ions. But, taking leave of what the writer says in his serious
part, if he be serious in any part, I shall only just point out a piece
of his pleasantry. No man, I believe, ever denied that the time for
making peace is that in which the best terms maybe obtained. But what
that time is, together with the use that has been made of it, we are to
judge by seeing whether terms adequate to our advantages, and to our
necessities, have been actually obtained. Here is the pinch of the
question, to which the author ought to have set his shoulders in
earnest. Instead of doing this, he slips out of the harness by a jest;
and sneeringly tells us, that, to determine this point, we must know the
secrets of the French and Spanish cabinets[55], and that Parliament was
pleased to approve the treaty of peace without calling for the
correspondence concerning it. How just this sarcasm on that Parliament
may be, I say not; but how becoming in the author, I leave it to his
friends to determine.

Having thus gone through the questions of war and peace, the author
proceeds to state our debt, and the interest which it carried, at the
time of the treaty, with the unfairness and inaccuracy, however, which
distinguish all his assertions, and all his calculations. To detect
every fallacy, and rectify every mistake, would be endless. It will be
enough to point out a few of them, in order to show how unsafe it is to
place anything like an implicit trust in such a writer.

The interest of debt contracted during the war is stated by the author
at 2,614,892_l._ The particulars appear in pp. 14 and 15. Among them is
stated the unfunded debt, 9,975,017_l._, supposed to carry interest on a
medium at 3 per cent, which amounts to 299,250_l._ We are referred to
the "Considerations on the Trade and Finances of the Kingdom," p. 22,
for the particulars of that unfunded debt. Turn to the work, and to the
place referred to by the author himself, if you have a mind to see a
clear detection of a capital fallacy of this article in his account. You
will there see that this unfunded debt consists of the nine following
articles: the remaining subsidy to the Duke of Brunswick; the remaining
_dedommagement_ to the Landgrave of Hesse; the German demands; the army
and ordnance extraordinaries; the deficiencies of grants and funds; Mr.
Touchet's claim; the debts due to Nova Scotia and Barbadoes; exchequer
bills; and navy debt. The extreme fallacy of this state cannot escape