& National Debt—Inquiries in Italian Literature. [Feb. 1, 
this kingdom :—there can be no doubt but 
that they muft be borne by it; and there 
was a time, I believe, when he maintained 
the fame opinion. The only effect, there- 
fore, of my miftake has been, to givea 
gentleman credit for more confiftency than 
he appears to have deferved. 
I cannot conclude thefe obfervations 
without noticing one part of O. P’s paper, 
which betrays fome thing worfe than va- 
nity in the writer of it. The paflage to 
which I allude, reprefents Mr. Morgan 
as having been guilty of a grofs want of 
fairnefs and candour, in omitting to de- 
du& from his account the ftock purchafed 
by the Commiffioners; or, as it is called 
in another place, the fawings made by 
Mr. Pitt, with the view, ro doubt, of 
mifleading the public and terrifying them 
with idle apprehenfions refpecting the 
enormity of the national-debt. But while 
Mr. Morgan is accufed of this criminal 
omiffion in his ftatements, he is allowed 
in the very fame fentence to have obferved 
in a note, ‘that 52,281,656]. of the ca- 
pital had been redeemed by the Commil- 
fioners, &c.;"" fo that the charge of un- 
fairnefs and want of candour feems to have 
been urged againft him, merely on account _ 
of his having chofen to notice the reduc- 
tion of the debt in a note, rather than in 
the body of his work. In writing his 
«¢Comparative View of the Finances,” 
Mr. Morgan’s principal defign feems to 
have been, to lay before the public an ac- 
count of the money aétually expended dur- 
ing Mr. Pitt’s adminiftration ; and in or- 
der to this, it was neceffary that he fhould 
give the whole amount of the debt at the 
clofe, as well as at the beginning of that 
adminiftration. Wher therefore he de- 
clares, ‘*in an unqualified manner,” that 
the capital had been accumulated from 
two hundred and thirty-two to five 
hundred and fifty-eight millions, he de- 
clares, very properly, that the mafs of the 
debt had been increafed three hundred and 
twenty-fix millions, during the lucklefs 
period in which Mr. Pitt had the manage- 
ment of the finances of this country. Had 
he deduéted the ftock redeemed, he would 
have given an inadequate idea of the ex- 
penditure; for this redemption is the ef- 
fedt, not of the Minifter’s favings, as 
©. P. abfurdly imagines, but almolt 
wholly of new taxes, to the amount of 
three millions a year, which have been im- 
pofed for that {pecial purpole; and which, 
en. the moft favourable hypothefis, muft 
be continued at leaft during this genera- 
tion*. In whatever degree, therefore, 
Suture ages may be beneficed by the re- 
demption, it is as certain that thofe of the 
prefent age will have to bear the whole 
weight of five hundred and fifty-eight mil- 
ions, as that they are indebted for the 
greater part of their load to the prodiga- 
lity and extravagance of the late Admi- 
nitration. It is to be hoped that O. P. 
in future will have the precaution to un- 
derftand a book, before he ventures to be 
fo harfh in his comments upon it; and that 
he will.make himfelf better acquainted 
with an author, before he reproaches him 
with improper: motives for his conduct. 
Mr. Morgan muft have been weak indeed, 
either in fuppofing that he could deceive 
the public by the fhallow artifice imputed 
to him by this writer, or in having re- 
courfe at all to deceit where it was fo com- 
pletely ufelefs. The plain and honeft 
truth was abundantly fufficient for his 
purpofe; and he could have given as little 
weight to his argument by magnifying-a 
debt which exceeds five hundred millions, 
as by attempting to exaggerate the profu- 
fion which, in /e/s than nine years, created 
the greater part of it. M. N. 
London, 
Fanuary 8th, 1802. 
: 2S 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
he is impoffible to read the fpecimens 
exhibited in the Hifforical Memoir on 
Italian Tragedy, p. 318, of the Ari/tedeme 
of the Abate Monti, without feeling in- 
terefted for the author. Perhaps fome of 
your Italian Correfpondents could ac- 
quaint me with his fate. I hope he was 
not involved in the ruin of the unfortunate 
Pius, with whom he was, I believe, off- 
cially connected. . 
Has the poem by Monti, entitled Iz 
Morte di Ugo Baffeville, yet appeared in 
an Englifh drefs? If it has not, would 
it not feem from the analyfis of it, given in 
the above work, p. 327, to be highly de- 
ferving the notice of the Englifh readers? 
A good verfion of Monti’s tragedies is 
alio to be wifhed for. ‘They are certainly 
dramatic productions of the firft order. 
M. Todd, in his valuable edition of 
* Should the Income-tax ever accomplith 
its purpofe, fome obfequious writer will no 
doubt be then found, to congratulate the 
country on the economy of a Minifter who, 
by his fawings, has difcharged fifty-fx mil- 
lions of the public debt! 
the 
