FOOTNOTES
[11] See a particular explanation of this assertion in the Second Tract, [Page 9].
[12] In Great Britain, consisting of near six millions of inhabitants, 5723 persons, most of them the lowest of the people, elect one half of the House of Commons; and 364 votes chuse a ninth part. This may be seen distinctly made out in the Political Disquisitions, Vol. 1. Book 2. C. 4. a work full of important and useful instruction.
[13] See among others Mr. Locke on Government, and Dr. Priestley’s Essay on the first Principles of Government.
[14] See Dr. Priestly on Government, page 68, 69, &c.
[15] The independency of the Judges we esteem in this country one of our greatest privileges.—Before the revolution they generally, I believe, held their places during pleasure. King William gave them their places during good behaviour. At the accession of the present Royal Family their places were given them during good behaviour, in consequence of the Act of Settlement, 12 and 13 W. III. C. 2. But an opinion having been entertained by some, that though their commissions were made under the Act of Settlement to continue, during good behaviour, yet that they determined on the demise of the Crown; it was enacted by a statute made in the first year of his present Majesty, Chap. 23. “That the commissions of Judges for the time being shall be, continue, and remain in full force, during their good behaviour, notwithstanding the demise of his Majesty, or of any of his Heirs and Successors;” with a proviso, “that it may be lawful for his Majesty, his Heirs and Successors, to remove any Judge upon the address of both Houses of Parliament.” And by the same Statute their salaries are secured to them during the continuance of their commissions: His Majesty, according to the preamble of the Statute, having been pleased to declare from the Throne to both Houses of Parliament, “That he looked upon the independency and uprightness of Judges as essential to the impartial administration of Justice, as one of the best securities to the Rights and Liberties of his loving Subjects, and as most conducive to the honour of his Crown.”
A worthy friend and able Lawyer has supplied me with this note. It affords, when contrasted with that dependence of the Judges which has been thought reasonable in America, a sad specimen of the different manner in which a kingdom may think proper to govern itself, and the provinces subject to it.
[16] Montesquieu’s Spirit of Laws, Vol. I. Book 11. C. xix.
[17] This is particularly true of the bounties granted on some American commodities (as pitch, tar, indigo, &c.) when imported into Britain; for it is well known, that the end of granting them was, to get those commodities cheaper from the Colonies, and in return for our manufactures, which we used to get from Russia and other foreign countries. And this is expressed in the preambles of the laws which grant these bounties. See the Appeal to the Justice, &c. page 21, third edition. It is, therefore, strange that Doctor Tucker and others, should have insisted so much upon these bounties as favours and indulgencies to the Colonies.—But it is still more strange, that the same representation should have been made of the compensations granted them for doing more during the last war in assisting us than could have been reasonably expected; and also of the sums we have spent in maintaining troops among them without their consent; and in opposition to their wishes.—See a pamphlet, entitled “The rights of Great Britain asserted against the claims of America.”
[18] It is remarkable that even the author of the Remarks on the Principal Acts of the 13th Parliament of Great Britain, &c. finds himself obliged to acknowledge this difference.—There cannot be more detestable principles of government, than those which are maintained by this writer. According to him, the properties and rights of a people are only a kind of alms given them by their civil governors. Taxes, therefore, he asserts, are not the gifts of the people. See page 58, and 191.
[19] See Observations on Reversionary Payments, page 207, &c.
[21] The author of Taxation no Tyranny will undoubtedly assert this without hesitation, for in page 69 he compares our present situation with respect to the Colonies to that of the antient Scythians, who, upon returning from a war, found themselves shut out of their own Houses by their Slaves.
[22] See particularly, a speech intended to have been spoken on the bill for altering the Charter of the Colony of Massachuset’s Bay; the Considerations on the Measures carrying on with respect to the British Colonies; the Two Appeals to the Justice and Interests of the People; and the further Examination, just published, of our present American Measures, by the Author of the Considerations, &c.
[23] I have heard it said by a person in one of the first departments of the state, that the present contest is for Dominion on the side of the Colonies, as well as on ours: And so it is indeed; but with this essential difference. We are struggling for dominion over OTHERS. They are struggling for Self-dominion: The noblest of all blessings.
[24] This has been our policy with respect to the people of Ireland; and the consequence is, that we now see their parliament as obedient as we can wish.
[25] It should be remembered, that this was written some time before the Declaration of Independence in July 1776. See [page 85] of the next Tract.
[26] In February 1776.—In a few weeks after this, they were driven from Boston; and took refuge at Hallifax in Nova Scotia; from whence, after a strong reinforcement, they invaded the Province of New-York.
[27] Except the Negroes in the Southern Colonies, who probably will now either soon become extinct, or have their condition changed into that of Freemen.—It is not the fault of the Colonies that they have among them so many of these unhappy people. They have made laws to prohibit the importation of them; but these laws have always had a negative put upon them here, because of their tendency to hurt our Negro trade.
[28] In the county of Suffolk, where Boston is, there has not been, I am informed, more than one execution these 18 years.
[29] Mr. Burke (in his excellent and admirable Speech on moving his resolutions for conciliation with the Colonies, P. 9. &c.) has shewn, that our trade to the Colonies, including that to Africa and the West-Indies, was in 1772 nearly equal to the trade which we carried on with the whole world at the beginning of this Century.
[30] See Dr. Davenant’s works, collected and revised by Sir Charles Whitworth, Vol. I. Page 363, &c. 443, &c.
[31] See Considerations on Money, Bullion, &c. Page 2 and 11.
[32] The coin deficient between one grain and three grains was not called in at the time this was written. This call was made in the Summer of 1776; and it brought in above three millions more than was expected. The quantity of gold coin should therefore have been stated at about Sixteen Millions, and the whole coin of the kingdom at 18 or 19 millions.—The evidence from which I have drawn this estimate may be found in the first Section of the Second Part of the next Tract.
[33] See Sir James Steuart’s Enquiry into the Principles of political Œconomy, Vol. II. Book 4, Chap. 32.
[34] See the Second Tract, [P. 65].
[35] Their debts consist chiefly of money raised by annuities on lives, short annuities, anticipations of taxes for short terms, &c. During the whole last war they added to their perpetual annuities only 12 millions sterling, according to Sir James Steuart’s account; whereas we added to these annuities near 60 millions. In consequence therefore of the nature of their debts, as well as of the management they are now using for hastening the reduction of them, they must in a few years, if peace continues, be freed from most of their incumbrances; while we probably (if no event comes soon that will unburthen us at once) shall continue with them all upon us.
[36] Mr. Lowndes in the dispute between him and Mr. Locke, contended for a reduction of the standard of silver. One of his reasons was, that it would render the silver-coin more commensurate to the wants of the nation; and check hazardous Paper-credit.—Mr. Conduit, Sir Isaac Newton’s successor in the mint, has proposed, in direct contradiction to the laws now in being, that all the bullion imported into the kingdom should be carried into the mint to be coined; and only coin allowed to be exported. “The height, he says, of paper-credit is the strongest argument for trying this and every other method that is likely to increase the coinage. For whilst paper-credit does in a great measure the business of money at home, Merchants and Bankers are not under a necessity, as they were formerly, of coining a quantity of specie for their home trade; and as Paper-credit brings money to the Merchants to be exported, the money may go away insensibly, and NOT BE MISSED TILL IT BE TOO LATE: And where Paper-credit is large and increasing, if the money be exported and the coinage decrease, THAT CREDIT MAY SINK AT ONCE, for want of a proportionable quantity of Specie, which alone can support it in a time of distress.”—See Mr. Conduit’s Observations on the state of our Gold and Silver Coins in 1730, Page 36, to 46.
[37] According to the accounts of the exports to, and imports from the North-American Colonies, laid before Parliament, the balance in our favour appears to have been, for 11 years before 1774, near a million and a half annually.
[38] See the substance of the evidence on the petition presented by the West-India Planters and Merchants to the House of Commons as it was introduced at the BAR, and summed up by Mr. Glover.
[39] The annual average of the payments into the Exchequer, on account of the duties on tobacco, was for five years, from 1770 to 1774, 219,117l. exclusive of the payments from Scotland.—Near one half of the tobacco trade is carried on from Scotland; and above four fifths of the tobacco imported is afterwards exported to France, Germany and other countries. From France alone it brings annually into the Kingdom, I am informed, about 150,000l. in money.
In 1775, being, alas! the parting year, the duties on tobacco in England brought into the Exchequer no less a sum than 298,202l.
[40] All the accounts and calculations in the Appendix here referred to, have been transferred to the 2d and 4th Sections of the 3d Part of the Second Tract.
[41] A quarter of the inhabitants of every country are fighting men.—If, therefore, the Colonies consist only of two millions of inhabitants, the number of fighting men in them will be half a million.
[42] See the Appendix to Dr. Zubly’s Sermon, preached at the opening of the Provincial Congress of Georgia.
[43] The apprehensions here expressed have been verified by the events which have happened since this was written. American privateers have spread themselves over the Atlantick. They have frightened us even on our own coasts, and seized millions of British property.
[44] “I have no other notion of slavery, but being bound by a law to which I do not consent.” See the case of Ireland’s being bound by acts of Parliament in England, stated by William Molyneux, Esq; Dublin.—In arguing against the authority of Communities, and all people not incorporated, over one another; I have confined my views to taxation and internal legislation. Mr. Molyneux carried his views much farther; and denied the right of England to make any laws even to regulate the trade of Ireland. He was the intimate friend of Mr. Locke; and writ his book in 1698, soon after the publication of Mr. Locke’s Treatise on Government.
[45] See on this subject the second Section of the second Part of the next Tract, [Page 77].
[46] Some persons, convinced of the folly as well as barbarity of attempting to keep the Colonies by slaughtering them, have very humanely proposed giving them up. But the highest authority has informed us, with great reason, “That they are too important to be given up.”—Dr. Tucker has insisted on the depopulation, produced by migrations from this country to the Colonies, as a reason for this measure. But, unless the kingdom is made a prison to its inhabitants, these migrations cannot be prevented; nor do I think that they have any great tendency to produce depopulation. When a number of people quit a country, there is more employment and greater plenty of the means of subsistence left for those who remain; and the vacancy is soon filled up. The grand causes of depopulation are, not migrations, or even famines and plagues, or any other temporary evils; but the permanent and slowly working evils of debauchery, luxury, high taxes, and oppression.
[47] See the Resolutions on the Nova-Scotia petition reported to the House of Commons, November 29, 1775, by Lord North, Lord George Germaine, &c. and a bill ordered to be brought in upon the said Resolutions.—There is indeed, as Lord Shelburne has hinted, something very astonishing in these Resolutions. They offer a relaxation of the authority of this country, in points to which the Colonies have always consented, and by which we are great gainers; at the same time, that, with a rigour which hazards the Empire, we are maintaining its authority in points to which they will never consent; and by which nothing can be gained.
ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS
On the Nature and Value of
CIVIL LIBERTY,
AND THE
WAR with AMERICA:
ALSO
Observations on Schemes for raising Money
by Public Loans;
An Historical Deduction and Analysis of the
National Debt;
And a brief Account of the Debts and Resources
of France.
Should the morals of the English be perverted by luxury;—should they lose their Colonies by restraining them, &c.—they will be enslaved; they will become insignificant and contemptible; and Europe will not be able to shew the world one nation in which she can pride herself.
Abbe Raynal.
TO
The Right Honourable
The LORD MAYOR,
The Aldermen, and the Commons
OF THE
CITY of LONDON,
THIS TRACT,
Containing Additions to those Observations on Civil Liberty,
which they have honoured with their Approbation,
Is, with the greatest Respect and Gratitude,
INSCRIBED,
BY
Their most obedient
and humble Servant,
Richard Price.