DEBTS. 
had fo often reprefent ed it as abfolutely neceffary to fave 
the nation from rnin, was the firft to lay violent hands upon 
it, by appropriating a ie er its ae to the fupplies 
of the year ;—a pradtice thus fhamefully begun was con- 
tinucd Without: i ee on in the Clone years, and the 
alienation of this fund became as conftant ‘and invariable as 
the prodigal wate anc Sones that produced it. 
Hence the nation, though difturbed by no foreigza wars 
73 years “of that reign, ae therefore ex- 
poled to no extraordinary expend:cure, Gerived little or no 
relief from a fund, which, if honettly applied in that time, 
and affitted by public economy, wou have difcharged the 
greatelt part of its debts. the end of the year 1739s 
therefore, when the ¢.cmeurs of the commercial part of the 
country forced the government into a war with Spain, the 
capital of the debt amounted to: 46,382,650 ; and at the 
canelufion of ia wats in i: ae terminated with a 
aceumnlaies to 
73; 166,9 so leaving tl 
with edie a aleaia ae and pa and the ear an in neeaed 
to its foreign poffefiions, exactly in ie fame {tate as at the 
commencement of the war. From this period, to a begin- 
ning of the next war, the finking fand, in cee of being 
affiited in its operations by any economy in the management 
of the public finances, was invariably alienated oan pro- 
viding for the ordinary fupplies of the year, fo that, rae 
an interval of eight years’ peace, only 3,059,641/. 0 
debt were redeemed, which did not amount to one tenth ms 
of what had been incurred by the ee 
> 
o 
h America, and 
to be borne by the people of Great Britain; and hence the 
minifter dire&ted his views to the a in North pein 
that it sales e pr 
grefs of the violence on 
other, which mutually exafperated the two countries; and it 
will be fufficient only to obferve here, that the flames of war 
at pee 
y 
millions; for, at the commencement of the war, it amounted 
to 135,043.051/, or only to 10,539,193/ lefs than its 
amount in 1763; fo that in proportion as the public bur- 
thens increafed, the efforts of minilterial economy to relieve 
ppear to have become more feeble and inefficient. 
in them, terminated, like a 
ite objet, and by oe thole oleae more than two- 
fold. The whole of the funded debt in January 1784 
amounting to 232,152,803/., and the unfunded debt to more 
than 36 millions, requiring an annual revenue of 9,569,997/. 
or the mere payment of intereft upon it, exciufive of taxes, 
for the ordinary expences of the peace- tiene cade which 
had alfo increafed nearly in the fame 
pro tio 
is year commence the adininiftration oF Mr. Pitt, 
ceefforss 
cot 
= 
& 
8 was CoO 
Sinking Fuad, 
e taxes were colleGed together into one fund, 
called the Con/folidaied Fund, and onz million of the furplus 
of thofe taxea, after difcharging the intercil of the debt, &c. 
was to be appropriated annually towards redeeming the prin- 
cipal. During the firft feven years, however, after this new 
arrangement of the finances, no fuch furplus really exifted 
(although the public a — with the belief of it), and 
the deficiencies were made up by loans; by the receipt of 
balances in the hands. of ae colleQors, and other adventi- 
tious means; fo that at the end of uine years of peace, the 
nation, fo far from being relieved of any of its burdens, 
found itfelf loaded with a permanent debt of 260,892,756, 
exclufive of what be anes unfunded, amounting to ma 
millions more. 
terval of peace had pee 
vocations to hoftilities with Holland, Ruffia, and Spain, and 
ad been increafed by 
additional expences incurre 
fuch an extent as to account for the infufficiency of the 
public income, and to juftify him in afferting that it,was 
more than equal to the ordinary expenditure of a peace 
' matter o m 
to render the furplus or the deficiency of a few millions in 
the revenue, an obje& neither of hope on the one hand, nor 
of apprehenfion on the other. 
vernment, alarmed at the progrefs 
moft calamitous and expenfive that ever defolated the popu- 
ee or deltroyed the refources of the country; from 
the a of eight al to fink 
without anxiety. 
the ceffation of hoftilities in 1501, a term diltinguifhed above 
all others in the annals of this country, by the greateft wafte 
of the public treafure, and the moft improvident extra 
vagance in contracting the public loans, the debt had accu 
mulated fo far beyond all former example, that at the final 
clofing of the accounts in April, 1803, it amounted, after 
deducting 67 millions which had been redeemed by the finka 
ing fund, to a capital of 531 ,769,15G/. requiring 24,564,811/. 
to be annually raifed in taxes towards paying the eck, eX- 
clufive of the fums neceffary for the a upon the un- 
funded debt, and for the expences of the civil and military 
eftablifhments, amounting at leaft to tw is ve millions more, 
and rey dp the whole peace eftablifhment to exceed 36 mil- 
lions per an 
Sacurabered ‘with fuch 7 immenfe weight of debts on 
a2 
