But a person who has a scheme from which he
promises
much to the public ought to be still more cautious ; he should
?
?
Edmund Burke
If he stuck to the 35,000l.
he was sure that every one must expect from him some account how this monstrous charge came to continue ever since the war, when it was clearly unnecessary; how all those successions of ministers (his own included) came to pay it, and why his great friend in Parliament, and his partisans without doors, came not to pursue to ruin, at least to utter shame, the authors of so groundless and scandalous a profusion.
In this strait he wok a middle way; and, to come nearer the real state of the service, he
outbid the "Considerations," at one strokc,'40_0001. ; at the same time he hints to you, that you may erpect some benefit also from the original plan. But the author of the " Considerations " will not suf
? ? ? 342 OBSERVATIONS on A LATE PUBLICATION
Thus, according to his own principles, this great economist falls into a vicious prodigality; and is as far in his estimate from a consistency with his own principles as with the real nature of the services.
Still, however, his present establishment differs from its archetype of 1764, by being, though raised in particular parts, upon the whole, about 141,000l. smaller. It is improved, he tells us, by the experi ence of the two last years. One would have con cluded that the peace establishment of these two years had been less than that of 1764, in order to suggest to the author his improvements, which ena
bled him to reduce it. But how does that turn out?
Peace establishment * 1767 and 1768,
medium . . . . ". . . . . . ? 3,919,375
Ditto, estimate in the Considerations,"
for1764. . . . . . . . . . 3,609,700
Difference . . ? 309,675
A vast increase instead of diminution. The experi ence then of the two last years ought naturally to have given the idea of a heavier establishment; but this writer is able to diminish by increasing, and to draw the eifects of subtraction from the operations of addition. By means of these new powers, he may certainly do whatever he pleases. He is indeed mod erate enough in the use of them, and condescends to settle his establishments at 3,468,161l. a year.
fer him to escape it. He has pinned him down to his 35,000l. ; for that is the sum he has chosen, not as what he thinks will probably be required, but as making the most ample allowance for every possi ble contingency. See that author, p. 42 and 43.
* He has done great injustice to the establishment of 1768 ; but 1
have not here time for this discussion; nor is it necessary to this ar
? gument.
'
? ? ? ON run PRESENT srarn or rnn NATION. 343
However, he has not yet done with it; he has fur ther ideas of saving, and new resources of revenue. These additional savings are principally two: 1st, It is to be hoped,* says he, that the sum of 250,000l. (which in the estimate he allows for the deficiency
of land and malt) will be less by 37,924l. 1
2nd, That the sum of 20,000l. allowed for the
Foundling Hospital, and 1800l. for American Sur veys, will soon cease to be necessary, as the services will be completed.
What follows, with regard to the resources,"|I is very well worthy the reader's attention. " Of this estimate," says he, upwards of 300,000l. will be for
? "I the plantation service ; and that sum,
the
ple of Ireland and the colonies might be induced to take off Great Britain, and defray between them, in the proportion of 200,000l. by the colonies, and
100,000l. by Ireland. "
Such is the whole of this mighty scheme. Take
0 his reduced estimate, and his further reductions, and his resources all together, and the result will be,--he
* Page 34.
1' In making up this account, he falls into a surprising error of arithmetic. " The deficiency of the land-tax in the year 1754 and 1755,* when it was at 20. , amounted to no more, on a medium, than 49,372l. ; to which, if we add half the sum, it will give us 79,058l. as the peace deficiency at 3s. "
b
Which he makes 79,058l.
Total . . . Add the half .
. . .
. ? 49,372 . 24,686
? 74,058
This is indeed in disfavor of his argument; but we shall see that he has ways, by other errors, of reimbursing
himself.
1 Page 34.
' Page 33.
hope,
peo
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will certainly lower the provision made for the navy. He will cut oif largely (God knows what or how) from the army and ordnance extraordinaries. He may be expected to cut off more. He hopes that the deficiencies on land and malt will be less than usual; and he hopes that America and Ireland might be in rluced to take oif 300,000l. of our annual charges.
If any of_these Hopes, Mights, Insinuations, Expec tations, and Inducements, should fail him, there will be a formidable gaping breach in his whole project. If all of them should fail, he has left the nation with out a glimmering of hope in this thick night of terrors which he has thought fit to spread about us. If every one of them, which, attended with success, would signify anything to our revenue, can have no eifect but to add to our distractions and dangers, we shall be if possible in a still worse condition from his projects of cure, than he represents _us from our origi nal disorders.
Before we examine into the consequences of these schemes, and the probability of these savings, let -us suppose them all real and all safe, and then see what it is they amount to, and how he reasons on them :
? ? 37,000 . 20,000 . 1,800
? 58,800
This is the amount of the only articles of saving he
Deficien"cy on land and malt, less by . Foundling Hospital . . . . . . American Surveys . . . . .
'
and yet he chooses to assert,* "that we may venture on the credit of them to reduce the standing expenses of the estimate (from 3,-1638,1611. ) to 3,300,000l. "; that is, for a saving of 58,000l. he
* Page 43.
specifies:
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345
is not ashamed to take credit for a defalcation from his own ideal establishment in a sum of no less than 168,161l. ! Suppose even that we were to take up the estimate of the " Considerations " (which is how ever abandoned in the "State of the Nation"), and reduce his 75,000l. extraordinaries to the original 35,000l. , still all these savings joined together give us but 98,800l. ; that near 70,000l. short of the credit he calls for, and for which he has neither given any reason, nor furnished any data whatsoever for
others to reason upon.
Such are his savings, as operating on his own pro
ject of peace establishment. Let us now consider them as they affect the existing establishment and our actual services. He tells us, the sum allowed in his estimate for the navy " 69,321l. less than the grant for that service in 1767; but in that grant 9". ,000l. was included for the purchase of hemp, and
bving of about 25,000l. was made in that year. " _ne author has got some secret in arithmetic. These two sums put together amount, in the ordinary way of computing, to 55,000l. , and not to 69,321l. On what principle has he chosen to take credit for
14,321l. more? To what this strange inaccuracy owing, cannot possibly comprehend; nor
very material, where the logic so bad, and the policy so erroneous, whether the arithmetic be just or otherwise. But in scheme for making,this nation " happy at home and respected abroad, formidable in war and flourishing in peace," surely little un fortunate for us, that he has picked out the Navy, as the very first object of his economical experiments. Of all the public services, that of the navy the one
which tampering may be of the greatest danger,
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which can worst be supplied upon an emergency, and of which any failure draws after it the longest and heaviest train of consequences. I am far from say ing, that this or any service ought not to be con ducted with economy. But I will never suffer the sacred name of economy to be bestowed upon arbitra ry defalcation of charge. The author tells us him self, " that to suffer the navy to rot in harbor for want of repairs and marines, would be to invite de struction. " It would be so. When the author talks
therefore of savings on the navy estimate, it is incum bent on him to let us know, not what sums he will cut oif, but what branch of that service he deems su perfluous. Instead of putting us off with unmeaning generalities, he ought to have stated what naval force, what naval works, and what naval stores, with the lowest estimated expense, are necessary to keep our marine in a condition commensurate to its great ends. And this too not for the contracted and deceit ful space of a single year, but for some reasonable term. Everybody knows that many charges cannot be in their nature regular or annual. In the year 1767 a stock of hemp, &c. , was to be laid in; that charge intermits, but it does not end. Other charges of other kinds take their place. Great works are now carrying on at Portsmouth, but not of greater magni tude than utility; and they must be provided for. A year's estimate is therefore no just idea at all of a permanent peace establishment. Had the author opened this matter upon these plain principles, a judgment might have been formed, how far he had contrived to reconcile national defence with public economy. Till he has done those who had rather depend on any man's reason than the greatest man's
". "-W'
? ? ? it,
'
? particularly
of the malt-tax, any person the least
on rnn PRESENT surn or THE NATION.
347
authority, will not give him credit on this head, for the saving of a single shilling. As to those savings which are already made, or in course of being made, whether right or wrong, he has nothing at all to do with them; they can be no part of his project, consid ered as a plan of reformation. I greatly fear that the error has not lately been on the side of profusion.
Another head is the saving on the army and ord nance extraordinaries, particularly in the American branch. What or how much reduction may be made, none of us, I believe, can with any fairness pretend to say; very little, I am convinced. The state of America is extremely unsettled; more troops have been sent thither ; new dispositions have been made ; and this augmentation of number, and change of dis position, has rarely, I believe, the eifect of lessening the bill for extraordinaries, which, if not this year,
yet in the next we must certainly feel. Care has not been wanting to introduce economy into that part of the service. The author's great friend has made, I admit, some regulations : his immediate successors have made more and better. This part will be han dled more ably and more minutely at another time: but no one can cut down this bill of extraordinaries at his pleasure. The author has given us nothing, but his word, for any certain or considerable reduc tion; and this we ought to be the more cautious in taking, as he has promised great savings in his " Con siderations," which he has not chosen to abide by in
his " State of the Nation. "
On this head also of the American extraordinaries,
he can take credit for nothing. As to his next, the lessening of the deficiency of the land and malt-tax,
? '
? ? ? 348 OBSERVATIONS on A LATE PUBLICATION
conversant in that subject cannot avoid a smile. This deficiency arises from charge of collection, from
anticipation, and from defective produce. What has the author said on the reduction of any head of this deficiency upon the land-tax ? On these points he is absolutely silent. As to the deficiency on the malt tax, which is chiefly owing to a defective produce, he has and can have nothing to propose. If this defi ciency should be lessened by the increase of malting in any years more than in others, (as it is a greatly fluctuating object,) how much of this obligation shall we owe to this author's ministry? will it not be the case under any administration? must it not go to the general service of the year, in some way or other, let the finances be in whose hands they will? But why take credit for so extremely reduced a deficiency at all? I can tell him he has no rational gI'Oilnd for it in the produce of the year 1767; and I suspect will have full as little reason from the produce of the year 1768. _ That produce may indeed become greater, and the deficiency of course will be less. It may too be far otherwise. A fair and judicious financier will not, as this writer has done, for the sake of making out a specious account, select a favorable year or two, at remote periods, and ground his calculations on those. In 1768 he will not take the deficiencies of 1753 and 1754 for his standard. Sober men have hitherto (and must continue this course, to preserve this character,) taken indiffere11tly the mediums of the. years immediately preceding.
But a person who has a scheme from which he promises much to the public ought to be still more cautious ; he should
? his speculation rather on the lowest medi ums ; because all new schemes are known to be sub
ground
? ? --. --. ;i___
? on THE Pnnsnnr srarn or run NATION.
349
ject to some defect or failure not foreseen; and which therefore every prudent proposer will be ready to al low for, in order to lay his foundation as low and as solid as possible. Quite contrary is the practice of some politicians. They first propose savings, which they well know cannot be made, in order to get a reputation for economy. In due time they assume another, but a different method, by providing for the service they had before cut ofl' or straitened, and which they can then very easily prove to be neces sary. In the same spirit they raise magnificent ideas
of revenue on funds which they know to be insuffi cient. Afterwards, who can blame them, if they do not satisfy the public desires ? They are great artifi cers ; but they cannot work without materials.
These are some of the little arts of great statesmen. To such we leave them, and follow where the author leads us, to his next resource, the Foundling Hospi tal. Whatever particular virtue there is in the mode of this saving, there seems to be nothing at all new, and indeed nothing wonderfully important in it. The sum annually voted for the support of the Found ling Hospital has been in a former Parliament lim
ited to the establishment of the children then_ in the hospital. When they are apprenticed, this pro vision will cease. It will therefore fall in more or less at different times; and will at length cease entirely. But, until it does, we cannot reckon upon it as the saving on the establishment of any given year : nor can any one conceive how the author comes to mention this, any more than some other articles, as a part of a new plan of economy which is to retrieve our affairs. This charge will indeed cease in its
own time. But will no other succeed to it? Has
? ? ? ? OBSERVATIONS on A LATE PUBLICATION
he ever known the public free from some contin gent charge, either for the just support of royal
dignity or for national magnificence, or for public charity, or for public service? does he choose to flat ter his readers that no such will ever return? or does he in good earnest declare, that let the reason, or necessity, be what they will, he is resolved not to provide for such services ?
Another resource of economy yet remains, for he gleans the field very closely,---1800l. for the Amer ican surveys. Why, what signifies a dispute about trifles? he shall have it. But while he is carrying it off, I shall just whisper in his ear, that neither the saving that is allowed, nor that which is doubted can at all belong to that future proposed administra tion, whose touch to cure all our evils. Both the one and the other belong equally (as indeed all the rest do) to the present administration, to any admin istration; because they are the gift of time, and not the bounty of the exchequer.
have now done with all the minor, preparatory parts of the author's scheme, the several articles saving which he proposes. At length comes the cap ital operation, his new resources. Three hundred thousand pounds year from America and Ireland. +Alas! alas! that too should fail us, what will become of this poor undone nation The author, in
tone of great humility, hopes they may be induced to pay it. Well, that be all, we may hope so too: and for anylight he pleased to give us into the ground of this hope, and the ways and means of this inducement, here speedy end both of the ques tion and the revenue.
the constant custom of this author, in all his
350
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if a
if
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of
of,
? ON THE PRESENT sryrn or THE NATION. 351
writings, to take it for granted, that he has given you a revenue, whenever he can point out to you where you may have money, if you can contrive how to get at it; and this seems to be the masterpiece of his financial ability. I think, however, in his way of pro ceeding, he has behaved rather like a harsh step dame, than a kind nursing-mother to his country. Why stop at 300,000l. ? If his state of things be at all founded, America and Ireland are much better able to pay 600,000l. than we are to satisfy ourselves with half that sum. However, let us forgive him this one instance of tenderness towards Ireland and the colonies.
? He spends a vast deal of time* in an endeavor to prove that Ireland is able to bear greater impositions. He is of opinion, that the poverty of the lower class of people there is, in a great measure, owing to a want of judicious taxes; that aland-tax will enrich her tenants; that taxes are paid in England which are not paid there ; that the colony trade is increased above 100,000l. since the peace; that she ought to have further indulgence in that trade; and ought to have further privileges in the woollen manufacture. From these premises, of what she has, what she has not, and what she ought to have, he infers that Ire land will contribute 100,000l. towards the extraordi naries of the American establishment.
I shall make no objections whatsoever, logical or financial, to this reasoning: many occur; but they would lead me from my purpose, from which I do not intend to be diverted, because it seems to me of no small importance. It will be just enough to hint, what I dare say many readers have before observed,
* Page 35.
? ? ? 352 OBSERVATIONS on A LATE PUBLICATION
that when any man proposes new taxes in a co1mtry with which he is not personally conversant by res idence or office, he ought to lay open its situation much more minutely and critically than this author has done, or than perhaps he is able to do. He ought not to content himself with saying that a single article of her trade is increased 100,000l. a year; he ought, if he argues from the increase of trade to the increase of taxes, to state the whole trade, and not one branch of trade only; he ought to enter fully into the state of its remittances, and the course of its exchange; he ought likewise to exam ine whether all its establishments are increased or diminished; and whether it incurs or discharges debts annually. But I pass over allthis; and am content to ask a few plain questions.
Does the author then seriously mean to propose in Parliament a land-tax, or any tax for 100,000l. a year upon Ireland? If he does, and if fatally, by his te merity and our weakness, he should succeed; then I say he will throw the whole empire from one end of it to the other into mortal convulsions. What is it that can satisfy the furious and perturbed mind of this man ? _ is it not enough for him that such projects
have alienated our colonies from the mother-country, and not to propose violently to tear our sister-king dom also from our side, and to convince every de pendent part of the empire, that, when a little money is to be raised, we have no sort of regard to their an cient customs, their opinions, their circumstances, or their aifections'? He has however a douaeur for Ire
land in his pocket; benefits in trade, by opening the woollen manufacture to that nation. A very right idea in my opinion; but not more strong in reason,
? ? ? ? ON THE PRESENT smrn or run NATION. 353
than likely to be opposed by the most powerful and most violent of all local prejudices and popular pas sions. First, a fire is already kindled by his schemes of taxation in America; he then proposes one which will set all Ireland in a blaze ; and his way of quench ing both is by a plan which may kindle perhaps ten times a greater flame in Britain.
Will the author pledge himself, previously to his proposal of such a tax, to carry this enlargement of the Irish trade? If he does not, then the tax will be certain; the benefit will be less than problematical. In this view, his compensation to Ireland vanishes into smoke; the tax, to their prejudices, will appear
stark naked in the light of an act of arbitrary power and oppression. But, if he should propose the bene fit and tax together, then the people of Ireland, a very high and spirited people, would think it the worst bargain in the world. They would look upon the one as wholly vitiated and poisoned by the other; and, if they could not be separated, would infallibly resist them both together. Here would be taxes, in
deed, amounting to a handsome sum; 100,000l. very effectually voted, and passed through the best and most authentic forms; but how to be collected? -- This is his perpetual manner. One of his projects depends for success upon another project, and this upon a third, all of them equally visionary. His fi nance is like the Indian philosophy; his earth is poised on the horns of a bull, his bull stands upon
an elephant, his elephant is supported by a tortoise; and so on forever.
As to his American 200,000l. a year, he is satisfied
to repeat gravely, as he has done an hundred times
before, that the Americans are able to pay it. Well, VOL I. 23
? ? ? ? OBSERVATIONS ON A LATE PUBLICATION
and what then? does he lay open any part of his plan
how they may be compelled to pay without plung ing ourselves into calamities that outweigh tenfold the proposed benefit? or does he show how they may be induced to submit to quietly? or does he give any satisfaction concerning the mode of levying
in commercial colonies, one of the most important and difficult of all considerations? Nothing like To the Stamp Act, whatever its excellences may
think he will not in reality recur, or even choose to assert that he means to do so, in case his minister should come again into power. If he does, Iwill pre dict that some of the fastest friends of that minister will desert him upon this point. As to port duties he has damned them all in the lump, by declaring them* " contrary to the first principles of coloniza tion, and not less prejudicial to the interests of Great Britain than to those of the colonies. " Surely this single observation of his ought to have taught him little caution he ought to have begun to doubt, whether there not something in the nature of com mercial colonies, which renders them an unfit object of taxation when port duties, so large fund of rev enue in all countries, are by himself found, in this case, not only improper, but destructive. However, he has here pretty well narrowed the field of taxation. Stamp Act, hardly to be resumed. Port duties, mis chievous. Excises, believe, he will scarcely think
worth the collection (if any revenue should be so) in America. Land-tax (notwithstanding his opinion of its immense use to agriculture) he will not directly propose, before he has thought again and again on the subject. Indeed he very readily recommends for
* Page 37.
354
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Ireland, and seems to think it not improper for Amer ica; because, he observes, they already raise most of their taxes internally, including this tax. A most curious reason, truly ! because their lands are aheady heavily burdened, he thinks it right to burden them
still further. But he will recollect, for surely he can not be ignorant of that the lands of America are not, as in England, let at rent certain in money, and therefore cannot, as here,be taxed at certain pound rate. They value them in gross among themselves and none but themselves in their several districts can value them. Without their hearty conc\n'rence and
co-operation, evident, we cannot advance step in the assessing or collecting any land-tax. As to the taxes which in some places the Americans pay by the acre, they are merely duties of regulation; they are small and to increase them, notwithstanding the secret virtues of land-tax, would be the most effect ual means of preventing that cultivation they are
intended to promote. Besides, the whole country heavily in arrear already for land-taxes and quit rents. They have different methods of taxation in the different provinces, agreeable to their several
local circumstances. In New England by far the greatest part of their revenue raised by faculty tazes and capitatiom. Such the method in many others. It obvious that Parliament, unassisted by the colonies themselves, cannot take so much as
single step in this mode of taxation. Then what tax it he will impose? Why, after all the boasting
? and writings of his faction for these four years, after all the vain expectations which they have held out to deluded public, this their great advo cate, after twisting the subject every way, after writh
speeches
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ing himself in every posture, after knocking at every door, is obliged fairly to abandon every mode of tax ation whatsoever in America. * He thinks it the best method for Parliament to impose the sum, and reserve the account to itself, leaving the mode of taxation to the colonies. But how and in what proportion? what does the author say? O, not a single syllable on this the most material part of the whole question l Will he, in Parliament, undertake to settle the proportions of such payments from Nova Scotia to Nevis, in no fewer than six-and-twenty different countries,varying in almost every possible circumstance one from an other? If he does, I tell him, he adjourns his reve
nue to a very long day. If he leaves it to themselves to settle these proportions, he adjourns it to doomsday.
Then what does he get by this method on the side of acquiescence? will the people of America relish this course, of giving and granting and applying their money, the better because their assemblies are made commissioners of the taxes? This is far worse than all his former projects ; for here, if the assemblies shall refuse, or delay, or be negligent, or fraudulent,
in this new-imposed duty, we are wholly without rem edy; and neither our custom-house officers, nor our troops, nor our armed ships can be of the least use in the collection. No idea can be more contemptible (I will not call it an oppressive one, the harshness is lost in the folly) than that of proposing to get any revenue from the Americans but by their freest and most cheerful consent. Most moneyed men know their own interest right well; and are as able as any finan cier, in the valuation of risks. Yet I think this finan cier will scarcely find that adventurer hardy enough,
* Pages 37, 38.
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at any premium, to advance a shilling upon a vote of such taxes. Let him name the man, or set of men, that would do it. This is the only proof of the value of revenues ; what would an interested man rate them at? His subscription would be at ninety-nine per cent discount the very first day of its opening. Here is our only national security from ruin; a security upon which no man in his senses would venture a shilling of his fortune. Yet he puts down those arti cles as gravely in his supply for the peace establish ment, as if the money had been all fairly lodged in
the exchequer.
American revenue . . . . ? 200,000 Ireland. . . . . . . . 100,000
Very handsome indeed! But if supply is to be got in such a manner, farewell the lucrative mystery of finance! If you are to be credited for savings, with out showing how, why, or with what safety, they are to be made ; and for revenues, without specifying on what articles, or by what means, or at what expense, they are to be collected ; there is not a clerk in a pub lic office who may not outbid this author, or his friend, for the department of chancellor of the exchequer; not an apprentice in the city, that will not strike out,
with the same advantages, the same, or a much larger
plan of supply.
Here is the whole of what belongs to the author's
scheme for saving us from impending destruction. Take it even in its most favorable point of view, as a thing within possibility; and imagine what must be the wisdom of this gentleman, or his opinion of ours, who could first think of representing this nation in such a state, as no friend can look upon but with hor
? ? ? ? 358 OBSERVATIONS ON A LATE PUBLICATION
ror, and scarcely an enemy without compassion, and
afterwards of diverting himself with such inadequate, 'impracticable, puerile methods for our relief I If these had been the dreams of some unknown, un
named, and nameless writer, they would excite no alarm; then' weakness had been an antidote to their malignity. But as they are universally believed to be written by the hand, or, what amounts to the same thing, under the immediate direction, of a person who has been in the management of the highest af
fairs, and may soon be in the same situation, I
think it is not to be reckoned amongst our greatest consola
? tions, that the yet remaining power of this kingdom is to be employed in an attempt to realize notions that are at once so frivolous, and so full of danger. That consideration will justify me in dwelling a little longer on the difficulties of the nation, and the solu tions of our author.
I am then persuaded that he cannot be in the least alarmed about our situation, let his outcry be what he pleases. I will give him a reason for my opinion, which, I think, he cannot dispute. All that he be stows upon the nation, which it does not possess with out him, and supposing it all sure money, amounts to no more than a sum of 300,000l. a year. This, he thinks, will do the business completely, and render us flourishing at home, and respectable abroad. If the option between glory and shame, if our salvation or destruction, depended on this sum, it is impossible that he should have been active, and made a merit of that activity, in taking off a shilling in the pound of the land-tax, which came up to his grand desidera tum, and upwards of 100,000l. more. By this ma noeuvre, he left our trade, navigation, and manufac
? ? ? \
ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION.
tures, on the verge of destruction, our finances in ruin, our credit expiring, Ireland on the point of be ing ceded to France, the colonies of being torn to pieces, the succession of the crown at the mercy of our great rival, and the kingdom itself on the very point of becomingtributary to that haughty power. All this for want of 300,000l. ; for I defy the reader to point out any other revenue, or any other precise and defined scheme of politics, which he assigns for our
redemption.
outbid the "Considerations," at one strokc,'40_0001. ; at the same time he hints to you, that you may erpect some benefit also from the original plan. But the author of the " Considerations " will not suf
? ? ? 342 OBSERVATIONS on A LATE PUBLICATION
Thus, according to his own principles, this great economist falls into a vicious prodigality; and is as far in his estimate from a consistency with his own principles as with the real nature of the services.
Still, however, his present establishment differs from its archetype of 1764, by being, though raised in particular parts, upon the whole, about 141,000l. smaller. It is improved, he tells us, by the experi ence of the two last years. One would have con cluded that the peace establishment of these two years had been less than that of 1764, in order to suggest to the author his improvements, which ena
bled him to reduce it. But how does that turn out?
Peace establishment * 1767 and 1768,
medium . . . . ". . . . . . ? 3,919,375
Ditto, estimate in the Considerations,"
for1764. . . . . . . . . . 3,609,700
Difference . . ? 309,675
A vast increase instead of diminution. The experi ence then of the two last years ought naturally to have given the idea of a heavier establishment; but this writer is able to diminish by increasing, and to draw the eifects of subtraction from the operations of addition. By means of these new powers, he may certainly do whatever he pleases. He is indeed mod erate enough in the use of them, and condescends to settle his establishments at 3,468,161l. a year.
fer him to escape it. He has pinned him down to his 35,000l. ; for that is the sum he has chosen, not as what he thinks will probably be required, but as making the most ample allowance for every possi ble contingency. See that author, p. 42 and 43.
* He has done great injustice to the establishment of 1768 ; but 1
have not here time for this discussion; nor is it necessary to this ar
? gument.
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? ? ? ON run PRESENT srarn or rnn NATION. 343
However, he has not yet done with it; he has fur ther ideas of saving, and new resources of revenue. These additional savings are principally two: 1st, It is to be hoped,* says he, that the sum of 250,000l. (which in the estimate he allows for the deficiency
of land and malt) will be less by 37,924l. 1
2nd, That the sum of 20,000l. allowed for the
Foundling Hospital, and 1800l. for American Sur veys, will soon cease to be necessary, as the services will be completed.
What follows, with regard to the resources,"|I is very well worthy the reader's attention. " Of this estimate," says he, upwards of 300,000l. will be for
? "I the plantation service ; and that sum,
the
ple of Ireland and the colonies might be induced to take off Great Britain, and defray between them, in the proportion of 200,000l. by the colonies, and
100,000l. by Ireland. "
Such is the whole of this mighty scheme. Take
0 his reduced estimate, and his further reductions, and his resources all together, and the result will be,--he
* Page 34.
1' In making up this account, he falls into a surprising error of arithmetic. " The deficiency of the land-tax in the year 1754 and 1755,* when it was at 20. , amounted to no more, on a medium, than 49,372l. ; to which, if we add half the sum, it will give us 79,058l. as the peace deficiency at 3s. "
b
Which he makes 79,058l.
Total . . . Add the half .
. . .
. ? 49,372 . 24,686
? 74,058
This is indeed in disfavor of his argument; but we shall see that he has ways, by other errors, of reimbursing
himself.
1 Page 34.
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hope,
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will certainly lower the provision made for the navy. He will cut oif largely (God knows what or how) from the army and ordnance extraordinaries. He may be expected to cut off more. He hopes that the deficiencies on land and malt will be less than usual; and he hopes that America and Ireland might be in rluced to take oif 300,000l. of our annual charges.
If any of_these Hopes, Mights, Insinuations, Expec tations, and Inducements, should fail him, there will be a formidable gaping breach in his whole project. If all of them should fail, he has left the nation with out a glimmering of hope in this thick night of terrors which he has thought fit to spread about us. If every one of them, which, attended with success, would signify anything to our revenue, can have no eifect but to add to our distractions and dangers, we shall be if possible in a still worse condition from his projects of cure, than he represents _us from our origi nal disorders.
Before we examine into the consequences of these schemes, and the probability of these savings, let -us suppose them all real and all safe, and then see what it is they amount to, and how he reasons on them :
? ? 37,000 . 20,000 . 1,800
? 58,800
This is the amount of the only articles of saving he
Deficien"cy on land and malt, less by . Foundling Hospital . . . . . . American Surveys . . . . .
'
and yet he chooses to assert,* "that we may venture on the credit of them to reduce the standing expenses of the estimate (from 3,-1638,1611. ) to 3,300,000l. "; that is, for a saving of 58,000l. he
* Page 43.
specifies:
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345
is not ashamed to take credit for a defalcation from his own ideal establishment in a sum of no less than 168,161l. ! Suppose even that we were to take up the estimate of the " Considerations " (which is how ever abandoned in the "State of the Nation"), and reduce his 75,000l. extraordinaries to the original 35,000l. , still all these savings joined together give us but 98,800l. ; that near 70,000l. short of the credit he calls for, and for which he has neither given any reason, nor furnished any data whatsoever for
others to reason upon.
Such are his savings, as operating on his own pro
ject of peace establishment. Let us now consider them as they affect the existing establishment and our actual services. He tells us, the sum allowed in his estimate for the navy " 69,321l. less than the grant for that service in 1767; but in that grant 9". ,000l. was included for the purchase of hemp, and
bving of about 25,000l. was made in that year. " _ne author has got some secret in arithmetic. These two sums put together amount, in the ordinary way of computing, to 55,000l. , and not to 69,321l. On what principle has he chosen to take credit for
14,321l. more? To what this strange inaccuracy owing, cannot possibly comprehend; nor
very material, where the logic so bad, and the policy so erroneous, whether the arithmetic be just or otherwise. But in scheme for making,this nation " happy at home and respected abroad, formidable in war and flourishing in peace," surely little un fortunate for us, that he has picked out the Navy, as the very first object of his economical experiments. Of all the public services, that of the navy the one
which tampering may be of the greatest danger,
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which can worst be supplied upon an emergency, and of which any failure draws after it the longest and heaviest train of consequences. I am far from say ing, that this or any service ought not to be con ducted with economy. But I will never suffer the sacred name of economy to be bestowed upon arbitra ry defalcation of charge. The author tells us him self, " that to suffer the navy to rot in harbor for want of repairs and marines, would be to invite de struction. " It would be so. When the author talks
therefore of savings on the navy estimate, it is incum bent on him to let us know, not what sums he will cut oif, but what branch of that service he deems su perfluous. Instead of putting us off with unmeaning generalities, he ought to have stated what naval force, what naval works, and what naval stores, with the lowest estimated expense, are necessary to keep our marine in a condition commensurate to its great ends. And this too not for the contracted and deceit ful space of a single year, but for some reasonable term. Everybody knows that many charges cannot be in their nature regular or annual. In the year 1767 a stock of hemp, &c. , was to be laid in; that charge intermits, but it does not end. Other charges of other kinds take their place. Great works are now carrying on at Portsmouth, but not of greater magni tude than utility; and they must be provided for. A year's estimate is therefore no just idea at all of a permanent peace establishment. Had the author opened this matter upon these plain principles, a judgment might have been formed, how far he had contrived to reconcile national defence with public economy. Till he has done those who had rather depend on any man's reason than the greatest man's
". "-W'
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of the malt-tax, any person the least
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authority, will not give him credit on this head, for the saving of a single shilling. As to those savings which are already made, or in course of being made, whether right or wrong, he has nothing at all to do with them; they can be no part of his project, consid ered as a plan of reformation. I greatly fear that the error has not lately been on the side of profusion.
Another head is the saving on the army and ord nance extraordinaries, particularly in the American branch. What or how much reduction may be made, none of us, I believe, can with any fairness pretend to say; very little, I am convinced. The state of America is extremely unsettled; more troops have been sent thither ; new dispositions have been made ; and this augmentation of number, and change of dis position, has rarely, I believe, the eifect of lessening the bill for extraordinaries, which, if not this year,
yet in the next we must certainly feel. Care has not been wanting to introduce economy into that part of the service. The author's great friend has made, I admit, some regulations : his immediate successors have made more and better. This part will be han dled more ably and more minutely at another time: but no one can cut down this bill of extraordinaries at his pleasure. The author has given us nothing, but his word, for any certain or considerable reduc tion; and this we ought to be the more cautious in taking, as he has promised great savings in his " Con siderations," which he has not chosen to abide by in
his " State of the Nation. "
On this head also of the American extraordinaries,
he can take credit for nothing. As to his next, the lessening of the deficiency of the land and malt-tax,
? '
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conversant in that subject cannot avoid a smile. This deficiency arises from charge of collection, from
anticipation, and from defective produce. What has the author said on the reduction of any head of this deficiency upon the land-tax ? On these points he is absolutely silent. As to the deficiency on the malt tax, which is chiefly owing to a defective produce, he has and can have nothing to propose. If this defi ciency should be lessened by the increase of malting in any years more than in others, (as it is a greatly fluctuating object,) how much of this obligation shall we owe to this author's ministry? will it not be the case under any administration? must it not go to the general service of the year, in some way or other, let the finances be in whose hands they will? But why take credit for so extremely reduced a deficiency at all? I can tell him he has no rational gI'Oilnd for it in the produce of the year 1767; and I suspect will have full as little reason from the produce of the year 1768. _ That produce may indeed become greater, and the deficiency of course will be less. It may too be far otherwise. A fair and judicious financier will not, as this writer has done, for the sake of making out a specious account, select a favorable year or two, at remote periods, and ground his calculations on those. In 1768 he will not take the deficiencies of 1753 and 1754 for his standard. Sober men have hitherto (and must continue this course, to preserve this character,) taken indiffere11tly the mediums of the. years immediately preceding.
But a person who has a scheme from which he promises much to the public ought to be still more cautious ; he should
? his speculation rather on the lowest medi ums ; because all new schemes are known to be sub
ground
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ject to some defect or failure not foreseen; and which therefore every prudent proposer will be ready to al low for, in order to lay his foundation as low and as solid as possible. Quite contrary is the practice of some politicians. They first propose savings, which they well know cannot be made, in order to get a reputation for economy. In due time they assume another, but a different method, by providing for the service they had before cut ofl' or straitened, and which they can then very easily prove to be neces sary. In the same spirit they raise magnificent ideas
of revenue on funds which they know to be insuffi cient. Afterwards, who can blame them, if they do not satisfy the public desires ? They are great artifi cers ; but they cannot work without materials.
These are some of the little arts of great statesmen. To such we leave them, and follow where the author leads us, to his next resource, the Foundling Hospi tal. Whatever particular virtue there is in the mode of this saving, there seems to be nothing at all new, and indeed nothing wonderfully important in it. The sum annually voted for the support of the Found ling Hospital has been in a former Parliament lim
ited to the establishment of the children then_ in the hospital. When they are apprenticed, this pro vision will cease. It will therefore fall in more or less at different times; and will at length cease entirely. But, until it does, we cannot reckon upon it as the saving on the establishment of any given year : nor can any one conceive how the author comes to mention this, any more than some other articles, as a part of a new plan of economy which is to retrieve our affairs. This charge will indeed cease in its
own time. But will no other succeed to it? Has
? ? ? ? OBSERVATIONS on A LATE PUBLICATION
he ever known the public free from some contin gent charge, either for the just support of royal
dignity or for national magnificence, or for public charity, or for public service? does he choose to flat ter his readers that no such will ever return? or does he in good earnest declare, that let the reason, or necessity, be what they will, he is resolved not to provide for such services ?
Another resource of economy yet remains, for he gleans the field very closely,---1800l. for the Amer ican surveys. Why, what signifies a dispute about trifles? he shall have it. But while he is carrying it off, I shall just whisper in his ear, that neither the saving that is allowed, nor that which is doubted can at all belong to that future proposed administra tion, whose touch to cure all our evils. Both the one and the other belong equally (as indeed all the rest do) to the present administration, to any admin istration; because they are the gift of time, and not the bounty of the exchequer.
have now done with all the minor, preparatory parts of the author's scheme, the several articles saving which he proposes. At length comes the cap ital operation, his new resources. Three hundred thousand pounds year from America and Ireland. +Alas! alas! that too should fail us, what will become of this poor undone nation The author, in
tone of great humility, hopes they may be induced to pay it. Well, that be all, we may hope so too: and for anylight he pleased to give us into the ground of this hope, and the ways and means of this inducement, here speedy end both of the ques tion and the revenue.
the constant custom of this author, in all his
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writings, to take it for granted, that he has given you a revenue, whenever he can point out to you where you may have money, if you can contrive how to get at it; and this seems to be the masterpiece of his financial ability. I think, however, in his way of pro ceeding, he has behaved rather like a harsh step dame, than a kind nursing-mother to his country. Why stop at 300,000l. ? If his state of things be at all founded, America and Ireland are much better able to pay 600,000l. than we are to satisfy ourselves with half that sum. However, let us forgive him this one instance of tenderness towards Ireland and the colonies.
? He spends a vast deal of time* in an endeavor to prove that Ireland is able to bear greater impositions. He is of opinion, that the poverty of the lower class of people there is, in a great measure, owing to a want of judicious taxes; that aland-tax will enrich her tenants; that taxes are paid in England which are not paid there ; that the colony trade is increased above 100,000l. since the peace; that she ought to have further indulgence in that trade; and ought to have further privileges in the woollen manufacture. From these premises, of what she has, what she has not, and what she ought to have, he infers that Ire land will contribute 100,000l. towards the extraordi naries of the American establishment.
I shall make no objections whatsoever, logical or financial, to this reasoning: many occur; but they would lead me from my purpose, from which I do not intend to be diverted, because it seems to me of no small importance. It will be just enough to hint, what I dare say many readers have before observed,
* Page 35.
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that when any man proposes new taxes in a co1mtry with which he is not personally conversant by res idence or office, he ought to lay open its situation much more minutely and critically than this author has done, or than perhaps he is able to do. He ought not to content himself with saying that a single article of her trade is increased 100,000l. a year; he ought, if he argues from the increase of trade to the increase of taxes, to state the whole trade, and not one branch of trade only; he ought to enter fully into the state of its remittances, and the course of its exchange; he ought likewise to exam ine whether all its establishments are increased or diminished; and whether it incurs or discharges debts annually. But I pass over allthis; and am content to ask a few plain questions.
Does the author then seriously mean to propose in Parliament a land-tax, or any tax for 100,000l. a year upon Ireland? If he does, and if fatally, by his te merity and our weakness, he should succeed; then I say he will throw the whole empire from one end of it to the other into mortal convulsions. What is it that can satisfy the furious and perturbed mind of this man ? _ is it not enough for him that such projects
have alienated our colonies from the mother-country, and not to propose violently to tear our sister-king dom also from our side, and to convince every de pendent part of the empire, that, when a little money is to be raised, we have no sort of regard to their an cient customs, their opinions, their circumstances, or their aifections'? He has however a douaeur for Ire
land in his pocket; benefits in trade, by opening the woollen manufacture to that nation. A very right idea in my opinion; but not more strong in reason,
? ? ? ? ON THE PRESENT smrn or run NATION. 353
than likely to be opposed by the most powerful and most violent of all local prejudices and popular pas sions. First, a fire is already kindled by his schemes of taxation in America; he then proposes one which will set all Ireland in a blaze ; and his way of quench ing both is by a plan which may kindle perhaps ten times a greater flame in Britain.
Will the author pledge himself, previously to his proposal of such a tax, to carry this enlargement of the Irish trade? If he does not, then the tax will be certain; the benefit will be less than problematical. In this view, his compensation to Ireland vanishes into smoke; the tax, to their prejudices, will appear
stark naked in the light of an act of arbitrary power and oppression. But, if he should propose the bene fit and tax together, then the people of Ireland, a very high and spirited people, would think it the worst bargain in the world. They would look upon the one as wholly vitiated and poisoned by the other; and, if they could not be separated, would infallibly resist them both together. Here would be taxes, in
deed, amounting to a handsome sum; 100,000l. very effectually voted, and passed through the best and most authentic forms; but how to be collected? -- This is his perpetual manner. One of his projects depends for success upon another project, and this upon a third, all of them equally visionary. His fi nance is like the Indian philosophy; his earth is poised on the horns of a bull, his bull stands upon
an elephant, his elephant is supported by a tortoise; and so on forever.
As to his American 200,000l. a year, he is satisfied
to repeat gravely, as he has done an hundred times
before, that the Americans are able to pay it. Well, VOL I. 23
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and what then? does he lay open any part of his plan
how they may be compelled to pay without plung ing ourselves into calamities that outweigh tenfold the proposed benefit? or does he show how they may be induced to submit to quietly? or does he give any satisfaction concerning the mode of levying
in commercial colonies, one of the most important and difficult of all considerations? Nothing like To the Stamp Act, whatever its excellences may
think he will not in reality recur, or even choose to assert that he means to do so, in case his minister should come again into power. If he does, Iwill pre dict that some of the fastest friends of that minister will desert him upon this point. As to port duties he has damned them all in the lump, by declaring them* " contrary to the first principles of coloniza tion, and not less prejudicial to the interests of Great Britain than to those of the colonies. " Surely this single observation of his ought to have taught him little caution he ought to have begun to doubt, whether there not something in the nature of com mercial colonies, which renders them an unfit object of taxation when port duties, so large fund of rev enue in all countries, are by himself found, in this case, not only improper, but destructive. However, he has here pretty well narrowed the field of taxation. Stamp Act, hardly to be resumed. Port duties, mis chievous. Excises, believe, he will scarcely think
worth the collection (if any revenue should be so) in America. Land-tax (notwithstanding his opinion of its immense use to agriculture) he will not directly propose, before he has thought again and again on the subject. Indeed he very readily recommends for
* Page 37.
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Ireland, and seems to think it not improper for Amer ica; because, he observes, they already raise most of their taxes internally, including this tax. A most curious reason, truly ! because their lands are aheady heavily burdened, he thinks it right to burden them
still further. But he will recollect, for surely he can not be ignorant of that the lands of America are not, as in England, let at rent certain in money, and therefore cannot, as here,be taxed at certain pound rate. They value them in gross among themselves and none but themselves in their several districts can value them. Without their hearty conc\n'rence and
co-operation, evident, we cannot advance step in the assessing or collecting any land-tax. As to the taxes which in some places the Americans pay by the acre, they are merely duties of regulation; they are small and to increase them, notwithstanding the secret virtues of land-tax, would be the most effect ual means of preventing that cultivation they are
intended to promote. Besides, the whole country heavily in arrear already for land-taxes and quit rents. They have different methods of taxation in the different provinces, agreeable to their several
local circumstances. In New England by far the greatest part of their revenue raised by faculty tazes and capitatiom. Such the method in many others. It obvious that Parliament, unassisted by the colonies themselves, cannot take so much as
single step in this mode of taxation. Then what tax it he will impose? Why, after all the boasting
? and writings of his faction for these four years, after all the vain expectations which they have held out to deluded public, this their great advo cate, after twisting the subject every way, after writh
speeches
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ing himself in every posture, after knocking at every door, is obliged fairly to abandon every mode of tax ation whatsoever in America. * He thinks it the best method for Parliament to impose the sum, and reserve the account to itself, leaving the mode of taxation to the colonies. But how and in what proportion? what does the author say? O, not a single syllable on this the most material part of the whole question l Will he, in Parliament, undertake to settle the proportions of such payments from Nova Scotia to Nevis, in no fewer than six-and-twenty different countries,varying in almost every possible circumstance one from an other? If he does, I tell him, he adjourns his reve
nue to a very long day. If he leaves it to themselves to settle these proportions, he adjourns it to doomsday.
Then what does he get by this method on the side of acquiescence? will the people of America relish this course, of giving and granting and applying their money, the better because their assemblies are made commissioners of the taxes? This is far worse than all his former projects ; for here, if the assemblies shall refuse, or delay, or be negligent, or fraudulent,
in this new-imposed duty, we are wholly without rem edy; and neither our custom-house officers, nor our troops, nor our armed ships can be of the least use in the collection. No idea can be more contemptible (I will not call it an oppressive one, the harshness is lost in the folly) than that of proposing to get any revenue from the Americans but by their freest and most cheerful consent. Most moneyed men know their own interest right well; and are as able as any finan cier, in the valuation of risks. Yet I think this finan cier will scarcely find that adventurer hardy enough,
* Pages 37, 38.
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at any premium, to advance a shilling upon a vote of such taxes. Let him name the man, or set of men, that would do it. This is the only proof of the value of revenues ; what would an interested man rate them at? His subscription would be at ninety-nine per cent discount the very first day of its opening. Here is our only national security from ruin; a security upon which no man in his senses would venture a shilling of his fortune. Yet he puts down those arti cles as gravely in his supply for the peace establish ment, as if the money had been all fairly lodged in
the exchequer.
American revenue . . . . ? 200,000 Ireland. . . . . . . . 100,000
Very handsome indeed! But if supply is to be got in such a manner, farewell the lucrative mystery of finance! If you are to be credited for savings, with out showing how, why, or with what safety, they are to be made ; and for revenues, without specifying on what articles, or by what means, or at what expense, they are to be collected ; there is not a clerk in a pub lic office who may not outbid this author, or his friend, for the department of chancellor of the exchequer; not an apprentice in the city, that will not strike out,
with the same advantages, the same, or a much larger
plan of supply.
Here is the whole of what belongs to the author's
scheme for saving us from impending destruction. Take it even in its most favorable point of view, as a thing within possibility; and imagine what must be the wisdom of this gentleman, or his opinion of ours, who could first think of representing this nation in such a state, as no friend can look upon but with hor
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ror, and scarcely an enemy without compassion, and
afterwards of diverting himself with such inadequate, 'impracticable, puerile methods for our relief I If these had been the dreams of some unknown, un
named, and nameless writer, they would excite no alarm; then' weakness had been an antidote to their malignity. But as they are universally believed to be written by the hand, or, what amounts to the same thing, under the immediate direction, of a person who has been in the management of the highest af
fairs, and may soon be in the same situation, I
think it is not to be reckoned amongst our greatest consola
? tions, that the yet remaining power of this kingdom is to be employed in an attempt to realize notions that are at once so frivolous, and so full of danger. That consideration will justify me in dwelling a little longer on the difficulties of the nation, and the solu tions of our author.
I am then persuaded that he cannot be in the least alarmed about our situation, let his outcry be what he pleases. I will give him a reason for my opinion, which, I think, he cannot dispute. All that he be stows upon the nation, which it does not possess with out him, and supposing it all sure money, amounts to no more than a sum of 300,000l. a year. This, he thinks, will do the business completely, and render us flourishing at home, and respectable abroad. If the option between glory and shame, if our salvation or destruction, depended on this sum, it is impossible that he should have been active, and made a merit of that activity, in taking off a shilling in the pound of the land-tax, which came up to his grand desidera tum, and upwards of 100,000l. more. By this ma noeuvre, he left our trade, navigation, and manufac
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ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION.
tures, on the verge of destruction, our finances in ruin, our credit expiring, Ireland on the point of be ing ceded to France, the colonies of being torn to pieces, the succession of the crown at the mercy of our great rival, and the kingdom itself on the very point of becomingtributary to that haughty power. All this for want of 300,000l. ; for I defy the reader to point out any other revenue, or any other precise and defined scheme of politics, which he assigns for our
redemption.
