e seizes on such a theme he is sure to be carried to
extremities with it. It was one of Price's favourite theories, that
the time when interest was highest was the best time for borrowing
money, because the borrowed sinking-fund would then bring the highest
interest. One is astonished in times like these, when people think
taxes and national debt so serious, at the easy carelessness with
which the doctor treats the disease, and his sure remedy. He says in
his celebrated work on Annuities (i. 277): 'It is an observation that
deserves particular attention here, that in this plan it will be of
less importance to a state what interest it is obliged to give for
money; _for the higher the interest, the sooner will such a sum pay
off the principal_. Thus, L.100,000,000 borrowed at 8 per cent., and
bearing an annual interest of L.8,000,000, would be paid off by a fund
producing annually L.100,000 in fifty-six years; that is, in
thirty-eight years less time than if the same money had been borrowed
at 4 per cent. Hence it follows that reductions of interest would in
this plan be no great advantage to a state. They would indeed lighten
its present burdens; but this advantage would be in some measure
balanced by the addition which would be made to its future burdens, in
consequence of the longer time during which it would be necessary to
bear them.'

'Certain it is, therefore,' says the doctor, in a general survey of
his arithmetical salvation of the country, 'that if our affairs are to
be relieved, it must be by a fund increasing itself in the manner I
have explained. The smallest fund of this kind is indeed omnipotent,
if it is allowed time to operate.' And again: 'It might be easily
shewn that the faithful application from the beginning of the year
1700, of only L.200,000 annually, would long before 1790,
notwithstanding the reductions of interest, have paid off above
L.100,000,000 of the public debts. The nation might therefore some
years ago have been eased of a great part of the taxes with which it
is loaded. The most important relief might have been given to its
trade and manufactures; and it might now have been in better
circumstances than at the beginning of last war: its credit firm;
respected by foreign nations, and dreaded by its enemies.'

That such a tone should be assumed by an enthusiastic speculator is
not wonderful. The payment of the national debt has been one of the
staple dreams of enthusiasts. It would be di