e by Government, as a fund to be expended
in the purchase of Government stock. The rapid growth of this fund from
the constant compounding of interest would, he declared, be sufficient,
ultimately, to consume the entire debt of the state. The result seemed
to justify his prediction. Constantly in the market, the sinking fund
saved the state, by its timely purchases many times during the war, from
the disastrous depreciation to which the public stock was liable at
every unfavorable turn of the conflict. In 1815, so enormous had been
the financial transactions of the state that this fund amounted to about
$75,000,000.

In 1802 the income tax was discontinued; and, in the following year, was
renewed under the name of the property tax. The expenses of the state
continued to rise, and it became necessary that this tax should be
largely increased. During the last ten years of the war the property tax
required ten per cent. of all the incomes of the kingdom--with a few
exceptions--to be paid into the national treasury every year. Never
before had such a burden been laid on Englishmen. All classes groaned
under the exactions of a tax every penny of which they were made
conscious of by direct collection. In comparison with the property tax
all other burdens seemed easy. It is now clear, however, that the nation
could never have passed successfully through the great struggle in which
it was engaged without the assistance of the tax upon incomes. It stood
next in order of productiveness to the excise. In the year 1815 the
property tax produced seventy-five millions of dollars. Still the people
remembered with pleasure that the word of Parliament had been given that
it should not continue longer than the return of peace. The time was
eagerly looked forward to when that promise should be redeemed. Early in
1816 the question of the continuance of the tax came up before
Parliament. A strong party, impressed with the importance of diminishing
the national debt, advocated its continuance. Every night, for two
months, the subject was anxiously discussed. The motion for its
abolition was at last carried. The vast crowd which had assembled
without the Parliament House to await the result, caught the sound of
cheering in the chamber, and, receiving it as a signal of success, rent
the air with shouts of joy. The enthusiasm spread with the news. Bells
were rung as for a great victory, and bonfires in all parts of the
kingdom proclaimed the jo