of twenty fhillings, a creditor may refuse all the paper of the bank of England. Nor is there amongst us a fingle public fecurity, of any quality or nature whatsoever, that is enforced by authority. In fact it might be eafily fhewn, that our paper wealth, inftead of leffening the real coin, has a tendency to increase it; inftead of being a fubftitute for money, it only facilitates its entry, its exit, and its circulation; that it is the fymbol of prosperity, and not the badge of diftrefs. Never was a fcarcity of cash, and an exuberance of paper, a subject of complaint in this nation. Well! but a leffening of prodigal expences, and the economy which has been introduced by the virtuous and fapient affembly, makes amends for the loffes fuftained in the receipt of revenue. In this at least they have fulfilled the duty of a financier. Have thofe, who fay fo, looked at the expences of the national affembly itself, of the municipalities, of the city of Paris, of the increased pay of the two armies, of the new police, of the new judicatures? Have they even carefully compared the prefent penfion-lift with the former? Thefe politicians have been cruel, not economical. Comparing the expences of the former prodigal government and its relation to the then revenues with the expences of this new fyftem as opposed to the state of its new treafury, I believe the prefent will be found beyond all comparison more chargeable*. It * The reader will obferve, that I have but lightly touched (my plan demanded nothing more) on the condition of the French It remains only to confider the proofs of financial ability, furnished by the prefent French managers when they are to raise fupplies on credit. Here I am a little at a ftand; for credit, properly fpeaking, they have none. The credit of the antient government was not indeed the best: but they could always, on fome terms, command money, not only at home, but from most of the countries of Europe where a furplus capital was accumulated; and the credit of that government improv ing daily. The establishment of a system of liberty would of course be fuppofed to give it new ftrength; and fo it would actually have done, if a fyftem of liberty had been established. What offers has their government of pretended liberty had from Holland, from Hamburgh, from Switzerland, from Genoa, from England, for a dealing in their paper? Why should these nations of commerce and œconomy enter into any pecuniary dealings with a people French finances, as connected with the demands upon them. If I had intended to do otherwise, the materials in my hands for such a task are not altogether perfect. On this fubject I refer the reader to M. de Calonne's work; and the tremendous difplay that he has made of the havock and devastation in the public eftate, and in all the affairs of France, caused by the prefumptuous good intentions of ignorance and incapacity; fuch effects as thofe caufes will always produce when charged with a plenitude of power. Looking over that account with a pretty strict eye, and, with perhaps too much rigour, deducting every thing which may be placed to the account of a financier out of place, who might be fuppofed by his enemies defirous of making the most of his cause, I believe it will be found, that a more falutary leffon of caution against the daring fpirit of innovators than this, which has been fupplied at the expence of France, never was at any time furnished to mankind. who attempt to reverse the very nature of things; amongst whom they see the debtor prescribing, at the point of the bayonet, the medium of his folvency to the creditor; difcharging one of his engagements with another; turning his very penury into his refource; and paying his interest with his rags ? Their fanatical confidence in the omnipotence of church plunder, has induced these philofophers to overlook all care of the public eftate, juft as the dream of the philofopher's ftone induces dupes, under the more plaufible delufion of the hermetic art, to neglect all rational means of improving their fortunes. With thefe philofophic financiers, this univerfal medicine made of church mummy is to cure all the evils of the ftate. Thefe gentlemen perhaps do not believe a great deal in the miracles of piety; but it cannot be queftioned, that they have an undoubting faith in the prodigies of facrilege. of facrilege. Is there a debt which preffes them-Iffue affignats.- Are compenfations to be made, or a maintenance decreed to those whom they have robbed of their freehold in their office, or expelled from their profession—Assignats. Is a fleet to be fitted out-Afignats. If fixteen millions fterling of thefe affignats, forced on the people, leave the wants of the state as urgent as everiffue, fays one, thirty millions fterling of affignatsfays another, iffue fourfcore millions more of affignats. The only difference among their financial factions is on the greater or the leffer quantity of affignats to be imposed on the publick fufferance. They are all profeffors of affignats. Even those, whofe natural good fenfe and knowledge of com merce, merce, not obliterated by philofophy, furnish decifive arguments against this delufion, conclude their arguments, by propofing the emiffion of affignats. I fuppose they must talk of affignats, as no other language would be understood. All experience of their inefficacy does not in the leaft discourage them. Are the old affignats depreciated at market? What is the remedy? Iffue new affignats.-Mais fi maladia, opiniatria, non vult fé garire, quid illi facere? affignare-poftea affignare; enfuita affignare. The word is a trifle altered. The Latin of your present doctors may be better than that of your old comedy; their wisdom, and the variety of their resources, are the fame. They have not more notes in their fong than the cuckow; though, far from the foftness of that harbinger of fummer and plenty, their voice is as harsh and as ominous as that of the raven. Who but the most desperate adventurers in philofophy and finance could at all have thought of deftroying the fettled revenue of the state, the sole security for the public credit, in the hope of rebuilding it with the materials of confifcated property? If, however, an exceffive zeal for the state should have led a pious and venerable prelate (by anticipation a father of the church *) to pillage his own order, and, for the good of the church and people, to take upon himself the place of grand financier of confifcation, and comptroller general of facrilege, he and his coadjutors were, in my opinion, bound to fhew, by their fubfequent conduct, that they knew fome * La Bruyere of Boffuet. thing of the office they affumed. When they had refolved to appropriate to the Fife, a certain portion of the landed property of their conquered country, it was their business to render their bank a real fund of credit; as far as fuch a bank was capable of becoming fo. To establish a current circulating credit upon any Land-bank, under any circumftances whatsoever, has hitherto proved difficult at the very leaft. The attempt has commonly ended in bankruptcy. But when the affembly were led, through a contempt of moral, to a defiance of œconomical principles, it might at leaft have been expected, that nothing would be omitted on their part to leffen this diffi culty, to prevent any aggravation of this bankruptcy. It might be expected that to render your Land-bank tolerable, every means would be adopted that could display opennefs and candour in the statement of the fecurity; every thing which could aid the recovery of the demand. To take things in their most favourable point of view, your condition was that of a man of a large landed estate, which he wifhed to difpofe of for the discharge of a debt, and the fupply of certain fervices. Not being able instantly to fell, you wifhed to mortgage. What would a man of fair intentions, and a commonly clear understanding, do in fuch circumftances? Ought he not first to ascertain the grofs value of the eftate; the charges of its management and difpofition; the encumbrances perpetual and temporary of all kinds that affect it; then, ftriking a net furplus, to calculate the juft value of the fecurity? When that furplus (the only fecurity to the |