ſix miles round, under the direction of the court of aldermen[1]. By ſtatute 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 2. four hundred were licenſed; and the money ariſing thereby was applied to repairing the ſtreets[2]. This number was increaſed to ſeven hundred by ſtatute 5 W. & M. c. 22. and the duties veſted in the crown: and by the ſtatute 9 Ann. c. 23. and other ſubſequent ſtatutes[3], there are now eight hundred licenſed coaches and four hundred chairs. This revenue is governed by commiſſioners of it's own, and is, in truth, a benefit to the ſubject; as the expenſe of it is felt by no individual, and it's neceſſary regulations have eſtabliſhed a competent juriſdiction, whereby a very refractory race of men may be kept in ſome tolerable order.
VIII. The eighth and laſt branch of the king's extraordinary perpetual revenue is the duty upon offices and penſions; conſiſting in a payment of 1s. in the pound (over and above all other duties) out of all ſalaries, fees, and perquiſites, of offices, and penſions payable by the crown. This highly popular taxation was impoſed by ſtatute 31 Geo. II. c. 22. and is under the direction of the commiſſioners of the land tax.
The clear neat produce of theſe ſeveral branches of the revenue, after all charges of collecting and management paid, amounts annually to about ſeven millions and three quarters ſterling; beſides two millions and a quarter raiſed annually, at an average, by the land and malt tax. How theſe immenſe ſums are appropriated, is next to be conſidered. And this is, firſt and principally, to the payment of the intereſt of the national debt.
In order to take a clear and comprehenſive view of the nature of this national debt, it muſt firſt be premiſed, that after the revolution, when our new connections with Europe introduced a new ſyſtem of foreign politics, the expenſes of the nation, not only in ſettling the new eſtabliſhment, but in maintaining long,
