£464,198, being about one eighty-sixth part of the unredeemed debt then existing, was on the 1st Feb. 1809, £1,282,354; being about one fifty-second part of the unredeemed debt; and may be estimated to amount on 1st Feb. 1810, to about £ 1,396,000.”

The same remark which was made upon the thirteenth, is equally applicable to this thirtieth resolution; namely, that the commissioners by not noticing the debt-capital to be in stock, and the income of the sinking fund to be in sterling, have under-rated the progressive power of the sinking fund to wear down and liquidate the national debt; as the following statement will show:

In 1803, the debt-capital in stock was £37,394,464

in sterling

The sinking fund income, in 1803,

Being a fiftieth, instead of an eigh- nominally.

24,596,310

ty-sixth part,

230 really.

Being a thirty-fourth instead of a nominally. fifty-second,

34 really.

The following Table shows the whole at one view.

464,198

Both.

th.

1803 37,394,464|24,596,310

1809 67,102,027 | 44,734,685|1,282,354

So that the operation of the sinking fund redeems a given capital of debt in less time by one third than

is allowed in the tables above calculated by Mr. Rose; that is, where thirty years are supposed necessary to liquidate the whole debt-capital, twenty years will be sufficient for that purpose.

The following view of the commerce of Ireland will show that her means increase, notwithstanding the accumulation of her public debt.

Official value of Irish imports in year

ending 5th Jan. 1803,
5th Jan. 1809,

£6,087,741

7,129,507

Official value of foreign exports in year ending 5th Jan. 1803,

212,208

All other services,

5th Jan. 1809,

Increase of foreign exports,

Total public expenditure of Great-Britain, exclusive of loans for Ireland, for ten years ending 5th January, 1803, comprising the whole period of the war terminated by the Amiens-peace, £503,378,540

Of which the debt-charge funded and

unfunded, was,

178,520,454

324,858,086

235,694

23,486

To supply this expenditure was raised by ordinary revenue and incidental payments,

241,909,953

The public expenditure of Great Britain exclusive of loans for Ireland, for six years, ending 5th January, 1809, being the first six years of the existing war, was £395,945,599

If the sum raised by war-taxes previously to the peace of Amiens had been added to the loans of each year and raised at the same rate at which such loans were actually raised in each year respectively, a far

ther charge would have been incurred in debt-capital of

and an additional annual charge by per

manent taxes,

£48,678,000

1,858,000

And if the sum raised by war-taxes during the first six years of the existing war, namely, from 1803 to 1809, had been added to the loan of each year, and raised at the same rate at which such loans were actually raised in each year, a further charge would have accrued in debt-capital of £132,769,000

additional yearly charge by permanent

taxes of,

6,755,000

So that the funded debt of Great Britain which now remains unredeemed, instead of being only

Would by adding £48,678,000 to

£132,969,000, be

Being a saving from public debt in sixteen years by the war-taxes, of

£539,495,273

721,142,273

£181,647,000

And the annual charge for the interest and management and redemption of the national debt, which on 1st Feb. 1809, was only £28,848,999, would by adding £1,850,000+ £6,755,000, amount to £37,455,999, being a saving of annual charges in sixteen years by means of war-taxes, of £8,605,000.

It should be remembered that Britain does not add so much by loans annually to her public debt as she gains by the yearly depreciation in the exchange value of money on the sum total of her debt. For instance, her expenditure for 1809, which was greater than in any former year, was,

but her revenue by taxation was,

Whence she borrowed only,

£83,099,186

70,456,592

12,642,594

Which is not £5 per cent. per annum on the whole sterling amount of her unredeemed debt, namely

£407,807,455

Now the value of money in Britain depreciates on an average £5 per cent. a year, so that in the course of twenty years the average money-price of living is doubled, or in other words £100 now in 1810 will not purchase more of the necessaries, conveniences, and enjoyments of life than £50 would have purchased in the year 1790. Whence Britain can afford to borrow the yearly sum of £20,390,372, being £5 per cent. per annum on the total of her unredeemed debt, namely the sum of £407,807,455, in order to keep pace with the sum which she gains annually by the constant depreciation in the value of money on the whole of her unredeemed sterling debt-capital. And this is altogether exclusive of the aid which she derives from the sinking fund to liquidate her debt. Whence in point of fact her public debt is continually lessening itself by the constant diminution in the value of money, which at once renders the public burden less in its actual weight and bulk, and also facilitates the means of removing it altogether, by augmenting the capacity of raising funds sufficient to meet the annual expenditure, including therein the progressive accumulation of the income of the sinking fund.

Mr. Huskisson, in his very able and statesmanlike pamphlet, intituled "The question concerning the depreciation of our (the English) currency, stated and examined," published in London, on 23d October, 1810, pp. 86, 87, says "the value of the precious metals (or money) relatively to other commodities cannot be fixed. It is subject to be affected by the same circumstances of abundance, scarcity, supply, or demand, as affect the value of all other articles. That it has greatly decreased within the period which has elapsed since the discovery of America is notorious;