e reasonably be expected than at the
present moment. And yet there never was a time when war was manifestly
more imminent. England was, in truth, on the verge of a war which was
to increase the national debt more than any in which she had been yet
engaged. The nation was taught to entertain brilliant hopes at the
opening of this year, but at its close those hopes were dashed to the
ground. They were called upon to indulge in visions of a total release
from national debt; but it was soon found that this debt was to increase
by a sure and rapid process. Pitt himself soon discovered that he might
be wrong; and hence, being apprehensive that in the case of a new
and protracted war, requiring large additions to the public debt, the
sinking fund might not operate with sufficient effect to prevent a
national bankruptcy, he subsequently proposed, that, whenever a loan
should be hereafter made, one per cent on the ne\v stock thus created,
besides the dividends, should be raised and applied in the same manner,
and under the same regulations as the original L1,000,000. This bill
passed the commons without any particular opposition; but in the upper
house it was violently reprobated by Lord Chancellor Thurlow as a
provision likely to answer no good purpose, and as exhibiting an
extraordinary degree of arrogance, by dictating to future parliaments,
and prescribing to future ministers a mode of action to be adopted some
thirty years hence. He remarked:--"None but a novice, a sycophant, a
mere reptile of a minister, would allow this act to prevent him doing
what, in his own judgment, circumstances might require at the time;
and a change in the situation of the country might render that which
is proper at one time inapplicable at another. In short, the scheme
is nugatory and impracticable; the inaptness of the project is only
equalled by the vanity of the attempt." This bill, however, passed into
a law, and was adhered to in the numerous loans advanced during the
whole of the revolutionary contest. About the same time Pitt brought
another measure into the house, which indicated that his views were
undergoing a change as to the long continuance of peace; this was a
proposition to raise L812,500 by means of a lottery. But in this he met
with decided opposition. Great surprise was expressed that, in a time of
profound peace, he should have recourse to a method of levying money so
extremely injurious to the morals and habits of the people. I