rage of time in which
the whole property or capital of a nation, or a sum equal thereto, will
have passed through one entire revolution in descent, that is, will have
gone by deaths to new possessors; for though, in many instances, some
parts of this capital will remain forty, fifty, or sixty years in the
possession of one person, other parts will have revolved two or three
times before those thirty years expire, which will bring it to that
average; for were one half the capital of a nation to revolve twice in
thirty years, it would produce the same fund as if the whole revolved
once.

Taking, then, thirty years as the average of time in which the whole
capital of a nation, or a sum equal thereto, will revolve once, the
thirtieth part thereof will be the sum that will revolve every year,
that is, will go by deaths to new possessors; and this last sum being
thus known, and the ratio per cent, to be subtracted from it determined,
it will give the annual amount or income of the proposed fund, to be
applied as already mentioned.

In looking over the discourse of the English minister, Pitt, in his
opening of what is called in England the budget, (the scheme of finance
for the year 1796,) I find an estimate of the national capital of that
country. As this estimate of a national capital is prepared ready to my
hand, I take it as a datum to act upon. When a calculation is made upon
the known capital of any nation, combined with its population, it will
serve as a scale for any other nation, in proportion as its capital and
population be more or less. I am the more disposed to take this estimate
of Mr. Pitt, for the purpose of showing to that minister, upon his own
calculation, how much better money may be employed than in wasting it,
as he has done, on the wild project of setting up Bourbon kings. What,
in the name of heaven, are Bourbon kings to the people of England? It is
better that the people have bread.

Mr. Pitt states the national capital of England, real and personal,
to be one thousand three hundred millions sterling, which is about
one-fourth part of the national capital of France, including Belgia. The
event of the last harvest in each country proves that the soil of France
is more productive than that of England, and that it can better support
twenty-four or twenty-five millions of inhabitants than that of England
can seven or seven and a half millions.

The thirtieth part of this capital of 1,300,000,000L. is 4