned did the duties of his jthce. i his elegant hmilie is to be found in the parliam-nta.y debates. A note of the da:e has been niillaid, but the quotation is perfectly coired. f llluftrations of the report, p. 163. ( 56 ) happinefs, which :he mod fanguine friend to national improve- ments can at prelent hardly conjecture. To make this afler- tion intelligible, and to lhow what benefits may be derived from the Britilh fiiheries, no writer can be cited with more propriety .than John De Witt, Grand Penfioner of Holland. He informs us, on the authority of Sir Walter Raleigh, that in the year 1618, the Hollanders employed, on the coafr of Britain, three thou fa nd (hips, and fifty thoufand men ; and that for transporting and idling the fun fo taken, and b: ing home the returns for them, they required nine thoufand additional (hips., and one hundred and fifty thoufand men. Perhaps this eftinute was exaggerated, but the real number cf men and of {hips, engaged in Britilh fifneries, muft have been very great. De Witt quotes a Dutch writer, who relates, that in the fpace of three days, in the year 1601, there failed out of Holland, to the eaftward, between eight and nine hundred (hips, and fifteen hundred buftes for the herring fiiherv. The (r'.md Penfioner adds, that from the time of Sir Walter Ra- leigh, to the year 1667, the Dutch fifheries had been increas- ed one third part. He conjectures that the [Jnited Provinces contained two millions and four hundred thoufand people, and of thefe, that four hundred and fifty thoufand perfons derived their fubfiftence from the fifheries, and the commerce and ma- nufactures which depended upon them.* Thefe particulars are b:\eifpecified to prove that Dr. Anderfon has not, on this fub- ject, made an extravagant fuppofition. He efiimates that one hundred thoufand fifhermen might find confiant employment in the British fea. He thinks, that if this number of fiiher- men were employed, there would likewife be wanted, twenty or thirty thoufand mariners for tranfporting the cargoes to market, and for bringing the necefTary return of fait, of coals, of grain, of calks, of the materials for {hip-building, and the numberiefs articles dependent on an extenfive fifhery.f Suppo- fing that eighty thoufand of thefe mariners were married, and that the hufbandshad, on an average, four children, the total amount of their families would be four hundred thoufand per- fons. Thefe, added to an hundred and twenty thoufand fea- men, would make, in whole, an addition of five hundred and twenty thoufand Britilh Jubje&s.$ But this is not all. * The True Tn'tereft and Political Maxims of Holland, part I, chapters 6 and 9, tranflated bv John Campbell, and printed at London, in 1746. Dr. Anderfon, in his Evidence before the committee of fifheries, declares, on the authority of De Witt and others, that in the lafl century, two hundred and Bxty thoufand perfons were computed to be employed by Holland in the fifheries alone. I mention thefe different numbers, without knowing how to reconcile' them. f Evidence before the committee, p. 317. J This word, m its original fenfe, implies fomethin^ that is cajl down and trodden under foot. When applied in its common acceptation, the choice of expreffion is happy. ( 57 ) Thefe manner? and their families would rot only fupply a great pari of the nation with an important article cf fubfiiiencc, and tlids leffen the wages of labour, but they would afrcrd, among themfelves, a wide market tor the conifnodities of the farmer and manufacturer. They would thus, in a double way, promote the public intercit. They would leilen the exper.ee of lub Silence, and, at the fame time, they would multiply the excitements to induftry. The attainment of thefe two ob- jects, is the very Alpha and Omega of national prosperity. We ihould then lee land, which gives not at prefent one (hilling per acre of rent, produce from three to iix pounds (terling.* We fliould fee a barren wafte of ftones and begs, with fcarce a fingle blade of grais upon it, converted into luxuriant crops cf wheat and clover. Manufacturing villages would rife in the wilcernefs, that is now only diiiinguiihed by monumental vef- tiges of the ! icts or the Druids. The farmers and manufac- turers wou'd veiy likely increafe to an equal number with that of the fdhermen, and Britain might thus acquire an augmenta- tion of a million and forty thoufand inhabitants. The example of Holland fhews that this conjecture is net chimeri- cal. As the Hebiides and wefiern ccafls cf Scotland, con- tain by far the greateft and moft important part of this hiherv, fhev would have a chance ot acquiring an additicn of feven hundred thoufand people. An hundredth part of the millions expended upon an ordinary French war, mull have been fufri- cient to found a colony of hihermen.in the Hebrides, worth all our foreign poileiTions put together. I3ut fuch a colony would not have anfwered the purpofes of mii.ifterial corrup- tion. They would not have entangled us in a quarrel with the reft of Europe. They would not have f up plied our rulers with a piaufib'e pretence for loading the public with extra\a- gant taxes. Mr. Pitt fpeaks of difcharging the national debt, i:nd of promoting the public profperity. At the fame time he accepts a Scots revenue of five thoufand pounds, that is railed at an expence of ten thoufand. He gives half a guinea per day to bludgeon-men to drive the eleclors of John Home Tooks irom the hu flings at Y\ eilminfter ; and an annuity of five imnd. :d and ninety-five thoufand, two hur.d red pounds fierling, to the immaculate creditors of the Nabob of Aicot.f * This has actually happened in Ab^rdce/fhire. The reader may ccr.fu't an c.Ta/ in the Bee. Vol. 7. p. 1-.,. f 'i he reticulars of this edifying transition a-e to be fcund in the works of Lo- in ind Burke, the bafom friend of the " heaven-born niiniiler." A conciie account of it will be given in the Political 1'io^reis, Fart II. Asto t'.e Wefttnjiiftei ejeclioq, full iirforBiarion nu^ I; had fiom T\*rcetdiiq*i wan aBionJor debt a-wu« the rfatt Gbarles }'j»w Fox, f/u : >/;ffl, and J J:n Horn* \ -■-■■-<., Ljj. drjtnuani t lirhverfin 1-^2, cf whicli alfo a futexnary is infened in chap. \ii. V hen thff k j ^i.)a;ure of a country cdnfifts cf fuch Cha.aclers, i: i^ not wondeifttl that our i<<.iuic are ctowded with the Bocft atiociou edicts, , ; ..-. . - . < .. ■-....... it . ' C v. ;.<.: foU>WS; II ( 51 ) Of- rriniiterial vigilance in collecting the fait duties rn tlie Scots Highlands, the foilowine; particulars will afford a proper conception. " in thefe caics, the irrifearriage of a letter, M (and ro places where ri« regalar poft r coes, this mull frequent- * l ly happen,) the carelefsneis of an ignorant ihrp-mafter, the *' miftake of a clerk in office, or other circumihmces, equally ?' trivial, often involve a whole induitrious family in ruin. *' There are inftances of men being brought ro Edinburgh, " from manv hundred miles diib.nce, to the neglect of their " own a-iiarrs, merely becaufe of fomc neglect or omifiion ot *' fome petty clerk in office ; which, when rectified, brings * : no other relief, excepting a permilfion to return heme zvith '• no farther load of debt, but the ex pence of fuck a jzurney, c - and phziofs it has occafioned. But ihould the cafe be other- t; wile, and ihould the midake havebeen committed by the poor " couacrvurin, though that mritake origTbafed fr'orft ignorance ff only, or was occasioned bv the lofs of a letter, in £0ing to ii places where no regular pofts are cftabKihed, he becomes ?. loaded with additional burdens, which in many cafes, alt " Ins future mdufliry and care will never enable him to dii- " charge. * - Dr. Smith,, in his Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations,, a I verts to the Scots herring fahery. He fays, that during eleven years, from- 1771, to 1781, incluhve, one hundred and fidy-hve thowfand i'ui'.r hundred and fixiy three pounds, eleven ih riling? fterfirJg of bounties were paid on account of it. Tills was, in proportion to the whole quantity of herrings caught, a premium of twelve {hi flings and three pence, three frrthings per barrel ; i^nd this kind of barrels are worth, upon an average, about a jcuinca.t Tims the legislature paid four- ievenths of the market price* of a barrel ef herrings, as a bounty to the perfons who caught them. Two-thirds of the buls-caught herririas a;e exported ; and here, a fecond bounty i's given, of two ihillin<;s and eight-pence per bariel. .The average number of velfels employed for thefe eleven years was about one himdred' and ninetv-rd :e. w Three thousand- " bussed have been known to be employed in one year by the w Dutch, in the [Scots] herring fiihery'y beftdea thole fitted out In 177') a law was marie, which declares "That all perfons kiting game, on " any prete ee whateveri abocetan h.5U? before run-rife, or after fun-fet, fiiall, wiih- " out ref>eil to fex or quality, and "Without uny altehiati'ut or redemption, be coiu- " iu ued to- pritbii for thcee niainhs'at hvi; Said Be fubiiciy •tobiptid at noonday,, " in the tp vvn where the priffon i;- Situated." Thus; after giving go^ermjient thiee guineas fo; lea 'e 10 kill, u[kh\ vaur ovn ground, a hare that is dear oi" fix-pence, you ;« e, L/ tins law, fu'jjeil to be whipped (61 it, whatever ma/ 1 e \olu rex Or con- <1 tion. 'Lhis notabie penalty harh Gacj: Ljj:i ;ja..c^J Co a iae'-cf Qvq peuj&Ui flier i.-n*. * Uktl'itaCon, of the report, p. i;-o. f la-iuiiiy, Btwi, i\ . e...^. ;. ( 59 ) odjtio-ts jbr l\ ; s founds, he has erected a warm bath, through " which each dog is regularly purified, afteT < ach oa»-'s chafe." Mendo-a, the bruifer, fome time ago refufed to fettje the terms of a boxing-match, until he had confuted his intinntejriend, the -Duke of Hamilton. A letter from hint to this effect, appeared in the public prints. Bis grace, not long after, in-ired bit friend to a-yifit at..the palaceof Hamilton, One day, af;er dinner, thje Duke intuv duced to, h's ^company the urbjecl pi boxing. He extolled the talents of the Jew, and requeued leave to bring him in, that the gentlemerl pretent might fee the proS* ciency of his grace ixifbirripg. Accordingly, the pa- ties ftript, fcririg was foimed, and the combat began. i he Duke did not Trrike fair, of wh'ch he was repeatedly, Warn* ! by his friend. The man was ar {aft fo exafperated by his g:ace per ifting in foil play 4 , that h? ta-e h m a frroke inearneft, which fent the Duke of Hamilton ftaggering to th? other ena of the room. His grace was carried to bed, and the com pan y diiperied. Mendcca was lately in a Dublin tap-room, his name was discovered*, and he was directly ordered to quit the Honfe. So different are the Citizens of Dublin from this Se )ts Duke, in the.tr choice of c6mfaxy>i The Prince of Wales bronght, to Newmarket, forne t'ni! ago, a ract-horfe of high reputation, Ee;:^ were la.d in bis fa- our, but when he came upon the turf, he fed far behind. He was matched to run a fecond tune next day, and betts were laid •with a very great eddsa an.ft h'm. His royal matter accepted the odds, and betted to a very large amount :n favour of h>3 borfc. 1 he whole aiiembtfrge of bl ■ conEdcred the Prince a^ completely taken in. But he very Icon convinced them that fc* was more than a match for 'the whole gang, at their own weapons. On this ic- c md da.-, Ins horfe refumed his former fuperiotity, and won th.e iace with eaie. it wasfaid, that the Duke 01 Bedford alone, toft, by th:s maderly ftroke of jockeyfhip, twelve thoufand pounds fterling. 1 he nowi^apcrs sftjmated the to'.ii balance in fa- vour of the Prince, from lift y to an hundred thoufand pounds. Such was the tri- umph of Our cldeit hope, divine lulus, JLate, vetj> late, may he rule us! His groom wai examined) and, as afwindter, forever exiled ft ottl the turf Th s falary of fifty thoufand pounds a-year, paid to ir.is hopeful prince, ccmrueiicsd about the ift of January, 1781. ( 6, ) " check population. — One may, a'tthe firft glance, diftitiguifli 94 the coal counties from the reft of England, by the induflry " of the inhabitants, and by plenty of manufacturing towns 11 and villages."* In the year ending on the fifth of January, 1789, the fait duties for Scotland, produced in whole ^1804:; o 1 1-4 Salaries, incidents, bounties and drawbacks, £74^ II q-4 Xet produce of the fait tax - - 9-93 *o Dr. Anderfon has jufl now publifhed a (rate of the bounties paid annually by government, upon the Sects nfheries, and of the premiums, upon the exportation of Scots herrings,! Thev amount, in round numbers, to tzrznty-tzvo thoufand pounds per annum* A fociety in Scotland for encouraging the rifherv, give about two thoufand pounds. The Scots board of cuitoms expend about ten thou fa rid pounds annually for cruiz- ers to prevent fmuggling ; of which fum, the Doctor dates one half, or five tftoufdnd pounds, to the accompt of fait duties. Thus, the bounties, premiums, and cruizers coft all together, twenty-nine thoufand pounds a year.|| The net revenue of lalt for the whole kingdom is about nine thoufand pounds. Thus twenty thoufand pounds are funk. If parliament would only aboliih the tax, and order the Dutch and other foreigners to flay at home, an hundred thoufand mariners, and a million of fubjects might foon be added to the population of Britain. We have i'^tn the miferable effects of the coal tax. The Scots duties upon fait and coals together produce hardly a net eighteen thoufand pounds a year to the exchequer. ff At the fame time, the Scots mint, where not even a copper farthing has been coined for eighty -live years, colts the public annu- ally - - The keener of the great fea! The keeper of the privy leal The lord juftice general ... The lord regifter - The commander in chief of the forces in North-Britain Tiie vice-admiral - Carried for rrard - 12660 * Sketches of the Hifiory of Man. vol. 1. p. 486. Quarto edition. f Hiftorv ef Revenue, part irr. chap. 6. J This premium, as above ftated, is ( wo millings and eight-pence fer barrel. Dr. Anderfon has blended under one- of thefe article;, " herrings and bard f.jh e " from vo thoufand pounds." Hard fifli had no bufinefs IrV a Pa about herrings ; and fome dec*u£tio*i uom the fum total, fhould te made pn a m. ' - • ■ '. • ' - . - ' . ff UMler/ of tht Pu< ae, part. III. chap. 6 ( 6. ) Lr ought forward - 12600 The knight raarifchal - ^qo The (ignet-office is a difeB tax upon the public, and it now nets to the keeper, Mr. Dundas - 3000 The fafine-orbce, the fees of which are a iecond dirccl tax, nets to its keeper about two thoufand pounds, befides a falary from government, of two hun- dred more - 2200 18,26 do Every one of thefe places is an abfolute finecure, the duties pf which are not diicharged by the perfons who receive the monev. Some of them have nothing toco, but in every cne of them, where bufinefs is really tranfacted, the deputies are paid over and above, and fometimes very extravagantly, at iif additional cxpaice. of the public. The total charge to the nation, for thefe ten bubbles, extends, as above ipecibed, to eighteen thoufand, two hundred and fixty pounds fjerling pes, annum. Thus hath one part of us been loaded with the plun- der of the reir. Thus.are fix or eight hundred thoufand Scots people kept in r> fcate of comparative beggary, by the payment of fait and coal duties, while fix or eight folitary pensioners riot on the robbery of the poor. " A kalf-Jlarved Highland woman frequently bears mere tl than twenty children, while a pampered fine lady is often ii incapable of bearing any. — But poverty, though it does not f* prevent the generation, is extremely unfavourable to the " rearing of children. It is not uncommon, I have been fre- V quently told, in the Highlands of Scotland, for a mother et who has born twenty children, not to have two alive."* The fum of this palTage is, that multitudes of the children of Scots Highlanders periih of hunger, and of the numerous dif- tempers that follow in its train. 1 he monopoly of land, the infancv of agriculture, the non-entity of manufactures, with the accurfed fait excite, and coal duty, form the fountain-head from whence thefe waters of bitterneis fiow. * Smith's Inquiry, book I. chap. Sth, ( *3 ) C II A P. Ill Reports of the commifji oners of public accounts — Crown lands Aftonifhing com law — firitifh famine in tit reign of Wil- liam Third — Striking picture of Scotch wretched 'tafs at that p Z tiod — What Scotland might have bun — War in general —Culloden —The bloody DuU. '"T^IIE practice of granting enormous penfons, has been J- carried infinitely rarther in England, than on the north of Tweed. The foil is richer, and the weeds of corruption grow ranker. As the iubject i^ but imperfectly underhood, it may be worth while to compare the Crobdignag peculators of London with the Lilliputians of the fame bind in this country. For this end, we may coniult a curious and authentic aiiein- blage of evidence publifhed by parliament. During the war with America, they appointed commiiiioncis to examine the it-te of public accounts, a he olvice was performed with fideli- ty, and the reports publifhed. in the fixth iepo:t, we learn, that the auditor oi the exchequer received, in the year 1780, from his place, a clear pi oh: of His firft clerk - The clerk of the pells - . - The four tellers of the exchequer The u-her of the exchequer Total to eight pcrfons, £ 57,833 4 o The commliiioners recommend the abolition cf this laft of- fice. They Gbferve, that " the chief, if not the only pre lent *' duty of the uiher, is to iupply the treafury and exchequer " with ftationary and turnery ware, and a variety of other ar- 11 tides, and the exchequer with coals, and to provide work- V men for certain repairs." In 17S0, he provided articles and repairs to the amount of fourteen thoufaud, four hundred and forty pounds, three fhillings and fix-pence. On the articles, lie was entitled to the very moderate commi; 2 hc-n of forty per cent ; fo that the poll mud, from the firft hour of its existence, have been dehgned as a job. The net profits were, as above ft a ted, four thoufand guineas. The exacl. fum pocketed by the officers and clerks of exchequer, in 178Q, clear of all de- ductions, was feventy-five thoufand, eight hundred and llxty- three pounds, nineteen fhillings and three-pence, three thr- th : ngs, fteriing. The report fays, that in this year, the ineffec- tive officers of the exchequer, iece:\ed iorty-jiuz thov. and, three hundred. and thirty -tea bounds* This account [3 too ra- £14,015 '4 I ->1j 2 Q 6 - 7,597 12 1-2 29,2C 7 4 4 1-2 - 4,200 ( 64 ) vourable. We have juft feen, that flfty-feven thoufand, eight hundred and thirty-three pounds, four (hikings, were divided among eight peribns. Of rhefc, the only man of bufinefs is i. ii.it clerk to the auditor, and even he has a falary ten times as large as any merchant would pay to a mere accoroptant. The exchequer contains fcveral other clerks with considerable meorffcs. The four hrit. clerks to the four tellers, received among them, in 1 780, five thoufand, two hundred and torty- one pounds, and eight-pence three farthings. From this ge- neral furvey, it may be lufpected, that the whole duties of the excheq ;:r might be performed for a tenth part of the :5 now paid ; as even, by (he preferit glimmering, we dif- lindtly perceive, that icur-fkhs of the above ieventy-hve thoufand pounds are ab for bed in firiecures. In time of peace, the perqaakes would be fomewhat lefs, but the labour would be lei's in proportion. Fifteen aeiive clerks, at five hundred pounds fteriing each, could finrdj at their own charges, the re- quifite aihltants, and actually perform the bufinefs. This fimple alteration would, in 178c, have laved to the public, fixty-eight thoufatid, three hundred pounds. The lurge- neis of nomii ies, forms but the fag-end of the fiery. r Rating various abufes, the report ^oes on in thefc words : " There full remain to be made up t the accounts cf four " treafurers of tlie navy, to the amount of fifty-eight millions, il nine hundred and foity-foUt thoufand, five hundred and . ids, and of three paymafrers general of the u forces, amounting to four millions, fix hundred and f.xty- u fix thoufand, eight hundred and feventy-five pounds, exclu- " five of the treafurer and paymafter-geueral in office ; to the u firfl of whom has been iflued, to the .cih of September, *' I'jSoyfixisen millions f Ja d agh'y-one thou I and \ " two hundred and feventeen pounds, and to the latter, to the u end of the fame year, forty 1 ons, two hundred and u fifty-three thoufand, rune hundred and eleven pounds, and " not one year's account of either is completed* co that, of " the money hiked to the navy, feventy-five millions, feven tl hundred and twenty-Jive thoufand, eight hundred and fire "pounds, and of the money iflued to the army, forty-fven " millions, nine hundred and twenty thou find, fe\ I red tl and eighty fix pounds ; together, one hundred and twenty ~ '* tJirec millions, fix hundred and forty.- fix thoufand, five hun- u dred and ninety-one pounds, (not including ten millions, fix u hundred and forty feven thoufand, one hundred and eighty* " eight pounds, iflued to the navy, and eight millions", one hun- u dred and twenty-one thoufand pounds, to the army, to the " end of the laitycar,) is as yet unaccounted for." Thefe various fums unaccounted for, amount, in the whole, to one < 6 hundred and forty -two millions, four hundred and fourteen thou/and, /even hundred and ftventy -nine pound s . This report is dared the iith of February, 1782, Lord Holland, pay- matter-general of the forces, fefigned his office in 1705. He had received near fort\ -fix millions jlerhng. His final account was delivered into the auditor's office, feveii years after Lis re- fignalion. Compare this with the prolecution in ft ant fy raifed againft a Scots fisherman, for the penalty oi a fall bond. The balance actually in the hand of his lordfhip, when he loft his place, was foil* Hundred and fixty thou/and pounds. The fourth report fays, that upon the 30th of Septeinbcr, 1780, two hundred and fifty-fix tin bounds were iti.il due to the public by his reprelentatives, and on a computation of fimple intereft, at four per cent, per annum, that the lots to the na- tion by the monev left in his hands, was, then, two hundred and fort y -eight thou/and, tkrel hundred and ninety-four pox thirteen fhillings, fizrling ; as the public have no claim for the intereft o[ monev lodged with a paymafier, even after he is diftniffetf*. Thus far the commiflioners of public accounts. Now think of the prolecution of a Shipwrecked mariner for the duty of fix buihels of bonded laitf. It was commonly laid that Mr. Richard Rigby, a late payroafter of the forces, clear- ed annually, feventy thoufahd pounds from his orfice, chiefly by keeping in his hands immenle funis of public money. What fignify the minnows oi Tvburn, contracted with the leviathans of the exchequer, fporting in an ocean of Seventeen millions fterling a year ? On the wafte of public money, Ed- mund Burke lpeaks as follows : M It is impoifible for a man to u . be an ceconomilt, under whom various officers, in their fe- u veral departments, may fpend even iuft what they pleafe, " and often with an emulation of expence, as contributing to " the importance, if not profit, of their feveral departments. u Thus much is certain, that neither the prefent, nor any u other firlt lord of the treafury, has been ever able to take a " furvey, or to make even a tolerable guess of the expences of " government for any one vear ; io as to enable him, with :he " leaft degree of certainty, or even probability, to bring Lis. " affairs within comoafs."^ And again, M A rVfteni of con- " fuiion remains, which is not only alien ; - 'o all " oeconomv ; a fyftetn, which is not o " efftnee, but caufes every thin^- elfe which belongs to it, to be " prodigally conducted. '"II * Thel'e report? are inferred in fnccetfive volumes of the New Aanoal R- A farther analyfis of lcrae 01 ;..ei.r conierus wUJ i i£ -t--' La :.".; lecoiid part of this %v ork . :ra. chap. i. ^ bp^cch ou io;r-ornlc3l rei'orm. Jj Ibid. ( 66 ) " In all the great monarchiesof Europe, there are Hill many " large traces of land which belong to the crown. They are " generally fcreft ; and ibmetiines foreft, vhere, after tra\el- " ling feveral miles, you will fcarce find a /ingle tree ; a mere " wafte and lofs of country in refpect both of produce and po- " pulation. In every great monarchy of Europe, the fale of " the crown lands would* produce a very large Jam of money. — " The crown lands of Great Britain do not, at preient, afford " the fourth part of the rent which could probablv be drawn " from thein, if they were the property of private perlons."* This would be a better way to raife money, than by taxing fhopkeepers, pedlars, and fervant maids. It has been com- puted that the crown lands of Britain could be railed in their value, by fetting them on proper leaies, or bv felling them off entirely, to a rent of four hundred thoufand pounds a year, more than their prefent value ; but it would be hazardous to warrant this vague estimation. When lb great a part of the revenues and refources of a na- tion are thus miferably c^lt away, there mud be fomewherc in the fame political body, a large proportion of diflrefs. Accord- ingly, Dr. Davenant computes, that twelve hundred thoufand people in England receive a!ms.\ Dr. Goldfniith, in hisHif- tory of Animated Nature, gives a calculation, that in London, two thoufand perfons die every year of hunger. Dr. Johnfon fays, that in 1739, the jails of England contained twenty thoufand prifoners for debt.| He conjectures, that five tbou- fand of theie debtors perifhed annually in prifon. Dr. Wen- deborn ftates, as a wonted computation, that London contains forty thoufand common proftitutes. It fhelters fome thoufands o highwaymen, pick-pockets, and fwindlersof all kinds, who gain a regular fubfiftence by the exercife of their talents. Thefe are the natural confequence of crown lauds lying wafte, and of an hundred and forty-two millions ftei ling unaccounted for. In fuch a condition, we give an hundred and eighty thou- fand pounds (terling, at a fingle dafh, to pay the debts of a thoughtlefs young man. In Holland and Switzerland, beg- gars, and prifoners for debt, are much left numerous than in England, becaufe the Dutch and the Swils are more wife, more happy, and, to all rational purpofes, more free, than the Bri'ith nation. " There was not, when Mr. Howard vifitcd " Holland, more than one prifoner for debt in the great city " of Rotterdam. "|| If half the panegyrics pronounced by * Inquiry into the nature and caufes of the Wealth of Nations, book v. chap. a. Part I. f Sketches of the Hiftory of Man. Vol. I. p. 479. X Idler, No. 38. The author adds, in a note, that fince firft wriiing, he had found reafon toqueftion the calculation. |j Burke's fpeech at Brillol, on the 6th of September, 1780. ( 6 7 ) Britons upon themfehes are true, genius and virtue can very feldom be found bevond the limits of this blefled iiland. As to civil liberty, an Englifh writer, on that fubject, begins by fuppofing, that it is confined exclufively to the Britilh do- minions. From thefe mifcellarieous remarks, we proceed to the corn law, lately palTed. No part of our political fvftem has been an object of more clamorous applaufe than the bounty granted by parliament on the exportation of Britilh grain. It is laid that this bounty was an encouragement efTentially requifite for the irittereft of the farmers, becaufe, without it, they would not venture to raife a fufncient quantity of corn for home con- fumption. By gixing a bounty on exporting it, the farmers were always certain of a market ; and it was fuppofed, that, but for the profpect of this reiburce, thev would very often forbear to raiie it. The profound policy of this expedient has been extolled by Lord Kaims, by Sir John Dalrymple, and by a crowd of other writers, whole very names would fill a fheet of paper. Orhers confider the bounty on exporting coin, as one of the molt formidable engines of oppreffion, that the lan- ded tntereji has ever discharged on the rights of mankind. The more that the principles of Biitifh policy are examined, the more mail we, like Rochelier, be convinced, that, " Dutch prowef*, Dan'.fli -wit, and Brh'fh Policy, " G:t-a Nothing! mainly tend to thee," The empites of Jap^.n and China are much better cultivated than the Britim Iilands. They know nothing of any fuch bounty. Ancient bgvpt, and likewife Hindoftan, before the Eaft-Iudla company had defhoyed thirty-fix millions of its inhabitants, were examples of the fame kind. In thefe coun- tries, and others that might be named, agriculture has advanced to high perfection ; while, at the fame time, the farmers of England mutt be bribed to the plough. Triere appears an aWurdity on the very face of this fuppohtion ; for it is as reafonable to fay, that the people of Britain cannot, like the J paneie, walk without crutches, as that their farmers will not, like thole of Japan, raife as much corn as they can, uuies they are hired to it bv the ftate. Dr. Smith, in his Inquiry ; nto the Wealth of Nations, hath combated this corn bounty. Poftiethwaite alio, in his dictionary, has a pallage to the fame purpofe ; and as the bulk of his book may have prevented fome people f:om redding it quite through, we fhall extract a few remarks on the corn laws. " There is no complaint more common amongour merchants, 11 than tiiat foreigners underwork us in almoit every kind of " manufacture ; and can we be furprifed at it ? when the gene- " ral tendency of our laws, is to make labour dear at home, ( 68 ) " and cheap abroad; when we either forbid our people to " work, or oblige them to work in the moil difadvantageous " manner ; when we lay all our taxes on trade, or, which is " (till worfe for trade, on the neceffaries of life ; and when we " contrive to feed the labourers, manufacturers, and ieamen " of foreign countries, with our corn at a cheaper rate than " our own people can have it ! To raife the price of corn at " home, in whatever manner it is done, is the lame thing as *' to lay a tax on the confumption of it ; and to do that in " fuch a manner as leiVens the pi ice of it abroad, is to apply " this tax to the benefit of foreigners."* The bounty paid by law on the exportation of corn, hath, by one account, amount- ed, in a fingle year, to one hundred and fifty thouland pounds. f By another account, " the bounty upon corn alone has iome- *' times coft the public in one year, more than three hundred *' thoufand pound s."% Weekly accounts of the average prices of corn, in different parts of Britain, are publifhed by authority of parliament. Before we examine the law fo lately pait on this head, it is proper to look into thefe weekly reports. We fhal thus learn upon what fort of infoimation the legillature wer*t, and how far they were qualified, by a previous acquaintance with the flate of the corn trade, to make laws concerning it. For the county of Northumberland, there were two returns of average prices of oat-meal, during the week which ended on the 28th of April, 1792. A boll weighs an hundred and forty pounds avoirdupois. At Hexham, in Northumberland, the pr.ce of a boll was faid to be twenty eight millings and eight pence. At Berwick upon Tweed, in the fame county, and at the dif- tance of no more than fixty miles, the average price, at the fame time, was only eleven Jloillings and nine-pence. If thefe ac- counts of prices were accurate, it would have been an excel- lent trade to tranfport corn from Berwick to Hexham, where it would give more than double the fame price. An hundred pounds employed in this way, mull have returned a clear profit of an hundred and forty-four and two-fevenths per cent, fub- tra&ing only the expence of carriage. The medium is (truck between thefe two rates, and twenty millings and twc-pcnce per boll, is returned as the average price of oat-meal, for the county of Northumberland. No body will believe, or pretend to believe, that both thefe reports are genuine. It is very likely that both are untrue. There is a conftant intercourfe between Hexham and Berwick, and the feverai prices, in every part of the country, are invariably and univerfally known. To fancy * Dictionary, vol. i. p. 560. f Sketches ot the friiflory of Man, vol. T. p. ^)7. % Smith's inquiry, Bock 4th. chap. 5th. ( c 9 ) then fuch a difference in the rate of corn, is like believing that the water collected behind a dam will keep at its former height, when the dam itfetf hath been removed. The phyfical abfurdity of the one fuppofition, is not greater than the moral abfurdity of the other. In the fame week, a boil of oat-meal, at Berwick, in this very county of Northumberland, is itated, bv the weekly report, at three pounds, two fhillings and fix-pence. Thus, by carrying oat-meai from the one Berwick to the other, a profit might have been gained of more than four hundred per cent. The following are the prices in the reports of the feme week, for fome other places. For Weftmoreland, fourteen fhillings and feven-pence ; for Herefordihire, fifty-five {hillings and two- pence •, in Lancafter, fourteen fhillings and eleven-pence ; in Salop, fifty (hillings and eleven-pence ; in Chefter, fifteen fhil- lings and a penny ; in Bedfordfhire, fifty fh'lltngs and feven- pence. Thefe reports, publifhed by the perfons acting under parliament, are of equal authenticity with Robinfon Crufoe. -Yet, as we fhall immediately perceive, the fubliftence of mil- lions of people may depend on the accuracy of thefe identical weekly reports.* The new corn law commenced its operations, on the 15th of November, 179 1 . In every ftage it had received an obfbinate cppofition. On one claufe, a committee of the houfe of com- mons were equally divided, fixty-two on each fide, and the vote of the chairman decided againft it. The act, as now putx- liihed, fills eighty-four folio pages of confufion and repetition.f By the aifiitance of fome gentlemen, I have been enabled to form an analyfis of a part of its contents. The maritime country of England and Wales, is by this Jaw, divided into twelve diilricls ; and all Scotland into four. To Amplify the dilcumon as much as pomble v . let us confine our- felves at prefent, to the firft of the four diftriclis of Scotland. It comprehends the counties of Fife, Kinrofs, Clackmannan, Stirling, Linlithgow, Edinburgh, Hadington, Berwick, Rox- burgh, Selkirk, and Peebles. Suppofmg that a fcarcity of pro- vifions ihould prevail in the fhire oi' Edinburgh, wheat, for in- ftance cannotbe importedintoit from any other diilrict of Britain, till the average prices of wheat have been afcertained over the eleven counties -with which it forms a diftricf . It muft be prov- ed, to the fatisfaction of the fheriff* depute of the county, that the average price of wheat is fifty fhillings per quarter ; for, if it is imported, when the price is lower than that fum, there is a duty on the importation, of twenty-four fhillings and three- * Thefe particulars of the weekly reports were firfl published by Dr. An- derfon, in the Bee, vol. ix. p. go, f The remark of Lord Thurlow, above quoted, was perfectly juft. Many an a . B. His Lordfliip, notwithstanding his conltitutional good nature, had iult then endured five or fix of them to be (hot, in honour of his majefty's birth-day.* — The fallacy of the corn returns has already been mentioned, and we perceive what infinite mifchief they may poffibly commit. The wheat in the county of Edin- burgh may be returned at twenty-five millings per quarter, when the real price is fifty or fixty, and thus importation may be prevented. There is another circumftance in this law that deferves ar- tention. The wheat, oats, and barley of England are, in qua- lify, far fuperior to ours. This is well known to every baker and brewer. At this moment, Edinburgh brewers are buying Eng- liiii barley at eight millings per boll higher than is given tor bar- ley of Scots produce, taking the prices of the different counties at a medium. The former is of fuperior value, by the proportion of fifteen or eighteen to ten. In Kent, Norfolk, and the other counties of England, fubieor. to this law, the wheat is twenty-five per cent- better than that of Scotland. To make the ftatute equitable, therefore, the people of North-Britain ought to have imported wheat, when it was at forty (hillings per quarter, while England mould not have been allowed an importation, till Englifo wheat had riien to fifty millings. " This is what a wife and virtuous miniftry would " have done and faid. This, therefore, is what our ministers " could never think of faying or doing."-!- Engiiih grain, of all kinds, ought to have been rated, for the licence of importation, at twenty or twenty-five per cent, higher than Scots grain. The plain meaning of the law is, th^t the people of Scotland mull eat their b^ead dearer by twenty-ijiye per cent, than Eiigiifnmen eat theirs. That is the true intent and meaning of this corn law. Every dealer in grain will tell you; on a minuce's warning, that he does not underfland this ftatute ; and chat he never heard of any body, who could fateiy undercake to decypher thefc eighty- four folio pages, about the terms upon which we are to he per- mitted to buy our bread. When the corn merchants of Leith found part of the law totally beyond their comprehenfion, they applied to the cuftoni-houfe officers, who frankly declared that they were not able to explain it. In this way a heaven-born mi- nifter manages the bufinefs G^zfree nation. If a Swifs, or a North- American, were to read this account, he would certainly conclude that Britain is inhabited oniy by two * In Charks-flreet, George's-fquare. They had been burning an <-ffigy oi ft raw. f Burke's fpeech on the creditors of the Nabob of Arcct. ( 72 ) kinds of people, (laves and mad-men. Dr. Anderfon gives a juft idea of this itatute of defolation. " By the late corn act, it is in " the power of any cultom-houfe officer Rationed there, (in the * Highlands or Hebrides,) to ftarve nearly half a million of peo- u pie for want of food, almolt when he pleafes. *" It would re- quire an uncommon degree of penetration, to determine whe- ther the authors of this act are fitteft for bedlam or the Old- Bailey. If the moil inveterate enemies to human happinefs, had confulttd for ages together, they could not have devifed a more decifive method, than by this bill, for reducing the labouring part of the Scots nation to the lait extremity of poverty and wre^ch- ednefs. With regard to the probable confequences of this corn law, hereafter, we may judge of the future by the paft. " During " fome years previous to the peace of Ryfwick, (which was con- " eluded in 1697,) tne P r ^ ce °f corn m England was double^ and " in Scotland quadruple its ordinary rate ; and in one of thefe * c years, it was believed, that in Scotland eighty thou/and people w died of ivant."\ A tenth part of the expence of one of the Britifh campaigns in Flanders, would have averted from this illand fo dreadful a calamity. In Aberdeenfhire, the confequences of this famine may ftill be traced. Whole families expired to- gether, and the boundaries of deferted farms were forgotten. To ascertain them is, at this day, fometirnes an object of dis- pute. The land bears the marks of the plough ; but, having been fo long neglected, has relapfed into its original Rate of barren- ness ; and is now covered with heath, among which may be dis- covered the remains of the dweiiing-houies of the exterminated inhabitants. Thefe extraordinary circumftances have not been obferved by any former writer. They were related to me by Dr. Anderfon, who has an eftate in the county of Aberdeen. We may be perfuaded, that in the other years of this famine, at lead twenty thoufand additional perfons perimed of hunger ; fo that this reckoning of extirpation amounts altogether to one hundred thoufand lives. The blemngs that poured upon this country in confequence of the Dutch revolution, afford inceflant exultation in the pages of our hiftorians. The war of 1689, " which grew out of the re- M volution ,"1 may be termed the firft initalment of the price of that event. The remedy was like breaking a jaw-bone to remove the tooth-ach. Some authors mention this war with as much tranquility, as if it had begun and ended by the mooting of a crow. Notice how George Chalmers, efquire, walks on velvet over this fubject. " The infuk offered to the fovcreignty * Bee, vol. xi. p. 34. f Memoirs of Great-Britain and Ireland, part III. book J. mr. Chalmers, p. 107. ( 73 ) ** of England, by giving an nfyhnn to an abdicated monarch, and " by difputing the right of* a high-minded nation to regulate its " oivn affairs^ forced king Wrffiam into an eight-years war with " France. PreiTed thus- by tteteffify, he could not weigh in very " icrupulous icaies the wealth of his fubjects, againit the fu- *« perior opulence of his too potent rival. Yet animated by ins " charaefceriftic magnanimity, fo worthy of hnxtatton x and iup- " ported by the zeal of a people, whole refources were not " then equal to their ardour and bravery, he engaged in an ar- " duous difpute, for the moil honourable end ; ihe vindication u of the independence oi a great kingdom."* On the common principles of hofpitality, the king of France could not have been julliried in refufmg a refuse to the exiled king of England. Mr. Chalmers will not lay that Lewis mould hive delivered up James to William, who was very far from de- ilring (o dangerous a captive. But it was wrong, perhaps, to attend him an afylum ? James mud have retired iomewhere, and, on the fame principles, the Englifh nation might have iuccef- iively declared war againfl Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, and every other government in the world, where he might be permitted to refide. It would have been much better for the peo- ple of England to behead James at once, than thus meaniv to hunt him around Europe Britain was not, at that time, in a fi- tuation to fupport a war of eight years againit France. The preceding account of the famine, proves that fhe was not ; and that the conduct, of William, in commencing this quarrel, was mod unworthy of imitation. As Mr. Chalmers hath fpoke of a high-minded nation, and the neceihty of vindicating its indepen- dence^ which, by the way, the king of France never attemp ed to difpute, we may perufe the following account of the condi- tion to which Scotland had been reduced at the termination of this conteft. ** The frrft thing which I humbly and carncftly propofe to that " honourable court, (of parliament) is, that they would take " into their confideration, the condition of fo many thoufands of " our people, who are, at this d'ay, dying fir luant of bread. And " to perfuade them, ferioufly to apply therrifelves to fo indifpen- * fible a duty, they have all the inducements which thole moil « powerful emotions of the foul, terror and companion, can •« produce. Becaufe, from unwholefome food, difeafes are fo " multiplied among the poor people, that if fome courfe be not %i taken, this famine may very probably be followed by a p'ague ; " and then, what man is there, even of thofe who lit in parlia- " ment, that can be fure he fhall efcape ? And what man is " there in this nation, if he have any companion, who mult not * Eftijiytfe, &c. p. t . - ( 74 ) " grud?e himfelf every nice bit, and every delicate morfel he " puts in his mouth, when he confiders that fo many are alrea- c< dy dead, and fo many at that minute Jlruggling with deaths not ic for want of bread, but of grains, which! am credibly inform- " edj have been eaten by fome families, even during the preced- " ing years of fcai city." In another part of this eilay, the writer informs us, tliat " there are, at this day, in Scotland, (be great many poor families, very meanly provided for by the " church boxes, with others, who, by living upon bad fcod, " fall into various dilfeafes,) two hundred thouft nd ging " from door to door." In a preceding dif he writer i.iys, that there had been '"« a three-years fcarcity ;" fo that in the whole, this great calamity muft have continued for at leaft four years, and, perhaps, for a longer time. In 169;, juft as the fa- mine was about its commencement, Mr. Psterfon propofed to the people of Scotland, his fcheme for founding a colony on the ifthmus of Darien. " Almoft in an inftant, four hundred thou- tl fund pounds were fubferibed in Scotland, although it be now " known, that there was not, at that time, above eight hundred " thoufand pounds of cam in the kingdom. "f Various obftacles prevented the firft colony from failing irom Leith to the Weft- Indies, till the 26th of July, 1698. The Scots fquandered about five hundred thoufand pounds Iterling on this fcheme, while thoufands of their countrymen were dying at home of hunger, and while two hundred thoufand others were begging from door to door. This was iike a perfon without a fhirt to his back, pre- tending to bid for a coach and fix. A fwarm of authors agree in lamenting the deftruction of the Scots cuiony. They mould like- have lamented the felly of our grandfathers in attempting to found it. v -. r. Chalmers may admire, as much as he pleafes, the magnanimity of William, and a high-minded nation. Scotland, with two hundred thoufand beggars fhivering in her bofom, had very little tempcation to interfere in Dutch or Englifh quarrels. Indeed, this notion of forcing all your neighbours to admit your title to a crown, is a refinement of modern policy. Calhbcllanus gave himfelf no concern whether Boduognatus, or Vercingen- torix, acknowledged his claim to the throne of the Trinobantes. Much noife has been made about the maflacre of Glenco, and the tragedy of Darien. This famine was a difafler infinitely more terrible than thefe, yet it has been recorded with far lefs clamor- ous lamentation. By the greater part of the hiftorians of that pe- riod, no notice whatever has been bellowed upon it. Yet, if "William the third, his minifters, and his parliaments, had been penetrable to human feelings, they would have put an end to * Second difcourfe on the affairs of Scotland, by Mr. Fletcher of Saltoun, ■written in 1698. f Memoirs of Great-Britain and Ireland, part 111. book 6th. ( 75 ) the war, for the fake of putting an end to the famine. They might have done fo on the molt honourable terms. Had Wil- liam accepted the offers of Louis, " the war of the firft grand " alliance would have ended four years fooner than it did, and the " war of the fecond grand alliance might have been prevented''* If anv circumttance can add to the folly and the guilt of William, it is this. He was almoft constantly beaten by Louis in the field ; and by the peace itfelf, none of the parties gained one penny of money, or almolt one foot of territory. Yet Sir John Dairymple, that candid and intelligent : niftorian, has composed a panegyric on the wifdom and virtues of this monarch. A thou- fand other Britiih writers have performed the lame talk ; and the voice of the public hath conftantly fwelied the general cho- rus of admiration. This is a kind of infatuation and ftupidity, that feems peculiar to the Britifh nation. The French never ce- lebrate the memory of Louis the eleventh, nor did the Roman hiftorid'ns affect to regret the fuffbcatiou of Tiberius Gsfar. It is remarkable, that though the Scots are perpetually talking of their conilitution, and their liberties, the whole fabric is en- tirely founded on one of the grofleft and moll indecent acts of ufurpation ever known. I refer to the celebrated Union, The whole negociation bears, on its very face, the (lamp of iniquity. The utmoft care was employed to conceal its infant progress from the Scottiih nation, and the bargain was at Jaft patched up with precipitation by the Scottifh parliament. A fketch of un- disputed facts will explain this aiTertion. The commifponers for framing the articles were nominated by the queen. Thus two nations rengned a mod important function to this Earmlefs but infignificant woman, who, though deftined to a uirorie, was fcarcdy fit for any thing elfe. On the 126. of July, 1706, the articles of un : on were figned at London, between the commif- fioners of the two kingdoms. A refpect for the country required them to be printed, and diftributed, that the people at large, who were to fupport the confequences of this bargin, might, be- fore its ratification, have time to confider of it. Afea/ed copy of the treaty of union was delivered to the Lord Chancellor of Scotland, and its contents were kept fecret, until the 3d of Gcto- ber following, when the Scots parliament afiembled at Edin- burgh. The articles were then laid before them ; and yiolei t debates enfued. If the nation had been capable of aiding with unanimity, and firmnefs, proportioned to their feelings, they would immediately have fummoned a convention, elected by the people. They would have declared, that the parliament, by granting leave to the queen, to name commifhoners for Scotland, had betrayed the intereit of their country ; and as a transaction, * Memoirs of Great-Britain and Ireland ,, part in. book 10. ( 7<* ) founded on fraud, is in itfelf unlawful and void, they would, if they chofe to negociate at all, have begun by throwing afide thefe articles. Initead of this regular and decifve oppofition, the coun- try was filled with tumults, and on the brink of infurre£Hou. At Dumfries,, a body of armed men burned the articles public- ly at the market crols. The Duke of Athol, at the heed of his clan, undertook to fecure the pafs of Stirling, fo as to open the communication between the weftern and northern highlands. At Edinburgh, the parliament, while deliberating on the treaty, found it requifite to furround themfelves with an armed force. This aiiembly was rent into three different parties ; and the agents of the crown began, at length, to defpair of obtaining a majority. u The fum oi twenty thouj r and pounds •, which the queen " privately lent to the Scottilh treafury,"* contributed to pur- chafe a fuperiority of votes. Thus the matter went through, and the independence of the Scots nation was bought and fold, with and for its own money. The union was agreed to, i( partly," favs Mr. Guthrie, " from conviction, and partly through the force fC of money, distributed among the needy nobility "\ When the fubject was introduced into the Engliih houfe of commons, Sir John Packington obferved, that this was an union carried on by corruption and bribery within doors, and by force and violence without ; that the promoters of it had bafely betrayed their irt:Jr y in giving up their independent conflitution •, and he left it to the judgment of the houfe to confider, whether or not men of fuch principles were fit to be admitted into an Englifh houfe of commons. It is plain, that the treaty was, in itfelf, altoge- ther illegal. It exactly refembles the fale of an eftate, without the conient or knowledge of its owner. The Scotch members of o parliament had been authorifed, by their conftituents, to Nim- ble for the common bu fine is of the nation ; inftead of which, they clandeftinely transferred its independence to the beft bid- der. Edmund Burke, in the fpeech lately quoted, lias a paflage that exactly defines it. (i A corrupt, private intereft," fays he, « is fet up, in direct oppofition to the neccihties of the nation. « A diveriion is made of millions of the public money from the " public treafury to a private purfe." If the parliament of Scot- land had a right of transferring i.ts independence to England, we mult admit, that the Britifh parliament is equally warranted to form an union with the national afTcmblyof France, in fpite of the remonitrances of the people of Britain, and without let- ting them know the terms of the bargain ; and then the two countries may be reprefented at Paris by forty-five deputies, or, indeed, by one only ; for the doctrine of the Scotch falefmen * fmollrt's Hiftory of Qneen Anne. + Geographical Grammar, Article Scotland. ( 77 ) amounts to that. If they were warranted in rr ducing the repte- fentutives of the people to forty-hve, they had the fame right of reducing them to any leffer number, or, indeed, to caft them entii 6\j. If- the parliament of Scotland was entitled to an- nihilate; iticif, it* had, by the fame rule, a power of aboiilhing every other part of the government. It could have declared mo- narchy uiek is, or, like the commons of Denmark, it could at once have refigned the liberties of Scotland to the crown. On the f:*me -doctrine, an American congrefs would be justified for uniting that continent with Britain; and we may conceive what their fellow-citizens would think and act on the difcovery of fuch a conjunction. A detail of the obliquities of this union, would extend the prefent chapter beyond its* proper limits. A full account of it will be given in the courfe of this work, when a regular hiitorical narrative commences, beginning with the year 1688, and ending at the prefent fplendid aera. Without regard to perfons, to parties, or to public opinions, I ihall there, as every where elfe, hold up truth to the world, as (he riles ori my researches, in the naked fimplicity of her charms. After fiich a review, curiofity may lead us to enquire, if the Scots government had been honeitly conducted, for the lafl hun- dred years, what, by this time, Scotland itfetf might have been ? In order to take a proper view of this iubjefr, we muft begin by recollecting, that of one hundred years next after the revolution, Britain fpent forty-two in actual war with other nations of Eu- rc pe, over and above the campaigns in America, and the quar- i ■>:. Ls of the Kaft-India company. The following table exhibits, with tolerable accuracv, the detail of thefe forty-two years. v ^ War. May. ) Sept. 3 May. ") Auguft. 3 Dec. i June. 3 March, i Ma v. 5 Octo. i May. 5 June. 7 Nov. 5 June. i March. 3 £ 1789. May. Peace. 4 years 8 months 6 ditto 4 ditto 5 ditto 8 ditto 12 ditto 4 ditto 7 ditto ditto 15 ditto, 7 ditto 6 ditto 2 ditto 1789. 1697. 1702. 1712. 1718. 1721. 1727. 1727. r 739- 1748. 1762. 1778. 1783. 8 vears 4 months 10 ditto ditto 2 ditto 6 ditto o ditto 2 ditto 8 ditto 7 ditto ditto ditto S di 9 cutto 7 vears 9 months 42 years. Frequent armaments have befide's taken place, which, though they did net end in bloodfhed, were ftill very expenfive to the ( 7« ) public, and very diftireffihg to eommer.ce. Britain has Keen ei- ther fighting, or preparing herfclf to fight, for iixty-five or Se- venty years out of one hundred. The minds of the people have been kept in a Hate of inceflant fermentation. Their property has been the perpetual fport of ruinous taxes- We never heve enjoyed peace for io long a time together, as was requifite tor learning its full advantages. Britain refembles a common bully, ■who fpends five or fix days of the week on a boxing ftage, and the reft of it, in an excife court or a correction houfe. In fpite of all this folly, the wealth of the country has been continually increafing. " From the reitoration to the revolution, the fo: _ " trade of England had doubled in its amount ; from the p " of Ryfwick to the demife of king William, it had nearly rilen " in the fame proportion. During the firft thirty years of the cur- " rent century, it had again doubled" (although three wars, fif- teen- campaigns, by land or lea, a Scottifh rebellion, and fix na- val ar ma men is for the Baltic, had intervened). " From the. year " 1750 to 1774, notwithstanding the interruption of an eight- "years intervsnievt nvar" (viz.. from 1 756 to 17^3,) " it ap- " |)8ars to have gained more than one-fourth, whether we deter- " mine from the table of tonnage or the value of exports."* We can hardly conceive how very greatly Britifh commerce muff have augmented by this time, if it had not been retarded by thefe abiurd quarrels. As to the taxes, it has been already ob- fcrved,t that every fum of money raifed from the public, celts them ten percent. "Never was io rnuchfi.lfe arithmetic employed^ " on any one fubjeel, as that which has been employed to per- " fuade nations that it is their intereft to eo to ivn\ Were the o ** money, which it has coll, to gain, at the clofe of a long v. ar, " a little town, or a little territory, the right to cut wood here, (< or to catch fiih there, expended in improving what they al- " ready poflefs, in making roads, opening livers, building ports, " improving the arts, and finding employment for the poor, it w would rend, much ftronger, much wealthier, and « happier. This, i hope, will be our \vifdom."i The greater part of the hiOftey (pent in war, is employed in the purchafe of provifions and military {tons, which are confirmed in the courfe of the quarrel, and large films are always tranfmitted in hard cadi out of this illand. Thus a capital is transferred from the molt ufeful and beneficent; to the molt lavage purpofes. Inftead of building farm-houfes, draining marines, and inelofing corn- fields ; inltead of feeding' the hungry and clothing the naked ; * An F.frimate of the Comparative Strength of Brtain,by George Chalmers, Efq. p. 46. f Vide Introduction. I Notes on the ftate of Virginia, by Mr. JefTerfon. 'Article Public Revenue ■■ I ( 79 ) inftead of employing the idle, and animating the bufy, of fup- pofting the indultry, and embell firing tl e elegance of life, it is deemed to bribe the brutality of a prefs-gangi or to pamper rapacity of a contractor, to haften the ciiicharge of bombs, the explofion of'raineSj and the itormiug of batteries loaded with, grape-ihot. Transferences of this kind are infinitely numerous, and the conclusion feems evident War is a two-edged fword, plunged through the heart of fociety, and cutting both ways, equally to b; avoided for the mifery which it produces, and the happinefs which it prevents^ For example, Mr. Burke, lbme years ago, afierted in ent, that fix hundred thoufand pounds per annum were charged tor the fupportoi the garrifon of Gibraltar, and eighty thoufand pounds for oats, fmniihed to the finjjle legion of colonel Tarleton. Twelve hundred thou- fand pounds were charged for the annual provifions only of forty thoufand men, and fifty-feven thoufand pounds for pnefenrj to the Indians, for which they had only maiTacred twenty-five women and children. In leven years, from September, 1774, to September, 1780, inclufive, the number of men railed for the Britiih army, was - - - - - 76,885 Ditto for the navy - - 176,003 Total 252,893= The American war lafted for more than two years after this eftimate was made, fo that the whole number of men railed, mull have been at lead ti ree hundred thoufand. Dr. Franklin, in a letter to Mi. Vaughan, fays, that feven hundred B-itiih privateers, whole crews he calls gangs of 'robbers ■, were commif- fioned during this war. At an allowance of feventy-two men to each of them, the whole amount was fifty thoufand four hun- dred. A workman can, upon an average, earn about ten (hil- lings a week, which, in London, is at prefent half the common wages of a journeyman taylor. Reduce this to twenty-five pounds per annum, and his life may beeftimated at twelve years purchafe, or three hundred pounds in value to the public. At this rate, the daily labour of the above three hundred and fifty thoufand men, extends to eight millions, (even hundred and fifty thoufand pounds per a?mum. If they had all perifhed in the war, the va- lue of their lives would have amounted, at three hundred pounds per head, to one hundred and five millions fterling. Vv r e are far- ther to obferve, that previous to September, 1774, a very nu- merous body of men were engaged in the Britifh army and na\ r, and thofe peribns are not included in the preceding three huu- * New Annual Regifter for 17S1. Principal Qceurrencet. p. 40. ( OD ) iked and fifty thoufand. When a corps is raifed, and fent out of the Britifh iflands to actual fervice, it feidom happens that more than a fixth, a tenth, or a twentieth part of the men, ever come home again ; and even of thole who do fa, one half are frequently invalids and penfioners, or beggars. Dr. Johnibn, in hi s'Tour through Scotland, relates, that in the war of 1756, an Highland regiment, confiding of twelve hundred men, was fent to North-America, and that of thefe, only feventy -J; x returned. Dr. Franklin, in a fhort eiTay on war, obferves, that privateer men " are rarely fit for any fober bufmefs after a peace, and " ferve only to increafe the number of highwaymen and houfe- " breakers." From thefe particulars, we may infer, that at lea it three hundred thoufand perfons were loft to the Britiih nation, whofe lives, in fee-fimple, were worth ninety millions (terling. Of this account, a fifth part may fafeiy be ftated as the ihare of Scotland ; fo that the feven tea-duty campaigns, coft an expence of Scots blood, to the value of eighteen millions fteriing. The war might have been avoided with the greateft facility. In the hiftorical regiiter of Edinburgh, for the month of December, 1791, there is a curious calculation, founded on the authority of Sir John Sinclair's itatiftical reports. By this, it becomes verv probable, that Scotland contains ninety-fix thoufand fe- males more than males. It is known, that the number of boys born exceeds that of girls ; and hence this deficiency muft be a-fcribed to war and emigration. It has been flated above, that more than fix hundred thoufand pounds of taxes raifed from the Scots, are fairly carried into the BritHh exchequer ; and our ab- fentees at London, who fpend the rent of their eftates in that receptacle of proiligacy, may be eftimated at an additional three hundred thoufand pounds per annum. The total fum raifed in Scotland, during the year 1788, by government, was about one million and ninety-nine thoufand pounds. This includes a con- jectural article of one hundred and thirty thoufand pounds as the duty paid upon goods manufactured in England, taxed there, and fent down to Scotland for confumption. Of the one million and ninety-nine thoufand pounds fteriing, about fix hundred and tfiiny thoufand pounds went in that year into the Englifh ex- chequer. The remaining four hundred and fixty thoufand pounds, if managed with ceconomy, would have been much more than fu/ucient for all the purpofes of civil government, and the fix hundred thoufand guineas might have been faved to the public. If the union had never exiited, the three hundred thoufand pounds per annum for abfentees, would likewife have remained in Scotland. If we had enjoyed a wife, virtuous, and independent government, nine hundred thoufand pounds a- year would have been retained in this poor, defpifed, and enflaved country, which at prefent goes out of it. Shut up in a remote peninfula, where ( 8. ) nobod v comes to moleft us, we, Scotfmen , have no natural bufmefs with Falkland's iflands, or Nootka Sound, with the wilds of Ca- nada, or the fuburbs of Oczakow. The farmers of Fife i Lanerk, are little concerned in the fquabbles between Ti Saib, and a corporation of Englilh merchartts. Shepherds Galloway fpend eheir winter evenings without a fire, and wea- vers of Glafgow go fupperlefs to bed, for the fake of a^Du frontier, and the balance of uiurpation between German tyr Fur fuch wife ends, we pay fix hundred thoufand guineas a y< We are not fufFered to fiih cod upon our own coafts, but fight eight or ten years at a ftretch for leave to catch it on banks of Newfoundland. Since the revolution, Scotland furnimed the Britiih army and navy with three or four hundred thoufand recruits/while, at the fame time, England fufFered ei . thoufand of our anceitors to die, in a iingle year, of hun Thefe particulars may afTift us in comprehending the deilruc- tion produced to North-Britain by the prefent iyftem of admin ilration. :. witzerland is reported, in round number s^ to con twelve thoufand fquare miles,, and two millions of people. The foil is barren, and its furface encumbered with tremendous mountains, yet every acre of land is improved. The beauty of the country, and the felicity of its inhabitants, fill, with rapture, the pages of travellers. North-Britain, and its weftern iflands, ex- ciuiive of Orkney and Shetland, form an area of at leaft thirty thoufand fquare miles. The money and the blood expended in foolifh wars, would have converted the whole countrv, like the Swifs cantons, into gardens, corn-helds and paftures. In propor- tion to the Helvetic population, we mould have amounted to five millions, belides another million fupported by the fiiheries, and by the manufactures to which they give rife. Initead of fix mil- lions, the number of people in Scotland does not exceed about fixteen hundred thoufand. This mournful chapter is now approaching to a eonclufion. I (hall onlyjuft remind the reader of the maflacre at Culloden, where Hanoverian ferocity exhibited its utmoft horror. About two thou- fand of the miferable rebels were cut to pieces. The wounded were butchered in cold blood. The particulars muft be deferred till iome future opportunity. By a very itrange act of parliament, the duke of Cumberland received, for his fervices, a penfion of twenty-five thoufand pounds fterling, added to fifteen thoufand pounds, which he had before.* The ruffians who performed fuch work, at fix-pence a day, were (till more execrable than thofe who fet them on. The toad-eating Scots exulted in this tragical confummation of victory. The wretched newfpapers of * This psnlion ferved to fwell " the loaded compost hsap of corrupt influence" Vide Mr Burke's fpeech, a* to reforming the civil lift, on the i ith of February ( 82 ) that sera, were croutled with verfes in praife of his royal highneft. The circum (lances oi the battle of Culioden itfelf, and the mean and barbarous exultation which it produced, were alike difgrace- ful to the name of Britain. Cumberland continues to be remem- bered in Scotland^ by the fignificant appellation of The bloody Duke. CHAPTER IV. Blo.chjlone — His idea of the Englifh conj/itutiou — Default of an hundred and feventy-one millions flerling — Powell — Be nib ridge — tMary Talbot — Wejlminfter election — Anecdotes of the war with America — Englifh Dif enters — Their laiu-fuit with the corpo- ration of Loudon — Society of friends — Unparalleled cppreffion of that feci in England — Boxing. THE annals of Scotland prefent us with a feries of frightful maffacres. For any purpofe of moral utility which it can anfwer, the whole narrative had better be forgotten. During the laft forty years, one half of our hiftorians have exhaufted their ta- lents to revile the memory of George Buchanan, by far the great- eft literary character that North-Britain ever produced, to decide whether Mary Stuart wrote fome very ftupid letters in French and Latin, and whether Henry Darnley was a cuckold. We mall certainly find fupevior entertainment in the hiitory of Eng- land, which, as her poets and hiftorians tell \xc i hath always been the native feat of liberty. Here is a fpecimen. " During the reigns of Charles and James the fecond, above " fixty thoufand Non-conformilts fuffered, of whoinyW thoufand « died in prison. On a moderate computation, thefe pcrfons " were pillaged oi fourteen millions of property. Such was the «• tolerating, liberal, candid fpirit of the church of England."* This eitimate cannot be intended to include Scotland ; lor it is likely that here alone, epifcopacy facrificed fixty thoufand vic- tims. Of all forts of follies, the records of the church form the moil outrageous burlefque on the human underltanding. As to Charles the fecond, it is full time that we ihould be fpared from the hereditary infultof aholiday for his baneful reiteration. At five per cent, of compound interett, a funi doubles in four- teen years and one hundred and live days, or feven times in a century. Put the cafe, that thefe fourteen millions of property were taken from the Englifh diffenters at once, in 1678, and that they would have doubled eight times between that period,, and * Slower, pu the rrcnok-(fltrifciiutioi),p. 4J7- arid h» authorities.- j ( S 3 ) the prefent year, 1792. This is taking the lofs on the moft mo- derate terms. Byfuch an account, the feci, are, at this day, poorer, in confequence ofthefe perfecutions, than they otherwife would have been, bv the fum of three thoufand, five hundred and eigh- ty-fodr millions fterling. " Our religious liberties were fully eflablifhed at- the reforma- (i tion : but the recovery of our civil and political liberties was a " workof longer time ; they not being thoroughly and completely €i regained till after the reftorat'wn of king Charles, nor fully and i( explicitly acknowledged and defined, till the a?ra of the happy u revolution. Of a conftitution fo wifely contrived, fo ftrongly " railed, and fo highly finished, it is hard to fpeak with that " praife, which is jufcly and feverely its due. The thorough and f( attentive contemplation of it will furnifh its bed panegyric. n It hath been the endeavour of thefe commentaries, however " the execution may have fucceeded, to examine its folid foun- i- (< rion and alarm? The following law-fuit deferves particular notice, becaufe the proceedings which give rife to it, were not the actions of a fingle individual, but compofed a deliberate confpiracy by one great toov of people in England, againft the property cf another. At the fame time i; ferves to exhibit " the harmonious concurrence, the key of it in his o*w?i pocket ? And " my little cock and cryer, what can be his poft ? Does he come " under the king's chamber-window, and call the hour, mi- " micking the crowing of the cock ? This might be of ufe be- " fore clocks and watches, efpecially repeaters, were invented; " but feems as fuperfluous now, as the deliverer of greens, the " coffee-women, fpicery men's afuftant-clerks, the kitchen- ( 99 ) " comptroller's firft clerks and junior clerks, the grooms' chil* " dren, the harbinger's yeomen, &c. Does the maintaining fuch " a number of idlers fuit the prelent flate of our finances? When ™ will frugality be neceiTary, if noc now? Queen Anne gave " an hundred thoufand pounds a year to the public fervice.* " We pay debts on the civil lift of fix hundred thoufand " pounds in one article, without a/king haw there comes to be a de- « fe'iency."f The following converfations, on the fame fubject, betweeen the late princefs of Wales and Mr. Dodington, cannot fail to ex- cite the attention and furpriie of every reader. " She," the prin- cefs, " laid, that notwithstanding what I had mentioned of the " king's kindnefs to the children, and civility to her, thofe things " did not impofe upon her \ that there were other things which M fhe could not get over -, fhe wifhed the king was lefs civil, and " that he put lefs of their money into his own pocket; that he " got full thirty thoufand pounds per annum, by the poor prince's 14 death. If he would but have given them the duchy of Corn- " wall to have paid his debts, it would have been fomething. " Should refentments be carried beyond the grave? Should the M innocent fuffer? Was it becoming fo great a king to leave his "fin's debts unpaid? and fuch inconfiderable debts ? I afked her " what fhe thought they might amount to ? She anfwered, fhe houles of parliament contained, perhaps, feven hundred and fifty members, for Engliih peers were lefs numerous then than they are now. At a medium, this fum was equal to an an- nuity of two hundred and twentv-feven pounds, twelve (hillings fter ling for each member. Some commoners paid the wages of their footmen with franks, at half a crown par dozen. About fixteen years ago, Sir Robert Herrics, a banker in London, obtained a feat as member for the five Seots boroughs, included in the diftrict of Dumfries. His object was laid to be, the faving of poftaje on all letters directed to his office. This was computed at feven hundred pounds fterling a year. Mr. Pitt has made fome very proper regulations on this head. He was warmly oppofed by Edmund Burke. In the Hebrides, four places excepted, no poft-office is efhblifhed. " A letter " from Skye to Lewis, the direct, diftance but a few leagues, if fent by port, muft " travel about twelve hundred miles -, before it can reach the place of its deftination." Dr. Anderfon's Introduction, p. 28. One is at a lofs to conceive, on what account the Scots, during the American war alTumed,in general, fuch a rancorous antipa- thy to the caufe of the United States. Their zeal for the Englifh government vva« violent ; yet as juftly might an ox feel attachment to the farmer who fattens him for the market. ( I0 4 ) pounds. There are twenty game-keepers. Before, the revolution in France, above a thoufand partridge eggs were brought every jrear, from that country. The importation is now itopf. At pre- sent, his grace keeps only forty pair of hounds at Goodwood. Some years ago, it was mentioned in the newfpapers, that the duke of Bedford, for the purpofe of hunting, had purchafed, ami brought over from France, fome hundreds of live foxes. He is. at this time, building at Wooburn, a dog-kennel; the expence of which is computed at aboui/eventy thoufand pounds jlev ling. If England contains only an hundred fuch parks as that of Goodwood, an hundred fquare miles of land are loft to the public. Like the rocksat fort AVilliam, and the wilds of Aberdeenihire, every fpot of this land might be converted into gardens and corn-fields. If we affign an hundred and lixty people to every fquare mile, which is lefs than the reputed population of Switzerland, we have an extrufion of hxteen thoufand perfons from fubiiftence, for the fake of hares, foxes and partridges. But this is not all. The duke of Richmond keeps twenty game-keepers, and forty pair of hounds. His dog-kennel is totally eclipfed by that of Wooburn ; and hence we may reafonabiy prefume, that the hounds and game-keepers of the duke of Bedford, are ftill more numerous. But let us once more take the duke of Richmond for a ftandard, and fay, that the whole kingdom of England contains only an hundred times more than his private hunting eftabliinment. We have then two thoufand game-keepers, and four thoufand pair of hounds to raife the price of proviiions. This is a great deal ; and yet, it is more likely that the country maintains twenty thoufand pair of hounds than four thou- fand. The lofs of one hundred fquare miles of land, aha the burden of fueh a multitude of ufelefs men and dogs, call loudly for the .final deuruclion of every deer par!; in Britain. On the 4th of February, 1791, a petition was prefented to the houfe of commons from Aulcefter, for a tax upon doga. The petition Itates, that " where many dogs are kept, and packs of " hounds, by gentlemen, the prices of many articles of life are " fo much encreafed, (particularly fheep;f heads, and other in- " ferior pieces of butcher's meat, which formerly made an ef- " fential part of the maintenance of the poor,) as to be vaftly ■* beyond their reach, and are now fold only for the kennels of tneir " opulent neighbours."* The matter of a dog-kennel, who fup- ports it by ftarving the poor, as completely deferves the gallows as a horfe-ftealer or a highway-man. In Scotland ajfo, land- holders can be pointed out, who fquander conliderabfe portions of wholefome food upon their four-footed vermin. Thefe facls fliew the prodigious walle of land and people, in confequence * Senator, vol. i,p. z64. of the prefent tyrannical fyftem of game laws. Even to the cultivated parts of England, great damage is frequently done in the courfe of a fox-chace. If, to thefe confiderations, we add the many thoufands of horfes that are kept by the rich for hun- ting, racing, and other trifling amufements, it will turn out that fome hundred thoufands of additional people could be main- tained by the food call away upon fuperfluous quadrupeds. Some writers have dreamed that Britain is overftocked with people. In fact, this ifland could, with Chinefe management, readily fupport quadruple its prefent number of inhabitants. The fame remark applies to almoft every other part of Europe, Holland and Switzerland excepted. "While fo many millions of Britifh acres lie uncultivated, we pay fix or feven hundred thou- fand pounds a year to the family of a fmgle man. At a round calculation, let us guefs, that fifty pounds fterling are fumciem for converting an acre of barren bogs, or moors, into meadows or corn-fields. Thefum of fixhundred and fixty thoufand pounds, paid in 1785, to the immediate ufe of the crown, might thus have fertilized an hundred and twelve thoufand arn in the neighbourhood, " At three o'clock, indeed, they vouchfafed to think of a dinner, (i and ordered one : but the dijgracc icas complect. The tavern-din- ave exiited,was robbed of his ctiftomers and his profits. Mr. Pitt faid, that previous to the commutation act, which reduced the duty on tea, about the fame quantity of that article had been imported, and a very great proportion of it had been fmuggled. lie had made fome regulations for lesTening the duty on wines imported, and from thirteen thoufand tons, the former visible importation, it had mounted up to twenty-two thoufand tons. The additional nine thou£md had formerly been fmuggled. It $ Commentaries, book 1, chap. 9. ( iop ) is no wonder that a citfiom-houfe oath has long been fynonimous to perjury. The tobacco bill, confuting of an hundred and thir- ty-five folio pages, pall, after long and angry debates. Next year, an attempt was made to repeal it, and on the 16th pf April, i 790, Mr. Sheridan, in a fpeech on that queftion, told die fol- lowing ftory to the houfe of commons. An eminent diftiller, of a very fair character, had occafion to ditpute a judgment by which a quantity of fpirits had been feized and condemned as above proof. He maintained that they were not above proof ; that Clarke's hydrometer, by which they had been proved, was faulty ; and that if the fpirits were tried by hydrometers accu- rately made, they would be found to be fuch as the law required them to be, and confequently not feizable. The cafe went to trial, and turned out precifely as the difliller had Hated it to be ; Mr. Clarke admitted that his hydrometer was faulty, and reques- ted that the commiilioners of excife would give him leave to amend and correct, it. But, inftead of liftening to a requeft fo reafonable and juit, they procured a claufe to be inferted in a hotch-potch bill, by which it was enacted that Clarke's hydro- meter fhould, in future, be the legal ftandard for trying the ftrength of fpirits. This hydrometer was acknowleged, by its maker, to be faulty; and yet the commiflioners, fo far from granting him leave to amend it, applied to parliament for an act which fanctioned er- ror, and legalized faifohood and opprefhon.* Thus far Mr. She- ridan. CHAPTER VI. Edward I. — Edward III. — Henry V. — Ireland — Conducl of Britain in various quarters of the world — Otaheite — Guin-a — - North- America — Tht Jerfey p.rifon JJjip — Bengal — General efti- mate of deftruclion in the Eajl-Indies. AT home Englilhmen admire liberty, but abroad they have always been harm mailers. Edward the firft conquered Wales and Scotland, and, at the diftance of five hundred years, his name is yet remembered in both countries with traditionary horror. His annals are blafted by an excefs of infamy, uncommon even in the ruffian catalogue of Englifh kings. David Hume, Sir William Blackftone, and Sir John Sinclair, have celebrated the talents and atchievements of this deteitable barbarian. " The fi Englifh Juflinian was one of the wifeft and moft fortunats * Debrert's Parliamentary Debate*, vol. xxyii. pa^c 408. ( tw ) " princes, that ever fat upon the thone of England. In him were " united,- the prudence and forefightof the ftatefman and legif- " lator, with the valour and magnanimous fpirit of the hero."* Edward made war in Paleftine and in France?. He butchered fome hundred thoufands of the Welfh and the Scots. He was conftantly at variance with his own fubje&s, and exerted every petty fraud to (trip them of their property. The fpoil thus obtained, was ex- pended with equal criminality. We Ihudder to think of a do- meftic murder; but when a crowned robber, whofe underftanding is perhaps unequal to the office of a poft-boy, fends an hundred thoufand brave men into the field, to defolate provinces, and hew nations down like oxen, we call it Glory. Thus common fenfe and humanity are obliterated by a rhapfody of words. If Edward the firft, as a private man, had murdered a fingle Sect or Welfh- man, the world would have agreed in thinking that he deferved the gallows. But when he only, upon the moll hateful pretences, butchered three or four hundred thoufand people, we are fum- moned, at the end of five centuries, to admire (l his wifdom, his " good forture, his valour and magnanimity." As to his tvifdsm, it is hard to fay what England gained by his victories. The Welfh were independent or thereabouts, in the reign u£ Henry the fourth, an hundred years after the death of Edward, fo that the merit of finally fubduing them is to be placed fomewhere elfe. The Scots revolted in the life-time of this Edward. He died on a jour- ney to Scotland, for the facred purpofe of extirpating the .Scots mation. He would have been much wifer if he had ftaid at home at firft, and faved himfelf the trouble of an impracticable con- «queft. As to the domeflic legiflation of this Jujlinian, he hanged two hundred and eighty Jews in one day. " Above fifteen thou- " land were plundered of all their wealth, and banifhed the king- " dom."f The fame writer fays, that thefe enormities were com- mitted under various pretences. "The year thirteen hundred forms il the difgraceful epoch of the original debafement of our flan-. *" dard coin, when our Englijh Jujlinian, Edward firft, defrau- " ded every creditor of eight-pence half-penny in every twenty- u fhillings.'^ An excellent legiflator he was, to be fure, when he cheated the public creditors, and forged bad money. Edward firft introduced tonnage and poundage, duties on imports and exports. He was, in every refpecT:, a fcourge to the human race. Edward the fecond wanted to live at peace. Sir John Sinclair tells us, that his reign is remarkable for " the inconsiderable taxes " levied." He was fond of the fociety of fome companions, and all the hiftorians mention this mark of good nature, as a very grofs weaknefs, if not a pojitive crime. The heart of a wolf was, * Hiftory of the Public Revenue, part \. chap. 6. f Ibid. \ Eftimate, &c. by Mr. Chalmers, p. 80. .( «" ) at that, time, an efTential qualification, for a king of England. After various rebellions againft him, Edward was taken prifoner by his wife. He expired in Berkley cattle, by a fpecies of death, too horrible to be defcribed. His real guilt was a focial and peace- able difpofition. " The reign of Edward the third is, without doubt, the moft < l ^/c-z/^V/inthe'Engliflihiftory. — His queen pawned her jewels. "* The king pawned lis crown ; and this pledge lay unredeemed for eight years. He conquered a great part of France, without any fort of juftice on his fide. The rapacity of his fon, the black prince, as he has been emphatically termed, drove the French into rebellion, and the Englifh out of the country. This conqueft, and fubfequent expulfion, firft planted the feeds of that brutal .antipathy to the French people, by which England has been too much diftinguifhed. Ferox Eriteirmus viribus sntchae, Gallii'vjue fern per cladibus iinmiiitns. BrCKAXAN. " The Briton, formerly ferocious in his ftrength, and always u menacing calamities to France." Englishmen pretend to be proud of the horrid ravages committed in that country, by Ed- ward the third, by his fon, and by Henry the fifth. The juftice of their claims has long been given up ; and yet we are deafened about their virtues. Englishmen prattle on French perfidy, and of fucking in, with their mother's milk, an honeit hatred for that greateft of nations. In the French wars of Edward the third,, and Henry the fifth, England was plainly the aggreilbr ; and the country, fo far from feeling pride in their vr&ories, ought, if pofiible, to fupprefs that part of its ancient hiftory. Philip de Comines places the a ffair in a proper light. He afcribes the civil wars of York and Lancafter, that fucceeded the death of Henry the fifth, to the indignation of divine juftice. The murder, by Richard the third, of his two nephews, was a diminutive crime, contrafted with the atrocity of Crecy, of Azincourt, and Poic- tiers. Henry the fifth was a two-fold ufurper. (l When he " thought," fays Horace Walpole, that he had any title to the " crown ofEngiarid^ the other followed of courfe." Since his time, the kings of England have called themfelves kings of France, juft like a perfon advertifing that his grand-father had ftolen a horfe. Henry butchered numbers of the Lollards, a premature tribe of proteftants. The Scots, in great bodies, joined the French, and gave him fome checks. On this he pretended, that they were his lawful fubjeCts, and hanged thofe whom he took pri- soners, for having rebelled. Mr. Hume has employed a long pa- ragraph upon the character of Henry. He begins, by faying, that * Hiftory of the Public Revenue, part i. chap. 6. ( U2 ) i kt tins prince pofreiTed many eminent virtues." Henry committed more mifehief than all the felons ever executed at Tyburn. Yet, Mr. Hume draws a plaufible picture of him, and fixes a ftrong impreihon of refpecf. and kindnefs. Hiftorians abound with thefe fophifticai portraits. The reader is taught to admire, when {there is room for nothing but execration. Thus arc his morals corrupted, and his underitanding turned topfy-turvv. This is the moll ufual effect of peruling hiflory. If Henry had Only put to death a fingle Lollard, he certainly could not poffefs many eminent virtues. A mite, m a cruil of checfe, projecting an or- rerv, woilld be a Ids extravagant idea than that of a human be- ing defining the nature, efience, and intentions of the Deitv. But, when this phrenzy breaks out into perfonal violence, as in the cafe of the Lollards, and the quakers at Coventry, the mad- nefs of the fcheme is forgot in its extreme wicked nefs.* Ireland has long prefented a linking monumentof the wifdom, juftice, and humanity of the Englijh nation. That devoted ill and w;<, in the end of the twelfth century, over-run by a fet of bandit- ti, under Henry tire fecond. This eitablifhed a divine right. Sir John Davis informs us, that even in times of peace, it was ad- judged no felony to kill a were Irijbman. This acquifition proved vcrv troublefome to the conquerors. " The ufual revenue of Ire- « land," fays Mr. Hume, M amounted only to fix thou fan d pounds " a year. The queen, (Elizabeth,) though with much repining, " commonly added twenty thouland pounds more, which ihe re- <; mitred from England." Thefuprempcy was, at bell, a lofmg bargain. In war, affairs were, or courfe, an hundred times worfe. Sir John Sinclair fays, that tire rebellion of Tyrone, which lalied for eight years, coil four hundred thoufand pounds per annum. In 1599, fix hundred thoufand pounds were ipent in fix months ; . and Sir Robert Cecil afhrrned, that in ten years, Ireland cod Ens- land three millions, and four hundred thoufand pounds fteriing. This profulion of treafure was expended in fupporting the pi- ratical conqueft of a country, which did not yield a milling of profit to England, nor pay, even in time of peace, a fourth-part of the expence of its govennent. The confolation of inflicting the deepeit and molt univerfal wretched nefs, was the total recom- penfe afforded to the good people of England. Sir William Petty, in his Political Anatomy, fays, that in the year 1641, Ireland con- ned 1,466,000 inhabitants. He adds, that in 1652. they had funk to 85o,oocf Decreafe 616,000 * Tl nation might, at tin's day, have been four times more nume- rous, a thoufand times more happy, and by millions 0/ degrees lefs criminal, if two-thirds of them had belonged to the fociety of friends. T Thefe particulars are borrowed from a cpiarto edition of Guthrie's Gramr mar/printed at Dubliu. 1 have not yet leer, a copy of the Political Anatomy. ( "3 ) Thus, in eleven years, the Irifh nation iolt fix hundred and u\- ,houfand people. In 164,1 they had* been driven into rebel- lion, by the tyranny of that Eiiglifli parliament which conducted Charles Stuart to the fcaifbld. On the ineorrupihnu virtues of that upright band, much no*. ■.. id fang. By a rted two millions and h\e hundred thou- acjrcs of ground in Ireland. rhe\vin;ie iiland was transfor- med into an imiiicDi'' fiaughter-l]LO.ufe> Ji\-Ian . tied by an ifh republic, m\ eco, as a tal paradife. (Jcjinpared with) oendous mafsof miicry | .Led by Stra.rbrd, Cromwell, ireton, and ti.e duke.. of Ormond, t.. jus of the Baiale. or the profcriptions ct* a Roman rati©, jC^in^ intoiprge^uhieivf - Neither the reiteration of Charles the fecond, nor the glorious revolution, afforded much reliei to Ireland. The people continu- ed to groan ur.d.r the molt oppreflwe andabfurd deipotifm, till, in defiance of a!) confequences, die immortal Swift, like another Ajax, Briike the dark phalanx, and let in the light. He taught his country to underitand her importance. At laft (he rcfoiv rt it, and. as a uecerlury arrangement, (he arofe in arms. England fa/£ ( -? them, I- firrfoy v could not obtain, or could bb- r< tain bis ficill and induftry:'' In thispaf- Mr. I lame i England acred with font e o both o^policy arid ol c . As to the 1 -titer, it is evident, from his own ; • ,: fbatk of it, and as to the/;- i. The Englifh j ifes " a lift of " tht i complained, ft h << markable, that idea d&^redafj ■■ ! -d thv " ■ ?r 1662, ' ■ ' He and aflta I beenW^ " riewed 11 thought « either fo ift*grm its, that f] riot: been