THE DECLINE FALL Englijh Syjiem of Finance, By THOMAS PAINE, AUTHOR OF COMMON SENSE, AMERICAN CRISIS, RIGHTS OF MAN, AGE OF REASON, &C. " On the verge, nay even in the gulph of bankruptcy.'" Debatei in Parliament. PARIS: PRINTED r>Y UAKTLEY, ADLARD AND SON, RUE NEUVE DE BEBRT, NO. 5, AX CHAMPS ELYSf.ES. .ONUON: RIPKlNlil) rK . I. lATON, NO. 74, NKWGATI- STKfcRT. 1796. XNTEJil AT 4TATI0NXRS HAL1. \^s f 1 ,5-i THE DECLINE, &c. IMOTHINGj they fay, is more certain tbaii death, and nothing more uncertain than the time of dying; yet we can always fix a peiiod beyond vhich man cannot live, and within fome moment of which he will die. We are enabled to do this, not by any fpirit of prophecy, or forefight into the vent. but by (jbfervation of what has happened in all cafes of human or animal cxillcnce. If then any other fubjcd, fuch, for inftancc, as a fyftcin of finance, exhibits in its progreis a fcries of fymp- toms indicating decay, its final diilohition is ccr- tam, and the period of it can be calculated from tlic fymptoms jt exhibits. Thofe who have hitherto written on the Englidi fvdem of finance (the funding fyltcm) have been ^ unifonnlv ( 2 ) uniformly impreffed witli the idea of its downfal happening fotne time or other. They took, howe- ver, no data for that opinion, but expreffed it pre- ditlively, or merely as opinion, from a conviftion that the perpetual duration of fuch a fyftem was a natural impoffibility. It is in this manner that Dr. Price has fpoken of it; and Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, has fpoken in the fame manner; that is, merely as opinion without data. " The pro- * grefs," fays Smith, '* of the enormous debts, *' which at prefent opprefs, and will in the long-run '' mojl probably ruin^ all the great nations of Eu- ** rope, (he fhould have faid governments) has been " pretty uniform." But this general manner of fpcaking, though it might make fome jmprcffion, carried with it do conviclion. It is not my intention to preditl any thing; but I will ihew from data already known, from fymp- toms and fa8s which the EngltOi funding fyftem has already exhibited publicly, that it will hot coq- tinue to the end of Mr. Pitt's life, fuppofing him to live the ufual age of a man. How mush fooner it may fall, I leave to others to predict. Let financiers diverfifv fyftems of credit as they will, it is ncverthelefs true, tliat every fyftem of credit is a {yftem of paper money. Two experi- ments have already been had upon paper money ;. the one in America, the other in France. In both thofe ( 3 ) thofe cafes the whole capital was emitted, and th^t whole capital, which in America was called conti* nental money, and in France alTignats, appeared in circulation; the confequence oF which was, that the quantity became fo enormous, and fo difpro- portioned to the quantity of population, and to the quantity of objefts upon which it could be employ- ed, that the market, if I may fa exprefs it, was glutted with it, and the value of it fell. Between five and fix years determined the fate of thofe ex- periments. The fame fate would have happened to gold and filver, could gold and filver have been ifTued in the fame abundant manner as paper had been, and confined within the country as paper money always is, by having no circulation out of it; or to fpeak on a larger fcale, the fame thing would happen in the world, could the world be glutted with gold and filver, as America and France has been with paper. The tnglifh fyftem differs from that of America and Frarjce in this one particular, that its capital is kept out of fight ; that is, it d ;es not appear in circulation. Were the whole capital of the national debt, which at the time I write this is alnioll four hundred million pounds ftcrling, to be emitted in aflTignats or bills, and that whole quantity put into circulation, as was done in America and in France, thofe Englifh allignats, or bills, would link in value ii 2 i,, ( 4 ) as thofe of America and France have done ; and that in a greater degree, becaufe the quantity of them would be more difproportioncd to the quan- tity of population in England, than was the cafe in either of the other two countries. A nominal pound fterling in fuch bills would not be worth one penny. But though the Englifli fyftem, by thus keep-, ing the capital out of fight, is preferved from hafty dcftruftion, as in the cafe of America and France* it neverthelefs approaches the fame fate, and will arrive at it with the fame certainty, though by a flower progiefs. The differencie is altogether in the degree of fpeed by which the two fyftems ap- proach their fate, which, to fpeak in round num- bers, is as twenty is to* one ; that is, the Englifli fyflemj that of funding the capital inftead of ilfu- ing it, contained within itfelf a capacity of endur- ing twenty times longer than the fyftems adopted by America and France > and at the end of that time it would arrive at the fame common grave, the Potter's field> of paper money. The datum, I take for this propbrtion of twenty to one, is the difference between a capital and the intereft at five per cent. Twenty times the irtte- rell is equal to the capital. The accumulation of paper money in England is in proporiion-to the ac- cumulation of the intereft upon every new loan; and ( 5 ) and therefore the progrefs to difToliUion is twenty times flower than if the capital vere to be emitted and put into circulation immediately. Every twenty years in the Englifh fyftem is equal to one year in th French and American fyftems. Having thus ftated the duration of the two fyf- tems, that of funding upon intereft, and that of emitting the whr)]e capital without funding, to be as twenty to one, I come to examine the fymptoms of decay, approaching to djf!;:lution. that theEnglifli fvftem has already exhibited, and to compare them with fimilar fymptoms in the French and American fyflems. The Englifh funding fyftem began one hundred years agoj in which time there ha$ been fix wars, including the war that end.d in 1697. 1. Thewarthatended,aslhave juft faid, in 1697. 2. The war that began in 17C2. 3. The war that began in 1739. 4. The war that be^.m i:i 1756. 5. The American war, thit began in ijji^. 6. 7' he pre fen t war, that began in j 79 j. The nufir.nil debt, at the conc!ufion of the war, which en. led in 1697, was twenty-one mi'lion^ and an half. (S' c Smith's Weakii of Nations, ch.ipter on Public Deb's". Wc nnw fee it ap- proaching faft to four hundred millions. Jf be- ^ 3 twccn ( 6 ) twecn thofe two extremes of twenty-one millions and four hundred millions, embracing the feveral expences of all the including wars, there exifts lome common ratio that will afcertain arithmeti- cally the amount of the debt at the end of each war, as certainly as the fad is now known to be, that ratio will in like manner determine what ihe amount of the debt will be in all future wars, and will afcertain the period within which the funding fyftem will expire in a bankruptcy of the government; for the ratio I allude to is the ratio which the nature of the thing has eftabhflied for itfclf. Hitherto no idea has been entertained that any fuch ratio exifted, or could exift, that could de. termine a problem of this kind, that is, that could afcertain, without having any knowledge of the faa, what the expence of any former war had been, or what the expence of any future war would be; but it is neverthelefs true that fuch a ratio does exift, as I fhall fhew, and alfo the rpode of applying it. . , . , The ratio I allude to is not in arithmetical pro- grelTion, like the numbers 2, 3, 4. 5 ^5 7 ^ 9 5 nor yet in geometrical progrelTion, like the num- bers ^ _ ,, 2, 4, 8, i6, 32, 64, 128, 256. but ( 7 ) but is in the fcries of one half upon each preceding number; like the numbers 8, 12, i8, 27, 40, 60, 90, 135. Any pcrfon can perceive that the fecond num- ber, 12, is produced by the preceding number, 8, and half 8 ; and that the third number, 18, is in hke manner produced by the preceding number, 1 2, and half r 2 ; and fo on for the reft. Thev can alfo fee how rapidly the fums increafe as the'ratio proceeds. The difference between the two firft numbers is but four; but the difference between the two lafl is forty-five: and from thence they may fee with what immenfe rapidity the national debt has incretfed, and will continue to increafe, till it exceeds the ordinary powers of calculation,' and lofls itfelf in cyphers. I come now Ut apply the ratio as a rule to deter- mine all the cales. I begm with the war that ended in 16.^7, which was the war in which the iiT alna iyRem 'began. The expence of that war was twentv'-onc milhons and an half. In order to afcertjin the cxpcnce of the next war, 1 add to t .vcnty-one milhons and an half, the half thereof (ten millions and three quarters), which makes thirty-two millions and a quarter for tiic expence of tlmt war. This thirty-two mdhons and a quarter, added to the former debt of twenty-one nnlhons and an half, ^ 4 carries C 8 ) eairies the national debt to fifty-three millions and three quarters. Smith, in his chapter on Public Debts, fays, The national debt was at this time fifty-three millions. I proceed to afcertain the expehce of the next war, that of X739, by adding, as in the former cafe, one half to the expence of the preceding war. The expence of the preceding war was thirty-two millions and a quarter j for the fake of evert numbers, fay thirty-two millions ; the half of which (16} makes forty-eight millions for the expence of that war. I proceed to afcertain the expence of the war of 1756, by adding, according to the ratio, one half to the expence of the preceding war. The expence of the preceding war was taken at 48 millions, the half of which (24) makes 72 millions for the ex- pence of that war. Smith (chapter on Public Debts) fays, the expence of the war of 1756 was 72 millions and a quarter. I proceed to afcertain the expence of the Ameri- can war, of 1775, by adding, as in the former cafesj, one half to the expence of the preceding wan The expence of the preceding war was 72 mil- lions, the half of which (36) makes 108 millions for the expence of thfit war. In the laft edition of Smith (chapter on Public DebtsJ he fays, the expence ( 9 ) Gxpence of the American war was more than an hundred millions, I come now to afcertain tlie expence of the p'refent war, fuppofing it to continue as long as former wars have done, and the funding fyftcni not to break up before that period. The expence of the preceding war was 108 milh'ons, the half of which (54) makes 162 millions for the expence of the prefent war. It gives fymptoms of "oinT t I . 'J . i O C3 beyond this fum, fuppofing the funding fyftem not to break up ; for the loans of ihc lall year and of the prefent year, are twenty- two millions each, which exceeds the ratio compared with tne loans of the preceduig war. It will not be from the inability of procuring loans that the fyftem will break up. On the contrary, it is the facility with which loans can he procured, that halicns that event. The loans are altogether paper tranlac- tions ; and it is the excefs of them that brings on, with accelerating fpccd, that progreffive dcprecia-! tion of funded paper money that will dilfolve the funding fyltern. I proceed to afcertain the expence of future wnr. and I do this merely to Ihew the impoffibiliiv of the continuance of the funding fyltc'm, and cho certainty of its dilfolution. I he ( 10 ) The expencc of the next war after the prefent \var, according to the ratio that has afcertained the preceding cafes will be 243 millions Expence of the fecond war 3^4 millions _____________ third war 54^ millions , - fourth war 819 millions Bfth war 1228 millions 320Qmillions ^hich, at only 4 P^^" cent, will require taxes to the nominal amount of one hundred twenty-eight miU lions to pay the annual intereft, befides the interea of the prefent debt, and the expences of govern- inent, which are not included in this account. Is there a man fo mad, fo ftupid, as to fuppofe this fyftem can continue ? When I fira conceived the idea of feeking for fome common ratio that ^lould apply as a rule of m-afuremeiTt to all the cafes of the funding fyaem, fo far as to afcertain the feveral aages of its ap- proach to diffolution, I had no expeaation that any ratio could be found that would apply with io much exaBnefs as this does. I was led to the idea merely by obferving that the funding fyaem ^^as a thing in continual progrcffion, and that what- ever was in a aate of progreffion might be fuppofed to admit of, at leaa, fome general ratio of meafurc- mentj ( u ) ment, that would apply without any very great variation. But who could have fuppofed that falling {ylteras, or falling opinions, admitted of a ratio apparently as true as the defcent of falling bodies? 1 liave not viade the ratio, any more than Newton made the ratio of gravitation. I have only dircuvcred it, and explained the mode of applying it. To (hew ac one view the rapid progrcffion of the funding fyrtcm to dellruetion, and to expofc the folly of thofe who bhndly believe in its conti- nuance, or who artfully endeavor to impofe that belief upon others, I exhibit in the annexed tablc^ the exppnce of each of the hx wars llnce the fund- ing fyftem began, as afccrtained by the ratio, and the cxpence of fix wars yet to come, afcertained by the fame ratio, > 2 X 3 ^ 4 5 iZ 6 .Toti.1 21 millions 33 millions ^8 millions n2 millions* loB millions i()2 millions 4/j,j millions ^ 3 o 5 Total 243 millions 364 millions ,^^46 million'- 811;^ millions 1 r:28 millions 1842 million:. 5O42 miliioni Thofe * The a6tu.il expcncc of tlic war of 1739 did not conic up to the fum afcertained by the ratio. But as that \v!iic?i IS the natural dilpofuion of a thing, as it is the natural dif- pcfition o[ a (Ircam of water to defccnd, will, if impeded ia ( 12 ) Thofc who arc acquainted with the power with which even a fmall ratio, a6ling in progreflion, muUiphcs in a long feries, will fee nothing to win- der at in this table. Thofe who are not acquainted with that fubje8, and not knowing what elfe to fay, may be inclined to deny it. But it is not their opinion one way, nor mine the other, that can influence the event. The table exhibits the natu- ral march of the funding fyftem to its irredeemable diflblution. Suppofing the pref..nt government of England to continue, and to go on as it has gone on hnce the funding iyftem began, I would not oive twenty (liiliings for one hundred pounds in the funds to be paid twenty years hence. I do not (peak this predi6:ively ; I produce the data upon in its courfcj- overcome by a new effort what it had loft by that impediment, fo it ivas with refpea to this war and the next (175^'), taken ccile6lively ; for the expence of the war 1756 reftored the equihbrium of the ratio, as fully as if it had not been impeded. A circumftance that ferves to prove the truth of the ratio more fully than if the interruption had not taken place. The war of 1739 was languid: the efTorts were below the value of money at that time : for the ratio is the mcafure of the depreciation of money in confe- qucncc of tbc funding fyftem ; or what comes to the fame end, it is the meafure of the incrcafc of paper.- Every ad- ditional quantity of it, wliether in bank-notes or otherwife. diminiflics the real, though not the nmina?, value of the former qnantity. which ( 13 ) which that belief is founded : and which data k is every body's intereit to know, who have any thing to do with the funds, or who are going to bequeath property to their defcendants to be paid at a future day* Perhaps it may be afked, that as governments or minifters proceeded by no ratio in making loans or incurring debts, and as nobody intended any, ratio, or thought of any, how does it happen that there is one ? I anfwer, th.at the ratio is founded in neccffity; and T now go to explain what that necefTity is. It will always happen, that the price of labor, or of the produce of labor, be that produce what it may, will be in proportion to the quantity of money in a country, admitting things to take their natural courfe. Before the invciuion of the fund- ing fyllem, there was no other n^ioney ihan gold, andhlver; and as nature gives out thofc metals with a (paring hand, and in icgular annual quan- tities from tbc mines, :he fevcraF [)rices of tiiinas were proportioned to the quantity of money at that time, and fo nearly ftationary as to vary but little in any fifty or fixty years of tliat period. When the fiuuling fyflcm began, a (Tibfiitute for gold and filver began ai fo. That fubilitute was paper; and the quantity of it increafcd as the quantity of imerclt increafcd upon accumulated losns. ( H ) loans. This appearance of a new and additldnat fpccies of money in the nation foon began to break the relative value whiLh money and the things it will purchafc bore to each other before. Every thing rofe in price; but the rife at firll was little and (low, like the difference in units between the two firft numbers, 8 and 12, compared with the two laft numbers, 90 and 135, in the table. It was however fufficient to make itfelf confiderably felt in a large tranfaBion. When therefore go- vernment, by engaging in a new war, required a new loan, it was obliged to make a higher loan than the former loan, to balance the increafed price to which things had rifen ; and as that new loan in- creafed the quantity of paper in proportion to the Dew quantity of intercll, it carried the price of things Hill higher than before. The next loan was again higher, to balance that further increafed price; and all this in the fame manner, though not in the fame degree, that every new eraiflion of continen- tal money in America, or of affignats in France, were greater than the preceding emiffion, to make head againfl the advance of prices, till the combat could b.* maintained no longer. Herein is founded the neccffit^^ of which I have jull fpoken. That neceflity proceeds with accelerating velocity, and the ratio I have laid down is the m.afure of that acceleration j or, to fpeak the technical language of ( '5 ) 6r the fabjeSl, it is the meafure of the increafitTg depreciation of funded paper money, which it is iinpoffible to prevent, while the quantity of that money and of bank notes continues to multiply. What elfe but this can account for the difference between one war coding li nnillions, and another war coffing 160 millions? The difference cannot be accounted foV on the fcore of extraordinary efforts or extraordinary at- chievements. The war that coft 21 millions was the war of the confederates, hiilorically called the grand alliance, confifting of England, Auftria, and Holland, in the time of William the Tiiird, againlt Louis the Fourteenth, and in which the confede- rates were viclorious. The prefcnt is a war of a much greater confederacy a cpnfcderacy of Eng- land, Auftria, Pruflia, the Gerpaan Empire, Spain, Holland, Naples, and Sardinia, eight powers againd the French Republic fingly, and ihr Republic has beaten the whole confederacy.' But to return to my lubjcci It is faid in England, that the value of paper keeps equal with the value of gold and hlver. But the cafe is not lightly ffated ; for the fitt is, that the paper has pulkd dozvii the value of gold and filver to a level with itfcif. Gold and filvcr will not purchafe To much of any purcl^afable article at this day as if no paper had appeared, nor To luuijh ( 16 ) ittuch as It will ia any country in j^uropfi wtiei^e' there is no paper. How long this hanging toge- ther of money and paper will continue makes a "new cafe ; becaufe it daily expofes the fyflem to fuddcri death, independent of the natural death it would otherwife fuffer. I confider the funding fyftem as being now ad- vanced into the laft twenty years of its exiftence. The {ingle circumftance, were there no other, tha:t a war fhould now coil nominally one hundred and fixty millions, which when the fyftemf began coft but twenty-one millions, or that the loan for one year only (including the loan to the Emperor) fhould now be nominally greater than the whole expence of that war^ fhews the ftate of deprecia- tion to which the funding fyftera has arrived. Its depreciation is in the proportion of eight for one, compared with the value of its money when the fyltem began ; which u the ftate the French affig- nats flood io a year ago (March, 1795J, compared with gold and filver. It is therefore that I fay, that the Englifh funding fyftem, has entered into the lall twenty years of its exiftence, comparing each twenty years of the Englifh fyflem with every fmgle year of the American and French fyflems, a$ before ftatcd. Again^fuppofing the prefent war to clofe as for- incr wars have done, and without producing either revolu- irevolution or reform in England, another ivaf, at leaft muft be looked for in the fpace of the twentjr years I allude to; for it has never yet happened that twenty years have pafled off -v^ithout a war, and that more efpecially finee the Englilh govern^- ment has dabbled in German politics, and Ihewn a difpofition to infuk the world, and the world of commerce, with her navy. That next war will carry the national debt to very nearly feveh hun- dred millions, the intfereft of Which, at fbur per cent, will be twenty-eight millions, befides the taxes for the (then) expenccs of government, which will increafe in the fame proportion, and which will carry the taxes to at leafl forty millions ; and if another war only begins, it will quickly carry them to above fifty j for it is in the laft twenty years of the funding fyftem^ as in the laft year of the American and French fyftems without fundingj that all the great fhocks begin to dperatc. I have jiift mentioned that paper, in England^ has pulled down the value of gold and filter to a level with itfelf ; and that this pulling down of gold and filver money has created the appearance of paper money keeping up. The fame thing, and the fame miftake, took place in America and in France, and continued for a confiderable time after the commencement of their fyftem of paper ; and C the ( i8 ) the a<^ual depreciation of money was hidden under that miftake. It was faid in America, at that time, that every- thing was becoming dear ; but gold and filver could then buy thofe dear articles no cheaper than paper could ; and therefore it was not called de- preciation. The idea of dearnefs eftabliflied itfelf for the idea of depreciation. The fame w^as the cafe in France. Though every thing rofe in price foon after affigmits appeared, yet thofe dear articles could be purchafed no cheaper with gold and filver than with paper, and it was only faid that things were dear. The fame is ftill the language in Eng- land. Tliey call it dearnefs. But they will foon find that it is an adual depreciation, and that this depreciation is the effect of the funding fyllem ; which, by crowding fuch a continually-increafmg mafs of paper into circulation, carries down the value of gold and filver with it. But gold and filver will, in the long run, revolt againft deprecia- tion, and feparate from the value of paper ; for the progrefs of all fuch fyflems appears to be, that the paper will take the command in the beginning, and gold and filver in the end. But this fucceflion in the command of gold and filver >' er paper, makes a crifiS far more eventful to the funJ.ing fyftem than lo any other fyftem r^-.^or, which paper can be ilTued ; for, flridtly fpeak- ( 19 ) fpeaking, it is not a crifis of danger, but a fymp- tom of death. It is a death ftroke to the funding fyftcm. It is a revolution in the whole of its af- fairs. If paper be ilTued without being funded upon intereft, emiffions of it can be continued after the value of it feparales from gold and filver, as we have feen in the two cafes of America and France. But the funding fyflem refts altogether upon the value of paper being equd to gold and filver j which will be as long as the paper can continue carrying down the value of gold and filver to the fame level to which itfelf dcfcends, and no longer. But even in this ftate, that of defcending equally together, the minifter, whoever he may be, will find himfelf befet with accumulating difficulties ; becaufe the loans and taxes voted for the fervice of each enfuing year will wither in his hands be- fore the year expires, or before they can be ap^ plied. This will force him to have recourfe to emiffions of what are called excl^equer and navy bills, which, by ftill increafing the mafs of paper in circulation, will drive on the depreciation ftill more rapidly. It ought to be known that ta^es in England arc not paid in gold and filver, but in paper (bank notes). Every perfon who pays any confiderablc quantity of taxes, fuch as maltfters, brewers, dif- C 2 tiUci-^ ( 20 ) tillers (I appeal for the truth of it to any of the collcdors of excife in England, or to Mr. Whit- bread), knows this to bte the cafe. There is not gold and filver enough in the nation to pay the taxes in coin, as I fliall Ihew j and confequently there is not money enough in the bank to pay thc- notcs. The intereft of the national funded debt is paid at the bank in the fame kind of paper in which the taxes are collected. When people find, as they will find, a refervedriefs among each other in giving gold and lilver for bank notes, or the leaft preference for the former over the latter, they will go for payment to the bank, where they have a right to go. They will do this as a mea- fure of prudence, each one for himfelf, and the truth or delufion of the funding fyftem will then be proved. I have faid in the foregoing paragraph that there is not gold and filver enough in the- nation to pay the taxes in coin, and confequently that there cannot be enough in the bank to pay the notes. As I do not chufe to reft any thifig upon alTertion, I appeal for the truth of this to the publicarions of Mr. Eden (now called Lord -Auck* kind), and George Chalmers, Secretary to the Board of Trade and Plantation, of which Jenkinfon (no\T cdled Lord Hawkefbup/) is prefident. [Thefe io:- cf folks change their names fo often, that it is ( 21 ) is as difficult to know them as It is to know a thief.] Chalmers gives the quantity of gold and filver coin from the returns of coinage at the mint; and, after dedufting for the light gold recoined, ftys, that the amount of gold and filver coin is ahout twenty millions. He had better not have proved this, efpecially if he had refleded, that public credit is fufpicion ajitep. The quantity is much too little. Of this twenty millions (which is not a fourth part of the quantity of gold and filver there is in France, as is fhewn in Mr. Necker's Treatife on the Adminiftration of the Finances) three millions at lead muft be fuppofed to be in Ireland, fome in Scotland, and in the Weft Indies, Newfound- land, &c. The quantity therefore in England cannot be more than iixteen millions, which is four millions lefs than the amount of the taxes. But admitting there to be fixteen millions, not more than a fourth part thereof (four millions) can be' in London, when it is confidercd that every city, town, village, and farm-houfe in the nation muft have a part of it, and that all the great manufac-^ tories, which mofl require ca(h, are out of Lon- don. Of this four millions in London, every ban- ker, merchant, tradelman, in fliort every individual muft have fome. He muft be a poor fliop-keeper yideed, who has lot a few guineas in his till. C 3 The ( 22 ) The quantity of ca(h therefore in the bank can never, on the evidence of circumftances, be fo much as two millions ; moft probably not more than one million ; and on this ilender twig, always liable to be broken, hangs the whole funding fyf- tem of four hundred millions, befides many mil- lions in bank notes. The fum in the bank is not fufficient to pay one-fourth of only one year's inte, reft of the national debt, were the creditors to de- mand payment in cafh, or to demand calh for the bank-notes in which the intereft is paid. A Cir- cumftance always liable to happen. One of the amufements that has kept up the farce of the funding fyftem is, that the intereft is regularly paid. But as the intereft is always paid in bank notes, and as bank notes can always be coined for the purpofe, this mode of payment proves nothing. The point of proof is, can the bank give caOi for the bank notes on which the intereft is paid ? If it cannot, and it is evident it cannot, fome millions of bank notes muft go with- out payment, and thofe holders of bank notes who apply laft will be worft off. When the prefent quantity of caOi in the bank be paid away, it is next to impoffible to fee how any new quantity is to arrive. None will arrive from taxes, for the taxes will all be paid in bank notes ; and (hould the government refufe bank notes in payment of taxes. ( 23 ) taxes, the credit of bank notes will be gone at once* No cafli will arrive from the bufinefs of difcounting merchants bills; for every merchant will pay off thofc bills in bank notes, and not in caih. There is therefore no means left for the bank to obtain a new fupply of cafli, after the pre- fent quantity be paid away. But, bcfides the im- poffibility of paying the intereft of the funded debt in cafli, there are many thoiifand perfons in London and in the country, who are holders of bank notes that came into their hands in the fair way of trade, and who are not ftock-holders in the funds ; and as fuch perfons have had no hand in increafing the demand upon the bank, as thofe have had who, for their own private intereft, like Boyd and others, arc contracling, or pretending to contrad, for new loans, they will conceive they have a juft right their bank notes fliould be paid firft. Boyd has been very fly in Frarxe, in chang- ing his paper into cafh. He will be juft as fly in doing the fame thing in London ; for he has learn- ed to calculate : and then it is probable he will fet off for America. A ftoppage of payment at the bank is not a new thing. Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, book 2, chap. 2, fays, that in the year 1696, exchequer bills fell forty, fifty, and fixty per cent, bank notes twenty per cent, and the bank ftopt payment. C 4 That ( H ) That which happened in 1696 may happen again in 1796. The period in which it happened was the laft year of the war of king William. It ne- ceffarily put a flop to the further emiffion of ex- chequer an4 navy Bills, and to the raifmg of new- loans ; and the peace which took place the ne3f year was probably hurried on by this circumftance, and faved the bank from banl^ruptcy. Smith, in fpeaking of the circumftances of the bank, upon another occa^on, fays (book 2, chap. 2,)" ^^^^ * great company has been reduced to the neceflity " of paying in fixpences." When a bank adopts the expedient of paying in fixpences, it is a con- fpffion of infolvency. It is worthy of obfervation, that every cafe of a failure in finances, fince the fyftemof paper began, has produced a revolution in governments, either total or partial. A failure in the finances of France produced the French revolution. A failure in the finance of the affignats broke up the revolutionary government, and produced the prefent French Conftitution. A failure in the finances of the old Congrefs of America, and the embarraffments it brought upon commerce, broke up the fyftem of the old confederation, and produced the prefent federal conftitution. If then we admit of reafoning by comparifon of caufes and events, a failure in the Englilh ( 25 ) l^nglifli finances will produce fome change in the government of that country. As to Mr. Pitt's project of paying off the na- tioj:ial debt by applying a million a year for that purpcfe, while he continues adding more than twenty millions a year to it, it is like fetting a man with a wooden leg to run after a hare. The longer he TLms the farther he is off. When I faid that the funding fyftem had entered the laft twenty years of its exiftence, I certainly did not mean tliat it would continue twenty years, and then expire as a leafe would do. 1 meant to defcribe that age of decrepitude in which death is every day to be expeded, and life cannot continue long. But the death of credit, or that (late that is called bankruptcy, is not always rnarked by thofe progreflive ftages pf vifible decline, that mark the decline of natural life. In the progreffion of na- tural life, age cannot count.erfeit youth, nor conceal the departure of juvenile abilities. But it is other- wife with refpeft to the denth of credit ; for thougl\ all the approaches to bankruptcy may af ually exiil in circumftances, they admit cf being concealed by appearances. Nothing 13 more common than to fee the bankrupt of to-day a man in ciedit but the day before ; yet no iooner is the real flacc of his affairs known, than every body can fee he had bfen infolvent long before. In London, the grcatclV theatre ( 2S ) theatre of bankruptcy in Europe, this part of the fiibjedl will be well and feelingly imderftood. Mr. Pitt continually talks of credit, and of the national rcfources. Thefe are two of the feigned appearances by which the approaches to bankruptcy are concealed. That which he calls credit may exift, as I have juft (hewn, in a ftate of infolvency, and is always what I haAre before defcribed it to be, Jufpicion ajlecp. As to national refonrces, Mr. Pitt, like all the Englifh financiers that preceded him fmce the funding fyftcm began, has uniformly miflaken the nature of a refource ; that is, they have miftaken it confidently with the delufion of the funding fyf- tem; but time is explaining the delufion. That which he calls, and which they called, a refource, is not a refource, but is the anticipation of a re- fource. They have anticipated what would have been a refource in another generation, had not the ufe of it been fo anticipated. The funding fyftem is a fyftem of anticipation. Thofe who eftablilhed it an hundred years ago, anticipated the refources of thofe who were to live an "hundred years after; for the people of the prefent day have to pay die intereft of the debts contrafted at that time, and of all debts contra6ted fince. But it is the laft feather that breaks the horfe's back. Had the fyf- tem began an hundred years before, the amount of taxes ( n ) taxes at this time to pay the annual intereft at four per cent. (couM we fuppof^ fuch a fyiteni of inik- nity could have continued) would be two hundred and twenty millions amnuauy ; for the capital of the debt would be t^iyi^ millions, according to the ratio that afcertains the expence of the wars for the hundred years that are pad. But long before it could have reached this period, the value of bank notes, from the immenfe quantity of them, (for it is in paper only chat fuch '^ nominal revenue could be colledted) would have been as low or lower than oontinental paper money has been in America, or affignats in France ; and as to the idea of exchang- ing them for gold and filver, it is too abfurd to be contradifted. Do we not fee that nature, in all her operations, difowns the vifionary bafis upon which the fimd- ing fyftem is built ? She a6ls always by renewed fucceffions, and never by accumulating additions perpetually progreffing. Animals and vegetables, men and trees, have exifted ever fince the world began ; but that exiftence has been carried on by fucceflions of generations, and not by continuing the fame men and the fame trees in exiftence tliat exifted firft ; and to make room for the new (he removes the old. Every natural ideot can fee this. It is the ftock-jobbing ideot only that miftakes. J-Je has conceived that art can do what nature can- not. C 28 ) not. He is teaching her a new fyftem that there is no occafion for man to die That the fchcme of creation can be carried on upon the pl^n of the funding fyftem That it can proceed by con- tinual additions of new beings, like new loans^ and all live together in eternal youth. Go, count the graves, thou ideot, and learn the folly of thy arithmetic. But befides thefe things, there is fomething vi- fibly farcical in the whole operation of loaning. It is fcarcely more than four years ago that fuch a rot of bankruptcy fpread itfelf over London, that the whole commercial fabric tottered ; trade and credit were at a (land ; and fuch was the ftate of things, that to prevent, or fufpend, a general bankruptcy, the government lent the merchants fix millions in government paper, and now the merchants lend the government twenty-two millions mihei^' paper j and two parties, Boyd and Morgan, men but little known, contend who fhall be the lenders. What a farce is this ! It reduces the operation of loaning to accom^ modation paper, in which the competitors contend, not who fl-iall lend, but who (hall fign, becaufe there is fomething to be got for figning. Every Englilh ftock-jobber and minifter boafts of the credit of England. Its credit, fay they, is greater than that of any country in Europe. There is a good reafon for this ; for there is not another coun^ try ( 29 ) try in Europe that could be made the dupe of fiich a delufion. The Englilh funding fyftem will remain a monument of wonder, not fo much on account of the extent to which it has been carried, as of the folly of believing in it. Thofe who had formerly predided that the fund- ing fyftem would break up when the debt fhould amount to one hundred or one hundred and fifty millions, erred only in not diftinguilhing between infolvency and adual bankruptcy ; for the infol- vency commenced as foon as the government be- came unable to pay the intereft in cafti, or to give cafh for the bank notes in which the intereft was paid, whether that inability was knov\ n or not, or whether it was fufpcdcd or not. Infolvency always takes place before bankruptcy ; for bankruptcy is no- thing more than the publication of that infolvency. In the affairs of an individual, it often happens that infolvency exifts feveral years before bankrupt- cy, and that the infolvency is concealed and carried on till the individual is not able to pay one ftiilling in the pound. A government can ward off bank- ruptcy longer than an individual ; but infolvency will inevitably produce bankruptcy, whether in an individual or in a government. If then the quan- tity of bank notes payable on demand, which the bank has IfTued, are greater than the bank can pay oft, { 30 ) off, the bank is infolvent; and when that infolvency be declared, it is bankruptcy.* I come * Among the delufions that have been impofed upon the ration by minifteis, to give a falfe coloring to its affairs, and by none more than by Mr. Pitt, is a motley, amphibious cha- laftered thing called the balance of trade. This balance of trade, as it is called, is taken from the cuftom-houfe books, in which entries are made of all cargoes exported, and aUo of all cargoes imported, in each year ; and when the value of the exports, according to the price fet upon them by the exporter or by the cuftom-houfe, is greater than the value of the imports, eftimated in the fame manner, they fay^ the balance of trade is fo much in their favor. The cuftom-houfe books prove regularly enough that fo many cargoes have been exported, and fo many imported ; but this is all that they prove, or were intended to prove. They have nothing to do with the balance of profit or lofs ; and it is ignorance to appeal to them upon that account : for the cafe is, that the greater the lofs is in any one year, the higher will this thing called the balance of trade appear to be according to the cuftom-houfe books. For example* nearly the whole of the Mediterranean convoy has been takan by the French this year ; confequenily thofe cargoes will not appear as imports on the cuftom-houfe books, and therefore the balance of trade, by which they mean the pro- fits of it, will appear to be fo much the greater as the lofs amounts to ; and, on the other hand, had the Ids not hap- pened, the profits would have appeared to have been fomuch the lefs. All the loffes happening at fca to returning cargoes, by accidents, by the elements, or by capture, make the ba- lance appear the higher on the fide of th exports j and were they ( 3 ) I come now to fhew the feveral ways by which bank notes get into circulation. I (hall afterwards offer an eftimate on the total quantity or anvount of bank notes exifting at this moment. The bank afts in three capacities. As a bank of difcount ; as a bank of depofit ; and as banker for the government. Firft, as a bank of difcount. The bank difcounts merchants bills of exchange for two months. When a merchant has a bill that will become due at the nd of two months, and wants payment before that time, the bank advances that payment to him, de- duding therefrom at the rate of five per cent, per ann. The bill of exchange remains at the bank as a pledge or pawn, and at the end of two months it muft be redeemed. This tranfa6iioji is done alto- gether in paper; for the profits of the bank, as a they all loft at fca, it wpuld appear to be all profit on tlie cuflom-houfe books. Alfo every cargo of exports that is loft that occafions another to be ient, add* ia like manner to the fide of the exports, and appears as prcjBt. This year the balance of trade will appear high, becaufe the loO'es have been great by capture and by ftorms. The ignorance of the Brilifh Parliament, in liftening to this hackneyed iinpo'.itioii of minifters about the balance of trade, is aftoriifliing. It fhews how little they know of national affairs , and Mr. Grey may as well talk Greek to them, as make motions aoout the ftate of the'naiion. They wudcrftand fox-hunting and the game-laws. btUlk ( 32 ) bank of difcount, arife entirely from its making ute of paper as money. The bank gives bank notes t6 the merchant in difcdunting the bill of exchange, and the redeemer of the bill pays bank notes to the bank in redeeming it* It very feldom happens that any real money paffes between them* If the profits of a bank be, for example, two hundred thoufand pounds ft year (a great fum to be made merely by exchanging one fort of paper for another, and which Ihews alfo that the merchants of that place are prefled for money for paymcntJ* inftead of having money to fpare to lend to govern- ment), it proves that the bank difcounts to the amount of four millions annually, or 666,6661. every two months ; and as there never remain in the bank more than two months pledges, of the va- lue of 666,6661. at any one time, the amount of bank notes in circulation at any one time fhould not be more than to that amount. This is fufficient to ftiew that the prefent immenfe quantity of bank notes, which are dillributed through every city, town, village, and farm-houfe in England, cannot be accounted for on the fcore of difcounting. Secondly, as a bank of depofit. To depofit money at the bank means to lodge it there for the fake of convenience, and to be drawn out at any moment the depofitor pleafes, or to be paid away to his order. When the bufinefs of difcounting is great, that of dcpoCting ( 33 ) depofidng is neceffarily fmall. No man depofits and applies for difcounts at the fame time ; for it would be like paying intercft for lending money, inllead of for borrowing it. The depofits that are now tnade at the bank are almoft entirely in bank notes, and confequenily they add nothing to -the ability of the bank to pay off the bank notes that may be prefented for payment; and beGdes this, the depofits are no more the property of the bank than the cafli or bank notes in a merchant's count- ing houfe are the property of his book-keeper. No great increafe therefore of bank notes, beyond what the difcounting bufinefs admits, can be accounted for on tlie fcore of depofits. Thirdly. The bank a8s as banker for the govern- ment. This is the connexion that threatens ruin to every public bank. It is through this connexion that the credit of a bank is forced far beyond what it ought to be, and flill further beyond its ability to pay. It is through this connexion that fuch an immcnfe redundant quantity of bank notes have gotten into circulaton; and which, inftead of being ifiucd bccaufc there was property hi the bank, have been ifiued becaule there was none. When the trcafury is empty, which happens in almofl every year of every v ar, its coiFers at the bank arc cnipty alio. It . \\\ tiiis condition of cmptincfs that the minifier has rccc^uifc to cmiffions i) of ( 34 ) 6^ what arc called exchequer and navy bills, which continually generates a new increafe of bank notes, and which are fported upon the public without there being property in the bank to pay them. Thefe exchequer and nav)/ bills (being, as I have faid, emitted becaufe the treafury and its coffers at the bank are empty, and cannot pay the demands that come in) are no other than an acknowledgement that the bearer is entitled to receive fo much mo- ney. They may be compared to the fetdement of an account, in which the debtor acknowledges the balance he owes, and for which he gives a note of hand ; or to a note of hand given to raife money upon it. Sometimes the bank difcounts thofe bills as it would difcount merchants bills of exchange ; fome- times it purchafes them of the holders at the cur- rent price ; and fometimes it agrees with the mi- nifter to pay an intcreft upon them to the holders, and keep them in circulation. In every one of thofe cafes an additional quantity of bank notes get into circulation, and are fported, as I have faid, upon the public, without there being property in the bank, as banker for the government, to pay them : and befidcs this, the bank has now no money of its own ; for the money that was originally fub- fcribed to begin the credit of the bank with at its firft ( 35 ) ^rft eflabltfliment, has been lent to government, and wafted long ago. " The bank (fays Smidi, book 2, chap. 2 J afts '* not only as an ordinary barik, but as a great en- ** gine of ftate ; it receives and pays the greater " part of the annuities which are due to the cre- " ditors of the public,*' (It is worth obferving, that the puhlicj or the nation^ is always put for the government in fpeaking of debts.) *' It circulates (fays Smith) '* exchequer bills, and it advances to ** government the annual amount of the land and '* malt taxes, which are frequently not paid till '* feveral years afterwards." (This advancement is alfo done in bank notes, for which there is not property in the bank.^ *' In thofe different ope- " rations, (fays Smith) iti duty to the public may " fometimes have obliged it, without any fault of ** its direOors, to ovcrjlock the circulatiGTi wiih paper '* money,* bank notes. How its duty to the public can induce it to overjlock that public with promif- fory bank notes which it cannot pay, and thereby expofe the individuals of that public to ruin, is too paradoxical to be explained ; fur it is on r.he credit which \n^W\du?\s give to the bank y by receiving and circulating its notes, and not upon its on,n credit or its own property, for it has none, that the bank fports. If however it be the duty of the bank tq expofe the public to this hazard, it is at lealt equally P a the ( "36 ) the duty of the individuals of that public to get their money and take care of themfelves; and leave it to placemen, penfioners, government contraBors, Reeves's aflbciation, and the members of both houfes of Parliament, who have voted away the money at the nod of the minifter, to continue the credit if they can, and for which their eftates indi- vidually and colleftively ought to anfwer, as far as they will go. There has always exifted, and flill exifts, a myf- terious, fufpicious connexion, between the minifter and the directors of the bank, and which explains itfelf no otherways than by a continual incrcafe of bank notes. Without, therefore, entering into any further details of the various contrivances by which bank notes are iflued, and thrown upon the public, I proceed,. as I before mentioned, to offer an efti- mate on the total quantity of bank notes in circu- lation. However difpofed governments may be to wring money by taxes from the people, there is a limit to thepraBice ellablifhed in the nature of things. That limit is the proportion between the quantity of mo- ney in a nation, be that quantity what it may, and the greateft quantity of taxes that can be raifed upon it. People have other ufes for money befides paying taxes ; and it is only a proportional part of that money they can fpare for taxes, as it is only a pro- ( 37 ) proportional part they can fpare for houfe-rent, for clothing, or for any other L^articular life. Thcfe proportions find out and.eilablifli thcmfelves; and that %vith fuch ex^6lnefs, that if any one part ex- ceeds itj propp u n^ ail the other parts feel it. Before the invention of paper money (banknotes), there was no other mon';y in the nation than gold and filver, and the greatcil quantity of money that ever was raifcd in taxes during that period, never exceeded a fourth part of the quantity of money in the nation. It was high taxing when it came to this point. The taxes in the time of William the Thn^d never reached to four millions before the invention of paper , and the quantity of money in the nation at that time was eftimaied to be about fixteen millions. The fame proportions eflablifhcd themfclvcs in France. There was no paper money in France before the prefent revolution, and the taxes were colleBed in gold and hlver money. The highelt quantity of taxes never exceeded twenty-two millions ilerling; and the quantity of gold and filver money in the nation at the fame time, as (laied by Mr. Neckar, from returns of coinage at the mints, in his Treatife on the Admi- nifl ration of the Finances, was about ninety millions fterling. To go beyond this limit of a fourth part, in England, they were obliged to introduce paper money j and the attempt to go beyon4 it in France, where C 38 ) Avhcrc paper could not be introduced, broke up tbe government. This proportion therefore of a fourth part, is the limit which the nature of the thing efta- bli flies for itfelf, be the quantity of money in a na- tion more or lefs. The amount of taxes in England at this time is full twenty millions; and therefore the quantity of gold and filver, and of bank notes, taken together, amounts to eighty millions. The quantity of gold and filver, as ilated by Lord Hawkefbury's fecret- ary (George Chalmers}, as I have before fhewn, is twenty millions; and therefore the total amount of bank notes in circulation, all made payable on de^ mand, is fixty millions. This enormous fum will allonifl-i the moft fiupid ftock-jobber, and over- power the credulity cf the moft thoughtlefs Englifli* man : but were it only a third part of that fum, thtj bank cannot pay half a crown in the pound. There is fomething curious in the movements of this modern complicated machine, the funding fyflem ; and it is only now that it is beginning to unfold the full extent of its movements. In the firfl part of its rtjovements it gives great powers into the hands of government, and in the Jaft part it takes tliem completely away. The funding fyftem fet out with raifing revenues under the name of loans, by means of which go- vernment became both prodigal ^d powerful. The ( 39 ) The loaners affamed the name of creditors, and though it was foon difcovered that loaning was go- vernment jobbing, thofe pretended loaners, or the perfons who purchafed into the funds afterwards, conceived themfelves not only to be creditors, but to be the only creditors. But fuch has been the operation of this com- plicated machine, the funding fyftem, that it hat produced, unperceived, a fecond generation of creditors, more numerous and far more formida- ble, and withal more real than the firft generation ; for every holder of a bank note is a creditor, and a real creditor, and the debt due to him is made payable on demand. The debt therefore which the government owes to individuals is compofed of two parts ; the one about four hundred millions bearing intcreft, the other about fixty millions payable on demand. The one is called the funded debt, the other is the debt due in bank notes. This fecond debt (that contained in the bank notes) has, in a great meafurc, been incurred to pay the intercft of the firft debt; fo that in fad little or no real intercft has been paid by govern- ment. The whole has been dclufion and fraud. Government firft contracted a debt in the form of loans with one clafs of people, and then run clan,- dcftioely into debt with another clafs, by means of hank notes, to pay the intereft. Government atled of ( 40 ) oF itfelf in contraBing the firft debt, and made a machine of the bank to contraft the fecond. It is this fecond debt that changes the feat of power and the order of things; for it puts it in the power of even a fmall part of the holders of bank- notes (had they no other motive than difguft at Pitt and Grcnville's fedition bills) to controul any meafure of government they found to be injurious to their interefl ; and that not by popular meetings, or popular focieties, but by the fimple and eafy operation of v.ith-holding their credit from that government ; that is, by individually demanding payment at the bank for every bank-note that comes into their hands. Why fhould Pitt and Grenville expecl that the very men whom they in- fult and injure fliould at the fame time continue to fiipport the meafures of Pitt and Grenville, by giving credit to their promiffbry notes of payment? No new emilTions of bank-notes could go on while payment was demanding on the old and the cafh in the bank wafting daily away ; nor any new ad- vances be made to government or to the emperor to carry on the war; nor any new emiffion be made of exchequer bills. * The bMik," fays Smith, (book ii. ch. 2.) " is *' a great engine of flate.'' And in the fame para- graph he fays, " The Jlahility of the bank is equal to that of theBritifi govenmcni ;" which is the fame a. ( 41 > fame as to fay that the liability of the government is equal to that of the bank, and no more. If then the bank cannot pay, the arch-treajurer of the holy Roman empire (S. R. I. A.*j is a bankrupt. When Folly invented titles, fhe did not attend to their application; forever fince the government of Eng- land has been in the hands of arch-treajurerSy it has been running into bankruptcy ; and as to the arch- treafurer apparent^ he has been a bankrupt long ago. What a miferable profpeQ: has England be- fore its eyes ! Before the war ol" 1755 there were no bank notes jtx)wer than twenty pounds. During that war bank notes of fifteen pounds and of ten pounds were coined; and now, lince the commencement of the prefent war, they arc coined as low as five pounds. Thefe five pounds notes will circulate chiefly among little fhop keepers, butchers, bakers, market peo- ple, renters of fmall houfes, lodgers, &c. All the high departments of commerce, and the affluent llations of life were already over flocked^ as Smith expreffcs it, with the bank notes. No place re- mained open wherein to crowd an additional quan- tity of b.ink notes but among the clafs of people I have jufl mentioned, and the means of doing this could be bell eti'efled by coining five pound notes- This conduct has the appearance of that of an un- Part of the iurcription on an Englilli guinea. E prin- C 42 ) principled infolvent who, when on the verge of bankruptcy to the amount of many thoufands, will borrow as low as five pounds of the fcrvants in his houfe, and break the next day. But whatever momentary relief or aid theminif- ter and his bank might expeft from this low con* trivance of five pound notes, it will increafe the inability of the bank to pay the higher notes, and haften the deftruBion of all ; for even the fmall taxes that ufcd to be paid in money will now be paid in thofe notes, and the bank will foon find it- felf with fcarcely any other money than what the hair powder guinea tax brings in. The bank notes make the mod ferious part of the bufmefs of finance ; what is called the iiational funded debt is but a trifle when put in comparifon with it ; yet the cafe of the bank notes has never been touched upon. But it certainly ought to be known upon what authority, whether that of the minifter or of the direftors, and upon what foun- dation, fuch immenfe quantities are iffued. I have flated the amount of them at fixty millions fler- ling; I have produced data for that eflimation ; and befides this, the apparent quaiuity of them, far beyond that of gold and fiiver in the nation, corro- borates therewith. But were there but a third part of fixty millions, the bank cannot pay half a crown in the pound j for no new fupply of money, as ( 43 ) as before faid, can arrive at the bank, as all the taxes wiil be paid in paper. When the funding fyftem began, it was not doubted that tb.c loans that had been borrowed would be repaid. Government not only pro -a- gatcd th.at belief, but }i be^an paving th"m oiT. In time this pro*. HHon came to be abandoned; and it is not d'inc' It to fee tlrat bank notes will march the f?.me way; for the amount of them is only anp''".cr debt under another name ; and the probability is, that Ivir. Pitt will at laft propofe funding them. In that cafe bank notes will not be fo valuable as French aflignats. The afTignats have a folid property in referve in the national domains; bank notes have none ; and befide^ this, the Eng- lifli revenue mull then fink down to what the amount of it was before the funding (yftem began ^ between three and four millions. One of which the arch-treofarcr would require for himfelf, and the arch-treafurer apparent would require three quarters of a million more to pay his debts. ** In ^"France;' fays Sterne, '^ iJiey order thc/e things " better/' I have now cxpofed the Engr.ni fyflcm of fi- nance to the eyes of all nations; for this work will be pul-iJifhed in all languages. In doing this, I have done an a6t of jultice to ihofe numerous citi- zens of neutral nations who have been impofcd upoji ( 44 ) upon by that fraudulent fyftem, and who have pra- pcrty at ftake upon the event. ' "- ~ As an individual citizen of America, and as far as an individual can go, I have revenged (if I may uft' the exprcflion without any immoral meaning) the ^"ratical depredations committed on the Ame- rican commerce by the Englilh government. I have retaliated for France on the fubjeft of fi- nance ; and I conclude with retorting on Mr. Pitt the expreinon he ufed againft France, and fay, that the Englifhfyftem of finance " is on the verge, " NAY EVEN IN THE GVLPH OP Ti AN KRU PTC Y." THOMAS PAINE- Paris, igtk Gcrminat, j^thytar of the Republic, April 8, ^796. J^J>^ ^^?p^ m" A