usand pounds. The East India
company were indulged with twenty thousand pounds on account, towards
enabling them to defray the expense of a military force in their
settlements, to be maintained by them in lieu of the battalion of
his majesty's forces withdrawn from those settlements; the sum of ten
thousand pounds was given, as usual, for maintaining and supporting
the British forts and settlements on the coast of Africa; and eleven
thousand four hundred and fifty pounds were granted as an augmentation
to the salaries of the judges in the superior courts of judicature. They
likewise provided one hundred thousand pounds for defraying the charge
of pay and clothing to the militia, and advanced eight hundred thousand
pounds to enable his majesty to defray any extraordinary expenses of the
war, incurred, or to be incurred, for the service of the current year;
and to take all such measures as might be necessary to disappoint or
defeat any enterprise or designs of his enemies, as the exigency of his
affairs might require. The whole supplies of thig session amounted to
the enormous sum of ten millions four hundred and eighty-six thousand
four hundred and fifty-seven pounds, and one penny. Nothing could so
plainly demonstrate the implicit confidence which the parliament, at
this juncture, reposed in the sovereign and the ministry, as their
conduct in granting such liberal supplies, great part of which were
bestowed in favour of our German allies, whom the British nation thus
generously paid for fighting their own battles. Besides the sum of
one million eight hundred and sixty-one thousand eight hundred and
ninety-seven pounds, four shillings and eight-pence, expressly assigned
for the support of these continental connexions, a sum considerably
exceeding the whole of the revenue raised in the reign of Charles the
Second, and what part of the sum granted to the king for extraordinary
expenses might be applied to the same use, the article might not
improperly be swelled with the vast expense incurred by expeditions to
the coast of France; the chief, if not sole, design of which seemed
to be a diversion in favour of the nation's allies in Germany, by
preventing France from sending such numerous armies into that country
as it could have spared, had not its sea-coasts required a considerable
body of forces for its defence against the attempts of the English.
Indeed, the partisans of the ministry were at great pains to suggest and
incu