S05 
ENGLAND. 
If to this eftimate be added thofe of the ports of Liver¬ 
pool, Briftol, See. how enormous mu ft be the amount ! 
On the introduction of the income tax, in the year 
1798, Mr. Pitt gave the following eftimate of the annual 
rental of Great Britain : 
The land rental, after deducting one-fifth . £ 20,000,000 
Tenant’s rental of land, deducting two-thirds 
of the rack-rent.6,000,000 
Amount of tythes, deducting one-fifth .... 4,000,000 
Produce of mines, canal navigation, See. de. 
duCting one-fifth. 3,000,000 
Rental of houfes, deducting one-fifth .... 5,000,000 
Profits of profeffions. 2,000,000 
Rental of Scotland, taking it at one-eighth of 
that of England. 5,000,000 
Income of perfons refident in Great-Britain, 
drawn from poffeffions beyond the feas . . 5,000,000 
Amount of annuities from the public funds, 
after deducting one-fifth for exemptions and 
modifications.12,000,000 
Profits on the capital employed in our foreign 
commerce.12,000,000 
Profits on the capital in domeftic trade, and 
the profits of Ikill and induftry.28,000,000 
Total ^102,000,000 
By others, the landed property of Great Britain has 
been computed at the rental of 33,000,0001. which, at 
thirty years purchafe, would yield 990,000,0001. ; the 
rental of houfes in England and Wales, ai 7,436,000k 
and eftimating that of Scotland at abouta fixth, the value 
at fifteen years purchafe, might be about 130,000,0001. 
The cattle and farming-ftock, about ioo.ooo.oool. the 
furniture, apparel, &c. 26,000,000!. The navy and mer- 
chant-lhips have been valued at 16,000,000!. ; the goods 
in the hands of merchants and wholefale dealers, more 
than 13,000,0001. and thofe in the hands of manufacturers 
and retail traders, more than 22,000,0001. Including the 
money, of which the eftimate is far from certain, the 
whole capital of Great Britain may be calculated at more 
than one thoufand two hundred millions. In the begin¬ 
ning of the eighteenth century, Gregory King eftimated 
the value of England and Wales at 650,000,0001. MS. 
Harl. No. 1,898. Againft the preceding rental and total 
valuation, is to be placed the national debt, which is now 
{July. 1804,) 484,162,6221. 7s. 3|d. 
The national debt, is the principal money due from the 
government to the public, borrowed through the medium 
of the joint ftock companies, to anfwer the immediate 
exigencies of the ftate. In order to trace the origin of 
this debt, we muft recollect, that after the revolution, 
when our new connections with Europe introduced a new 
fyftem of foreign politics, the expences of the nation, not 
only in fettling the new eftablithment, but in maintaining 
long wars, as principals, on the continent, for the fecurity 
of the Dutch barrier, reducing the French monarchy, 
fettling the Spanifh fucceflion, fupporting the Ivoufe of 
Auftria, maintaining the liberties of the Germanic body, 
and other purpofes, increafed to an unufual degree ; in- 
fomuch that it was not thought advifeable to 1'aife all the 
expences of any one year by taxes to be levied within that 
year, left the unaccii domed weight of them lhauld crufh 
the people. It was therefore the bad policy of the times, 
to mortgage the revenues of their pofterity, by borrowing 
immenfe fums for the current fervice of the ftate, and to 
lay no more taxes upon the fubjeCt than would fuffice to 
pay the annual intereft of the fums fo borrowed j by this 
means converting the principal debt into a new fpecies of 
property, transferable from one man to another, at any 
time, and in any quantity. A fyftem which feems to 
have had its origin in the ftate of Florence, A. D. 1344; 
which government then owed about 6o,oool. llerling ; 
and, being unable to pay it, formed the principal into an 
aggregate fum, called metaphorically, a nnpunt or bank j 
Vol. VI. No. 393. 
the fhares whereof were transferable like our ftock. This 
laid the foundation of what is called the national debt : 
and the example then fet, has been fo clofely followed 
during the long war's in the reign of queen Anne, and (ince 
her time to the prefent, that its amount is become a moft 
enormous fum. In order that every reader may form a 
competent idea of this interefting fubjeCt, we Ihall ftate 
its progrefs. 
In the year 1740, immediately before the com¬ 
mencement of the war, the principal money 
of the national debt amounted to .... ^46,382,650 
In 1749, immediately after the war.78,166,906 
Diminiftied by the peace from 1749 to 1755 . 3,089,641 
Amount at the beginning of the war, in 1755 75,077,264 
At the termination of that war, in 1763 . . 122,603,336 
In the year 1786, it was.266,755,203 
In 1793.227,989,000 
I n 180exclufive of imperial loan, &c. . . 400,709,000 
In July, 1804.481,162,622 
The intereft of which is 16,045,6911. annually. 
The certain revenues of the kings of England, were 
anciently greater than thofe of any king in Europe ; and 
till the time of the civil wars, they enjoyed in domains 
and fee-farm rents almoft enough to difeharge all the or¬ 
dinary expences of the crown, without any tax or irnpo- 
fition on the fubjeCt. The revenues which the Britilh 
conftitution hath veiled in the royal perfon, in order to 
fupport his dignity, and maintain his power, are either 
ordinary or extraordinary ; and of the ordinary revenues 
there are four of an ecclefiaftical kind: as, 1. The cuf- 
tody of the temporalities of vacant bifhoprics ; from 
which he receives little or no advantage. 2. Corodies 
and penfions, formerly arifing from allowances of meat, 
drink, and clothing, due to the king from an abbey or 
monaftery, and which he generally bellowed upon favou¬ 
rite fervants ; and his fending one of his chaplains to be 
maintained by the bilhop, or to have a penfion bellowed 
upon him till the bilhop promoted him to a benefice. 
Tliefe corodies are due of common right, but are now 
difufed. 3. Extra-parochial tithes. 4. The firft fruits 
and tenths of benefices. At prefent, fuch has been the 
bounty of the crown to the church, that thofe- four 
branches afford little or no revenue. The king’s ordinary 
temporal revenue confifts in, x. The demefne lands of the 
crown, which at prefent are contraifled within a narrow 
corripafs. 2. The hereditary excife; being part of the 
confideration for the purchafe of his feudal profits, and 
the prerogatives of purveyance and pre-emption. 3. An 
annual fum iffuing from the duty on wine licences ; being 
the refidue of the fame confideration. 4. His forefts. 
5. His courts of juftice, &c. Such is the king’s ordinary 
revenue, or the proper patrimony of the crown, which 
was formerly of a magnitude truly formidable ; but, for¬ 
tunately for the liberty of the fubjeCt, this hereditary 
landed revenue is now funk almoft to nothing ; and the 
cafual profits, arifing from the other branches of the 
cenfus regalis, are likewife moll of them alienated from the 
crown. In order to fupp.ly.the deficiencies of which, 
we have now recourfe to methods of railing money, which 
conftitute the king’s extraordinary revenue ; which are 
called by the fynonymous names of aids, fublidies, .fup- 
plies, &c. and are granted by the commons of Great 
Britain in parliament affembled ; and that part which goes 
to the maintenance of the royal perfon, with all its con¬ 
tingencies, is called the civil lijl. Thefe contingent ex-- 
pences are. all thofe which in any. Ihap.e relate to civil 
government ; fuch as the expences of the houfehold, all 
falaries to officers of ftate, to the judges, and every one 
of the king’s fervants ; the appointments to foreign am- 
baffadors, the maintenance of the queen and royal family,, 
the king’s private expences, or privy purfe, and other 
very numerous out-goings as fecret fervice-money, pen¬ 
fions, and other gratuities. Hence the civil lijl. is properly 
the whole of the king’s revenue in his own diliinCt capa- 
9 T city ; 
