hemp and flax in England and Scotland.

"As to the coinage fervice, the act of the 18th of Charles the Second, chapter the 5th, impofed two duties, the one on wine, the other on fpirits, and directed the produce to be diftinguished and kept apart in the offices both of the customs and exchequer, and to be applied to no other ute but that of defraying the expence of the mint. One of thefe duties, that on fpirits, is, by the 9th of George the Second, chapter the 23d, fection the 17th, carried and appropriated to the ufes of the aggregate fund.

At prefent, the whole produce of the remaining branch, the duty on wine, is applied to the coinage; but this fervice generally exceeding the produce of the duty, the deficiency is paid out the fupplies of the year.

Nothing has as yet been iffued of the duties collected for the encouragement of the growth of cotton in the Leeward Iflands; nor has there been any demand from England for any part of her fhare in the produce of the other branch. Scotland has received payments on account of her fhare, which is feven fifteenths of the produce.

"It cannot be material out of what duties thefe fervices are fupplied they may, whether limited or fluctuating, be made a charge upon any fufficient fund, or upon that of which these three branches may form a part.-The twenty-two remaining branches are appropriat ed, each to the payment of fome particular annuity, granted between the year 1706 and the prefent time.

"The public creditors are of two defcriptions, bodies corporate, and individual proprietors of particular government fecurities. Thefe latter

are no otherwife connected than as proprietors of fhares in the fame fund or annuity. At the creation of thefe annuities, the legiflature has always appropriated fome exifting branches of the public revenue, or created fome new branches, either in the act that grants the annuity or in fome fubfequent act, as a fund out of which the annuity is to be paid. The act of the 5th of William and Mary, chapter the 20th, which incorporated the bank of England, ani the act of the 9th and 10th of William the Third, chapter the 44th, which gave rife to the Eaft India company, each impofes a variety of new duties, and, out of the produce, appropriates a certain fum to the ufe of thofe perfons who fhould become fubfcribers to a loan propofed to be advanced to government, upon the terms mentioned in the act. The act of the 9th of queen Anne, chapter the 21ft, which erected the South Sea com pany, creates a fund, out of dutics then exifting, to answer the annuities granted by that act, to those proprietors of certain public debts, who fhould subscribe them into the flock of the company. In all the acts which have occured to us, for raising money by granting annuities to individuals, until within the fe few years, the funds appropriated for the payment of the annuities have been inferted in the fame act: but of late years, the annuities have been granted by one act, and the funds created by fome fubfequent act. of the fame feffion. In this latter cafe, the fubject does not lend his money upon the credit of any particular fecurity: ignorant what it will be, he leaves the choice of the fund to the legislature, and relies for the payment of his annuity upon fuch means as they hall think proper to adopt.

"Where

"Where the fecurity is coupled with the loan in fame act, the fub. ject exprefsly accepts the fecurity as held out to him, and lends his money upon the credit of it: and yet the legislature, reprefenting all the creditors of government as well as the rest of the fubjects, and confulting their good as blended with the common good, do retain, and muft, from the nature of its inftitu tion, for ever retain, a power over that fecurity, to be exercifed at whatever times, and in whatever manner, the common good requires. The only right vefted in the creditor, and which the legiflature cannot, without injuftice, infringe, is, the right to the full and regular payment of his annuity, and the re-payment of his principal according to the terms of his loan; and this right fubfifts in full force, independent of any appropriation, Should both the fpecific and fupple mental funds, propofed and accepted as the fecurities, fail, his right to his principal and to his annuity does not fail: the whole property of the public, the real and perfonal eftate of every fubject, the produce of his labour, is liable and bound to the payment of every debt contracted for his defence, fecurity, and protection.

"If the creditor derives, from the act that creates the loan, any exclufive right to the fund destined to the payment of his annuity, it must be a right to that fund exactly in the ftate in which he accepts it as his fecurity; for there is no refervation or limitation annexed to his acceptance. Such a right in the creditor would exclude the right of the legislature, unlefs he confents not only to change the fund, but to make any alteration in the duty arifing from any one article of commerce that contributes to that fund.

On the contrary, any principle that empowers the legiflature to vary one of thofe duties, equally em powers them to change the fund, The only difference is, the degree of violation of the right of the cre ditor in the one cafe, and the extent to which the legislative power is ex, ercifed in the other. The continual exercife of this power over the ap propriated duties, without the confent of the public companies, and of the proprietors of the government fecurities, is a proof of the legiflative right, and establishes the prin ciples upon which we have fuggefted this right to be grounded..

"That we might the more easily trace the alterations that have been made in the duties appropriated for the annual payments of the fum's granted to the public companies, at their first creation, to answer the intereft of the debts contracted by them with government, we procured from the auditor of the receipt of the exchequer, an account of the feveral duties out of which the annuities to the bank, South Sea com pany, and Eaft India company, on account of their flock, are feverally paid. To enumerate the variety of changes that have from time to time been made in them is needless; a few inftances are fufficient for our purpofe.

The act that incorporates the bank of England, impofes a tonnage duty on thips, and an excife dury on beer and other liquors, and charges this compound fund with the annual payment of 100,000l. to the ufe of the company. three years after, by the 7th and 8th of William the Third, chapter the 31, the tonnage duty is taken off, and another fubftituted in the place.

In

"The act of the 7th of Anne, chapter the 7th, appropriates the two (K3) thirds

thirds fubfidy and certain duties on coffee and other articles, impofed by former acts, to the annuity pay able upon the enlarged capital of the bank of England. The act of the ift of George the First, chapter the 12th, throws the two thirds fubfidy into the aggregate fund.And the act of the 10th of George the First, chapter the 10th, repeals the duties on coffee and other articles, and fubjects fome inland duties to the payment of the annuity.

"By the act that erects the South Sea company, the duties impofed by the 2d of William and Mary, chapter the 4th (one of which is an impoft duty upon rough flax), and a duty upon home-made falt, are appropriated, among other duties, towards payment of the annuity granted to that company; and, by the act that creates the Eaft India company, additional duties are impofed, both upon home-made falt, and upon the import of foreign falt, and form a part of the fund deftined for the payment of the annuity to that company and yet the act of the 3d of George the Second, chapter the 2cth, upon the ground of relief to the fubject, repeals thefe duties on falt, and, to prevent any injury to the creditors of the public, from the diminution of the produce of the funds on which their feveral annuities are fecured, arifing from the fubtraction of the duties repealed, the deficiencies are charged upon the aggregate fund; aud, the East India company having confented to a reduction of their annuity, the whole annuity, fo reduced, is made a charge upon the fame fund. By the act of the 4th of George the Second, chapter the 27th, the duty on rough flax is taken off, and an annual fum, taken from a medium of feven years produce of that duty, is fubftituted in

its stead, and made payable to the South Sea company out of the fame fund.

"One of the articles fubject to the duties of the old fubfidy, the one third fubfidy, and the two thirds fubfidy, is woollen yarn. The act of the 12th of George the Second, chapter the 21ft, upon the principle of utility to the manufacturer of Great Britain, repeals a part of thefe duties, and fubjects the aggregate fund to the payment of a fum, taken from the mean produce for feven years, to the feveral creditors who had an intereft in that produce; in fhares proportional to fuch intereft. Thefe three fubfidies, being part of them appropri ated to the payment of the annuities 1706, 1707, and 1708, and part carried to the aggregate fund, the repeal of this duty effects those annuities, and all the various fervices to which the aggregate fund was at that time liable,

"Great raifins is an article li able to the fame duties. The act of the 14th of his prefent majesty, chapter the 74th, reduces the rate payable upon the importation of them, from 1/. 1cs. to Is. only per hundred weight, without fubftituting any other duty in its ftead, and confequently diminishes the fecurity pledged for the payment of all thofe fervices to which the three fubfidies above mentioned are made liable.

"By an act of the last feffion, chapter the 16th, the additional duty of one per cent, and part of the aliens duty, both of them parts of the branch of customs, are difcontinued, and no duty impofed to fupply the place of them,

The diminution of the duties on tea, and the substitution of a new tax, by another act of the fame fef fion, chapter the 38th, affects nine branches of the customs, and, con

Lequently,

fequently, every annuity, for the payment of which any of those nine branches are appropriated.

"The confolidation of annuities disturbs the appropriation equally with the confolidation of duties; for, though a diftinct account is kept of the duties applicable to the payment of each annuity, yet a purchafer of a confolidated stock does not know whether he becomes proprietor of the old or the ingrafted ftock, and, confequently cannot tell out of which of the appropriated duties his annuity is pay

able.

"That the effect of thefe confiderations might the more clearly appear, we procured from the auditor of the receipt of the exchequer, an account of the feveral duties out of which the bank confolidated three per cent. annuities are paid. This fund, confifting at its first creation, in the year 1752, of 8,200,000l. only, is now fwelled to upwards of 107,000,000l. The annuity attending near fifty-eight of them, is paid out of the finking fund: the reft, out of duties kept feparate and diftinct.

"The act of the 25th of George the Second, chapter the 27th, is the original of this fund. It converted the bank three per cent. annuities into a joint stock, and carried to the finking fund all the duties appropriated to anfwer the annuities payable upon that capital, and charged the confolidated annuity upon that fund. This meafure was effected with the confent of the proprietors. Truffees, both public and private were empowered to fubfcribe, and indemnified in fubfcribing, their affent to this confolida

tion.

The act of the 28th of George the Second, made additions to this joint capital, and charged the annuities at tending then upon the finking fund,

without increafing it by any new duties.

"The acts of the 32d and 33d of George the Second, added feveral millions, raifed by former acts, to this ftock, with the confent of the proprietors of the ingrafted millions, implied from their not fubfcribing their diffent, but without the confent of the proprietors of the old capital. The duties charged with the payment of the annuities attending the ingrafted capital, were carried to the finking fund, and those annuities charged upon it.

"The acts of the ift, 6th, and other fubfequent years of his prefent majefty, blend with this joint stock, at the time of their creation, the annuities granted by thofe acts; but, within thefe late years, the funds appropriated for the payment of them have been kept feparate and diftinct, and not, like the former duties, thrown into the finking fund.

But the act the most material to our purpofe, is that of the 9th of George the Second, chapter the 23d. The legiflature, upon a principle of public convenience, from an attention to the morals and health of the fubject, checks the ufe of fpirituous liquors, and changing the application of the duties to which fpirits were then liable, unites them to,

and appropriates them to the ufes of, the aggregate fund; and, forefeeing that the funds, of which thefe duties made a part, being charged with payments to the civil lift, and of annuities to corporations and others, might, by this alteration, prove deficient, they fubflituted and apportioned to the civil lift a certain annual payment, computed upon a medium of the fum that had been applied out of produce of thefe duties for eight years, to that fervice, and charged (K4)

all