‘FUN Dz 
debts ; and to or for no other ufe, intent, or purpofe 
whatfoever 
The fons, with refpe& to this finking fund, form 
of the onl of Britain, that it ah not 
e particular account of it. 
ie d exifted many aailes 
: » fuch duties or taxes ha 
been provided for paying the interefts of particular loans, 
as afforded farpluffes | by which the principal itfelf was to be 
gradually redeemed. ‘This was the common pr aha in the 
ki i of the 
a at the 
end of thofe terms aid cea ae of sours, vunlels continued 
for farther slat os new 
fal, it was pro 
a 
firit o objeds 
ave ae in 1716, to the 
bt. 
that the fame 
effe€tual, would aetroy the efficac 
however, to be re hoping the saa 
Firft, t - ap happinefs and glory of ‘kingdom 
were thought to depend on this appropriation ; and the 
which attablithed it wat declar ed to be a fundamental la w 
8 law. were 
e0. L 
thefe words ; 
made 
a mo ney accum ee w = Sie ire bear compound 
intereft. And in this way this fund did j in faét operate for 
a few years. While in its infancy, it was watched over wit 
great care. The improvement, and the inviolable applica- 
tion of it, were recommended in moft of the fpeeches from 
the throne, and echoed back in the addreffes ie - houfe 
of commons. It is particularly obfervable, well 
did our minifters then underftand the nature ne cea 
of this fund, Pie rather than encroach upon it, they fre- 
naue borr money, in order to defray the neceffary 
expences of ie ment. From fome publications in 1726 
itz ae that ae perfons had been ed to apprehend or 
zeal of the miniftry would not be permanent, becaufe it w 
not pi intereft to pay off the public debt, on account of 
endence ee influence phat ee In anfwering 
cli objedtion writcrs on the of the court called 
fuch an ies an rece ela Ss and took upon them 
to affure the public, “ that i xigence of affairs 
could our minifters ever opr ove a or ioe Sar the alien- 
ation of ie? finking fund.” cappy would it have been for 
Britain this proved true: but in a little time it ap- 
the en ee ie ‘ been ftiled in- 
plead fealousi w eA er — gro Men in power 
e foo fee, s fund was ane eg too fait in 
rer one and re change their zeal for it into arefolu- 
tion to deftroy it. This will abundantly ee from the 
following hae 
Charging the income of the finking fund with the pay- 
ment of the intereft of new 
annual intereft of a fum, and that fum itfelf. 
years 1727 and 1732 feveral encroachments of this kind had 
been made upon it; but, being of a lefs obvious nature, 
oufe o ong 
ropoal aloe, in a it 
the indigs 
But a 
ra 
thus egy went 
1,200,000/. was taken fro: 
ged and mortga 
In 1737 and 1738, a pales of the ftock. of Bank an- 
nuities, and two millions of the flock of South-fea annuities, 
were redeemed with it. For twelve years after 1738) f it 
was wholly applied to the current expences of every 
In 1749, the intereft of near fifty-eight millions of the 
Pe 
xt year, or 17345 
Ta: 1735! and 4736, it was 
