SINKING FUND. 
confining them within moderate bounds; 
and among others, the plan of such a sink- 
ing fund as was afterwards actually esta- 
blished was clearly laid down in a pamphlet, 
entitled, A Letter to a Member of the 
late Parliament concerning the Debts of 
the Nation,” published in 1701. In I?!.", 
Mr. A. Hutcheson presented to the King a 
plan for payment of the public debts. In 
1715, different projects for this purpose 
were published by Edward Leigh, Mr. As- 
gill, and others. And, in 1716, a plan for 
the gradual discharge of the debt was actu- 
ally adopted, which was afterwards general- 
ly known by the appellation of the sinking 
fund. Sir Robert Walpole claimed great 
merit as the father of this fund, though it cer- 
tainly required very little knowledge or in- 
dention to copy apian which had been found 
enccessful in other countries, and which had 
been publicly recommended many years be- 
fore; but whatever claims Sir R. Walpole 
mightbaveto tbeformation of the plan, he in- 
tlisputably has all the disgrace of having per. 
verted and destroyed it. The act by wiiich 
it was established was worded as strong as 
possible, and expressly ordained, that the 
fund should be applied to flie discharge of 
the public debts, and to no other use or- 
purpose whatsoever; but, in 1.722, it was 
made a collateral security for the interest of 
a million raised on exchequer bills, which 
prepared the way for raoi-e direct encroach- 
ments. In 1724, a sum was taken from the 
fund to make good the loss to the treasury 
from the reduction of the value of gold coin ; 
and in 1727 the whole produce of the civil 
list revenues were settled on the King, by 
which the sinking fund was deprived of 
about 100,000^. per annum, to which the 
surplus of these revenues had usually amount- 
ed. In 1733 the gross sum of half a million 
was taken from the fund towards the cur- 
rent supplies, at which time the medium 
annual produce of the fund for five years 
bad been 1,212,000; but the alienation of 
it being continued by charging it with the 
interest of new loans, taking sums from it 
towards the supplies, and even anticipating 
its produce, little progress was made in the 
reduction of the debt, and at length the sink- 
ing fund became a mere nominal distinction. 
The ruinous tendency of a continual ac- 
cumulation of public dejjts was strongly 
pointed out by various writers on subjects 
cf policy and finance; but by none with 
more zeal and ability than the late Dr. 
Price, who, about the year 1769, offered to 
the public some observations on the national 
^bt, ia the third chapter of hit Observa- 
tions on Reversionary P<Synients,” in which 
he particularly recommended the establish- 
ment of a permanent sinking fund, on the 
principle of that established by Sir Robert 
Walpole, but of which the efficacy had 
been so soon destroyed. In 1771, in an 
“ Appeal to the Public on the Subject of 
tlie National Debt,” be showed that the 
best scheme for paying off the debt, was 
that wiiich bad long been known, which 
had been adopted, but unhappily cruslitd 
in its infancy; and in 1773, in the prefaefe 
to the third edition of his “ Treatise on Re- 
v'ersionary Payments,” lie took the opportu- 
nity of again enforcing the necessity of re- 
storing the plan formerly established, -aiid 
securing it from future perversion. This 
advice w-as reiieatedly urged on subsequent 
occasions ; and in 1785, when Mr. Pitt was 
delilierating on the best means of establish- 
ing a new sinking fimd, he particularly 
sought the advice and assistance of Dr. 
Price, who communicated three plans, which 
appeared to liim the best adapted for carry- 
ing into execution a measure he bad so long 
and so earnestly recommended. It was 
one of the three plans thus coinraiinicated 
which was afterwards adopted ; but w'ith 
some alterations which considerably affected 
its effifcacy, and wliicli it has since been 
found necessary to correct. 
By the act pas.sed in 1786, for establish- 
ing the new sinking fund, the annual sum of 
one million was placed in the hands of 
commissioners, wlio are, the Speaker of the 
House of Commons, the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, the Master, of the Rolls, the. 
Aceomptaut General of the Court of Chan- 
eery, and the Governor and Deputy Go- 
vernor of the Bank of England for the time 
being respectively. This niiilion was to be 
issueil in four equal quarterly payments, and 
to be applied either in paying off such re- 
deemajjle- annuities as shall be at or above 
par, in such manner as may be directed by 
future acts of parliament, or in the purchase 
of annuities below par at the market price. 
The dividemis on the sums redeemed or 
purchased, with the annuities for lives or 
terms of years that fall in or expire, ant} the 
sums which may be saved by any reduction 
of interest, were to be added to the fimd, 
vfhich, according to the original act, was to 
continue thus increasing till it amounted to 
four millions per annum ; which it was then 
computed would be about the year 1812, 
when upwards of fifty-six millions of stock 
would be redeemed. From this time the 
dividends on such capital as should in future 
be paid off ov purchased by the commit 
