pounds, fifteen
shillings and ninepence halfpenny: a sum so enormous, whether we
consider the nation that raised it, or the purposes for which it was
raised, that every Briton of a sedate mind, attached to the interest and
welfare of his country, must reflect upon it with equal astonishment and
concern: a sum considerably more than double the largest subsidy that
was granted in the reign of queen Anne, when the nation was in the
zenith of her glory, and retained half the powers of Europe in her pay:
a sum almost double of what any former administration durst have asked:
and near double of what the most sanguine calculators, who lived in the
beginning of this century, thought the nation could give without the
most imminent hazard of immediate bankruptcy. Of the immense supply
which we have particularized, the reader will perceive that two millions
three hundred forty-four thousand four hundred and eighty-six pounds,
sixteen shillings and sevenpence three farthings, were paid to
foreigners for supporting the war in Germany, exclusive of the money
expended by the British troops in that country, the number of which
amounted, in the course of the ensuing year, to twenty thousand men: a
number the more extraordinary, if we consider they were all transported
to that continent during the administration of those who declared in
parliament (the words still sounding in our ears) that not a man, nor
even half a man, should be sent from Great Britain to Germany, to fight
the battles of any foreign elector. Into the expense of the German
war sustained by Great Britain, we must also throw the charge of
transporting the English troops; the article of forage, which alone
amounted, in the course of the last campaign, to one million two hundred
thousand pounds, besides pontage, waggons, horses, and many other
contingencies. To the German war we may also impute the extraordinary
expense incurred by the actual service of the militia, which the absence
of the regular troops rendered in a great measure necessary; and the
loss of so many hands withdrawn from industry, from husbandry, and
manufacture. The loss sustained by this connexion was equally grievous
and apparent; the advantage accruing from it, either to Britain or
Hanover, we have not discernment sufficient to perceive, consequently
cannot be supposed able to explain.

The committee of ways and means, having duly deliberated on the articles
of supply, continued sitting from the twent