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352  - HISTORY, POLITICS, AND STATISTICS: 
Aer. LI. 4 Supplement toa comparative View of the Public Finances : containing an 
Account of the Management of the Finances to the* present Time. By W. Morcany 
F.R.S. 8vo. pp. 114. 
' ‘THE financial writings of the acute ‘war, and these, though in themselves very. 
and accurate Mr. William Morgan, which serious evils, are now rendered matters of 
comprehénd so admirable br eetieli cri- comparatively litle importance. The in- 
as ‘ . : come tax, and all the other dreadful auxili- 
ticism on the conduct of Mr. Pitt, during aries which the late minister successively 
his chancellorship of the exchequer, ate tried to no purpose; are united in one general 
here continued to an advanced period of mass, and, as if his successor wished to cx- 
the administration of Mr. Addington. ceed even the boldest of his attempts, the 
They prove, that a precisely analogous funds themselves are to become an object of 
system of management still prevails; and taxation. If the war begitis with an attack 
that whatever grounds of alarm or ad- so direct and undisguised, upon all public 
snivation justly operated before, are still faith and security, what limits shall be pre- 
. % “WW: scribed to the sacrifices which may be de- 
entitled to agitate or tranquillize the manded during the course of it.- But here [ 
attentive public. ‘i ie ade ne that shall drop the subject. Having completed 
Mr. Morgan appreciates, very equitably, rv account of the finantes to the.conclusion 
the amount of the national incumbrances, of the late war, and of the truce which suc- 
but that he somewhat undervalues the ceeded it, I shall leave others to pursue the 
national resources. Mr. Pitt’s errors discussion through the present contest: 
were chiefly two. During peace, heal-  “ In all my publications on this subject; 
ways endeavoured to raise the funds, by 1 has been my earnest endeavour, as far as 
overstrained statements of the produce lay svithin my abilities, to warn the nation 
of the danger to which it was exposed, from 
of the revenue; whereas he ought then the extravagance and profusion which haye 
to have depreciated them, in order to ac- dissipated the public treasure:—and feeling, 
celerate the extinction of thedebt. Dur- a5 f do, an ardent wish for its welfare and 
ing war, he often attempted to raise the happiness, [am grieved to think of how lits 
supplies within the year; whereas a tle avail every effort has proved to check the 
bolder system of borrowing, and,a more growth of an evil which increases the distress, 
lenient system of taxation, would have znd must terminate in the rain of the kings 
interfered less sensibly with the com- dom. As I have already observed, the indit- 
. . ference of the nation in a season so big with 
Ae is loans, in- : As uihey 
forts of the people; and his ?, danger, is truly awful and astonishing. In- 
stead of being made in a five per cent. cumbered with a debt of more than five hun- 
stock, redeemable at par, were mostly dred millions, and just soothed with the hope 
made in a three per cent. stock, likely to of emerging from a war the most expensive 
rise on a peace greatly above sixty, and and sanguinary, we can behold ourselves de- 
thus to cost, for its redemption, vastly prived of this hope, and plunged at once into 
more than the capital advanced. An ac- another war, more dreadful and ruinous, 
tive attention to prefer those forms of without the slightest murmur of apprehen- 
taxation, which, like the land-tax, are sion or discontent. Whether the present be 
he “tHe ame! se aninithier a just and necessary war, or not—whether it 
Re! iho aR NS Se arises from the inordinate ambition of oné 
very important duty of the munister of party, or the wretched incapacity of the other, 
finance; but the structure of our twWO the consequences must be equally fatal to the 
houses of parliament renders the taxa- credit and resources of the country. So long 
tion of fixed property more difficult than as the annual expenditure requires fifteen or 
it ought to be. ‘The expenders of rents twenty millions to be raised over and above 
are the most unproductive and useless the annual income, the pressure must at 
class of citizens; their income is a fairer length accumulate till it exceeds the strenath * 
: ; to bearit. The expedients whith have been 
: ie indus- ; ; Ait 5 
object of erosion, than that of the inc once tried without success for raising the 
trious, commercial, productive, or useful greater part of the supplies within the year 
classes. ° .. are again proposed, and will probably be 
The concluding paragraphs well merit adopted. Bat this attempt to relieve poste- 
the serious attention of every friend to rity by increasing the present burtlens—to 
British prosperity: raise a sum sufficient for discharging the prin- 
‘ . cipal, when it is hardly possible to provide 
«« It was my intention to have proceeded for the interest of the deve; is absurd and im¢ 
further with this subject, as well as to have prudent in the highest degree, and can only 
noticed several other particulars connected _ serve to hasten the catastrophe which it is de« 
with the present management of the fi- signed to prevent. The public, however, in 
nances; but the nation is involved in another their present state of insensibility, rather than 
-_- Praisecmcliemamnsemtcadyse 
sti Ser x 
let 
