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fortune ever before furnished, of the reverses in store for those who are ravished with the whistling of a name, and yet if any one should dare to raise his voice and implore a moment's reflection upon the real value, and the actual price, paid and unpaid, of our late successes, no terms would be judged sufficiently pointed, or too harsh, to characterise and condemn the intrusion of such a calculator, who would, besides presumption, be charged with no little malignity, and not less ignorance. The nation is no less averse than Goldsmith's squire to being snubbed, when in spirits, nor will bear those dirty speculations of finance, and those dull details, which prove as clearly as uncontroverted facts can carry conviction, that no system of taxation can be adopted which can give any hopes that the country will be able, for any protracted period, to supply the payment of the national debt, and the expenses of the national establishment. Without pretending to have strayed amongst the columns of calculation by which the chancellor of the exchequer proved that his regulations would enable him to intrench upon the sinking fund without affecting the forty years result of that provision, I may still venture to say, that Mr. Vansittart has not, by the magic of his numbers, moved either the fields, or the beasts of the fields, to incline a willing ear

to his moving appeal in favour of the renewal of that tax, which, in very many cases, will be the only portion of the landed rent paid for the current year. It is not necessary to be versed in the lucid lucubrations of this gentleman, or other political arithmeticians, to assert, that the financial schemes hitherto adopted have been proved to be inconsistent with the very existence of the landed interest, and that unless some means be adopted to relieve its unexampled depression, not only that, but every other interest dependent and founded upon that staple source of prosperity and power, must either fall to the ground, or rise in opposition to the government, and, pulling down the pillars of the state, be crushed themselves, and crush the nation beneath their ruins.

We have at last arrived at the certitude, that there is no connection between the accomplishment and success of any system of ministerial foreign policy, and the internal prosperity of the country. The political preponderance of England is, or ought to be, at a greater height than it has ever before attained-it can be only equalled by her individual distress. The bloated body occupies no less, or perhaps greater, space than a sound frame. I would not be thought to join in the lament of those who deplore

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the loss or the decay of all those characteristics by which the Englishman was supposed to be distinguished from his continental cotemporaries. It does appear that the principles of the revolution have lost some of that salutary influence amongst our politicians, which is the surest safeguard against despotism. But the individual honour of private character is still intact; our social institutions are still inviolate; our establishments, our virtues, domestic and national, to the man of whatever country, who is willing, and has had the opportunity to appreciate the comparative qualities of peoples, must still raise us far above our rivals, or our associates, in the scale of humanity. The majority even of our prevailing statesmen are not tainted with any of the baser vices, nor with a settled design against the constitution, and may be acquitted of every delinquency not included in prejudice, presumption, and obstinacy. A pamphlet, with the title de l'Angleterre et les Anglais, by M. T. B. Say, which was in considerable vogue during the latter part of my stay at Paris, attempted to show the exceeding degeneracy and distress of England; but as the author's complaint or pity was chiefly directed towards us because we had given a pension to the family of Nelson, an admiral killed in battle; because

there were no workmen desœuvrés to be seen in our coffee-houses; because the studies at Oxford were un peu Gothiques, and books were getting so dear that few could read; because there were no people in Great Britain idle by profession; and, lastly, because we drank bad port, I thought Mr. Say might have as well have confined himself to the copious quotations he made from Hamilton on the Public Debt, and, accordingly, took occasion to tell him so in a short answer to his pamphlet, written for one of the French journals. Certainly, books are too dear, and our port wine is very bad; but these evils hardly deserve to be put by the side of our great national calamity, which promises certain destruction.

So many predictions have been falsified, so many periods assigned for a general bankruptcy have passed harmless and unnoticed, that the prevalent persuasion has, until lately, been, that a resisting power resides in the public purse, which is augmented by, and will perpetually reply to increased pressure. The affluence of the country has appeared inexhaustible, since, whatever draughts are drawn from this reservoir, the source, like the end of Odin's horn, is sunk into the sea. When our financiers found that the sum beyond which even Mr. Pitt had considered

an extension of the debt totally impracticable had been exceeded by two hundred millions, they saw no end to the credit of the government, nor to the principle of supply. The facility with which their loans are always negotiable must have aided the delusion; and the occasional success of a scheme of taxation, as it flattered their vanity, so it increased their hopes, until at last they were bold enough to adduce the length to which they had already stretched the rope, as a proof that it would bear farther tension; although, to the uninstructed capacity of common men, all former experiments reduced, rather than increased, the chance of future resistance. Now, however, that it seems decided, that not only we cannot bear more because we have borne so much, but that what we now bear can be no longer borne, we begin to question the merit of that system pursued for so many years, which has terminated in advantages of a doubtful nature, but in an evil unquestionable, weighing upon all, and coming home to every apprehension, and to all classes of society. At least one half of those who have ever turned to political reflections, either as a study or an amusement, are disinclined to the establishment of Lord Castlereagh's ancient social system, and conceive all our blood and treasure to have been

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