49 



income above public expenditure, we ought to 

 advert to the fact, that a material diminution 

 of public income is to be anticipated, whether 

 any repeal of the taxes, from which that income 

 is derived, takes place or not. For the dimi- 

 nished incomes drawn from land will impose 

 upon individuals the unavoidable necessity of 

 contracting their expenditure ; and, although 

 articles of pleasure and indulgence may be the 

 last in which we may be willing to practise the 

 severities of a rigid economy, yet in them only 

 can the means be found of practising it with 

 effect. Luxuries and superfluities have been 

 always especial objects of taxation ; and as the 

 disuse of them is extended and prevails, the 

 contribution which they have been properly 

 made to afford to the public income, must be- 

 come less and less. 



Some retrenchment is therefore indispens- 

 able to meet the diminished power of expendi- 

 ture ; but the country reasonably may, and 

 confidently does, anticipate the adoption of a 

 scale of retrenchment extended far beyond those 

 limits which the deficiencies in the produce of 

 existing taxes alone are likely to command. 



The expenditure which will admit of re- 

 trenchment, may be properly comprehended 



