f 
 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 ■BS7 5 
 vi.15
 
 THE 
 
 NATIONAL DEBT 
 
 TRUE COLOURS, 
 
 PLANS FOR ITS EXTINCTION 
 
 HONEST MEANS. 
 
 BY WILLIAM FREND, ESQ. M.A. 
 
 ACTUARY TO THE ROCK LIFE ASSURANCE fOMPANV, AND 
 AUTHOR OF EVENING AMUSEMENTS, icc. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. MAWMAN, LUDHATE STRKET. 
 I8I7. 
 
 \^,
 
 THE 
 
 NATIONAL DEBT 
 
 TRUE COLOURS. 
 
 The term National Debt is much used 
 and much abused. By those, who wish 
 to aggravate the difficulties of the country, 
 it means the amount of the sums in the 
 public funds, whether in the names of the 
 commissioners for redeeming annuities, or 
 of other individuals. This makes a very 
 great figure on paper; and, when the term 
 pounds is annexed to it, many are led to 
 believe, that the nation owes as many 
 pounds sterling as are expressed by this 
 figure. Tbe exaggeraters however are 
 
 B
 
 2 
 
 obliged to reduce this sum, from the evi- 
 dent absurdity of confounding together the 
 different stocks, under the denomination of 
 three, four, and five per cents. Too many 
 of them still confound the quantity re- 
 deemed with what is not redeemed : and 
 they affect to say, that the redemption 
 of the annuities is of no consequence to 
 the public. 
 
 Government itself has in some measure 
 assisted the delusion, which prevails on 
 this subject; for even the term. Com- 
 missioners for the Redemption of the Na- 
 tional Debt, implies, that the nation is in 
 debt to the amount of the nominal sum, 
 which goes under that name. They are 
 in fact commissioners for the purchase of 
 annuities granted by the nation to certain 
 individuals or their representatives. This 
 distinction is of more importance than per- 
 sons are at first apt to imagine. 
 
 What then are we to understand by the 
 term National Debt? Certainly not the 
 nominal sums, which go by that name in 
 the stocks; for a debt means something
 
 specific, which neither debter nor crediter 
 can alter at his pleasure. But in this case 
 the debter can never be called upon for the 
 nominal sums in the stocks, though, by the 
 condition of his agreement with the cre- 
 diter, he may, when he pleases, oblige the 
 crediter to take these sums in lieu of the 
 annuity for which they are made answer- 
 able. 
 
 The fact respecting the National Debt 
 is simply this : Every stockholder is an an- 
 nuitant on the nation ; which is under an 
 obligation to pay these annuities, in con- 
 sequence of a contract solemnly entered 
 into to this purpose. These annuities are 
 redeemable at the will of the nation, on 
 the payment of a certain sum specified in 
 the contract ; but it is under no obligation 
 ever to pay this sum. As long as it pays 
 the annuity, it performs its part of the 
 contract : the moment it should cease to 
 pay the annuity, unless it is incapable of 
 doing so, it would become dishonoured ; 
 it would break its contract ; it would act 
 an infamous part j violate the laws between
 
 man and man ; and sanction fraud, deceit, 
 dishonesty. 
 
 A considerable part of the funds of the 
 nation, by a wise measure suggested by 
 Mr. Fox, has been, and is at present, 
 appropriated to the purchase of these an- 
 nuities ; and, in consequence, a great por- 
 tion of them has been destroyed. This 
 wise measure of Mr. Fox will also prevent 
 too great an accumulation of them : for 
 every annuity necessarily becomes extinct 
 within forty years from the grant of it, 
 and thus each generation bears the burden 
 of its own follies. The value of these an- 
 nuities varies every day in the market, and 
 the nation purchases them at the market 
 price ; sometimes for the money it 
 originally received, sometimes more and 
 sometimes less. Many have been pur- 
 chased by the nation at thirty and forty 
 per cent, less than the original sum lent to 
 it. The nature of these transactions might 
 be, more beneficially than at present, made 
 known to the public ; and I should recom- 
 mend an account of them to be inserted in
 
 5 
 
 every Saturday's Gazette in the following 
 manner : — 
 
 Account of the Annuities payable by the Nation 
 according to different Stocks. 
 
 Annuities payable by the nation £. s. d. 
 
 on Saturday, . . . 00,000,000 
 Purchased by the commissioners 
 
 since Saturday, . . 00,000 
 
 Annuities now payable by the 
 
 nation 00,000,000 
 
 Accustomed thus to see its situation in 
 its true colours, the nation will no longer 
 be subject to the alarms occasioned by the 
 terrours of a debt, whose magnitude sur- 
 passes the faculties of many to contemplate. 
 Their minds are lost in the idea of several 
 hundreds, or it may be a thousand, of 
 millions, it matters not which : for, when 
 we have gone beyond the rate of usual cal- 
 culations, a sum seems as confused, as to 
 the savage an ordinary number, which he 
 represents by tlie hairs on his head, Wben 
 we speak oF the annuities at so many mil-, 
 lions a year, and tlicsc millions are de-
 
 creased at the rate of between ten and 
 twenty thousand pounds a week, the sub- 
 ject will be viewed without amazement. 
 The heap is weekly diminishing, and the 
 progress of that diminution may be cal- 
 culated. 
 
 But it is said, the nation is unable to 
 pay even the annuities. This I firmly 
 deny. We have seen the exertions it could 
 make in the time of war, its energies in 
 time of peace remain untried. We look 
 to the expenditure, but do not sufficiently 
 consider the resources of the country. 
 CEconomy on the one hand, and prudence 
 on the other, will achieve wonders. 
 
 I knew a gentleman, who succeeded to 
 a paternal estate in the west of England, 
 whose rent roll upon paper was very large, 
 but whose income w^as far too small to live 
 in the noble mansion of his ancesters. The 
 greater part of his property was let out on 
 leases on lives. On coming of age, he 
 looked into the state of his aifairs, let his 
 mansion, and confined himself to a por- 
 tion only of his annual income; devot- 
 ing the remainder to the purchase of his
 
 leases, when this could he done advan- 
 tageously, and determining not to renew a 
 lease. By slow degrees his three-live leases 
 became two lives, his two-live one life, 
 and of his one-life leases many fell in. His 
 little accumulations became a considerable 
 sum, which was advantageously laid out 
 in the purchase of leases : and he is now 
 restored to the residence of his ancesters, 
 with a spirit to refuse a seat in j)arliament, 
 unless sent to it by the unbought votes of 
 the constituents. 
 
 This nation is not so reduced. It is in 
 the situation of a gentleman with a per- 
 petual money rent on his estate, which he 
 can either diminish or continue as he 
 pleases ; and our annuities do not bear a 
 great proportion to the wealth of the 
 country. If we talli of the millions upon 
 millions we owe : I answer, look at the 
 millions upon millions of acres, which are 
 in your possession, and remain uncul- 
 tivated. Cast your eyes on the Canadas, 
 Newfoundland, Trinirlad, and the Cape of 
 Good Hope. You have the cxanjijle of 
 America before you, where the United
 
 States sell off land every year^ thus filling 
 their treasury, and increasing their popu- 
 pulation, their strength, and their re- 
 sources. 
 
 We do not understand colonisation. 
 The Romans, when they took possession 
 of til is country, pierced it with roads, and 
 in a short time the desert was turned into 
 fertile fields, and villas and temples arose in 
 every direction. Had they been in posses- 
 sion of Newfoundland, they would not 
 have been content with a few miserable 
 huts by the sea-side, but long before this 
 time would have had a road from St. John's 
 and Bonavista to the north-east side of the 
 Gulph of St. Lawrence. The supernume- 
 raries in our streets are as capable as the 
 Roman legions to perform these labours ; 
 and industrious cultivaters would expatri- 
 ate themselves to become possessers of 
 estates. Thus the revenues of the nation 
 would be increased, and the English name 
 ^ain daily accessions to its strength. 
 
 The generous feelings of this country 
 might, if attended to, be of great service 
 to us. We honour with the name of pa-
 
 triotism many actions, which, when 
 brought {o the test of reason, are of very 
 doubtful authority. The sacrifice of a 
 portion of our property for the benefit of 
 the whole country may not be classed by 
 the poets among the acts of heroes, yet it 
 has one advantage over them, that more 
 can participate in it, and a good is done 
 without the mixture of evil. There is no 
 bloodshed, no violence. The individual, 
 who makes the sacrifice, feels a satisfaction 
 in his contribution to the national: welfare. 
 The ease with which these sacrifices may 
 be performed is another argument in their 
 favour, and for this reason I shall make 
 no apology for presenting the following 
 plan to the public. 
 
 Let the commissioners for the purchase 
 of the national annuities be empowered to 
 place to their account all stock transferred 
 to them by individuals, and to employ the 
 annuities derived from it in the purchase 
 of stock, keeping however a separate ac- 
 count of all the purchases thus made. The 
 Bank will doubtless make this easy to all 
 
 c
 
 parties, so tluit no expenee shall be in- 
 curred by the transfers, it being necessary 
 only, that the holder of stock should no- 
 tify, in any manner the Bank pleases, his 
 intention of transferring stock ; and the 
 commissioners might, by a printed form 
 with their signatures annexed, signify their 
 acceptance of the stock transferred. 
 
 At the same time that this facility is 
 offered to the stockholder, the landholder 
 should also be entitled to an equal portion 
 of our regard; and, in the usual way, 
 books should be opened at the Bank and 
 bankers, in town and country, for his sub- 
 scriptions. Nor should the mites of per- 
 sons, equally interested in the welfare of 
 their country, but not in equal affluence, 
 be neglected : and in every parish I would 
 have a book opened, and the name in- 
 scribed of every person, whatever may be 
 the amount of his subscription. The sums 
 thus raised would, I flatter myself, be much 
 greater than what the scorners at this pro- 
 position have any idea of: though the 
 country bears testimony, in the number of
 
 11 
 
 places of public worship erected within 
 these few years, to what may be achieved 
 by penny subscriptions*. 
 
 In every Saturday's Gazette the pro- 
 gress of these subscriptions might be no- 
 ticed, in the following manner : — 
 
 Annuities redeemed by the transfer £. s. d. 
 
 of stock 00,0()() 
 
 Annuities redeemed by the purchase 
 
 of stock from cash subscriptions . 00,000 
 
 There is a circumstance belonging to 
 these annuities to which sufficient atten- 
 tion has not been paid- They are all per- 
 sonal property, and as such are subjected 
 to the legacy tax ; an odious tax most as- 
 suredly, for an unjust distinction is made 
 between personal and real properly, the 
 former only being subjected to, and the 
 latter screened from it : whereas, if any 
 
 * The gre.^^ number of churches erected within the 
 last thirty years, and supported by voluntary subscriptions, 
 cannot fail of producirag, and in no great length of time, 
 important results — results, perhaps, not alto^t^thcr un- 
 connected with the subject of these pages : 
 ^(jov7}6vla 9'ovsloi<riv.
 
 12 
 
 distinction is to be made, it ought to be 
 in favour of the former, not of the latter. 
 The propriety of this distinction does not 
 however fall so much within my present 
 view of this subject : but surely, if, at the 
 death of every proprieter of stock, a sum 
 of money equivalent to a portion of annui- 
 ties left by him is transferred to government, 
 it is but reasonable, that this should be 
 made useful toward the diminution of the 
 annuities payable by the nation. I should 
 therefore suggest, that all property, derived 
 from the funds by means of the legacy tax, 
 should be transferred to the commissioners, 
 and its amount be notified in the Gazette 
 in the same manner as the subscriptions: 
 and, if landed property should be made 
 subject to the legacy tax, the amount of it 
 might be employed in the same manner. 
 
 Thus means are provided for an accele- 
 rated extinction of the national annuities ; 
 and, whatever may be thought of this 
 scheme, every man of sense and honour 
 will esteem it preferable to the crude ideas 
 floating in men's minds, and too often 
 escaping in conversation in companies,
 
 13 
 
 which ought to be better informed, on the 
 extinction, as they call it, of the national 
 debt by a spunge. Disgraceful ideas ! 
 Whatever may be the other distinctions 
 among men, there is one fixed in nature. 
 Men are to be divided into two classes, 
 the honest and the dishonest*: and, who- 
 ever does not pay his debts, whatever is his 
 rank in society, his true place is in the 
 latter class; unless he can prove, that he 
 did not contract his debts disgracefully, 
 and from misfortune only is unable to pay 
 them. If our nation is to be placed in the 
 latter class, let it not be by our suffrages : 
 for an upright mind would rather sink into 
 abject poverty than be lord of the greatest 
 estate, if the possession of it had been 
 sanctioned by a vote to defraud the national 
 crediter of his dues. 
 
 * Much of the {Jislioncsty too unhappily prevalent in 
 this nation is to be attributed, perhaps, to an improper 
 distinction made between the members of the legislature 
 and the rest of their countrymen. Whether the present 
 practice of arrestin^^ debters, so contrary to the good old 
 laws respcctinij them, is suitable to our character as s^ 
 free people, is a question I shall not here enter upon ;
 
 14 
 
 The landowners, who flatter themselves 
 by the benefit to be derived to them by such 
 a mode of disgracing the nation, are much 
 deceived : and little do they think of the 
 miseries they would entail upon their fel- 
 low subjects. Besides, how many of them 
 are employed, laudably most assuredly, in 
 a moral view, whatever may be othervrise 
 thought of their prudence, in the encou- 
 ragement of saving banks, by which the 
 property of the poor is continually invested 
 
 but assuredly the higher classes are not entitled to any 
 exemption. On the contrary, a breach of the law of 
 honesty should be visited on them with peculiar severity : 
 for the higher the rank in society the more is to be ex- 
 pected from them ; and the distinction made in their 
 favour has a tendency to encourage in them a disregard 
 to honesty. Indeed, no one can be much conversant 
 with the higher classes, who does not notice witii what 
 levity, in some of their circles, a regard to this virtue is 
 treated. It would be better that every member of the 
 legislature, who has contracted debts, should lose all the 
 privileges of his seat, after a sufficient notification to the 
 speakers of eacli house, till his debts are paid. Such a 
 law would have preserved many families from great diffi- 
 culties; and an attention to morality in the highest cannot 
 fail of disseminating good principles uniong the lowest 
 classes. Without honesty there is no honour.
 
 15 
 
 in the purchase of national annuities. 
 What answer could be given to the poor 
 man for the depreciation of bis fund, if it 
 arose from an act of national dishonour ? 
 I allow, that, if the nation should cease to 
 pay its annuities, the landowners would be 
 almost the only gainers : but why should 
 their gains arise from the losses of thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands of their fellow 
 subjects ? 
 
 The annual sum now employed by the 
 commissioners has become so considerable, 
 that many are the speculations on the fu- 
 ture use to be made of it. Some would 
 sink it entirely by the abolition of taxes to 
 its full amount; others would sink it onlv 
 to a certain extent ; others would employ 
 part of it in the raising of a loan supposed 
 requisite to relieve the nation from its pre- 
 sent difficulties. But before any thing is 
 done with this money, it is necessary to 
 consider whence it is derived, and how far 
 any part of it may be diverted from its pre- 
 sent purpose. 
 
 By the wise measure suggestetl bv 
 Mr. Fox a sum has been appropriated for
 
 u 
 
 the purchase of the annuities granted on 
 all loans for some years past. This en- 
 tered into the contract made with the go- 
 vernment and the lenders, and conse- 
 quently all that money, which has accu- 
 mulated from the sums appropriated to the 
 purchase of these annuities, is under the 
 guardianship of the national faith, and 
 cannot be diverted to any other purpose. But 
 before that time, certain grants had been 
 made by parliament for the purchase of an- 
 nuities; and, as it was a voluntary act of the 
 government to purchase annuities, which 
 it was under no obligation to do, all the 
 income now derived from these sums is, 
 strictly speaking, the nation's own. It may 
 either abolish taxes to that amount, and thus 
 discontinue so far the purchase of annuities, 
 or it may apply that sum to any purpose, 
 which it thinks proper. This money is 
 strictly the nation's : the annuitants have 
 no claim whatsoever upon it. The amount 
 of it is, I presume, considerable ; but what- 
 ever it is, it should be subtracted from the 
 sum, in which the annuitants and the na- 
 tion have a joint interest; and thus the
 
 17 
 
 rights of the respective parties will be pre- 
 served. 
 
 Alarming accounts have been spread of 
 our situation, and it has been confidently 
 asserted, and said to be arithmetically 
 proved, that we are ruined without hope of 
 redemption. This is a pleasing theme to 
 an English ear. Eternal damnation is a 
 favourite topic in many of our pulpits, and 
 national bankruptcy the consolation held 
 out to us by our great financiers. I can 
 easily conceive, that there is a considerable 
 difl[iculty in the management of our finances 
 at present ; but with national as with pri- 
 vate affairs, the best way is to look the 
 evil in the face. Many a man, on the 
 brink of ruin, has, by the prudent inter- 
 ference of his friends, who probed the 
 wound to its depth, been rescued from 
 disgrace ; and, notwithstanding all our 
 croakers, I trust that the same may be 
 done for our country. 
 
 The first question is, whether the de- 
 ficit can be made up Ijy our present 
 resources without additional taxes ? At 
 any rate, it should be clearly stated ; 
 
 D
 
 18 
 
 and, if the interest of its amount falls 
 short of the annuities purchased by the 
 nation on its own account, we have the 
 means at once of covering it. This may 
 be done either by a loan to the amount of 
 the deficit, to be repaid in the usual mode 
 of annuities, or by the issue of exchequer 
 bills, or by a mixture of both. Let us 
 take the deficit at thirty millions, and cal- 
 culate the loan at five per cent. Conse- 
 quently the sum to be appropriated to the 
 payment of the annuities, purchased by 
 the lender, would be fifteen hundred thou- 
 sand a year. This sum, I apprehend, is 
 within that, which the nation has in the 
 commissioners* hands, with the right to 
 appropriate to any purpose it pleases. Con- 
 sequently there is no difiiculty in providing 
 for this deficit by a loan, requiring no new 
 taxes in its behalf. 
 
 If it is done wholly or in part by exche- 
 quer bills, the question is, whether they 
 would bear a premium in the market, and 
 as long as they do so it would be for the 
 advantage of the nation to pursue this 
 mode* If these exchequer bills were also
 
 19 
 
 made as low as fifty pounds, it is probable 
 that they would be more frequently seen, 
 and fill up advantageously the gap, which 
 has, from melancholy circumstances, been 
 made in our circulating medium. 
 
 At any rate it is advisable for the nation 
 to look its difficulties boldly in the face, 
 and to meet them with justifiable expedients. 
 I have mentioned some at which no objec- 
 tion can be raised on the ground of justice, 
 whatever may be thought of their produce. 
 But, if so tardy a diminution may not be 
 thought satisfactory, there is a variety of 
 other sources, to which recourse may be 
 had : and, if a land tax of four shillings in 
 the pound were applied to this purpose, 
 and taxes taken oft* equal to the amount of 
 annuities purchased by it, the landowner 
 would not suffer the injury, which he 
 might conceive would arrive to his income 
 from such a measure. 
 
 There is a circumstance attending these 
 annuities, which must not be omitted. 
 The greater part of the annuitants live 
 among us. Their annuities are employed 
 in the purchase of our manufactures, and
 
 20 
 
 of articles from which the nation derives, 
 in form of taxes, a very great profit. Of 
 the millions a year, that are paid to the 
 annuitants, no small portion finds its way 
 back to the exchequer : for every glass of 
 wine drunk by the annuitant, every pair 
 of shoes he puts on, restores back to the 
 nation a portion of the annuity. Men talk 
 idly, when they speak of these annuities 
 as a dead loss to the country : for the 
 widow and the orphan here find a refuge, 
 and many extensive charities are supported 
 by them. 
 
 The philosopher and the mathematician 
 have been equally bafiiied in their specula- 
 tions, on what is called the National Debt. 
 We have outlived the prognostications of 
 ruin divulged by the former : and the lat- 
 ter has learned, that more goes to the un- 
 derstanding of the question than mere ab- 
 stract calculation. Nothing can at first 
 sight seem more absurd than to lx)rrow a 
 loan of many millions, at the same time 
 that nearly half that sum is expended in 
 the purchase of annuities. Here comes in 
 the mathematician, find gravely calculates
 
 »1 
 
 the loss sustained by the nation by this 
 irrational expedient. We will allow to the 
 mathematician the truth of his calcula- 
 tions, with the reservation of a small par- 
 ticle, very useful on these occasions : this 
 is the particle if. If the rate of interest 
 continued as you say, and a decreased loan 
 had been purchased by annuities, and the 
 remainder supplied by the sinking fund, 
 then your calculation is just. But if, with- 
 out the continued influx of money into the 
 market, its interest would rapidly increase, 
 then the advantage to the nation in making 
 its loans in the usual manner is so great, 
 that it can afford the loss, which you justly 
 calculate upon your mode. 
 
 Mathematical calculations are very use- 
 fully applied in philosophy, politics, and 
 in the common affairs in life; but when 
 the question is mixed, something more 
 than mathematical accuracy is required. 
 It may be proved to an individual, that, iq 
 selling a reversion for a thousand pounds, 
 he has lost five hundred ; but if, by mcansi 
 of that thousand pounds, he was enabled 
 to purchase a living in the church, raise
 
 ^2 
 
 himself a post higher in the army, or 
 establish himself in a profitable line of 
 business, he will tell you, that the gain on 
 tlie money received will far more than com- 
 pensate for the loss on his reversion. 
 
 The supposed loss to the nation on its 
 mode of purchasing annuities has been 
 made the subject of abstract calculation ; 
 and its amount alarms those, who are not 
 acquainted with these subjects. I am by 
 no means inclined to give credit to any of 
 the calculations that I have seen. The 
 question requires a very difterent mode of 
 treatment; and, I hope, the nation will 
 not for a long time be under the necessity 
 of examining it more attentively. Should 
 it unfortunately be compelled to make new 
 loans for the purpose of a future war, the 
 experience of the past will guide its trans- 
 actions. For the present, it is of no small 
 importance, that so considerable a sum, 
 whether wisely or unwisely obtained, can 
 be annually employed in the purchase of 
 its annuities. 
 
 The present situation of the falsely called 
 National Debt requires an investigation
 
 25 
 
 into the propriety of a measure, which was 
 adopted some years ago without considera- 
 tion of what is due to national honour, the 
 noblest property belonging to a country. 
 We must look therefore to the contract 
 originally made on granting these an- 
 nuities : and this is specilic, not to be set 
 aside by any species of legal or political 
 sophistry. The government formerly was 
 greatly embarrassed in its loans ; but the 
 minister was informed, that there would 
 be no difficulty in raising money, provided 
 the crediter had a full assurance, that the 
 annuity would be paid without any deduc- 
 tion whatsoever. On this account a clause 
 was introduced into the act of parliament, 
 in the third year of George the First, by 
 which these annuities were granted, pur- 
 porting, that they should be " free from 
 all taxes, charges, and impositions what- 
 soever," and the said annuities *' are and 
 shall, by virtue of this act, be free and 
 clear, and freed and discharged, of and 
 from all taxes, charges, and pubhc im- 
 positions whatsoever, charged or in 
 be charged thereupon, and shall not
 
 24 
 
 be liable to any foreign attachment; afiy 
 law, custom, or usage to the contrary 
 notwithstanding.*' In another place, cap. 
 ix, the words run, " shall be at all times 
 hereafter freed and exempt from all taxes, 
 charges, and public impositions whatso- 
 ever, charged or to be charged thereupon, 
 by authority of parliament or otherwise, 
 any law or statute made or to be made to 
 the contrary notwithstanding." 
 
 In the twenty-third year of the reign of 
 George the Second, the act for raising 
 money upon annuities declares, that ** the 
 purchasers of them, their executers, suc- 
 cessers, administraters, and assigns, shall 
 have good and sure estates and interests 
 therein for ever, subject only to the pro- 
 viso and condition of redemption in this 
 act afterwards contained, and concerning 
 the same ; and that all the said annuities to 
 be purchased in this act, and the principal 
 money paid for the same, and every of 
 them, during the continuance thereof, 
 shall be free from all taxes, charges, and 
 impositions whatsoever/* 
 
 Upon the faith of this assurance loans
 
 25 
 
 were made fBr many years, till a rash and 
 intemperate minister, equally forgetful of 
 the honour of the nation, the privileges of 
 the crown, and the interest of the subject, 
 deluged the country with a coinage of pa- 
 per money, without a basis in landed or 
 other securities, and violated this act of 
 parliament by diminishing these annuities 
 under the name of a tax on income or pro- 
 perty. These annuities are therefore now 
 to be considered under two heads ; first 
 those which were granted before, secondly 
 those which were granted after this viola- 
 tion of the national faith. 
 
 As to those, which were granted before 
 that unhappy time, the case seems to be 
 clear. The debtcr has broken his faith 
 with the crediter : but this does not alter 
 the nature of the contract. He is still in 
 debt, and his honour is at stnkc until he 
 pays the whole sum, of which he has de- 
 frauded his crediter. 1 am aware that I 
 shall appear singular in the \iew I take of 
 the subject : and I am very sorry for it. 
 But I cannot alter my opinion for acts of 
 parliament, which may indeed break, but 
 
 £
 
 ciinnot change the eternal law between 
 debter and crediter. So decided is my 
 opinion upon this subject, that I should 
 rejoice in its being forthwith declared, 
 that though temporary distress compelled 
 a violation of the law, yet the nation looks 
 upon itself bound to pay the annuitants 
 every portion of what had been subtracted 
 from their annuities, with interest on the 
 sums that had been withholden. If this 
 should be done by a voluntary subscription, 
 or otherwise, who would not gladly consent 
 to pay a hundred times his proportion to 
 rescue the nation from the charge that 
 may be brought against it by the crediter ! 
 
 With respect to the annuities granted 
 after the violation of the national faith, 
 the case is different, and the situation in 
 which they stand is by no means so de- 
 finite and clear. They were understood to 
 be subjected to the tax upon income, and 
 consecpiently all these annuities may be 
 considered as liable to any similar tax ; and 
 whatever tax should be imposed, if it were 
 the fifth instead of the tenth of the annuity, 
 I do not see, that the annuitant has any
 
 27 
 
 right to complain, provided all property 
 is taxed in the same manner. But if 
 the landholders consented to a tax of four 
 shillings in the pound on their land, and 
 annuitants to a tax of two shillings in the 
 pound upon their annuities, the relation be- 
 tween the parties would be better preserved. 
 I do not see however the necessity of re- 
 quiring so much from either party. 
 
 Every thing in the world has its advan- 
 tages and disadvantages, and what is emi- 
 nently useful at one time may, under other 
 circumstances, become very detrimental. In 
 consequence of the contract made between 
 the money holders and government, that the 
 perpetual annuities granted to them on any 
 loan should be paid free from all taxes or 
 deductions of any kind, loans were made 
 with a facility unknown to preceding times. 
 Some persons may esteem this a great dis- 
 advantage, and I am not inclined at pre- 
 sent to enter into a discussion of this sub- 
 ject : but allowing that the nation was in 
 want of money at a peculiar time, it ap- 
 pears to me, that it was well obtained in 
 the first instance, and the improNcnicnt in-
 
 28 
 
 troduced by Mr. Fox placed every loan 
 upon an excellent footing. 
 
 A notion was once propagated, that it 
 would be best for the nation to raise its 
 supplies within the year : but what con- 
 nection there is between the annual mo- 
 tion of the earth round the sun, and the 
 raising of supplies, it is for the favourers 
 of this notion to demonstrate. To me no- 
 thing can appear more absurd. A farmer 
 consults his horse in the burden imposed 
 upon him, suiting it to his strength and the 
 length of his journey : and the same may 
 be said of the nation. A burden, which 
 will be extremely oppressive for one year, 
 becomes, comparatively speaking, light, 
 when diffused through a number of years. 
 The thought of Mr. Fox did not strike 
 either minister or lender at the early part 
 of our national annuities ; for, if it had, 
 the nation would have been released from 
 much of its burdens long before this time ; 
 and a half per cent, of the capital addi- 
 tional tax would have effected all that 
 might have been desired. 
 
 One per cent, of the loan raised annu-
 
 29 
 
 ally by taxes pays it off within forty years • 
 half per cent, would pay it off in about 
 fifty years. It is for the nation to adopt 
 the expedient, which is the best suited to 
 its circumstances. At one time I miffht 
 recommend half per cent., at another one, 
 at another two per cent. In either case 
 the burden is diffused through a number 
 of years, which makes the present gene- 
 ration pay the whole or greater part of 
 the debt it has contracted. The great 
 point for the existing generation is to con- 
 sider, whether the end to be obtained by 
 the loan is adequate to the burden imposed 
 upon the nation. The chief errour of the 
 house of commons has been, not so much 
 in the raising of money by loans, as by its 
 remarkable neglect of attending to its ex- 
 penditure. Had they kept their eyes fixed 
 upon this important part of their business, 
 millions upon millions would have been 
 saved to their country. 
 
 It is not by any means too late to cor- 
 rect this errour; and the difficulties, in 
 which we are at present involved, may on 
 this account be ultimately beneficial.
 
 30 
 
 There is a general spirit of enquiry dif- 
 fused throughout the country. It may 
 perhaps pierce through the veil, which 
 has covered one part of our legislature, to 
 whom this business more particularly he- 
 longs : and, if this should be the case, a 
 call may be made on other nations, which 
 have borrowed money in our market upon 
 annuities. I do not presume to enter into 
 any political disquisition into the relations^ 
 between our government and these coun- 
 tries. If the latter borrowed money upon 
 a bona fide contract, and they are now 
 in circumstances to fulfil their part of the 
 contract, they are a dishonest and dis- 
 graced people, if they permit us to pay 
 their debts. But it may be, that they ne- 
 ver intended to pay these annuities : and 
 there may have been a tacit understanding 
 to this effect. If this is the case the fault 
 is with the nation, that did not pay more 
 attention to its bargain. We must pay the 
 annuities. If on the other hand the fo- 
 reign nation is under a compact to pay the 
 annuities, the amount of those annuities, 
 >vhich we have paid, should be notified in
 
 31 
 
 every sessions of parliament, and the so- 
 vereign of the country be informed, that he 
 is so much in arrears to us, and be called 
 on to discharge his debt with all conve- 
 nient dispatch. Something of this kind 
 might be useful in transactions amongst 
 ourselves : for we hear sad complaints 
 sometimes of merciless crediters, whilst 
 the acts of merciless debters are passed 
 over in silence. For one merciless credi- 
 ter however it is probable, that there are 
 at least one hundred merciless debters. 
 
 The loans raised by government on per- 
 petual redeemable annuities have been ex- 
 pended chiefly on war; and it is lamentable 
 to think, that the years of the lives of the 
 present generation have been m(»stly spent 
 in that unnatural state. Europe pretends 
 to call itself civilised and Christian. Its 
 pretensions to the former appellation may 
 on many grounds be called in question ; 
 that it has no right to the latter is indis- 
 putable. For by a (christian is meant a 
 disciple and subject of the Prince of Peace: 
 but whoever reads hereafter the history of 
 these pretended Christians will easily dis-
 
 cern, that their actions were guided by 
 crooked systems ot* temporary policy, not 
 by the eternal law of the gospel. They 
 are now justly reaping what they had 
 sowed : and it becomes us all in lamenting 
 our sins to amend our conduct. 
 
 War has taught mankind the energies 
 of which it is capable : it would be 
 blasphemy against heaven, and the eternal 
 disgrace of human prudence, if peace 
 could not produce greater and more bene- 
 ficial operations. This nation has de- 
 veloped the exertions of combined indivi- 
 duals, who have done more than the 
 greatest despot with his enslaved multi- 
 tudes : for, if we compare the newly 
 erected bridges over the Thames ; the 
 London, the East India; the West In- 
 dia Docks ; the docks and canals ex- 
 cavated in difierent parts of the country; 
 the roads, and inclosures, and gas lights ; 
 all within the last twenty-five years; with 
 the splendid works of Napoleon (far 
 excelling every thing that was ever done, 
 or imagined by the Bourbons), the 
 mighty achievements of this wonderful
 
 33 
 
 man sink in the comparison. Much 
 more remains to he done, hefore this 
 country has arrived at its acme of perfec- 
 tion. Its metropohs is susceptihle of im- 
 provements to employ multitudes, and in- 
 crease the salubrity of its almost unrivalled 
 situation. How many thousands might 
 he employed in extending the road from 
 Milhank to the East India Docks on one 
 side of the river, and a similar road from 
 Vauxhall to Greenwich. The rent of the 
 warehouses and improved mansions on 
 each hank would amply repay the sub- 
 scribers to a loan for this object ; and the 
 best royal palace ever built is a trifling 
 erection compared with the magnificence 
 of such an extended line of buildings on 
 each side of the river. London bridge 
 
 o 
 
 cannot long remain the disgrace of the 
 metropolis, and the cause of untimely 
 death to so many of its citizens. Many 
 other improvements may be made, which 
 time will suggest ; and with them the mo- 
 rality of the nation will improve : for 
 much more will be done by destroying the 
 haunts of idleness, beggary, and lilth, 
 
 r
 
 m 
 
 and making commodious and cleanly ha- 
 bitations for the poor, than by the most 
 powerful exhortations, which eloquence 
 can suggest. 
 
 The diffusion of a burden over several 
 years is, by means of the national annuities, 
 now sufficiently understood : but the appli- 
 cation of it to the improvement of the 
 country in general remains untried. How 
 many villages are there in England, whose 
 roads are scarcely passable in bad weather, 
 and the parish goes on from year to year 
 expending a paltry sum hardly sufficient 
 to preserve them from an indictment, and 
 losing three or four times as much by the 
 injury done to their draft horses and car- 
 riages. A considerable sum well laid out at 
 once would produce an acknowledged be- 
 nefit to both poor and rich : but the tenants 
 grudge their shares, as they would be ex- 
 pending their money they say for the be- 
 nefit of others. A loan upon Mr. Fox's 
 plan makes this easy to all parties ; and, 
 if government would sanction it without 
 demanding stamps on the transaction, the 
 benefit would be great to the country.
 
 Suppose a parish to borrow a thousand 
 pounds at live per cent., and to raise fifty- 
 five pounds a year, the whole debt would 
 be paid off in the fiftieth year from the 
 time, that the debt was contracted, A li- 
 mitation might be made by act of parlia- 
 ment to the sum per pound, that should be 
 raised in this manner : but a loan of thirty 
 millions thus expended over the country 
 would at any rate be better employed than 
 in the destruction of our fellow creatures. 
 The annuitants in this case would be living 
 among us ; many of them the widows and 
 children of those, who lent their money. 
 
 My notions may appear chimerical to 
 many of my readers ; and certainly they 
 will be so to him, who has no other views 
 of man, than what the petty expedients of 
 the day, the narrow minded view of vul- 
 gar politics suggest. But man is a nobler 
 object of contemplation; and when we 
 compare this country with what it was in 
 the time of the Conqucrer, wc cannot fail 
 of seeing what he is capable of performing : 
 but there is this ditference, that the im- 
 provements made since the conquest arc
 
 S6 
 
 not a hundredth part of what may be ex- 
 pected in the next hundred years, provided 
 human industry and ingenuity are per- 
 mitted to have their full play. At any rate 
 my speculations have this useful end in 
 view : they will tend to encourage us to 
 look more into our affairs ; to consider the 
 bright side of the nation as well as the re- 
 verse ; to place some, and that not an irra- 
 tional degree of confidence in future ex- 
 ertions. They will make us regard dis- 
 honesty in its proper colours ; and, if we 
 must sustain losses, let it be any loss but 
 that of national honour. 
 
 Justice between man and man. 
 Justice between nation and nation : 
 This is the law of the Most High, 
 The decree of the Eternal. 
 The scorner may revile. 
 The wicked exalt themselves : 
 Their prosperity is but for a moment. 
 They sink into confusion 
 FOR EVER. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 C WOOD. Punter, 
 Poppia'i Court, Fleet Street.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 062406761