FATE OF THE FUNDS. [The reader will recollect, that I have frequently asked the question; whether, supposing us to be obliged to continue paying the interest upon the national debt, it be possible for us to carry on the war for five or six years longer? Fle will recollect, that I have invited those who differ from me upon this important point, to state the reasons whereon that difference is founded. This invitation has been accepted of by a correspondent, whose letter I here insert, and to which letter I beg leave to solicit tae attention of my readers. That it may have a fair chance of producing all the effect that it is calculated to produce, I shall leave it for one weck; nay, for two weeks, without an attempt to answer it. In the Register after the next, I shall offer some remarks upon it; and, in the meanwhile, I shall content myself with requesting it to be observed, that, as to the evils of the Funding System, such as it now is and is becoming, my correspondent perfectly agrees with me. He admits, that the national debt is likely to go on accumulating, unless some effectual measure be adopted to prevent it; and, he, of course, admits, that Mr. Pitt's schernes, for that purpose, are not effectual. He admits, that a farther, great accumulation suppose of another hundred millions) would be an intolerable evil. fie admits, that the debt, "in its "present magnitude, goes far towards cramping 86 public spirit, enervating patriotism, and dead"ening the love of our country; for, that, if taxes upon taxes not only abridge, but annihilate, the comforts of the people, they cannot "fail to extinguish virtuous independence; that "the public mind is thereby fettered and enfeebled; "that patriotism evaporates, and gives place to de"pendence and degradation." These admissions are manly. They discover a love of truth. They form a basis whereon to reason. They express a decided opinion, that something is absolutely necessary to be done; that some change must take place in the Funding System, and that right speedily; and, it only remains for us to inquire, whether the change, which I think necessary, be nec.ssary and justifiable; and whether the change, hich this gentleman proposes, would be effectual; or, rather, whether the change proposed by him would, upon the whole, be preferable to the change proposed by me; or, more properly speaking, the change which I regard as absolutely necessary to the salvation of the country.] SIR, I read your Political Register with much satisfaction. I admire the masterly manner in which you discuss the vast variety of subjects which you bring forward, and I am astonished at the stretch of mental exertion which enables you to pursue the same train of thought with so much energy and ardour. But, Sir, there is one subject occasionally introduced into your work, and treated by you as if your sentiments with regard to it were matured, which leads me, in common with many of your admirers, to regret that you cannot be supposed to have the time at command which should enable you to devote to it the attention which its magnitude, its incalculable importance, imperiously demands. I mean that of the National Debt.-For a considerable time, Sir, I read the hints which you casually threw out on this subject merely as matters of speculation. Many valuable men, men possessed of transcendent talents, have been notorious for riding their hobbies; and I had no objection to Mr. Cobbett's trotting his. But, Sir, your work is one of no common merit; it finds its way to every corner of the British Empire, and it must necessarily produce great effects on the public mind. I therefore, Sir, would solemnly put the question to your feelings, to your principles, to your honour. Do you seriously mean to recommend to Britons to cancel their public debts by the application of a national sponge? Do you really mean to argue, that a British Parliament should enact, or that a British Public should sanction, a measure which, if acted in private life, would expose the most hardy individual of that public to the lash of British law, as well as to merited reproach and indignation? Surely, Mr. Cobbett, are not fully aware that the measures which you appear (for I will yet, only say appear) to recommend, is one of the most awfully important that can possibly be suggested. I say awfully important, because of the principles in which it originates, and because of the tremendous effects which would necessarily result from it. With regard to the principles in which it has its origin, I do not hesitate to affirm that they are intimately connected with those of the rankest democracy; that they are scions which spring from the poisonous roots of the infamously misnamed tree of liberty: for, Sir, what is a democratic revolution? What is the you French revolution but a revolution of pro- | perty? The multitude seized by force the property of the few, and by force they retain it. Can it be denied that the measure of laying hold of our national funds is of this description? A holds in his hands the property of B; but, instead of making any effort to pay him, he tells him, "I will not give you principal or interest, and because you are poor while I am powerful I set you at defiance: go, beg your bread." If such a doctrine be not of the essence, the very kernel, of democracy, I know not what it is; for, if you deprive me brevi manu of one part of my property, a part of it, too, which I trusted to your honour and your integrity, what security can I have against your farther encroachments, against your noonday robbery or your midnight pluader?--I therefore enter my solenin protest against this doctrine, because I conceive that its advocates do much towards planting the roots of revolution. It is a doctrine which breaks down the mound of national virtue, and by so doing, permits the ingress of the demon of democracy, and of principles which will not and cannot be bridied until they spread far and wide the scourge of rain and desolation. The measure in question is one against which I protest, because of the awful effects which would necessarily flow from it. Give me leave, Sir, to solicit your indulgence, whle I very briefly state my reasons for thinking that it would be barbarous and cruel, unjust and dishonourable, unwise and impolitic; and, I will venture to add, unexpedient and unnessary.-It would be a barbarous and cruel measure; for, I would ask, who would be the sufferers in the first instance? It will be answered; a few hundred rich Jews! Supposing this to be the fact; upon what principle can an attack on their wealth be justified? That because a man is rich, he should be pointed out as the object of public indignation is a doctrine which may suit the other side of the streights of Dover, but it is one which will, I trust, never debase the heart of a Briton.-But, Sir, I aver, that the sufferers in the first instance would be among the middling ranks of life. Many who are not possessed of money enough to enable them to purchase land are glad to invest their little all in the public Funds and on the faith of British honour: others who are anxious to withdraw a part of their capital from the chances of commerce conceive that there is here a place of safety wherein to deposit it. Some are desirous to set apart the produce of their indestry, so as to leave numerous familes unsubjected to the inconveniencies which attend the division of heritable property: these also become stock-holders. There are multitudes who cannot embark in commercial pursuits : and not a few, such as Clergymen, &c. who are incapacitated by law for exercising their talents for business. These are the national creditors. Your Angersteins, and Barings, and Goldsmids might suffer, but their sufferings would be comparatively trivial. They have property elsewhere, and a thousand other sources would be open to their talents and industry; but I repeat, that the load would fall with insupportable weight on those classes of the community, who would be most helpless and destitute. The widow. the fatherless, and the orphan, would sink under its pressure into the vale of misery, calling for the vengeance of Heaven, on the barbarous authors of their misfortunes and ruin. But I have farther called the measure in question, unjust and dishonourable. It would stain the annals of our age and country, with an everlasting stigma. What, Sir! shall the names of Britons be handed down to posterity, with a tarnished, a polluted character! What! while British credit is yet unimpaired, while an iminense British capital, (a capital which I venture to pronounce, little sh t of two thousand millions sterling, is súll untouched, shall it be said by our children's children, that we had treacherously betrayed and ruined those of our fellow-subjects, who trusted their all to our honour, that though able to liquidate our debts, we would not make the attempt; but that we resolved to riot in luxurious indulgence, while with hearts, steeled against every benevolent feeling, we beheld thousands and tens of thousands of our countrymen, who had hitherto known ease and independence, reduced by our baseness to wretchedness and despair. Forbid it honour! forbid it every principle that is dear to the virtuous mind! Who, Sir, can be so base, as not to venerate the character of the Monarch who immediately after a battle, which was fatal to his army, and to his prospects, thus addressed his Queen, in a short but dignified epistle : dignified epistle: "We have lost all but our honour." He retained a gem infinitely more splendid than any in his crown. It is a gem which I trust will ever be dear to a free-born British heart.-But I have farther called the measure which I deprecate, unwise and impolitic: unwise, because it would completely defeat the end which on a superficial view, it seems calculated to produce. The great end which the advocates for this summary method of extinguishing our national debt profess to have in view is, that thus they would at once annihilate be to cut the sinews of war and to lay us low at the mercy of the modern Polyphemus, who has already swallowed the greater por tion of the christian world. Permit me to illustrate the former and this idea by a similitude. Suppose yourself, Mr. Cobbett, on board of one of our first-rate men of war, while a dreadful hurricane threatened it with destruction. Suppose, that the violence of the storm causes the ship to heel; what would you think of the experience of the crew who would rush with precipitation to the lee side; and, with the view of lightening the ship, should cast into the sea guns, our public burdens; thus would they at once cancel an annual payment of 25 millions sterling. Admirable calculators! But will these gentlemen take the trouble of reflecting, what would be the effect of extinguishing 25 millions from the annual circulating capital of this country! Of this country. did I say! the expression is too feeble. I will ado, t a more suitable one, and affirm that this act would overthrow, from its very foundation, a fabric which would bury under its ruins the commerce and the wealth of the world. Is there, Mr. Cobbett, among your readers, a single individual who has not heard repeatedly of the widely-extend-water-casks, and ballast from that side only? ed distress, which has, often followed the failure of a single commercial house? Supposeyou were enabled to announce at Lloyd's, that Coutts, and Co. and Smith, Payne, and Co. had just stopped payment, you would most indubitably announce, what would create infinite distress in the metropolis: nay, the stock would probably extend to the ends of the empire. But, compared to the crash which the measure in question would produce, these would be but as the dust of the balance: Instead, therefore, of the supposrd effect of annihilating our burdens, this plan would unquestionably render them intolerably oppressive. We should have to make bricks without straw; to raise taxes, and furnish supplies from the midst of bankruptcy and ruin. Hence it would follow, that to pay our army and navy, and to defray the expenses of government would prove a task infinitely more arduous than it has ever yet been; a task, Sir, which it would be absolutely impossible to accomplish.-And af ter all cui bono? It will be answered, land will escape the shock; for, landholders have a solid property. A solid property! Yes; and so have landholders in Upper Canada, where the fee simple of 1000 acres can be purchased for £50. What is land, Sir, without farmers, or skill, or capital, wherewith,to cultivate or enrich it? And how shall wealthy landholders or opulent farmers exist, if our great cities, instead of furnishing ready markets for produce, should only pour forth upon them a hungry bankrupt beggared population, who, like locusts, should devour the fruits of the earth? I have already said that the middling classes of the community would suffer in the first instance: but, to suppose that the ruin would extend only to one class; nay, that every rank and every station would not ultimately feel its awful effects, would argue (at least in my humble apprehension) an incurable degree of folly.-The measure in question would further be impolitic in the extreme, because its immediate effect would Would not the immediate consequence be, that if a prudent commander did not interfere in time, the vessel would instantaneously fall to the other side and with a fearful yaw sink into the deep? Or, suppose that the crew (instead of casting away useless lumber and cautiously stowing her ballast) should cast all her guns, shot, and powder overboard.-Why thus, Sir, the vessel and her sapient sailors might weather the storm, they might exist; but no longer would this existence be that of a British man of war. As an useless hulk would she float on the ocean the prey and the scorn of any petty privateer. Precisely thus, Sir, would it happen to an isle that has hitherto lifted up its head in the ocean as the wonder and the envy of the world. Let us but once indulge the folly of attempting to lighten the British oak by casting her incumbrances from one side: or, without metaphor, let us but attempt to prop one half of the community on the ruin of the other half-still we might exist. Without capital, commerce, or credit; without ability to borrow a single guinea on the faith of our departed honour, we might, as a province of France, and at the mercy of a despot, contrive to carry our chains; but our proud pre-eminence would be gone for ever, and we should sink among the nations unpitied, execrated as slaves who were unworthy of the blessings which they enjoyed. -But, Sir, I have farther ventured to call the measure in question one which is inexpedient and unnecessary. And this I do the more readily in consequence of the invitation which you held out to your readers in your 13th No. vol. 8, p. 490, now before me. There you" invite those who differ from "you in opinion to shew how we are to "maintain a war for 6 or 7 years longer, "and at the same time continue to pay the "interest of the national debt, which debt "must be increased to six or seven hundred "millions before the end of that time." That the national debt is likely to accu mulate, if no effectual measure is adopted to prevent it, I admit; that its accumulation to the extent which you mention, would be a most intolerable evil I also admit: nay, farther, I am as much disposed as any man can be to allow that its magnitude already goes far towards cramping public spirit, enervating patriotism, and paralysing the love of our country. For, if taxes upon taxes not only abridge but annihilate the comforts of the people, they cannot fail to extinguish honorable and virtuous independence; the public mind is fettered and enfeebled, patriotism evaporates and gives place to dependence and degradation.-But, Sir, I would address my countrymen and say, far be from your minds the feelings of despondency or despair; I would say-rouse from your lethargy 'and from your fears; ye are able to cancel your debts in the manner that will afford you the consciousness of having acted honorably: ye have yet in your power to direct toward your country the eyes of Europe to behold her sons united in the noble resolution of maintaining unsullied integrity. I would say to my countrymen, pay your debts like honest men who would part with their last guinea rather than forfeit honor. Or if it is found impracti cable to pay your debts; at least let the attempt be made with unanimity let an effort be made that shall be worthy of the British character, and then, if there is a deficit, let it fall as it ought to do, equally on all-But, Mr. Cobbett, it is not necessary to call for the last guinea. I do not hesitate to express my belief that one tenth of the national capital, that is, of the capitals of every individual, rich and poor, throughout the kingdom, if applied in the purchase of stock at par, would completely extinguish one full half of our present debt. say at par; because, if the national creditors are paid thus, they have no right to complain of injustice. Those of them who have purchased below par would be benefited; such as have paid a higher price have so far been speculators and have no title to insist for remuneration.-I have already expressed my opinion, that the capital of this kingdom is little short of two thousand mailfions sterling; and I argue as follows: The Chancellor of the Exchequer has informed us, that the rent of land is above thirty-two millions per annum value this at 25 years purchase, and you have eight hundred millions. I Add the amount of the national debt; because, in a great national measure, there is nothing unfair in calling on the public creditor to contribute his share; my wish would only be to shield him from robbery, not to screen him from his full proportion of the burdens of his country. Thus you have, suppose four hundred millions more, in all, twelve hundred millions. Look around you then, Sir, and consider the value of the houses, plate, jewels, mines, manufactures, stock in trade, ships, horses, cattle, sheep, carriages. Do I exaggerate when I venture to call our capital little short of two thousand millions?-One-tenth of this sum applied in purchasing stock at par, would extinguish above three hundred and thirty millions of that stock !!-Need I, Sir, expatiate on the amazing advantages which would necessarily result from such a measure as this? I could address the most selfish individual in Britain, the sordid being, whose heart never felt the amor patrie; and even, to such a person, I think I could demonstrate that this measure would advance his interest, would consolidate and secure his property, and, in fact, would most essentially advance his pecuniary advantage. While this measure would leave our capital equally productive of revenue as heretofore, it would at once give us the command little short of twenty millions sterling per annum, because a decrease of ten millions of annual expense, would, in fact, prove equal to a two-fold increase of income. Thus would we be able to carry on war in infinitum; without the necessity of levying a single additional tax; or, in other words, we should be able to pay the expense of any war in which we could engage trom our current revenue and without borrowing an additional shilling.—While the odious measure which I reprobate, would not only destroy at once four or five hundred millions of our capital, but would also infallibly involve in ruin our manufactus, our commerce, and our wealth of every description, that which I propose, would arrest for ever the progress of taxation, would unload and unfetter our commerce, would place our credit on an immoveable basis, would convince our enemies that our resources are not to be exhausted, and, above all, would preserve our national honour and glory unstigmatized and unimpaired. The former measure would call into action some of the worst and most malignant passions in the human heart; the latter would rouse and invigorate some of its most virtuous propensities. That would debase and degrade; this would dignify and exalt the British character.- -But, here, it wil very naturally be asked, how is it possible to accomplish a measure of such gigantic magnitude? while, in passing, I must express my surprise, that the highly respect.. abie prelate, the Bishop of Llandaff, has hitherto said nothing to illustrate his ideas upwards, be formed into a kind of corporate body, who shall be conjunctly responsible for the quantum of tax which may affect their properties; and let a quorum of their number, chosen by themselves, keep an account current with the commissioners for liquidating the national debt, to whom they should have to remit the amount of charge against the county in such sums, and at such times, as might be most convenient for themselves, with regular interest half yearly until payment is made: but with an express proviso that the whole must be paid in a given time, suppose ten years.* This would completely obviate the strongest objectious, which I ever heard started to the plan of paying the national debt; which was, "that it would bring such an extent of land into the market at once, that it would be completely depreciated." For this, there would, thus, be no necessity. A proprietor would manage ill indeed who could not in less than ten years procure cash sufficient to pay all incumbrances. In very few instances would a sale of land become necessary; and it is evident, that thousands of the present stock-holders, who would be paid off, would rejoice at having opportunities of granting loans of cash in a manner so completely secure and unexceptionable.-Indeed, so perfectly satisfactory would this county se on this subject, or to shew how his proposi- | tien could be reduced to practice, I will briefly state, that in my apprehension, this is by no means, the arduous or formidable task that it may appear to be on a cursory view of it.-1st. Two commissioners, of known independence and integrity, to be appointed for each county in the kingdom or for each district, comprehending, suppose, three or four counties; and having authority to call the assistance of the magistrates, clergymen, and others, of summoning juries (where necessary) to value any subject, and of examining parties on oath, might in less than six months, ascertain the whole property throughout Great Britain.-This I should propose to do with the strictest accuracy: let no risk arising from the exposure of property; let no evasion or subterfuge of any description, be admissible; let the ability of every one of Britain's sons to contribute to the salvation of his country be clearly and distinctly specified and marked in the books of the commissioners; of which a duplicate for each county should be deposited in the hands of the sheriff or chief magistrate.2dly. Whenever this preliminary step is taken, let a tenth part of the property of each individual be declared a debt to his country; and, of course, a debt preferable to any other he may contract thereafter, until it is completely liquidated by such instal-curity be, that I can conceive no valid obments as may be determined on.-3dly. Where this tenth does not exceed £100, let it be paid in the course of the year to the collector of the district, just as the assessed taxes are now paid. This would subject very few individuals to any hardship'; because where a man's property is thus limited it is generally moveable and tangible. It is placed, for instance, in a banker's hands, in the funds, or it is lent to some landholder at 5 per cent.interest. In the two former cases, the mode of procedure is obvious. In the latter case, the commissioners for the district could be authorized to discharge the amount of the assessment and place it at once to the debt of the landholder. Thus, A. has an estate worth 25000l., but he owes the contents of five bonds value 10001. each; where can be the difficulty of discharging the tenth of each of these bonds and taxing the estate of A. with the whole debt to the country? By this plan, A. becomes the debtor of his former creditors, only for £4,500 while he becomes debtor to his country for the full proportion arising from his property, say 2500-4th. Where the tenth exceeds £100, or, in other words, where the value of a property exceeds £1000, let the proprietors in every county to this extent and jection to some such measure as that of an immediate transfer of the claims of the national creditors, to the different counties, and instead of calling them consols, reduced, long annuities, &c. I would call them Cumberland stock, Northumberland stock, Yorkshire stock and so on; making each of them transferable and redeemable at pleasure. In this or some such manner, Sir, the pecuniary concerns of the landed and monied interests throughout the kingdom would be blended so gradually, and almost imperceptibly, that even from mere selfishness, if no nobler principle should animate them,, they would become mutual and powerful supports -By * Some proprietors who have the command of cash may be able to pay their proportions at once. Let them be permitted to do so, and get their discharges from the county managers. Their concerns with the county is then ended, excepting in as far as they are guarantees for the other proprietors, but in this guarantee there is not a possibility of risk, because it is possessed by its value tenfold, while at the same time it simplifies the business infinitely more than if the commissioners had to correspond with each proprietor. |