take in the Application and Ufe of the Sinking Fund from the Year 1727; about which the only Que ftion that can be put, is, Whether it fhall be from thenceforth advifeable for us to endeavour after a greater Increase of the Sinking Fund, by a farther Reduction of the Intereft of the Publick Debts? Or if it may not be then, on the whole, more for the Publick Intereft, to endeavour only after fuch an Increase of the faid Fund, as will be produced by the Application of it to the Discharge of the Publick Debts, and the Addition of the yearly Intereft of fuch of the faid Debts as fhall be paid off? But before I proceed I fhall flate the greater Effect the firft of these different Measures would have in accelerating the Payment of the Publick Debts than the other of them; because in an Affair of this publick Concern, I am apprehenfive that People when they turn their Thoughts to this Subject are apt, upon any Increase of the Sinking Fund, to promise themselves a farther Degree of Difpatch in the Payment of the Publick Debts in Proportion to fuch Increase. To explain my Meaning, I fear, that upon ftating that the Sinking Fund of 1000000l. was increased to 1500000 l. per Annum, by an Abatement of 1 per Cent. Intereft on so Millions, it would be that the Publick Debts would be paid off by a Sinking Fund of One Million and a Half per Annum, in two Third Parts of the Time that would be taken up in difcharging it by a Sinking Fund of One Million per Annum only. But this Inference would not be true, by whatever Means the Sinking Fund were fuppofed to be fo increafed; and leaft true, when the Increase of the Sinking Fund is made by a Reduction of the Intereft of the Debt to be paid off by it.

If the faid Fund of 1000000 l. per Annum were increased to 1500000 l. by an Addition made to it

of

of 500000 1. per Annum provided by a new Tax, or any otherwife than by an Abatement of the Intereft of the 50 Millions, which should continue to carry 4 per Cent. Intereft; it would be true, that while the faid Increafed Sinking Fund is fuppofed to be applied to the Dilcharge of that Debt, it would pay off in every Year half as much again as the Sinking Fund of One Million only, beginning at the fame Time to be applied to the fame Purpose would do in the fame Year; and at the End of any Number of Years, in which both Funds are fuppofed to continue fo applied, will have paid off a Principal Sum, in the Proportion of Three to Two. And in this Senfe the greater Fund may be faid to pay off the Publick Debt half as faft again, as in the fame Time it will pay off half as much again. But it is not to be inferred, that the lefs Fund will be half as long again as the greater in difcharging the fame Principal Sum; or that the fame Principal Sum would be paid off by the greater Fund in two Thirds of the Time that would be taken up in difcharging it by the finaller Fund: And of this the plain Reafon will foon appear, on infpecting the above Computations; from which it may be obferved, That the Sinking Fund is increafing by a yearly Addition of the Intereft of that Principal Sum paid off the Year before; from whence both the Income of the Fund it felf, and the Principal Sums annually paid off by it, are every Year greater. From whence it follows, that in a Series of Payment made by the Sinking Fund for any Number of Years, the Payments towards the latter End of fuch Series must be confiderably greater than those before; and that the Amount of the Payments for any Number of Years, feparated at the latter End from the reft of the Series, muft greatly exceed the Amount of the Payments for any equal

Number

Number of Years in any other Part of the fame Series. And from hence it muft appear, that the Excefs of the Payments made by the greater Sinking Fund, above thofe made by the lefs in the fame Number of Years, will not be a Rule for determining the Time in which they must severally be employed in discharging the fame Principal Sums. And it will be farther from the Truth, in the Cafe of the Sinking Fund increafed from an Abatement of the Intereft of the Debt to be paid off; and by an Addition of an annual Imcome equal to one half Part of its Income before fuch Increase, to fuppofe, that from thenceforth the Debt will be difcharged in two Third Parts of the Time which would have been otherwife required: because the Additions made to a Sinking Fund employ'd in the Payment of a Debt carrying 3 per Cent. Intereft only, do not increase in the fame or fo great a Proportion, as thofe made annually to a Sinking Fund in the Discharge of a Debt at 4 per Cent. From which Circumftance the lefs Sinking Fund, ine creafing by this greater Ratio or Proportion, would in a longer Series than I hope we have any Thing to do with in the prefent Cafe, have fo confiderable an Advantage, as to overtake the greater Sinking Fund in its Payments, and from thence to be every Year difcharging a greater Debt.

But in the Cafe we have fuppofed of a Debt of 50 Millions, the Time in which we have before computed that that Debt carrying 3 per Cent. Intereft may be paid off by a Sinking Fund of 1500000 !, is 23 Years and one Half nearly, and by the Sinking Fund of 1000000 l. the Debt continuing at 4 per Cent Intereft in about 28 Years; fo that the Time faved in the Discharge of our Debts by the Reduction of them to 3 per Cent. Intereft, appears, on the aforefaid Suppofitions, to be 4 Years and a Half, or there

abouts;

abouts; which is fomething lefs than One Sixth Part of the Time in which the fame Debt might be discharged without any further Reduction of the Intereft. Another way of Stating the Advantage to the Publick in this Contraction of the Time which our Debts may take up in the Discharge of them, from 28 to 23 Years and a half, would be to find out that annual Sum, which added to the above fuppofed Sinking Fund of 1000000 l. at the Publick Expence, and without any further Redu&tion of the Intereft of the Debt to be paid off, would answer the fame Purpose as the Addition of 500000 l. to that Fund taken from the Income of the Publick Creditors, and contract the Time in which the Payment of 50Millions would be complea ted from 28 Years to 23 and a half; and this, will be found to be about 322000l. Which yearly Expence for 23 Years and a half, would anfwer the fame Purpose as the above fuppofed Deduction of 5000001. per Annum. from the Income of the Publick Debts.

It seems to have been an Opinion of late Years pretty generally agreed to, That all Attempts to reduce Intereft by compulfive Methods, are not only unlikely to fucceed, but, on other Accounts, inconvenient to the Publick: But I know not if the Intereft of the Publick, in the Reduction of it by any other Means, has been much confidered; or if fuch a Reduction of Intereft is not ufually expected with general Satisfaction, arifing from our regarding it as the Effect of the common and natural Causes of a lower Intereft in every Country, and fuch Alterations in our Circumftances as are truly enumerated amongst the Inftances of Publick Profperity. Mr. Locke, in his Treatife on this Subject, mentions, as the natural Caufes of the Variations of the Rate of Intereft in any Country,

the

the Variations of the Proportion that the Quanti ty of Money bears in fuch a Country to the Dea mand for it, arifing either from the Quantity of Debts contracted amongst the Inhabitants, or of the Trade carried on by them: To which Occafions of a Demand for Money, I think should be generally added all other Circumstances in the Affairs of fuch a Country, as may be there fuppofed to contribute to a greater or lefs Demand of that kind. And as a further natural Caufe of a Variation any where in the Rate of Intereft, I fhould chufe to add fuch Afterations in the Circumftances of the Affairs of the Country where fuch a Variation happens, as may make it more or lefs dangerous or fecure to advance Money upon Loans, in all or any of the different Scenes of Bufineis, where Negotiations of this kind are ufually carried on; by which laft Cause, I think, the more fudden and fenfible Variations in the Rate of Intereft have been chiefly, every where, occafioned. And when a lower Rate of Intereft is fuppofed to be produced amongst us, by fuch Caufes as thefe are, it is perhaps moft reas fonable that it fhould be regarded with general Satisfaction, as it is a Proof of fuch a Situation of our Affairs, as is of it felf, an Inftance and Part of our general Welfare and Profperity; and as the monied Man himlelf has, in this Cafe,an Equivalent for what he may be fuppofed to lose by the Abatement of his Income, in the greater Safety with which he lends his Money, or the lefs Hazard which he runs of the Repayment of it; as well as in the greater Frequency of Opportunities, which fuch a Situation in our Affairs produces, of putting out and improving Money with greater Safety. But as far as a lower Rate of Intereft may be pro duced amongst us, either without fuch compulfive Methods, or the Concurrence of other natural and ordinary

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