Chapter XIII: Book III: ========= (2)

The difference between the two lines is stained pale green, when the balance was favourable, but of a pale red when against England.

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The advantages proposed by this mode of representing matters are the same that maps and plans have over descriptions, and dimensions written in figures; and the same accuracy is in one case as the other; for, whatever quantities can be expressed in numbers may be represented by lines; and, where proportional progression is the business, what the eye does in an instant, would otherwise require much time.

The impression is not only simple, but it is as lasting in retaining as it is easy in receiving. Such are the advantages claimed for the invention twenty years ago, when it first appeared; the claim has been allowed by many, and not objected to, so far as the inventor knows, either in this or in any other country.

EXPLANATION OF PLATE NO. IV.

Chart of revenue, from the time of Queen Elizabeth to the present day.

Till the accession of William III. in 1688, the materials for this are not altogether accurate; but they are not far wrong, and indeed, the low state of the revenue, previous to that period, is such that it is a matter of little importance whether or not they are very exact. It is represented here rather as a contrast to the present high revenue, and a matter of curiosity, than as being of much importance.

The pale red part expresses the free revenue, or what is over, after paying the interest of our debt.

This free revenue has not increased so fast as the value of money has decreased, previous to the year 1793; and certainly, at that time, the annual sum of 7,000,000 L. was no equal to 4,000,000 L. in the reign of Queen Anne.

The green part shews the annual interest of the national debt, and proves, beyond contradiction, that, under such a system, expenses of war (for the whole debt has been contracted for wars) augment in much more than a simple proportion.

The yellow part, bounded by a curved line, shews the manner in which the sinking fund will increase in its operation of paying off the debt, on the supposition that the nation continues to borrow as it has [end of page #214] done for the last twelve years; setting apart one per cent. on every new loan, for its liquidation.

As comparative views are the great object of these charts, a yellow dotted line is made, representing the amount of the revenue of France during the same period, till 1789, when the revolution stopped its progress; since which its amount has not been regularly known. {173}

--- {173} The author published an Atlas, containing twenty-seven charts of the different branches of commerce, revenue, and finance, of England, which was translated into French. The fifth edition, much improved, and brought to the present time, is now printing, and will be published in November. -=-

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CHAP. III. [=sic=--error in printer's copy, should read II.]

_Of Education, as conducted in England.--Amelioration proposed.-- Necessity of Government interfering, without touching the Liberty of the Subject_.

The importance of education has been already mentioned, as it in general regards all nations, and certainly when we have examples to shew what are the lasting and terrible consequences of degradation of national character and manners, it is impossible to pay too strict an attention to that subject.

The natural tendency in a nation, while growing richer, to alter its character, owing to the different manner in which the children are educated and brought up, applies particularly to England, and to every nation getting rich by trade or manufactures. In another part, it has been observed, that where the wealth of a country circulates amongst the labouring classes first, it alters the manner of living more than when it originates with the higher; it produces, also, a greater change on the education of children.

No part of the general inquiry is so particularly applicable to England, in an excessive degree, as that relative to education. In proportion as ignorant people arrive at that sort of affluence, which manufactures and trade produce, in that same proportion do they ruin their children. The manners, the nature of the government, and the way of thinking of the people, all lead to this in England; and so far as it is possible to observe the effect, it may be said to appear as if it operated with rapidity at the present period.

Many volumes have been written on education, by the ablest men; but it has already been observed, that they have all treated the subject in a manner much too intricate and complex. Fully aware of the importance, they seem to have thought that it could not be treated too much at length, or investigated too minutely; and, by this means, what they have said is little applicable to general purposes; for, if to educate a man for common life were a difficult complicated operation, it would very seldom be performed. [end of page #216]

{Here appears at page 216 the fourth and final chart, entitled "Chart Representing the Increase of the Annual Revenues -of- ENGLAND AND FRANCE, from the beginning of the 17th Century to the present time"}

The word education itself appears to be misapplied or misunderstood, owing, probably, to its original construction and use, and no other word having been substituted in its place.

By education was meant, in former times, the teaching to read and write; and these accomplishments, which, at that time, distinguished a gentleman from the lower classes, and, by that means, education is still considered as only applying to the learning of what is taught at schools or universities. It is principally in this light that those who have written on it have viewed it, though in fact _well brought up (bien eleve)_ comes nearer to the meaning than being _well learnt_, which is equivalent to well educated.

In this, as in every other thing, the end in view should never be forgotten; but, as it happens with respect to the middling and lower orders, it is forgotten so soon as affluence has made a little progress in a country.

The education of the higher classes is generally pretty well conducted; and, indeed, human beings, when beyond the reach of want, who do not inherit the necessity derived from Adam, of gaining their bread by the sweat of their brows, require much more teaching than others, whose conduct is regulated by necessity, and who have not the means of giving way to the passions that beset human nature.

With respect, however, to the higher classes, it is scarcely possible for a government to interfere to much purpose. Those who are possessed of fortune will act according to inclination; and, in respect to this class of society, in England, it is already in less need of reform or interference than any others, while the lower and middling classes require it more.

There is no possibility for an ignorant man to become of any importance in this country, even with the aid of wealth and fortune. An immoral character, or a mean selfish one, has not a much better chance, while, by talents and good conduct, every thing desirable may be obtained: perhaps, nothing further can be done to excite men of rank and fortune to emulation and virtue.

With respect to the learned professions, the modes by which students are brought up to them are by no means unexceptionable; but that is not a point of very great national importance; at any rate, [end of page #217] it is not the part in which England stands the most in need of attention {174} and interference from the government of the country.

The two classes to whom bringing up, as it is generally understood, would apply better than the word education, are the middle rank of society, and the lower order of people in trade.

The middle rank of society is, in all countries, the most important in point of principles and manners. To keep it pure is always of the highest importance, and it is the most difficult, for there a baneful change is the most apt to take place.

Gentlemen of rank, in all countries, resemble each other very nearly; not, perhaps, in exterior, because that depends on fashion, which is arbitrary, but in mind and manners there is less difference than between men in a second rank of society.

The lower orders, so far as they are forced, by necessity, to labour, resemble each other also; they are pressed by necessities and passions on one side, and the desire of rest on the other; and a fair allowance being made for variety of climate, of circumstances, and of natural dispositions, there is nothing very different amongst them. {175}

What applies with respect to the higher and lower orders does not

--- {174} Our lawyers (barristers) are probably superior to those of any other nation, and the clergy are, at least, equal. This is not, indeed, saying a great deal; but it is so difficult, in matters of religion, to temper zeal, and draw a line between emulation and fanaticism, that, perhaps, it is better that they should be a little remiss than righteous overmuch. It is not in the education of churchmen, but in the manner of paying and providing for them, that the error lies; and that subject is treated elsewhere.

{175} Cervantes, in his admirable romance of Don Quixote, paints the mind of a gentleman, which all countries will acknowledge to be like the truth. The madness apart, the manner of thinking and acting was that of the gentleman of Spain, France, Germany, or England. Neither was he the gentleman of the fifteenth or eighteenth century, but of any other century. His dress was Spanish; his madness and manners belonged to the ages of chivalry and romance, but the mind and principles of the gentleman suited all ages and all countries.

Sancho, again, barring likewise his oddities, is the peasant of all countries; studying to live as well as he can, and labour as little as he may. In short, a mind continually occupied about personal wants, and alive to personal interest. In the middle ranks of society there is no such similarity. -=-

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apply at all to the middling classes, nor even to the most wealthy class of labourers in a manufacturing country: in those we can find no fixed character; it is as variable as the circumstances in which the individuals are placed, and it is there that a government should interfere. It should interfere in guiding the richer classes of working people, and the middling ranks, in the education of their children, and in assisting those of the lower orders, who are too much pressed upon by indigence.

The end in view in all education is to make the persons, whether men or women, fill their place well and properly in life; and this is only to be done by setting a good example, instilling good principles, accustoming them, when young, to good habits; and, above all, by teaching them how to gain more than they are habituated to spend.

It follows from this, that industry, and a trade, are the chief parts of education, that reading and writing are not, being but of a very doubtful utility to the labouring class of society.

On this subject, it is absolutely necessary to advert to what Dr. Smith says relative to apprenticeships; the opinion of so great a writer is of too much importance not to be examined, and refuted, if found wrong.

Apprenticeships, or teaching a trade, is the basis of the future happiness and prosperity of the individual in the lower and middle classes. On this subject, however, Mr. Smith says quite the contrary. That the idleness of apprentices is well known, that their inducement to industry is small, and that, as to what they have to learn, a few weeks, or sometimes a few days, would, in most cases, be sufficient. In short, he maintains, that they would learn better, be more industrious and useful, if employed on wages, than if bound for a term of years; and, finally, that there were no apprentices amongst the ancients. As to there being no apprentices in the ancient world, if that was the case, is no argument with respect to the present state of things; for, while most part of working men were slaves, there could not possibly be much occasion for apprentices; but are we quite certain, that the freed men, so often mentioned, were not people who had served apprenticeships? Freed men are so often mentioned, that there must have been probably something else to which they owed their freedom, besides the goodwill or [end of page #219] caprice of their masters, particularly as that goodwill must have been exercised to deserving objects, and consequently the sacrifice made in giving liberty was the greater. {176}

As men cultivated difficult arts; that is, as luxury increased, it must have become difficult to get labour done by slaves, merely by compulsive means; there must have been bargain and mutual interest settled between the master and the slave, so as to accomplish the end intended. {177} Amongst rewards to a slave, liberty, at a certain period, is not only the greatest, but is the only one that effectually serves the slave; for, while he remains the property of a master, his rewards can consist of little else than good treatment, as all property given is liable to be taken back again.

Supposing, however, the point yielded, and that there were no apprentices in the early ages; but that the practice originated in the days of ignorance; in the dark ages, under the feudal system, together with the invention of corporations and privileged bodies, against whose existence the whole set of economists have leagued together, as the Greeks did against Troy; still the obscurity of the origin is no objection. A constitution like that of Britain, for example, is not an invention of antiquity; it took its rise in the dark ages and in times of ignorance, but it is not for that the less an object of admiration. Many other examples may be furnished of the admirable things that took rise in the dark ages; and amongst them, not the least, is the abolition of slavery itself. {178}

Let us, however, examine the effect of apprenticeships in those places where they can be compared with persons brought up entirely free.

--- {176} We may form some idea of the difficulty of getting work done by people in no way interested in the success, by the workhouses in this country. The smallest quantity, and of the most simple nature, is all we get done, because the overseers are ignorant, and the nation inattentive, and the labour compulsive.

{177} In Egypt, and most other ancient countries, the son followed, by law, the trade of his father: this was equivalent to an apprenticeship.

{178} Whether it arose from the mixture of a northern with the southern people, or from what other cause, it is certain, that, during the ages of ignorance, the foundation was laid for almost all that is great, at the present time. -=-

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If there are trades, where it is true, (as Mr. Smith affirms,) that the art of working may be learnt in a few weeks, what are the consequences? At the age of sixteen or seventeen, a boy can get as much money as he will be able to earn at any future time in his life; he will be able to get as much as a man, who has a wife and five or six children to maintain. There will be required a very great share of moderation and wisdom, indeed, under such circumstances, to prevent such a boy from wasting his money in ways that will incapacitate him from living easy when he shall become a father of a family himself, or from idling away the spare time that his gains afford him. He will, naturally, do part of both: but the way that is generally done is this. Without controul from a master, and totally independent of parents, who are quite left behind in poverty, (not having more to maintain their whole family than the youth himself earns,) he despises them, saves a little money at first, and purchases finery. The novelty of dress soon wears off, and the more immediate pleasures of eating, drinking, and keeping company, as it is termed, take the lead. The consequence of the same is idleness and rags. Ashamed to shew himself amongst persons of better conduct, the youth changes his place of residence and work; habit has got hold of him, and labour becomes hateful; a soldier's life appears the best for a youth of such a description; and, it is an undoubted fact, that, at those places where trades are carried on, that can be learnt in a short time, {179} there are more recruits obtained for the army than in any other districts of equal population. It is also an undoubted fact, that, in these same districts, the most respectable people bind their sons apprentices; and, in doing so, they are guided by experience, and affection for their children, not by interested motives.

--- {179} This is not the case with many trades, and Mr. Smith is under a mistake as to the fact; but, granting it to be true, the places in question, Birmingham, Sheffield, Manchester, and other towns where the division of labour reduces every operation to great simplicity, are the best for recruiting the army. In those places, all respectable people, who can afford it, bind their sons apprentices, to prevent the danger. -=-

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In the other case, again, where a trade is not easily learnt, how is skill to be obtained but by an apprenticeship. The bringing the son up to his father's trade, a practice that prevails in the eastern parts of Asia, is one way; parental authority needs not the aid of a written indenture; but, where this is not the case, who is to teach a youth, if he is not to be bound for a certain number of years, but to go away as soon as he has learnt a trade? The father, in some cases, may be able to pay for his son learning the trade, and this experiment has sometimes been tried, but generally with very imperfect success. The youth, for the most part, in those cases, considers himself as independent of the master, and gives himself very little trouble to learn his business.

Where the reward of the master, or rather the remuneration for his pains and trouble, is to arise from the labour of the boy, the master is interested in his learning; and the other feels an obligation, as well as an interest in learning. Though the apprentice is not absolutely paid for what he does, he finds his ease, his importance, and comfort, all depend on his proficiency; and, with young minds, such motives are much more powerful, and act through a better channel than avarice.

The power that the legislature gives to a master over his apprentice appears not only to be wise but necessary; and, if rewards for earning a trade could be given, in addition to that without infringing on liberty, or burthening the state, it would be a great advantage.

But learning a trade is not the only advantage of an apprenticeship; a good moral conduct, fidelity, and attention to his duties, are all acquired at the same time, or ought to be so; whereas, the youth who, at an early age, is left without control, is apt to learn just the contrary.

Where people have fortune, circumstances give them a control over their children by expectancies; but, where there is no fortune, and children must provide for themselves, an apprenticeship is a substitute for expectancies, which appears highly necessary; and it is wonderful how so discriminating and profound a man as Dr. Smith could overlook so material a circumstance. It shews how far prejudice, and an [end of page #222] opinion once adopted, will lead men of the first judgement and genius astray; {180} for it is not to be supposed that any person will stand forward of himself to maintain an opinion against which experience speaks so decidedly.

To learn a trade, and be taught a good moral conduct, and attention to one's duty, is certainly the essential part of education, both in the lower and middling classes; and that portion of education, which appears to have got an exclusive title to the name, reading and writing, are, with the working classes, a very inferior object.

One of the duties of government, then, is to watch over the education of the children of the middling and lower orders, which has a tendency to grow worse, as the nation advances in wealth.

In England, the pride of the middling classes is to have their children educated at boarding-schools, where the business of eating, sleeping, dressing, and exercise, is pretty well understood; where the branches of education, pretended to be taught, are little attended to, (writing, and some exterior accomplishments, of which the father and mother can judge, excepted,) where moral conduct, the duties in life, and the conduct necessary to be followed, are scarcely once thought of.

It is true, that, till a certain age, it is generally not known for what particular line of life a young man is intended; but, there are certain things necessary to every line of life, and those should never be neglected. The habits contracted at schools are very often of a sort never to be got the better of; and how can good habits be contracted when no attention is bestowed on the subject?

The consequence of this is, that, when the good sense of the father or mother, or of the boy himself, does not correct the evil, he is bred up to consider himself as born to be waited on, and provided for, without any effort of his own; he is led to suppose that he is to indulge

--- {180} In the notes upon the Wealth of Nations, this case is argued, but the matter is too important not to be examined on every occasion and opportunity. The opinion here alluded to is that general way of thinking, respecting corporations, privileges, and regulations, or restraints of every sort imposed on trade, which the writers on political economy, in general, think ought all to be entirely done away. -=-

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in a life similar to that his father leads at home, where a few indulgencies =sic= are the natural consequences of age, and the fair returns for a life employed in care and industry.

In England, it would be absolutely necessary to make school-masters undergo an examination; not only at first, and before the school should be licensed, but the boys should be examined twice a year, and the result enregistered, so that the business would really be to learn something, and not merely to spend the time.

The small proficiency made in the schools, in England, and around London in particular, is incredible. It is even difficult to conceive how the boys avoid learning a little more than they generally do, during eight or ten years. {181} The masters pretend, for the most part, to teach boys Latin, by way of teaching them English, but without almost ever accomplishing it. In arithmetic, the common rules are taught, but scarcely ever decimal fractions, and almost never book-keeping, so useful and so easy an art.

Writing and spelling are better taught, perhaps, than in any other country, and, certainly, those are great advantages; but, according to the time and money spent, it is the least that can be expected. Here we may remark, that those are the only acquirements with the proficiency in which the father and mother are necessarily acquainted; it therefore gives reason for thinking, that, if the same check were held in other branches of their education, they would be excited to make equal progress.

When the time comes that it is fixed on what line of life a young man is to adopt, then there should be schools for different branches, where

--- {181} Without contesting the point, whether dead languages are of any use, it will be allowed that the study costs pretty dear. Three- quarters of the time, for seven years employed on that is equal to five years employed constantly, and twenty pounds a year, at least, is the expense. Not above one in one hundred learns to read even Latin decently well, that is one good reader for every 10,000 L. expended. As to speaking Latin, perhaps, one out of one thousand may learn that, so that there is a speaker for each sum of 100,000 L. spent on the language. It will, perhaps, be said, that Latin is necessary to the understanding English, but the Greeks, (particularly at Athens,) who learnt no language but their own, understood and spoke it better than the people of any other country. -=-

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there should be knowledge taught, analogous to the profession. For the mercantile line, for agriculture, for every line of life, boys should be prepared; and, above all, it should never be neglected to instil into them the advantages of attention to industry, to doing their duty, and in every case making themselves worthy of trust.

Public examinations, such honours and rewards as would be gratifying, but not expensive, for those that excelled, would produce emulation. Though, perhaps, it is not of very great importance to excel in some of the studies to which a young man applies at school, yet it is of great importance to be taught that habit of application that produces excellence.

With regard to the education of the lower classes, it would be no great additional burthen to the nation if there were proper schools established in every parish in the kingdom, at the expense of the public, in order that there might be a proper control over those who teach, and over what is taught. {182} Without going so far as to compel people of the lower classes to send their children to school, they might be induced to do it for a short time, and, at all events, care should be taken that the teachers were fit for the office they undertake.

In no country do the lower classes neglect the care of their children more, or set them a worse example, than in England; they are mostly brought up as if the business of eating and drinking were the chief purpose of human existence; they are taught to be difficult to please, and to consider as necessary what, in every other nation in Europe, is considered, by the same rank of people, as superfluous.

Although the lower orders have as good a right as the most affluent to indulge in every enjoyment they can afford, yet to teach this to children, without knowing what may be their lot, is doing both them and society an injury. A great number of crimes arise from early indul-

--- {182} As there are between nine and ten thousand parishes, twenty pounds given in each, to which the schoolmaster would be allowed to add what those who were able could pay, might perhaps answer the purpose, and would not amount to a great sum. -=-

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gence of children, and from neglecting to instil into them those principles which are necessary to make them go through life with credit and contentment. {183}

The Spartans used to shew their youth slaves or Helots in a state of intoxication, in order to make them detest the vice of drunkenness; but this was the exhibition of a contemptible and mean person in a disgraceful situation. The effect is very different when children see those they love and respect in this state; it must have the effect of either rendering the parent contemptible, or the vice less odious, it perhaps has some effect both ways; but, at all events, it must operate as a bad example, and, amongst the lower classes, it is a very common one.

When a nation becomes the slave of its revenue, and sacrifices very =sic= thing to that object, abuses that favour revenue are difficult to reform; but surely it would be well to take some mode to prevent the facility with which people get drunk, and the temptation that is laid to do so. The immense number of public houses, and the way in which they give credit, are undoubtedly, in part, causes of this evil. It would be easy to lessen the number, without hurting liberty, and it would be no injustice if publicans were prevented from legal recovery for beer or spirits consumed in their houses, in the same manner that payment cannot be enforced of any person under twenty-one years of age, unless for necessaries. There could be no hardship in this, and it would produce a great reform in the manners of the lower orders.

There are only three modes of teaching youth the way to well-doing,-- by precept, by example, and by habit at an early age. Precept, without example and habit, has but little weight, yet how can a child have either of these, if the parents are encouraged and assisted in living a vicious life? Nations and individuals should guard

--- {183} The French, before the revolution, were not be =sic= considered as a more virtuous people than the English, yet there were fewer crimes, and less dissipation amongst the lower orders than in England, and more amongst the higher. The French, particularly the mothers, have less affection for their children, yet they brought them up better, both in habits and in principles. -=-

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against those vices to which they find they have a natural disposition; and drinking and gluttony are the vices to which the common people in this country are the most addicted.

Whatever other things may be taught, let this truth be instilled into all children brought up to earn their bread, that in proportion to their diligence will be their ease and enjoyment, and that this world is a world of sorrow and grief to the idle and the ignorant; that knowledge does not consist in being able to read books, but in understanding one's business and duty in life, and that industry consists in doing it.

Female education, in England, requires as much reform as that of the other sex; but, though the subject is not much less important, it is perhaps still more difficult. It has been remarked, by those who have travelled abroad, that, in other countries, women are in general not better, but rather worse dressed than men of the same rank: in England it is different; for, at an early age, the women are dressed, both as to style and quality of clothes, far above their rank. This might, perhaps, not be difficult to account for, but it undoubtedly is a misfortune, and one that is greatly increased by the mode of education and manner of thinking; for the main and indispensable virtue of that amiable sex excepted, (for which Englishwomen are highly distinguished,) perhaps no women in the world are brought up in a more frivolous unmeaning manner. The French women, with all their vivacity and giddy airs, have more accomplishment; {184} and, as they speak their mind pretty plainly, they have, on many occasions, testified surprise to find English ladies, who had studied music for years, who could scarcely play a tune, and who, after devoting years to the needle, were incapable of embroidering a pin-cushion.

Novels, a species of light, insipid, and dangerous reading, are the bane of English female education. They teach a sort of false romantic sentiment, and withdraw the mind from attention to the duties of

--- {184} The emigrants have taught to ladies of rank, fashions; and to those of an inferior class, arts and industry. The English women did not know half what they could do, till the French came amongst them, about twelve years ago. -=-

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life, at a time when it should be taught to learn their high importance. In female education the government should interfere; for the education of the mother will always have an influence on the education of the son, as her conduct in life must have on that of her husband.

As one general observation, relative to the education given at most public schools, it may be observed, that, whilst much time is taken up in teaching things that can never probably be of great utility, that species of knowledge that does not belong to any particular class, but which is of the utmost importance, is left to chance and to accident. While a boy is tormented with learning a dead language he is left to glean, as in a barren field, for all those rules of conduct on which the prosperity and happiness of his future life depends. {185}

A public education is, in many respects, better than a private one for boys, but, in some things, it is inferior: consequently those who can afford it, and wish to give their sons the most complete education, try to unite the advantages of both, by sending them to a public school, under the care of a private tutor. It is not in the power of the middling classes to do this; but modes should be adopted to give the boys, either by books or public lectures, those instructions, relative to moral conduct, to prudence, behaviour, &c. which a private tutor gives to those under his particular charge.

As to female education, it is a difficult subject: one great improvement would, nevertheless, be not to allow above a certain number in any one seminary; to have people of irreproachable conduct over them, and, wherever the parents can, to bring them home at the age of thirteen or fourteen. The public education ought certainly to finish at an early age, and, in all cases, with respect to females, a private is much preferable to a public education. {186}

--- {185} The most virtuous of the Roman emperors attributed to his preceptors every one of those excellent qualities he possessed. The ancient education of Greece and Rome was very different from that of the moderns.

{186} Since this was written, we understand a book for this very purpose is about to be printed, with the professed design of uniting the advantages of a public and private education. -=-

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CHAP. III.

_Of the Effects of Taxation in England_.

What has been said of the increase of taxes, their tendency to ruin a nation, and bring on its decline, together with the counteraction occasioned by the continuance of necessity, as being applicable to all nations in general, applies, in every sense, to England, and even more to England than to any other nation. Taxes are carried to greater excess than in any other country; and, as England flourishes by trade and manufactures, (the price of which taxes enhance,) they gradually tend to shut foreign markets against us. This has already been explained; we, however, still have to inquire into the particular manner in which it operates upon this country.

That the system of taxation, though irregular in England, is less so than in any other country, in proportion to the extent to which it has been carried, is true; but still, however, if a number of the most troublesome and ill-contrived taxes were done away, and others established in their place, it would be a great advantage.

Greater danger arises from the augmentation of taxes in a wealthy country than in a poor one, when they stretch beyond the proper line, because the general prosperity hinders the effect from being visible, till it has advanced beyond the power of remedy; whereas, in a poor country, the injury is soon felt.

The invention and industry of this country have been most wonderfully increased by the necessity of exertion, under the protection of good laws, which rendered property secure. But we trust too much to our resources, and, like men in health and vigour, are the most likely to injure our constitution.

The most part of the arts, in point of manufacturing, seem to have come to nearly the last degree of perfection, so far as abbreviation of labour can carry them. [end of page #229]

The division of labour, and the modes of working in the iron and metal branches, have not of late been in any material degree improved in our towns, the most famous for them; and as to any particular gift of bringing things to perfection, or reducing prices, it does not appear to be confined to England. Watches and fire-arms are two of the most ingenious and nice branches of metal manufactures; yet, at Liege, the latter is carried to greater perfection than at Birmingham, and London and Lancashire are outdone by Switzerland, in the former. Those, indeed, are not manufactures of which the taste or form is constantly altering; but they are a proof of the ability to work with equal advantage, both as to quality and price, with the manufacturers of this country.

The next great branches are the weaving. For silks, France has always had the advantage of us; and our fine woollen cloths have never equalled those of Louvier and Sedan for quality, although, in point of price, they have the advantage.

In linens, we enjoy no particular pre-eminence; and, in the American market, we are beginning to be undersold by those of Silesia. For a second quality of woollen cloth, and for the manufacture of cotton, in all its branches, we still have the superiority; but our great advantage, the cause of the general preference to our manufactures is the long credit we give, which, if it should ever cease to be practicable, would ruin not one, but all our manufactures, nearly at a stroke.

It is very natural and very well for Englishmen, who have never been out of their own country, to ascribe to superiority of quality, (and inferiority of price is the same thing,) the great success they have in selling their goods in foreign countries; but such as have had an opportunity to see how it really is, know the contrary; and those who have not, may know it by observing who are the individuals in any branch of business at home that do the most, and they will find it always to be those who have the power of giving the longest credit. It is true that, in the course of time, and by struggling hard, those who have little means of extending their business at first, do it by degrees; but, until they do, they never can, in point of quantity, rival those who give long credit.

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In the inability of other nations to give equal length of credit, consists our principal advantage; but we have seen, by the vicissitudes of ancient nations, that the wants of others, or their being behindhand, are but a very insecure tenure for the prosperity of any nation.

The exportation of Britain was but inconsiderable at the beginning of last =sic= century, or about one-ninth of what it was two years ago.{187} Previous to the American war, it gradually increased to about three times what it was in the year 1700; that is, in seventy-five years. The progression was pretty regular till the year 1750, when it had risen to nearly double; but, in twenty-five years after, it increased as much as it had in fifty years before. The American war threw it back forty years, but it soon got up again to where it probably would have been, had the American war not intervened; it, however, rose beyond any thing that had ever been seen. It doubled in less than ten years; and, from this, we are led to conclude, that the taxes had not then begun to hurt national industry. But we shall see the reason, for the great increase was not owing so much to any cause inherent in this nation, as to the absolute impossibility of other nations continuing their commerce. We had got all the East and West India trade of the French and Dutch, and America had again become our greatest customer for British manufactures.

Capital that could be removed was, in a manner, banished from the continent of Europe, and had taken refuge in England, and a great extent of the continent had been desolated with war. We are not, however, to expect this amazing export trade to continue; indeed, it has already fallen, in one year, as much as it ever rose in any three years; it fell fifteen millions in one year. The taxes may have operated much against our prosperity, without our knowing it, in a crisis of this sort, though they did not absolutely counteract the favourable effect produced by other causes.

The commerce of the American states, which were, (like England,) out of the vortex of danger, and secure, increased in fully as rapid

--- {187} In 1802, the exports amounted to 45,500,000 L. In 1702 to 5,500,000 L. -=-

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a manner as ours, and fell off in the same way. We must not then, consider as durable, or owing to ourselves, circumstances that arose out of the general and temporary situation of other nations.

It has been said in the general chapter on taxation, and again repeated in that on national debt, that both the one and the other operate, for a certain time, in augmenting the industry and wealth of a country, but that there is some point at which they begin to have a contrary effect; that point, however, being dependent on a variety of circumstances, is not a fixed one, it cannot be discovered by investigation before the time, but it may by symptoms and signs that become visible soon after.

It is a sign that a nation has passed the point at which taxes cease to be a spur to industry, when the duties on consumption, or optional duties, which one may avoid paying, by not using the article taxed, become less productive than formerly, and when it is found necessary to lay taxes on land, houses, and such sort of property as can be made to pay, independent of the will of the proprietor.

When taxes are laid upon property, not on consumption, it is to be supposed the latter can bear no more. Taxes on property are forced taxes; on consnmption =sic=, they are generally, to a certain degree, voluntary, though not always so.

The augmentation of wealth has, in this country, been great, but it has never been regular or uninterrupted; that of taxation has, on the contrary, been uninterrupted, and this is better seen from the chart than from any thing that can be said. There can be no doubt that, though hitherto our increasing prosperity has been so great as to counteract the effect of heavy taxation, yet that the same thing cannot be expected to continue long. How long it may continue, or whether it has not already ceased, or is on the point of ceasing, is uncertain; but there is nothing more positive, than that, if taxes increase, they must, in process of time, crush industry, and, therefore, at all events, they should be kept as low as possible.

The whole income of the country is estimated only at 150,000,000 L. The taxes to the state amount to 40,000,000 L. and those for the maintenance of the poor to 5,500,000 L. But this is the mere money ac-[end of page #232] count, without estimating loss of time, trouble, and inconvenience; so that it may fairly and reasonably be put down at one-third of the whole revenue or income of the individuals, yet the complaints are not so loud, and the clamour is not so great, as when they did not amount to one-twentieth of that revenue. This may, however, be accounted for.

One-third part of revenue is derived from the state itself, so that there are but two-thirds remain independent of it. The habit of bearing burthens, and experience of the inutility of complaint, are likewise reasons for acquiescence; besides these, we cannot but all be sensible, that complaints were very violent when there was little occasion for them. We cannot deny, that the nation has been prospering for a hundred years, while the cry of ruin has been resounding perpetually in every corner; it is therefore natural to mistrust our fears, and sit in silence, waiting the event.

The portion of our expense that consists in interest of money, on which no economy can operate, is so great, that it prevents any hope of much diminution from economy; and, indeed, in the time of peace, no economy that could be practised, more than what has commonly been done, would diminish our burthens one-fiftieth part. Even that would be very difficult, perhaps impracticable; for our free revenue, in time of peace, has not augmented in proportion to the diminution of the value of money; so that, in 1792, the expenses of the state were comparatively less than in the reign of Queen Anne.

Economy, then, is not the mode in which we must seek relief in time of peace. To carry on war in a less expensive manner in future, and take a solid and effectual method of reducing our debts, are the means, both of which are treated of in their proper place.

The modes of relief then, are three:

1. Economy in war.

2. A solid and fair method of reducing the present interest.

3. Attention, to render the system of taxation as little troublesome, and as fair and equal as possible.

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CHAP. IV.

_Of the National Debt and Sinking Fund.--Advantages and Disadvantages of both.--Errors committed in calculating their Effects.--Causes of Error.--Mode proposed for preventing future Increase_.

In no circumstance does the British empire differ so widely from all nations recorded in history, or from any now in existence, as with regard to the national debt.

Not only the invention of contracting debt to carry on war is but of recent origin, but no nation has ever carried it to near the extent that it has arrived at in England. The Italian states, in which this mode was first practised, never had the means of carrying it very far. In Spain, France, and Holland, national debt met with obstacles that arrested its progress long before it arrived at the pitch to which it has now come in this country.

The interest of the debt is above thrice the free revenue of the country, in time of peace, as that revenue was, previous to hostilities in 1793.

Whenever any operation is begun, the result of which is not known, owing to its being new, but which is in itself of great importance; the anxiety it occasions must be great, and, generally, the alarm is more than proportioned to the danger. If ever this truth was exemplified in any thing, it has been with regard to the national debt of England, which has been a continual object of terror since its first creation; not a public terror, merely amongst the ignorant, but the most profound and enlightened statesmen. Calculators, and writers on political economy, have served to augment the uneasiness by their predictions of a fatal termination.

While the debt has been augmenting with great rapidity, the wealth and resources of the nation have, at least, augmented equally fast, and the matter of fact has given the lie to all the forebodings of those who [end of page #234] occasioned the alarm. This very extraordinary circumstance merits an investigation.

It unfortunately happens, that, where people are deeply interested in a subject, they form their opinion before they begin to examine and investigate, and consequently the mind commences with a bias, and acts under its influence, the consequence of which is, that the conclusion is not so accurate as it otherwise would be. Not that, in calculating with figures, the disposition of the mind can make an unit of difference, the question being once fairly stated; but the previous impression on the mind tends to prevent the fair statement of the question.

That an uninterrupted practice of borrowing must end in an inability to pay is a self-evident axiom. It is not a matter that admits of dispute; but to fix the point where the inability will commence is a problem to resolve of a very difficult nature; it is indeed a problem, the re- solution =sic= of which depends upon some circumstances that cannot be ascertained. There are, it is true, certain fixed principles; but there are some points also that depend on events entirely unconnected with the debt, and, in themselves, uncertain. Two great considerations, that operate powerfully, have been omitted by most writers on this subject. The first, is the increased energy of human exertion, under an increased operation of necessity; the second, is the effect that the depreciation of money has, on lessening the apparent burthen occasioned by the interest of the debt. That these two causes, which have not been taken into account, have rendered the calculations erroneous, there is not a doubt; and how far they may still continue to operate is, at this time, as uncertain as ever; but they ought not to be considered as of operation beyond a certain unknown point, else the practice of contracting debt would be capable of infinite extension, which is impossible.

But the augmentation of the debt itself is not the only circumstance that excites attention, as intimately connected with the fate of this nation.

The increasing wealth and prosperity of the nation, under the heavy load of taxes, of which the debt is the principal occasion, is as much a matter of surprize as the ultimate result is an object of anxiety.

So long, however, as the nation is not actually born =sic= down by the [end of page #235] weight of taxes, its wealth must increase; and, what is considered as a very strange phenomenon, is only the natural and necessary consequence of increased taxation.

When men inhabit and cultivate land of their own, they are under no necessity of creating any greater value than they consume; but, when they pay RENT and TAXES, they are laid under a necessity of producing enough to supply their own wants, and to pay the rent and taxes to which they are subject. The same is the case with regard to manufacturers in every line of business, for though they do not, perhaps, consume any part of what they produce, (what comes to the same thing is that,) they are obliged to produce as much as will exchange, or sell, for all they want to consume, over and above paying their rent and taxes.

Without rent and taxes there are only three things that excite the exertion of man:--Necessity, arising from natural wants; a love of pleasure; or, a love of accumulation.

When a man labours no more than for his mere natural necessities, he is a poor man, in the usual acceptation =sic= of the word, that is, he has no wealth; {188} and a nation, peopled with such men, would justly be called a poor nation. When a man labours for nothing more than what he expends on pleasure, or to gratify his taste and passions, it is still the same, he consumes what he creates, and there is an end of the matter; and, whether he creates much or little, as his consumption is regulated by it, no difference is made to society; but, when rent and taxes constitute a part of the price of every commodity, the consumption of every man, whether he pays any taxes directly or not, himself, is attended with an increase to the revenues of those who receive the rent and taxes, and obliges him to create more than he consumes.

--- {188} Some philosophers call a man rich, who wants little, and has that little; they are quite right, in their way, but that does not apply here. Perhaps, according to their definition, the Lazzaroni of Naples are richer than the merchants of London; and, a man who is contented in a parish work-house, is, beyond dispute, rich; to say that such a man is wealthy would be absurd, because wealth, with writers on political economy, implies being possessed of real tangible property. -=-

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It arises from this, that the aggregate wealth of a people increases with rent and taxes; for, where there are neither, the desire of accumulation is the only thing that increases wealth. {189}

It is for this reason, that, by obliging a man to create more than he himself consumes, taxation increases the wealth of a nation; so that the flourishing state of England is a very natural effect of heavy taxation. The misery and poverty of those people who have little or nothing to pay, is equally natural, though it does not astonish one quite so much.