this Expedient, examined and removed; and the Progrefs of the SINKING FUND defcribed and computed from Midfummer 1727. To which is fubjoin'd an Inquiry into the general Convenience of REDUCING FARTHER the INTEREST of our PUPLICK DEBTS, below four per Cent. per Annum. In a Letter to a Member of the Houle of Commons. So pompous a Title could not fail raifing the Curiofity of the Curious in Political Inquiries and Computations, and therefore it is no Wonder this Treatife has already bore three Impreffions : But I hope, my Readers will excufe my not gratifying their Defire fooner, upon account of the various important Matters, that have taken up our preceding Collections.

To this Treatife the Author has Abfract of a late Effay on prefix'd a fhort Preface, wherein he gives the Publick his Reafon for its Publication, viz. That he Debts, &c. had frequently met with fome Mistakes on

this Subject, which he believed much to the Difadvantage of our publick Credit, and which he flatter'd himself might be confuted and removed from fuch Informations only as he fhould be able to collect. However, he's fo modeft as to own, He is not infenfible, that there are feveral Parts of this Performance open to Exceptions; and mentions two Particulars in which he may be thought more than once to have offended. One is, that he has not every where used the utmost Exactnefs in fuppofing stating, or defcribing the Publick Debts, or the Variations in them. So this fault, as often as he has been guilty of it from any other caufe than his want of Materials

terials for that purpose, he has been chiefly induced by the Views of being thereby more intelligible: Having prefumed that it would be better to omit any fuch Degrees of Exactnefs in this refpect, as more than fufficient to anfwer the general Defign of this Effay, which would at the fame Time render it more tedious and perplexing. He has alfo, for much the fame Reason, been induced to content himself with the Use of fome Words, in what has feemed to him to have been their more ordinary Acceptation, when applied to this Subject; which in a longer or more elaborate Enquiry, he should have thought himself obliged to define and explain diftinctly, before he ventur'd upon the Use of them.

After this Apology, and a fhort Introduction to his Letter, the Author tells us, He will confine his Thoughts.

1. To the Confideration of what Advantage to the Publick may be refonably expected from the Discharge of those Debts, and the Redemption of the Duties provided for the Payment of their Intereft.

2. To an Enquiry into the Reasons we have at present to expect or hope that these Debts, or any confiderable Part of them, will, within any reafonable Compass of Time, be discharged and paid off. And,

3. To fuch Reflections as have occurred to him upon those Measures that may, for the future, be enter'd upon, for the more fpeedy and effectual Difcharge of our prefent Debts, from the Income of the Sinking Fund; or for ftill farther increafing the annual Income of that Fund, by fuch Reductions as may yet be made in the Intereft of Annuities payable for the principal Sums of which the prefent Debt confifts.

As to the first of thefe, Says he, there is but little room to enlarge, after the Confideration of that great A 2

annual

annual Revenue levy'd and applied to the Payment of our Debts, which, after the total Difcharge of them, will become the Property of the Publick. The prefent yearly Expence to the Government, on Account of our Publick Debts, will be found to amount to little less than, if not to exceed, the Sum of 3,000000 I. A Revenue exceeding the whole farther annual Expence of our Civil and Military Government in a Time of Peace; and which, together with the ordinary Supplies may perhaps be a Fund fufficient to anfwer our utmost probable Expences during the moft expenfive War.

I do not fuppofe, or promife it as one Advantage arifing to the Publick from the Discharge of the prefent Debts, that the feveral Duties appropriated to the Payment of them will ceafe, as foon as they are redeemed, be immediately removed or determined; for Reasons, which in the following Sheets I fhall have a further Occafion to mention: When I fhall recommend it to be confidered, whether the Revenues arifing from those Duties, or the greateft Part of them, are not raised with more Eafe, greater Equality, and more to the common Benefit of the Subjects of Great-Britain, than are annually voted for the current Service of the Year; and confequently, how far it may be reasonable to fubftitute a great Part of the Revenues arifing from those Duties, after the Redemption of them, in the Place of our annual Taxes, But it will appear no fmall Convenience to the Pubdick, arifing from the Redemption of the aforefaid Duties, that when they fhall be no longer appropri ated to the Payment of our Debts, the principal Difficulty will be removed, which has obftructed the Removal or Leffening any of these Duties, tho' the Convenience of the Publick may have per fwaded to it; either as fuch Duties may have appeared to give too great Perplexity to Perfons employed

ployed in Trade, or to prevent or obftruct any profitable Branch of our Commerce with Foreign Countries; as they may have been thought to require too ftrict an Enquiry, or too great Severity or Expence, in the collecting them; as by being laid on any Commodities univerfally neceffary, they may have seemed too great a Burthen on the poorest of our Inhabitants; or, as by bearing too great a Proportion to the Bulk of the Commodities on which they have been laid, they may have made the Gain arifing from defrauding the Publick, or the Temptation to attempt it, bear too great a Porportion to the Hazard of being discovered; or, as in any other Respect they may be found to be attended with general Inconvenience. And however it fhall be determined, after the Difcharge of our present Debts, the redeemed Revenues, if not from thenceforth removed, will be employed in the room of fuch other Taxes, as fhall then appear a greater Burthen to, or to be more unequally levyed upon, the Subjects of this Kingdom.

I fhall proceed to what I propofed in the fecond Place, To make out the Probability, and reprefent the Reasons we have to hope, that the prefent Publick Debts will, within the Compafs of a few Years, be effectually and honourably discharged. What I have chiefly propofed under this Head, is to defcribe and explain, thofe Measures which have been already taken for the Difcharge of our Publick Debts by the Provifion of the Sinking Fund. To which Attempt, though this Provifion has already been made as Publick as our Acts of Parliament, and tho' the Operation and Progrefs of it, in the Difcharge of our Debts, is without any Difficulty to be computed, I find my felf induced, from that general Sufpicion of the Inefficacy of this Provifion to answer the Ends propofed by it; and which feems

to

to have prevailed amongft fome People, who have either not had Leisure for that Purpose, or who have declined the Trouble of collecting the Materials for, or making thofe Computations from them which are requifite, in order to their Satisfaction, about the Ufe and Efficacy of the Sinking Fund. ...The firft material Provifion that was made for difcharing the Principal of our prefent Debts, was enacted in the Third Year of his prefent Majefty's Reign, by Three feveral Acts of Parliament at that Time made; the first of which is entitled, An Act for redeeming Jeveral Funds of the Governour and Company of the Bank of England, pursuant to former Provifoes of Redemption, &c. The Second, entitled, An Act for Redeeming the yearly Fund of the South-Sea Company (being after the Rate of Six Pound per Cent. per Annum. and fettling on the Said Company a yearly Fund after the Rate of 5 per Cent. per Annum. &c. And the Third, intitled, An Alt for Redeeming the Duties and Revenues which were fettled to pay off Principal and Intereft on the Orders made forth on Four Lottery Acts, &c. This being premifed, the Author goes on thus:

The Sinking Fund, is made up of Money arifing yearly into the Exchequer, as the Surplus of the Produce of Three feveral Funds established by the Three aforefaid Acts of Parliament, by the Names of the Aggregate Fund, the South-Sea Fund, and the General Fund; the Surpluffes of which Three Funds, or what they annually produce more than the yearly Sums to the Payment of which they are first appropriated, are by the laft of the aforefaid Acts of Parliament referved for, and made applicable only to, the Discharge of the Principal and Interest of fuch Debts as had been before the Year 1716 contracted and provided for by Parliament. The yearly Sums to the Payment of which thofe Funds

are