530 
daily bread. 
the lead has been feverely felt; and 
many conveniences, and many enjoy- 
ments, which formerly repaid their in- 
duftry, and cheered their hours ef: lei- 
fure, are now bevond their reach, Thete 
growing hardfhips it will not be thought 
unfair to impute, in a great degree, to 
the national debt, when it is recolle&ted, 
that the intereft, which now amounts to 
about twelve radians annually, is more 
than osha) alent to the whole expence 
“of the prefent ser in time of 
.peace. 
The injurious eperation af fica Sand. 
sing fyftem upon agriculture and com- 
erce, is. very apparent. The nume- 
"rous taxes which it creates, encumber 
‘both the landlord and the tenant with 
-burdens, which. difcourage their refpec- 
-tive exertions for the improvement of 
efiates. ; coke de oF es are enticed, 
-by the profpe& of making great profits 
in the funds, to iene see fuperfuous 
smoney in fpecul nek of ‘this Kind, ra- 
ther than to employ it in-agricultural 
improvements, or render it productive 
.of public benehit in:commercial concerns. 
‘The fame flattering inducement operates 
:uponethe merchant,-and the .manufac- 
turer, to divert a confiderable portion-of 
his capital out cf its natural channel into 
that of the fiocks.. Or. the-contrary, to 
‘thofe monied men, whe poficfs no fpirit 
ef adventure, and are more delirous of 
fecuring than increafing their property, 
the funds have offered an eafy method BF 
making a moderate advantave of their 
wealth, while itis entrufied in the hands 
of government. .Yhus, the funding 
{yfiem deprives young adventurers in 
trade of thofe aids, which they might 
ctherwife naturally expec from their 
uation) friends; and, at the fame time, 
ncourages 2dlenets by tempt ing many 
mediate who, without this refource, 
would ii ave employed their capital. in 
trade, to content themfelves with the oc- 
cupaticn of receiving, at {fated intervals, 
their annual income. It mutt de added 
that the tranfaction. of “the bufinels 
.of the ftecks, gives frequent occafion to 
fraudulent and iniquitous pra€tices, aiid 
is, at be&, a kind of unproduétive Ia- 
bour, w hick, however ‘beneficial it may 
pons to ‘certain individuals, 
1éal benefit to thé'pubhlic, 
Of itll greater magnitude dre the pe 
litical evils atrendant upon this fyftem 
The ‘acility with which it énables’a 
minifier to mult ply his refources ‘for a 
war, is a gfeat encourezement te ambi- 
4 
The Enquirer: 
By the middle claffes, too, 
~himfelf, after the dea 
"prior to the peace’ of Utrecht, 
is Of no. 
No. VIL. [ Aug. 
tious projects, which promife gain to the 
few at the expence of the many. Happy 
had it been for this country, had her 
military exertions been only called forth 
on neceflary occafions, and been confined 
within the moderate limits of her natu- 
al ftrength: we fhould then have efeaped 
. fome Gra iating difappointments, and 
3 
much wafte’ of blood and treafure. The 
vaft enterprizes which this fyftem has 
enabled us to undertake, have too much 
-diverted our national fpirit out of the 
commercial into the military channel, 
and have facrificed, on the altar of na- 
tional pride, innumerable honeft pea- 
fants and mechanics, who might other-~ 
wife, with infinite comfort to themfelvesy 
.and advantage to the public, have re- 
mained at the loom or the plow. While 
.the finews of the national ftrength have 
been thus ftrained, even to the hazard of » 
burfting, its political fpirit has been en- 
feebled by plenuful draughts from. the 
poifonous cup of corruption. The fund- 
ing fyftem has not only created a nume- 
souk train of immediate dependants on 
minifterial influence and favour, but has 
eftablifmed a conneétion of pecuniary in- 
tereft between government and its credi-~ 
sas by no means aes to the ex. 
ercife of public virtue.- ** Eumenes, one 
of Alexander’s:captains, who fet up for 
th of his: mafter, 
perfuaded his principal officers to lend 
him. great fums, after which they were 
forced to follow him for their own 
fecurity * 
Tothe prefent burdens and Bee tg 
riing from the funding fyftem, mut 
be added) the gloomy profpeét which it 
cpens in future times. Wahuft the plan 
of ‘¢a nation maintaining its war by 
nnually ale ittelf,”” was yet in its 
sifatuce before the perpesual. funds were 
eftablithed, Dean Swift called it a de- 
reid pcjeét, and faid of the projec- 
tor, who is fuppofed to have been Bithop 
Burnet, “be lived to fee fome of its fatal 
-confequences, whereof his children will 
not fee the end.” Even at that period, 
“the 
peop'e looked back with horror on the 
heavy y loads ot debt they had contracted, 
univerfally condemning thofe pernicious 
counfels whith had dcéafioned them 4.” 
Mr. Hume faid+t, about fifty years ago, 
- while the debt was not yet eighty million’, 
“ ither the nation mutt detiroy pub- 
lic wee. or. Sa credit will omey 
* Examiner, Nov XIIT. + Swilt’s Cone 
du of the Alies, + + Effay TAY ae 
the 

