lute master of the lives and fortunes of each individual, has no authority to impose a new tax; and every OTTOMAN prince, who has made fuch an attempt, either has been obliged to retract, or has found the fatal effects of his perfeverance. One would imagine, that this prejudice or established opinion were the firmeft barrier in the world against oppreffion; yet 'tis certain, that its effect is quite contrary. The emperor, having no regular method of increasing his revenue, must allow all the bashaws and governors to opprefs and abuse the subjects: and these he fqueezes after their return from their government. Whereas, if he could impofe a new tax, like our EUROPEAN princes, his intereft would fo far be united with that of his people, that he would immediately feel the bad effects of thefe diforderly levies of money, and would find, that a pound,, raised by general impofition, would have less pernicious effects, than a fhilling taken in fo unequal and arbitrary a manner..

ESSAY IX.

OF PUBLIC CREDIT.

T appears to have been the common practice of antiquity,

IT

to make provision, in times of peace, for the neceffities of war, and to hoard up treasures before-hand, as the inftruments either of conqueft or defence; without trufting to extraordinary impofts, much lefs to borrowing, in times of diforder and confufion. Besides the immense fums above mentioned *, which were amaffed by ATHENS, and by the PTOLEMIES, and other fucceffors of ALEXANDER; we learn from PLATÓ †, that the frugal LACEDEMONIANS had alfo collected a great treasure; and ARRIAN ‡ and PLUTARCH || specify the riches which ALEXANDER got poffeffion of on the conqueft of SUSA and ECBATANA, and which were referved, fome of them, from the time of Cyrus. If I remember right, the scripture alfo mentions the treasure of HEZEKIAH and the JEWISH princes; as profane history does that of PHILIP and PERSEUS, kings of MACEDON. The ancient republics of GAUL had commonly large fums in referve §. Every one knows the trea

* Effay V.

+ ALCIB. I.

Lib. 3.

| PLUT. in vita ALEX. He makes these treasures amount to 80,000 talents, or about 15 millions fterl. QUINTUS CURTIUS (Lib. 5. Cap. 2.) says, that ALEXANDER found in SUSA above 50,000 talents.

STRABO, Lib. 4.

fure feized in ROME by JULIUS CESAR, during the civil wars; and we find afterwards, that the wifer emperors, AUGUSTUS, TIBERIUS, VESPASIAN, SEVERUS, &c. always difcovered the prudent forefight, of faving great fums against any public exigency.

On the contrary, our modern expedient, which has become very general, is to mortgage the public revenues, and to truft that pofterity, during peace, will pay off the incumbrances contracted during the preceding war: And they, having before their eyes, fo good an example of their wife fathers, have the same prudent reliance on their posterity; who, at last, from neceffity more than choice, are obliged to place the fame confidence in a new pofterity. But not to waste time in declaiming against a practice which appears ruinous, beyond the evidence of an hundred demonftrations; it feems pretty apparent, that the ancient maxims are, in this refpect, much more prudent than the modern; even though the latter had been confined within fome reasonable bounds, and had ever, in any one instance, been attended with such frugality, in time of peace, as to discharge the debts incurred by an expensive war. For why should the cafe be fo very different between the public and an individual, as to make us establish such different maxims of conduct for each? If the funds of the former be greater, its neceffary expences are proportionably larger; if its refources be more numerous, they are not infinite; and as its frame should be calculated for a much longer duration, than the date of a fingle life, or even of a family, it should embrace maxims, large, durable, and generous, agreeable to the fuppofed extent of its exiftence. To truft to chances and temVOL. I.

Eee

porary

porary expedients, is, indeed, what the neceffity of human affairs frequently reduces us to; but whoever voluntarily depend on fuch refources, have not neceffity, but their own folly, to accuse for their misfortunes, when any fuch befal them.

If the abuses of treasures be dangerous, either by engaging the state in rash enterprizes, or making it neglect military difcipline, in confidence of its riches; the abuses of mortgaging are more certain and inevitable; poverty, impotence, and subjection to foreign powers.

According to modern policy, war is attended with every deftructive circumftance; lofs of men, increase of taxes, decay of commerce, diffipation of money, devaftation by fea and land. According to ancient maxims, the opening of the public treasure, as it produced an uncommon affluence of gold and filver, ferved as a temporary encouragement to industry, and attoned, in fome degree, for the inevitable calamities of war.

What then shall we fay to the new paradox, That public incumbrances are, of themselves, advantageous, independent of the neceffity of contracting them; and that any state, even though it were not preffed by a foreign enemy, could not poffibly have embraced a wifer expedient for promoting commerce and riches, than to create funds, and debts, and taxes, without limitation? Difcourfes, fuch as thefe, might naturally have paffed for trials of wit among rhetoricians, like the panegyrics on folly and a fever, on BUSIRIS and NERO, had we not seen such abfurd maxims patronized by great ministers, and by a whole party among us. And these puzzling argu

ments,

ments, (for they deferve not the name of fpecious) though they could not be the foundation of Lord ORFORD's conduct, for he had more fenfe; ferved at leaft to keep his partizans in countenance, and perplex the understanding of the nation.

Let us examine the confequences of public debts, both in our domestic management, by their influence on commerce and industry; and in our foreign tranfactions, by their effect on wars and negotiations.

There is a word, which is here in the mouth of every body, and which, I find, has also got abroad, and is much employed by foreign writers *, in imitation of the ENGLISH; and this is, CIRCULATION. This word ferves as an account of every thing; and though I confefs, that I have fought for its meaning in the prefent fubject, ever fince I was a school-boy, I have never yet been able to discover it. What poffible advantage is there which the nation can reap by the easy transference of stock from hand to hand? Or is there any parallel to be drawn from the circulation of other commodities, to that of chequernotes and INDIA bonds? Where a manufacturer has à quick fale of his goods to the merchant, the merchant to the shopkeeper, the shopkeeper to his cuftomers; this enlivens industry, and gives new encouragement to the firft dealer or the manufacturer and all his tradefmen, and makes them produce more and better commodities of the fame fpecies. A ftagnation is here pernicious, wherever it happens; because it operates backwards, and ftops or benumbs the industrious hand in its production of what is useful to human life. But what production we owe to CHANGE-ALLEY, or even what confump

* MELON, DU TOT, LAW, in the pamphlets published in FRANCE.