that the interch of the prefent capital contains within itself a future and large addition to the finking funds; which probably at fome future term will be confolidated. A large part of it is at 51. per cent. and reducible; another at the fame rate which will become fo; effectively augmenting the fund during the next peace, by 141. per cent. of their total amounts. Thefe vigorous meafures of reduction, and the preparatives to augment their effet at a future term, have been followed up by a meafure ftronger ftill, to retard the further accumulation of debt, the railing of a great part of the fupplies within the year. This was firft attempted by the trebling of the affeffed taxes, which has been fince improved into a tax upon income, far more adequate to the original purpofe; and it is to be continued, until, in the future term of peace, it thall, in conjunction with the finking funds, have annihilated all the further capital which thall have been generated during the remaining term of the war. If the great efforts we have made had exceeded our refources, our abilities of production and confumption must have been diminifhed; and the existence and measure of this decrease, would have been feen in the decrease of the taxes fubfifting at the beginning of the war. Now the laft fix years of peace are univerfally acknowledged to have been a period of profperity, not equalled even in our own hiftory; certain taxes were re pealed in the fifth of thofe years, but the average of those remaining unrepealed for the whole term, was 13,419,000!. their average during the following fix years of war, amounted to 13,875,000l.t and their augment during war has only been 456,000l. The amount of these taxes, in the year ending April 5 last, was 14.574,000l. the excefs of which above the peace average is 1,155,000l. Yet this fum ought to be augmented by 160,000l. for the defalcation of the tax on port wine; which we are convinced, by the reafons adduced by Mr, Rofe, muft be only temporary. He juftly remarks alfo, that the accumulation of new taxes tends greatly to deprefs the product of old ones; now the amount of the new taxes for the year ending likewife in April laft, was 7,272,000l. but this was not all; the additional payments of that year, the amount of the treble affeffments, and the voluntary contributions, are to be added; and thefe exceed fix millions. That great augmentation therefore took * The ordinary period of these comparisons is for feven years; we have chosen to vary it, as the firft year of the latter period was the laft year of peace. + Appendix, No, t. place place in a year, in which, together with a fhort period preceding it, 13.272,agol. had been added to our public charges. What a picture does it exhibit of the refources of a country, the number of whose inhabitants does not exceed 11 millions, to fuftain fuch payments, and yet rapidly increafe in profperity! A fact proved by the great augmentation of the old taxes. In fuch circumftances, if the new taxes impofed in the war fhould even be found permanently to fall fhort of the amounts they were given for, it cannot be attributed to decreafed ability, affecting our production or confumption. There is always at firft fome degree of uncertainty in the elements on which the probable amount of a new tax is calculated; and when they are perfect, the struggle between law and fraud is generally protracted for a confiderable period, before its due product is obtained. The new annual charge generated by the debt, is stated by Mr. Rofe at 7,931,000l. and the product of the taxes for the year ending January last at 6,774,000l. This exhibits a deficit of 1,157,000l. but he fhows that their produce will probably be further increased by 928,000l. and though he does not enter into his authorities for the particulars of which he forms this total, he gives us a fact rendering it highly probable that it is flated below the truth. The amount of the taxes for the year ending in April laft, was 7,272,000l. but for that ending with the preceding quarter, 6,774,000l. only; whence it follows, that they were more productive in the first quarter of the prefent year than in that of the laft, by 497,000l. hence, if we take this fum as double their quarterly augmentation for the whole of this year, their augmentation will be 99,000l. exceeding Mr. R.'s calculation. But perhaps it would be nearer the truth, to take the increase of this quarter at one third of that of the whole year, than at one half; whereby the deficit will be completely covered. The fources of our ability to make thefe exertions, which can only be equalled by the dangers we have repelled, are here, amply laid open. The firft is the increase of our commerce. thown in a variety of proper points of view; of which our Limits will permit us to felect only one. In the last year, the real value of British and foreign goods exported exceeded the average of the four laft years of peace by 13,095,000l. and that of commodities imported 9,179,000l. The following comparifon of the progrefs of taxation, and the value of British manufactures exported, is of the highest importance. In the year 1783, the amount of the permanent taxes was 10,194,000l. and that of thofe manufactures, according to the Cuftom-houfe valuation, 10,314,000l. nearly equal equal to the former fum: but, in the year 1798, the amount of thofe taxes was 21,049.dool. and the value of those exports, at the Custom-house rates, 19,771,000l. We follow Mr. Rofe in this comparison, though it is generally held that thofe rates have continued fixed for 103 years; but it was difcovered in the last year, from the amount of the convoy duties, that the prefent value of thofe exports exceeds the rates then established 7ol. per cent. This difference is to be confidered as having grown up nearly by equal augments in equal periods, or fomewhat more than 10l. per cent. in fifteen years; the interval between 1783 to 1798: therefore the values of British manufactures exported in the two periods, were in the propor tion of 10.194,000l. to 21,748,000l. The excellent form of the accounts of the Mint fince the recoinage of 1772, and the estimates then made, to determine the amount of gold coin in circulation, have enabled Mr. Rofe to affign nearly the prefent amount of the gold coin, which he ftates at 43,950,000l. but it is neither the authority of the writer, nor our ftrongest wifhes for the fuccefs of the object of his work, which will make us, pafs over what we think a lapfe not totally unworthy of being pointed out. We are perfuaded that he ought to have allowed for an annual decrement fince 1772 exifting after the recoinage, and the additions fince made to it by the coinage of foreign ingots. This we fhall here affume to have been at the rate of 16271. per million, which will decrease that fum nearly 1,147.3841. But we also think our filver money too material a part of the national coin to be entirely omitted. Even Dr. Price fuppofed that it might amount to three millions. When the estimate formed after the recoinage was made, to which Mr. Rofe here refers, it was also taken to be most probable, that the amount of the filver might be equal to half the iffues of the Mint fince the Revolutiont. Thus it would have amounted to 3,980,000l. of * Probably this period fhould be abridged to 87 years; for, in 1711, Davenant, then Infpector General, had altered fuch rates eftablished by Mr. Culliford as were apparently changed. His words are: "to which valuation I have kept, excepting in inftances where there has been fome apparent change." Whit. Dav. v. 5, p. 350. Report to Commiffioners of Public Accounts, on oath. The values have conti nued fixed ever fince; hence, probably, the true augment is nearer 121, than rol. per cent. +Thefe iffues, without having recourfe to the books, were then taken at seven millions. This includes the great recoinage of William; but to meet popular prejudices, which were then very strong. a confiderable abatement was made from the refult. Dr. Price was not then adverted to. The admiffion of which, allowing for its decrease in twenty-one years fince elapfed, there remains 3.910.cool, and if the decrement of the gold coin stated above be deducted from this, it will appear that the fum of 2,765,000!. is to be added to 43,950,0001. making the current coin of the kingdom 46.816,000l. A publication from fuch authority as that now before us, which is to be regarded as an account extracted by Government from its own documents, to be laid before the people, at the very crisis of our fate, and that of Europe, neceffarily has engaged us to pay much attention to it. Befides this, the new order, the fulnefs, and accuracy of public accounts, the reports of fpecial commiffions, and of committees of both Houses, have thrown a light upon our finances, and every fubje& con nected with them, never enjoyed before; and the refults of po litical arithmetic have a stability which they could by no means attain at any former period. Thefe circumftances have, ia fome degree, drawn us to become commentators on this im portant publication, as well as analyfers and critics. But we must now circumfcribe ourselves to our more general functions, that we may give a fummary of the other great points detailed in this work. On the obstructions of mercantile credit, commencing before the beginning of the war, and the stoppage of payment in coin at the Bank, there are fome very important ob fervations. The objections which had been made to the inftitution of the Tranfport-Board, and the erection of barracks, in point of economy, are completely done away in this work, by demonftrating the great faving to the public which arifes from thofe measures. A very confiderable reduction per cent. in the charge of collecting the permanent taxes, while the number of perfons employed has been diminished by 747, and this in a period in which the taxes have been doubled*, is here likewife hown to have taken place. The new fyftem which has been followed, to reftrain the profits of our army contractors abroad in more reasonable limits, is here defcribed; together with the more important operations on the floating navy-debt, by which the navy bills have been raised from a discount of 1434. per cent. at which they stood in September, 1796, to bear a Aight premium in the market. Thefe are the measures and refources which have enabled us hitherto to trample domestic treafon under foot, and have rendered every greater exertion of the foreign enemy againit us the occafion of a new and fplendid triumph to us. To cite the words of Mr. Rofe: "On Great Britain in this matent chiefly reft all the hopes of returning happiness, independence, and fecurity, among nations, Britain is the bulwark that ftands oppofed to the flood which threatens to overwhelm the world." Froiffart* tells us, that the genius and fortune of England, once before preferved Europe from anarchical revo lution, and all her gentry from maffacre; and on so strong a balis as that here pointed to us, may we reft a prefent hope, that our exertions fhall, a fecond time, be crowned with the fame felicity and pre-eminence of honour. ART. XII. An Effay An Effay on the Character of the Apostles and Evangelifts; defigned to prove that they were not Enthusiasts? containing the Subftances of feveral Difcourfes, delivered in the Chapel of Trinity College, Dublin. By the Rev. Richard Graves, B. D. M. R. 1. A. and Junior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. 8vo. 335 PP. $s. Dilly. 1798. A characterized as peculiarly productive of levity, fcepticism, T this time," fays the author, which unhappily may be and profaneness, there is no objection to the gofpel, however obfolete and plainly refuted, which has not been revived with zeal and preffed with confidence. Nor is this difficult to account for. When the feriptures are leaft ftudied, objections against them will ever appear most plaufible; and where the reftraints of the divine law are leaft regarded, its evidence will always be attacked with moft zeal and most fuccefs. Even ignorance itself will increase the confidence of the objector; for, in every extensive fcheme, fupported by hiftorical evidence, doubts and difficulties float upon the furface, their folutions cannot be found without a deeper fearch, and the exercife of fober enquiry and patient attention. To fuperficial enquirers every objection is new, and the anfwer to every objection is unknown: hence old difficulties are revived when their folutions are forgotten, and the writers who difcuffed them fleep undisturbed in the deepest receffes of our libraries. Thus it has fared with the fubject of the following Effay. Monfieur Boulanger, whofe works are distinguished with the title of the Philofophic Library, and were published from the Philofophic Prefs in Switzerland in 1791, has employed one volume in unmasking (as he calls it) Chriftianity, and another, in a critical examination of St. Froiffart, Reign of Richard II. vol. ii. ch. 75. "Regard this great piece of good fortune: if thefe confpirators had attained their end, they would have deftroyed all the nobility in England; and, af terward, all the lower people of other nations would have rebelled." And, c. 117, their object was a general maffacre of the gentry: leat toit le Diable entrè en tête occire. Paul, |