VIII. An eighth branch is the duty arising from licenses to hackney coaches and chairs in London, and the parts adjacent. In 1654 two hundred hackney coaches were allowed within London, Westminster, and six miles round, under the direction of the court of aldermenh. By statute 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 2. four hundred were licensed; and the money arising thereby was applied to repairing the streets. This number was increased to seven hundred by statute 5 W. & M. c. 22. and the duties vested in the crown: and by the statute 9 Ann. c. 23. and other subsequent statutes for their government, there are now a thousand licensed coaches and four hundred chairs. This revenue is governed by commissioners of its own, and is, in truth, a benefit to the

subject; as the expense of it is felt by no individual, [326] and its necessary regulations have established a com

petent jurisdiction, whereby a very refractory race of men may be kept in some tolerable order (36).

IX. THE ninth and last branch of the king's extraordinary perpetual revenue is the duty upon offices and pensions; consisting in an annual payment of 18. in the pound (over and above all other duties) out of all salaries, fees, and per

increased by the 37 Geo. III. c. 107. and still farther by 42 Geo. III. c. 37. See Burn.

(36) In the year 1770 one thousand hackney coaches were licensed, for each of which the proprietors paid a tax of 5s. a week; by the 24 Geo. III. sess. 2. c. 27. that duty was doubled; so from this article, government derives a revenue of 26,000l. a year. In consequence of so great an increase in the duty upon them, the fares were altered by 26 Geo. III. c. 7. by which statute, explained by the 32 Geo. III. c. 47. the present farcs were established. By the 42 Geo. III. c. 78. the number is increased to 1100, subject to the same regulations. See Burn, tit. Hackney Coaches.

quisities, of offices and pensions payable by the crown, exceeding the value of 1001. per annum. This highly popular taxation was imposed by statute 31 Geo. II. c. 22. and is under the direction of the commissioners of the land tax.

THE clear net produce of these several branches of the revenue, after all charges of collecting and management paid, amounts at present annually to about seven millions and three quarters sterling; besides more than two millions and a quarter raised by the land and malt tax (37). How these immense

pound was charged on all pensions and annuities, and all salaries, fees, and wages of all offices of profit granted by or derived from the crown; in order to pay the interest at the rate of three per cent, on one million, which

was raised for discharging the debts of the civil list by statutes 7 Geo. I. st. 1. c. 27. 11 Geo. I. c. 17. and 12 Geo. I. c. 2. This million, being charged on this particular fund, is not considered as any part of the national debt.

(37) Since this was written by the author, that sum has been immensely augmented; for the following Account is taken from a statement of the ordinary revenues and extraordinary resources constituting the Public Income of Great Britain for the year ending the 5th January 1802, presented to the house of commons.

sums are appropriated, is next to be considered. And this is, first and principally, to the payment of the interest of the national debt.

In order to take a clear and comprehensive view of the nature of this national debt, it must first be premised, that after the revolution, when our new connections with Europe introduced a new system of foreign politics, the expenses of the nation, not only in settling the new establishment, but in main

Total, independent of the Loans.............
Loans paid into the Exchequer in the

35,410,476 10 7

year ended 5th January 1802... ....... 27,611,410 17 8

40,302 3 5

87,635 8 24

5,858,792 1 94

Rate per cent. for which the net produce of the reve

nue was collected.

taining long wars, as principals, on the continent for the security of the Dutch barrier, reducing the French monarchy, settling the Spanish succession, supporting the house of Austria, maintaining the liberties of the Germanic body, and other purposes, increased to an unusual degree: insomuch that it was not thought advisable to raise all the expenses of any one year by taxes to be levied within that year, lest the unaccustomed weight of them should create murmurs among the people. It was therefore the policy of the times to anticipate the revenues of their posterity, by borrowing immense sums for the current service of the state, and to lay no more taxes upon the subject than would suffice to pay the annual interest of the sums so borrowed: by this means converting the principal debt into a new species of [327] property, transferable from one man to another at any time and in any quantity. A system which seems to have had its original in the state of Florence, A. D. 1344 : which government then owed about 60,000l. sterling: and, being unable to pay it, formed the principal into an aggregate sum, called metaphorically a mount or bank, the shares whereof were transferable like our stocks, with interest at 5 per cent. the prices varying according to the exigencies of the state. This policy of the English parliament laid the foundation of what is called the national debt: for a few long annuities created in the reign of Charles II. will hardly deserve that name. And the example then set has been so closely followed during the long wars in the reign of queen Anne, and since, that the capital of the national debt (funded and unfunded) amounted at the close of the session in June 1777, to about an hundred and thirty-six millions (38):

1 Pro tempore, pro spe, pro commodo, minuitur eorum pretium atque augescit. Aretin. See Mod. Un. Hist. xxxvi. 116.

(38) The national debt in 1755, previous to the French war, was In January 1776, before the

American war, it was

}£72,289,000; Interest £-2,654,000 the} 123,964,000; ditto

4,411,000

to pay the interest of which, together with certain annuities for lives and years, and the charges of manage

In 1786, previous to which the.

whole debt of the last war was not (239,154,000; Interest 9,275,000 funded, it was

See a Brief Examination into the State of the Revenue.

But the select committee on finance, in March 1797, reported that the total amount of the public debts, on the 5th of Jan. 1793, in funded capital, was £. 238,231,248

The annual interest and charge of management amounted then

to

£. 9,325,866

The public funded debt upon the 5th of January 1797 was

£. 327,071,370

The annual interest and charge of that debt was
The annual sum appropriated for its reduction
The total annual charge of the public debt, on the 5th
of January 1797

L. 12,507,489 1,923,154

L. 14,430,643

The following is the statement of the public debt, as it stood on the

1st Feb. 1802.

Old permanent debt

Redeemed by the land tax

Debt. on 1st Feb. 1802

Permanent debts created between 1793 and 1802
Ditto between 1797 and 1802 for Ireland

......

Non-permanent debts created by duties upon income

.£. 238,231,248 18,001,148

.£. 220,230,100

241,981,355 19,708,750

£. 481,920,205 56,445,000

£. 538,365,205

Of this sum £.78,376,459 has been already redeemed, and the whole

is in a course of gradual liquidation.