FUND. 
lly 
azeal which juftly enfitles him to tlie fiipport and praife of 
every true friend to this country, came forward with a plan 
for liquidating the national debt, upon the above princi¬ 
ple, by the application of one million per annum to the 
finking fund ; the money to be provided from the furpluf- 
fes and excelfes of the annual taxes; and, in cafe thofe 
taxes fliould be found Ihort of that amount, then the defi¬ 
ciency to be charged upon and made good by furtheraids. 
For the purpofe of enfuring the due application of this 
finking fund of i,ooo,oool. per annum to its deflined ob- 
jefl, it was propofed to veil in a certain number of com- 
midioners the full power of difpofing of it in the piirchafe 
of dock for the public in their own names r the fpeakerof 
the houfe of commons, the chancellor of the exchequer, 
the mafter of the rolls, the governor and deputy governor 
of the bank of England, and the accountant general of the 
court of chancery, were named amongft the commidioners, 
with a power to receive the annua! million by quarterly 
payments of 250,000!. each, to be ilfued out of the exche¬ 
quer before any other money, except the interert of the 
national debt. By thefe provifions, the fund would be 
feciired, and no deficiencies in the national revenues could 
affedt it, as all fuch were intended to be feparately pro¬ 
vided for by parliament. By recent calculations, as well 
as former, made upon this reform, it appears, that the ac. 
cumulating compound intereft on a million of money 
yearly, together with the annuities that muft naturally 
expire and fall into tiiat fund, in the courfe of twenty- 
eight years, will amount to fuch a fum, as will leave a 
furplusof four millions annually, to be applied, if necef- 
fary, to the exigencies of the date. The good policy of 
thus making the income of the nation fo far exceed its ex¬ 
penditure as to leave a million annually towards the li¬ 
quidation of the public debt, has been univerfally ac¬ 
knowledged ; and fo far as experience has hitherto been 
able to bear teftimony, the fcheme promifes to anfwer, 
in the fulled extent, the patriotic purpofes intended by 
it. To prove this, as well as to inform the reader more 
fully of the progrefs hitherto made, we diall here date 
what the commidioners have already done towards the re- 
duftion of the public debt, and what that debt amounted 
to at the commencement of the prefent year. 
Total amount of national debt of Great Britain on the 
5th January, 1805 . - /6o3,925,792 
Stock created by loan of 1805 . 38,700,000 
642,625,792 
Transferred for the redeaiption of tlie 
Iand-t.ax . . - 22,000,000 
620,625,792 
Redeemed by the commidioners for ma¬ 
nagement of the finking fund - 113,500,000 
Leaving as the amount on the 3id of 
January, 1806 . . . . 507,125,792 
In the lad year 1805, 7,615,167], 7s. 9d. were expended 
by the commidioners; and 1,906,1041. 17s. i|d. is to be 
applied in the quarter between the id of February and 
the id of May, 1806, It appears that the following 
dock has been purchafed between the 3d of February^ 
1805, and 31 d of January lad, viz. 
Capital Stock. Cadi paid. 
/6,093,000 3 per Cent. long An. i'3,570,573 5 6 
6,468,492 Red An. Confol. ... 3,804,486 18 3 
161,400 Old South Sea Ann. - - 96,562 15 o 
133,000 New South Sea Ann. - - 77,374 7 6 
22,000 3 per Cent. Ann. 1751 _ - 12,816 5 o 
92,021 Imp. 3 per Cent. Ann. - 53,403 16 6 
/12,972,913 
The intered of this 12,972,913!. of dock is 389,187!. 
7s. gd. which added to the amount of lad year gives 
nearly eight millions to be applied in the prefent year. 
Of this debt of 507 millions, nearly 100 millions condd 
®f 4 and 5 per cent, dock, which being converted into 
3 per cents, makes tlie total amount in 3 per cent, dock 
557 millions; and valuing the 3 percent, dock at 60 per 
cent, (which is tlie prefent average price,) the total ca¬ 
pital of the debt in money is 334 millions of pounds 
der’ing. 
The original providon of the fii-.king fund of a million 
per annum, with the additions that have dnee been made 
to it, and the dividends on dock bought up by the com- 
niidioners who manage tliat fund for tlie nation, amount 
altogether at this time to about 8,000,000 per annum. 
We have thus the evidence of facts, and of about twenty 
years experience to prove, that a dngle million per an- 
mini, laid by dnee 1786 for purpofes of accumulation, 
lias multiplied itfelf, on principles of compound intered, 
fo as to amount at this time to eight millions per annum ; 
and has created a capita! in the hands of the commidioners 
of upwards of a hundred and thirteen millions.—In other 
words, by the plan of that acute calculator. Dr. Price, 
the nation began about twenty years dnee to buy up its 
own debts. The fund appropriated for this purpofe was 
to be one million per annum, to be laid out in tlie pur-' 
chafe of fuch portions of dock as might be brought to 
market by the public. The commidioners li'ave dnee 
applied the intered arifing from the dock which they 
have purchafed, to the increafe of their funds ; and the 
refult i.<, that one hundred and thirteen millions of the 
national debt, with its intered, have thus been redeemed 
to the nation from its public creditors. The intered of 
this amount of the redeemed dock, and the annuity of one 
million regularly appropriated to this purpofe, give to 
the commidioners an income for the current year (1806) 
of eight millions ! 
The temporary advantages from the aftual operation 
of this plan, are of fcarcely lefs confequence to our pub¬ 
lic credit, than will be its ultimate benefits. The large 
films which the commidioners have every week at their 
difpofal, occafion perfonswlio are defiroiis of felling tlieir 
dock, or converting it into money, to find no difficulty 
in meeting with purchafers. Hence it may be alferted, 
that at the dock exchange there are at this time generally 
more buyers of dock than fellers; and the date of our 
national credit is fuch, that indead of there being occa¬ 
fion, as feme defponding perfons have urged, to pafs an 
aft of parliament to extinguilh the debt, and ruin all the 
creditors of the nation at a blow, it will rather be ne- 
ceflTary at fome didant period, to compel the national cre¬ 
ditors to receive back their money. To make thefe po- 
fitioiis plain to the meaned underdanding, we have cal¬ 
culated rhe future accumulations of the prefent revenue 
of the commiffioners, at the fame rate of increafe which 
has hitherto attended the finking-fund. That rate has 
hitherto been 5 per cent, and any perfon ordinarily verfed 
in uirithmetic may verify thefe calculations for his own 
fatisfadlion. The prefent annual income of the eom- 
miffioners for managing the finking-fund, confiding of 
eight millions, will generate by the 
Year 18 lO, the fum of /'34,480,000 
1820,-156,700,000 
1830, 
356,000,000 
an amount which will exceed the prefent national debt. 
However, in 1840 the fum would be 680,500,000 
in 1850 - - 1209,000,000 
in i860 - - 2070,000,000 
in 1870 - - 3472,700,000 
in 1880 - - 5757,000,000 
Aims which outdrip any accumulation of new debt that 
the mod del'ppnding politician can anticipate. 
There exifted no occafion for carrying the calculation 
beyond the year 1830, by which year, if the finking-fund 
continues to be invariably applied, the prefent debt will 
be extinguifhed, and the load of taxes taken off which 
till then will be necedary to pay the annual intered. 
But, fome will exclaim, “ In tlie mean time what be- 
comes of your new debts I —The war-expenditure of the 
r country 
