crease of the revenue, and to state within what periods it has taken place.

If we compare the revenue of last year with that of the year 1786, we shall find an excess in the last year of 2,300,000/. If we go back to the year 1783, which is the first year of peace, we shall find the increase since that period, including the produce of the additional permanent taxes which have been imposed in the interval, to be little less than four millions. We shall, I believe, also find, that, with the exception of the year 1786, in which the suspense of trade, occasioned by the negociation for the commercial treaty with France, naturally affected the revenue, there is hardly any one year in which the increase has not been continual.

In examining the branches of revenue, we shall find that rather more than one million has arisen from the imposition of new taxes; about one million more in those articles in which particular and separate regulations have been made for the prevention of fraud; and that the remaining sum of two millions appears to be diffused over the articles of general consumption, and must therefore be attributed to the best of all causes-a general increase in the wealth and prosperity of the country.

If we look more minutely into the particular articles on which the revenue arises, we shall still find no ground to imagine, that any considerable part of it is temporary or accidental, but shall have additional reason to ascribe it to the cause which I have just now stated. In the revenue of the customs there is no material article where an increase might be supposed to pro⚫ceed from the accident of seasons, but that of sugar, and it appears that, upon the average of the four years on which I have formed my calculation, that article has not produced beyond its usual amount. Many of the articles under the head of customs, in which the augmentation is most apparent, consist of raw materials, the increasing importation of which is, at once, a symptom and a cause of the increasing wealth of the country. This observation will apply, in some degree, even to the raw material of a manufacture which has generally been

supposed to be on the decline, I mean that of silk. In the article of wool, the increase has been gradual and considerable. The quantity of bar-iron imported from abroad is also increased, though we all know how considerably our own iron works have been extended during the period to which I have referred. There is hardly any considerable article in which there is any decrease, except that of hemp in the last year, which is probably accidental, and that of linen, the importation of which from abroad may be diminished by accidental causes, or perhaps in consequence of the rapid increase of the manufacture of that article at home.

On looking at the articles composing the revenues of excise, the same observations will arise in a manner still more striking. There is, indeed, one branch of that revenue, the increase of which may in part be attributed to the accident of seasons, — I mean that which arises from the different articles of which malt is an ingredient; but I am inclined to believe that this increase cannot be wholly ascribed to that cause, because, during all the four years, the amount of the duty upon beer and ale has uniformly been progressive. In the great articles of consumption which I will shortly enumerate, without dwelling on particulars -in home-made and foreign spirits, wine, soap, tobacco, the increase has been considerable and uniform. In the articles of bricks and tiles, starch, paper, and printed goods, there has also on the whole been a considerable increase, although there has been some fluctuation in different years. Almost every branch of revenue would furnish instances of a similar nature. The revenue raised by stamps has increased in the produce of the old duties, while at the same time new duties have been added to a large amount, and the augmentation is on this head, on the whole, near 400,000l., a sum which is raised in such a manner as to be attended with little inconvenience to those who pay it. The amount of the duty upon salt during the same period has been progressive. The revenue of the post-office is another article, comparatively small, but which furnishes a strong indication of the internal state of the country. No ad

ditional duty has been imposed since the year 1784.

In 1785,

it yielded 238,000., and in the last year 338,000l. I mention all these circumstances as tending to throw additional light on the subject, and serving to illustrate and confirm the general conclusion to which they all uniformly tend.

If from this examination of the different branches of the revenue, we proceed to a more direct inquiry into the sources of our prosperity, we shall trace them in a corresponding increase of manufacture and commerce.

The accounts formed from the documents of the customhouse are not indeed to be relied upon as shewing accurately the value of our imports and exports in any one year, but they furnish some standard of comparison between different periods, and in that view I will state them to the committee.

In the year 1782, the last year of the war, the imports, according to the valuation at the custom-house, amounted to 9,714,000.; they have gradually increased in each successive year, and amounted in the year 1790, to 19,130,000%.

The export of British manufactures forms a still more important and decisive criterion of commercial prosperity. The amount in 1782 was stated at 9,919,000l.; in the following year, it was 10,409,000l.: in the year 1790, it had risen to 14,921,000l.; and in the last year (for which the account is just completed as far as relates to British manufactures), it was 16,420,000l. If we include in the account the foreign articles re-exported, the total of the export in 1782 was 12,239,000l. ; after the peace it rose, in 1783, to 14,741,000l.; and in the year 1790, it was 20,120,000l. These documents, as far as they go, (and they are necessarily imperfect,) serve only to give a view of the foreign trade of the country. It is more than probable, that our internal trade, which contributes still more to our wealth, has been increasing in at least an equal proportion. I have not the means of stating with accuracy a comparative view of our manufactures during the same period; but their rapid progress has been the subject of general observation, and the local knowledge of gentlemen from different parts of the country,

before whom I am speaking, must render any detail on this point unnecessary.

Having gone thus far, having stated the increase of revenue, and shewn that it has been accompanied by a proportionate increase of the national wealth, commerce, and manufactures, I feel that it is natural to ask, what have been the peculiar circumstances to which these effects are to be ascribed ?

The first and most obvious answer which every man's mind will suggest to this question, is, that it arises from the natural industry and energy of the country: but what is it which has enabled that industry and energy to act with such peculiar vigour, and so far beyond the example of former periods?—The improvement which has been made in the mode of carrying on almost every branch of manufacture, and the degree to which labour has been abridged, by the invention and application of machinery, have undoubtedly had a considerable share in producing such important effects. We have besides seen, during these periods, more than at any former time, the effect of one circumstance which has principally tended to raise this country to its mercantile pre-eminence-I mean that peculiar degree of credit, which, by a twofold operation, at once gives additional facility and extent to the transactions of our merchants at home, and enables them to obtain a proportional superiority in markets. abroad. This advantage has been most conspicuous during the latter part of the period to which I have referred; and it is constantly increasing, in proportion to the prosperity which it contributes to create.

In addition to all this, the exploring and enterprising spirit of our merchants has been seen in the extension of our navigation and our fisheries, and the acquisition of new markets in different parts of the world; and undoubtedly those efforts have been not a little assisted by the additional intercourse with France, in consequence of the commercial treaty; an intercourse which, though probably cheeked and abated by the distractions now prevailing in that kingdom, has furnished a great additional in, citement to industry and exertion.

But there is still another cause, even more satisfactory than these, because it is of a still more extensive and permanent nature; that constant accumulation of capital, that continual tendency to increase, the operation of which is universally seen in a greater or less proportion, whenever it is not obstructed by some public calamity, or by some mistaken and mischievous policy, but which must be conspicuous and rapid indeed in any country which has once arrived at an advanced state of commercial prosperity. Simple and obvious as this principle is, and felt and observed as it must have been in a greater or less degree, even from the earliest periods, I doubt whether it has ever been fully developed and sufficiently explained, but in the writings of an author of our own times, now unfortunately no more, (I mean the author of a celebrated treatise on the Wealth of Nations,) whose extensive knowledge of detail, and depth of philosophical research, will, I believe, furnish the best solution to every question connected with the history of commerce, or with the systems of political economy. This accumulation of capital arises from the continual application, of a part at least, of the profit obtained in each year, to increase the total amount of capital to be employed in a similar manner, and with continued profit in the year following. The great mass of the property of the nation is thus constantly increasing at compound interest; the progress of which, in any considerable period, is what at first view would appear incredible. Great as have been the effects of this cause already, they must be greater in future; for its powers are augmented in proportion as they are exerted, It acts with a velocity continually accelerated, with a force continually increased→→

Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo.

It may indeed, as we have ourselves experienced, be checked or retarded by particular circumstances - it may for a time be interrupted, or even overpowered; but, where there is a fund of productive labour and active industry, it can never be totally extinguished. In the season of the severest calamity and dis