DEBT, NATIONAL. 
extraordinary receipts, amounting in the 
whole to above eight millions. The sinking 
fund, therefore, did not pay off more than 
two millions and a half, the rest of its pro- 
duce having been employed in bearing the 
expences of the peace establishment, which 
during that period were not much less than 
double what they had been in any former 
period. 
At the commencement of the American 
war, then considered as little more tlian a 
partial insurrection, which would be speedi- 
ly suppressed, the resources and perseve- 
ance of the colonists were much under- 
rated : it was not, therefore, deemed neces- 
sary to incur any great expence for the 
purpose of subduing them; but when the 
interference of France extended the opera- 
tions of the war in all directions, very seri- 
ous exertions became requisite, and the ex- 
penditure was in consequence augmented 
fer beyond its amount in former wars. The 
sums which it was necessary to borrow thus 
increased from two millions to five, seven, 
and twelve millions, and in 1782 the loan was 
thirteen millions and a half. The apparent 
magnitude ofthe, debt was also much increas- 
ed by the practice of entitling the subscribers 
to the loans to a larger capital of stock than 
the money advanced, by which means, for the 
total sum of 76,500,000/. borrowed during 
this war, including the loan of 1784, a debt 
was created of 97,400,000/., exceeding the 
money borrowed by 21,900,000/. The in- 
terest payable on the whole amounted to 
4,119,125/. per annnum, being equal to 
51. 9s. Id. per cent on the sums borrowed. 
In addition to these sums, a veiy consider- 
able amount of navy debt was funded after 
the conclusion of the war, which being pro- 
perly part of the expences of it, makes the 
total debt incurred by the American war 
amount to 115,267,992/., and the interest 
payable thereon 5,012,562/. per annum. 
The total amount of the national debt, 
funded and unfunded, including a valuation 
of the terminable annuities at their current 
prices, was, on the 5th January, 1786, 
268,100,379/. and the amount of the annual 
interest 9,512,232. At this period, the ge- 
neral conviction of the absolute necessity of 
some provision being made for the gradual 
reduction of the debt, induced government 
to propose the establishment of a new sink- 
ing fund, under regulations wliich rendered 
it a considerable improvement on the fund 
formerly established for the same purpose. 
But although the revenue was represented 
as sufficiently productive to furnish a con- 
siderable surplus for this puipose, which, 
witli a few new taxes, would amount to a 
million per anmun, it was found necessary 
in 1789 to borrow towards the supplies 
1,002,140/. on a tontine, and 187,000/. on 
short annuities. 
The total amount of the national debt, 
as it stood in 1792, being the year previous 
to the war with the French republic, 
was, according to the official statement, 
238,231,248/. ; but including the value of the 
terminable annuities, and the amount of the 
unfunded debt, the total was 268,267,272/. 
the annual interest and allowance for ma- 
nagement on which amounted to 9,752,673/. 
From this amount, however, a deduction 
of more than eight millions is to be made 
for the stock which had been bought up at 
that period by the commissioners for the 
reduction of the debt. The magnitude of 
the sums borrowed in the course of the war 
which began in 1793, and the circumstance 
of the loans being chiefly made on 3 per 
cent, stock, caused an unparalleled increase 
of the national debt, attended with a great 
depreciation of the current prices of the 
public funds, which obliged the government 
to pay a very high interest for the money 
borrowed. In the years 1797 and 1798, it 
was found impracticable to raise the sums 
required without paying upwards of 6 per 
cent, interest, being a higher rate than had 
been paid on any money borrowed for the 
public service since the reign of Queen 
Anne. In the latter years of the war, large 
sums being levied by extraordinary taxes, 
the amount of tlie loans was rendered 
somewhat less than it otherwise must have 
been ; they were still, however, of unpre- 
cedented magnitude: and in 1802, after 
the conclusion of the war, it was found 
necessary to borrow twenty-five millions 
more, to make good expenses of the war 
which had not been provided for. The 
total -amount of the loans of this war was 
200,500,000/. by which a debt was created 
of 310,424,323 ; to this must be added the 
amount of stock created by funding Navy 
and Exchequer bills, making the total 
amount of funded debt incurred by the war 
351,125,730/. and the interest payable 
thereon 11,676,144/. per ann. This is exclu- 
sive of the Imperial loans, which there can 
be little doubt will remain a perpetual bur- 
then to this country. 
Among otlier financial occurrences of tliis 
period, the public debt of Ireland became 
in a great measure blended with that of 
Great Britahv'fi'om which it had hitherto 
