ment: but in the inquiry before us, which is only what charge is brought on the public by interest paid or to be paid for money borrowed, the utmost that the author should do, is to bring into the account the full interest for all that money. This he has done in p. 15; and he repeats it in p. 18, the very page I am now examining, 2,614,892l. To comprehend afterwards in the peace establishment the deficiency of the fund created for payment of that interest, would be laying twice to the account of the war part of the same sum. Suppose ten millions borrowed at 4 per cent, and the fund for payment of the interest to produce no more than 200,000l. The whole annual charge on the public is 400,000l. It can be no more. But to charge the interest in one part of the account, and then the deficiency in the other, would be charging 600,000l. The deficiency of funds must therefore be also deducted from the peace establishment in the "Considerations"; and then the peace establishment in that author will be reduced to the same articles with those included in the sum I have already mentioned for the peace establishment before the last war, in the year 1753, and 1754.
| Peace establishment in the "Considerations" | £3,609,700 | |
| Deduct deficiency of land and malt | £300,000 | |
| Ditto of funds | 202,400 | |
| ———— | 502,400 | |
| ———— | ||
| 3,107,300 | ||
| Peace establishment before the late war, inwhich no deficiencies of land and malt, orfunds are included | 2,346,594 | |
| ———— | ||
| Difference | £760,706 | |
Being about half the sum which our author has been pleased to suppose it.
Let us put the whole together. The author states,—
| Difference of peace establishment before andsince the war | £1,500,000 | ||
| Interest of Debt contracted by the war | 2,614,892 | ||
| ————- | |||
| 4,114,892 | |||
| The real difference in the peaceestablishment is | £760,706 | ||
| The actual interest of thefunded debt, includingthat charged on thesinking fund | £2,315,642 | ||
| The actual interest ofunfunded debt at most | 160,000 | ||
| ———— | |||
| Total interest of debtcontracted by the war | 2,475,642 | ||
| ———— | |||
| Increase of peace establishment, and interest ofnew debt | 3,236,348 | ||
| ———— | |||
| Error of the author | £878,544 | ||
It is true, the extraordinaries of the army have been found considerably greater than the author of the "Considerations" was pleased to foretell they would be. The author of "The Present State" avails himself of that increase, and, finding it suit his purpose, sets the whole down in the peace establishment of the present times. If this is allowed him, his error perhaps may be reduced to 700,000l. But I doubt the author of the "Considerations" will not thank him for admitting 200,000l. and upwards, as the peace establishment for extraordinaries, when that author has so much labored to confine them within 35,000l.
These are some of the capital fallacies of the author. To break the thread of my discourse as little as possible, I have thrown into the margin many instances, though God knows far from the whole of his inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and want of common care. I think myself obliged to take some notice of them, in order to take off from any authority this writer may have; and to put an end to the deference which careless men are apt to pay to one who boldly arrays his accounts, and marshals his figures, in perfect confidence that their correctness will never be examined.[58]
However, for argument, I am content to take his state of it. The debt was and is enormous. The war was expensive. The best economy had not perhaps been used. But I must observe, that war and economy are things not easily reconciled; and that the attempt of leaning towards parsimony in such a state may be the worst management, and in the end the worst economy in the world, hazarding the total loss of all the charge incurred, and of everything along with it.
But cui bono all this detail of our debt? Has the author given a single light towards any material reduction of it? Not a glimmering. We shall see in its place what sort of thing he proposes. But before he commences his operations, in order to scare the public imagination, he raises by art magic a thick mist before our eyes, through which glare the most ghastly and horrible phantoms:
Hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necesse est.