a few notions that are at hand and occur; and not excited from a sufficient number of instances, and those well collated." Again, " To fortify imagination there be three ways; the authority whence the belief is derived, means to quicken and corroborate the imagination, and means to repeat and refresh it."

"There are opinions that grow upon men's complexions, and opinions that are the result of their reason; for a strong inclination with a little evidence is equivalent to strong evidence: and interest hath the same effect upon human nature, because it always begets an inclination to those opinions that favour our interest;" and, therefore, we agree with Swift, that " quotations from powerful authorities should be brought in to confirm opinions that are controverted."

The late Mr. Huskisson used to say, that "almost every Honourable Member of that House was an advocate for free trade in every commodity or manufacture, except that in which he had an individual interest." This was something like a wholesale libel on the lower House of Parliament as then constituted. But the patriotism of the present occupants of seats in St. Stephen's Chapel is soon to be put to the test; for the Agricultural Interest has determined that protection of all description shall be called in question; and it is to be hoped the intention may be carried into effect, for the people of Great Britain must benefit by the investigation. Sir Robert Peel once said, in his place in Parliament, that of all the vulgar arts of governing, that was the most reprehensible, which maintained itself by putting its hands into the pockets of the people.

*Thomas Burnett.

But here we come to a question of words, what is meant by the people? if it implies those whose only property is their labour, then all indirect taxation comes under that epithet applied to it by the Right Honourable Baronet.

For, let us imagine a village shopkeeper going to the metropolis to purchase his annual stock, and take one article of his trade, say tea, of which he is about to get one hundred pounds' worth, from a large house at the wholesale price; and, to realise the profit he calculates upon, must retail it at twenty-five per cent. profit. Were there but a very small duty on this article of such general consumption, instead of requiring twenty-five per cent. profit on one hundred pounds, he would only have to expend forty pounds of his capital, and would consequently supply all his customers at a profit of ten pounds; they receiving the same quality and the same quantity, and only paying the shopkeeper's profit on the real value of the article as imported, with the addition as we have before observed of a very small duty.

Let us examine how indirect taxation operates in another way, and take the article leather; when a tax was imposed upon it, the saddlers, shoemakers and all other trades, who largely used that commodity, made use of the pretext to raise the price of their goods; but when those who had remembered the laying on the tax applied for a reduction, the boot and shoemaker would answer, why, I could not reduce the price of your shoes one penny, in consequence of the alteration in cost of the material of which they are composed; nor was it until French shoes were imported duty free, and gutta-percha discovered and brought into use, that the public were at

all benefited, although the revenue suffered to the amount of half a million sterling annually, by the abolition of the duty upon leather. Human ingenuity was exhausted by Mr. Pitt in the adoption of indirect taxation as a means of revenue; he was obliged at last to come to an income-tax; and, when we consider the expense of collecting the former, we again recommend the latter as a permanent tax, for the reasons given in our pamphlet of 1833;* retaining the machinery of the old system, to be put in use, should a general European war again break out; which catastrophe may, "God in his mercy avert." But we do not presume to predict that the result would infallibly succeed. Nevertheless,† it is the nature of the "human mind, to continually im- . prove in the knowledge of the subject to which it is directed: and thence may be inferred the necessity of perpetual investigation, and fair, unbiassed inquiry to master the object in view. Individual experience, though valuable, is not sufficient; the extended research of all who have trodden the same path must be carefully examined, and generally, deductions made by able men, which then properly take the name of scientific maxims."

"The productions of imagination require a genius which soars above the common rank; but the treasures of knowledge are commonly buried deep, and may be reached by those drudges who can dig with labour and patience, though they have not wings to fly."+

Page 54. First part of this Work. + Laplace.

+ Reid.

B

We only look for a reduction of the National Debt, even during profound and long-continued peace, from a lowering of the rate of interest.

The price of 5 per cent. stock, at the beginning of 1822, was advanced to 6 or 8 per cent. above par, and advantage was taken of this circumstance to induce the holders to exchange each £100 of 5 per cent annuities for £105 of 4 per cent. annuities. On this occasion, £140,250,828 of 5 per cent. stock was cancelled and £147,263,328 of 4 per cent. created; the annual charge being thus reduced by the sum of £1,122,000.

In 1824, a further saving of £381,034 per annum was effected by reducing to 3 per cent. the interest payable on £76,206,822 of 4 per cent. stock; again, in 1830, a reduction of one-half per cent. was effected on the 4 per cent. stock created in 1822, whereby the sum of £700,000 per annum was saved to the public. The diminution of the annual burthen, in the course of twenty-five years, from 1816 to 1841, was about three millions, precisely the amount of the whole interest of the debt, when Sir Robert Walpole proposed and partially applied the remedy of a sinking fund, to allay the great uneasiness excited in the public mind by the then alarming accumulation of Parliamentary aids to carry out the policy of William of Orange in reducing the power of France. The amount of the income of Great Britain at the Revolution of 1688, has been computed at fortythree millions. Mr. Arthur Young, in his work on Political Arithmetic, published in 1776, reckoned it to amount to £100,000,000. At the passing of the Reform Bill, it was calculated at upwards of three times that sum, and Sir Robert Peel stated in the

House of Commons, about that period, that from 1816 to 1830 the rateable income of the county of Lancashire alone had increased one million in annual value.

We may, therefore, safely assert that we require no other means of reducing the National Debt than such as will be occasionally afforded by the rising of the Public Funds in seasons of great prosperity.

66

As to the future prospects of the nation, there is no reason to doubt that a continued augmentation of capital will take place, even in defiance of many obstructions. The same moral, physical and external causes which have contributed to the existing amount of national wealth, are still in operation." The free constitution of the Government, the exact administration of the laws, the protection afforded to foreigners and the tolerations of all religions, will produce the same effects which they have hitherto produced. "The improved manner of conducting business and speculations among the higher mercantile and manufacturing classes, in consequence of more attention being paid to the scientific principles of trade, and the activity, perseverance and increased knowledge of the working class will cause the future efforts of industry to prosper. Our natural productions of iron, coal and other articles of raw materials, will preserve our superiority in manufactures over other nations, while a reformed management of our foreign possessions, and a more enlarged system of free trade, will enlarge our markets."

Sir Robert Walpole, who may be classed with Mirabeau, as "un homme en avance de son siècle," saw how the rising prosperity of the North American colonies would be cramped by a strict enforcement of the Navigation Act, passed in 1651, and re-enacted in 1660;