102 
and the refult is, that One Hundred and 
Thirteen Millions of the National Debt, 
with its intereft, have thus been redeemed 
¢o the nation from its public creditors. 
The intereft of this amount of the redeem- 
ed ftock, and the annuity of one million 
regularly appropriated to this purpole, 
give to the Commiffioners an income for 
the current year (1806) of eight millions! 
The temporary advantages from the 
actual operation of this plan are of f{carce- 
ly lefS confequence to our public credit, 
than will be its ultimate benefits. “The 
large fums which the Commiffioners have 
every week at their difpofal, occafion per- 
fons who are defirous of felling their ftock, 
or converting it into money, to find no 
difficulty in meeting with purchafers. 
Hence it may be afferted, that at the Stock- 
Exchange there are at this time generally 
more buyers of ftock than fellers ; and 
the ftate of our national credit is fuch, 
that infead cf there being occafion, as 
fome defperate and ienorant politicians 
have ur ged, to pafs an Act of Parliament 
to Siabeuill the Debt, and ruin ali the 
Creditors of the nation at a blow, it will 
rather be neceffary in a few years to com- 
pel the national Creditors to receive back 
their money. 
To make thefe pofirions plain to the 
meanett capacity, I have calculated the 
future accumulations of the prefent reve- 
nue of the Commiffioners, at the fame rate 
of increafe which has hitherto attended the 
Sinking-Fund., That rate has hitherto 
been 5 per cent., and any perfon ordina- 
rily verfed in arithmetic may verify my 
calculations for his own fatis{action. 
The prefent annual income of the Com- 
miffioners for managing the Sinking- Fund, 
confifting of eight millions, will generate 
by the year 
1810, 
1820, 
the fum of £34,480,000 
156,700,000 
1830, 356,000,000 
an amount which will exceed the prefent 
National Debt !! !* 
At this point of my argument political 
* In 1840 the fum would be 6%0,500,0c0 
BELO GON is oc ae 1209,000,000 
I 3S60) 5 as) Pe 2070,000,0c0 
Ee af o AS saath NG Oe 34.72 5700,C0O 
Ber te cowl 5 oe ey een ere oe 575$7;000,000 
fums which outftrip any accumulation of 
new debt that the moft defponding politician 
gan.anticipate. 
There exifted no occafion for carrying the 
salculation beyond the year 1330, by which 
year, if the Sinking-Fund continues to be in- 
variably applied, the prefent debt will be ex- 
tinguifhed, and the load of taxes taken off 
which till then will be neceflary.to pay the 
annual interefs. The people of England, till 
On the Singing Fund and Public Debt. 
[ March ts 
croakers willexclaim, © But in the mear 
time what becomes of your new debts?— 
The war-expenditure of the country will 
require new Loans, and a new Debt will 
probably be accumulated equal in Amount 
tothe prefent.—How is this to be difpof- 
ed of ?—What are the funds by which it 
is to be difcharged ?” 
As many of your readers, Mr. Editor, 
may not have inveltigated with atten- 
tion the arcana of our financial fyftem, I 
fhail anfwer the foregoing queries by ex- 
plaining the provifion for future debts, 
which was alfo pointed out by De. Price, 
and which has been adopied by the Legif- 
lature. 
In 1792 it was enatted, that on all fu- 
ture loans a fum equal to one per cent. on 
the {tock created by fuch loans fhould be 
added to the Sinking-Fund as a provifion 
for their gradual and fueceflive redemp- 
tion. This appropriation of one percent. 
‘on every loan at the atorefaid increafe of 
§ per cente, amounts to rool. in 37 years, 
or at 4 per cent. intereft, in lefs than 42 
years. Therefore whatever addition is 
made to the debt every year, if fuch a fund 
of one per cent. be regularly allotted for 
its redemption, the total of tbat portion of 
debt muft in 37 or 42 years be difcharged. 
This provifion for difcharging all fu- 
ture loans may be fufhciently intelligible ; “ 
but thatit may be underitood by: every clafs 
of your readers, I fhall illufirate it by an 
example. 
If, to bring all the energies of thus 
ccuntry to bear upon our ambitious oppo- 
nent, it fhould be neceflary to borrow a 
fum of fifty millions to meet the expendi- 
ture of the current year (1806), in that 
cafe a further {um of one per cent. on the 
amount, or half a million, would alfo be 
borrowed and placed at the difpofal of the 
Commiffioners for managing the Sinking- 
Fund. This half-million would by them 
be immediately laid out in ftock, which, 
at compound- intereft, will amount in thir- 
ty-feven years, or in the year 1843, tothe 
faid fifty miilions and a half, being the 
fum borrowed. 
With thefe provifions, Sir, what, have 
we to fear from the war of Finance with 
which we have been threatened by certain 
‘fhallow politicians in France, who under- 
ftand as little of the Theory of the financial 
Refources of this country, as they do of the 
practical effects of PUBLIC CREDIT and 
PUBLIC CONFIDENCE, the Rocks upon 
which thofe Refources are founded ? 
CoMMON SENSE. 
London, February 14, 1806. 
that epoch, will be continually reminded, ioe 
the weight of their taxes, of the prodigality os 
the late Prime-Minifter, 
Ts 
