| £. | s. | d. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Out of the supplies in | 1774 | 250,000 | 0 | 0 |
| in | 1775 | 69,671 | 8 | 3 |
| in | 1776 | 92,421 | 14 | 11¼ |
| Out of the million vote of credit in | 1776 | 30,000 | 0 | 0 |
| Out of the million vote of credit in | 1777 | 206,699 | 8 | 3¾ |
| Provided for in | 1778 | 105,227 | 8 | 3 |
| 754,019 | 19 | 9 |
These accounts shew, that in the note, [p. 63] of the Second Tract, the words 16 millions and a half should have been 15 millions and a half; and that in [p. 69], 2d line, 650,000l. should have been 754,019l. 19s. 9d.
N. B. The loss attending the deficiency in the coin brought in by the first proclamation amounted nearly to 300,000l. but having been thrown on the holders of the coin, it could not be brought to account.
FOOTNOTES
[1] See Mr. Burke’s Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, pages 53, 54.
[2] “To follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress and a specific, sanction to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature. When it goes beyond this, its authority will be precarious, let its rights be what they will.” Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, p. 49.
[3] Ibid. p. 55. Thoughts on the causes of the present discontents, p. 67. “Government certainly, is an institution of divine authority; though its forms and the persons who administer it, all originate from the people.” It is probable that Mr. Burke means only that government is a divine institution, in the same sense in which any other expedient of human prudence for gaining protection against injury, may be called a Divine institution. All that we owe immediately to our own foresight and industry, must ultimately be ascribed to God the giver of all our powers, and the cause of all causes. It is in this sense that St. Paul in Rom. xiii. 1, 2. calls civil magistracy the ordinance of God, and says that there is no power but of God. If any one wants to be convinced of this, he should read the excellent bishop Hoadly’s Sermon entitled The Measures of Submission to the civil Magistrate, and the defences of it.
It is further probable, that when Mr. Burke asserts the omnipotence of Parliaments, or their competence to establish any oppressions (Letter, p. 46, 49) he means mere power abstracted from right, or the same sort of power and competence that trustees have to betray their trust, or that armed ruffians have to rob and murder. Nor should I doubt whether this is his meaning, were it not for the passage I have quoted from him in the last page, the latter part of which seems to imply, that a legislature may contradict its end, and yet retain its rights.—Some of the justest remarks on this subject may be found in the Earl of Abingdon’s thoughts on Mr. Burke’s letter, a pamphlet which (on account of the excellent public principles it maintains, and the spirit of liberty it breathes, as well as the rank of the writer) must give to every friend to the true interests of this country particular pleasure.
In p. 46, Mr. Burke says, that “if there is one man in the world more zealous than another for the supremacy of parliament and the rights of this imperial crown, it is himself; though many may be more knowing in the extent and the foundation of these rights.” He adds, that “he has constantly declined such disquisitions, not being qualified for the chair of a professor in metaphysics, and not chusing to put the solid interests of the kingdom on speculative grounds.”—The less knowledge, the more zeal, is a maxim which experience has dreadfully verified in religion. But he that, in the present case, should apply this maxim to Mr. Burke, would, whatever he may say of himself, greatly injure him. Though he chuses to decry enquiries into the nature of liberty, there are, I am persuaded, few in the world whose zeal for it is more united to extensive knowledge and an exalted understanding.—He calls it, p. 55. “the vital spring and energy of a state, and a blessing of the first order.” He cannot, therefore, think that too much pains may be taken to UNDERSTAND it. He must know, that nothing but usurpation and error can suffer by enquiry and discussion.
Mr. Wilkes, in an excellent speech which he lately made in moving for the repeal of the declaratory law, observed, that this law was a compromise to which the great men, under whose administration it was passed, were forced in order to obtain the repeal of the Stamp-act. I think so highly of that administration and of the service it did the public, that I have little doubt of the truth of this observation. But, at the same time, I cannot help wishing Mr. Burke had given no reason for doubt by defending the principle of that act; a principle which, unquestionably, he and his friends would never have acted upon; but which others have since acted upon, with a violence which has brought us to the brink of ruin.