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the people of Ireland; but as that country increases in wealth, (and, with all its disturbances, it is increasing in wealth,) the improvement of Ireland, as well as the further improvement of Great Britain, presents an additional source of increase. Here, as in every other case of taxation, consumption affords a sure rule; and

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* With reference to Ireland, I have observed in another place that "the exports from Ireland compared to her population, and the sum of taxes which she pays, contrasted "with the amount of the exports from Great Britain, her population, and the taxes raised in the latter country, sug"gest ground for doubting that the amount of the exports of a country furnishes a sure proof of her prosperity. From an "account laid upon the table of the House of Commons in "April, 1824 (to be found among the finance accounts of "that year), showing the amount of the gross revenue of "each country from the year 1792 to that period, the net 66 revenue, the expense of management, the funded debt un"redeemed, the charge, the supplies voted, the payments for "national objects, and the amount of the population, it

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appears that the net revenue of Great Britain, with a "population of 14,379,677, in 1823, was 53,788,4967.; "whereas the net revenue of Ireland, with a population of “6,846,949, was only 3,718,0987, Yet Ireland, it appeared "from an account taken from the finance accounts of 1826, "exported in each of the years, 1823, 1824, and 1825, pro“duce and manufactures to an amount in official value nearly "double the sum paid by her in taxes; while the produce " and manufactures exported from Great Britain in the same years, according to official value, were about ten millions "less than the net sum raised by her in taxes, upon the aveRevision of our Fiscal Code,

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of these three years.” rage

1828.

as the consumption of articles imported increases, the amount of the duties of customs upon them should be diminished; for, as increase of industry arises from small profits with quick returns, so the increase of the revenue of customs arises from small duties on the small but increasing consumption of large numbers.

CHAP. III.

NATIONAL DEBT.

LARGE as the amount of our public debt is, it need not give us much concern. The sum of the gross ordinary revenue of Great Britain last year, was 49,836,3541. This is a sum which the people of Great Britain are enabled to spare from the annual returns of their industry, which cannot therefore well be less than 5 or 600,000,000%. But our debt, unfunded as well as funded, does not amount to 800,000,000l. Now, a landed proprietor would not be deemed very heavily burdened, if the debt which he owed was less than two years' returns from his estates. It is not, therefore, the want of means, but the malconformation of them, that occasions distress; and this mal-conformation arises from legislative re

straints upon industry, which, as the legislature has imposed them, so the legislature must remove them, by a cautious and careful enquiry into the operation of such restraints, and by repealing or diminishing them wherever it is practicable, which in most cases it will be found to be.

CHAP. IV.

RECAPITULATION.

IN war or peace, and under every administration, whether tory or whig, our national industry has extended itself wherever it has not been checked or controlled by legislative provisions. This is a melancholy reflection, very humiliating to public men.* The business of government, or the science of legislation, is no light matter. It requires the cultivation of mind, the acquisition of knowledge, and the exercise of patient and diligent enquiry, inducive of habits of attention and application in youth, in order to qualify man to grasp principle, and to

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"In retirement," said a public man of no mean attainments, "I became sensible that, when in place, I had been "deficient in almost every thing but diligence." - Huskisson on the Bullion Question, 1809.

master practice in its details, as he advances in life. But are the modes of teaching, the matters taught, the moral discipline and habits acquired at our schools and universities, conducive to those attainments ? *

In every session of Parliament, facts of the most useful kind are embodied in reports and accounts laid upon its tables, which seem to be thus loaded for no other purpose but to rise up in evidence against the negligence of those for

*This is not the first time the question has been put. In an essay in a little book, published seven years ago, (The Influence of Interest and Prejudice on Proceedings in Parliament;) after remarking upon the prejudice which excluded our great schools and universities by name, with every school that had a special visitor, from the enquiry concerning charities, I suggested, that the heads of those foundations should themselves be required to report upon them. This may be done by a royal sign manual; or, if a royal commission to special commissioners shall be deemed more advisable, such commission may be issued, as it has been issued in the case of Scotland: it is much more necessary in England. Let not the heads of our schools or colleges be startled; no harm is intended, or will be done, to them: but the wellbeing of the state requires that our youth should be well tutored, and wholesomely nurtured. Reports, however, are made in vain, if no use is to be made of their contents.

The powers of the current commissioners upon charities should be enlarged. They should be enabled to appoint managers, where managers have lapsed, or even to correct abuses, where these can be immediately corrected, subject to special reports to Parliament in this behalf, that their acts may be forthwith corrected, if they appear wrong.

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whose use these facts are collected. With the facilities afforded in the titles and contents delivered to them, it should be the business of every member of Parliament to have his sessional papers bound regularly in volumes; and, before he places them on the shelves of his library, to peruse every volume, and mark in it what he may deem useful. What would be the consequence, if the judges of the land did not "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest" the acts of the session? Would not such acts be badly executed, or altogether neglected? But are they not often badly made, from the failure to read and understand the documents upon which they proceed? and, if these were read and understood, would not many laws that are made, never be made at all?

Is it possible to attend to the facts disclosed in these pages without making these reflections ? Seeing our shipping has increased with the removal of restraints, and our foreign trade with the absence of restraints, can we believe that our home industry would not have increased also, but for the presence of restraints? Can assent be refused to the consequences arising from the exclusive privilege of the Bank of England? When a rise in the exchangeable value of money is going on, are the Directors of that bank, who are ignorant of its operation, and

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