FUN D. 
“public debts was reduced from four to three one-half per 
cent. intereft for feven years, and afterwards to three per 
cent. for ever ; and by this third reduCtion, an pe was 
made to the finking fund of near 6c0,000/. 
a eae the great addition which this tal Peon 
of intereft made to the finking fund, no more than three 
millions of the public debts were redeemed by it, during the 
‘interval of peace between the years 1748 and 1756. 
~. By an at of the 25th of Geo 1752, a change 
_was made in the ae fund, which it is neceflary to 
men ntion 
Befor ore this aét the finking fund confifted only of the 
‘ 
ct 
clear furpluffes of the aggregate, the general, and the 
South-fea company’s funds. the war, which begun in 
I there was an addition made to the public debts of 
near thirty-two millions. 
taxes; and the 
This occafioned a great increafe 
€ pra actice \ was, whenever any new 
than the charge upon it, th 
ried to the finking fund, was made a part of the fupplies for 
‘the year. By the act juft mentioned, all the new taxes, to- 
gether with all the annuities to the payment of which they 
had been appropriated, were ordered to be carried into the 
t by the faving which 
roduced by the coed a intereft from three one 
er cent., to three per cent. in 17573 and, fecondly, 
by the addition, in the fame year, of the falt-duties to this 
_ fund, after they had completed the redemption of a million 
wih which they had eae charged in rae 
e war which began in Pe added 
and a half to the “public d ebts. This pro 
incre 7 of taxes, which (in con petal to the sent aune 
juft me pene) were brought to the general finking 
fund account, together with the ate or interefts with 
‘the payment of which they were charged. And previous 
tothe American war it became the conitant practice, when- 
ever a new fund or tax was beers for paying oa pad 
‘of a loan, to carry bo o the finking fun confe- 
quence of which this fund eed when the tax eee re 
roduce mo ore, bu when it produced lefs than the 
interef, which it had been given to pay. The finking fund, 
therefore, which, before the confoli sei act, confifted 
‘only of the farphaffes of the aggregate, general, and South- 
fea company’s funds, contifted afterwards x the aad al na 
of all the pcan taxes. There was only one excep- 
, the additional tax upon houfes and anaes 
“granted in 17 58 _ wards ae ing - a ) oe oe 
and a half then borro 
part of the fin me fund 3 a and, having aways ieee defi- 
cieat to the amount of ab t 43,00 . the de- 
ficiency was persone a ye by ie cease fund, and 
‘afterwards replaced from the fupplics. 
efore the laft redu€tion of the jntereft of the public 
debts,the finking fund, having faffered Saal ae various 
— upon it, produced little more than paar 
per after this re edution, and as. incre: afe b by t 
addition of the falt-duties, it produced near two millions nee 
no Int it produced at Michaelmas, after makin 
good oo 2,105,000/. nearly. e years ‘after 
1764; its average pro duce, reckoned to Gita in every 
pis was 2523457801, For five i ended in 1774, its 
gala he one sed 
“at 
average produce (after making rood the deficiency in 
1758) was 2,610,759/ In 1775 it produced 2,917, 
In 1776, 3,166,5177, In 1777 it. was charged 
annuity of 100,000/. per ann. to the civil lift; and, after 
paying three quarters of this a annuity, and half a year’s 
intereft of five millions aeel in that year, it produced 
from O&. 1776 to 7, 2,685,660). From. O&. 
77 to October 1778, a 780, it produced 
ia 063 399/.—al seals after aying 
te 
appears from this detail, that after the eee in 1763 
dee income of the finking fusd increafed con he e 
ut the principal caufe was the falling 
in inte f about ten millions and a half of the 
public debts, which had been difcharged duri ring the twelve 
years of peace between 1763 and 1775. 
the public debts was made, not by tl 
by a sig eeu from the Eaft-India company of 400 
per an » begun i in 1768, and continued for ie é years: b 
7 
‘the profits of ten lotteries; by the compofition for main- 
taining French prifoners ; faie of French prizes taken be- 
fore the declaration of war in 1756; and other extreordi- 
nary receipts, amounting in all to above eight millions. 
This fund, therefore, did not pay off more than two millions 
wath or | 
been in any former pe aa 
To the fum juit eee ie three millions paid aH in 
‘the peace between 1748 and 17 i 
1736 and 1737, and it wall appear that. the whole amount 
f the public debts pee o by | the finking fund, fince its 
firft alienation in' 1733, 
tion o the 
rican war, was only os aaliaes nd a ad no fu 
alienation ever taken place ; had ev en half i its annual produce 
been inva youel appl ied to the purpofe for which it was 
igi the whole debt would have been re- 
mi 
been prevented. 
continued with equal force, during-the whole interval of 
peace of eleven years without sd a ewan profped of 
being diminifhed by any pruden nomy in the.” ma- 
nagement of publ affairs, the ere ae itfelf to be 
plunged into a war with the hope of being relieved from a 
part “of its burdens, by compelling the colonifts to bear a 
a in the fupport of them. Unfortunately, howeve eYy 
ie) 
ommencement amount 6 millions, h ted 
at its termination in 1783 to more than n t 
his period.the feveral changes in the miniftry prevented 
pub es. Th 
North, if they ae been fo iipofe d, 
ey a 
with 
