bullion from thence, but the payment of our
troops employed in its defence was a fresh drain opened for the
diminution of our circulating specie.--The high premiums given for new
loans had sunk the price of the old stock near a third of its original
value; so that the purchasers had an obligation from the state to repay
them with an addition of 33 per cent to their capital. Every new loan
required new taxes to be imposed; new taxes must add to the price of our
manufactures, _and lessen their consumption among foreigners_. The decay
of our trade must necessarily _occasion a decrease of the public
revenue_; and a deficiency of our funds must either be made up by fresh
taxes, which would only add to the calamity, or our national credit must
be destroyed, by showing the public creditors the inability of the
nation to repay them their principal money.--Bounties had already been
given for recruits which exceeded the year's wages of the ploughman and
reaper; and as these were exhausted, and _husbandry stood still for want
of hands_, the manufacturers were next to be tempted to quit the anvil
and the loom by higher offers.--_France, bankrupt France, had no such
calamities impending over her; her distresses were great, but they were
immediate and temporary; her want of credit preserved her from a great
increase of debt, and the loss of her ultramarine dominions lessened her
expenses. Her colonies had, indeed, put themselves into the hands of the
English; but the property of her subjects had been preserved by
capitulations, and a way opened for making her those remittances which
the war had before suspended, with as much security as in time of
peace_.--Her armies in Germany had been hitherto prevented from seizing
upon Hanover; but they continued to encamp on the same ground on which
the first battle was fought; and, as it must ever happen from the policy
of that government, _the last troops she sent into the field were
always found to be the best, and her frequent losses only served to fill
her regiments with better soldiers. The conquest of Hanover became
therefore every campaign more probable_.--It is to be noted, that the
French troops received subsistence only, for the last three years of the
war; and that, although large arrears were due to them at its
conclusion, the charge was the less during its continuance."[39]

If any one be willing to see to how much greater lengths the author
carries these ideas, he will recur to the