3* GENERAL VIEW OP 



Ditto* in bounties on American produce and 

 other difburfements in thofe ftates, the whole fup- 

 pofed to be half a million annually. 



Ditto, in collecting the excife, cuftoms, and du- 

 ties, being at prefent from 6 to 15 per cent, on the 

 grofs arinount, but which may be reduced to lefs 

 than one half of that expence, as foon as the compli- 

 cated mafs of revenue fhall be firnplified or confo- 

 lidated, and fmuggling fupprefied. 



Ditto, by abolifhing the bounty on the exporta- 

 tion of corn, fuppofed to coft the nation 140,000!. 

 annually, upon an average of years, without anfwer- 

 ing any other purpofe than the encouragement of 

 frauds, it being alledged that many cargoes thus 

 fhipped upon bounty are, foon after, brought back, 

 relandedj and Ihipped upon a fecond bounty *. 



Sale 



* A bounty upon the exportation of corn in a manufacturing 

 country, is fo far impolitic, as it affords a pretence for raifing the 

 r-ents of lands at the expence of that clafs of people who are lead 

 able to bear it ; and, at the fame time, gives our rivals in trade a 

 decided advantage at foreign markets. It hath been argued, in 

 iupport of the bounty, that cheap provifion is the fource of idlenefs, 

 and diforderly habits, amongft perfons who are reftlefs through the 

 impatience of money in their pockets. Admitting this to be the 

 caie with a portion of the working people, mall the wives and chil* 

 dren of tfyefe thoughtlefs men be rendered ftill more wretched, 

 through the want of that neceiTary article, bread, thus artificially 

 enhanced beyond its natural value, and beyond the abilities even of 

 the moft induftrious mother to purchafe a fufiicient quantity for 

 her unhappy offspring ? Or, becaufe the kingdom may contain 50 

 or 60,000 diforderly perfons, is the whole body of the iober, the 

 domeftic, and the induftrious manufacturers, artifts, and labourers, 

 with their families, amounting to fonie millions, to be thus de- 

 prived of the gifts which Heaven hath fo bountifully provided fcr 

 them ? 



It hath been further argued, that, as wages are higher in En- 

 gland than in any other country, the working people can bear a 

 proportionable rife in the price of provifions ; but it mould be con- 

 Jfidered, that human nature is fubject to^ccidents, to lingering lick- 

 nefs, and to death ; that even the moft diligent are fometimes out 

 of employ, from ft agnation of bufinels ; and that when the work, 

 from whatever cauie, is at a fiand, the fupplies of a whole family 



are. 



