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rate eſtimate to put it at 3l. per cent.; and as 274,0005000l. has been borrowed ſince 1793, for the ſervice of Great Britain only excluſive of navy and exchequer bills funded, the ſaving to the public in ſeventeen years may be computed at 8,220,000l. equal to 483,000l a year.
The immediate ſaving by Mr. Pitt's meaſure of directing the purchaſes of proviſions, and of ſtores of various forts, to be made by the Commiſſoners of Victuailing, which had under former governnments been a ſource from whence his predeceſſors had derived great as well as unobſerved influence, comes next under our conſideration.
The practice had been for the Treaſury to give beneficial contracts to perſons ſelected from favor for purchaſing all articles of thoſe deſcriptions, and for remitting money to foreign ſtations; from whence the individuals derived large profits, and the public ſuſtained conſiderable loſs. Mr. Pitt therefore, at the very commencement of the laſt war, put an end to that ſyſtem entirely, and directed that all proviſions for the army ſhould be procured by the Commiſſioners of the Victualling; and on the
