pamphlet, ' Observations on some of the probable effects of Mr. Gilbert's Bill, to which are added Remarks on Dr. Price's account of the National Debt' (1776), his object was to reply to the economists who bewailed the increase of local taxation and of the national debt. He draw a rather ingenious distinction between fiscal charge and fiscal burden. As long as prices steadily rose he argued that though more money might be taken out of the taxpayer's pocket, the quantity of commodities which the sum levied by taxation would purchase steadily decreased, and that thus if 'burden' were interpreted to be the amount of commodities of the power of purchasing which the community was deprived by taxation, its increase need not be and had not been at all proportionate to the increase of charge. In this way he proved to his own satisfaction that the burden of the amount paid to the creditors of the notion at the peace of Utrecht was nearly the same as when he wrote, and that the alarm of Dr. Price and others at the increase of the national debt was wholly baseless. Of such other of Brand's pamphlets on economic subjects as are in the library of the British Museum, the most interesting is his 'Determination of the average price of wheat in war below that of the preceding peace, and of its readvance in the following,' Here he sought to prove on theoretical grounds that war lowers while pence raises the price of wheat, and he then proceeded to endeavour to confirm the soundness of this position by an appeal to statistics. Of Brand's political pamphlets the chief appears to be his 'Historical Essay on the Principles of Political Associations in a State, chiefly deduced from the English and Jewish histories, with an application of those principles in a comparative view of the Association of the year 1792 and of that recently instituted by the Whig Club' (1796). The intended drift of this elaborate disquisition was that the existing tory associations were praiseworthy and useful.
The main authority for Brand's meagre biography is chapter xxiv. of Beloe's 'Sexagenarian,' which is devoted to him, but in which, as usual in that work, the name of the subject of the notice is not mentioned. Brand's name is, however, supplied together with what, appears to be a complete list of his separate publications (the library of the British Museum is without several of them), in the memoir of him in Nichols's 'Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century,' vi. 528-34, which is an expansion of the chapter in the 'Sexagenarian." Nichols enumerates thirteen pamphlets in all.
[Brand's Pamphlets; Beloe's Sexagenarian, cxxiv.; Nichols's Illustrations, vi. 528-34; Cat. Brit. Mus. Lib.]
BRAND, THOMAS (1635–1691), nonconformist divine, born in 1635, was the son of the rector of Leaden Roothing, Essex. He was educated at Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, and Merton College, Oxford. There he specially studied law, and afterwards entered the Temple. An acquaintance formed with Dr. Samuel Annesley [q. v.] led to a resolution to join the ministry. He entered the family of the Lady Dowager Roberts of Glassenbury, Kent, the education of whose four children he superintended. He caused the whole of his salary to be devoted to charity. He soon preached twice every Sunday, and frequently a third time in the evening, at a place two miles distant. He established weekly lectures at several places, and monthly fasts. On the death of the Rev. Mr. Poyntel of Staplehurst, he left Lady Roberts, went to Staplehurst, and was ordained. About two years after he married a widow, by whom he had several children, who all died young. He continued at Staplehurst till driven away by persecution. After many wanderings he settled near London. He built many meeting-houses, and contributed to their ministers' salaries. Catechising the young was also a favourite occupation, in which he was very successful. He gave away thousands of catechisms and other books, and even went to the expense of reprinting twenty thousand of Joseph Alleine's ‘Treatise on Conversion’ to be given away, altering the title to a ‘Guide to Heaven.’ A portion of this expense was defrayed by some of his friends. Many other small books were given away by him, and he and his friends sold bibles much under cost price to all who desired them, provided they would not sell them again. Brand maintained children of indigent parents, and put them to trades. Dr. Earle, many years a distinguished minister of the presbyterian congregation in Hanover Street, London, was one of his protégés. Brand spent little on himself. His charities were computed to amount to above 300l. a year. He said he ‘would not sell his estate because it was entailed, but he would squeeze it as long as he lived.’ Brand died 1 Dec. 1691, and was buried in Bunhill Fields. The inscription on his gravestone is recorded in ‘Bunhill Memorials,’ by J. A. Jones.
