only from a mifconception of his duties, and a mifcalculation of his reasonable expectations.

In the project of fupply, the Commons acted with sufficient liberality when they allotted to the king 1,200,000l. a year; it was far fhort of the monies received by Cromwell, but the people of England, when they defired freedom from the yoke of pretended liberty, aimed at the establishment of a beneficial and conftitutional rule, and not at the exchange of one tyranny for another. The parliaments, however, acted unwifely, as well as unjustly, in not providing effectually for the fupply of the fum they had voted; they exhibited a mean jealousy in fuffering the fear of the king's independence to ftep between their promife and its exccution, and are intitled to no fmall fhare in the blame due to the king's fubfequent want of conduct, fince by rendering his income inadequate, they juftified his incurring debts; and the extent of that pernicious refource no individual er public body can calculate.

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To the fupport of government in this reign were allotted the customs, which were greatly improved; the feudal perogatives were finally and utterly abolished, and in their ftead, a permanent excife on beer, ale, and other liquors, and the profits of wine licences, were permanently fettled on the crown; a tax of two fhillings on every hearth in houfes paying to the church and poor was impofed, and very much, though perhaps unreasonably, decried. By thefe means less than 1,100,000%. was obtained as an ordinary revenue. Occafional grants were made by parliament, the amount of which was raifed in different ways; there were three unproductive and juftly unpopular poll-taxes; the customs and excife were augmented, but difputes between the king and parliament prevented this tation from being permanent. Subfidies were in this reign, for the last time, impofed, and it was evidently become neceffary to fuperfede a mode of taxation, in which perfons whofe eftates were known to be worth 2000/. or 3000l. a year, did not pay above 161. for four fubfidies. Land taxes fupplied their place, being collected monthly under the name of affefliments, and for one purpose an impofition was laid on perfonal property, being fifteen fhillings on every hundred pounds belonging to bankers; the fame fum on every hundred pounds lent to the king at above fix per cent. intereft; fix fhillings per cent. on all perfonal eftates; two fhillings in the pound on the falaries of all offices and places, to which was added a fhilling in the pound on lands and mines. Stamp duties were also firft impofed in this reign, and never afterward entirely fuperfeded, though, for a time, fuffered to expire.

Thefe were the regular means by which the king obtained fupplies;

fupplies; he alfo derived fome aids from adventitious, and others from exceptionable fources. He received, befides Tangiers in Africa, and Bombay in India, 250,000 /. in part of 500,000. promifed as the portion of his confort; and royal domains were fold to an uncertain amount, probably about 500,000/. In the difgrace of felling Dunkirk to France, the parliament must fhare with the king, as their jealoufy and parfimony obliged him to conclude a bargain, which, for 336,7737., divested him of that dominion; but the infamy of receiving a penfion from France, and all the baseness and duplicity to his allies which enfued from it, were peculiarly his own. The fums which he thus obtained amounted to 950,000l., and the share which he retained of the prize-money and other advantages during the Dutch wars amounted to 640,000/. In 1672, by advice of Lord Clifford, he fhut up the exchequer, and instead of paying the bankers and others who had advanced money on the credit of parliamentary votes, their principal, he obliged them to receive the intereft only, at fix per cent., a fraud which procured him 1,328,526., at the expence of ruining many of his too confiding fubjects, and greatly injuring public credit. With fuch an inftance in view, it would be difficult to believe that Charles would have been reftrained by principle from any illegal extortion, but the conftitution was now too well underftood to allow much fuccefs in fuch efforts; an arbritary duty was laid on coals, under pretence of providing convoys during the war with Holland; and when the king, in confequence of the imprudence and mifconduct of thofe who demanded the exclufion of his brother from the crown, had obtained a com plete victory over that formidable party, and, indeed, had become almoft master of the liberties of the people, he compelled the different corporations to furrender their charters into his hands, and exacted confiderable fums previoufly to their reftitution. By all these means, he gained an annual revenue of 1,800,000l., a fum which, if regularly granted and prudently applied, would have been fufficient to answer all his purposes. With all the faults and vices of this reign, political liberty and finance received many improvements; fome relating to the latter having been mentioned, and two others deferve notice. The clergy were no longer left to tax themselves as a feparate body, but being now reprefented in the Houfe of Commons by voting in the election of county members, were affeffed like other fubjects of the realm; and the fupplies were no longer voted in a general way, but feparately appropriated by parliament to the various purposes they were intended to effect.

James II. began his reign as if predetermined to justify those who had fought to exclude him from the throne, and furnish

every poffible motive to those who afterward expelled him from it. Although diffuaded by his council, he iffued a proclamation, commanding the payment of the customs and other taxes as ufual, without waiting for the affent of parliament; and in his firft fpeech to that body, he made them understand that they were not to attempt fecuring frequent meetings by granting fmall fupplies; "I muft tell you plainly," he faid, "that

fuch an expedient would be very improper to employ with 66 me; and the best way to engage me to meet you often, is "always to ufe me well." The parliament however granted this king 2,000,000l. per annum, a larger permanent income than had been allowed to any of his predeceffors. Had James been at all master of himself, and fought the establishment of the religion to which he was fo bigotted, and the tyranny, of which it is the beft fupport, by flow and cautious means, it is much to be feared that fucccfs must have crowned his measures. His very virtues were calculated to give effect to fuch a project; his frugality would have exempted him from making frequent application to parliament, and this circumftance would have. fecured him the love and confidence of a large portion of the people; his zeal for the advancement of the navy was evidently wife and patriotic, and calculated to gain popularity; and the tanding army of 30,000 men which he had established, might, with cautious management, have been made fubfervient to any purposes. The impatient temper and undifguifed tyranny of James haftened the revolution, and rendered its accomplishment eafy, by combining against him, in every class, a strong and firm party. The operations of finance in his short reign were not confiderable: he received one fupply of 400,000l. ta fupprefs the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth, and in 1685, one of 700,000l. was voted, but the king, apprehensive that the Commons would interfere in his pretended prerogative of difpenfing with tefts, diffolved the parliament before the bill pafled.

STATE OF FINANCE AT THE REVOLUTION. From this period, it is not intended to notice the financial operations of each reign; for the fyftem of funding, which took place foon after the revolution, totally changed the manner and purpose of fupplies. It may, however, be proper to remark from the foregoing statement, that before the funding fyftem had begun, the origin of almost every fpecies of taxation was laid, and its great principle developed. The cufloms, excife, land-tax, fubfidy or income-tax, poft-office, ftamps, licences, houfe-tax, and affefments on fome particular luxuries, had all been brought into ufe. Modern improvement has done little more than extend their application to new objects, facilitate the collection, and

prevent

prevent frauds in those who pay, and those who collect. Taxation is now wound about every object, and every act of life; and many are apt to confider the fituation of the country as far worfe than in ancient times, when fums nominally fmall formed the whole mafs of annual expenditure; but without entering into the wide field, to which the difcuffion of this topic would lead, it may be proper to mention, in the first place, the advantage which has been acquired in the establishment of the great conftitutional doctrine, that the fubject inall not be affeffed, but with the confent of his reprefentatives; in the next; to repeat that the modes of taxation now in ufe, were for the moft part discovered before debts were incurred; and lastly, to mention, for it will be too long to defcribe, fome of the most degrading, burthenfome, and tyrannical modes of acquiring property from the people, which have vanished before the improved fyftem of modern times. First, was the property vefted in the fovereign, which in the days of Edward the Confeffor amounted to 1422 manors, befides other lands and quit-rents, but was afterward greatly augmented; the royal forests, which although not productive of immediate rents, were by the foreft laws rendered fnares and engines of oppreflion to the people refiding near them; the king poffeffed at one time fixty-eight forefts, thirteen chafes, and feven hundred and eighty-one parks, in different parts of England; he had alfo the right to mines, including the entire property of all the metals, if they contained the leaft portion of gold or filver. Next were the feudal prerogatives, many of which did not vest in the king alone, but extended to others, who were lords of fiefs. The chief of these were included in the right of feignory, which fuppofed the king proprietor of all the land in the realm; and from this right branched out the profits of efcuage, quit-rents, aids, reliefs, wardship, or the property in the income of an heir's eftate till he attained the age of twenty-one, marriage, or the right of felling a ward in wedlock, fines of alienation, and efcheats. Befides thefe were the bona vacantia, as treasure-trove, waifs, and various other minuter objects. All the other prerogatives of the crown will be feen in the preceding pages to have been at different times fources of undisputed profit; the military prerogative, in plunder, tribute, and the redemption of perfons and places captured; the judicial, in fees both legal and extorted, from fuitors in courts; the political, in the fale of offices, charters, and titles; the inquifitorial, in the odious right of purveyance and pre-emption, which was founded on the fuppofition, that the king was making a progrefs through fome part of his dominions, to inquire into its condition; and the commercial, in the fees for the eftablifh

ment of marts, the profit of coining, and the granting of patents and monopolies. The king's right to the fervice of his fubjects was converted into an engine of oppreffion, by employing those who would not fupply compulfory loans on ruinous fervices; and his ecclefiaftical prerogatives gave him a strong hold on the property of the church, by corodies, extra parochial tythes, and the profits of bifhoprics during vacancy. From the oppreflive effect of all thefe, the kingdom is now happily relieved; if any are nominally retained, they are in fact of fo little importance as to be rarely felt, and generallyunknown. Still more effectually are abolished those royal extortions, of which occafional mention has been made; of them not the flightest veftige remains. Among thefe were the oblations, or fines, without which no man could claim freedom in his molt ordinary actions, or profecute with fuccefs his moft undoubted rights; amercements, which were arbitarily impofed on individuals, or communities, for flight offences, or even acts in themfelves indifferent, talliages levied at pleasure on the tenants of royal demefnes, in which all the great towns were ordinarily included; and the farming of counties, by which all the people of the kingdom were fubject to rapacious exactions. To thefe fhould be added the extortions of popery; and a notion may be formed of the load of oppreffion from which the nation was gradually relieved. Even the modes of taxation have undergone fuch a reformation in principle, as makes a confiderable deduction from the preffure occafioned by its prefent extenfive amount. Voluntary contribution being no longer recurred to, neither the rage of government, nor the torture of public opinion, can be ufed in forcing a supply. Before gold and filver were plenty, taxes were frequently levied in kind, an operation peculiarly injurious, as the commodities were fold raw to foreigners, and the people were thus deprived of the very elements of industry. Among the most odious taxes, to which government in its lefs perfect ftate had recourfe, were the poll tax and hearth money; the objection against the latter was, that it fubjected the interior of a perfon's dwelling to the vifitation of revenue officers; the objection was perhaps overftrained, but as it was generally received, the new government, after the revolution, acted wifely in abolishing the impoft. Popular opinion is not, however, a fafe criterion in matter of revenue, for many taxes which are both jut and productive have been atlailed by violent public clamour, while one of the moft popular ever impofed was that which lay for fo many ycars on the Jews, fubjecting them to the extortion of a feparate exchequer, and finally driving them from the realm.

Before the revolution, every mode which can be generally de