The

Of the thirteen years of this reign, twelve were years of war. military and naval expenses amounted to £58,560,581. The object of Queen Ann's wars, like those of her predecessor, purely continental. They were terminated by the disgraceful treaty of Utrecht, in 1712, when our allies were ignominiously abandoned. The peace establishment of this period is estimated at £1,965,605.

GEORGE THE FIRST'S REIGN, FROM 1714 to 1727.

On the death of Queen Ann, the Borough Debt amounted to £52,145,363; but though her successor enjoyed a period of uninterrupted tranquillity, no effort appears to have been made to reduce it. On the 31st of December, 1727, the principal amounted to £52,092,235; the interest to £2,219,551. The aggregate sum which passed into the Exchequer of George I., during a reign of twelve years, three months, and ten days, amounted to £79,832,160. The revenue at the time of his death amounted to £4,162,643.

GEORGE THE SECOND'S REIGN, FROM 1727 to 1760.

The prosperous state of the country, for the first twelve years of profound peace at the commencement of this reign, might have admitted of a considerable reduction of the debt, had not Sir Robert Walpole, a genuine Whig, been minister. Instead of expending the surplus revenue in the liquidation of the debt, it was employed in parliamentary corruption. During ten years, from 1707 to 1717, secret service money amounted only to £337,960. From 1731 to 1741 it cost the nation £1,453,400. This augmentation is ascribed to the increased pay Sir Robert gave to the honourable members for their votes and speeches in support of his administration. The whole of the debt paid off in this long peace, amounted only to £5,137,612, the interest of which was £253,516.

The wars of George II. commenced in 1739, and were concluded at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748. The total expense of these contests is estimated, by Dr. Colquhoun, at £46,418,680. The nation

gained nothing by all this expenditure of treasure. The war originally arose with Spain; that nation claiming the right of searching all English vessels navigating the American seas. This subject, which formed the ground of the war, was never mentioned at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. The only advantage the English gained was the glory of placing Maria Theresa, grand duchess of Tuscany, on the throne of Germany, in opposition to the King of Prussia.

In the interval of peace, to the commencement of war, in 1755, there was a trifling reduction in the debt to the amount of £3,721,472, and the interest of the capital was reduced from 4 to 3 per cent.

The expense of the second war, called the seven years' war, amounted to £111,271,996. This contest first commenced about the respective boundaries of the French and English in the deserts of Canada. On this frivolous pretext commenced a war then unexampled in magnitude and expense; its ravages extended to Europe, and even to the other side of the globe in the East Indies. It is worthy of remark, too, that on the continent, George II. took the part diametrically opposite to the part he had taken in the former contest. The war of 1740 was for the humiliation of the King of Prussia; the war of 1755 for his aggrandizement!

It will be proper to notice particularly the state of the debt, finances, and peace establishment at the conclusion of this reign. They are thus stated by Dr. Colquhoun :-

GEORGE THE THIRD'S REIGN, FROM 1760 to 1820.

Mr. COKE, of Norfolk, when he characterized this monarch's reign as the most sanguinary and disastrous in the English annals, was not far from the truth. In the course of it were three principal wars: the American war, the revolutionary war, and the war of 1815. All these wars were waged against human liberty and happiness; and the two last commenced on a principle which we would fain hope is now disclaimed by every government in Europe-namely, the right of one nation to interfere with another in its domestic affairs. We will state the cost of each, as shown in the sums raised by taxes and by loans.

The American war terminated in 1783; but as the loans of the two following years were raised to wind up the expenses of that struggle, it is proper they should be included. The total expense of the American war will stand thus:

Taxes.

Loans

Advances by the Bank of England

£142,975,229 93,869,992

110,000

Advances by the East-India Company

3,200,000

This, then, is the sum expended by the Boroughmongers in an attempt to enslave the colonies. George III. boasted that he was the last man in his dominions to subscribe to the peace with America: he left his people burthened with a debt of one hundred and thirty millions, as the price of his obstinacy, and an abortive attempt to impose, on a brave people, the tyrannical principle of taxation without representation.

The second war was still more atrocious than the first; it was a war not merely against liberty, but the principles of liberty; it was a barbarous and gigantic effort of the privileged orders to prevent the amelioration of society, and to render mankind the eternal victims of ecclesiastic and aristocratic tyranny. As the war of 1793 was more

diabolical in its objects than the contest with America, so we should say, had its calamities only extended to its authors, has it been more justly ruinous in its consequences. Let us endeavour to estimate the cost of this liberticide and Vandal contest. We shall state the sums raised by taxes, and the debt contracted each year from its commencement, and then deduct the probable expenditure of the country, had no such war existed.

The account of sums raised by taxes is taken from Dr. Hamilton's Inquiry into the National Debt, p. 203, third edition. The amount of debt contracted, including navy and exchequer bills funded, is also taken from the same writer, p. 320. The short peace of Amiens, and the interval betwixt the exile and return of Bonaparte from Elba, may be considered rather a suspension of hostilities than a period of peace; therefore, we have considered it as one uinterrupted war from 1793 to 1815, having the same objects-the maintenance of the usurpations of the Clergy and Aristocracy.

After making some deductions on account of the operations of the loyalty loan, and the transfer of annuities, the total debt, contracted from 1793 to 1815, amounts to £762,537,445. If to this sum be

added the increase in the unfunded debt during that period, and the additional sums raised by taxes, in consequence of hostilities, we shall have the total expenditure, owing to the French war, as follows:

Debt contracted from 1793 to 1815
Increase in the unfunded debt, ditto .....
War-taxes

..ditto

£762,537,445

50,194,060* 614,488,459+

Total expense of the French war .. £1,427,219,964

Two objections may be made to the fairness of this statement. First, the amount of debt redeemed during the war, by the operation of the Sinking Fund, ought to be deducted from the amount of debt contracted. The second objection arises from the mode of negotiating loans. In each loan, the capital funded exceeds the sum actually advanced to government. In some loans, government acknowledges itself debtor £100, when only from £54 to £60 is actually received. Hence it follows that, from the debt contracted since 1793, ought to be deducted the difference betwixt that debt and the sums which passed into the Exchequer.

After admitting deductions from the charges of the war on this account, and the operation of the sinking fund, we must be allowed to make a trifling addition. The loans raised for Ireland, guaranteed by Britain, amounted to £103,032,750. The sums actually received on account of these loans to £64,750,000. The revenue of Ireland, in 1791, amounted only to £1,190,684. Owing to the increase of the Irish revenue during the war, the war-taxes of Ireland cannot be estimated at less than £80,000,000. After these deductions and addi

Hamilton's Inquiry, p. 338.

£14,902,635

1815..........

65,096,695 increase as above. Dr.

This sum is obtained by deducting, from the total amount of taxes during the war, the taxes which would have been raised had the expenditure of 1793 continued.