But, to make the Difficulty seem much less than may at First be imagin’d, I humbly propose this following Method.
Let the Days of its Payment be fix’d by PARLIAMENT, either Quarterly, Annually, or Triennially. If the Establish’d Interest be Five Pounds per Cent. then, perhaps, Annually will be thought most expedient, in some Month when the Days are long. If the Wisdom of Parliament shall think fit to give more Interest than Five Pounds per Cent. then there is Visible Reason, why it should be Quarterly. If less than Five Pounds per Cent. a Triennial Payment may suffice. But suppose it Yearly.
Let Three hundred Commissioners be named by Parliament, One hundred of which for London, Westminster, and Southwark, the Two hundred for the Country, to be not above Twenty Miles distant from one another, so that no body can live farther off than Ten Miles from one Commissioner or other.
Let these Commissioners be the most Substantial Gentlemen or Citizens in the most Popular Towns and Cities in England, giving in sufficient Security to the Government for Performance of Their Trust.
At the Day appointed let the Money be brought to the Commissioners Houses in Hundred-pound Baggs, and there open’d and weigh’d, and then seal’d up with the Proprietor’s Seal, in the presence of the said Commissioner, Entering down in a Register every man’s Name in one Column, the Weight of the Money in another Column, and the Interest it amounts to in a third.
Let none be Receiv’d after Twelve of the Clock at Noon, and none Re-delivered till One of the Clock, to prevent Frauds in bringing the same Money twice for the same Interest.
Then, in the Afternoon, let every man’s proper and individual Money, Seal’d up as aforesaid, and Weighed again in the sight of the Proprietor, be deliver’d, with the Interest due for it.
For which One Days Trouble in a Year, I do suppose, the Government may allow the Commissioners Twenty Pound a man; which amounting to Six thousand Pounds per Annum, for all the Commissioners of ENGLAND, and suppose Three of the Five millions, whereas I supposed at first 2500000 l. only to demand Interest, it will amount to but Thirty thousand Pounds per Annum, and this Six thousand Pounds per Annum for the Commissioners added, makes but Six and thirty thousand Pounds per Annum.
Now, whereas a Land-Tax of Four Shillings in the Pound amounts to 2000000 l. a Tax of a Penny in the Pound amounts to 41666 l. 13 s. 4 d. so that 5666 l. 13 s. 4 d. per Annum Remains.
Allow the Commissioners then Thirty Pounds apiece, and there remains 2666 l. 13 s. 4 d. for a Superintendant, Auditors, Registers, Register-Books, and other incident Charges; and the whole matter is brought within a Tax of a Penny in the Pound, q. e. d.