Berkeley and Jefferson intelligencer. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va.) 1802-1810, 1806-06-27
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PROM THE BOSTON RAprRroRr.
NO.

tHE suthciency Of the british Imam.
ces, to supply the enormous expendi.
lures of the war, is usually the FIRST en-
quiry for its solution. We cannot, how
ever, refrain from remarking, that the
bankruptcy of the French government
has been necessarily expected to prove
the boundary fthe French power, 1t
has happened, on the contrary, that pow.
or has made its own resources. No 60.
vernment, certainly Lo arbitrary govern.
ment, will sit still and die for want Of
means, when they are to be found with
in grasp 1t will put forth the hand oil
violent injustice and reach them. The
rulers Of France found wealth enough
within and without, and they have never
hesitated to use it. Their armies fou-
rished while their artizans starved, and
their armers desponded. The decline
Of all employment but that of arms, SO
far from stopping the course oftheir vic
tories, materially contributed TO acce-
lerate it. =, = ~ :. .&-.-.''s=
The.free government of England is
less disposed and less qualified for these
extremes but then it will not be equal
ly under the necessity Of resorting to
them. The wealth of individuals is in.
calculable, and the machinery of the En-.
glish laws and government for extract.
ing it in loans and taxes, with some de.
gree OF eqaality,- and without popular
opposition, is probably adequate to 9
great annual augmentation. We fotbea,
! to say what is the utmost that machinery
could effect. An urgent public necessi.
ty, so palPable as to confound all doubts
and cavils, we should conceive would
enable governmental draw from the PEG.
pie larger supplies, by equal laws, than
could be obtained by arbitrary violence.
tits however, we confess, a friehtful
prospect for an honest English minister,
that he must spend, for the public de.
fence, more than he can raise by taxes,
Hitherto, we believe, he has been able
to produce by bis 1Vays and means more
than thirty-ii7e or forty millions ster-
ling, nor TO bring his expenditures under
seventy.
In this extremity, some men have ask.
ed, whether the government ought not,
withoat further hesitation, to spunge oh
their National Debt-1he jacobin mem.
! bers of our administration win wonder,
why they have delay ed it so long. The
English government would long trust
and painfully try the public spirit Of the
nation, rather than destroy the debt.
We have men in power, amongus, who
would sooner destroy any debt, public
or private, than hazard their popularity ;
nay more, they would spunge Off alldebts
for the sake of popularity. But in. En-
gland nothing short Of dire necessity will
bring the ralers to touch the property,
that has so long been eon6ded to the
safeguard of the public faith and morals
nor will they, of choice, withhold 4 pen.
ny of the interest. ....
Tits true, necessity, though il is the
tyrant's plea, is sufficient ONE, when i,
exists for the best government. There
is no reasoning against necessity, but
when there is any reasoning about its ex-
istenee, It is manifest that It does not ex.
ISL 1t not only makes its own law but
its own evidence. Iteomes like the FIRE,
or flood, or pestilence, and enders doubt
as much impossible as resistance.
Admitting, then, the suficieney Of
the plea of necessity to yindicate the
Withholding of the interest Of the British
national debt to the public creditors. the
l fact that such necessity exists II still to
be made out. We have already said
this sober argumen.ative making out Of
a necessity is inadmissible., Though it
lis beser the national debt should perish