ing, therefore, 1,000,0ncl. one half whereof to redeem the annuities un ler the former act, and the remainder to pay the exifting debt.

"Experience having thus proved that the revenues allotted for the ufe of the Civil Government were inadequate for the purpofe, Parliament increased the income on the acceffion of G-orge the Second, in 1727, by adding to the revenues 120,000l. annually from the Angr gare Fund, and providing that, if the whole fhould not amount to 800,000l. the fum wanting should be taken out of the first fupplies in each fucceeding year; a deficiency immediately arifing, accounts were lod, in confequence of an addrefs, thewing the amount of the deficiency to be 115,cool. which was granted, with a condition, that the fame fhould be repaid out of fuch arrears of duties as should come in after the demise of the King; a question for making it good out of any annual furplus, dwing the King's life, having been negatived, which, of courfe, gave the Crown the benefit of the exceed

Soon after this, an account was laid before the House of Commons of the Civil Lift Revenues, from 1699 to 1715, together with the actual expences of the Civil Lift in 1713; in which year it appears the penfions amounted to 123,000l. exclufive of the Royal bounty, which, in two years, exceeded 34,000l No application was, however, made to Parliament for affiftance till 1720, when, a confiderable debt/ having been incurred, his Majetty defired, by a meffage, the aid of Parliament to fecure and confirm charters he had granted to two Infurance Companies; expreffing, at the fame time, an intention of applying the money to be derived therefrom to the payment of the Civil Lift debts. An act was paffed accordingly, spplying 300,000!. to be paid by the Companies, for that fervice; without the Houfe of Commons having the fatisfaction of feeing the accounts, either of the debts of the Civil Lift, or the funds outstanding to answer the fame; a motion for fuch information having been again negatived. In the year following, a farther application to Par.ment was foundings of the duties, if there were any (and neceffary, which was ftated by his Majesty in a melf ge, as arifing from the laft-mentioned grant having been found infufficient for the payment of the debt, then amounting to 555,000l. accompanied by an eftimate thereof, in a number of grofs articles. This was followed by a grant of 500,000l. to pay the debt, to be raised by annuities, charged on the hereditary revenues; and a tax of 6d, in the pound on certain falaries, &c. was impofed, to pay the intereft. His Majefty was, however, enabled thereby to go on only four years without farther aid; for we find, in 1725, another meffage, ftating his inability to make confiderable retrenchments in the expences in his Civil Lift, and requesting he might be enabled to raise money to ditcharge the debts on it, then amounting to 508,000l.; an account of which, in the fame number of grofs articles as before, was prefented. Other accounts were afterwards laid of the Civil Lift Revenue, from 1699 to 1715 (amounting, in fifteen years and a quarter, to 11,185,000l. about 740,000l. a year), and of money iffaed for Privy Purfe, Secret Service, &c. from 1721 to 1725; by the laft of thefe it appears, that, within the period of four years, there were iffues to the extent of 379,000l. for Secret Service, 332,000l. of which was to the Secretaries of the Treafury, exclufive of a large fum for Royal bounty. Thefe expences, however, were fo little objected to, that an act was paffed in this year, 1724, reciting, that the 5co,ocol. granted in 1720 had been found infufficient for difcharging all the arrears then due to the King's fervants, tradesmen, and others; by means whereof, divers arrears ftill remained doe, and grantGENT. MAG. Auguft, 102.

it will be thewn there were afterwards confiderable), and a certainty of fuch deficiencies as fhould occur being made good, from time to time, out of the furplus of the year. In February, 1731, the Civil Lift Revenues, from 1725 to 1727, were prefented. No other paper respecting the Civil Lift appears to have been laid before the Houfe after this, nor any grants made, except for the Duke of Cumberland and the Princeffes, till 1746, when accounts of the Civil Lift Revenues, from 1749 to 1745, were prefented, by order of the Houfe; from thefe it appears, the payments into the Exchequer were, in each year, below 800,000l. exclufive of 40,000!. per annum to the Prince of Wales, and 5000l. to the Chancellor from the Excife and Poft-office, in tranfitu. The fum of 456,7831. the deficiency of the 800,000l.

was then voted.

"The increase of the Revenues, after this time, appears to have rendered any farther application to Parliament, during the remainder of this reign, unneceffary; by an account prefented in 1-60, the a verage of the ten preceding years was 823,9551.; it had been, from 1730 to 1740, 825,8541. In the last feven years of the period ending in 1760, the Secret Service Money was, On an average, 83,000l. a year, of which 65,000l. to the Secretaries of the Treasury.

"The accounts here referred to make it perfectly clear that, during the laft ten years of King George the Second, the Civil Lift Revenues had confiderably exceeded 800,000l. a year; the arrangement therefore made on the acceffion of his prefent Majesty to the throne, for a fpecific

annuity

annuity of 8c0,000l. a year, was evidently not an advantageous one for the Civil Lift. In 1769 a debt on it had been incurred of upwards of 500,000l. with which his Mas jefty acquainted the Houfes of Parliament; at the fame time an account was laid, confifting of eighteen articles in grofs. Or ders were thereupon made for more detailed accounts of the Civil Lift Expences, from 1752 to 1760. and from 1760 to 1769; which were followed by a motion, that the confideration of his Majesty's reffage fhould be deferred till an enquiry fhould take place refpecting the caule of the debt; but that was negatived, and the fum of 513,80cl. was voted to pay the amount of it. The accounts were afterwards laid in January, 1770. The examination of these led to a motion, in April following, for an addrefs to his Majesty, stating the excefs of the expenditure in the Civil Lift, and humbly recommending retrenchments; which was loft without a divifion. Under fuch difcouragement, the Party then in oppofition to Government made an attempt, the fecond day following, to obtain merely an account of p.ofions and increafed falaries fince the commencement of the prefent reign, and on that they ventured a divifior, but were again foiled, the question having been carried in the negative, Mr. Fox one of the tellers for the Majority: a trong proof how differently Parliament, as well as the individual alluded to, thought at that time, from what they fortunately do at prefent, respecting the propriety of investigating matters of this fort, where grants of the public money are called for.

"In the course of the feven fubfequent years a farther debt was incurred, to the amount of more than 600,000l.; and, in April, 1777, his Majefty acquainted the Houfes therewith. At the fame time accounts were laid by the King's command, by which it appeared that the duties, &c. which were in the former reign granted for the Civil Lift, had averaged in the fifteen years, including 1777, the annual fum of 964,000l.; then again the fums paid for Secret Service are worthy of obfervation, amounting, from the time the debt was lalt paid, in 1769, to 438,000l. equal to 54,000l. a year, exclunive of large fums for fpecial fervice unexplained, and for Royal bounty to pericas whofe names were not mentioned. No investigation of accounts, however, took place; but, alter a long debate on the subject, the fum of 618,000l. was voted to pay the debt, and an additional an uai fum of ico,oool. was granted for the Civil Lift; notwithstanding which, the expences could not be kept within the income of it, and, in 1782, his Majesty fent another meflage to both Houles, requesting the aid of Parliament to difcharge the debt incurred, without

laying fresh burthens on his fubjects; the amount appeared, by an account presented, to be 295,000l. A provifion was accordingly made for raifing the fum of 300,000l. by Exchequer bills charged on the Aggre gate Fund, to be cancelled by quarterly in ftalments of 12,500l. which was to be effected by the abolition of many employments (confidered as of little ufe), paid out of the Revenues of the Civil Lift, and by other favings. Many of thefe offices were fappreffed by the act which granted the relief, and feveral others by the Treafury under the authority of it; and various œconomical arrangements were made, which, it was hoped, would keep the expences within the required limits. This expectation was, however, difappointed, and a communication was made to Parlia ment, in July, 1783, that a debt of 28,000l. had unavoidably been incurred, for which a grant was made.

"The experience of another year proved that the fuppreffion of offices in 1782, as well by the Executive Government as by Parliament, and all the other retrenchments then and fubfequently made, were ineffe&ual for the attainment of the object, which his Majesty, in July, 1784, ftated to both Houfes, and requested that means might be provided to enable him to dif charge the new debt. With this meffage was delivered an account, fhewing the expences for the year under each head, and in each quarter (as there were two Admis niftratious within the period), the total excels was 44,000l. divided nearly equally in the three quarters while the Duke of PortJand and Mr. Fox were in office, and the quarter while Mr. Pit was at the head of the Treafury. The fum of 60,000l. was then voted to pay the fum abovementioned, together with a farther debt incoured subfquent to the time to which the account was made up. That aid did not, however, prevent an arrear in fome of the latest claffes; his Majesty, therefore, found himfelf under a necesiity of reforting again, to Parliament in 1786, when he stated, in a metfage, that he had not found it poffible to keep the expences of his Civil Lift within the fum of 850,000l. a year; a debt of 30,cool. had in fact been incurred, as appeared by an account laid, fhewing agam the excess under the feveral heads, and the arrears in each clafs. There then re.aained Exchequer bills iffued in 1782 to the amount of 180,000l. uncancelled; for the payment of which, as well as of the debt of 30,000l. provision was made, whereby the income of 900,000l. for the Civil Lift Expences was left free; and a plan was, in confequence of an order of the House of Commons, prepared, and laid before that Houfe, of the future charge of the Civil Establishment, diftinguishing every head of expence, arranged in the

order

order prescribed by Mr. Burke's act, eftimated from the experience of the two former years, and amounting, in the whole, to 897,900l.

"From that time no grant has been made by Parliament in aid of the Civil Lift; it is, therefore, not neceffary to refer to any later proceedings of the Houfe of Commons on the fubject, any farther than merely to mention that, on occafions when recourfe was had to Parliament for provifion for different branches of the Royal Family from the Confolidated Fund, accounts were laid, from time to time, which thewed there were great arrears, and in which claffes. Thefe, together with fome outstanding demands for fpecial fervices, when his Majefty's meffage was fent in this feffion to both Houses, amounted to 895,cool."

(To be concluded in our next.)

of the country, the deftruction of the power of cultivating the land, the converfion of the ftrength and energy of a people into weakness and debility, and 'the exchange of the means of wealth and 'profperity for fources of enormous and

of poor-laws, have brought, and muft bring, on the country, is well known. From this fource mifchiefs may flow, which demand more confideration than the Legislature and country-gentlemen seem disposed to allot to it. The latter, intent on the inclosure of commons and waftes, appear not to be fufficiently aware that, to deprive the poor of all their refources, and to leave them only the folitary expedient of fubfifting by the ftipend of daily labour, will eventually make them a burthen, and create the worst kind of waste un landed eftates. By thus proceeding with them we shall deprive them of all forecast, and shall oblige them, after a certain time of life, to be penfioners on the publ`ck; and this, as Mr. Bernard fays, is 'wafle committed on landed property in 'the most deftructive and irreparable way. 'It is not the pulling down of an unnecef'fary hovel, nor the premature repetition ' of a crop of wheat-corn, nor the plough167. A comparative Statement of the Food ing-up of a strip of pasture-ground (the produced from Arable and Grafs Lands, and ufual trivial objects of impeachments of the Returns arifing from each; with Obfer- 'waste), that is the object of confideravations on the late Inclosures, and the probation; but it is the relaxation of the nerve ble Effect of a general Act for inclofing Commons or Wafies, Heaths, &c. Together with other Matters. Addreffed to John Fane, Efa. M. P. By the Rev. Luke Heflop, Archdeacon of Bucks, Author of "Obfervations on the Affize of Bread," &C. BOTH thefe treatifes being incapa-increasing expence. Prefatory introducble of abridgment, we can only obferve, with pleasure, that the Archdea con concurs with us in attributing the late change from exportation to importation to an extraordinary and rapid increase of inclofures-in direct oppofition to the conclufion drawn in the Report of the Committee of Watie Lands. He contends that the number of acres of wheat or other grain ufed for bread fhould be half the number of the people, the average produce being 19 bufhels per acre, of which 3 bushels are ufed for feed, starch, hair-powder, &c. and 8 bufhels being required, on an average, for each individual. Above all remedies fuggefted for fcarcity is a general act for inclofing only commons, heaths, &c. When the fatal effects of converting forefts, chaces, and other woodlands, have been felt, which they muft be, fooner or later, the partizans for the prefent rage for inclofure will fee reafon to alter their opinion. We fhall be pardoned for borrowing from our brethren the Monthly Reviewers a few words on the fubject of inclofures, and their effect on the poor.

"Oar opinion of the fate of the poor,

and of the evils which our prefent con duct towards them, with the existing fyftem

tion to the Second volume of the "Reports of the Society for bettering the Condition and increafing the Comforts of the Poor."

"When the poor are forced in numbers to relinquish the humble independence of the cottage-life, and to crowd themselves into workhoufes and houfes of industry, Government fhould take the alarm; and gentlemen of landed property fhould refeet, that the additions made by inclosures may not remunerate them for the heavy charges and perils which are accumulating on them in the fhape of poor-rates, and rufhing in upon them from the general profligacy among the lower claffes. Par

fuaded as we are that it is effential to their

virtue that they fhould be kept as much feparate as circumstances will allow, we fhall always be advocates for the cottage; and therefore we fhall ever be difpofed to fpeak in terms of warm commendation of the plan of this Society, which is defigned to increafe the economy and domestic comfort of the poor; to hold up the induf trious and thriving cottager as an object of imitation; and to promote his good habits, his welfare, and his happiness."

168. A Letter to the Honourable Colonel George

Hanger, from an Attorney at Law. DEFENDS the Profeffion from

charge brought against it of detaining debtors in gaol for cofts.

VERSES,

Were rear'd with care and with pffers I

There guiltless childhood sported: youthful prime

There grew, and pafs'd with cheerful friends its time.