statements; and if he should be wrong, he saw the
Chancellor of the Exchequer near him, who would have the
opportunity of correcting his misrepresentation. This brief
statement, he believed, would be quite sufficient to show that
the financial situation of the country was such as to render
any attempts of that meeting for the purpose of extending
general relief utterly ineffectual. The whole revenue of the
kingdom was 62,267,450_l._, deducting the property-tax, and
the revenue was thus expended. The interest of the national
debt, including the interest of unfunded exchequer bills, was
upwards of 40,300,000_l._, leaving to support the expenses of
Government only about 22,000,000_l._ It was this enormous sum
which now hung round our necks--it was this, which unnecessary
extravagance had caused to increase from year to year to its
present terrible amount, which was the cause of all the
evils of the country at this moment. This taxation, and
extravagance, for which the country was now suffering, was
supported and sanctioned by those who had derived and still
derived large emoluments from them. These were truths that
the people ought to know; for they were the source of their
burthens, and the origin of all the mischief. It was this
profuse expenditure of the public money, to say no worse of
it, that occasioned the present calamities. It was the lavish
expenditure to meet a compliant list of placemen that brought
the country to its present state. The deficiency in the
revenue occasioned by the enormous interest of the national
debt, which ministers would have to supply, would, according
to the present disbursements and receipts, amount to
11,578,000_l._ unless that expenditure were reduced, every
such attempt as they were at present making would, he was
convinced, prove abortive: it was a mere topical application
while a mortal distemper was raging within. He had taken
no notice in his estimate of the charges for sinecures or
the bounties on exports and imports: and yet the returns upon
which he went, exclusive of these charges, showed a deficit
for the ensuing year of 3,500,000_l._ Were those who heard him
prepared to make this good? It was, he believed, undeniable
that nothing could equalize our revenue with our expenditure,
but the putting down entirely the army and navy