618 
dred millions more; and, finally, if. we 
adda national lossof one hundred millions, 
consequent on his inauspicious return from 
Elba, ‘and ‘the invasion of 1815, we make 
in all a* pecuniary sacrifice on the part! of 
France, of five hundred millions sterling, 
over and above the twenty-two millions of 
annual expenditure necessary undera peace 
establishment. 
| THE NETHERLANDS, 
~~ Subjected, during twenty years, to the 
sway of France,and during a part of the 
time, to the Conscription, were also expo- 
sed to heavy losses. If less great than those 
of France, in men, they were larger in a 
financial and commercial sense, as well 
from augmented taxation as from interrup- 
ted intercourse, and the many abortive at- 
tempts made, during the enforcement of 
the prohibitory decrees, to produce substi- 
tutes for coffee and other articles, the 
growth of a tropical climate. 
Of the other European powers, the chief 
belligerent was dustria, whose pecuniary 
sacrifice was lessened by our subsidies, but 
whose loss in’ men amounted, perhaps, to 
the half of that of France. Next came 
Prussia, Spain, Russia, Sweden, in whose 
case the duration of suffering was less, but 
who were all doomed to feel the destructive 
ravage of war and invasion.’ A pressure of 
a more lasting kind, we mean that which 
is attendant on the maintenance of a large 
standing force, extended to every state, 
great and small, on the Continent, from 
_ 1792 to 1814. Their taxation consequently 
increased, and the general demand for men 
was followed by a general rise in the price 
of labour. The impracticability of etfect- 
ing loans, prevented that stimulus to pro- 
ductive industry, that drain on the future 
in favour of the present, which took place 
among us to so great an extent; nor was 
there in any part of the Continent a conti- 
nued inadequacy of agricultural ‘produce. 
‘Accordingly, though prices on the Conti- 
nent became higher in war than they had 
been in peace; though, during the one 
period, the demand for labour was brisk, 
in the other languid, the degree of differ- 
ence was much smaller than with us; and 
Were we, for the sake of arriving at a defi- 
nite estimate, to hazard a conjecture of the 
difference between the present prices on 
the Continent, and those of 1792, we 
should pronounce the former from 10° to 
~~TS~ per cent. ‘higher. This is somewhat 
more than half the enhancement that we 
find in England, comparing our present 
prices to those of 1798. 
This excess on our part of the ratio of 
enhancement, added to a similar excess in 
prices previous to 1792, makes a total dif- 
7p - 4 
ject of government disburse, 
Lowe on the State of England. 
ference between this country and the Con- 
tinent, of from 20 to 30. per cent, The 
leading causes of this are our heavy excise 
duties, the larger size of our-towns, and the 
occasional -operation of our corn laws.* 
The balance against us. would. be still 
greater, were itnot ina considerable degree 
counteracted by the cheapness of fuel, and 
of several articles of manufacture, in parti- 
cular hardware, in which. our command of 
capital, our: inland navigation, and. our 
machinery, afford us a considerable ad- 
vantage over the Continent. 
What, it may be asked, was the effect 
of a rise of prices on our public revenue? 
Like all artificial changes, it was produc- 
tive of little permanent effect ; it increased 
the numerical amount of the revenue, but 
it was ultimately followed by a correspond- 
ing drawback in augmented expenditure ; 
enhancing stores, salaries, the pay of the 
army and navy; in short, almost every ob- 
On. the ces- 
sation of the war, the picture was com- 
pletely reversed, and our debt, from the 
rise in the value of money, has risen almost 
every year in its pressure. Calculating the 
debt contracted during the whole war at 
460,000,000/., and dividing the periods” 
with reference to the relative rise of prices, 
or, in other words, depreciation of money, 
we shall find that the smaller part of this 
debt was incurred when money was more 
valuable than at present, the larger when 
money was more depreciated. 
From 1792 to 1806—14 years, a rise of 
30 per cent. 
From 1806 to 1814—8 years, a further 
rise of 30 per cent. 
From 1814 to 1822—8 years, a fall of 
nearly 40 per cent. 
CAUSES OF OUR DISTRESS, . 
What, then, have been the causes of our 
great and unexpected embarrassments ? 
Not a reduction of our means, considered 
physically or intrinsically, but a general 
change in the. mode of rendering them 
productive; a sudden removal of the sti- 
mulus arising from the war. In no former 
contest had our military establishments 
been carried.to sucha height: the number 
of our militiamen, soldiers, and sailors, dis- 
charged, amounted to between two and 
three hundred thousand, of whom many 
returned to productive labour, while a con- 
* No.—It was the vast/ sums put in the 
hands of government, by loans, which it 
expended in various produce. All prices 
might be brought back to the war standard, 
if the government were to borrow thirty 
millions for three years, and though con- 
tractors exposed it in the market,—ED. 
; siderable 
