48 



ation, and the country relieved from a corre- 

 sponding amount of taxation. Nay, it has been 

 said, that if the Sinking Fund were abolished, 

 and taxes to the same amount repealed, public 

 credit would suffer no injury. 



But, unfortunately, common experience seems 

 to be at variance with this proposition ; for we 

 know, that when an individual is deeply in debt, 

 if no funds are set apart for progressive dis- 

 charge of capital, if no arrangement is made 

 for its gradual extinction, his credit must stand 

 upon a very different footing from that on which 

 it would rest if a principle of redemption, how- 

 ever slow in its operation, were still in certain 

 and regular activity. Public credit is the pro- 

 perty of the nation : it is an article of great 

 price; and if it be lost, the surest if not the sole 

 dependence of the nation, under future circum- 

 stances of trial and difficulty, is lost with it. 



The other object, to which the produce of 

 taxation is directed, comprehends what may be 

 called the current expenses of the country. 

 Under this head we have to look for the reduc- 

 tion of charge, without which no safe founda- 

 tion of a diminution of taxation can be laid. 

 Previously, however, to the contemplation of 

 that reduction of charge which may present a 

 reasonable expectation of an excess of public 



