cessive sums were raised, and all
sunk in the bottomless gulf of secret service. Two hundred and fifty
thousand pounds were raised in defiance of the ancient parliamentary
methods, to secure the kingdom from a Swedish invasion; then the two
insurance offices were erected, and paid near three hundred thousand
pounds for their charters: our enmity with Sweden being changed into
an alliance, a subsidy of seventy-two thousand pounds was implicitly
granted, to fulfil some secret engagements with that crown: four and
twenty thousand pounds were given for burning merchant ships arrived
from infected places, though the goods which ought to have been
destroyed for the public safety were afterwards privately sold: a sum of
five hundred thousand pounds was demanded, and granted, for paying the
debts of the civil list; and his majesty declared by message, he was
resolved to retrench his expenses for the future. Notwithstanding this
resolution, in less than four years, a new demand of the like sum was
made and granted to discharge new incumbrances: the Spanish ships of
war which admiral Byng took in the Mediterranean, were sold for a
considerable sum of money: one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds
were granted in the last session, to be secretly disposed of for the
public utility; and there was still a debt in the civil government,
amounting to above six hundred thousand pounds. He took notice,
that this amazing extravagance happened under the conduct of persons
pretending to surpass all their predecessors in the knowledge and care
of the public revenue: that as none of these sums had been accounted
for, they were, in all probability, employed in services not fit to be
owned. He said, he heartily wished that Time, the great discoverer of
hidden truths and concealed iniquities, might produce a list of all such
as had been perverted from their public duty by private pensions: who
had been the hired slaves and the corrupt instruments of a profuse and
vain-glorious administration. He proposed, that instead of granting
an addition to the civil list, they should restrict that revenue to
a certain sum, by concluding the question with these words, "in like
manner as they were granted and continued to his late majesty, so as to
make up the clear yearly sum of seven hundred thousand pounds." To these
particulars, which were indeed unanswerable, no reply was made. Even
this mark of decency was laid aside, as idle and superfluous. The house