the error has not lately been on the
side of profusion.

Another head is the saving on the army and ordnance extraordinaries,
particularly in the American branch. What or how much reduction may be
made, none of us, I believe, can with any fairness pretend to say; very
little, I am convinced. The state of America is extremely unsettled;
more troops have been sent thither; new dispositions have been made; and
this augmentation of number, and change of disposition, has rarely, I
believe, the effect of lessening the bill for extraordinaries, which, if
not this year, yet in the next we must certainly feel. Care has not been
wanting to introduce economy into that part of the service. The author's
great friend has made, I admit, some regulations: his immediate
successors have made more and better. This part will be handled more
ably and more minutely at another time: but no one can cut down this
bill of extraordinaries at his pleasure. The author has given us
nothing, but his word, for any certain or considerable reduction; and
this we ought to be the more cautious in taking, as he has promised
great savings in his "Considerations," which he has not chosen to abide
by in his "State of the Nation."

On this head also of the American extraordinaries, he can take credit
for nothing. As to his next, the lessening of the deficiency of the land
and malt-tax, particularly of the malt-tax, any person the least
conversant in that subject cannot avoid a smile. This deficiency arises
from charge of collection, from anticipation, and from defective
produce. What has the author said on the reduction of any head of this
deficiency upon the land-tax? On these points he is absolutely silent.
As to the deficiency on the malt-tax, which is chiefly owing to a
defective produce, he has and can have nothing to propose. If this
deficiency should he lessened by the increase of malting in any years
more than in others, (as it is a greatly fluctuating object,) how much
of this obligation shall we owe to this author's ministry? will it not
be the case under any administration? must it not go to the general
service of the year, in some way or other, let the finances be in whose
hands they will? But why take credit for so extremely reduced a
deficiency at all? I can tell him he has no rational ground for it in
the produce of the year 1767; and I suspect will have full as little
reason from the produce of the year 1768. That produce may indeed become
g