1807.] 
ever prevent the redemption of a fum 
equal to the prefent debt in as fhort a 
pas as that in which it would have 
een redeemed if this new plan had not 
been brought forwards. Nor will the 
final redemption of any fupplementary 
loans be pottponed beyond the period of 
forty-five years preferibed by the act of 
1792 for the extinétion of all future loans. 
While each of the annual war loans will 
be fucceflively redeemed in fourteen 
years from the date of its creation, fo 
long as war fhall continue; and when- 
ever peace thall come, will be redeemed 
always within a period far fhort of the 
forty-five years required by the above- 
mentioned att. 
In the ‘refult therefore of the whole 
meature, there will not be impofed any 
new taxes for the firft three years from 
this time. New taxesoflefs than 00,0001. 
on an average of feven years from 1810 
to 1616, both inclutive, are all that will 
be neceffary, in order to procure for 
the country the full benefit and advan- 
tages of the plan here defcribed; which 
will continue for twenty years; during 
the laft ten of which again no new taxes 
whatever will be required. 
Jt appears, theretore, that parliament 
will be enabled to provide for the pro- 
longed expenditure of a-neceflary war, 
without violating any right or intereft 
whatever, and without impofing further 
burdens on the country, except toa fmall 
and limited amount: and thefe purpofes 
will be attained with benefit to the pub- 
hic creditor, and in ftriét conformity both 
to the wife principles on which the 
Sinking Fund was ettablifhed, and to the 
feveral acts of parliament by which it has 
been regulated, 
It is admitted that if the war fhould be 
prolonged, certain portions of the war 
taxes, with the exception of the property 
tax, will be more or lefs pledged for pe- 
riods, in no cafe exceeding fourteen 
years. How far fome parts of thofe taxes 
are of a defcription to remain in force 
after the war; and what may be the pro- 
vifion to be made hereafter for a peace 
eilablifhment, probably much larger than 
in former periods of peace ; are contider- 
ations which at prefent need not be 
anticipated, ; 
Tt is reafonable to affume, that the 
means and refources which can now 
matutain the prolonged expenditure of an 
extenfive war, wil! be invigorated and in- 
creafed by the return of peace, and sill 
then be found amply fufiicient for the ex- 
igencies of the public fervice. Thofe ex- 
State of Public Affairs in February. 
179 
igencies muft at all events be comparat 
tively fmall, whatever may {till be the 
troubled and precarious circumftances of 
Europe. 
Undoubtedly there prevails in the 
country a difpofition to make any further 
facrifices that the fafety, independence, 
and honour of the nation may require: 
but it would be an abufe of that difpefic 
tion, to apply it to unneceffary and over 
firained exertions. And it muft not pafs 
unobferved, that in the fuppofition of a 
continued war, if the loans for the ane 
nual expenditure fhould be raifed accors 
ding to the fyftem hitherto purfued, per . 
manent taxes muft be impofed, amounte 
ing in the period affumed, ‘to thirteen 
millions additional revenue. Such an 
addition would add heavily to the public 
burthens, and would be more felt after 
the return of peace than a temporary. con-= 
tinuance of the war-taxes. In the mean 
tune and amidft the other evils of war, 
the country would be fubjected to the ac- 
cumulated preffure of all the old revenues, 
and of the war-taxes, and of mew per= 
manent. taxes. . 
The means of effeciuating a plan of 
fuch immenfe importance, arife partly 
from the extent to which the fyftem of 
the Sinking Fund has already been car 
ried in purfuance of the intentions of its 
author; and partly from the great exer- 
‘tions made by parliament, during the 
war, to raife the war taxes t» their prefent 
very large amount, It now appears that 
the ttrong meafure adopted in the laft 
feffion, by which all the war taxes, and 
‘particularly the property tax, were fo 
much augmented, was a ttep taken not 
merely with a view to provide for prefent 
necellities, but in order to lay the foun« 
dation of a fyftem which fhould be ade- 
quate to the full exigencies of this unexe 
pected crifis, and fhould combine the two 
apparently irreconcileable objects, of re- 
heving the public from all future preflure 
of taxation, and of exhibiting to the 
enemy refources by which we may defy 
tis implacable hoftility to whatever pe- 
riod it may be prelonged. 
4. A new Syfiem of Poor Laws elo- 
quently introduced by Mr. Whitbread, 
and a fubje¢t of too great magnitude to 
be prematurely difenfled within the {pace 
which we can this month allow. Our 
correfpondeuts will, however, pleafe to 
conlider this mifcellany as being open te 
their temperate pyactical obfervations. 
The following is the apportionment of 
200,000 men, out of 820,420; being the 
whole number returned as hable to 
Z2 ferye 
