70 Financial Reform. 



to be maintained and paid by the local governments, as the mercenaries 

 of Switzerland are supported by those whom they go abroad to serve j 

 and all colonies unable to support the expenses of their own internal 

 government are unworthy of preservation, and, in the depressed condition 

 of the country at home, should be dissevered as a dead weight from the 

 crown of England. Reducing the strength of the army at home to a force 

 of ten thousand infantry, including the corresponding reductions of the 

 staff, the war office, and other military institutions, a saving may be 

 effected of six millions annually. 



The customs and excise. The customs of the sea-ports may be advan- 

 tageously farmed by individuals or companies, the contractors advancing 

 the revenue of the succeeding quarter, having the use of the custom-houses 

 and other appurtenances of the system, and providing clerks, surveyors, 

 and other officers, at their own discretion. The excise of the neighbouring 

 district may be embodied with the customs, and the whole collected by 

 poundage, which, if let by public competition, would not be more than 

 sixpence in the pound, or two and one-half per cent., the rate at which 

 these departments of the revenue were offered to be collected by Mr. 

 Hume. This change will effect a saving of more than three millions 

 annually, and provide employment for subjects indiscriminately, without 

 any base recommendations of electioneering interest. 



The stamps require considerably more than a million and a quarter per 

 annum for management, reckoning the expense at thirteen per cent., the 

 average cost of collecting all the revenue, upon the present system. This 

 department may be managed by poundage with singular facility, the value 

 of the stamp being apparent upon the paper : when issued from Somerset 

 House, the price may be advanced by the provincial distributor, the 

 poundage being allowed at the time. Still less than 6d. in the pound 

 will suffice for the management of the stamp-office ; which will effect a 

 saving of a million per annum. 



The Board of Trade ought also to be abolished. The purpose of this 

 expensive department is to fetter, derange, and destroy our commerce. A 

 full and free trade to all nations will now be required by the people of 

 England ; and this useless Board may share the fate of its fellow-clogs 

 upon the prosperity of the country. 



The pension list, civil list, patent offices, and other excrescences of the 

 system have been proved to be susceptible of a fair reduction of two 

 millions. 



There are many other departments the ordnance, victualling-offices, 

 and dock-yards to be reduced, or abolished as useless. The Govern- 

 ment of England is a thousand times too large : it is an engine of eighty- 

 horse power applied to a spinning-wheel. A revenue of about five mil- 

 lions, exclusive of the national debt, is splendidly sufficient for the real 

 purposes of government in this small island ; for Queen Elizabeth, with a 

 revenue of half a million, derived from the crown lands, supported the 

 grandeur of the Court, defeated the Spanish Armada, and maintained 

 unsullied the military glory of the English nation. Let us, therefore, 

 simplify, cheapen, and reduce our system to its ancient form $ and shake 

 off effectually, and at once, the shackles with which a sordid and arbitrary 

 Aristocracy have so long bound to the earth the noblest people that sur- 

 vive upon its surface. 



