rope, that it enables them, on the commence"ment of wars, to multiply their refources, for "the moment, perhaps twenty-fold." And, becaufe the funding-fyftem does multiply the refources of Great Britain, twenty-fold, you come out, in your zeal of patriotifm, to decry this fyftem, and thereby to enfeeble the ftate, and to cripple the nation. "Such are the civil tumults of his fpirits; He doubts, fformes, threatens, rues, complaines, implores!" Amid this civil tumult, you doubt, and complain, that the funding-fyftem anticipates and exhausts the public revenue, and tends to bring on peace, or defolation †. Thefe doubts, and complaints, muft be allowed to be in your best ftyle of probation. You fuppofe, that the public revenue is a specifie annuity, which may be impaired, but cannot be augmented. Is your fuppofition true? No. 1s your conclufion juft? No. And, experience. evinces, in oppofition to your theory, that the public revenue of this nation has not been exhausted; has conftantly increased, in proportion to the defires, and abilities of the people. Far from being, anticipated, it has been progreffively advancing in its amount, from the epoch of the funding-fyftem,, to the commencement of the prefent war. What you, however, want in argument, you endeavour to make up from the authority of HUME, with his ignorance of fact, and his inexperience in revenue.. I have already fhewn how little he knew of the † In p. 4. * In P. 5. ftate state of the country, either when he wrote, or when he died. The nation had advanced, and was advancing, with rapid progrefs, from infancy to youth. It continued to increafe from youth, at the date of his deceafe, with the fame rapidity, to manhood, even to the days, when you wrote your letter. You were, however, too busy, or too much pre-occupied, to fee that progrefs of the people, in all which can make a nation rich, energetic, and powerful. Without attending to that progress, no precife judgment can be formed of the ftate of the nation, or of the truth of your deduction. It was in order to enable you to form a true judgment; as to that progrefs, and the inferences deducible from it, that I laid before you fo many proofs, with regard to the continual augmentations of the produce of our land and labour, notwithftanding every obstruction. From those proofs, you may fee, that the income of our lands has greatly increased. From thofe documents, you may perceive, how much the profits of our manu factures, of our trade, and of our shipping, have augmented, under conftant encouragement. And, from thofe evidences you may alfo infer, how much the income of monied-men has, moreover, grown, under the influences of our conftitution. Now, it is by throwing together the several gains of those respective claffes, that we can form an adequate judgment of the vaft income of the people, which has continually increased, and is daily increasing. And, the public revenue is merely an inconfiderable portion of the uncalculable gains of the nation, which the nation appropriates for the public good. If £14,000,000 were the permanent revenue of the public, on the 5th of January 1794, what is there to prevent the nation, if, seeing adequate caufe, it shall think proper, to augment the permanent revenue to £. 28,000,000 a year? In doing this, there is no phyfical impoffibility, were the nation to think it wife. In making that great augmentation, there is no political impoffi bility, were the nation, perceiving her deareft interefts at ftate, to think it falutary. I have taken this ftrong pofition, for the purpofe of argument, in order to expose the weakness, of reasoning, from a fuppofition, without ground, and of trusting to an authority, without knowledge. Yet, you perfevere, in your opinion, after your reafon is exploded. "The funding-fyftem is pre"cifely the fame," fay you*, "as to the commu"nity, that mortgaging the revenue of an eftate, "to raise a present sum of money, is to the indi"vidual." But, is a mortgaged eftate in a continual course of improvement? No.-Is our inland in a continual ftate of improvement? Yes. Here, then, you fail. Is the income of a mortgaged estate in a constant train of augmentation? No.Is the income of the people in a conftant train of augmentation? Yes. Here, again, you fail. The creditor may fell, at an under value, the mortgaged * In p. 4. eftate, eftate, by foreclofing the mortgage, in order to obtain the principal-money lent. He who lends to the public cannot foreclofe a mortgage, which he has not got, nor demand the principal, that was not promised him; but he is paid his halfyearly intereft, according to the contract, out of an increasing revenue. Here, too, you fail in your inftance, which has not one analogy to fupport it. Yet, you perfevere, in fhutting your eyes, to the progreffive improvement of the country, and to the growing income of the people. In this fpirit, you compare the funding-fyftem to a spendthrift, whofe income is without care, and whofe expenditure is. without bounds *. But, the fpendthrift spends all, and faves nothing. Self-intereft, however, limits the expences of the people, and prudence fets no bounds to their accumulations, which, as money makes money, continually add million to million. Thus, you once more fail, in your example, which has not one fimilitude. Yet, when you have failed in your reafons and authority, in your inftances and example, you at length cry out Fate fome future bard shall join In fad fimilitude of griefs to mine. You are now led by fate, to enumerate among your griefs, that, "the funding-fyftem prevents "the people, during wars, from feeling the imme"diate preffure of the expence, by transferring it, + In P..5. *. In p. 5. "in f 3 "in a great measure, to pofterity." Your whole book is written to prove, what no man, no woman, no child, ever denied, that war is an evil. Nevertheless, you here complain, in the bitterness of your foul, that the immediate preffures of the people are lightened, amid the evils of war! You are, however, all alive about the fufferings of pofterity, though it appears not, that you are ready, with other philofophers, to rifk all for pofterity. At the Revolution, our statesmen, and our people, thought it wife, that pofterity fhould fhare in the expence of a lafting good, which had coft them much blood and treafure. Their pofterity, feeling the benefit, without their danger, never grudged the expence. And, as we have improved the inheritance, which is to defcend to our children, it is equally juft, that pofterity, who will not have our battle to fight, fhould participate in the expence, In the laft eleven years, we have paffed more than a thoujand laws, for making local improvements,, and domeftic meliorations. In executing thefe laws, much fkill, much money, much labour, were laid out upon the land we live in. If our pofterity were to bring our island to the hammer, they would fell it for more than fifty per cent. of its prefent value, in confequence of thofe improvements. And, our pofterity, unlefs our wifdom be thrown away, will live under a conftitution, which, as it is gradually. * See the following Eftimate, p. 375. improved |