S I N 
€76 SIN 
ed, with fne annuities for lives or terms (hat 
should fall in or expire, and the sums which 
might be saved by any reduction of interest, 
were to be added to the fund, which was thus 
to continue increasing til! it amounted to four 
millions annually; this it was computed would 
be in abou-t 26 years, when upwards of 56 
millions of stock would have been redeemed, 
from which time the dividends on such capital 
as should afterwards be paid off or purchased 
by the commissioners, with such annuities as 
might fall in, were to be at the disposal of 
parliament. 
On the 1 7th of February, 1792, Mr. Pitt 
proposed that the sum of 400,000/. should be 
jssued in addition to the million, for the pur- 
pose of accelerating the operation of this 
fund; and stated, that in consequence of this 
and future intended additions, it might be ex- 
pected that 25 millions of 3 per cents, would 
be paid off by the year 1800 ; and that in the 
year 1808, the fund would amount to four 
millions per annum, being the sum to which 
it was then restricted. But the most impor- 
tant improvement was a provision, that when- 
ever, in future, any sums should be raised by 
loans on perpetual redeemable annuities, a 
sum equal to one per cent, on the stock cre- 
ated by such loans, should be issued out of 
the produce of the consolidated fund, quar- 
terly, to be placed to the account of the com- 
missioners, who were to keep a separate ac- 
count of the stock redeemed by this new fund, 
which was not to affect the accumulation of 
the original fund. By these means the im- 
mediate progress of the fond was quickened, 
and future loans were put into a regular 
course of redemption. 
'Phe injudicious restriction of the fond to 
four millions per annum, was done away by 
an act passed in 1802, which directed that 
the produce of the two funds should continue 
to accumulate, without any limitation as to 
its amount, and be from time to time ap- 
plied, according to the former provisions, in 
the redemption or purchase of stock, until 
the whole of the perpetual redeemable an- 
nuities, existing at the time of passing the 
act, shall have been completely redeemed 
*>r paid off. At the same time, the usual 
annual grant of 200,000 /. in aid of the fund, 
was made a permanent charge, to be issued 
in quarterly payments from the consolidated 
fund, in the same manner as the original mil- 
lion per annum. In consequence of these 
improvements, the increase of the fond has 
been much greater than it was originally esti- 
mated ; and its total amount, with the sources 
from which it arose, was on the 1st of Feb- 
ruary, 1806, as follows : 
Annual charge, by act of 
26 Geo. ill. " £. 1,000,000 0 0 
Ditto, 42 Geo. III. - 200,000 0 0 
Annuities for 99 and 96 
years, expired 1792 54,880 14 6 
Short annuities, expired 
1787 - 25,000 0 0 
Life annuities, unclaimed 
and expired - - 50,308 5 7 
Dividend on 98,386,402/. 
at 3 per cent. - 2,951,592 1 2 
Ditto on 2,617,400/. at 4 
percent. - - 104,696 0 0 
Ditto on 142,000/. at 5 
per cent. - - 7, 1 00 0 0 
S I N 
One per cent, on capitals 
created since 1723 <£.3,202,672 1 10 
Total A. 7, 596,249 3 I 
This sum is exclusive cf the fund for the 
reduction of the pub He debt of Ireland, fund- 
ed in Great Britain, which at the above pe- 
riod amounted to 479,537/. 85. and of the 
fund for reduction of the imperial debt, 
which amounted to 55,960/. 9s. Ad. 
The commissioners are directed by the 
act to make their purchases “ in equal por- 
tions, as nearly as may be, on every day 
(Saturdays and Mondays excepted) on which 
the same shall be transferable.” So that 
they purchase on four days in every week 
iti which there are no holidays. They are 
empowered to subscribe towards any public 
loan, to be raised by act of parliament, 
upon perpetual annuities, subject to re- 
demption at par : and an account of the sums 
issued to them, and of the stock purchased 
to the 1st of February in every year, is to 
be. annually laid before parliament on or be- 
fore the 15th of February. The purchases, 
at first, were all made in the 3 per cents, pro- 
bably with the view of redeeming the live 
per cents, if ^ the state of the public funds 
should render such a measure practicable, or 
of inducing the proprietors to agree to a re- 
duction of the interest at the time when they 
should become redeemable. 
The progress of the fund from the com- 
mencement of its operation on 1st August 
1786, to the 1st February 1806, will appear 
from the following statement of the total 
amount of the stock redeemed by the com- 
missioners up to the latter period. 
Consolidated 3 per cent, an- 
nuities - - £. 39, 922, 421 
Reduced 3 per cent, an- 
nuities - - 51,493,981 
Old South Sea annuities 3,492,000 
New South Sea annuities 2,733,000 
Three per cents. 1751 - 695,000 
Consolidated 4 per cent. 
annuities - - 2,617,400 
Navy 5 per cent, annuities 142,000 
Total £. 10 1,145,802 
The total sum which had been paid for this 
am aunt of stock, was 62,S4*2,782 /. 7s. 10 d. 
the consolidated 3 per cents, having been 
bought up on an average at 6 1 /. percent, 
and the reduced at somewhat less. 
The progress already made by the fund, 
and the important effect it has had in sup- 
porting the value of the government secu- 
rities at a time when it has been necessary to 
borrow unprecedented sums in almost every 
year, sufficiently demonstrate the great uti- 
lity of this measure. As its increase will be 
continually augmenting, it will, if steadily 
persevered in, and faithfully applied, become 
ultimately capable of discharging a debt of 
any amount which it is possible to suppose 
the country will everbr encumbered with. 
It has been shewn that the fund, including 
Hie provision for the reduction of the debt in 
Ireland funded in Great Britain, and for tire 
imperial loans, amounts at present to upwards 
of eight millions per annum'; and as the 
stock has been bought up at little more than 
60 per cent, the money has been improved 
at nearly 5 per cent, interest. It is neither 
$ I N 
desirable, nor to be expected, that it will al- 
ways be possible to invest the produce of the 
Rind at this rate uf interest; but it will be 
shewn that if the fond is never diverted from 
its purpose, its effects will in time be almost 
omnipotent, particularly when it is consider- 
ed that the- following sums are money, and 
consequently much less than the nominal 
capital ot stock that would be bought up at 
any of the current prices at which these se- 
curities have been for many years past: 
Amount to which the present sinking fund 
of eight millions per annum will accumulate,, 
it improved at 4 or 5 per cent, compound 
interest. 
4 per 
5 per 
cent. 
cent. 
Years. 
Millions. 
Millions. 
In 1810 
33 
34 
1820 
146 
156 
1830 
312 
356 
1840 
558 
680 
1850 
923 
1209 
I860 
1463 
2070 
1870 
2261 
3472 
1880 
3443 
5757 
1890 
5193 
9478 
1900 
7,782 
15540 
SINNL 1 , on board a ship, a line or 
string made of rope-yarn, consisting general- 
ly of two, six, or nine strings, which are di- 
vided into three parts, and are platted over 
one another, and then beaten smooth and 
flat with a wooden mallet. Its use is to save 
the ropes, or to keep them from galling. 
SINOVIA. Within the capsular liga- 
ments of the different joints of the body, there 
is contained a peculiar liquid, intended to 
lubricate the parts to facilitate their motion. 
The only analysis of sinoviais-of that taken 
from oxen. 
The sinovia of the ox, when it has just 
flowed from the joint, is a vi eid semitrans- 
parent fluid, of a greenish-white colour, and 
a smell not unlike frog-spawn. It very soon 
acquires the consistence of a jelly ; and this 
happens equally whether it is kept in a cold 
or a hot temperature, whether it is exposed 
to (he air or excluded from it. This consist- 
ence does not continue long ; the sinovia soon 
recovers again its fluidity, and at the same 
time deposits a thready-like matter. 
Sinovia mixes readily with water, and im- 
parts to that liquid a great deal of viscidity. 
The mixture froths when agitated ; becomes 
milky when boiled, and deposits some pelli- 
cles on the sides of the disli ; but its viscidity 
is not diminished. 
When alcohol is poured into sinovia, a 
white substance precipitates, which has all 
the properties of albumen. One hundred' 
parts of sinovia contain 4.52 of albumen. The 
liquid still continues as viscid as ever ; but if 
acetic acid is poured into it, the viscidity 
disappears altogether, the liquid becomes 
transparent, and deposits a quantity of matter 
in white threads, which possesses the follow- 
ing properties: 1. it has the colour, smell, 
taste, and elasticity, of vegetable gluten, o’ 
It is soluble in concentrated acids and pure 
alkalies. 3. It is soluble in cold water; the 
solution froths. Acids and alcohoi precipi- 
tate the fibrous matter in flakes. One hun- 
dred parts of sinovia contain il.86 of this 
matter, 
