rffiT:
 
 COMPARATIVE VIEW 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PUBLIC %INANCES, 
 
 FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE CLOSE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 1.ATE A.BMINISTJRA.TIOM. 
 
 " Aiiit, excessit, evasit.—Hutic vtro si suifuerint comites seeuti : o not 
 bcaios ! o rtmpublicam fortunatam !" Cicer. Orat. in L. Catilinam, 
 
 Br WILLIAM INIORGAN, F. R. S. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, 
 
 fFITH A SUPPLEMENT, 
 
 CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE MANAGEMENT OF 
 
 THE FINANCES TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 LONDON, 
 
 PRIKTED, AT THE ORIENTAL PRESS, BY A. VklLSON: 
 
 FOR T. N. LONGMAN AND O. REES, PATERNOSTER-ROW, 
 
 AND J. DEBRETT, PICCA-DILLY. 
 
 180 J.
 
 Advertisement 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 1 HIS Work was published about two years 
 a,gOj Avith the view of continuing my account 
 of the finances to the close of the late ad- 
 ministration ; but being written immediately 
 after the resignation of the minister, it was 
 hardly possible that it should comprehend 
 the whole of his financial operations, and 
 therefore my chief object in the present edi- 
 tion has been, to introduce such further 
 statements as should serve to give a more 
 enlarged view of them, and to shew in its 
 full extent the distress which the}^ have en- 
 tailed upon this Country. The immense load 
 of funded debt which had been left without 
 any adequate provision, has in the course 
 of last year required an addition of more 
 than two millions to the permanent taxes of 
 the kingdom ; and the otlier burdens which 
 liave been lately accumulated appear to be 
 so much the consequences of a former ex-
 
 ( iv ) 
 
 penditure, that the term which has elapsed 
 since the late Chancellor of the Exchequer 
 retired from power, may in a great measure 
 be considered as forming a part of his ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 Being now unfortunately engaged in ano- 
 ther war, which will probably demand the 
 utmost energies of the nation, it is farthest 
 from my wishes to damp those energies, or 
 in the slightest degree to discourage that 
 proud spirit which should animate us to de- 
 fend our rights, and to maintain our dignity 
 as a great and a free people. In this, and 
 indeed in all my Publications on the same 
 subject, I have wholly abstain^l from every 
 discussion which was not immediately con- 
 nected with the public finances — nor do I 
 feel any inclination at present to dev'ate from 
 this rule. I shall therefore only observe, that 
 in our present circumstances, the aggression 
 must have been very atrocious to justify 
 another war. — Had more attention been 
 paid to the frugal management' of our 
 resources, the enemy would have been de- 
 prived of his most powerful ally, and we 
 might at this time have regarded either his 
 ambition or his hatred with equal indifference 
 and contempt. 
 
 London^ ^Mth Jime 1803.
 
 IJVTROJD UCTIOJV* 
 
 In the two or three years which immedi* 
 ately preceded this unfortunate and calami- 
 tous war, when the nation was just beginning 
 to recover from the effects of a former con- 
 test, the friends of the Minister were wont 
 to display the wisdom of his measures, by 
 comparing tlie improved state of our finances 
 at that period, with their deplorable condi- 
 tion at the commencement of his admini- 
 stration. A respite of seven or eight years 
 from the pressures and interruptions of war 
 had undoubtedly rendered the taxes more 
 productive, and considerably extended the 
 commerce of the. kingdom : but these, being 
 no more than the ordinary consequences of 
 peace, afforded a much less equivocal proof 
 of the spirit and enterprize of the people,
 
 than of any particular abilities in the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer. If the comparison, 
 however, be continued to the conclusion of 
 his administration, and the different state in 
 which he found public affairs be opposed 
 to that in which he left them, the extent of 
 his merits will be much better ascertained, 
 as well as the nature of those benefits which 
 he has conferred on the country. But the 
 friends of a fallen minister are seldom very 
 strenuous in his support ; and, consequently, 
 those of Mr. Pitt appear to manifest but 
 little disposition at present to exert their 
 energies in his behalf. The negligent defi- 
 ciencies of his friends have, however, been 
 abundantly supplied by the glowing account 
 which he has given of his own conduct ; 
 and, whatever regard may be due to his 
 other representations, there can be no doubt 
 to whose services the nation is indebted for 
 that envied state of prosperity which he 
 describes it now to enjoy. 
 
 With the view of determining in what 
 this prosperity consists, and by what means 
 it has been attained, I am induced once 
 
 7
 
 more to enter upon the subject of our 
 finances; esteeming it also not an improper 
 time to conclude the statements, which on 
 different occasions I have submitted to the 
 Pubhc, with the close of an administration 
 whose extravagance it has been their chief 
 object to reprobate. Being now advanced 
 into the eighth campaign of the war, it will 
 be readily perceived, that the statements 
 which I published in the third and fourth 
 campaigns, convey but an imperfect idea of 
 our increasing expences, or of the enormity 
 of the debt which they have accumulated. 
 It is indeed but a joyless task, to be for ever 
 engaged either in tracing the progress of 
 profusion, or in demonstrating the ruin in 
 which it must terminate. With the gloomy 
 prospect now before us, a further persever- 
 ance in these pursuits may perhaps be consi- 
 dered as a forlorn and desperate employment, 
 especially when combined with the hope of 
 awakening this country to a sense of its 
 danger; — a country which, while it bears 
 without a murmur the increasing pressure 
 of taxes and distress, can in the most mo-
 
 Inentous period behold with indifference 
 one set of men succeeding to another in the 
 management of its affairs, and adopting the 
 same destructive system, which has hitherto 
 been softened by no misfortune, nor checked 
 in its career of extravagance by the least re- 
 gard to pubUc economy. I feel and ac- 
 knowledge the force of these sentiments, 
 and should probably have been influenced 
 by them to desist from the following work, 
 had I not been anxious to complete the 
 financial history of an administration which, 
 in spite of the present apathy, will long be 
 remembered in the debts, the taxes, and the 
 (Dalamity which it has entailed on this natio«.
 
 COMPARATIVE VIEW", 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 On the Additions which have been annu- 
 ally made to the Public Debt during 
 the late Admlnislration. 
 
 W^HEN Mr. Pitt commenced his admini- 
 stration, in December 1 783, the kingdom had 
 just emerged from a war the most expensive, 
 and rendered particularly ruinous to our 
 commerce by having been directed against 
 those colonies which w^ere a principal sup- 
 port of it, The good fortune of the Mini-
 
 ster, therefore, introduced him into office at 
 a period peculiarly favourable to his interest. 
 The return of peace, by opening those chan- 
 nels of trade which had been obstructed by 
 the war, and by preventing that continued 
 addition of taxes which it required, could 
 not fail in some degree to revive public 
 credit, and so far to give the appearance of 
 wisdom to the measures of his administra- 
 tion. In proportion also as these necessary 
 consequences of peace were suffered to ope- 
 rate, the revenue became more productive ; 
 and the nation, forgetting the burdens im- 
 posed upon them by the late war, beheld, in 
 the increasing amount of the taxes, only a 
 proof of their own prosperity, and of the 
 abilities of Mr. Pitt : nor is it improbable, 
 had the public tranquillity been allowed still 
 to remain undisturbed, that these opinions 
 would have acquired such additional strength 
 as to establish, beyond dispute, the claim of 
 the Minister to the unprecedented, though 
 negative, merit of having held his office, 
 during seventeen years, without opposing
 
 any new restraints to the trade and manu- 
 factures of the country. But, unhappily, his 
 administration has been distinguished by no 
 such forbearance. It has been rendered 
 memorable by distinctions to which the in- 
 terests of commerce and property will ap- 
 pear to have been very little indebted, when 
 we have learned, from the following state- 
 ments, what inroads it has made into the 
 wealth and resources of the kingdom :
 
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 13 
 
 From these statements (which hardly 
 need a comment) the predecessors of Mr, 
 Pitt, by a system of progressive extrava- 
 gance, appear, during the course of a cen- 
 tury, to have accumulated a debt of two 
 hundred and thirty-two millions, w^hich 
 their more prodigal successor, in seventeen 
 years, has increased to more than five hun- 
 dred millions. Compared, therefore, with 
 those of the late minister, how weak and 
 contemptible are all former exertions ! The 
 mass which in other hands required one 
 hundred years for its formation, has, under 
 his management, been doubled in one-twen- 
 tieth part of the time ; and the nation, long 
 {iccustomed to regard the approach of the 
 debt to one hundred millions as an approach 
 to certain bankruptcy and ruin, have been 
 led, by the experience of his administration, 
 to believe that public credit is almost as 
 boundless as ministerial profusion. Besides 
 the addition of three hundred millions to the 
 funded debt of the kingdom within the last 
 eight years, a further sum of six millions 
 sterling has been annually raised from the
 
 14 
 
 year 1 798, by triple assessments, voluntary 
 contributions, income-tax, convoy-duty, and 
 other measures of finance, equally new and 
 extraordinary. Had these enormous sums 
 been procured, like the rest of the supplies, 
 by the usual method of a loan, it would have 
 appeared that the expenditure of the present 
 war had already added above three hundred 
 and fifty millions to the capital of the Public 
 Debt, or one hundred and Jtwenty millions 
 more than all the wars that have desolated 
 the country since the Revolution. 
 
 The vciijcumstance of having provided for 
 -the discharge of this debt, by the imposition 
 •of heavy taxes in addition to those which 
 are necessary for paying the annual interest, 
 does not lessen the enormity of the expendi- 
 ture, any more than the present distress is 
 alleviated by the forlorn hope of being re- 
 lieved from the pressure of those taxes at the 
 end of forty years, by the uninterrupted 
 operations of the Sinking Fund. Were the 
 present war to be terminated immediately— 
 were it certain that future ministers would 
 be as earnest in maintaining the tranquillity 
 2
 
 'IS 
 
 of the nation as former ones seem to have 
 been fond of disturbing it, the Public might 
 perhaps look forward to the end of eight or 
 ten years to be hbe rated from the odious re- 
 quisitions of the income-tax; and to the 
 middle of the present century to be reUeved 
 from those other burdens v*iiich have been 
 heaped upon them since the commencement 
 of this war. But the most sanguine ad- 
 mirers of the late INIinister can derive very 
 little consolation from a prospect so discou- 
 raging, or bestow^ much praise on the wis- 
 dom and energy of measures which require 
 so many years to repair the injuries that 
 have been sustained by them. It cannot in- 
 deed be denied, that the revenue has been 
 increased, during Mr. Pitt's administration, 
 from ten to twenty-two millions ; and had 
 this increase proceeded from the improved 
 state of the country, by cultivating the arts 
 of peace and adopting a stricter economy in 
 the management of the public finances, his 
 name w^ould w^ell have deserved to be in- 
 scribed on that pillar which he had vainly 
 hoped to have erected to public credit : but
 
 16 
 
 "when the preceding accounts are considered^ 
 and it is seen that this increased revenue is 
 the effect of accumulating one tax upon 
 another, that it has been rendered necessary 
 to provide for an expenditure, great and 
 ruinous beyond all example, it must, I think, 
 be acknowledged that his deserts are of a 
 very different kind; and, if any inscription 
 be made to his memory, that it v^ill more 
 probably be found on the ruins of public 
 credit.
 
 17 
 
 SECTION 11. 
 
 On the comparatlue Annual Expenditure 
 of the present and the two preceding; 
 Wars. 
 
 -Havixg now given a general view of the 
 additions which have been made to the 
 pubUc debt by the late Administration, it is 
 necessary, in order to form a just idea of its 
 enormity, to compare the expenditure in its 
 progress during the several years of the two 
 preceding wars, with the rapid strides which 
 it has taken during the corresponding years 
 of the present war. 
 
 In my former publications, I have conti- 
 nued this account to the end of the fointh 
 year in each of those wars. As the French 
 and American war terminated at the end 
 of the fifth, this comparative view can 
 only be extended to another year; in which, 
 liowever, the same regard will appear to 
 have been paid to votes and estimates as in 
 all the preceding years of this war. 
 
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 li 
 
 poso d 
 
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 in 
 
 
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 111 
 
 w vO <S 
 
 ON 
 
 
 "S § 
 
 in CO ^ 
 
 od 
 
 
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 S'^ 
 
 ^rmy, 
 sTavy, 
 
 
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 o o 
 o © 
 
 cog 
 
 iJ "e
 
 10 
 
 
 Oh 
 O 
 
 < « 
 
 2i 5: 
 
 
 
 •"§ 8 
 
 ^ OS 
 
 ro o 
 
 oo « 
 
 DA. so 
 
 W-i 
 
 vO 
 
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 •I 
 
 -t 
 
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 00 
 
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 op N 
 
 *t ly-i 
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 fO o" 
 
 o »>^ 
 
 r^ u^ 
 
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 cvi o 
 
 fOOO 
 
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 « VO 
 
 
 •> •> 
 
 - o 
 
 CS w 
 
 VO ri. 
 
 ro t^ 
 
 ^ *C 
 
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 ci t^ 
 
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 VO NO 
 
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 ^ 'S- g. 
 
 .S O vo*" 
 
 u 
 
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 On On 
 
 § 
 
 M > 
 
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 20 
 
 It appears from these statements, that the 
 expences of the first five years of the war of 
 1755, which were doubled during the same 
 term in the French and American war, have 
 been tripled during the hke period in the 
 present war; and that this alarming increase 
 of pubUc profusion is rendered still more 
 formidable by the very luxuriant growth of 
 those abuses which it engenders, whose pro- 
 gress will probably be retarded by no other 
 impediment than the destruction of the re- 
 sources by which the whole is supported. 
 As the conclusion of the French and Ame- 
 rican war in 1783 prevents the comparison 
 from being continued beyond the year 179;, 
 I shall content myself with giving an ac^ 
 count of the expenditure without a contrast 
 or an observation ; being satisfied that the 
 mere recital of this expenditure must of 
 itself be sufficient to sicken every friend to 
 public economy and virtue.
 
 21 
 
 E.vpendititrc in 1798. 
 
 Army, voted . - £. 8,301,422 
 
 Extraordinaries - - 4,374,060* 
 
 . 12,675,482 
 
 Navy, voted - - 13,449,389 
 
 Dedu6l, a redudion - - 902,455 1 
 
 12,546,934 
 
 Ordnance, voted - - 1,086,427 
 
 Extra, provided for in 1799 & 1800 141,896 
 
 1,228,323 
 
 ;^. 26,450,739 
 
 1799' 
 Army, voted - ^ /. 9,309,754 
 
 Extraordinaries - - 5>437»i^6j 
 
 ^— — 14,746,940 
 
 Carried over - £. 14,746,940 
 
 * Vote of credit - - ^ - . ;^. 3,200,00:5 
 
 Subsidy to the Queen of Portugal - - 150,000 
 
 Part of one million voted for extraordinary exigencies - 538, 103 
 
 Secret Services _ - _ _ . 120,043 
 
 4,408,205 
 * In hand for the services of 1799 - 34.M5 
 
 4.374.0C0 
 
 + Navy debt on the 31st of December 1797 - - 6,4^58,489 
 
 Ditto, ditto 1798 - 5.556,034 
 
 Reduced - go2,4.-;,5 
 
 ■jf. Vote ef credit . _ . - - 2,500,000 
 
 Expended over and above the vote of credit - - 34i407 
 
 Part of three millions voted for extraordinary exigencies - 1,914,000 
 
 Subsidy to the Emperor of Rusbia ... 825,000 
 
 gecret services - - - . . 163,779 
 
 5.437,186
 
 22 
 
 XT J Brought over - /. 14,746,940 
 
 Navy, voted - . ^.13,654,023 ^ 
 
 Extraordinaries - _ 436, 254* 
 
 14*090,277 
 
 Ordnance, voted - - 1,324,414 
 
 Extra, provided for in 1800 - 184,325 
 
 ,508,73^ 
 
 C- 30,345.95^ 
 1800. 
 Army, voted - . ;^. 8,850,079 
 
 Extraordinaries ... 7,162,183! 
 
 ■ 16,012,26^ 
 
 Navy, voted - _ 13,619,080 
 
 Extraordinaries - - 2,713,598 + 
 
 Ordnance, voted - - 1,477,961 
 
 Extraordinaries _ - 162 000 
 
 [6,332,678 
 
 — i>639,96i 
 I' 33»984,9or 
 
 * Navy debt on the 31st of December 1799 - - / c qqo oga 
 
 Difference - 436,254 
 
 f Vote of credit - - - - _ sToTooo 
 
 Ditto, to enable his Majesty to fulfil his engagements, &c. i!4oo'ooo 
 Secret services - . . _ _ icn'ooo 
 
 Subsidy to the Elector of Bavaria - . ;^. 566,689 
 Emperor of Germany - 2,000,000 
 
 Emperor of Russia - - 54.5.'494 
 
 " • 3. "2, 183 
 
 7,162,183 
 
 * Navy debt on the 31st of December 1800 - - g 705 886 
 
 ■^'"°' <^'"o 1799 - - s'gge'aSS 
 
 Difference - 2,713,598 
 
 J This part of the ordnance debt is never ascertained in the first year 
 after it has been incurred, and therefore the mean has been taken of the 
 Wtiaordinai}' expenditure in the two precediag years.
 
 23 
 
 The expenditure in the year 1801, were 
 it necessary, could not possibly be ascer- 
 tained at present. It is sufficient to observe, 
 that one of the last acts of Mr. Pitt's admi- 
 nistration was to lay before Parliament the 
 probable amount of this expenditure ; 
 which, even according to his estimates, ex- 
 ceeded twenty-nine millions and a half for 
 the Army, Navy, and Ordnance. What the 
 real amount will be, may, however, without 
 much inaccuracy, be inferred from compar- 
 ing the sums expended with the sums 
 which had been voted in the preceding 
 year«.
 
 24 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 Comparative View of the Sums which 
 have been funded, and of the Taxes 
 which have been imposed towards pay- 
 ing the Interest on tliose Sums, during 
 the present and the two preceding Wars. 
 
 The profiisioh in the public expenditure is 
 not the only evil which has distinguished 
 the present war. The same disregard to 
 economy seems to have pervaded every 
 other operation of finance. The Navy debt 
 has been funded * and the loans have been 
 contracted in such a manner f, that it may 
 bo truly said, " that the national treasure 
 has not been expended with greater extra- 
 vagance than it has been borrowed.'' From 
 the first moment in which the funding system 
 has been adopted, Ministers have in general 
 manifested very little anxiety about the 
 method in which they have increased or 
 
 * See my Appeal, Sec, Sect. II. i Ibid.
 
 25 
 
 perpetuated the public debts. A needless 
 capital has always been created ; so that 
 every new war has entailed upon the coun- 
 try an additional debt of many millions, for 
 which it never received an equivalent. 
 The following comparison between the 
 amounts of the sums actually received, and 
 of the capital funded, in the present and the 
 two preceding wars, will serve to give 
 some idea of the progress of this evil.
 
 VD T' 
 
 o^ o 
 
 0-, Ol 
 vc o 
 
 ;^ 
 
 c- -^ 
 
 >-o o 
 
 &1 o 
 
 ^o o^ 
 
 ':f o 
 
 8§ 
 
 O O 1 o o 
 
 CO O "-0 
 o^w 1 o_ Ci^ 
 
 q^ CO o q^ 
 ^O ef t^ CO 
 
 II 
 
 O^CJ_ 
 
 §§ 
 
 00 cB 
 
 8 8o? 
 
 O O to 
 
 8 S^2 
 
 loKco 
 
 t^ tS 
 
 
 w 
 
 tn a 
 
 
 i2 o 
 
 - O 
 
 2 2 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 
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 S o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t5 
 
 u 
 
 k^ 
 
 '-' o 
 
 i,l 
 
 H-S" 
 
 H.H, 
 
 
 fc 
 
 CO 
 
 ^^ 
 
 co^2 
 
 «^2 
 
 -*^N? 
 
 COTt< 
 
 CO-:J-!^ 
 
 O CO 
 
 00 o 
 
 00 o 
 CO o_ 
 CO o" 
 
 ^r' O 
 
 o^o 
 
 ocoo" 
 
 .P.S 
 
 S Q 
 
 c o 
 
 s;5 
 
 a, CO 
 
 eo«v^ 
 
 
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 g.1 
 
 ill 
 
 cc^ 
 
 eo«^ 
 
 "^SjS! 
 
 ■'^B
 
 27 
 
 In all the wars which have so often inter- 
 rupted the tranquillity of the kingdom for 
 the last centurj, the expences have conti- 
 nued to increase so rapidly, that the extra- 
 vagance of one set of Ministers has invari- 
 ably been forgotten in the greater extrava- 
 gance of those that succeeded. But it is not 
 probable that the exertions of the late 
 Minister will be forgotten in this manner, 
 or that the resources of the Country will 
 admit of superior energies in his successor. 
 Great, however, as the expenditure has lately 
 been, it is not more extraordinary than the 
 fictitious capital which it has added to the 
 public debt. In the preceding accounts, this 
 capital, or, in other words, the dif[erence 
 between the stock created and money bor- 
 rowed, which had grown from nine millions 
 and a half in the seven years war to twenty- 
 nine millions in that which followed, appears 
 in the present war to have amounted to one 
 hundred and seven millions ; so that on the 
 supposition of those who are sanguine in 
 their expectations of returning credit, the 
 nation, in the event of stocks rising to their
 
 28 
 
 State before the war, will, in redeeming this 
 debt, have about one hundred millions to 
 pay over and above the sums which have 
 been actually received on account of it. 
 But such a total disre§"ard to economy in 
 borrowing seems to imply a very different 
 expectation on the part of those who lately 
 conducted the public loans, and this perhaps 
 is the only apology which can be offered for 
 their prodigality. 
 
 In proportion as this destructive system 
 of funding has been extended, public credit 
 has necessarily diminished, and money in 
 consequence has been raised for the public 
 senice on more exorbitant terms. The an- 
 nual addition, therefore, to the taxes which 
 have been imposed towards paying the in- 
 terest, must have kept pace with the growth 
 of the capital. The one, indeed, is so ob- 
 vious an effect of the other, as hardly to re- 
 quire explanation. In order, however, to 
 remove every doubt, and, if possible, to give 
 a more clear idea of this subject, I shall 
 subjoin the following statement ;
 
 29 
 
 Comparative View of the Taxes which 
 have been imposed for paying the Inte- 
 rest and Management of the Loans in 
 the present and the two preceding 
 JFars. 
 
 Year, 
 
 Amount of taxes 
 
 Year. 
 
 Amountoftaxes 
 
 
 Amountoftaxes 
 
 
 imposed. 
 
 
 imposed. 
 
 
 imposed. 
 
 1756 
 
 61,125 
 
 1776 
 
 64,960 
 
 I7Q3 
 
 190,312 
 
 '757 
 
 125,707 
 
 1777 
 
 11^,164. 
 
 1794 
 
 606,878 
 
 1758 
 
 175,480 
 
 1778 
 
 336,000 
 480,054 
 
 1795 
 
 958,481 
 
 1759 
 
 232,069 
 
 1779 
 
 1796 
 
 1,425,952 
 
 1760 
 
 334,803 
 
 1780 
 
 707,308 
 
 1797 
 
 12,565,302 
 
 I76I 
 
 496,801 
 
 1781 
 
 671,812 
 
 *i798 
 
 443,701 
 
 1762 
 
 488,440 
 
 1782 
 
 805,809 
 
 1799 
 1800 
 
 251,190 
 
 239,032 
 
 1,364,652 
 
 
 
 
 
 1801 
 
 
 1,914,425 
 
 3*244,107 
 
 8,045,500+ 
 
 * In this and the following years the proportionate part of the faxes to 
 be paid by Ireland is not included. 
 
 + The greater part of the interest on the loans in this and the two fol- 
 lowing years is to be paid out of the income-tax, which has not been in- 
 cluded in these accounts. 
 
 + No taxes have been imposed for ihe particular purpose of paying the 
 interest and management of the Imperial loans, and therefore these must 
 cither be provided for by new taxes, or made chargeable on that never- 
 failing resource, the consolidated fund. The interest and management on 
 these loans amounts to ;C. 461,042, which being added to £'.8,045,500, 
 will make the whole of the taxes necessary for paying the interest and ma- 
 nagement of the debt incurred in the present war to exceed 8^ millions, 
 exclusive of the income-tax !
 
 30 
 
 Although the permanent taxes imposed in 
 this war, exclusive of those appropriated for 
 the Sinking Fund, are nearly three times as 
 much as those of the American, and more 
 thvin four times as much as those of the 
 seven years war; yet does this excess, great 
 and enormous as it is, fall considerably be- 
 low the truth. The stock in the Three per 
 Cents, which has been funded on the credit 
 of the income-tax, exceeds fifty-six millions. 
 Were the interest on this, like the rest of 
 the debt, to be rendered perpetual, it would 
 require additional taxes to the amount of 
 ^ 1,71 8,400 ; and the war, in this case, will 
 have entailed upon the Country a perpetual 
 burthen of more than ten milhons a year. 
 If, however, the income-tax be continued 
 till the debt is redeemed for which it is 
 pledged, as well as the taxes which have 
 been raised for the Sinking Fund, the nation 
 in that case will have been loaded by the 
 war, supposing it even to terminate imme- 
 diately, with more than seventeen millions 
 and a half of taxes for six years, and with 
 twelve millions and a half for a further term
 
 31 
 
 of about thirty-five years. On either hypo- 
 thesis the burden is equally tremendous, and 
 it will indeed be well if we are not crushed 
 at last by the weight of it.
 
 32 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 On the different Expedients which have 
 heen employed for raising the Supplies, 
 and the ineffectual Provisions which 
 have heen made for paying the Interest 
 of the Debt incurred in the present 
 War. 
 
 In the last year of the American war, the 
 system of funding and taxation was sup- 
 posed to have been so nearly exhausted, 
 that the nation was terrified into peace by 
 the apprehension of it. The Three per 
 Cents, had sunk considerably below sixty ; 
 and the taxes which had been imposed for 
 paying the interest of the debt already in- 
 curred by the war;, had fallen short of their 
 estimated produce by .^48(3,710 *. At that 
 period, although the whole annual charge 
 of the funded debt amounted only to seven 
 millions and a half, the kingdom was be- 
 
 * See Dr. Price's State of the Public Debts in Janusry 1783, page 7.
 
 33 
 
 lieved to have readied the utmost limit of 
 its resources, because the revenue had proved 
 insufficient bj one-fifteenth part to provide 
 for the payment of it. How then has it 
 come to pass, that this annual charge hath 
 since been swollen to three times the 
 amount, and that taxes have been created in 
 proportion, without awakening the appre- 
 hension which was so much alive on former 
 occasions to the dangers and difficulties of 
 our situation ? It cannot be contended, that 
 all this is owing to the flourishing state of 
 our commerce, admitting even the most ex- 
 travagant computations in regard to the 
 increase of our exports and imports, since 
 the former period of our despondency; — nor 
 to the improved state of public credit, for 
 the funds have been, during this War, lower 
 than they were ever known to be in the 
 most disastrous times ; — nor, again, to the 
 ovei'flowing opulence of the Country, for 
 the increase of the poor-rates lias cTcn ex- 
 ceeded that of the taxes. On tlie contrary, 
 this extraordinary change in our circum- 
 stances appears to have been produced by
 
 34 
 
 ^ciry different causes, into the full discussion 
 of which it would be foreign to my purpose 
 to enter; for this would be to give a history 
 of the war, and of all the alarms and delusions 
 by which if has been continued. The Mi- 
 nister's operations of finance, however, have 
 contributed their share to it, and so far the 
 discussion becomes a fit subject for the pre- 
 sent work. 
 
 During the first two or three years of a 
 war, the public loans have commonly been 
 raised on terms comparatively reasonable, 
 which, however, have grown more and more 
 exorbitant in proportion as hostilities have 
 been prolonged. The commencement of the 
 present war forms no exception to this ge- 
 neral rule ; the loans, during the first four 
 years, having been made, like those in the 
 American war, at an advanced interest of only 
 ten shillings per cent. But after that period, 
 the Minister, alarmed at the tremendous 
 accumulation of the debt, and the sudden 
 depression of public credit, all at once 
 departs from the track which had been
 
 trodden by himself and his predecessors, 
 and has recourse to the hopes smd fears of 
 the people for raising the supplies of the 
 fifth year. By the new expedients, of hint- 
 ing at a forced loan, of attaching loyalty to 
 a readiness in subscribing, and of satiating 
 the avarice of the self-interested*, above 
 eighteen millions wtre raised for the public 
 service in less than three days. But not- 
 withstanding these demonstrations of wealth 
 and loyalty, public credit continued to 
 sicken : within two months the Bank of 
 England stopped payment, and every thing 
 portended immediate bankruptcy and ruin. 
 In the sixth year, therefore, the Minister 
 found it necessary to recruit the expiring 
 energies of the funding system by the aid of 
 new auxiliaries. When he had added above 
 one hundred and seventy millions to a capi- 
 tal which had already exceeded two hundred 
 and thirty millions, he now begins with pro- 
 viding for the public exigencies by raising 
 the greater part of the supplies within the 
 year. For this purpose, the assessed taxes 
 
 * Sue niy Ai>p<»l, page ^^.
 
 36 
 
 are tripled ; and, instead of forced loans, the 
 several millions unprovided were to be ob- 
 tained by the more gentle requisition of 
 voluntary contributions. But these experi- 
 ments did not succeed so well as to justify 
 the repetition of them. Happily, however, 
 by the assistance of his sapient counsellors 
 at the JMansion-house, the Minister discover- 
 ed a new and solid system of finance, which 
 was not only to render funding unnecessary, 
 but to enable the nation to persevere for a 
 centiu'y iri the present contest ; and this 
 solid system was founded on the humane 
 and equitable principles of the income-tax, 
 so congenial with the dignified feelings of 
 liberty and independence ! In this measure, 
 it is curious to observe the progress of mini- 
 sterial boldness. When Mr. Pitt wrote to 
 the Bank-Directors, in December l 796, on 
 the subject of the loyalty-loan, he insinuates, 
 ^* that it is in contemplation to propose to 
 parliament, that all persons possessed of a 
 pertain inc^ome should be required to lend a 
 certain proportion of it, say one-fourth, to 
 {)e repaid at the period and on the ternis
 
 37 
 
 stated in the inclosed memorandum." In 
 less than two years, those persons are no 
 longer required to lend for a definite, but to 
 pay a portion of their income for an inde- 
 finite term ; and the requisition is aggravated 
 in the following year, by being prolonged 
 to a period still more distant, towards satis- 
 fying the new demands of the public ex- 
 j^enditure. But no sooner had the tax been 
 encumbered with a debt of fifty-six millions 
 in the Three per Cents, and of three mil- 
 lions sterling to the Bank of England, than 
 this very system, which had been lately re- 
 presented to be so soUd and efficient, was 
 found incapable of further exertions, and in 
 consequence it has been totally abandoned 
 in the present year. For \\ant of other 
 expedients, therefore, the Minister, who in 
 1 798 had so strongly insisted on the danger 
 and impracticability of proceeding any fur- 
 ther in funding the public debt, provides for 
 the expenditure of 1801 by funding a larger 
 sum than had ever been raised at one and 
 the same time in any vear even of his own 
 administration.
 
 It is very possible, that the forced loans, 
 requisitions, voluntary contributions, and 
 the other extraordinary methods which have 
 been adopted in the three preceding years 
 for raising the supplies, may have relieved 
 the drooping credit of the funds, and enabled 
 the Minister to load them with additional 
 millions. But these have not been the only, 
 or indeed the principal causes of such a 
 change in the circumstances of the country. 
 This has in fact arisen from the very evils 
 by which those causes themselves were pro- 
 duced. That enormity of the expenditure 
 which, by depressing public credit, first drove 
 the Minister to his new expedients, produced 
 at length the necessitty of adopting the more 
 violent and dangerous one, of suspending the 
 payment of specie at the Bank of England. — • 
 By this measure, so ruinous in its first aspect 
 as to strike even the authors of it with dis- 
 may, has the funding system acquired fresh 
 vigour, and the apparent wealth of the na- 
 tion been magnified in a most uncommon 
 degree. Without any apprehension from the 
 demands of its creditors^ the Bank is now
 
 39 
 
 confined to no limits in the emission of its 
 paper; — a new mine has been laid open, 
 where millions may be coined in a few 
 hours, and the loans which lately were 
 deemed impracticable, may be raised with 
 as little difficulty as they have been voted. 
 Strange indeed that the breach of public 
 faith should ever have had the effect of in- 
 creasing public confidence ! and that a mea- 
 sure which boded nothing but immediate 
 ruin to all operations of finance, should have 
 furnished new means for extending the pro- 
 gress of extravagance ! 
 
 It now remains no longer a matter of 
 concern or anxiety with the Loan-monger, 
 that he is unable to fulfil his engagements. 
 If he can pay two or three instalments of 
 his subscription, the Bank, on the credit of 
 these, advances the greater part of the re- 
 mainder; and thus, by preventing the ne- 
 cessity of an immediate sale of the whole, 
 keeps up the price of the new stock, and 
 invariably insures a profit to the original 
 subscriber. This reliance on the support of
 
 40 
 
 bank-paper encourages every moneyless ad- 
 venturer, and, of course, increases the num- 
 ber of competitors for a share in the pubHc 
 spoils. But the facility of borrowing must 
 always be in proportion to the eagerness 
 ■with which the money is lent ; and there- 
 fore it is probable, that the pernicious sys- 
 tem of funding will cease only with the 
 fictitious credit by which it has been re- 
 vived. 
 
 As the war has had the singular effect of 
 producing an unrestrained extension of pa- 
 per-credit, and, in consequence, of removing 
 all former impediments to the increase of 
 the national debt, so has it also, by divert- 
 ing the property and commerce of the king- 
 dom from their usual channels into those of 
 speculation in the public funds, had an equal 
 effect in preventing the depression to wdiich 
 those funds would otherw^ise have been re- 
 duced. By rendering the division of pro- 
 perty more unequal, it has also increased 
 the number of great capitalists ; and by the 
 inordinate profusion in the expenditure, it
 
 41 
 
 has produced the necessity of giving a higher 
 interest on public, than is allowed to be 
 ta'.ja on private security, and by this means 
 it has multiplied the Stockholders beyond 
 all example. It has likewise been the 
 source from which other causes have arisen, 
 all contributing to the same effect, of sus- 
 taining the nominal value of the funds, and, 
 by this means, of giving a delusive appear- 
 ance of prosperity to the Country, while, in 
 fact, they are only proofs of the distress and 
 danger to which it is exposed. But it is 
 contrary to my purpose to enter further into 
 these investigations. 
 
 The extraordinary auxiliaries which the 
 late Minister has pressed into his service, 
 and the still more extraordinary assistance 
 which he has derived from the public cala- 
 mity in augmenting the capital of the debt, 
 are not more injurious than the measures 
 which he has adopted for paying the annual 
 interest of it. The taxes imposed on some 
 articles during the American war, particu- 
 larly on tea and spirits, bore so high a pro-
 
 42 
 
 portion to their intrinsic value, that, when 
 peace afforded a more convenient opportu- 
 nity for smuggling, it became necessary to 
 reduce those taxes, as the only means of pre- 
 venting the revenue from being ruined by 
 this illicit commerce. The measure was 
 attended with success, and the Minister 
 assumed to himself the merit of it. Never- 
 theless, in direct opposition to his former 
 conduct, and to the evidence of his own ex- 
 perience, he selects those very articles in the 
 present war as the chief objects of taxation, 
 and loads them even with heavier duties than 
 had ever been heaped upon them by any of 
 his predecessors. 
 
 In 1793 the additional duties imposed on spirits 
 
 amounted to - - ~ £> §5,500 
 
 1794 a second addition was made of - 426,000 
 1 7^5 a third addition was made on 
 
 spirits of - - £' 260,000 
 
 also an addition to the duties on 
 
 tea of - - 229,000 
 
 . — 489,000 
 
 1797 a fourth addition was made to 
 
 the duties on spirits of - 260,000 
 and a second addition to the 
 .; . duties on tea of - - 290,000 
 
 ■ 550,000 
 
 Carried over - £-^7550,500
 
 43 
 
 Brought over - £. 1,550,500 
 
 4798 a fifth addition was made on 
 
 spirits of - - - 87,500 
 and a third addition on tea of 144,000 
 
 231,500 
 
 1800 a sixth adcUtion was made on 
 
 spirits of - - 162,000 
 
 and a fouriii addition on tea of 1 1 1,000 
 
 273,000 
 
 1801 a fifth addition was made on tea, esti- 
 
 mated to produce _ _ - 300,000 
 
 Whole additional duties on tea and spirits of ;£. 2,355,000 
 
 It has been observed in a Treasury Pam- 
 phlet, that the additional duties imposed on 
 these articles in the last war, (though in fact 
 they could not have been estimated to pro- 
 duce half a million,) had the effect of dimi- 
 nishing the produce of the revenue. In the 
 present war, the additional duties on the very 
 same articles amount to little less than two 
 millions and a half. If, therefore, in the for- 
 mer instance, they afforded such encourage- 
 ment to smuggling, on the return of peace, 
 as to make it necessary to repeal them ; is it 
 probable that they should now bear to be 
 increased five times as much without produ- 
 cing the same evil, and in consequence a nc-
 
 4 t 
 
 cessity for applj iiig the same remedy to de- 
 stroy it ? 
 
 But these are tar from being the only ex- 
 eeptionable arlieles on whieh taxes have been 
 laid during tlie present war. In the year 
 i;86, the duties on Portugdl wines were 
 redueed one-third, and the importation, in 
 consequenee of having been more than 
 doubled, not only eompensated for the redue- 
 tion of the duties, but even raised their pro- 
 duee from 025,oool. a-year to So l, coo 1. — 
 A eireumstanee so favourable to the revenue 
 ought to have secured these wines against 
 any new imposition. But a Minister, accus- 
 tomed to temporary expedients, is influenced 
 merely by the necessities of the moment; 
 and therefore, although it had been proved 
 "by experience that in times of peace the 
 duties were too high when only one-third 
 above their amount at the beginning of the 
 war, yet have they lately been more than 
 doubled, so that the produce of the additional 
 charge has been estimated at 1,1 00,000 1. a- 
 year ; the greater part of which may pro-
 
 45 
 
 bably be collected as long as the war re- 
 quires the whole navy of England to be em- 
 ployed on the public service. 
 
 This is also true of the very heavy duties 
 which have lately been laid on tobacco : — 
 an article of so little value, when compared 
 even with the former taxes imposed upon it, 
 as to afford the smuggler ample encourage- 
 ment to defraud the revenue, without the 
 addition of new taxes to increase the profits 
 of his trade. The stamp duty on sea assur- 
 ances is another of those temporary taxes 
 which depends on the continuance of the 
 war ; for, when the obstructions to our com- 
 merce are removed by the return of peace, 
 the number of assurances will necessarily be 
 diminished, and the produce of the tax upon 
 them will of course be reduced in the same 
 proportion. But there is no article of com- 
 merce to which the Minister has so often and 
 liberally recurred as to sugar. By imposing 
 new taxes, and by lessening the drawbacks 
 on exportation, he has, at different times, 
 charged it with the additional payment of 
 8
 
 46 
 
 inore than 880,000 1. a-year. When the 
 foreign trade, however, shall be restored by 
 peace to its former channels, and other na*^ 
 tions shall become our competitors, it is ob- 
 vious, that in order to rival them in selling 
 the produce of our East and Yv^est India 
 settlements, it will be necessary to repeal all 
 those excessive duties with which they have 
 been loaded during the present w^ar. On 
 this account the duties lately imposed on 
 sugar, coffee, pepper, &c. cannot possibly be 
 regarded as a permanent source of revenue, 
 but, like those other duties I have already 
 enumerated, must in a great measure cease 
 with the war which produced them, and 
 leave a deficiency of more than four mil- 
 lions* to be supplied by the imposition of 
 new taxes. Nay this deficiency even at pre- 
 
 Tea and spirits, see page 43 - - - _ ;C' 2,355,000 
 
 Portugal wines --.-..- g-g,6o6 
 
 Tobacco .-,-- . . - 198,000 
 
 Sea policies .._-. _ ,. 130,500 
 
 Sugar and coffee . _ . - . . . gi-,coo 
 Pepper : - ' - - - - - £. 130,300 
 Ditto taken in 1801 at ----- 119,000 
 
 • ■ 251,300 
 
 ;^. 4,831,400
 
 47 
 
 sent exceeds half a million * ; a sum much 
 more than sulficicnt in the American war 
 to excite the alarms of parliament -f-, and (if 
 a treasury writer be correct) to sink the na- 
 tion into a state of despondency J. Happy 
 had it been for the Country, if it had mani- 
 fested some portion at least of this anxiety 
 in the present war. We should not then 
 perhaps have to lament the addition of so 
 many hundred millions to the capital of the 
 public debt, nor to view with dread the pro- 
 spect of those severe difficulties which we 
 have yet to encounter in making a perma- 
 nent provision for the interest of it. 
 
 * Accordrng to the accounts laid before Parliament in February last; 
 the annual charge of the debt incurred before Jan. 1801 was C- 8,582,429 
 The produce of the taxes imposed towards providing for this 
 
 charge was ,-.. . - -. 8,064,1,57 
 
 Deficiency - - ^f. 518,272 
 + Sec the Report of the Committee of Financcin 1782, in which the 
 annual deficiency of the taxes imposed since the year 1776 is stated, not 
 without some emotion, to amount to ,C- 395,931 ! 
 
 X Sec " An Examination into the Increase of the Revenue, &c." pub- 
 lished in 1792.
 
 4S 
 
 SECTION y. 
 
 On the Consolidated Fund. 
 
 liiE same delusive system of temporary 
 expedients which has been adopted in pro- 
 viding for the permanent interest of the 
 pubhc debt, has Ukewise been extended to 
 the annual expenditure of the present war. 
 Hence the loans of the ensuing year haye 
 always been anticipated by the extraordi- 
 nary cxpences of that which preceded. — 
 I\Iil]ions haye been borrowed on the credit 
 of fuxids which haye proved deficient, and 
 carried from the account of one year to ano- 
 ther as a floating debt without any provision 
 being made for them*. Other millions have 
 been borrowed, to be repaid at a future pe- 
 riod, without even hinting at the funds by 
 which this is to be done f . But the most 
 
 * Of this kind is the Loan of Three millions from the Bank, which was 
 borrowed in 1799, to be repaid in the following year; but which still 
 continues a debt, and is likely to be so, until fifiy-six millions have been 
 redeemed by the Income Tax. 
 
 + Such is the Loan of Three millions, without interest, during a limited 
 time, for the renewal of the Bank Charter.
 
 4g 
 
 constant source of delusion in providing for 
 the public exigencies hath been the Surplus 
 of the Consolidated Fund, which the Minis- 
 ter has never failed to over-rate in his Esti- 
 mates, w^hile indufging himself in his annual 
 panegyric on the flourishing state of the 
 country. 
 
 It would be foreign to mj purpose to 
 enter into a detailed history of this fund 
 from the time in which it was first esta- 
 blished ; but as it involves a subject of con- 
 siderable importance in regard to those ope- 
 rations of finance which have so peculiarly 
 distinguished the present war, I am induced 
 to think that the following account may not 
 be an improper addition to this work. 
 
 In the year 1780, the British Funds, which 
 had formerly been divided into the four 
 classes of the Aggregate, the South Sea, 
 the General, and the Sinking Funds, were 
 consolidated into one fund; and tlie taxes of 
 which they consisted being arrang<id under 
 the different heads of Customs, Excise, 
 II
 
 50 
 
 Stamps and Incidents, were charged with 
 the payment of the interest of the pubUc 
 debts, and of the milUon appropriated to 
 the redemption of the principal, together 
 with the payment of the Civil List, the Pen- 
 sions and Annuities allowed to sundry per- 
 sons, and other articles of less importance, 
 amounting in the whole to the sum of twelve 
 millions and a half nearly. When these 
 charges were defrayed, the remainder, oj 
 surplus of the taxes, in addition to the an- 
 nual supplies of the Land and Malt Tax, 
 was applied to the payment of the Army, 
 the Navy, and other miscellaneous expences. 
 At the period in which these new arrange- 
 ments were made, our commerce had so far 
 recovered from the calamities of the Ameri- 
 can war, that all the taxes were rendered 
 more productive than they had been for se- 
 veral years. The surplus of this fund, there- 
 fore, necessarily increased, and in a short 
 time it appeared to the Minister to have be- 
 come so considerable, that in opening his 
 annual budget he always enumerated the 
 " growing produce of the Consolidated 
 
 4
 
 51 
 
 Fund," among the permanent resources of 
 the country. Had the public tranquillity 
 suffered no interruption, it is probable that by 
 this time he might have been enabled to exult 
 with good reason, and to congratulate the 
 kingdom on a real surplus in the public re- 
 venue. But the Minister of Finance chose 
 to become the Minister of JVar, and every 
 prospect of this kind soon vanished away, 
 except from his own estimates and predic- 
 tions, — in which he never ceased to triumph. 
 
 The destructive effects of war are seldom 
 severely felt at the commencement of hosti- 
 lities. On the contrary, commerce at this 
 early period generally increases, and the 
 public revenue, in consequence, becomes 
 more productive. In this respect the present 
 war has not differed from those which have 
 preceded it. Our trade in the first year 
 seemed to derive so much vigour from the 
 contest, that the surplus of the Consolidated 
 Fund, which, from its establishment in 178O 
 had not on an average exceeded three millions, 
 was estimated in the ways and means of
 
 52 
 
 ) 793, at more than three millions and a half. 
 In 1794, indeed, the Minister's hopes seem 
 to have become less sanguine, and the sur- 
 plus in his estimates for that year was redu- 
 ced to a little more than two millions and a 
 half. But in the two following years, not- 
 withstanding our difficulties were necessarily 
 Qiultiplied by the prolongation of the war, 
 the public revenues appear in his statements 
 to have again become more flourishing ; so 
 that while the real surplus of the Consoli- 
 dated Fund was diminishing to nothing, its 
 estimated surplus was annually increasing 
 more than half a million. 
 
 In estimating the ways and means for the 
 public services, the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer took the surplus of the Consolidated 
 Fund 
 
 For the year 1795 at - ;^. 2,895,000 
 
 1796 at - 3,500,000 
 
 1797 at - 2,000,000 
 
 Making in the whole - 8,395,000 
 
 What this Fund has really produced in 
 those three years, will be seen from the
 
 53 
 
 following statements, extracted from the 
 quarterly accounts which have at different 
 times been laid before the House of Com- 
 mons.
 
 54 
 
 
 
 
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 66 
 
 Deducting 205,369!. * from this sum, the 
 remainder, or 1,530,093 1. will be the whole 
 surplus of the Consolidated Fund during the 
 three years above mentioned, which falls 
 short of 8,395,0001. f its amount according 
 to the Minister's estimates by the enormous 
 sum of 0,858,9071. 
 
 As these accounts are rather intricate and 
 obscure, from the perplexed manner in which 
 they are made out and communicated to 
 Parliament, I shall subjoin a different state- 
 ment with the view of rendering them more 
 intelligible, and at the same time of pointing- 
 out the means by which the annual deficien- 
 cies have been provided for. 
 
 In the Estimates for 1795, the growing 
 produce of the Fund was taken at 2,895,000!. 
 and was obtained by the following expe- 
 dients : 
 
 * See Note, page 54, t See page 52.
 
 57 
 
 By a surplus of its produce in Midsummer and 
 
 Michaelmas quarters, 1795 - - £^. i.,4.2^y-]?>()* 
 By ditto in Lady-day quarter 1796 - 2io,9L3t 
 
 By part of ditto in Michaelmas quarter 1797 204,298^ 
 By advances from the Bank, which were paid off 
 
 by a public loan in April 1797 - - 1,054,000 
 
 ;r. 2,895,000 
 
 In the year 1796, the surplus was esti- 
 mated at three millions and a half. But in 
 consequence of applying the produce of 
 Lady-day quarter to the assistance of the 
 fund in 17 Q5, and of other quarters proving 
 deiicient, to the amount of 550,5021. there 
 remained a sum of 4,050,502 1. unprovided 
 for at the end of the year. The Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer, however, was so far from 
 considering this as a part of the supplies to 
 be raised in the year 1797, that he at first 
 estimated, in his ways and means for the 
 services of that year, a surplus of two mil- 
 lions from the very fund which in the two 
 preceding years had even proved insufficient, 
 by more than one million and a half, to pay 
 
 * This is the whole surplus in 1795, lessened hy the sum appropriaxd 
 to in.ikc: good the deficiency in 1794. Sec Noie *, paj^c 54. 
 
 t See Note +, pge ^4. 
 
 * Sec ^:o;c +, page /j^.
 
 58 
 
 the demands which, were charged upon it. 
 In order therefore to make up the above de- 
 ficiency, recourse was had 
 
 To the supplies of 1797 for - - /. 550,502 
 
 To ditto for a further sum, which has been dis-^ 
 charged, together with other deficiencies by 
 a loan _ - . _ 2,177,000 
 
 And to advances from the Bank for the remain- 
 ing sum, which has been paid off by a loan 
 in April 1797 _ - _ i,32;^,oop 
 
 ;/,. 4,050,502 
 
 The surplus in the year 179; was esti- 
 mated, as I have already observed, at the 
 sum of two millions. In the first two 
 quarters, however, the fund was deficient to 
 the amount of <^j 48,538, which was taken 
 from the supplies of 1707. In the last 
 quarter also it proved deficient, and was as- 
 sisted by the supplies of 1798 with 243,84oI. 
 This sum being added to the estimated sur- 
 plus of two millions, madeasum of 2,243, S4ol. 
 for which the only provision was the surplus 
 in the Michaelmas-quarter. After deducting 
 204,297 1, for the aid of the fund in 1795 *, 
 this surplus was reduced to 052,8O4l. an4 
 
 ♦ See Note t, png-^' $5-
 
 59 
 
 therefore a deficiency remained of l ,591,0361. 
 which was provided for by taking the whole 
 produce of the fund in 1 798, and a part of 
 its produce in 1 799 *. 
 
 From these different statements it appears 
 that the growing produce of the Consoli- 
 dated Fund, which in better times amounted 
 on an average to about three millions annu- 
 ally, has in the year 1795 amounted to 
 little more than half that sum, and in the 
 two following years (though it felt no defi- 
 ciency in the Minister's estimates) that it 
 even failed to satisfy the ordinary demands 
 which were charged upon it f . 
 
 * Produce of the fund in the year 1798 - - £.gSS,B^o, 
 
 Purt of ;^. 1,124,083, the produce of Lady-day quarter 1799 602,193 
 
 <C- i,,39i.f3'i 
 
 f Deficiency in 1796 . - . . - jC-55<:>j°^ 
 
 Surplus in 1797, including even the sum appropriated for 179^, 464,723 
 
 Deficiency on the whole produce in two years - <C- 85,779 
 
 The above-mentioned sum of ;^. ,550,502, together with /C- 1 1036,733 
 a part of the delicieiicy in the last year, were enumerated in the disposition- 
 paper laid before Pailiainent the ifith of March 1798, among the ways and 
 means for the vcar ir'C. But nui;ln not all the deficicjii-ies of the con-
 
 6a 
 
 The declining state of a fund, requiring so 
 *«rany millions to support it, deterred even 
 the Minister, in the year 1 7Q3, from enume- 
 rating its surphis among the resources of the 
 country. In opening his first budget in that 
 year, he estimated its produce in conjunction 
 with the profits of a lottery at the moderate 
 sum of 700,0001. but in his second budget 
 of the same year, finding that the deficiency 
 of the quarter immediately preceding had 
 amounted to more than 33g,ooo 1. and that 
 the fund was already in debt above one 
 million and a half*, he was compelled to 
 correct his former estimate by assuming the 
 Lottery at 200,000 1. and abandoning the 
 Consolidated Fund altogether. 
 
 In the year 1 799, however, though encum- 
 bered with a debt of more than Ooo,ooo 1. 
 the probable surplus of the fund was esti- 
 mated among the supplies at 3,750,89 1 1. — 
 3ut in this, as in all the preceding years, the 
 
 soJidatcd fund in the preceding years have been enumerated wiih the same 
 propriety ; for the growing produce of this fund was as much in debt for 
 o^e sum as the other, and was, I believe, as likely to discharge it? 
 * Note *, page 50. 4
 
 6l 
 
 real surplus fell much below the Minister's 
 predictions. After discharging the former 
 debt, it produced in the Lady-day, Michael- 
 mas and Christmas quarters, the sum of 
 2,728,8/0 L* ; but in consequence of having 
 proved deficient in the Midsummer quarter, 
 by 260,151 1. the produce of the whole 
 year amounted only to 2,468,725 1. which 
 being deducted from 3,750,891 1. left a defi- 
 ciency of 1,282, 166 1. to be made good as 
 usual from the supplies of the following 
 year. But this circumstance seems to have 
 had very little weight with the Minister in 
 forming his estimates for that year. With 
 the experience of having invariably over- 
 rated the Consolidated Fund in every year, 
 and with a present defalcation of more than 
 a million and a quarter, he takes, in I800, 
 
 * Lady-day quarter 1799 ... ^.1,124,083 
 
 Michaelmas quarter - _ - _ 1,072,610 
 
 Christmas quarter . - - . ',134»376 
 
 3,331,069 
 Deduct a former debt, (see Note *, page 59.) - 602,193 
 
 /:• 2,728,876
 
 62 
 
 the surplus of this very fund at 5,200,000 1. 
 in other words, he presumes upon its pro- 
 ducing six miUions and a half, or twice as 
 much as it had ever been known to produce 
 in any one year of peace and prosperity ! — 
 It is hardly necessary to observe, that these 
 liave proved as fallacious as all the other ex- 
 travagant estimates which have distinguished 
 the present war. Instead of 5,200,000 1. 
 the surplus amounted only to 2,158,034 1. * 
 and the remaining three millions, together 
 with the former deficiencies of this fund, as 
 well as those of the Income Tax, Assessed 
 Taxes, Export and Import Tax, &c. have been 
 supplied from the immense loan of 1801. 
 In the course of five years, above ten mil- 
 lions appear to have been raised to pay off 
 the difference between the estimated and 
 
 t Lady-day quarter i8oo - - - j(^. 600,183 
 
 Midsummer quarter - - . . 463,014 
 
 Michaelmas quarter - _ . - 1,137006 
 
 2,200,203 
 Deficiency in Christmas quarter - - 42, iCg 
 
 ;C- 2,158,034
 
 63 
 
 the redl surplus of the Consolidated Fund. 
 Still, however, the Minister persevered in the 
 same system, and even closed his administra- 
 tion with assigning to his successor the task. 
 of realizing from the produce of this fund 
 3,300,000 1. towards the expenditure of the 
 present year *. But it is impossible that 
 this semblance of providing for the public 
 exigencies should always succeed in delud- 
 ing the hopes of the Nation. The period 
 must come, when the pressure of our burdens, 
 arising from the enormity of our expences, 
 will demand a real and substantial support. 
 Should it in that period unhappily appear 
 that we have it not in our power to afford 
 such support, I am certain that it will not 
 be the least aggravation of our misfortunes, 
 that we have increased them in a verv hiirh 
 degree, by suffering ourselves to be deceived 
 by the temporising expedients which have 
 been adopted in this war. 
 
 * The surplus in Lady-day quarter i8ol amounted only to /^. 116,324, 
 Vkhich has been entirely appropriated to make good the deficiency in the 
 preceding quarter, and to pay ihc money taken out of the supplies of |8oo 
 for the Use of the fund in that year.
 
 64 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 On the whole Amount of the National 
 Debt, and the future Peace Establish- 
 rnent of the Country. 
 
 JcROM the statements which have been al- 
 ready given in the different parts of this and 
 my former publications*, the whole amomit 
 of the national debt may be deduced without 
 much difficulty. The subject, however, is of 
 such vast importance to the welfare and hap- 
 piness of the country, that it cannot be stated 
 with too much precision ; and therefore I 
 shall collect into one point the whole of 
 this stupendous mass, which, if it excite no 
 other emotion, ought at least to terrify us 
 into a more frugal course of expenditure. 
 
 * See my " Appeal, ^c." published in 1797 ; also *■' Facts,"" and " Jo 
 dltlonal Facts," both published in 1796.
 
 66 
 
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 67 
 
 Amount of t lie Unfunded Debt in April iSOl. 
 
 Navy debt on the 31 st of December 1800 /. 8,705,886 
 
 Warrants for army services, unprovided for - 329,327 
 
 Ordnance debt - _ - . 225,145 
 
 Civil list arrears - - - 28,550 
 Loan from the Bank for the renewal of its 
 
 charter, to bear interest in 3 years - 3,000,000 
 Exchequer bills annually renewed - 6,500,000 
 Due to the Bank on malt-tax 1799, 3^*^^, im- 
 ports, income duties, pensions, officers, &c. 
 after deducting /. 5,350,000 said to be pro- 
 vided by three different votes - - 6,028,900 
 Treasury bills unpaid - - - 226,942 
 Civil establishment for convicts, &c. - 362,453 
 
 £. 25,407,203 
 
 Were the war to end with the present 
 campaign, the expences attending its termi- 
 nation would most probably amount to one 
 half of the War-establishment in the pre- 
 ceding year, which would add about sixteen 
 millions to the sum above-mentioned ; and 
 therefore, the whole of the unfunded debt, 
 with an almost immediate prospect of peace, 
 cannot well be estimated at less than forty 
 millions. Taking it even at thirty-five mil- 
 lions, the interest at 5 per cent, will amount 
 to 1,750,000 1. So that on the most moderate
 
 68 
 
 computation, about twenty-five millions 
 must annually be raised in taxes for the mere 
 purpose of providing for the national debt. 
 
 Future Peace Establishment. 
 
 Interest, charges of management, &c. on the 
 
 funded debt _ _ - ^.23,444,650 
 
 Probable interest on the unfunded debt - 1,750,000 
 Average peace establishment for the army, &c.* 5,651,183 
 Civil list - - - - 9c 0,000 
 
 ;C-3i'745>833 
 
 If to this sum be added the interest paid 
 on money advanced by the bank on the 
 Land and Malt Tax, &c. &c. it w^ill appear 
 that the whole amount of the annual expen- 
 diture will considerably exceed thirty-two 
 millions. It should however be observed, 
 that the interest on the 56 millions proposed 
 to be discharged by the Income Tax is in- 
 cluded in the above account. If that tax is 
 to be continued till the above sum is really 
 paid off, it will reduce the permanent in- 
 terest two millions nearly, but it will increase 
 the temporary interest six millions ; so that 
 the peace establishment for seven or eight 
 
 * See my Appeal, &c. " page 52."
 
 69 
 
 years to come will amount to thirty-six mil- 
 lions, and after that period it will not be less 
 than thirty millions : — In other words, the 
 public, in addition to the severe pressure of 
 the Income Tax for several years, have to 
 look forward to a peace establishment which 
 shall be more than double its amount at the 
 commencement of Mr. Pitt's administration*. 
 This is indeed a joyless prospect, were our 
 hopes of peace as well founded as the im- 
 mediate necessity for it appears to be indis- 
 pensable. But unfortunately the war has 
 not closed with the power of the late Mini- 
 ster, and therefore it is impossible to say 
 how much more the burthen may be aggra- 
 vated before the measures of his administra- 
 tion shall have produced their whole etiect 
 on the finances of this country. They have 
 however already produced sufficient to check 
 the same energies in his successors ; unless 
 an increasing expenditure is a proof of in- 
 creasing prosperity -j^, and the resources of 
 
 * Sec the Report of the Srcrct Commitice in 1786, wlurc the whole 
 expenditure is estimated at £. 14,478, 181. 
 
 + In a Treasury pamphlet, publUacd about two yejis a^o, this novel 
 doctrine sccuis tc be maintained. 
 
 2
 
 70 
 
 the nation are as endless as the profusion 
 which consumes them. 
 
 Having now given an account of some of 
 the principal operations of Finance which 
 have distinguished the late administration, 
 I feel but little disposed to enter more mi- 
 nutely into this subject. The ruinous terms 
 upon which some of the loans have been 
 raised*; the vast amount of the extraor- 
 dinary expences, compared with the estimates 
 laid before Parliament f ; the conversion 
 of the Sinking Fund, originally designed for 
 the reduction of the public debt, into an in- 
 strument for facilitating the increase of it J ; 
 the continued accumulation of the unfunded 
 debt, and the extraordinary manner in which 
 it has been rendered a perpetual burthen upon 
 the nation §, have all been the subject of 
 
 * See my "Appeal, &c." sect. iv. and " Facts," ssct. ii. 
 + See my " Appeal, &c." page 7, " Facts," page 4, and page 26 of 
 this Vx-'ork. 
 
 + See "Additional Facts,"' sect. iv. 
 {) See uiy "Appeal, &c." sect. ii.
 
 my former inquiries, and therefore would be- 
 improperly introduced into this work. Nor 
 is it necessary to have recourse to such re- 
 petitions on the present occasion. The pre- 
 ceding statements of themselves bear suffi- 
 cient testimony to the exertions, and afford 
 ample materials for appreciating the merits 
 of Mr. Pitt. By a system of unexampled 
 profusion, more millions have been expended 
 in the present war, than have been squan- 
 dered in all the wars which have desolated 
 the country since the Revolution. Hence 
 the capital of the public debt, which at the 
 commencement of his administration a- 
 mounted to two hundred and thirty-two 
 millions*, has been accumulated to the enor- 
 mous mass of five hundred and fifty-eight 
 millions f; and the peace establishment, 
 which was then estimated at less than fifteen 
 millions, has been raised to a sum exceeding 
 thirty-two millions. By adopting an effi- 
 cient and delusive method of taxation, he 
 has laid his successors under the necessity, 
 upon the return of peace, (if that happy sea- 
 
 * Sec Sect. i. page 8. t Sec Sect. vi. page 66.
 
 Son ever comes,) of supplying a deficient 
 revenue with new taxes to the amount of 
 many millions*. By exporting the cash 
 and the bullion out of the kingdom to subsi- 
 dize foreign princes, he has turned the course 
 of exchange against this country — the coin 
 has in consequence disappeared, and the 
 Bank been rendered incapable of paying its 
 notes in specie. This fatal blow to public 
 credit has been succeeded by an inundation 
 of paper money, which, being now issued 
 without fear or controul, has, by lessen- 
 ing the value of the circulating medium, en- 
 hanced the price of every article, and, in con- 
 junction with the heavy taxes, reduced the 
 greater part of the nation to distress and 
 misery. And yet in the midst of all these 
 calamities — in the midst of a war, begun 
 without an object, conducted without the 
 least regard to oeconomy, and affording not 
 the most distant prospect of a conclusion, — 
 the Minister can resign his employments in 
 triumph, and congratulate the country on 
 the envied state of prosperity to which it 
 
 * See Sect. iv. page 46.
 
 73 
 
 has been raised during his administration. 
 Were the subject less serious, it would be 
 impossible not to smile at the folly of such 
 pretensions. But, in our present circum- 
 stances, they have the appearance of adding 
 insult to injury, and afford a melancholy 
 proof of the servile submission of those per- 
 sons vi^ho could hear them without indigna- 
 tion. 
 
 Having constantly forborn from political 
 discussions any further than they are con- 
 nected with the public finances, I leave to 
 others the examination of Mr. Pitt's conduct 
 as a statesman and a friend to liberty. The 
 present situation of the country with regard 
 to its enemies and allies, and the laws which 
 have lately been framed for preserving the 
 constitution, bear no very favourable testi- 
 mony of him in either of those characters. 
 But how is it possible that a Minister who has 
 added so many milHons to the taxes should be 
 the friend of freedom r The necessary effect of 
 every new impost is to produce some law 
 either of coercion or restraint, and to aggra- 
 J4
 
 74 
 
 vate the weight of its own pressure by in- 
 creasing the means of corruption * and thus 
 rendering all opposition to inordinate power 
 more feeble and ineffectual. 
 
 When the revenue to be collected for the 
 ordinary purposes of Government exceeds 
 the annual produce of all the landed pro- 
 perty f, and is twice as great as the annual 
 profits arising from the whole trade and ma- 
 nufactures of the kingdom J, is it to be ex- 
 pected from the people of such a country 
 that they should be long capable either of 
 enterprize or energy ? 
 
 ^ According to the Report of the Select Committee of Finance in 1797, 
 the number of officers under Government had increased since the year 
 1782, so as to pioduce an increase in the salaries of ;^. 1,59,095. And it 
 appears from the papers laid before Parliament in 1800, that in the year 
 1797 a further increase took place of ;C.io,8co; in the year 1798, of 
 /r.4l,8ia ; and in the year 1799, of £. 56,585. In the last year, another 
 addition was made of £• 56,579- So that, during the late Administration, 
 the increased cxpence attending the receipt and expenditure of the public 
 money has exceeded ^.324,000 a-year! ! ! 
 
 + Estimated formerly by Mr. Pitt at 25 millions ; a sum probably much 
 exceeding the truth. 
 
 :j: The whole produce of the income-tax, as assessed by the Commercial 
 Commissioners for the year ending the 5th of April 1801, appears to be 
 £. 1,115,870. After making every allowance for children and other de- 
 ductions, the annual profits of all the trade ef the kingdom, therefore, 
 according to this account, cannot be estimated at more than 15- millions. 
 
 2
 
 1^ 
 
 As a sincere friend to the liberty and hap- 
 piness of Great Britain, I cannot contem- 
 plate its present situation and future pro- 
 spects without concern and dismay. The 
 indifference, — I may add, the insensibihty 
 of the nation to the dangers which threaten 
 it are truly astonishing. Surrounded by 
 powerful and exasperated enemies from with- 
 out — and weighed down by debts and taxes 
 from within, we behold extravagance and 
 dissipation continue their destructive course 
 without exciting a murmur, or even the 
 slightest wish for a more frugal manage- 
 ment of the public treasure. Rather than 
 exert our efforts to stem the torrent, we 
 choose to be soothed by flattering descriptions 
 of our prosperity, and to glide along the 
 stream which is hurrying us into ruin. We 
 appear to be like the infatuated mariners of 
 old, who in the midst of shoals and quick- 
 sands suffered themselves to be allured by 
 the song of the Siren, nor awoke from their 
 delusion until they were ingulphed in the 
 waves that heaved around them.