; at the same time he hints to you, that you may erpect some benefit also from the
original
plan.
Edmund Burke
.
159 4 per cent (not taxed) 57 4 per cent cons.
100 3 per cent " " 49 3 per cent cons.
88
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This state of the funds of France and England is sufficient to convince even prejudice and obstinacy, that if France and England are not in the same con dition (as the author afiirms they are not) the dif ference is infinitely to the disadvantage of France.
This depreciation of their funds has not much the air of a nation lightening burdens and discharging debts.
Such is the true comparative state of the two king doms in those capital points of view. Now as to the nature of the taxes which provide for this debt, as well as for their ordinary establishments, the author has thought proper to affirm that " they are compara tively light "'; that " she has mortgaged no such op pressive taxes as ours " ; his effrontery on this head is intolerable. Does the author recollect a single tax
in England to which something parallel in nature, and as heavy in burden, does not exist in France; does he not know that the lands of the noblesse are still under the load of the greater part of the old feudal charges, from which the gentry of England have been relieved for upwards of a hundred years, and which were in kind, as well as burden, much worse than our modern land-tax? Besides that all the gentry of France serve in the army on very slender pay, and to the utter ruin of their fortunes, all those who are not noble have their lands heavily taxed. Does he not know that wine," brandy, soap, candles, leather, salt
petre, gunpowder, are taxed in France? Has he not heard that government in France has made a monop oly of that great article of salt? that they compel the people to take a certain quantity of and at certain rate, both rate and quantity fixed at the ar bitrary pleasure of the imposer? "' that they pay in
* Before the war was sold to, or rather forced on, the consumer
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France the Taille, an arbitrary imposition on pre sumed property? that a tax is laid in fact and name, on the same arbitrary standard, upon the acquisitions of their industry ? and that in France a heavy capita tion-taa: is also paid, from the highest to the very poorest sort of people? Have we taxes of such weight, or anything at all of the compulsion, in the
article of salt? do we pay any taillaye, any faculty taz, any industry-tax? do we pay any capitation-tax whatsoever? Ibelieve the people of London would fall into an agony to hear of such taxes proposed upon them as are paid at Paris. There is not a sin gle article of provision for man or beast which enters that great city, and is not excised ; corn, hay, meal,
? butcher's-meat, fish, fowls, everything. I do not here mean to censure the policy of taxes laid on the con sumption of great luxurious cities. I only state the fact. We should be with difficulty brought to hear of a tax of 50s. upon every ox sold in Smithfield. Yet this tax is paid in Paris. Wine, the lower sort of wine, little better than English small beer, pays 2d. a bottle.
We, indeed, tax our beer; but the imposition on small beer is very far from heavy. In no part of England are eatables of any kind the object of tax ation. In almost every other country in Europe they are excised, more or less. I have by me the state of the revenues of many of the principal nations on the Continent; and, on comparing them with ours, I think I am fairly warranted to assert, that England is the most lightly taxed of any of the great states
at 11 sous, or about 5d. the pound. What it is at present, I am not informed. Even this will appear no trivial imposition. In London, salt may be had at a penny farthing per pound from the last retailer.
? ? ? OBSERVATIONS on A LATE PUBLICATION
of Europe. They, whose unnatural and sullen arises from contemplation of the distresses of their country, will revolt at this position. But am
called upon, will prove beyond all possibility dispute even though this proof should deprive these gentlemen of the singular satisfaction of considering their country as undone; and though the best civil government, the best constituted, and the best man aged revenue that ever the world beheld, should thoroughly vindicated from their perpetual claxnors and complaints. As to our neighbor and rival France, in addition to what have here suggested, say, and when the author chooses formally to deny, shall formally prove that her subjects pay more than England, on computation of the wealth 'of both countries; that her taxes are more injudiciously and more oppressively imposed more vexatiously col
lected come in smaller proportion to the royal cof fers, and are less applied by far to the public service. am not one of those who choose to take the author's
word for this happy and flourishing condition of the French finances, rather than attend to the changes, the violent pushes and the despair of all her own nanciers. Does he choose to be referred for the easy and happy condition of the subject in France to the remonstrances of their own parliaments, written with such an eloquence, feeling, and energy, as have not seen exceeded in any other writings? The author may say, their complaints are exaggerated, and the effects of faction. answer, that they are the repre sentations of numerous, grave, and most respectable bodies of men, upon the affairs of their own country. But, allowing that discontent and faction may per vert the judgment of such venerable bodies in France,
334
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we have as good a right to suppose that the same causes may full as probably have produced from a private, however respectable person, that frightful, and, I trust I have shown, groundless representation of our own affairs in England.
The author is so conscious of the dangerous effects of that representation, that he thinks it necessary, and very necessary it to guard against them. He assures us, " that he has not made that display of the difficulties of his country, to expose her counsels to the ridicule of other states, or to provoke vanquished enemy to insult her; nor to excite the people's rage against their governors, or sink them into despond
ency of the public welfare. " readily admit this apology for his intentions. . God forbid should think any man capable of entertaining so execrable and senseless design. The true cause of his drawing so shocking picture no more than this and ought rather to claim our pity than excite our indignation he finds himself out of power; and this condition intolerable to him. The same sun which gilds all nature, and exhilarates the whole creation, does not shine upon disappointed ambition. It something that rays out of darkness, and inspires nothing but gloom and melancholy. Men in this deplorable state of mind find comfort in spreading the contagion of
their spleen. They find an advantage too; for general, popular error, to imagine the loudest com
for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare. If such persons can answer the ends of relief and profit to themselves, they are apt to be careless enough about either the means or the conse
quences.
Whatever this complainant's motives may be, the
plainers
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effects can by no possibility be other than those which he so strongly, and I hope truly, disclaims all inten tion of producing. To verify this, the reader has only to consider how dreadful a picture he has drawn in his 32nd page, of the state of this kingdom; such a picture as, I believe, has hardly been applicable, without some exaggeration, to the most degenerate and undone commonwealth that ever existed. Let this view of things be compared with the prospect of a remedy which he proposes in the page directly oppo site, and the subsequent. I believe no man living
could have imagined it possible, except for the sake of burlesquing a subject, to propose remedies so ridic ulously disproportionate to the evil, so full of uncer tainty in their operation, and depending for their success in every step upon the happy event of so many new, dangerous, and visionary projects. It is not amiss, that he has thought proper to give the public some little notice of what they may expect from his friends, when oi1r affairs shall be committed to their management. Let us see how the accoimts of disease and remedy are balanced in his " State of the Nation. " In the first place, on the side of evils, he states, "an impoverished and heavily-burdened
A declining trade and decreasing specie. The power of the crown never so much extended over the great; but the great without influence over the lower sort. Parliament losing its reverence with the people. The voice of the multitude set up against the sense of the legislature; a people luxurious and licentious, impatient of rule, and despising all author ity. Government relaxed in every sinew, and a cor rupt selfish spirit. pervading the whole. An opinion of many, that the form of government is not worth
? public.
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contending for. No attachment in the bulk of the people towards the constitution. No reverence for the customs of our ancestors. No attachment but to private interest, nor any zeal but for selfish gratifi cations. Trade and manufactures going to ruin. Great Britain in danger of becoming tributary to France, and the descent of the crown dependent on
her pleasure. Ireland, in case of a war, to become a prey to France; and Great Britain, unable to re cover Ireland, cede it by treaty," (the author never can think of a treaty without making cessions,) "in order to purchase peace for herself. The colonies
left exposed to the ravages of a domestic, or the con quest of a foreign enemy. "--Gloomy enough, God knows. The author well observes,* that a mind not totally devoid of feeling cannot look upon such a pros
pect without horror; and an heart capable of humanity must be unable to bear its description. He ought to have added, that no man of common discretion ought to have exhibited it to the public, if it were true ; or of common honesty, if it were false.
But now for the comfort; the day-star which is to arise in our hearts; the author's grand scheme for totally reversing this dismal state of things, and mak ing us1' "happy at home and respected abroad, for midable in war and flourishing in peace. "
In this great work he proceeds with a facility equally astonishing and pleasing. Never was finan cier less embarrassed by the burden of establishments,
or with the difficulty of finding ways and means. If an establishment is troublesome to him, he lops off at a stroke just as much of it as he chooses. He mows down, without giving quarter, or assigning reason,
? * Page 31. VOL. 1.
T Page 33.
22
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army, navy, ordnance, ordinary, extraordinaries; noth ing can stand before him. Then, when he comes to provide, Amalthea's horn is in his hands; and he pours out with an inexhaustible bounty, taxes, duties, loans, and revenues, without uneasiness to himself, or burden to the public. Insomuch that, when we consider the abundance of his resources, we cannot avoid being surprised at his extraordinary attention to savings. But it is all the exuberance of his good ness.
This book has so much of a certain tone of power, that one would be almost tempted to think it written by some person who had been high in office. A man is generally rendered somewhat a worse reasoner for having been a minister. In private, the assent of lis tening and obsequious friends; in public, the venal cry and prepared vote of a passive senate, confirm him in habits of begging the question with impu nity, and asserting without thinking himself obliged to prove. Had it not been for some such habits, the author could never have expected that we should take his estimate for a peace establishment solely on his word.
This estimate which he gives,*_' is the great ground work of his plan for the national redemption ; and it ought to be'well and firmly laid, or what must be come of the superstructure ? One would have thought the natural method in a plan of reformation would be, to take the present existing estimates as they stand; and then to show what may be practicably and safely defalcated from them. This would, I say, be the natural course; and what would be expected from a man of business. But this author takes a
* Page 33.
? ? ? ? ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION.
very different method. For the ground of his specu lation of a present peace establishment, he resorts to a former speculation of the same kind, which was in the mind of the minister of the year 1764. Indeed it never existed anywhere else. " The plan," * says he,
with his usual ease, " has been already formed, and the outline drawn, by the administrationof 1764. I shall attempt to fill up the void and obliterated parts,
and trace operation. The standing expense of the present (his projected) peace establislnnent, improved
the experience the two last years, may be thus esti mated"; and he estimates at 3,468,161l.
Here too would be natural to expect some rea sons for condemning the subsequent actual establish ments, which have so much transgressed the limits of his plan of 1764, as well as some arguments in fa vor of his' new project; which has in some articles exceeded, in others fallen short, but 0n the whole much below his old one. Hardly word on any of
these points, the only points however that are in the least essential; for unless you assign reasons for the increase or diminution of the several articles of pub lic charge, the playing at establishments and esti mates an amusement of no higher order, and of much less ingenuity, than Questions and commands,
or What my thought like? To bring more distinctly under the reader's view this author's strange method of
will lay before him the three schemes; viz. the idea of the ministers in 1764, the actual esti mates o-f the two last years as given by the author him
? proceeding,
self, and lastly the new project of his political millen nium
Page 33.
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Plan of establishment for 1764, as by
" Considerations," p. 43 . . . . "' ? 3,609,700
Medium of 1767 and 1768, as by " State
of the Nation," p. 29 and 30 . . . 3,919,375
Present peace establishment, as by the
project in " State of the Nation," p. 33 3,468,161
It is not from anything our author has anywhere said, that you are enabled to find the ground, much less the justification, of the immense difference be tween these several systems ; you must compare them yourself, article by article; no very pleasing employ ment, by the way, to compare the agreement or disa greement of two chimeras. I now only speak of the comparison of his own two projects. As to the latter of them, it differs from the former, by having some of the articles diminished, and others increasedj I find the chief article of reduction arises from the smaller deficiency of land and malt, and of the annu ity funds, which he brings down to 295,561l. in his new estimate, from 502,400l. which he had allowed
for those articles in the " Considerations. " With this reduction, owing, as it must be, merely to a small er deficiency of funds, he has nothing at all to do. It can be no work and no merit of his. But with re gard to the increase, the matter is very different. It is all his own ; the public is loaded (for anything we can see to the contrary) entirely gratis. The chief articles of the increase are on the navy,i and on the army and ordnance extraordinaries; the navy being
* The figures in the "Considerations" are wrongly cast up; i| should be 3,608,700l.
1' " Considerations," p. 43. " State of the Nation," p. 33.
'
? 1 Ibid.
? ? ? ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION. 341
estimated in his "State of the Nation" 50,000l. a year more, and the army and ordnance extraordina ries 40,000l. more, than he had thought proper to al low for them in that estimate in his " Considerations," which he makes the foundation of his present project. He has given no sort of reason, stated no sort of ne cessity, for this additional allowance, either in the one article or the other. What is still stronger, he admits that his allowance for the army and ordnance extras is too great, and expressly refers you to the " Considerations "; "' where, far from giving 75,000l. a year to that service, as the " State of the Nation "
has done, the author apprehends his own scanty pro vision of 35,000l. to be by far too considerable, and
? thinks it may well admit of further
reductions. 1'
* Page 34.
T The author of the " State of the Nation," p. 34, informs us, that
the sum of 75,000l. allowed by him for the extras of the army and ordnance, is far less than was allowed for the same service in the years 1767 and 1768. It is so undoubtedly, and by at least 200,000l. He sees that he cannot abide by the plan of the " Considerations " in this point, nor is hc willing wholly to give it up. Such an enormous difference as that between 35,000l. and 300,000]. puts him to a stand. Should he adopt the latter plan of increased expense, he must then confess that he had, on a former occasion, egregiously trifled with the public; at the same time all his future promises of reduction must fall to the ground. 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.
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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.
' 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'
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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,
? '
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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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This state of the funds of France and England is sufficient to convince even prejudice and obstinacy, that if France and England are not in the same con dition (as the author afiirms they are not) the dif ference is infinitely to the disadvantage of France.
This depreciation of their funds has not much the air of a nation lightening burdens and discharging debts.
Such is the true comparative state of the two king doms in those capital points of view. Now as to the nature of the taxes which provide for this debt, as well as for their ordinary establishments, the author has thought proper to affirm that " they are compara tively light "'; that " she has mortgaged no such op pressive taxes as ours " ; his effrontery on this head is intolerable. Does the author recollect a single tax
in England to which something parallel in nature, and as heavy in burden, does not exist in France; does he not know that the lands of the noblesse are still under the load of the greater part of the old feudal charges, from which the gentry of England have been relieved for upwards of a hundred years, and which were in kind, as well as burden, much worse than our modern land-tax? Besides that all the gentry of France serve in the army on very slender pay, and to the utter ruin of their fortunes, all those who are not noble have their lands heavily taxed. Does he not know that wine," brandy, soap, candles, leather, salt
petre, gunpowder, are taxed in France? Has he not heard that government in France has made a monop oly of that great article of salt? that they compel the people to take a certain quantity of and at certain rate, both rate and quantity fixed at the ar bitrary pleasure of the imposer? "' that they pay in
* Before the war was sold to, or rather forced on, the consumer
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France the Taille, an arbitrary imposition on pre sumed property? that a tax is laid in fact and name, on the same arbitrary standard, upon the acquisitions of their industry ? and that in France a heavy capita tion-taa: is also paid, from the highest to the very poorest sort of people? Have we taxes of such weight, or anything at all of the compulsion, in the
article of salt? do we pay any taillaye, any faculty taz, any industry-tax? do we pay any capitation-tax whatsoever? Ibelieve the people of London would fall into an agony to hear of such taxes proposed upon them as are paid at Paris. There is not a sin gle article of provision for man or beast which enters that great city, and is not excised ; corn, hay, meal,
? butcher's-meat, fish, fowls, everything. I do not here mean to censure the policy of taxes laid on the con sumption of great luxurious cities. I only state the fact. We should be with difficulty brought to hear of a tax of 50s. upon every ox sold in Smithfield. Yet this tax is paid in Paris. Wine, the lower sort of wine, little better than English small beer, pays 2d. a bottle.
We, indeed, tax our beer; but the imposition on small beer is very far from heavy. In no part of England are eatables of any kind the object of tax ation. In almost every other country in Europe they are excised, more or less. I have by me the state of the revenues of many of the principal nations on the Continent; and, on comparing them with ours, I think I am fairly warranted to assert, that England is the most lightly taxed of any of the great states
at 11 sous, or about 5d. the pound. What it is at present, I am not informed. Even this will appear no trivial imposition. In London, salt may be had at a penny farthing per pound from the last retailer.
? ? ? OBSERVATIONS on A LATE PUBLICATION
of Europe. They, whose unnatural and sullen arises from contemplation of the distresses of their country, will revolt at this position. But am
called upon, will prove beyond all possibility dispute even though this proof should deprive these gentlemen of the singular satisfaction of considering their country as undone; and though the best civil government, the best constituted, and the best man aged revenue that ever the world beheld, should thoroughly vindicated from their perpetual claxnors and complaints. As to our neighbor and rival France, in addition to what have here suggested, say, and when the author chooses formally to deny, shall formally prove that her subjects pay more than England, on computation of the wealth 'of both countries; that her taxes are more injudiciously and more oppressively imposed more vexatiously col
lected come in smaller proportion to the royal cof fers, and are less applied by far to the public service. am not one of those who choose to take the author's
word for this happy and flourishing condition of the French finances, rather than attend to the changes, the violent pushes and the despair of all her own nanciers. Does he choose to be referred for the easy and happy condition of the subject in France to the remonstrances of their own parliaments, written with such an eloquence, feeling, and energy, as have not seen exceeded in any other writings? The author may say, their complaints are exaggerated, and the effects of faction. answer, that they are the repre sentations of numerous, grave, and most respectable bodies of men, upon the affairs of their own country. But, allowing that discontent and faction may per vert the judgment of such venerable bodies in France,
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we have as good a right to suppose that the same causes may full as probably have produced from a private, however respectable person, that frightful, and, I trust I have shown, groundless representation of our own affairs in England.
The author is so conscious of the dangerous effects of that representation, that he thinks it necessary, and very necessary it to guard against them. He assures us, " that he has not made that display of the difficulties of his country, to expose her counsels to the ridicule of other states, or to provoke vanquished enemy to insult her; nor to excite the people's rage against their governors, or sink them into despond
ency of the public welfare. " readily admit this apology for his intentions. . God forbid should think any man capable of entertaining so execrable and senseless design. The true cause of his drawing so shocking picture no more than this and ought rather to claim our pity than excite our indignation he finds himself out of power; and this condition intolerable to him. The same sun which gilds all nature, and exhilarates the whole creation, does not shine upon disappointed ambition. It something that rays out of darkness, and inspires nothing but gloom and melancholy. Men in this deplorable state of mind find comfort in spreading the contagion of
their spleen. They find an advantage too; for general, popular error, to imagine the loudest com
for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare. If such persons can answer the ends of relief and profit to themselves, they are apt to be careless enough about either the means or the conse
quences.
Whatever this complainant's motives may be, the
plainers
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effects can by no possibility be other than those which he so strongly, and I hope truly, disclaims all inten tion of producing. To verify this, the reader has only to consider how dreadful a picture he has drawn in his 32nd page, of the state of this kingdom; such a picture as, I believe, has hardly been applicable, without some exaggeration, to the most degenerate and undone commonwealth that ever existed. Let this view of things be compared with the prospect of a remedy which he proposes in the page directly oppo site, and the subsequent. I believe no man living
could have imagined it possible, except for the sake of burlesquing a subject, to propose remedies so ridic ulously disproportionate to the evil, so full of uncer tainty in their operation, and depending for their success in every step upon the happy event of so many new, dangerous, and visionary projects. It is not amiss, that he has thought proper to give the public some little notice of what they may expect from his friends, when oi1r affairs shall be committed to their management. Let us see how the accoimts of disease and remedy are balanced in his " State of the Nation. " In the first place, on the side of evils, he states, "an impoverished and heavily-burdened
A declining trade and decreasing specie. The power of the crown never so much extended over the great; but the great without influence over the lower sort. Parliament losing its reverence with the people. The voice of the multitude set up against the sense of the legislature; a people luxurious and licentious, impatient of rule, and despising all author ity. Government relaxed in every sinew, and a cor rupt selfish spirit. pervading the whole. An opinion of many, that the form of government is not worth
? public.
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contending for. No attachment in the bulk of the people towards the constitution. No reverence for the customs of our ancestors. No attachment but to private interest, nor any zeal but for selfish gratifi cations. Trade and manufactures going to ruin. Great Britain in danger of becoming tributary to France, and the descent of the crown dependent on
her pleasure. Ireland, in case of a war, to become a prey to France; and Great Britain, unable to re cover Ireland, cede it by treaty," (the author never can think of a treaty without making cessions,) "in order to purchase peace for herself. The colonies
left exposed to the ravages of a domestic, or the con quest of a foreign enemy. "--Gloomy enough, God knows. The author well observes,* that a mind not totally devoid of feeling cannot look upon such a pros
pect without horror; and an heart capable of humanity must be unable to bear its description. He ought to have added, that no man of common discretion ought to have exhibited it to the public, if it were true ; or of common honesty, if it were false.
But now for the comfort; the day-star which is to arise in our hearts; the author's grand scheme for totally reversing this dismal state of things, and mak ing us1' "happy at home and respected abroad, for midable in war and flourishing in peace. "
In this great work he proceeds with a facility equally astonishing and pleasing. Never was finan cier less embarrassed by the burden of establishments,
or with the difficulty of finding ways and means. If an establishment is troublesome to him, he lops off at a stroke just as much of it as he chooses. He mows down, without giving quarter, or assigning reason,
? * Page 31. VOL. 1.
T Page 33.
22
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army, navy, ordnance, ordinary, extraordinaries; noth ing can stand before him. Then, when he comes to provide, Amalthea's horn is in his hands; and he pours out with an inexhaustible bounty, taxes, duties, loans, and revenues, without uneasiness to himself, or burden to the public. Insomuch that, when we consider the abundance of his resources, we cannot avoid being surprised at his extraordinary attention to savings. But it is all the exuberance of his good ness.
This book has so much of a certain tone of power, that one would be almost tempted to think it written by some person who had been high in office. A man is generally rendered somewhat a worse reasoner for having been a minister. In private, the assent of lis tening and obsequious friends; in public, the venal cry and prepared vote of a passive senate, confirm him in habits of begging the question with impu nity, and asserting without thinking himself obliged to prove. Had it not been for some such habits, the author could never have expected that we should take his estimate for a peace establishment solely on his word.
This estimate which he gives,*_' is the great ground work of his plan for the national redemption ; and it ought to be'well and firmly laid, or what must be come of the superstructure ? One would have thought the natural method in a plan of reformation would be, to take the present existing estimates as they stand; and then to show what may be practicably and safely defalcated from them. This would, I say, be the natural course; and what would be expected from a man of business. But this author takes a
* Page 33.
? ? ? ? ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION.
very different method. For the ground of his specu lation of a present peace establishment, he resorts to a former speculation of the same kind, which was in the mind of the minister of the year 1764. Indeed it never existed anywhere else. " The plan," * says he,
with his usual ease, " has been already formed, and the outline drawn, by the administrationof 1764. I shall attempt to fill up the void and obliterated parts,
and trace operation. The standing expense of the present (his projected) peace establislnnent, improved
the experience the two last years, may be thus esti mated"; and he estimates at 3,468,161l.
Here too would be natural to expect some rea sons for condemning the subsequent actual establish ments, which have so much transgressed the limits of his plan of 1764, as well as some arguments in fa vor of his' new project; which has in some articles exceeded, in others fallen short, but 0n the whole much below his old one. Hardly word on any of
these points, the only points however that are in the least essential; for unless you assign reasons for the increase or diminution of the several articles of pub lic charge, the playing at establishments and esti mates an amusement of no higher order, and of much less ingenuity, than Questions and commands,
or What my thought like? To bring more distinctly under the reader's view this author's strange method of
will lay before him the three schemes; viz. the idea of the ministers in 1764, the actual esti mates o-f the two last years as given by the author him
? proceeding,
self, and lastly the new project of his political millen nium
Page 33.
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Plan of establishment for 1764, as by
" Considerations," p. 43 . . . . "' ? 3,609,700
Medium of 1767 and 1768, as by " State
of the Nation," p. 29 and 30 . . . 3,919,375
Present peace establishment, as by the
project in " State of the Nation," p. 33 3,468,161
It is not from anything our author has anywhere said, that you are enabled to find the ground, much less the justification, of the immense difference be tween these several systems ; you must compare them yourself, article by article; no very pleasing employ ment, by the way, to compare the agreement or disa greement of two chimeras. I now only speak of the comparison of his own two projects. As to the latter of them, it differs from the former, by having some of the articles diminished, and others increasedj I find the chief article of reduction arises from the smaller deficiency of land and malt, and of the annu ity funds, which he brings down to 295,561l. in his new estimate, from 502,400l. which he had allowed
for those articles in the " Considerations. " With this reduction, owing, as it must be, merely to a small er deficiency of funds, he has nothing at all to do. It can be no work and no merit of his. But with re gard to the increase, the matter is very different. It is all his own ; the public is loaded (for anything we can see to the contrary) entirely gratis. The chief articles of the increase are on the navy,i and on the army and ordnance extraordinaries; the navy being
* The figures in the "Considerations" are wrongly cast up; i| should be 3,608,700l.
1' " Considerations," p. 43. " State of the Nation," p. 33.
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? 1 Ibid.
? ? ? ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NATION. 341
estimated in his "State of the Nation" 50,000l. a year more, and the army and ordnance extraordina ries 40,000l. more, than he had thought proper to al low for them in that estimate in his " Considerations," which he makes the foundation of his present project. He has given no sort of reason, stated no sort of ne cessity, for this additional allowance, either in the one article or the other. What is still stronger, he admits that his allowance for the army and ordnance extras is too great, and expressly refers you to the " Considerations "; "' where, far from giving 75,000l. a year to that service, as the " State of the Nation "
has done, the author apprehends his own scanty pro vision of 35,000l. to be by far too considerable, and
? thinks it may well admit of further
reductions. 1'
* Page 34.
T The author of the " State of the Nation," p. 34, informs us, that
the sum of 75,000l. allowed by him for the extras of the army and ordnance, is far less than was allowed for the same service in the years 1767 and 1768. It is so undoubtedly, and by at least 200,000l. He sees that he cannot abide by the plan of the " Considerations " in this point, nor is hc willing wholly to give it up. Such an enormous difference as that between 35,000l. and 300,000]. puts him to a stand. Should he adopt the latter plan of increased expense, he must then confess that he had, on a former occasion, egregiously trifled with the public; at the same time all his future promises of reduction must fall to the ground. 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
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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 .
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? 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.
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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 . . . . .
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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
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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
? ? --.
