491
bore no degree of proportion (I doubt, on very grave
consideration, whether all that was ever so expended
was equal) to the money which has been raised for
the same purposes since the war.
bore no degree of proportion (I doubt, on very grave
consideration, whether all that was ever so expended
was equal) to the money which has been raised for
the same purposes since the war.
Edmund Burke
154,486
1789. 153,202 1795. 197,416 1790. 167,156 1796. 230,530 Increase to 1790
~ Years of War. ~ 1793. 191,566 1794. 190,554
~ 616,844 ~ 810,066 ~ 193,222.
Increase to 1791
1791. . ~191,489 4 Years to 1791 ~ 666,333
These duties for 1787 are blended with several others. The proportion of printed goods to the other articles for four years was found to be one fourth. That proportion is here taken.
? t SILK.
Years of Peace. ~
1787. . 166,912
1788. . 123,998
1789. . 157,730
1790. . 212,522
Increase to 1790
~ 661,162
Increase to 1791
1791. ~279,128 4 Years to 1791 ~ 773,378
~ 143,733.
o~ 89,575,
Years of War. ~ 1793. 209,915 1794. 221,306 1795. 210,725 1796. 221,007
~ 862,953 ~ 201,791.
? ? ? 484 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
factory itself is a forced plant. We have been obliged
to guard it from foreign competition by very strict
prohibitory laws. What we import is the raw and
prepared material, which is worked up in various
ways, and worn in various shapes by both sexes.
After what we have just seen, you will probably be
surprised to learn that the quantity of silk imported
during the war has been much greater than it was
previously in peace; and yet we must all remember,
to our mortification, that several of our silk ships fell
a prey to Citizen Admiral Richery. You will hardly
expect me to go through the tape and thread, and all
the other small wares of haberdashery and millinery
to be gleaned up among our imports. But I shall
make one observation, and with great satisfaction,
respecting them. They gradually diminish, as our
own manufactures of the same description spread into
their places; while the account of ornamental articles
which our country does not produce, and we cannot
wish it to produce, continues, upon the whole, to rise,
in spite of all the caprices of fancy and fashion. Of
this kind are the different furs * used for muffs, trimmings, and linings, which, as the chief of the kind, I shall particularize. You will find them below.
The diversions of the higher classes form another
* FURS.
Years of Peace. ~ Years of War. ~
1787. . 3,464 1793. . 2,829
1788. 2,958 1794. . 3,353
1789. . 1,151 1795. 3,666
1790. . 3,328 1796. . 6,138
- Increase to 1790
~ 10,901 ~ 15,986 ~ 5,085.
Increase to 1791
1791. . ~5,731 4 Years to 1791 ~13,168 ~2,818.
The skins here selected from the Custom-House accounts are, Black
Bear, Ordinary Fox, Marten, Mink, Musquash, Otter, Raccoon, and Wolf.
? ? ? ? LETTER III. 485
and the only remaining head of inquiry into their
expenses: I mean those diversions which distinguish
the country and the town life, - which are visible and
tangible to the statesman, - which have some public
measure and standard. And here, when I look to
the report of your committee, I, for the first time,
perceive a failure. It is clearly so. Whichever way
I reckon the four years of peace, the old tax on the
sports of the field has certainly proved deficient since
the war. The same money, however, or nearly the
same, has been paid to government, - though the
same number of individuals have not contributed to
the payment. An additional tax was laid in 1791,
and during the war has produced upwards of 61,0001. ,
which is about 40001. more than the decrease of the
old tax, in one scheme of comparison, and about
40001. less, in the other scheme. I might remark,
that the amount of the new tax, in the several years
of the war, by no means bears the proportion which
it ought to the old. There seems to be some great
irregularity or other in the receipt. But I do not
think it worth while to examine into the argument.
I am willing to suppose that many, who, in the idleness of peace, made war upon partridges, hares, and pheasants, may now carry more noble arms against
the enemies of their country. Our political adversaries may do what they please with that concession. They are welcome to make the most of it. I am sure
of a very handsome set-off in the other branch of expense, - the amusements of a town life.
There is much gayety and dissipation and profusior.
which must escape and disappoint all the arithmetic
of political economy. But the theatres are a prominent feature. They are established through every
part of the kingdom, at a cost unknown till our days.
? ? ? ? 486 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
There is hardly a provincial capital which does not
possess, or which does not aspire to possess, a theatreroyal. Most of them engage for a short'time, at a
vast price, every actor or actress of name in the metropolis: a distinction which in the reign of my old
friend Garrick was confined to very few. The dresses, the scenes, the decorations of every kind, I am
told, are in a new style of splendor and magnificence:
whether to the advantage of our dramatic taste, upon
the whole, I very much doubt. It is a show and a
spectacle, not a play, that is exhibited. This is undoubtedly in the genuine manner of the Augustan
age, but in a manner which was censured by one of
the best poets and critics of that or any age:Migravit ab aure voluptas
)mnis ad incertos oculos, et gaudia vana:
(Quiltnior aut plures aulkea premuntur in horas,
I)uni flgiunt equitum turmae, peditumque catervxe;I must interrupt the passage, most fervently to deprecate and abominate the sequel: --
Mox trahitur manibus regum fortuna retortis.
I hope that no French fraternization, which the relations of peace and amity with systematized regicide
would assuredly sooner or later draw after them,
even if it should overturn our happy Constitution
itself, could so change the hearts of Englishmen as
to make them delight in representations and processions which have no other merit than that of degrading and insulting the name of royalty. But good taste, manners, morals, religion, all fly, wherever the principles of Jacobinism enter; and we have
no safety against them but in arms.
The proprietors, whether in this they follow or lead
what is called the town, to furnish out these gaudy
and pompous entertainments, must collect so much
? ? ? ? LETTER III. 487
more from the public. It was but just before the
breaking out of hostilities, that they levied for themselves the very tax which, at the close of the American war, they represented to Lord North as certain ruin to their affairs to demand for the state. The
example has since been imitated by the managers
of our Italian Opera. Once during the war, if not
twice, (I would not willingly misstate anything, but
I am not very accurate on these subjects,) they have
raised the price of their subscription. Yet I have
never heard that any lasting dissatisfaction has been
manifested, or that their houses have been unusually
and constantly thin. On the contrary, all the three
theatres have been repeatedly altered, and refitted,
and enlarged, to make them capacious of the crowds
that nightly flock to them; and one of those huge
and lofty piles, which lifts its broad shoulders in gigantic pride, almost emulous of the temples of God,
has been reared from the foundation at a charge of
more than fourscore thousand pounds, and yet remains a naked, rough, unsightly heap.
I am afraid, my dear Sir, that I have tired you
with these dull, though important details. But we
are upon a subject which, like some of a higher nature, refuses ornament, and is contented with conveying instruction. I know, too, the obstinacy of unbelief in those perverted minds which have no
delight but in contemplating the supposed distress
and predicting the immediate ruin of their country.
These birds of evil presage at all times have grated
our ears with their melancholy song; and, by some
strange fatality or other, it has generally happened
that they have poured forth their loudest and deepest
lamentations at the periods of our most abundant
prosperity. Very early in my public life I had oc
? ? ? ? 488 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
casion to make myself a little acquainted with their
natural history. My first political tract in the collection which a friend has made of my publications
is an answer to a very gloomy picture of the state
of the nation, which was thought to have been drawn
by a statesman of some eminence in his time. That
was no more than the common spleen of disappointed
ambition: in the present day I fear that too many
are actuated by a more malignant and dangerous
spirit. They hope, by depressing our minds with
a despair of our means and resources, to drive us,
trembling and unresisting, into the toils of our enemies, with whom, from the beginning of the Revolution in France, they have ever moved in strict concert and cooperation. If, with the report of your Finance Committee in their hands, they canl still
affect to despond, and can still succeed, as they do,
in spreading the contagion of their pretended fears
among well-disposed, though weak men, there is no
way of counteracting them, but by fixing them down
to particulars. Nor must we forget that they are
unwearied agitators, bold assertors, dexterous sophisters. Proof must be accumulated upon proof, to silence them. With this view, I shall now direct your
attention to some other striking and unerring indicatiqns of our flourishing condition; and they will,
in general, be derived from other sources, but equally authentic: from other reports and proceedings
of both Houses of Parliament, all which unite with
wonderful force of consent in the same general result. Hitherto we have seen the superfluity of our
capital discovering itself only in procuring superfluous accommodation and enjoyment, in our houses,
ill our furniture, in our establishments, in our eating
and drinking, our clothing, and our public diversions:
? ? ? ? LETTER III. 489
we shall now see it more beneficially employed in improving our territory itself: we shall see part of our present opulence, with provident care, put out to usury for posterity.
To what ultimate extent it may be wise or practicable to push inclosures of common and waste lands may be a question of doubt, in some points of view:
but no person thinks them already carried to excess;
and the relative magnitude of the sums laid out upon
them gives us a standard of estimating the comparative situation of the landed interest. Your House, this session, appointed a committee on waste lands,
and they have made a report by their chairman, an
honorable baronet, for whom the minister the other
day (with very good intentions, I believe, but with
little real profit to the public) thought fit to erect
a board of agriculture. The account, as it stands
there, appears sufficiently favorable. The greatest
number of inclosing bills passed in any one year of
the last peace does not equal the smallest annual
number in the war, and those of the last year exceed
by more than one half the highest year of peace.
But what was my surprise, on looking into the late
report of the Secret Committee of the Lords, to find
a list of these bills during the war, differing in every
year, and * larger on the whole by nearly one third!
* Report of the Lords' Committee of Secrecy, ordered to be printed
28th April, 1797, Appendix 44.
INCLOSURE BILLS.
Years of Peace
1789. . . . 33
1790. . . . . 25
1791. . . . 40
1792. . . . 40
138
? Years of War. 1793. . . . 60
1794. . . . . 74 1795. . . . 77
1796. . . . 72 283
? ? ? 490 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
I have checked this account by the statute-book, and
find it to be correct. What new brilliancy, then,
does it throw over the prospect, bright as it was before! The number during the last four years has more than doubled that of the four years immediately preceding; it has surpassed the five years of peace, beyond which the Lords' committees have not
gone; it has even surpassed (I have verified the
fact) the whole ten years of peace. I cannot stop
here. I cannot advance a single step in this inquiry
without being obliged to cast my eyes back to the
period when I first knew the country. These bills,
which had begun in the reign of Queen Anne, had
passed every year in greater or less numbers from
the year 1723; yet in all that space of time they had
not reached the amount of any two years during the
present war; and though soon after that time they
rapidly increased, still at the accession of his present
Majesty they were far short of the number passed
in the four years of hostilities.
In my first letter I mentioned the state of our
inland navigation, neglected as it had been from the
reign of King William to the time of my observation.
It was not till the present reign that the Duke of
Bridgewater's canal first excited a spirit of speculation and adventure in this way. This spirit showed itself, but necessarily made no great progress, in the
American war. When peace was restored, it began
of course to work with more sensible effect; yet in
ten years from that event the bills passed on that
subject were not so many as from the year 1793 to
the present session of Parliament. From what I can
trace on the statute-book, I am confident that all the
capital expended in these projects during the peace
? ? ? ? LETTER III.
491
bore no degree of proportion (I doubt, on very grave
consideration, whether all that was ever so expended
was equal) to the money which has been raised for
the same purposes since the war. * I know that in
the last four years of peace, when they rose regularly
and rapidly, the sums specified in the acts were not
near one third of the subsequent amount. In the
last session of Parliament, the Grand Junction Company, as it is called, having sunk half a million, (of which I feel the good effects at my own door,) applied to your House for permission to subscribe half as much more among themselves. This Grand Junction is an inosculation of the Grand Trunk; and in the present session, the latter company has obtained
the authority of Parliament to float two hundred
acres of land, for the purpose of forming a reservoir,
thirty feet deep, two hundred yards wide at the head,
and two miles in length: a lake which may almost
vie with that which once fed the now obliterated
canal of Languedoc.
The present war is, above all others of which we
have heard or read, a war against landed property.
That description of property is in its nature the firm
base of every stable government, and has been so
considered by all the wisest writers of the old philosophy, from the time of the Stagyrite, who observes that the agricultural class of all others is the least
* NAVIGATION AND CANAL BILLS.
Years of Peace. Years of War.
1789. . . . 3 1793. . . . 28
1790. . . . 8 1794. . . . 18
1791. . . . 10 1795. . . . 11
1792. . . . 9 1796. . . . 12
301 69
Money raised. ~ 2,377,200. . . . . . .
? 7,415,100
? ? ? 492 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
inclined to sedition. We find it to have been so
regarded in the practical politics of antiquity, where
they are brought more directly home to our understandings and bosoms in the history of Rome, and
above all, in the writings of Cicero. The country
tribes were always thought more respectable than
those of the city. And if in our own history there is
any one circumstance to which, under God, are to be
attributed the steady resistance, the fortunate issue,
and sober settlement of all our struggles for liberty,
it is, that, while the landed interest, instead of forming a separate body, as in other countries, has at all
times been in close connection and union with the
other great interests of the country, it has been spontaneously allowed to lead and direct and moderate
all the rest. I cannot, therefore, but see with singular gratification, that, during a war which has been
eminently made for the destruction of the landed
proprietors, as well as of priests and kings, as much
has been done by public works for the permanent
benefit of their stake in this country as in all the rest
of the current century, which now touches to its
close. Perhaps after this it may not be necessary to
refer to private observation; but I am satisfied that in
general the rents of lands have been considerably increased: they are increased very considerably, indeed,
if I may draw any conclusion from my own little
property of that kind. I am not ignorant, however,
where our public burdens are most galling. But all
of this class will consider who they are that are principally menaced, --how little the men of their description in other countries, where this revolutionary fury has but touched, have been found equal to their
own protection, -- ow tardy and unprovided and full
of anguish is their flight, chained down as they are by
? ? ? ? LETTER III. 493
every tie to the soil, -- how helpless they are, above
all other men, in exile, in poverty, in need, in all the
varieties of wretchedness; and then let them well
weigh what are the burdens to which they ought
not to submit for their own salvation.
Many of the authorities which I have already adduced, or to which I have referred, may convey a competent notion of some of our principal manufactures. Their general state will be clear from that of our external and internal commerce, through which
they circulate, and of which they are at once the
cause and effect. But the communication of the several parts of the kingdom with each other and with foreign countries has always been regarded as one of
the most certain tests to evince the prosperous or adverse state of our trade in all its branches. Recourse has usually been had to the revenue of the PostOffice with this view. I shall include the product
of the tax which was laid in the last war, and which
will make the evidence more conclusive, if it shall afford the same inference: I allude to the Post-Horse duty, which shows the personal intercourse Wvithin
the kingdom, as the Post-Office shows the intercourse
by letters both within and without. The first of
these standards, then, exhibits an increase, according to my former schemes of comparison, from an eleventh to a twentieth part of the whole duty. *
* POST-HORSE DUTY.
? Years of Peace.
1787. . 169,410
1788. . 204,659
1789. . 170,554
1790. . 181,155
~ 725,778
Increase to 1791
1791. . ~198,634 4 Years to 1791 ~ 755,002 ~ 40,122.
~ Years of War. ~
1793. . 19. 1,488
1794. . 202,884
1795. . 196,691
1796. . 204,061. . . . . . . _ - - Increase to 1790 ~ 795,124 ~ 69,346.
? ? ? 494 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
The Post-Office gives still less consolation to those
who are miserable in proportion as the country feels
no misery. From the commencement of the war to
the month of April, 1796, the gross produce had increased by nearly one sixth of the whole sum which
the state now derives from that fund. I find that
the year ending 5th of April, 1793, gave 627,5921. ,
and the year ending at the same quarter in 1796,
750,6371. , after a fair deduction having been made
for the alteration (which, you know, on grounds of
policy I never approved) in your privilege of franking. I have seen no formal document subsequent to
that period, but I have been credibly informed there
is very good ground to believe that the revenue of
the Post-Office* still continues to be regularly and
largely upon the rise.
* The above account is taken from a paper which was ordered by
the House of Commons to be printed 8th December, 1796. From
the gross produce of the year ending 5th April, 1796, there has been
deducted in that statement the sum of 36,6661. , in consequence of the
regulation on franking, which took place on the 5th May, 1795, and
was computed at 40,0001. per ann. To show an equal number of
years, both of peace and war, the accounts of two preceding years are
given in the following table, from a report made since Mr. Burke's
death by a committee of the House of Commons appointed to consider the claims of Mr. Palmer, the late Comptroller-General; and
for still greater satisfaction, the number of letters, inwards and outwards, have been added, except for the year 1790 - 1791. The letterbook for that year is not to be found. POST-OFFICE.
Number of Letters.
Gross Revenue.
~ Inwards. Outwards.
April; 1790 - 1791. . . 575,079
? 1791-1792. . . 585,432
1792 - 1793. . . 627,592
1793-1794. . . 691,268
1794 - 1795. . . 705,319
1795 - 1796. . . 750,637
From the last-mentioned report it appears that the accounts have
6,391,149 6,584,867 7,094,777 7,071,029 7,641,077
5,081,344 5,041,137 6,537,234 7,473,626 8,597,167
? ? ? LETTER III. 495
What is the true inference to be drawn from the
annual number of bankruptcies has been the occasion
of much dispute. On one side it has been confidently urged as a sure symptom of a decaying trade: on
the other side it has been insisted that it is a circumstance attendant upon a thriving trade; for that
the greater is the whole quantity of trade, the greater of course must be the positive number of failures, while the aggregate success is still in the same proportion. In truth, the increase of the number may
arise from either of those causes. But all must agree
in one conclusion, - that, if the number diminishes,
and at the same time every other sort of evidence
tends to show an augmentation of trade, there can be
no better indication. We have already had very ample means of gathering that the year 1796 was a very favorable year of trade, and in that year the number
of bankruptcies was at least one fifth below the usual
average. I take this from the declaration of the Lord
Chancellor in the House of Lords. * He professed to
speak from the records of Chancery; and he added
another very striking fact, -- that on the property
actually paid into his court (a very small part, indeed, of the whole property of the kingdom) there
had accrued in that year a net surplus of eight hundred thousand pounds, which was so much new capital. But the real situation of our trade, during the
not, been completely and authentically made up for the years ending
5th April, 1796 and 1797; but on the Receiver-General's books there
is an increase of the latter year over the former, equal to something
more than 5 per cent.
* In a debate, 30th December, 1796, on the return of Lord
Malmesbury. -- See Woodfall's Parliamentary Debates, Vol. XIII.
p. 591.
? ? ? ? 496 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
whole of this war, deserves more minute investigation. I shall begin with that which, though the least in consequence, makes perhaps the most impression
on our senses, because it meets our eyes in our daily
walks: I mean our retail trade. The exuberant display of wealth in our shops was the sight which most amazed a learned foreigner of distinction who lately
resided among us: his expression, I remember, was,
that " they seemed to be bursting with opulence into the
streets. " The documents which throw light on this
subject are not many, but they all meet in the same
point: all concur in exhibiting an increase. The
most material are the general licenses which the
law requires to be taken out by all dealers in excisable commodities. These seem to be subject to considerable fluctuations. They have not been so
low in any year of the war as in the years 1788
and 1789, nor ever so high in peace as in the first
year of the war. I should next state the licenses to
dealers in spirits and wine; but the change in them
which took place in 1789 would give an unfair advantage to my argument. I shall therefore content myself with remarking, that from the date of that
change the spirit licenses kept nearly the same level
till the stoppage of the distilleries in 1795. If they
dropped a little, (and it was but little,) the wine
licenses, during the same time, more than counter* GENERAL LICENSES.
? Years of Peace.
1787. 44,030
1788. . 40,882
1789. 39,917
1790. . 41,970
~ 166,799
Increase to 1791
1791. . ~44,240 4 Years to 1791 z~ 167,009
~ Years of War. ~ 1793. 45,568
1794. 42,129. 1795. 43,350
1796. 41,190'_________~~ - ~ 170,237 ~ 3,438.
~Increase to 1790
~ 3,228.
? ? ? LETTER HI. 497
vailed that loss to the revenue; and it is remarkable with regard to the latter, that in the year 1796, which was the lowest in the excise duties on wine
itself, as well as in the quantity imported, more dealers iJu wine appear to have been licensed than in any former year, excepting the first year of the war.
1789. 153,202 1795. 197,416 1790. 167,156 1796. 230,530 Increase to 1790
~ Years of War. ~ 1793. 191,566 1794. 190,554
~ 616,844 ~ 810,066 ~ 193,222.
Increase to 1791
1791. . ~191,489 4 Years to 1791 ~ 666,333
These duties for 1787 are blended with several others. The proportion of printed goods to the other articles for four years was found to be one fourth. That proportion is here taken.
? t SILK.
Years of Peace. ~
1787. . 166,912
1788. . 123,998
1789. . 157,730
1790. . 212,522
Increase to 1790
~ 661,162
Increase to 1791
1791. ~279,128 4 Years to 1791 ~ 773,378
~ 143,733.
o~ 89,575,
Years of War. ~ 1793. 209,915 1794. 221,306 1795. 210,725 1796. 221,007
~ 862,953 ~ 201,791.
? ? ? 484 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
factory itself is a forced plant. We have been obliged
to guard it from foreign competition by very strict
prohibitory laws. What we import is the raw and
prepared material, which is worked up in various
ways, and worn in various shapes by both sexes.
After what we have just seen, you will probably be
surprised to learn that the quantity of silk imported
during the war has been much greater than it was
previously in peace; and yet we must all remember,
to our mortification, that several of our silk ships fell
a prey to Citizen Admiral Richery. You will hardly
expect me to go through the tape and thread, and all
the other small wares of haberdashery and millinery
to be gleaned up among our imports. But I shall
make one observation, and with great satisfaction,
respecting them. They gradually diminish, as our
own manufactures of the same description spread into
their places; while the account of ornamental articles
which our country does not produce, and we cannot
wish it to produce, continues, upon the whole, to rise,
in spite of all the caprices of fancy and fashion. Of
this kind are the different furs * used for muffs, trimmings, and linings, which, as the chief of the kind, I shall particularize. You will find them below.
The diversions of the higher classes form another
* FURS.
Years of Peace. ~ Years of War. ~
1787. . 3,464 1793. . 2,829
1788. 2,958 1794. . 3,353
1789. . 1,151 1795. 3,666
1790. . 3,328 1796. . 6,138
- Increase to 1790
~ 10,901 ~ 15,986 ~ 5,085.
Increase to 1791
1791. . ~5,731 4 Years to 1791 ~13,168 ~2,818.
The skins here selected from the Custom-House accounts are, Black
Bear, Ordinary Fox, Marten, Mink, Musquash, Otter, Raccoon, and Wolf.
? ? ? ? LETTER III. 485
and the only remaining head of inquiry into their
expenses: I mean those diversions which distinguish
the country and the town life, - which are visible and
tangible to the statesman, - which have some public
measure and standard. And here, when I look to
the report of your committee, I, for the first time,
perceive a failure. It is clearly so. Whichever way
I reckon the four years of peace, the old tax on the
sports of the field has certainly proved deficient since
the war. The same money, however, or nearly the
same, has been paid to government, - though the
same number of individuals have not contributed to
the payment. An additional tax was laid in 1791,
and during the war has produced upwards of 61,0001. ,
which is about 40001. more than the decrease of the
old tax, in one scheme of comparison, and about
40001. less, in the other scheme. I might remark,
that the amount of the new tax, in the several years
of the war, by no means bears the proportion which
it ought to the old. There seems to be some great
irregularity or other in the receipt. But I do not
think it worth while to examine into the argument.
I am willing to suppose that many, who, in the idleness of peace, made war upon partridges, hares, and pheasants, may now carry more noble arms against
the enemies of their country. Our political adversaries may do what they please with that concession. They are welcome to make the most of it. I am sure
of a very handsome set-off in the other branch of expense, - the amusements of a town life.
There is much gayety and dissipation and profusior.
which must escape and disappoint all the arithmetic
of political economy. But the theatres are a prominent feature. They are established through every
part of the kingdom, at a cost unknown till our days.
? ? ? ? 486 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
There is hardly a provincial capital which does not
possess, or which does not aspire to possess, a theatreroyal. Most of them engage for a short'time, at a
vast price, every actor or actress of name in the metropolis: a distinction which in the reign of my old
friend Garrick was confined to very few. The dresses, the scenes, the decorations of every kind, I am
told, are in a new style of splendor and magnificence:
whether to the advantage of our dramatic taste, upon
the whole, I very much doubt. It is a show and a
spectacle, not a play, that is exhibited. This is undoubtedly in the genuine manner of the Augustan
age, but in a manner which was censured by one of
the best poets and critics of that or any age:Migravit ab aure voluptas
)mnis ad incertos oculos, et gaudia vana:
(Quiltnior aut plures aulkea premuntur in horas,
I)uni flgiunt equitum turmae, peditumque catervxe;I must interrupt the passage, most fervently to deprecate and abominate the sequel: --
Mox trahitur manibus regum fortuna retortis.
I hope that no French fraternization, which the relations of peace and amity with systematized regicide
would assuredly sooner or later draw after them,
even if it should overturn our happy Constitution
itself, could so change the hearts of Englishmen as
to make them delight in representations and processions which have no other merit than that of degrading and insulting the name of royalty. But good taste, manners, morals, religion, all fly, wherever the principles of Jacobinism enter; and we have
no safety against them but in arms.
The proprietors, whether in this they follow or lead
what is called the town, to furnish out these gaudy
and pompous entertainments, must collect so much
? ? ? ? LETTER III. 487
more from the public. It was but just before the
breaking out of hostilities, that they levied for themselves the very tax which, at the close of the American war, they represented to Lord North as certain ruin to their affairs to demand for the state. The
example has since been imitated by the managers
of our Italian Opera. Once during the war, if not
twice, (I would not willingly misstate anything, but
I am not very accurate on these subjects,) they have
raised the price of their subscription. Yet I have
never heard that any lasting dissatisfaction has been
manifested, or that their houses have been unusually
and constantly thin. On the contrary, all the three
theatres have been repeatedly altered, and refitted,
and enlarged, to make them capacious of the crowds
that nightly flock to them; and one of those huge
and lofty piles, which lifts its broad shoulders in gigantic pride, almost emulous of the temples of God,
has been reared from the foundation at a charge of
more than fourscore thousand pounds, and yet remains a naked, rough, unsightly heap.
I am afraid, my dear Sir, that I have tired you
with these dull, though important details. But we
are upon a subject which, like some of a higher nature, refuses ornament, and is contented with conveying instruction. I know, too, the obstinacy of unbelief in those perverted minds which have no
delight but in contemplating the supposed distress
and predicting the immediate ruin of their country.
These birds of evil presage at all times have grated
our ears with their melancholy song; and, by some
strange fatality or other, it has generally happened
that they have poured forth their loudest and deepest
lamentations at the periods of our most abundant
prosperity. Very early in my public life I had oc
? ? ? ? 488 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
casion to make myself a little acquainted with their
natural history. My first political tract in the collection which a friend has made of my publications
is an answer to a very gloomy picture of the state
of the nation, which was thought to have been drawn
by a statesman of some eminence in his time. That
was no more than the common spleen of disappointed
ambition: in the present day I fear that too many
are actuated by a more malignant and dangerous
spirit. They hope, by depressing our minds with
a despair of our means and resources, to drive us,
trembling and unresisting, into the toils of our enemies, with whom, from the beginning of the Revolution in France, they have ever moved in strict concert and cooperation. If, with the report of your Finance Committee in their hands, they canl still
affect to despond, and can still succeed, as they do,
in spreading the contagion of their pretended fears
among well-disposed, though weak men, there is no
way of counteracting them, but by fixing them down
to particulars. Nor must we forget that they are
unwearied agitators, bold assertors, dexterous sophisters. Proof must be accumulated upon proof, to silence them. With this view, I shall now direct your
attention to some other striking and unerring indicatiqns of our flourishing condition; and they will,
in general, be derived from other sources, but equally authentic: from other reports and proceedings
of both Houses of Parliament, all which unite with
wonderful force of consent in the same general result. Hitherto we have seen the superfluity of our
capital discovering itself only in procuring superfluous accommodation and enjoyment, in our houses,
ill our furniture, in our establishments, in our eating
and drinking, our clothing, and our public diversions:
? ? ? ? LETTER III. 489
we shall now see it more beneficially employed in improving our territory itself: we shall see part of our present opulence, with provident care, put out to usury for posterity.
To what ultimate extent it may be wise or practicable to push inclosures of common and waste lands may be a question of doubt, in some points of view:
but no person thinks them already carried to excess;
and the relative magnitude of the sums laid out upon
them gives us a standard of estimating the comparative situation of the landed interest. Your House, this session, appointed a committee on waste lands,
and they have made a report by their chairman, an
honorable baronet, for whom the minister the other
day (with very good intentions, I believe, but with
little real profit to the public) thought fit to erect
a board of agriculture. The account, as it stands
there, appears sufficiently favorable. The greatest
number of inclosing bills passed in any one year of
the last peace does not equal the smallest annual
number in the war, and those of the last year exceed
by more than one half the highest year of peace.
But what was my surprise, on looking into the late
report of the Secret Committee of the Lords, to find
a list of these bills during the war, differing in every
year, and * larger on the whole by nearly one third!
* Report of the Lords' Committee of Secrecy, ordered to be printed
28th April, 1797, Appendix 44.
INCLOSURE BILLS.
Years of Peace
1789. . . . 33
1790. . . . . 25
1791. . . . 40
1792. . . . 40
138
? Years of War. 1793. . . . 60
1794. . . . . 74 1795. . . . 77
1796. . . . 72 283
? ? ? 490 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
I have checked this account by the statute-book, and
find it to be correct. What new brilliancy, then,
does it throw over the prospect, bright as it was before! The number during the last four years has more than doubled that of the four years immediately preceding; it has surpassed the five years of peace, beyond which the Lords' committees have not
gone; it has even surpassed (I have verified the
fact) the whole ten years of peace. I cannot stop
here. I cannot advance a single step in this inquiry
without being obliged to cast my eyes back to the
period when I first knew the country. These bills,
which had begun in the reign of Queen Anne, had
passed every year in greater or less numbers from
the year 1723; yet in all that space of time they had
not reached the amount of any two years during the
present war; and though soon after that time they
rapidly increased, still at the accession of his present
Majesty they were far short of the number passed
in the four years of hostilities.
In my first letter I mentioned the state of our
inland navigation, neglected as it had been from the
reign of King William to the time of my observation.
It was not till the present reign that the Duke of
Bridgewater's canal first excited a spirit of speculation and adventure in this way. This spirit showed itself, but necessarily made no great progress, in the
American war. When peace was restored, it began
of course to work with more sensible effect; yet in
ten years from that event the bills passed on that
subject were not so many as from the year 1793 to
the present session of Parliament. From what I can
trace on the statute-book, I am confident that all the
capital expended in these projects during the peace
? ? ? ? LETTER III.
491
bore no degree of proportion (I doubt, on very grave
consideration, whether all that was ever so expended
was equal) to the money which has been raised for
the same purposes since the war. * I know that in
the last four years of peace, when they rose regularly
and rapidly, the sums specified in the acts were not
near one third of the subsequent amount. In the
last session of Parliament, the Grand Junction Company, as it is called, having sunk half a million, (of which I feel the good effects at my own door,) applied to your House for permission to subscribe half as much more among themselves. This Grand Junction is an inosculation of the Grand Trunk; and in the present session, the latter company has obtained
the authority of Parliament to float two hundred
acres of land, for the purpose of forming a reservoir,
thirty feet deep, two hundred yards wide at the head,
and two miles in length: a lake which may almost
vie with that which once fed the now obliterated
canal of Languedoc.
The present war is, above all others of which we
have heard or read, a war against landed property.
That description of property is in its nature the firm
base of every stable government, and has been so
considered by all the wisest writers of the old philosophy, from the time of the Stagyrite, who observes that the agricultural class of all others is the least
* NAVIGATION AND CANAL BILLS.
Years of Peace. Years of War.
1789. . . . 3 1793. . . . 28
1790. . . . 8 1794. . . . 18
1791. . . . 10 1795. . . . 11
1792. . . . 9 1796. . . . 12
301 69
Money raised. ~ 2,377,200. . . . . . .
? 7,415,100
? ? ? 492 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
inclined to sedition. We find it to have been so
regarded in the practical politics of antiquity, where
they are brought more directly home to our understandings and bosoms in the history of Rome, and
above all, in the writings of Cicero. The country
tribes were always thought more respectable than
those of the city. And if in our own history there is
any one circumstance to which, under God, are to be
attributed the steady resistance, the fortunate issue,
and sober settlement of all our struggles for liberty,
it is, that, while the landed interest, instead of forming a separate body, as in other countries, has at all
times been in close connection and union with the
other great interests of the country, it has been spontaneously allowed to lead and direct and moderate
all the rest. I cannot, therefore, but see with singular gratification, that, during a war which has been
eminently made for the destruction of the landed
proprietors, as well as of priests and kings, as much
has been done by public works for the permanent
benefit of their stake in this country as in all the rest
of the current century, which now touches to its
close. Perhaps after this it may not be necessary to
refer to private observation; but I am satisfied that in
general the rents of lands have been considerably increased: they are increased very considerably, indeed,
if I may draw any conclusion from my own little
property of that kind. I am not ignorant, however,
where our public burdens are most galling. But all
of this class will consider who they are that are principally menaced, --how little the men of their description in other countries, where this revolutionary fury has but touched, have been found equal to their
own protection, -- ow tardy and unprovided and full
of anguish is their flight, chained down as they are by
? ? ? ? LETTER III. 493
every tie to the soil, -- how helpless they are, above
all other men, in exile, in poverty, in need, in all the
varieties of wretchedness; and then let them well
weigh what are the burdens to which they ought
not to submit for their own salvation.
Many of the authorities which I have already adduced, or to which I have referred, may convey a competent notion of some of our principal manufactures. Their general state will be clear from that of our external and internal commerce, through which
they circulate, and of which they are at once the
cause and effect. But the communication of the several parts of the kingdom with each other and with foreign countries has always been regarded as one of
the most certain tests to evince the prosperous or adverse state of our trade in all its branches. Recourse has usually been had to the revenue of the PostOffice with this view. I shall include the product
of the tax which was laid in the last war, and which
will make the evidence more conclusive, if it shall afford the same inference: I allude to the Post-Horse duty, which shows the personal intercourse Wvithin
the kingdom, as the Post-Office shows the intercourse
by letters both within and without. The first of
these standards, then, exhibits an increase, according to my former schemes of comparison, from an eleventh to a twentieth part of the whole duty. *
* POST-HORSE DUTY.
? Years of Peace.
1787. . 169,410
1788. . 204,659
1789. . 170,554
1790. . 181,155
~ 725,778
Increase to 1791
1791. . ~198,634 4 Years to 1791 ~ 755,002 ~ 40,122.
~ Years of War. ~
1793. . 19. 1,488
1794. . 202,884
1795. . 196,691
1796. . 204,061. . . . . . . _ - - Increase to 1790 ~ 795,124 ~ 69,346.
? ? ? 494 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
The Post-Office gives still less consolation to those
who are miserable in proportion as the country feels
no misery. From the commencement of the war to
the month of April, 1796, the gross produce had increased by nearly one sixth of the whole sum which
the state now derives from that fund. I find that
the year ending 5th of April, 1793, gave 627,5921. ,
and the year ending at the same quarter in 1796,
750,6371. , after a fair deduction having been made
for the alteration (which, you know, on grounds of
policy I never approved) in your privilege of franking. I have seen no formal document subsequent to
that period, but I have been credibly informed there
is very good ground to believe that the revenue of
the Post-Office* still continues to be regularly and
largely upon the rise.
* The above account is taken from a paper which was ordered by
the House of Commons to be printed 8th December, 1796. From
the gross produce of the year ending 5th April, 1796, there has been
deducted in that statement the sum of 36,6661. , in consequence of the
regulation on franking, which took place on the 5th May, 1795, and
was computed at 40,0001. per ann. To show an equal number of
years, both of peace and war, the accounts of two preceding years are
given in the following table, from a report made since Mr. Burke's
death by a committee of the House of Commons appointed to consider the claims of Mr. Palmer, the late Comptroller-General; and
for still greater satisfaction, the number of letters, inwards and outwards, have been added, except for the year 1790 - 1791. The letterbook for that year is not to be found. POST-OFFICE.
Number of Letters.
Gross Revenue.
~ Inwards. Outwards.
April; 1790 - 1791. . . 575,079
? 1791-1792. . . 585,432
1792 - 1793. . . 627,592
1793-1794. . . 691,268
1794 - 1795. . . 705,319
1795 - 1796. . . 750,637
From the last-mentioned report it appears that the accounts have
6,391,149 6,584,867 7,094,777 7,071,029 7,641,077
5,081,344 5,041,137 6,537,234 7,473,626 8,597,167
? ? ? LETTER III. 495
What is the true inference to be drawn from the
annual number of bankruptcies has been the occasion
of much dispute. On one side it has been confidently urged as a sure symptom of a decaying trade: on
the other side it has been insisted that it is a circumstance attendant upon a thriving trade; for that
the greater is the whole quantity of trade, the greater of course must be the positive number of failures, while the aggregate success is still in the same proportion. In truth, the increase of the number may
arise from either of those causes. But all must agree
in one conclusion, - that, if the number diminishes,
and at the same time every other sort of evidence
tends to show an augmentation of trade, there can be
no better indication. We have already had very ample means of gathering that the year 1796 was a very favorable year of trade, and in that year the number
of bankruptcies was at least one fifth below the usual
average. I take this from the declaration of the Lord
Chancellor in the House of Lords. * He professed to
speak from the records of Chancery; and he added
another very striking fact, -- that on the property
actually paid into his court (a very small part, indeed, of the whole property of the kingdom) there
had accrued in that year a net surplus of eight hundred thousand pounds, which was so much new capital. But the real situation of our trade, during the
not, been completely and authentically made up for the years ending
5th April, 1796 and 1797; but on the Receiver-General's books there
is an increase of the latter year over the former, equal to something
more than 5 per cent.
* In a debate, 30th December, 1796, on the return of Lord
Malmesbury. -- See Woodfall's Parliamentary Debates, Vol. XIII.
p. 591.
? ? ? ? 496 LETTERS ON A REGICIDE PEACE.
whole of this war, deserves more minute investigation. I shall begin with that which, though the least in consequence, makes perhaps the most impression
on our senses, because it meets our eyes in our daily
walks: I mean our retail trade. The exuberant display of wealth in our shops was the sight which most amazed a learned foreigner of distinction who lately
resided among us: his expression, I remember, was,
that " they seemed to be bursting with opulence into the
streets. " The documents which throw light on this
subject are not many, but they all meet in the same
point: all concur in exhibiting an increase. The
most material are the general licenses which the
law requires to be taken out by all dealers in excisable commodities. These seem to be subject to considerable fluctuations. They have not been so
low in any year of the war as in the years 1788
and 1789, nor ever so high in peace as in the first
year of the war. I should next state the licenses to
dealers in spirits and wine; but the change in them
which took place in 1789 would give an unfair advantage to my argument. I shall therefore content myself with remarking, that from the date of that
change the spirit licenses kept nearly the same level
till the stoppage of the distilleries in 1795. If they
dropped a little, (and it was but little,) the wine
licenses, during the same time, more than counter* GENERAL LICENSES.
? Years of Peace.
1787. 44,030
1788. . 40,882
1789. 39,917
1790. . 41,970
~ 166,799
Increase to 1791
1791. . ~44,240 4 Years to 1791 z~ 167,009
~ Years of War. ~ 1793. 45,568
1794. 42,129. 1795. 43,350
1796. 41,190'_________~~ - ~ 170,237 ~ 3,438.
~Increase to 1790
~ 3,228.
? ? ? LETTER HI. 497
vailed that loss to the revenue; and it is remarkable with regard to the latter, that in the year 1796, which was the lowest in the excise duties on wine
itself, as well as in the quantity imported, more dealers iJu wine appear to have been licensed than in any former year, excepting the first year of the war.
