fewer placemen, pensioners, collectors of taxes, soldiers and sailors to be supported. These classes might be returned to the plough or the loom, and occupied in the pursuits of commerce and the cultivation of the earth. There would be no want of capital for these undertakings. The abolition of taxes would create capital. In short, the general effect of a reduction of taxes is this: the power of production and consumption, or, in other words, the quantity of employment and the means of subsistence are augmented.

It is a favorite dogma with some, especially those who live on the public, that taxes return to those from whom they are collected; which is about as good as the defence of a housebreaker, who, convicted of carrying off a merchant's property, should plead he did him no injury, for the money would be returned to him in purchasing the commodities he dealt in. But it may be asked of those who maintain this position, in what manner are the taxes returned? Certainly, taxes are paid in money; this money is again paid to the servants of government; these again pay it to the cultivator of the soil and manufacturer; and in this manner, it may be said, that taxes return to those from whom they were collected. But on this latter part of the operation it must be observed, that before either the cultivator or manufacturer can re-possess himself of his portion of the taxes, he must part with a certain quantity of his commodities in exchange; so that tax-paying revolves itself at last into the industrious giving a certain portion of their produce for the maintenance of government.

Here is the true source of the privations and embarrassments of the country. The portion of every man's produce levied for the support of government, of pensions, placemen, sinecurists, and standing armies, has invaded the funds necessary for the comfortable subsistence of the labourer, and for carrying on the trade, commerce, and agriculture of the kingdom.

Having alluded to the general effect of taxation, let us consider those measures by which the present enormous load of debt and taxes has been incurred. The principles on which government has been conducted have not varied since the Revolution of 1688 to the present time. The wars waged have generally commenced for trivial and unattainable objects, and these objects have generally not been attained; under pretence of guarding against distant and improbable dangers, the country has been involved in present and imminent ones; passion and pride, rather than any views of national advantage, have been the actuating principles of government; and as they engaged in war rashly, they persevered in it obstinately, and rejected more favourable terms of pacification than they were afterwards under the necessity of accepting. In short, our wars have been wars of ambition and oligarchical selfishness, of pride, folly, and despotism, originating in, and carried on by, the corrupt state of the representation. Let us endeavour to give some idea of the cost of these parliamentary wars from the Revolution, as evinced by the increase of taxation and the National Debt.

WILLIAM THE THIRD'S REIGN, FROM 1688 TO 1702.*

The public income at the Revolution amounted to £2,001,855. At the death of William it had increased to £3,895,205, being nearly doubled. This augmentation arose from various new duties; especially the excise on salt, the distillery, and the malt-tax. The other sources of revenue were the customs, land-tax, poll-taxes, a tax on births, marriages, and burials, hearth-money, the post-office, and other smaller duties. The total sums raised by taxes and by loans, during this reign, were as follow;

Of the fourteen years of this reign, nearly ten were years of war. The military and naval expenses amounted to £44,847,382, being more than one-half the whole expenditure of government. After all the blood and treasure expended by William, his ambition and revenge remained unsatisfied; and the ostensible object of the war, the curbing the ambition of Louis XIV. unattained. Speaking of the conclusion of this contest at the treaty of Ryswick, Smollett observes,-" Such was the issue of a long and bloody war, which had drained England of her wealth and people, almost entirely ruined her commerce, debauched her morals by encouraging venality and corruption, and entailed upon her the curse of foreign connexions, as well as a national debt, which was gradually increased to an intolerable burthen."- Continuation of Hume, vol. i. p. 330.

The funding system, and the mode of raising money by lotteries and exchequer-bills, commenced in this reign.

QUEEN ANNE'S REIGN, FROM 1701 тo 1714.

The revenue, at the commencement of this reign, amounted to £3,195,205. At the period of the union with Scotland, in 1709, the revenue of England amounted to £5,691,803. The sums received into the Exchequer, during twelve years and three-quarters, were

The amount of revenue, and the estimate of the naval and military expenses, from the Revolution to the end of the reign of George II. are taken from Dr. Colquhoun's Treatise on the Resources of the British Empire.

Miscellaneous, including Post-Office, Stamps, and

smaller loans of the Revenue

Amount of Loans..

£15,113,811

20,850,909

12,285,909

5,261,346 59,853,154

Total......£122,373,531

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 Anne'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 Anne, the National 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 profligate statesman, 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, 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

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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 no more than the right of search, which originated the war with the United States of America, was mentioned at the treaty of Ghent. 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 of 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. It has been called the war of catskins--the possession of a few furs being really the object which involved the two countries in hostilities. 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 of 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 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:

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 the obstinacy of one man, 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