ng those of the crusades. For I suppose there is
no mathematical, still less an arithmetical demonstration,
that the road to the Holy Land was not the road to paradise,
as there is, that the endless increase of national debts is
the direct road to national ruin. But having now completely
reached that goal, it is needless at present to reflect on
the past. It will be found in the present year, 1776, that
all the revenues of this island north of Trent and west of
Reading, are mortgaged or anticipated forever. Could the
small remainder be in a worse condition were those provinces
seized by Austria and Prussia? There is only this
difference, that some event might happen in Europe, which
would oblige these great monarchs to disgorge their
acquisitions. But no imagination can figure a situation
which will induce our creditors to relinquish their claims,
or the public to seize their revenues. So egregious indeed
has been our folly, that we have even lost all title to
compassion in the numberless calamities that are awaiting
us.

They valued nothing in comparison of their money: the members had no
connection with the court; and the very idea which they conceived of the
trust committed to them, was, to reduce the demands of the crown, and
to grant as few supplies as possible. The crown, on the other hand,
conceived the parliament in no other light than as a means of supply.
Queen Elizabeth made a merit to her people of seldom summoning
parliaments.[*] No redress of grievances was expected from these
assemblies: they were supposed to meet for no other purpose than to
impose taxes.

Before the reign of Elizabeth, the English princes had usually recourse
to the city of Antwerp for voluntary loans; and their credit was so low,
that, besides paying the high interest of ten or twelve per cent., they
were obliged to make the city of London join in the security. Sir
Thomas Gresham, that great and enterprising merchant, one of the chief
ornaments of this reign, engaged the company of merchant-adventurers to
grant a loan to the queen; and as the money was regularly repaid, her
credit by degrees established itself in the city, and she shook off this
dependence on foreigners.[**]

In the year 1559, however, the queen employed Gresham to borrow for her
two hundred thousand pounds at Antwerp, in order to enable her to reform
the coin, which was at t