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Now, if these 16,000,000 were raised, in the manner just described, wand faithfully applied for the redemption of the public debt, we should augur better in regard to the future.pros perity of the country, than we should although we weres to see mustered for its financial relief, all the minute calculation, and arithmetical jugglery, which have been practised from the days of M. Richard until the present hour.Debt is to be paid only by raising money, and not by writing sums under one name which were formerly under another. The whole machine of the sinking fund, intricate as it is, is too well understood in these times, to inspire any great reverence for the wisdom of its contrivers, or any great confidence in its hidden operations. It cannot make money ; and, as we have none to lay by, it is of no usentorus. It is like a mill without corn; a good instrument enough for rendering our means available; but it does not create the means. We might starve with it in our possession, and with all its powers unimpaired. When, therefore, we expressed regret at the intention which seems to be entertained of demo lishing this celebrated machine, it was not at all on its own account but because we perceives in our countrymen a great degree of indifference with respect to futurity, provided their shoulders be eased of the burthen Lat the present moment; be cause, in short, we see clearly the same spirit prevailing among usdwhich has characterized every nation where the funding system has been adopted, and which has proved the forerunner of their destruction; because we see that our rulers borrow freely, expend lavishly, and never think of paying what they have borrowed. o atesorad Jika der ouse odi ta ysq bo We do not insinuate that the yearly redemption of the public debt should be limited to the above 6,000,000; but the additional amounts to be reserved from the sinking fund will depend upon the extent of the future peace establishment. The expenditure bf last year, exclusive of the consolidated fund, was little short of 20,000,000, which, added to the interest and expense of the debt, cestinated with the sinking fund at 45,000,000, makes the total outlay 75,000,000l. The income of the nation, as has been already stated,bcannot be reckoned at more than 48,000,0007, or 50,000,000l. of free revenue; and of this, about 83,000,000/. must be set down for interest and management; leaving 15,000,000l., or at most, 17,000,000l. for other purposes. The establishments, civil, naval, and military, cannot be estimated at less than 12,000,000l., so that there would not be more than 5,000,000/., perhaps not 3,000,000l., Lof a surplus for the use of the sinking fund. We.shall call it 4,000,000l. which added to the 6,000,000, to be raised by the proposed modified property tax, would, however short it might fall of the expectations of 000,022,0

the stockholder, create a real and efficacious fund for the liquidation of the national debt. We should willingly dispense with all the abstruser technicalities of the sinking fund, properly so called; as accumulation at compound interest means nothing more than that we shall raise a larger sum of ransom money, next half year, than we have done this half year, provided we shall be able to do so: we should be amply satisfied with the steady and constant purchase of 10,000,000l. worth of stock annually, to be cancelled for ever; and in four years, be it remembered, this simple instrument would accomplish more than has been accomplished by all the financial apparatus of Stanhope, Walpole, Price, Pitt, and Vansittart-in four years, it would actu ally and truly redeem more debt than has been redeemed by all the sinking funds that have been devised, since the reign of Queen Anne. All the other schemes were illusory and deceitful; they borrowed six pounds with one hand and paid five with the other.

The principal objection which will be urged against the plan now suggested is, we are aware, the necessity which it involves of imposing a new tax, in the present circumstances of the nation. We have, however, to observe, in reply, that the former property tax ought not to have been discontinued until a considerable portion of the debt, contracted in the course of the war, had been paid off; for it need not be mentioned that war taxes which have left nearly one half of the expense of the war unliquidated, have not realized more than half their object. It ought, in fact, as we have said above, to be made an invariable rule, in all cases of hostilities, to continue the taxes, imposed for the purposes of the war, till the whole incumbrances thereby occasioned shall have been removed. In all the wars however which have been waged, since the funding system was invented, we have acted exactly like a man who should enter into terms with a contractor to have a house built, and who, not being able to advance the whole money, gives to the said contractor sum after sum, as the work goes on; but who, as soon as the house is finished, although not more than half of the price is paid, insists upon discontinuing his instalments, choosing rather to be in debt for the remainder, than to make any particular exertion to pay it. His son succeeds him in the property of the house, with the weighty incumbrance thus resting upon it; and, not being able to clear off the capital, he too satisfies himself with paying the interest, till, in course of time, a necessity occurs for laying out a large sum on repairs. Like his father, he contracts with a workman for these repairs, and, like his father, pays him only half his charges. Another encumbrance is thus added to the property: and, in the next generation, the amount of burdens attached to the dwelling exceeds the

value of the whole rent This is our case precisely. We consider the expenses of every war to be at an end, as soon as the treaty of peace is signed. We insist that every act imposing taxes for the war shall be repealed; and thus we enter into every new war, with half the charges and more of the preceding one still unsettled. This system cannot continue for ever. Already does the interest of the national, debt exceed considerably the net rental of all the land in Great Britain; already does it constitute our principal burden; already is it become a dead weight on our manufactures and agriculture, insomuch that we are compelled to entertain the question which of the two we ought to sacrifice; already is it felt, according to Mr. McCulloch's expression, as the millstone tied about our necks which, if we do not now struggle in earnest, will ultimately carry us to the bottom of the sea.

If we examine into the particulars specified in our sketch, the tax on property which we have ventured to recommend, will not appear so very oppressive as to justify a violent opposition. More than half of the whole sum expected from it will be drawn from the dividends of stockholders; who, as money will almost certainly rise in value, can have no just cause for complaint. If, again, we estimate the annual income from land and houses at fifty millions, a property, tax of two millions on the whole does not exceed the moderate rate of 4 per cent. In 1814, the rents of land, mines, and houses in England and Scotland amounted nearly to sixty millions, and yielded a revenue, at ten per cent., approaching to 6,000,000; the tax now proposed is therefore little more than one third of the former. The tenantry, under the former bill, paid upwards of two millions of income tax; now, their contributions would be limited to about one fourth of that sum, Trades and professions paid under the late act, somewhat more than three millions; by the proposed tax, their share of the contribution would not exceed 800,000l., being but a trifle above one fourth of the other. The proportion rated on naval and military establishments is not quite one-ninth of the old tax, and would be principally levied on such officers as hold lucrative appointments, in addition to their ordinary pay.hand

If some plan similar to this be not adopted, we shall be com pelled either to borrow, year after year, in the time of peace, to maintain our establishments, or to allow our immense national debt to continue undiminished; and, in either case, our degradation, perhaps our ruin, will be certain and inevitable. Let it never be forgotten that the funding system has weakened or ruined every other country which has persevered in it; and we have no security granted us that this great empire will prove an exception. It is therefore the interest of all who have property, whe

ther in land or in the funds, and it is unquestionably the duty of every man who enjoys the privileges of a British subject, to come forward and support a measure calculated to secure the stability and credit of the nation. If either loans shall be contracted for, in the time of profound peace, or if the sinking fund shall be abolished to prevent the necessity of borrowing, the price of stocks must infallibly experience a serious depression, and the difficulty of raising money will be proportionally increased; on which account, it will be no less advantageous to the fundholder than to the country at large, to provide means for the gradual payment of the public debt.

We prefer the plan now proposed to that recommended by Mr. M'Culloch, both because it does not entail the necessity of any immediate change in our general system; and, secondly, because it will operate more equally, and, of course, less oppressively. Before the interest of the national debt could be reduced, consistently with our author's own views, the corn laws must be repealed, and the prices of food and labour must be regulated on a new scale. Such an arrangement, however, would not only require a considerable time to execute, but also a long period would have to elapse before the effects of it could be generally established. Besides, if the value of money should ever be raised by legislative interference, we can see no reason why the stockholder alone should be deprived of the benefit resulting from it. Money annuitants of all classes would derive the same advantage from the change; and many of those have had their yearly allowances, whether as interest of capital, or as salaries, regulated by the standard which prevailed during the period of depreciation. Above all, our plan is to be preferred, as it does not carry along with it the invidious and irritating circumstance of a breach of faith, with respect to the public creditor. It is decidedly better, we think, to tax the dividends than to diminish the interest.

We confess, however, we are not without fears, that the Minister will not have courage to propose a modified property tax, even for the beneficial purpose of relieving the finance of the country. He lost the last bill, chiefly because he took great pains to show that he could do without the money, the very next year. If so, said the nation, you must contrive to do without it this year also.-It is now time, however, to take up a new ground, and say firmly to the people at large; The load which presses upon the wheels of government must be lightened; the expenses of the war must be defrayed; otherwise our trade will languish, our agriculture will decay, our exertions in future will be paralyzed, and our independence, as a great power, will be sensibly endangered. We are no longer permitted to borrow

hundreds of millions, and to throw the encumbrance on posterity. Our means are already exhausted; the revenue of the next generation is already mortgaged; if we wish those who are to come after us to be free as we are, and able to defend themselves and assist the weak, as we have been, we must not overwhelm them with a mass of debt, equal to the fee simple of the whole kingdom. We scarcely expect all this. The sinking fund will be seized upon for 6, or 8,000,000l.; and nothing, we fear, will be provided in its stead. We shall then have a permanent debt, without the most distant prospect of redemption, amounting to upwards of 600,000,000l. sterling, and to more than 800,000,000l. of funded capital.

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The great motive for reducing our public burdens, which can only be done effectually by reducing the national debt, is the encouragement of manufacturing industry, and commerce. accomplish this great end Mr. M'Culloch would fearlessly break in upon the system of things which has grown up amongst us, from the peculiar circumstances of the late war; he would lower the price of food by annulling all restrictions on the importation of corn; he would diminish our taxes by defrauding our creditors; and, in short, by the omnipotence of parliament, he would bring us back to the condition which we were compelled to abandon about the close of the last century. Assuming as the basis of his argument that we derive our greatness from trade, and not from agriculture, he presses upon us the absolute necessity of modifying our policy in such a way, as to retain our preeminence as manufacturers and merchants. With the same view he has collected a great number of facts which, although not positively discouraging to our national industry, are yet such as to demand the most attentive consideration, when directing our thoughts to these sources of our power and wealth.

We begin with the Americans, who, as is well known, were forced a few years ago by the anti-commercial laws of Europe to rely on their own ingenuity for a supply of the articles which they had been used to import from thence. At the period now alluded to, the attention of a considerable part of the population of the United States, together with a large share of their capital, was diverted from agriculture and domestic manufactures, to make goods on a large scale for public demand; and the effects, says our author, are such as could hardly have been anticipated. In 1810, no fewer than 3,257,812 yards of woollen cloth were manufactured in the State of New York alone, at an expense to the manufacturers of about four dollars a yard, which they sold at the price of British cloth, or from twelve to fourteen dollars per yard. Being able of course to sell it at a much less price, and still with a considerable profit, they reduced the rate in propor