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million, were to draw bills to the amount 
‘of two hundred thousand pounds, in 
order to pay~his share of the national 
debt, who would be found able or willing 
to discount them, especially if the Bank 
of England were prohibited, as it ought 
to -be, and as indeed it is fram the 
nature of things, from increasing its dis- 
counts? No doubt the paper-money of 
this country is gradually increased ; and 
this is an evil which ought, and I believe 
right, be remedied by means which I may 
hereafter point out; but it appears ut- 
terly impossible that any considerable 
guantity of circulating medium can be 
saddenly forced into circulation without 
producing a depreciation in its value 
greater even than the amount of the 
extra issue.. Unless therefore there be 
already existing a quantity of circulating 
medium sufficient for the purpsse, it 
would be altogether impracticable to dis- 
charge the national debt by its direct 
payment in currency: and even if there 
were, it would be next to impossible for 
the great proprietors of land to procure 
sufficient of it for their purpose. It is 
in this light that the Edinburgh reviewers, 
in their critique on the bishop’s “in- 
tended speech,” consider the matter, 
and with this opinion I think every re- 
fleeting person must coincide. 
Taking it for granted then that the 
national debt cannot be discharged by a 
direct payment in specie, I shall be 
asked, how is it to be discharged? I 
answer, It may be done in two ways: 
either by the owners of lands and houses 
making an_actual transfer of such part of 
them (say 4th) as would be equivalent to 
the proportion each would have to pay 
of the national debt, or (which would be 
much better, for reasons which I shall 
hint at bye and bye) by charging on their 
whole estates an annual sum equal to 
the interest at 5 per cent. of the capital 
each would have to pay. Suppose, for 
instance, a person was possessed of houses 
and land, which, when valued as proposed 
in my pamphlet, were found to be worth 
ten thousand pounds. Now +th of this, 
or 2000]. would be the sum he would 
have to pay towards discharging the 
national debt, and the interest of it at 
5 percent, would be 100I.; with this sum 
therefore, such an estate should be 
charged annually to what might be called 
the debt-tax, instead of being levied 
upon at once for the capital, it would 
have been liable to contribute for its 
proportion to the national debt. This 
annual sum, or debt-tax, should be paid 
Pracitcability of discharging the National Debt. [June 1 
in quarterly or half-yearly instalments to 
the Bank of England, and be by them 
paid in the usual way to the stock- 
holders. This example will be sufficient 
to explain my meaning with respect to 
the mode of transferring that part of the 
debt which would fall to the share of the 
land and houses. 
Let us rextinquire what would be the 
general effect of the adoption of such a 
plan. Ifwe suppose the landed buildings 
to be equal in value to ths of all the ex- 
isting property in the country, which 
perhaps is not an extravagant estimate, 
we shall, by an arrangement of this 
kind, get rid of nearly 269 millions, or 
4:ths of all which the public would have to 
pay to the stockholder without the trans- 
fer of a single shilling, without making 
the least change in the relative situation 
of any individual, and without the fa- 
brication of a single pound note. There 
would remain therefore only about 66 
millions to be settled by a transfer of 
specie, and this might be effected without 
much difficulty in the course of five 
years, by twenty quarterly payments of 
34 millions each, charging to each per- 
son the regular interest which feti to his 
share, till the whole of his debt was paid. 
off. 
Tn order to render the transfer of spe- 
cie as small as possible, it should be 
provided that lands and houses under 
mortgage should be reckoned at their 
full value, and pay to the debr-tax in the 
same proportion as those not under 
mortgage. But the owners would be 
authorised to deduct from the annual 
interest due to the mortgagee a sum 
equal to the interest of that which he 
(the mortgagee) would have had to pay 
to the stockholder on account of such 
money, as his proportionate part for 
discharging the national debt. Money 
‘therefore on mortgage would not be 
directly liable to the debt-tax, but indi- 
rectly through the medium of the real 
property on the security of which it was 
put toimterest. By this means we should 
provide, that the whole rental of the 
land and houses would be charged to the 
debt-tax, which would not be the case 
if mortgaged property were exempted 
from it for the amount of the money for 
which it was under mortgage; if this ex- 
emption took place, it is evident that a 
greater transfer of specie (a thing which 
ought as much as possible to be avoidedy 
would be required to complete the pay- 
ment of the national debt. When mo- 
ney was paid in which had been lent on 
mortgage, 
