the oppofition writers attacked with more feverity, than the ufe which had been made of the finking fund, and the credit which the miniftry had, affumed by augmenting the revenue in the article of tea. A ridiculous parade of fkill in the customs and finances was difplayed, and the utmost minutenefs and perplexity of arithmetical details were entered into, with a view of proving, that the augmentation of the revenue had not arisen from the increased duty on tea alone, but on wines, tobacco, fugar and other articles. Calculations were alfo made of the probable future produce of the finking fund; and inferences were deduced thence of the impoffibility of making it for any long time fubfervient to the plan then purfued. Thofe gentlemen went still farther, and affirmed that, after the feveral appropriations of that fund were fatisfied, there would be found a great deficiency even towards fupplying the two millions which were charged on it for the ways and means of the current year, a deficiency that would fall as a heavy load on the provifions for the next. When these provifions, however, came to be fettled, the fallacy of all thofe impofing calculations was detected. The finking fund, fo far from being deficient, afforded a furplus of above a hundred and thirty five thousand pounds; and it could be of very little confequence to the public whether the increase of the reve nue was chiefly, or only in part, owing to the increased duty on one particular commodity, provided they found themselves thereby relieved from the preffure of any new burthens. LXXVII. Nothing could more evidently demonstrate the malignant purpofe of thofe writers than their total filence on fuch points as did the ministry indifputable honour. The application of the French prize money by 'the favor of the crown, at a time when there were, perhaps, other calls, plaufible and prefling enough, to divert it another way; the beneficial contract with the Bank, by which one hundred and ten thousand pounds were brought to the fervice of the year, befides the tranffer and delayed payment at reduced interest of a million af of exchequer bills; and the faving on the non-effective men, which amounted to fo large a fum; were matters of fuch striking merit and importance, that none but the devoted tools of a party could pafs them over unnoticed. LXXVIII. Among the ways and means of this feffion were fome regulations of the American trade, and fome duties impofed on various articles of import and export in that extensive sphere of commerce, which, though they occafioned but little debate at the time, proved very foon afterwards a fource of the most violent contefts, and gradually led to all the horrors and calamities of a civil war. It will be enough to infert here a bare copy of those regulations and duties, without any comments, as these will more naturally arise in defcribing the effects, or confequences of fuch unfortunate measures. On the tenth of March the house of commons agreed to the following refolutions: 66 I. That a duty of two pounds, nineteen fhillings and nine pence, fterling money, per hundred weight, avoirdupois, be laid upon all foreign coffee imported from any place, except from Great Britain, into the British colonies and plantations in America. 66 2. That a duty of fix pence, fterling money, avoirdupois, be laid upon all foreign indigo imported into the faid colonies and plantations. 3. Thata duty of feven pounds, fterling money, per tun, be laid upon all wine of the growth of the Madeiras, or of any other island or place, lawfully imported from the refpective place of the growth of fuch wine into the faid colonies and plantations. 4. That a duty of ten fhillings, fterling money, per tun, be laid upon all Portugal, Spanish, or any other wine, except French wine imported from Great Britain into the said colonies and plantations. 5. That a duty of two fhillings, fterling money, per pound weight, avoirdupois, be laid upon all wrought filks, Bengals, and ftuffs mixed with filk or herba, of the manufacture of Pers fia, China, or Eaft India, imported from Great Britain into the faid colonies and plantations. 6. That a duty of two fhillings and fix pence, fterling money, per piece, be laid upon all callicoes, painted, dyed, printed, A. D. 1764. printed, or ftained in Perfia, China, or Eaft India, imported from Great Britain into the faid colonies and plantations. 66 7. That a duty of three fhillings, fterling money, per piece, be laid upon all foreign linen cloth called cambrick, and upon all French lawns imported from Great Britain into the faid colonies and plantations. "8. That a duty of feven fhillings, fterling money, per hundred weight, avoirdupois, be laid upon all coffee fhipped in any British colony or plantation in America, being the place of the growth thereof, in order to be exported or conveyed to any other place, except to Great Britain. 9. That a duty of one halfpenny, fterling money, per pound weight, avoirdupois, be laid upon all pimento shipped in any British colony or plantation in America, being the place of the growth thereof, in order to be exported or conveyed to any other place, except to Great Britain. "10. That an act, made in the 6th Geo. II. chap. 13, be continued until the thirtieth of September, 1764. "11. That the faid act be, with amendments, made perpetual from the twenty-ninth day of September, 1764. 66 12. That from and after the faid twenty-ninth day of September, 1764, in lieu of the duty granted by the said act upon molaffes and fyrups, a duty of three pence, fterling money, per gallon, be laid upon all molaffes and fyrups of the growth, product, or manufacture of any foreign American colony or plantation, imported into the British colonies and plan tations in America. 13. That the produce of all the faid duties, and alfo of the duties which fhall, from and after the faid twenty-ninth day of September, 1764, be raised by virtue of the faid act, made in the fixth year of the reign of his faid late majefty king Gcorge the Second, be paid into the receipt of his majesty's exchequer, and there referved, to be from time to time difpofed of by parliament, towards defraying the neceffary expences of defending, protecting, and fecuring the British colonies and plantations in America." The fourteenth refolution of the committee of ways and means which stated, "that towards farther defray. ing the faid expences, it might be proper to charge certain stamp duties in the faid colonies and plantations," was thrown out, or rather poftponed to the next feffion, in order to give the colonies an opportunity of petititioning tioning against it, fhould they deem it exceptionable, and of offering fome equivalent for the fuppofed produce of fuch a tax. 66 15. That there be not any drawback allowed of any part of the rate or duty, commonly called the old fubfidy, upon any foreign goods (except wines) of the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe, or the East Indies, exported from this kingdom to the British colonies and plantations in America. 16. That there be not any drawback. allowed of any part of any rate or duty upon any white callicoes, or foreign linens, exported from this kingdom to the British colonies and plantations in America. 17. That the duties impofed in the British colonies and plantations in America, by an act made in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of king Charles the fecond, intitled, An act for the encouragement of the Greenland and Eaftland trades, and for the better fecuring the plantation trade, be declared to be terling money. 18. That the importation of rum and fpirits, of the produce or manufacture of any foreign American colony or plansation, into the British colonies and plantations in America, be prohibited." The following five refolutions on other objects of the fame commerce were agreed to on the thirteenth of March. 66 I. That an additional duty of one pound two fhillings, fterling money, per hundred weight, avoirdupois, be laid upon all white or clayed fugars, of the produce or manufacture of any foreign American colony, or plantation, imported into any British colony or plantation in America. 2. That the produce of the faid additional duty be paid into the receipt of his majesty's exchequer, and there reserved to be, from time to time, difpofed of by parliament, towards defrying the neceffary expences of defending, protecting, and fecuring the British colonies and plantations in America. 3. That upon all wines, except French wines, exported as merchandise from this kingdom to the British colonies and plantations in America, a drawback be allowed of all the duties paid on the importation of fuch wines, except three pounds ten Thillings-per tun, part of the additional duty of four pounds per tun granted by an act made in the laft feffion of parliament; and also except fuch part of the duties paid upon wines, import ed A. D. 1764. ed by ftrangers or aliens, or in foreign fhips, as exceeds what would have been payable upon fuch wines, if the fame had been imported by British subjects, and in British fhips. 66 4. That no allowance be made for leakage, upon the importation of any wines into this kingdom, unless fuch wines be imported directly from the place of their growth, or from the ufual place of their first shipping, except only Madeira wines, imported from any of the British colonies or plantations in America, or from the East Indies. 16 5. That any perfon or perfons be permitted to import, in fhips belonging to his majesty's subjects, whale fins, taken from whales caught by any of his majesty's fubjects in the gulf or river of St. Lawrence, or in any feas on the coast of any of his majesty's colonies in America, without paying any custom, fubfidy, or duty for the fame, other than and except the rate or duty commonly called the old fubfidy, for the term of feven years, from the twenty-fifth day of December, 1763.” LXXIX. The committee of ways and means alfo propofed a few refolutions, on the fifteenth of March, which were likewife agreed to by the house, for leffening the duty on the importation of beaver skins from America to one penny per fkin; and for raifing the duty on the exportation of those skins, and of beaver wool from Great Britain. The other regulations of the American trade, adopted in the fame feffion by the British legislature, were a bill for granting, for a limited time, liberty to carry rice from the provinces of South Carolina and Georgia to other parts of America, on paying British duties; a bill for granting a bounty upon the importation of hemp, and rough and undreffed flax, from the colonies in Ame rica; and lastly, a bill for reftraining the increase of pa per money in the colonies, by declaring that any fuch per, which might be in future iffued there, fhould not be confidered as a legal tender in payment. It is remarkable, that all thofe measures, many of which were extremely delicate and hazardous, were propofed, acquiefced in, and paffed into laws, without the leaft animadvertion, as if the leaders of party, who had been fo cla morous about trifles, anticipated with filent joy the fatal pa |