WEALTH OF NATIONS. 195 



that was exhausted, the lenders required security, and 

 branches of the public revenue were mortgaged for 

 repayment of the loans. The unfunded debt of this 

 country belongs to the former class, the funded to the 

 latter. The convenience of raising supplies by loan is 

 obvious; but its mischievous consequences are as mani- 

 fest, and they very far counterbalance its advantages. 

 Were all supplies required for a war to be raised by 

 taxes within the year, or were this the general rule, then 

 would the reluctance to engage in war, and the readiness 

 to make peace after the war had been begun, be incal- 

 culably increased and universally diffused; and a loan 

 might always be resorted to as an exception to the rule 

 when public feelings were directed against continuing a 

 war absolutely necessary for the honour, that is, for the 

 existence of the State. These I place as synonymous 

 ideas, because no war, however short, can ever be beneficial 

 on a calculation of profit and loss; and thus only those 

 wars are justifiable on sound policy which are required 

 by the necessity of averting national disgrace, and are 

 entered into for the national independence, placed in 

 imminent peril by submitting to insult, as a man's whole 

 fortune is by consenting to pay money under a threat, 

 or submitting to any other extortion. But for this con- 

 sideration no one would defend an action, or sue a 

 debtor for a small sum of money, even if his adversary 

 admitted himself to be in the wrong. 



The payment, or the escape from the payment of 

 debts, forms an important subject of consideration in 

 this discussion. Generally speaking, the latter course 

 has been taken when the burthen became heavy. The 

 most common expedient, the most hurtful, and the 



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