advantageous: he mentioned. the 
high price of insurance on shipping, 
as a proof of the precariousness of 
trade, ‘and how liable to be inter- 
cepted by the enemy. He took an 
extensive view of the national ex- 
penditure, and adverted to the pro. 
bability of its annually increasing, 
ifwe' persisted in our claims to dic- 
| tate a form of government for the 
French : but he could not persuade 
himself that the representatives of 
the English nation, would proceed 
~ to such a degree of infatuation, as to 
continue voting the money of their 
constituents in support of so absurd 
a claim, or that the nation itself 
would long consent to he made the 
victim of so fatal a delusion. 
A minute explanation of the pro- 
_ priety of the taxes, and of the ad- 
vantages to arise from the loan, was 
entered into by Mr. Pitt, who in- 
_ sisted, that by the arrangements tobe 
made, the commodities consumed, 
chiefly by the poorer classes, would 
be obtained at a cheaper rate, and 
in a better condition than before. 
tion, which closed at Jast by the re» 
solutions for the supply being put, 
_ and agreed to by a majority that ad- 
mitted of no competition. 
A tax that met with the approba- 
tion of all parties, was that which 
_ abridged the privilege of franking. 
It had long been — scandalously 
_ abused: it was computed that the 
~ loss to the revenue by the franks of 
‘about forty members of parliament, 
‘and by those of about a hundred 
clerks in public offices, was not less 
than fifty thousand pounds annually : 
ten years before it did not exceed 
_ sik thousand: so rapid and enor- 
mous an increase rendered an 
abridgement immediately necessary, 
and fifteen franks a day was the 
HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
This occasioned a farther alterca-- 
[179 
limitation appointed for each per- 
son allowed that privilege. 
The. taxon the wearing .of pow« 
der was heavily felt by the nume- 
rous body of hair-dressers, whose 
profits by jt were considerably dic 
minished. _ Numbers, also of those 
individuals who only wore powder 
occasionally, complained that they 
would be as highly rated as those 
who were in the constant praétice 
of powdering: the exemptions 
were by many not deemed sufficient : 
clergymen not possessing one hun- 
dred a year, subalterns in the army, 
and officers in the navy, under the 
rank of masters and commanders, 
were the only persons in public cha- 
racters exempted from it, and in 
private families all the daughters 
except the two eldest. 
Some members of the house were 
so weak as to object to this tax, on 
account of the expence they must 
incur to entitle their servants to 
wear powder: others objected to 
the very wearing of powder at a 
time when, through the scarcity of 
flour, bread had risen toa price that 
alarmed the whole nation, and re. 
duced the lower classes to the most 
serious distress ; and when, through 
the severe winter experienced 
throughout all Europe, general 
fears were entertained every where 
for the next harvest. The answer 
to these was, that upon the striétest 
investigation, there was no reason 
to apprehend any scarcity, and that 
the greatest plenty was, en the con- 
trary, to be expeéted, both in our 
own and in other countries. 
The immensity of the sums levied 
in Great Britain, for the service of 
the current year, was an object of 
astonishment to all the European 
naiions: they amounted, includin 
the interest for the national debt, 
[N2] to 
