HISTORY. OF EUVR;OPE, 
knew, that the merchant was tena- 
cious of a credit, about which the 
nobleman was indifferent. This 
was the character of England: this 
it was that had distinguished it 
from all the other nations of the 
earth, and particularly from France : 
there, every thing had depended on 
the king’s credit; here, all depen- 
dence was on the nation: there, a 
disorganized spirit of expence shel- 
tered itself under the credit of the 
grand monarque ; here every thing, 
_ Contributed to, as every thing flow- 
ed again from, the fountain of pub- 
lic credit; and the administration 
of the country was, in reality, no- 
thing more than a committee for 
the management of this credit. To 
ascribe the shock that had been 
given to it, to the idle stories of 
unfounded and exaggerated alarms, 
was ridiculous. It proceeded from 
deep, progressive, accumulated cau- 
ses; causes which all thinking 
_men had long deplored, and which 
had been growing to a head under 
the unhappy and ill-requited confi- 
dence, which their lordships had 
placed -in the king’s ministers. It 
Was material to endeavour to ascer« 
tain the causes that had brought us 
to this dilemma, One cause was 
manifest: the inordinate increase 
of expence, of places, and establish- 
ments in every corner of the em- 
pire. This had been growing to 
a height beyond every thing that 
the mind could conccive; it was 
incredible and scandalous ; the in- 
crease of fees, of salaries, of places 
and pensions, of new boards of 
- commission, and new appointments 
of all kinds, had not only served to 
open all the gates of waste and 
profusion, but to beat down and 
' destroy all the check of controul, and 
. all the means of correction, Waste 
[18s 
and extravagance had been systema- 
tized ; one scene of abuse counte- 
nanced and protected another, and 
all the corners of the earth were 
witnesses to the ruinous waste of 
the treasuresof England. Another, 
and a still more dangerous, source 
of disorder, which had sprung up 
during the present administration, 
was the want of unity and correspon~ 
‘dence among the different branches 
of office. This was the common 
observation ; it was visible in every 
department ; every office seemed 
to be lord of its own will, and 
every office seemed to have un- 
limited power over the purse of the 
nation ; instend of their being, as 
the spirit of the constitution directed, 
under the constant check of the trea- 
sury- If he could trust to well- 
founded information, every branch 
of office, projected its own schemes, 
had itsown expeditions, and, of 
course, put its hand, at pleasure, into 
the purse of the nation; nay, this 
distraction was not even confined 
to office at home; but, every man, 
in every one of our foreign settle- 
ments, had, also, his own projects, 
hisown adventures, hisown schemes 
of fortificaticn, and hisown sources 
of expence; so that évery man, 
upon every foreign station, thought 
himself at liberty, and found him- 
self so, to exercise unrestrained at- 
thority over the treasury of Bng- 
Jand. That this want of concord- 
ance, and want of correspondence, 
did actually subsist, not one of their 
lordships, who were in the habit of 
conversing generally in the world, 
would dispute. They had a‘ glaring 
proof of it ina paper upon the'table. 
Let any noble lord look at the paper 
of the extraordinaries of the army, 
and he would see the full confirma- 
tion of all that he had stated ; and it 
“(N 4} °° cy "0 Wag 
