tience, and owing only to the want of a full reflection and consideration on the subject.

I have yet something to add on this head; which is, that were the Irish and the Americans both of them unanimously to cry out to us to spare their lives and to take all they have; to beg of us to send them such another army of Tax-gatherers as our own, and with them a copy of our code of Revenue Laws, I will be bold to say, that it would nevertheless be in us the worst policy in the world, and totally contrary to our own interest to take them at their words, and to do in the least degree any such thing. We see the Thames flowing constantly into the Ocean, and yet always full. It need not be said that the rain and the dew are the causes of this, which first fall and fertilize the Earth, and then replenish that noble River. Were those two stopped or dried up, it would not be long before we should pass over dry-shod at London Bridge; were they so only in part, the stream would then likewise lower in proportion.

What our whole debt to foreigners amounts to, no one may probably know with exactness; but the more it has been inquired into, the higher it has always appeared. However, the interest of it is a current which runs perpetually into the Continent. We do not, indeed, see it with our eyes, as we do the Thames; otherwise, we love money so much better than we do water, that we might perhaps be less indifferent about it than we are. It passes imperceptibly, but nevertheless surely and without ceasing. What are then the causes which supply it? I answer, those two great sources, of Ireland and America. These first water and fructify with their most benignant current the whole Island of Great Britain, and then finish their course in the discharge of our debt abroad. Their way is no more visible than that of the interest itself of our debt, but it is alike certain and constant. Stop or dry up these, and you will as surely stop or dry up the funds of our debts, as withholding the rain or the dew of Heaven would lessen and lower the stream of the River Thames. Taxes will do this; they are the bane of Commerce and of Agriculture; they affect the Merchant, the Manufacturer, the Planter, the Farmer, and the Labourer. Our America is not of an age to support their operation. The things from above keep their course in spite of man, for his benefit and advantage. It is God's very great mercy that the dew and the rain do not depend on Administrations; they would otherwise have undoubtedly been taxed and dried long ago. But it is not so with what is of our own fabrick or production. We have a great power over riches and treasure. Governments can effectually cut off the wells and the springs of these. We have only to look abroad in the world to be abundantly convinced of that truth. The example of Great Britain will not prove the contrary. It was when and while we were not taxed as we now are, that we prospered, grew great and rich. Those times gave us strength to bear for a while the burthen since imposed upon us. It is from the Revolution that our prodigious taxes have begun; they were laid by degrees, and so must their effects be perceived. They don't operate like a storm or a whirlwind. Let us give them a fair and full trial before we declare that we are not undone by them. It will then be time enough to make ourselves a model for others. I ask, whether it is not our own actual difficulties brought on by these very taxes, which do now at this instant urge us upon our Colonies, and which are the cause of all the present contest and disorder. It is one of the first principles in Commerce not to burthen the means and materials of Manufactures. It would be nipping the fruit in the bud. The same reasoning holds here. Let us keep our hands from these two great causes and sources of our treasure and wealth; they have hitherto wonderfully supplied and supported us; they may continue so to do, if we will suffer them.

But it may be said that we have at home great and profitable Manufactures, and our Woollen one in particular, whereby we stand less in need of distant assistance. That is very true; but so is it likewise, that we have on the Continent very many expenses and demands for money, besides the interest of our debt. We shall be very fortunate if we can, with the means of all our richest resources, make at the years end an even account.

But it may be asked, what are we then to do. We are pressed with our domestick burthens and encumbrances. These put us first on the measure of Stamps in America, wherein we did not succeed. These induced us afterwards to make demands on the India Company, wherein we had rather better fortune. It is these which have again brought us back to our attack on America. How are we either to stand under them, or to march forward? Is it safe to rest as we are? What course are we to take if it is not? This is perhaps as serious a proposition as one Englishman can put to another. No man laments more than the writer of these sheets, that nearly twelve years of peace are now elapsed, without any thing being done, or establishment made, which may enable us to maintain another war, or perhaps even in peace, support long the present very heavy pressure under which we labour. We have in that time paid off eight millions. We borrowed, during the late war, twelve millions in a year; so that our discharge is in between eleven and twelve years of peace, equal to a debt of eight months of a war. We shall, at that rate, in about seventeen years of the first, if it should continue so long, free ourselves from the encumbrance of one year of the latter. Whereas, should the whole time be taken from the Revolution to the present, we have had as much of the one as of the other, except the difference of about ten years in the whole. Should, therefore, any one at the helm of Government, plume himself on this, what would he do but testify how very far short his own views and conceptions are of the real necessities and exigencies of the state? We are in the mean time daily liable to be again engaged in war. We have now had an uncommon interval of rest from it. It was but a very few years ago, that we were on the brink of a rupture with Spain, which would undoubtedly have been attended by one with France. How can any Minister sleep in peace who has on his hands the care of a Kingdom and the welfare of many millions of people, while publick affairs are in a condition so very unprepared for an event which may at any moment happen, and which may, in our present situation, bring with it consequences of an importance hardly to be conceived? Surely they think on these things, whose duty most demands it of them. It is impossible that such concerns of ours can be left only to chance and hazard; or, as it were, to the fortuitous concourse of atoms. One would think there could hardly be a man in Britain, Minister, or any other, not perpetually employed at the plough, but who must daily revolve in his mind the present circumstances of his country, our burthens, our debts, and our expenses, and at the same time cast in his own breast, what must be the best means of our supporting ourselves under them, whether in war or in peace. There is an issue which some men have in view, and which I will not express; we may, however, be assured, that they do but very superficially consider the matter, who imagine that this will, in our case, take place without the utter ruin and confusion of every thing. All is, notwithstanding, as yet tranquillity and sunshine with us. We possess a great and fine country; we have most noble and beneficial Dependencies; we have a Fleet; we have an Army; we have several hundred thousands, and perhaps near a million of Men capable of bearing arms in their own defence; we have a Revenue with a surplus above the interest of our debts and expenses. Surely there is yet an opportunity to find some plan; to settle some establishment, whereon things may rest safely and securely, and the publick and all reasonable persons be satisfied that they do so. There is, however, no time to be lost. It may be too late to prepare, as it were, in the day of battle, and at the moment when our difficulties press strongly upon us. But this is of itself a very wide field, and one of the greatest of considerations, nor is it my immediate subject. But the measures now carrying on will not. effect it or any thing towards it. No surrounding dangers or difficulties are a good reason for running down a precipice; our fate can but lead us thither at last. However, no other end can happen to us from the way which we are now in, if we persevere and proceed in it.

This seems to be a sufficient answer to the point before us. However, I will not totally turn my back on this question, without frankly and freely proposing, what I trust will at least be more for our purpose, than that which we are now pursuing; what may be carried into execution, which the other cannot; what would increase our Revenue, which the other will not. I mean to do almost directly the con-