The Sun.
London, England, 1829-09-11 00:00:00

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The Loans contracted in the first Revolution war with
Trance, were £218,181,005
last war, ending the 30th
of May, 1814 257,946,824
Add Debentures subscribed in 1813, 53 Geo. 111 ,
cap. 41. 53.

Ditto

£506,927,129

That we may derive instruction from the above
document, which exhibits the rise and progress
of the national debt down to the conclusion of

the war in 1814, many remarks, and a thorough
examination of our system of finance, both past
and present, will be necessary.

From this document, and the information we
derive from other sources, it appears,-
1. That the total debt at the end of the war
in 1814 was 1,054,046,1841. ; but this sum in-
cludes the redeemed debt standing in the names
of the Commissioners of the sinking fund, and
leaves out exchequer bills, life annuities, and an-
nuities for terms of years.
2. That the net public revenue in 1814 was
61,215,242/. ; but then it must be remembered
that the average price of gold throughout the
years 1813 and 1814 was 101. 3s. 11d. per
ounce ; and therefore the value of the Bank
note was only 14s. 11d., and therefore the
61,215,2421. raised by taxes in the year 1814,
had a real value of only 45,656,3681.; whereas
the sum raised by taxes during the year 1828
amounted to 52,104,6421.

3. That in the year 1814 the income tax pro-
duced 14,000,0001., and the assessed taxes about
7,000,000/., but since that period the income
tax has been wholly repealed, and the assessed
taxes have been reduced, and produce now only
about 4,000,000/. ; and so that IN hereas in 1814
the proportion which the direct taxes bore to
the whole sum of taxation was as about 34 to
100 ; so in 1828 was the same proportion but as
about 8 to 100.

4. That the two wars with France (the last
ending in 1814) added 807,823,7921. to the
national debt, in stock; and that the money re-
ceived for this stock was 506,927,129/. ; but
part of the money so raised by loan was applied
to the operations of the sinking fund.
Such immense sums of money having been
raised in this country by means of public loans,
and the fact also being (however extraordinary it
may appear) that the deeper we got into debt
the greater facility we found in borrowing, I will
now make a few observations on this mode of
raising money by loan ; and then, if we coolly
and carefully consider the matter, I believe we
shall find that a loan is a voluntary tax, that is, a
certain sum is furnished by the people voluntarily,
and free of expence, which must otherwise have
been exacted from them (and this at considerable
expence) by the ordinary mode of taxation.
And that this definition is correct, may very
easily be made appear ; for when a tax is im-
posed, what is the result? Why, that a certain
sum of money is collected at a certain expence,
and which money is paid into the Treasury.
W hat afterwards becomes of the money ? It is
spent by the Government. So again, when a
loan is negotiated, what is the result ? Why,
that, voluntarily and free of all expellee, a certain
sum of money is paid by the people themselves
into the Treasury. What becomes of this
money ? As in the former case, it is spent by
the Government ; and therefore in both cases
the thing raised is the same, and it receives the
same application, and the only difference is this,
—that in the one case the money is furnished
willingly and free of expence, whereas in the
other it is collected at considerable expence, and
gives rise to no little grumbling.
But then it is said that all loans carry interest.
Now this would certainly be a very serious ob-
jection if the Government were to spend the in-
terest as well as the principal ; but this is not
done, and the tax imposed for the payment of
the interest is regularly returned to the commu-
nity in the shape of dividend, and throughout
the whole affair of tax and dividend, the Govern-
ment merely acts in the capacity of trustee to the
public for the purposes of assessment and distri-
bution, and its business is su to order matters
that the man who has subscribed more to a loan
than his quota would have amounted to if the