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liquors impose on him, and judge of the remainder by his House, his Household Furniture, and Utensils and if I have not been grievously deceived by those whose veracity and good sense I have found unquestionable in all other respects, the Cottage of an honest English Husbandman, in the Service of an enlightened and liberal Farmer, who is paid for his Labour at the price usual in Yorkshire or Northumberland, would in the mind of a man in the same rank of life, who had seen a true account of America, excite no ideas favourable to emigration. This however, I confess, is a balance of morals rather than of circumstances it proves, however, that where foresight and good morals exist, the TAXES do not stand in the way of an industrious Man's Comforts.

Dr. Price almost succeeded in persuading the English Nation (for it is a curions fact, that the fancy of our calamitous situation is a sort of necessary sauce without which our real prosperity would become insipid to us) Dr. Price, I say, alarmed the Country with pretended proofs that the Island was in a rapid state of depopulation, that England at the Revolution had been, Heaven knows how much! more populous; and that in Queen Elizabeth's time or about the Reformation (!!!) the number of Inhabitants in England might have been greater than even at the Revolution. My old mathematical Master, a Man of an uncommonly clear head, answered this blundering Book of the worthy Doctor's, and left not a stone unturned of the pompous Cenotaph in which the Effigy of the still living and bustling English Prosperity lay interred. And yet so much more suitable was the Doctor's Book to the purposes of Faction, and to the November mood of (what is called) the PUBLIC, that Mr. Wales's Pamphlet, though a Master-piece of perspicacity as well as perspicuity, was scarcely heard of. This tendency to political Night-mares in our Countrymen reminds me of a Superstition, or ra ther nervous Disease, not uncommon in the Highlands of Scotland, in which Men, though broad awake, imagine they see themselves lying dead at a small distance from them. The act of Parliament for ascertaining the Population of the Empire has layed for ever this uneasy Ghost: and now, forsooth! we are on the brink of ruin from the excess of Population, and he who would prevent the Poor from rotting away in disease, misery, and wickedness, is an Enemy to his Country! A lately deceased Miser, of immense

Wealth, is reported to have been so delighted with this splendid Discovery, as to have offered a handsome Annuity to the Author, in part of payment, for this new and welcome piece of Heart-armour. This, however, we may deduce from the fact of our encreased Population, that if Cloathing and Food had actually become dearer in proportion to the means of procuring them, it would be as absurd to ascribe this effect to encreased Taxation, as to attribute the scantiness of Fare at a public Ordinary, to the Landlord's Bill, when twice the usual number of Guests had sat down to the same number of Dishes. But the fact is notoriously otherwise, and every man has the means of discovering it in his own House and in that of his Neighbours, provided that he makes the proper allowances for the disturbing forces of individual vice and imprudence. If this be the case, I put it to the Consciences of our literary Demagogues, whether a Lie, for the purposes of creating public disunion and dejection, is not as much a Lie, as one for the purpose of exciting discord among individuals. I entreat my Readers to recollect, that the present question does not concern the effects of Taxation on the public Independence and on the supposed balance of the three constitutional Powers (from which said balance, as well as from the balance of Trade, I own, I have never been able to elicit one ray of common sense.) That the nature of our Constitution has been greatly modified by the funding System, I do not deny: whether for good or for evil, on the whole, will form part of my Essay on the British Constitution as it actually exists.

There are many and great public Evils, all of which are to be lamented, some of which may be, and ought to be removed, and none of which can consistently with Wisdom or Honesty be kept concealed from the Public. As far as these originate in false PRINCIPLES, or in the contempt or neglect of right ones (and as such belonging to the Plan of THE FRIEND), I shall not hesitate to make known my opinions concerning them, with the same fearless simplicity with which I have endeavoured to expose the Errors of Discontent and the Artifices of Faction. But for the very reason that there are great Evils, the more does it behove us not to open out on a false scent. I will conclude this Essay with the examination of an article in a provincial Paper of a recent date, which is now lying before me; Le accidental perusal of which

occasioned the whole of the preceding remarks. In order to guard against a possible mistake, I must premise, that I have not the most distant intention of defending the plan or conduct of our late Expeditions, and should be grossly calumniated if I were represented as an Advocate for carelessness or prodigality in the management of the public Purse. The public Money may or may not have been culpably wasted. I confine myself entirely to the general Falsehood of the Principle in the Article here cited; for I am convinced, that any hopes of Reform originating in such notions, must end in disappointment and public mockery.

"ONLY A FEW MILLIONS!

We have unfortunately of late been so much accustomed to read of millions being spent in one expedition, and millions being spent in another, that a comparative insignificance is attached to an immense sum of money, by calling it only a few millions. Perhaps some of our readers may have their judgment a little improved by making a few calculations, like those below, on the millions which it has been estimated will be lost to the nation by the late expedition to Holland; and then perhaps they will be led to reflect on the many millions which are annually expended in expeditions, which have almost invariably ended in absolute loss.

In the first place, with less money than it cost the nation to take Walcheren, &c. with the view of taking or destroying the French fleet at Antwerp, consisting of nine sail of the line, we could have completely built and equipped, ready for sea, a fleet of upwards of one hundred sail of the line.

Or, secondly, a new town could be built in every county of England, and each town consist of upwards of 1000 substantial houses for a less sum.

Or, thirdly, it would have been enough to give 100l. to 2000 poor families in every county in England and Wales.

Or, fourthly, it would be more than sufficient to give a handsome marriage portion to 200,000 young women who probably, if they had even less than 501. would not long remain unsolicited to enter the happy state.

Or, fifthly, a much less sum would enable the legislature to establish a life boat in every port in the United Kingdom, and provide for 10 or 12 men to be kept in constant attendance on each; and 100,000l. could be funded, the interest of which to be applied in premiums to those who should prove to be particularly active in saving lives from wrecks, &c. and to provide for the widows and children of those men who may accidentally lose their lives in the 'cause of humanity.

This interesting appropriation of 10 millions sterling, may lead our readers to think of the great good that can be done by only a few millions."

The Exposure of this Calculation will require but a few Sentences. These ten millions were expended, I presume, in Arms, Artillery, Ammunition, Cloathing, Provision, &c. &c. for about one hundred and twenty thousand British Subjects: and I presume that all these Consumables were produced by, and purchased from, other British Subjects. Now during the building of these new Towns for a thousand Inhabitants each, in every County, or the distribution of the hundred pound Bank notes to the two thou

sand poor Families, were the industrious Ship-builders, Clothiers, Charcoal-burners, Gunpowder-makers, Gunsmiths, Cutlers, Cannon-founders, Taylors, and Shoemakers, to be left unemployed and starving? or our brave Soldiers and Sailors to have remained without Food and Raiment ? and where is the proof, that these ten millions, which (observe) all remain in the Kingdom, do not circulate as beneficially in the one way as they would in the other? Is it better to give money to the idle, or to give Houses to those who do not ask for them, or Towns to Counties which have already perhaps too many, or to afford opportunity to the industrious to earn their Bread, and to the enterprizing to better their Circumstances, and perhaps found new Families of independent Proprietors? The only mode, not absolutely absurd, of considering the Subject would be, not by the calculation of the Money expended, but of the Labour of which the money is a Symbol. But then the Question would be removed altogether from the Expedition for assuredly, neither the Armies were raised, nor the Fleets built or manned for the sake of conquering the Isle of Walcheren, nor would a single Regiment have been disbanded, or a single Sloop paid off, though the Isle of Walcheren had never existed. The whole dispute, therefore, resolves itself to this one Question: whether our Sol diers and Sailors would not be better employed in making Canals, for instance, or cultivating Waste Lands, than in fighting or in learning to fight; and the Tradesman, &c. in making grey Coats instead of red or blue and ploughshares, &c. instead of Arms. When I reflect on the state of China and the moral Character of the Chinese, I dare not positively affirm that it would be better. When the fifteen millions, which form our present Population, shall have attained to the same purity of Morals and of primitive christianity, and shall be capable of being governed by the same admirable Discipline, as the Society of the Friends, I doubt not that we should be all Quakers in this as in the other points of their moral Doctrine. But were this transfer of employment desirable, is it practicable at present, is it in our power? These Men know, that it is not. What then does all their Reasoning amount to? Nonsense!

EPIGRAMS.

1.

What is an Epigram? A dwarfish Whole,
It's Body brevity, and wit it's Soul.

2.

An excellent Adage commands that we should
Relate of the Dead that alone which is good;
But of the great Lord, who here lies in lead,
We know nothing good but that he is dead.

3.

Here lies the Devil-ask no other name.

Well! but you mean Lord-Hush! we mean the same.

4.

An evil Spirit's on thee, friend! of late,

E'en from the day thou cam'st to thy estate:

Thy mirth all gone, thy kindness, thy discretion,

Th' Estate has prov'd to thee a most complete Possession.
For shame, old friend! would'st thou be truly blest,
Be thy wealth's Lord not Slave, Possessor not possess'd!

5.

Did'st thou think less of thy dear Self,

Far more would others think of thee!
Sweet Anne! the knowledge of thy wealth
Reduces thee to poverty.

Boon Nature gave Wit, Beauty, Health,
On thee, as on her darling, pitching:
Could'st thou forget, thou'rt thus enrich'd,

That moment would'st thou become rich in;

And wert thou not so self-bewitch'd,

Sweet Anne! thou wert indeed bewitching!

6..

For a French House-dog's Collar.

When Thieves come, I bark; when Gallants, I am still: So perform both my Master's and Mistress's will.

S. T. C.

PENRITH PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. BROWN, AND SOLD BY
MESERS. LONGMAN AND CO. PATERNOSTER ROW, AND
CLEMENT, 201, STRAND, LONDON.

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