on; and it ought to be well and firmly laid, or
what must become of the superstructure? One would have thought the
natural method in a plan of reformation would be, to take the present
existing estimates as they stand; and then to show what may be
practicably and safely defalcated from them. This would, I say, be the
natural course; and what would be expected from a man of business. But
this author takes a very different method. For the ground of his
speculation of a present peace establishment, he resorts to a former
speculation of the same kind, which was in the mind of the minister of
the year 1764. Indeed it never existed anywhere else. "The plan,"[70]
says he, with his usual ease, "has been already formed, and the outline
drawn, by the administration of 1764. I shall attempt to fill up the
void and obliterated parts, and trace its operation. The standing
expense of the present (his projected) peace establishment, _improved by
the experience of the two last years, may be thus estimated_"; and he
estimates it at 3,468,161_l._

Here too it would be natural to expect some reasons for condemning the
subsequent actual establishments, which have so much transgressed the
limits of his plan of 1764, as well as some arguments in favor of his
new project; which has in some articles exceeded, in others fallen
short, but on the whole is much below his old one. Hardly a word on any
of these points, the only points however that are in the least
essential; for unless you assign reasons for the increase or diminution
of the several articles of public charge, the playing at establishments
and estimates is an amusement of no higher order, and of much less
ingenuity, than _Questions and commands_, or _What is my thought like_?
To bring more distinctly under the reader's view this author's strange
method of proceeding, I will lay before him the three schemes; viz. the
idea of the ministers in 1764, the actual estimates of the two last
years as given by the author himself, and lastly the new project of his
political millennium:--

Plan of establishment for 1764, as by
"Considerations," p. 43 [71] L3,609,700
Medium of 1767 and 1768, as by
"State of the Nation," p. 29 and 30 3,919,375
Present peace establishment, as by the
project in "State of the Nation," p. 33 3,468,161

It is not from anything our author has anywhere said, that you are
enabled to find the ground, much less the justif