BRITAIN 



707 



After making some deductions on account of the 

 operations of the loyalty loan, and the transfer of an- 

 nuities, the total debt contracted from 1793 to 1815, 

 amounts to .762,537,445. If to this sum be added 

 the increase in the unfunded debt during that period, 

 nnd the additional sums raised by taxes in consequence 

 of hostilities, we shall have the total expenditure, 

 owing to the French war as follows : 



Debt contracted from 1793 to 1815 762,537,445 

 Increase in the unfunded debt, ditto 50,194,060 

 War taxes . . ditto 614,488,459 



Total expense of the French war 1,427,219,964 



Two objections may be made to the fairness of this 

 statement. First, the amount of debt redeemed dur- 

 ing the war, by the operation of the Sinking Fund, 

 ..ught to be deducted from the amount of debt con- 

 tracted. The second objection arises from the mode 

 of negotiating loans. In each loan, the capital 

 funded exceeds the sum actually advanced to govern- 

 ment. In some loans, government acknowledges 

 itself debtor 100, when only from 54 to 60 is 

 actually received. Hence it follows that, from the 

 debt contracted since 1793, ought to be deducted the 

 difference betwixt that debt and the sums which 

 passed into the exchequer. 



After admitting deductions from the charges of the 

 war on this account, and the operation of the sinking- 

 fund, we must be allowed to make a trifling addition. 

 The loans raised for Ireland, guaranteed by Britain, 

 amounted to 103,032,750: the sums actually re- 

 ceived on account of theseloans, to 64,750,000. The 

 revenue of Ireland, in 1791, amounted to 1,190,684. 

 Owing to the increase of the Irish revenue during the 

 war, the war-taxes of Ireland cannot be estimated at 

 less than 80,000,000. After these deductions and 

 additions the account will stand thus : 



Sums raised on account of loans . 506,081,267 

 Sums raised on account of Irish loans 64,750,000 

 War-taxes in England . . 61-1, (88,459 



Ditto in Ireland . . . 80,000,000 



Increase in the unfunded debt 50,194,060 



Deduct sums paid to the commissioners 

 for the reduction of the debt 



1,315,513,786 

 173,309,383 



Total 1,142,204,403 



The statement is now divested of every extraneous 

 item, and, reducing it to its lowest amount, one thou- 

 sand and one hundred an<( forty two millions two hun- 



dred and four thousand four hundred and three pounds 

 remains as the sum actually received and expended 

 on account of the war with France, from i793 to 1815. 

 On an average of the twenty-two years, from 1793 to 

 1815, it is a war expenditure of nearly fifty millions ; 

 and this is the sum which the deluded people of Britain 

 yearly contributed out of the produce of their indus- 

 try, agriculture, and commerce, to prevent an inde- 

 pendent state altering the form and meliorating the 

 abuses of its government. 



Besides the funded debt, is a large sum due by go- 

 vernment under the name of the Unfunded Debt. It 

 arises from any national expense, for which no pro- 

 vision has been made, or the provision has proved 

 insufficient, or not forthcoming at the time wanted. 

 During the latter periods of the late war, and for a 

 few years following the return of peace, its amount 

 considerably exceeded fifty millions ; in 1815 it was 

 at the highest, and had reached a sum greatly be- 

 yond the entire amount of the debt at the accession of 

 George II., being more than sixty-seven and a half 

 millions. Of late years the amount of the unfunded 

 or floating debt has not exceeded half that sum. The 

 form in which it mostly exists is that of exchequer 

 bills. These were first issued in 1696, and being in- 

 tended as a temporary substitute for money during 

 the recoinage at that period, some of them were so 

 low as ,10 and 5. There are none issued now un- 

 der .100, and many of them are for j500, jlOOO, 

 and still larger sums. They bear interest, at a cer- 

 tain rate per day, for 100 ; and, being distributed 

 among those who are willing to advance their value, 

 they pass from hand to hand like bank-notes. After 

 a certain time, they are received in payment of taxes, 

 or other moneys due to government ; and the interest 

 due on them, at the time, is allowed in the payment. 

 The bank often engages to receive them to a certain 

 extent, and thereby promotes their circulation ; and 

 the daily transactions between the bank and the ex- 

 chequer are chiefly carried on by bills of 1000 de- 

 posited in the exchequer by the bank, to the amount 

 of the sums received by them on account of govern- 

 ment. New exchequer bills are frequently issued in 

 discharge of former ones ; and they are often con- 

 verted into funded debt, by granting capital, in some 

 of the stocks, on certain terms, to such holders as are 

 willing to accept it. 



Besides exchequer bills there are navy-bills issued 

 from the navy-office, to answer any purpose in that 

 branch of public expenditure ; and they bear interest 

 after a certain date, if not discharged. .Ordnance 

 bills or debentures are issued from the ordnance office, 

 for supplying deficiencies in that branch of expendi- 

 ture. Victualling and transport bills are issued from 

 the respective offices in the same manner. In addi- 

 tion to the principal branches of the unfunded debt, 

 there is always a number of demands on the public 

 for bills accepted by the treasury, army charges, and 

 miscellaneous services of various kinds. These are 

 daily fluctuating, and their amount at any particular 

 time cannot be easily ascertained. 



The public funds or stocks are nothing else than 

 the public debts. To have a share in these funds is 

 to be a creditor of the nation. The security of national 

 faith is supposed to be superior to that of any private 

 person ; and therefore money lent to government al- 

 ways bears a lower interest than that lent on private 

 security. The value of stock rises or falls in propor- 

 tion to the real or supposed state of national pros- 

 perity. 



The following table exhibits a brief statement of 

 the progress of the debt, and its successive augmenta- 

 tions and diminutions during different reigns and 

 periods of war and peace, and the total amount at the 

 present time. 



