manor. I well remember the time when fixpence a day, without victuals, was confidered as good wages for à labouring man: now, in the fame part of the country, a fhilling is thought but moderate. If a labourer then paid 5s a year to government, it is furely eafier for him how to pay ten: For ftill he has double what he then had to live upon. Meal, which is the principal food of the poor in Scotland, was feldom below is ód the ftone, at that time; and now it is little more than 25. And the cafe is much the fame with other things, which are neceffary to poor families: fo that the man who, in those days, could maintain three perfons by his labour, will. now maintain four with the fame eafe, if they are pleafed to live now as they did then. It admits not of a doubt, that labouring people, both in town and country, now live in a better house, wear better clothes, feed on a better diet, and fpend more in dilipation, than their fathers did at that time. If this is not owing to the increase of taxes; it is, at leaft, a demonftrative evidence, that thefe taxes have not made us poorer than we were; and that we are as able to bear them as our fathers were to bear one half of them.

4

But, fuppofing our taxations to be as burdenfome as they are faid to be, no change of government could make them lighter. The revenue of Britain amounts. to about fourteen millions yearly. Of thefe, one goes to the civil lift, of which we fpoke already, and four to the maintenance of the fleet and army, in time of peace. No confiderable part of this can be faved. And if any perfon who will take the trouble to read the reports of the commiffioners of public accounts, and to confider what Parliament has done in confequence of them, he will be convinced, that economy is much more attended to. in these matters, than it was fome years ago. These.

five millions would be no burden to the nation, if we had no more to raise. But the other nine millions go all to pay the intereft of the national debt. And a di

minution of that debt, is the only habile method to diminish the burdens of the people. A fcheme for that purpose, perhaps the beft that human wifdom could devife, has already been adopted by government: and hitherto its fuccefs has more than anfwered expectation. If it continues to be purfued, as I hope it will, many now alive, may yet fee the national debt, immense as it is, paid off. But it must be done gradually; and confequently, we can only be relieved from our burdens by degrees.

It may be objected that "new wars will always in"crease our debt, more than it will be diminished "by the above mentioned scheme." But it is demonftrated, with perfect certainty, that if the fyftem of an accumulating fund, which the legislature adopted a few years ago, had been adopted at the Revolution, it would have paid the expences of all the wars fince, and left the nation without a farthing of debt. It follows, therefore, that at the end of another century, if our wars are not more expenfive than thofe of the last, and the system of the accumulating fund is adhered to, we shall not be more in debt than at present.

It is true, that a parliament, or a convention made. up of fools, atheifts, or public robbers, might, with one ftroke of a pen, abolish all the national debr, and fet the people free from all the taxes which are neceffary to pay the intereft of it. But malice itself could not devife a measure fo ruinous to the nation. A private man who becomes bankrupt, while he is able to pay his debts, is juftly confidered as one of the worst of villains. And what could the world think of that nation, which fhould

follow

follow his example? Who would ever truft us again, if again we fhould need to borrow? Or how should we anfwer to the judge of all the earth, for fuch a breach of public faith, fuch an act of dishonesty and fraud, as the world never yet witneffed, till France fhewed them lately the example? Not only would the public creditors, both at home and abroad, be ruined; but all credit would be ruined with them, all property funk to nothing, and every individual in the nation reduced to beggary. The value of land would be reduced to a mere trifle. A whole eftate might be purchased for lefs than what is now its yearly rent: and none would be found to buy it. Trade and manufactures would ceafe; for no man would be able to carry them on, because none would have confidence to trust another. Tradef men and labourers would neither have work nor wages. One private bank, in a remote corner of Scotland (at Air) failed a few years ago, and how many, in different parts of Britain, were ruined by that means? A few private houses have failed, fince the month of April 1793, and how many have felt the fhock? The South Sea scheme is not yet forgotten: but though all the property that ever belonged to the South-Sea company, had been funk in the pacific ocean, what was that to the finking of almost three hundred millions, now in the British funds? Though the whole island were fwallowed up by the fea, and all the inhabitants caft naked upon the deferts of America, it would fcarcely prove a greater calamity.

Nothing can be more reafonable, than that all who enjoy the protection of government, fhould contribute, according to their ability, for its fupport. And the benefits that we derive from the British government, are more than a compensation for all the taxes we pay. Are we not indebted to government, for the prefervation

and

and fecurity of all that we poffefs; and all that we hold dear in the world? Our perfons, our wives, our children, our liberty, and all our property, if it were not for the interference of government, would foon become a prey to the lawless and difobedient; and probably fome of those men, who are now most diligent in telling us, that we are oppressed by government, a thing that we fhould never have fufpectde, if they had not told us, would then become our plunderers, and oppreffors indeed. The time is not yet diftant, when in many parts of our country, we were obliged to pay contributions to public robbers, who lived by spoil and rapine, for the safety of what they were pleafed to leave us. And fhall we think it an hardship, to pay, at least, an equal proportion, for the fupport of that government, under whose wings we dwell fafely, every one in quiet poffeffion of his paternal inheritance, or of the fruits of his own industry; or to express it in the language of the prophet, we dwell, every man under his vine, and under his fig tree, and none to make us afraid?.

On the PRESENT War, and the STAGNATION of CREDIT, as connected with it.

VERY man who has either the reafon or the feel

EVERY

ings of humanity, will be convinced, without arguments, that war is a bad thing: and ought to be avoided, as long as it can be avoided, without incurring a greater evil. Every Chriftian, in Britain, or in Europe, will earnestly defire a speedy termination of the present war, and pray for it. He will even look forward, with ardent longing, and with a lively hope, to that bleffed period, when nation will no more lift up fword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But it must be allowed, both by Chriftians and others, that there are fome cafes, when war is both lawful and neceffary. And after all the outcry that is made against the prefent war, and all the fcurrilous abufe that has been poured out upon Government, for engaging in it, and for continuing it, I am perfuaded, that if ever Brifain, fince fhe became one nation, was engaged in any war, that could be justified, upon the principles of justice, of policy, of religion, or even of neceffity, the prefent is that war.