and then a fupply from hence will be as unneceffary there as it is now in Antigua or Jamaica. But befides this, a further experience of the fervice muft point out other favings: fome were made in 1764, fuch as a real instead of only an apparent deduction from the pay of the men victualled in North America, and putting a top to the practice of fupplying the provincials with provifions on the expence of Great Britain; an equal attention to public œconomy would certainly difcover more in a fervice fo new, fo extenfive, and fo open to abufes; and it might therefore be fairly prefumed that within a year or two this expence would have been confiderably abated, and full half of it perhaps taken off in four or five years; but thefe are confiderations which I mention now only to fhew the ftate of the fervice at that time: I fhall hereafter obferve upon the difference between that time and the prefent, in this as in every other circumftance relating to the colo nies. As to the ordnance, every war leaves fome particular bufinefs of that office to perform; either a weak part has been difcovered, which the enterprizes of our enemies warn us to ftrengthen, or fome conqueft which has been made requires fortifications to preserve it: at the end of queen Anne's war it was Gibraltar and Minorca: in 1748 it was Scotland and Nova Scotia : it is now the ceded Countries in America. Such a fervice therefore is not peculiar to this period; every other peace has been charged with fome which were fimilar, and which being now determined or diminished, make room for the prefent expence : this too like them will gradually leffen, it is probably of a shorter duration than they were; for the new colonies will certainly be as willing as the old colonies are, when they fhall be as able, to maintain their own fortifications: other extraordinary fervices are in the mean while drawing towards a conclufion, and the favings upon the whole may perhaps amount in a fhort time to 10,000l. or 15,000l. per ann. There are befides in each of the fervices very confiderable expences, which are always high after a war, but which depending upon lives and contingencies, muft diminish every year; fuch as the half-pay to officers of the navy, army, and ordnance, Chelsea hofpital, and other at the : penfions and allowances. In the effimates for the year 1750, thefe feveral articles amounted together to about 219,000l. In 1754 they were reduced to about 184,000l. they amounted in 1765 to about 377,000l. and if, fuppofing them now height, they decreafe only in the fame proportion as they did before, they will not four or five years hence exceed 317,000l. or in other words the peace establishment at the end of that period will be reduced 60,000l, by the favings on thefe articles.. Within the fame period the fervice of furveying America will be at an end; and the expence of the foundling hofpital, which in confequence of the late regulations decreafes annually, will have in a great manner ceafed the deficiencies of funds too must be diminifhed; for both the annuity fund in 1763, and the navy annuities being four per cents. redeemable, the leaft that can be thought of is, that they will be reduced to three: the faving thereby will be above 60,000l. per ann. it may reafonably be expected befides that a great part of the navy annuities may be paid off; and at the time I am now confidering there were no thoughts of repealing the cyder tax, which was fo confiderable a part of the annuity fund 1763; on the contrary the profpect then was that it would produce on an average 15,000l. or 20,000l. more than it did in the remarkably deficient year, which alone had then been brought to account; with an addition therefore to the produce and a diminution of the charge upon that fund, it would rather have yielded an overplus than have incurred a deficiency, and the whole article of deficiencies of funds would probably have been lefs by one half in the fpace of five years. Thefe feveral favings being collected together the state of them is as follows: · In the navy In the half-pay, Chelfea Hofpital, &c. &c. In the furveys of America Y yyyz 1. 5000 16000 10000 60000 1600 38000 100000 Total 230600 MOR : Most of thefe articles I am fenfible I have under-rated: there were alfo other reductions likely to take place, but which not being equally fure, I have not mentioned; and of thefe fome of the moft confiderable must be conftantly increafing but by thefe alone thus estimated, there was almoft a certainty, that the peace expences on the plan then established, would in five years have been brought to about 3,380,000l. per ann. and that more than half of this reduction would have been made in two years. : By means of fuch and other favings in the expenditure, and of the improvements which I fhall prefently mention in the revenues, an opening was made for a reduction of the land-tax: the landed intereft could not defire fuch a relief, while a vast unfunded debt preffed down public credit, clogged all the measures of government, and abforbed every refource of revenue but that debt being brought within compafs, the annual charges diminished, and further reductions immedidiately in view when thefe fhould have taken place on the one hand; and when on the other hand, the laws paffed for increafing the feveral branches of the revenue, and for engaging all British subjects to contribute to the fupport of their country, should have had their effect; a hilling in the pound at first, and afterwards, perhaps, more might have been taken off, and as fo much had been done to facilitate fuch a reduction, it was be come no diftant object. It would be rafhnefs to fpeak very decifively of the other principal branch of annual revenue, the finking fund, `compofed as it is of fo vaft a variety of parts, all of them in their nature fluctuating; but yet by computing what it has amounted to on an average for fome years back, and confidering the circumftances which may affect it hereafter, fome tho' no abfolutely certain judgment may be formed, and I think the conclufion will be that on thefe confiderations only there is the greatest probability of its producing generally for the future more than it was given for in 1765. But I will not for the prefent include that year in my calculation, becaufe I wish to keep the two periods in which the revenue has been under different adminiftrations, as diftinct as poffible, and the produce of that year was brought to account, during the latter of the two. In fpeaking of the finking fund I fhall confider it, according to the true fimple idea of it, as confifting of certain duties which had been carried to it, and of the intereft of debts charged upon thofe duties: the excefs of the duties above the intereft conftitute the furplus, or as it is fometimes called t produce of the finking fund; other dift rements which may be paid out of it, in confequence of its being a collateral or a temporary fecurity, are not properly charges upon it; they are always conditioned to be made good out of the first aids granted by parliament, and are therefore no more than occafional fums, advanced one year, and replaced out of the fupplies of the next: but the finking fund being ftill fo much in advance, care muft always be taken in cafting up its produce for any given term, to deduct from the first year of that term the money then brought from the fupplies, and to add to the laft the amount of the deficiencies paid out of it that year, in order to come at the true total of the genuine finking fund. This being premifed, the annual furplus papers furnish fufficient materials for making up fuch an account, and in them the produce for the feven years, previous to 1765, is ftated as follows: applied of the finking fund 1757, the fum accidentally arifing from the landtax 1758, the duties on fpirits before they were appropriated, and one quarter's charge on the beer duty in 1764, the finking fund having received fo much more of the produce of that duty than it bore of the charge upon it: thefe feveral fums together amount to 839,2191. and the additions and deductions being mad, the whole ftate of the finking fund ftanus thus: 13829502 1975643 others, however, had not then commenced; that known one for inftance in the poft-office, by the reftrictions put upon franking, and by the falling in of the cross polt on the death of Mr. Allen, which together were estimated at 62,000l. per ann. was not brought to account till the last quarter of 1764, and many can hardly yet have their full effect: no precife judgment can be formed of the civil lift revenues, which have been incorporated about half of the above-mentioned 1. term; but though their future produce 14431461 cannot be calculated with exactnefs, yet 237260 the fact of their having produced, even on fo disadvantageous an average as 14668721 of the whole reign, much more than the 839219 800000l. which were given in lieu of them, fully confutes all the endeavours which have been used to depreciate his majesty's munificence: the advantage accruing from thence to the public is still more apparent on the fairer average of the three years of peace we have enjoyed; and in the laft year the furplus was about 200,000l. The acceffions to the poft-office indeed come into that account, and whether the regulation of franking would have taken place uniefs for the benefit of the public, may be a question; but even deducting thefe, the incorporation is till a noble addition to the finking fund, and it will hardly be less than it is now on the contrary, thefe revenues will in common with others continue to increafe, unless new meafures interpofe to thwart thofe which were taken for the improvement of almoft every branch of revenue: what the amount of all thofe improvements may be, does not admit of a calculation; it is not even within the reach of conjecture; but that it must be very confiderable is evident from their number and from their importance: to ftate them only is to prove it: and that proof I thall endeavour to give, without pretending to feparate thole which in 1764 had begun, from thote which were till to begin; or fuch as immediately from fuch as ultimately affect the linking fund; but confider them all as improvements of the revenue in general. But though this term be the best that can be taken for fuch a calculation, as comprehending in the latter years of it at least more of the conftituent parts of the prefent finking fund than any other, the average upon it is ftill a very imperfect meature; and that upon as many subfequent years will without doubt be greater: the above period was for the molt part time of war; and there are few funds which do not generally yield more in time of peace; thofe of excife, the most important branch of any, particularly do, unlefs accidentally affected by feafons; an annual improvement at all times arifes from the falling in of life annuities; thofe fubfifting at the clofe of the year 1764, amounted to near 100,000l. per ann. and a third of them were created during the war fo that the yearly faving on that head will be greater than it used to be in the former peace; fome befides of the most lucrative acceffions to the finking fund have been carried to it fo lately, that the former years of the above period had no advantage from them: the beer duty upon which the furplus is near 30,000l. per ann. was not incorporated till 1754, and of the regulations made during the administration in 1764 and 1765 in almost every branch of the revenue, fome indeed had taken place in the laft year of the above-mentioned term, and whatever the operation of them was, it will continue: : In the customs, not only regulations were introduced into particular branches, but general precautions were taken for the prevention of thofe illicit practices, which are equally deftructive both to trade trade and revenue: not that they can ever be totally fuppreffed; but they may be, and they have been, very much check ed, by exerting the powers given by the law for that purpofe, by vifiting and examining into the state of every port in the kingdom, by exciting an extraordinary vigilance and alertnefs in the officers, and by adding to the fea-guard which before fubfifted, all the aid which an enlarged marine establishment could fupply: the occafion was indeed more urgent than ever; for our power and our taxes have increafed together; a greater and more active force is therefore requifite to maintain the one; a more steady, a more vigorous execution of the laws is neceffary for collecting the other. Accumulation of duties is always a new inducement to finug gling cruifers are undoubtedly of ufe in restraining it; and to multiply their numbers must encreafe the hazards, the Joffes, and the expences of fmuggling: but all their effects can never be exactly afcertained; for the employing of fmuggling cutters is a preventive meature: they are intended to deter, to difappoint, to delay, as well as to feize; and therefore to judge of them by the captures they make, is to confider but a part of their utility: thofe in the pay of the Cuftom-house, if tried by this teft, would hardly be found to anfwer; and yet to leave the whole fea open to fmugglers, that they may there hover unobferved, watch their opportunities without moleftation, and carry on their traffic without danger, is a preposterous idea; if it was right at all times to have fome, it must be right to have more cruifers on this fervice now that the profits of a clandeftine trade, are, by means of the additional duties, greater than they were; and fhould it only appear that though the temptation be fo much stronger, yet the practice is not increafed in proportion, that circumftance alone would prove the efficacy of this, and the other meafures which were taken to obftruct it: the additional number I have already obferved, are furnished more easily by the navy than they could be by any other means; and it is no derogation from their fervice, that more captures have been made afloat by the officers of the customs than by thofe of the crown: whatever is taken, whether by boats or by cutters, and whether in harbours, or rivers, or on the fea, is feized afloat: but the operation of the navy cutters is chiefly on the fea, and the fair parallel therefore would be between the Cuftom-houfe cutters only, and thofe of the navy, in proportion to their numbers. Several, fimilar, and fome new regu lations, were made for the fame purpofe with refpect to America: the object was more important there; for the evil was greater, and the confequences of it more pernicious, as tending to break the connexion between the mother-country and the colonies; but lefs care had been taken of that department than of any other: the firft ftep was to establish an effectual fea guard, which was more wanted than it is here, because the difficulty is greater to fecure fuch a vast coast, full of little creeks and landing-places, imperfectly explored, little frequented, and not at all attended to: but by enlarging the operation of the cruifers, extending the hovering acts to the colonies, and preventing the eafy communication of fimuggled goods from one province to another, fome remedy was applied to the evil. All intercourfe with St. Pierre and Miquelon, was at the fame time prohibited, and the practice of clearing out for the plantations a fmall proportion of a cargo in the ports of this kingdom, with a view to run in the reft there, was totally put an end to. By thefe, and ma, ny other regulations, which it would be tedious to enumerate, fome check will (if they are duly carried into execution,) be certainly given to the illegal and dangerous commerce which has fo long, and fo fhamefully, prevailed in the colonies: the great motives for fuppreffing it are confiderations of trade, which I shall enter into more fully hereafter; at prefent I mention thefe restrictions only as the means of improving the revenue at home, by adding to it the duties retained on fuch commodities, as are thereby driven back into their natural channel through this country, instead of being imported into the colonies, either directly from Europe, or from foreign plantations. An object of revenue alone, the finuggling from the Ifle of Man was a more inveterate evil: the extent of it was grofsly apparent; for the produce of a little barren country, bleak in its climate, and blighted by the fprey of the Atlantic ocean; or the confumption of the natives, : few and needy as they were, ignorant of the luxuries, and content with a few of the conveniencies of life, could hardly amount to articles of commerce; but the trade by which the place has been peopled, and the people have been enriched, was calculated for far other purpofes: the fituation of the ifland was convenient for fmuggling the peculiar grant of it from the crown, and its exemption from the ordinary process of the courts of Great Britain, defeated, in many respects, the execution of the laws; and, favoured by thefe circumstances, the traders there provided inconceivable quantities of contraband goods, with which they fupplied the western coasts of England and Scotland, from Caithness to Cornwall, and the whole circuit of Ireland: with this view they imported into the inland wines, brandies, velvets, and other fpecies of goods from France and Spain: tea, china, tobacco, fugars, lawns and cambrics from Hamburgh, from Holland, and from Flanders: they roved into the Baltic in queft of a further fupply, and brought from Denmark and Sweden all forts of East-India commodities: they procured rum, coffee, and other produce both of our own and of foreign plantations: they bought even in London, and entered for exportation, the filks forbidden to be worn, and afterwards re-imported them: they received draw-backs, at the British Cuftom-houses on goods which they carried out only to run in again; and conftantly keeping in ftore large affortments of prohibited and high-rated commodities, feized every favourable occafion to convey them away, which they never waited for long, as all tempeftuous weather was their feafon; a dark night was an opportunity; and from whatever quarter the wind blew, it drove them to fome ready market, filled with their affociates and customers: to fuch a height were thefe practices arrived, that the lofs thereby occafioned to the revenues of Great Britain was computed at 200,000l. and to that of Ireland at 100,000l. Some check might have been given by acts of parliament their intercourfe with forein countries, and with this might have been restrained; the importation of certain fpecies of goods might have been forbidden; breaches of the law might have been profecuted in Britain; and of fenders against it might have been purfued into their very harbours: but still the grants of jurifdiction and of customs which had been annexed to the lordship, would have always obftructed the effect of fuch laws; under their fhelter open warehouses of contrab: 11 goods might have been freely kept, and criminals would have found an afylum; that mifchief could be effectually cured only by purchafing fuch of the rights of the lord as interfered with the authority of the crown over the inhabitants of the island: a contract was therefore made in 1764. for that purpose, and the ifle, the regalities, franchifes, and fea ports, were annexed to the crown, on payment of 70,000l. a price certainly not extravagant, if the produce only of the customs there, which amount to between five and fix thousand pounds per annum, and are included in the conveyance, be confidered: fo much of them as arofe from an importation which was ftrictly legal were alone worth fo large a proportion of the fum given, that the remainder is not too liberal a compensation for the diftinguishing privileges, which a noble family were by this fale deprived of: all the luftre, however, of the poffeffion which could be, has been preferved to them. Befides their landed interest and manerial rights, the fplendid patronage of a bishopric, and the honorary fervice at the coronation, itill continue to grace their patrimony; and his majefty has been pleafed to add to the prefent duke and dutchefs of Athol, a penfion upon Ireland, the revenues of which country are justly charged with a part of the expence incurred by a tranfaction, the benefit of which they will fo largely fhare. The purchase being thus compleated, provifions were made for the due improvement of it, by enforcing the act of 7th George I. which condemns all Eaft Indian commodities imported into the Ifle of Man, except from Great Britain; by forbidding abfolutely the importation, even from hence, of filks and linens prohibited here; by confining their fupply of foreign fpirits to the channel through this country only, stopping the exportation of them from thence hither, and laying even their own coafting trade therein under restraints; by extending the hovering acts to the coafts, and all the Custom-house laws to the interior of the ifland; by allowing offences against thofe laws to be tried in the courts of England, Scotland, or Ireland; by ex a&ting |