THE ACCOUNT OF "PROVED ABUSES."
" MUCH meditating," as the Chancellor says, on the subject of Proved Abuses, we have deemed that the National Account with the Government must be kept in figures; so that the exact amount of their debt may be expressed, and when we have to give them credit for payments on account, we may do it in proper form, and strike off no more than has been actually paid. Revolv- ing this notion in our mind, a second pondering has led us to consider, that two things are necessary,—we must have an idea of the power which the Government possesses to reform abuses, and of the proportion which each abuse bears to the power of .Government. At first glance, both of these will appear to be fixable at random, by arbitrary numbers; yet on consideration, there appeared a fundamental test by which all might be resolved. What is the power of the Government ? What placed Ministers in office—what kept them there, in spite of Courtly intrigue, and Kingly disfavour, and Aristocratical hatred—nay, what still preserves them, but the might of the People? The population, then, may be taken as representing the amount of the capital in trust which the Government holds—as the talent (to speak in parables) which has been committed to their keep ing. The power may therefore be putldown at 24; or, to express it more intel- ligibly to the eye of the general reader, at twenty-four millions, In estimating the proportion of the abuse to the power of the remedy, a similar groundwork may be taken. An abuse may be considered great, in proportion to the number of individuals it di- rectly touches. The Irish Establishment, for instance, affects every inhabitant of Ireland—the Nonconformists by its oppression, the Established faith by its reaction : put it down at eight mil- lions. The agriculturists on this side of the Channel are directly affected by the Tithe system : their numbers are variously rated —Mr. MARSHALL and the Corn-monopolists stickle for high figures, the Liberals for low: take a rough medium, and reckon them at six millions. For English Dissenting Disabilities and Church Abuses, divide the English population : six millions to each. The Poor-laws touch the whole : double the last—two sixes. Aristocratical or Unequal Taxation is all-pervading ; two pounds per head is the average amount : put down its pressure at forty- eight millions. The Restrictions on Commerce are perhaps as heavy as Taxation, calculating what they takeaway and what they prevent us from getting : but reckon them at half. The Septen- nial Act touches every unit of the population, if legislation can affect us : rate it, like the commercial restrictions, at twenty-four millions. Corporate Abuses surely act upon four millions of peo- ple. The cost of the Army is about an eighth part of our whole taxation : divide the population by eight, and three millions are given. Law and Justice are put down at twelve millions, or as _affecting one half the people. It looks high, and a random esti- mate would fix it perhaps at a million, as we inclined to do till We tested it by the only mode which seemed open—we took the Average annual number of criminals committed for trial, the pro- secutors are of course equal, and we considered that four persons are affected by the sufferings of the two chief actors : multiply- ing the numbers thus gained by thirty years, the average dura- ton of life, we have upwards of ten millions touched personally by the criminal law alone. Let any one call to mind the extent of the civil law—what he has submitted to rather than seek a remedy worse than the disease, and what he may have paid from compul- sion—and our estimate will seem moderate. It would weary to reckon up the Miscellanies : we have counted them at thirty- nine, and squared the odd number to suit our convenience. The total cast is 192, or 8 times 24. Let the arithmetician divide each of these enumerated sums by 8, and he will come to the results exhibited below.
We have detailed our modus operandi, and filled up, as exactly as we could, the blank acceptances given by the Whigs to the
people when out of place. But the reader who thinks the propor- tions wrong, may set them right by this key, or by inventing one of his own.
It may be objected, that only adult males frightened the Tories during the Ten Days, or frighten them still. This change.
however, would be a mere change of proportion. The 24 would. sink to 6, or some such number, and the amounts of the estimated relations change in proportion. It may be said, that the Tories have given no support to the Whigs, and yet are included in the capital. But Tories are interested in good government ; the intrusted talent is to be used also for their advantage. The true old Tories, too— the class which would retard all improvement and advancement, and cause the human mind to stagnate in every thing relating to civil or religious matters—are miserably few in number. The pure Tory will shortly become an extinct animal. Even now, like ram aver, the breed is only to be found in certain places : it inhabits courts and colleges, it haunts churches and Pitt Clubs, specimens may be found in old manor-houses and at the tail of fox-hounds, the creature may mostly be seen by the curious in the House of Lords. But a little while, and it will be seen no more. As culti- vation advances in a country, the ravenous beasts of prey are ex- terminated; the rapacious Boroughmonger is undergoing a like fate from a like cause.
A more valid objection may be- urged against the statement : some important items, such as National Education and Colonial abuses, are omitted ; others, as the Pensions and Impressment, are mixed up with other matters, and the whole rated at a low amount. But the effect of these things is indirect; or they are important by the intensity of their operation ; and figures will fail in ex- pressing their relative amount. It would be very difficult to cal- culate the present direct effect, upon each individual, of the inca- pacity and arbitrary principles of an Ambassador, or to say to what number of individuals the abuse extended. But the mis- chievous effects are great notwithstanding : he may lower the r a ! tional character in the eyes of foreign states—he may plunge the nation in war, with its enormous expenditure and all its incalculable miseries. How far would Impressment and Military Flogging reach in numerical calculation? yet how intense their effects upon human, happiness ! The bodily torture of the lash is great, but those best versed in the subject represent the mental torment as far greater; it reaches, as the seceding saint of the house of DERBY would say, to the loss of a human soul. Impressment may be inoperative for years ; when it is in force, few out of the twenty-four millions are subject to its tyranny, but how devastating its effects within its sphere ! The certain disruption of domestic ties, the probable sa- crifice of human beings—the father torn from his home, and that home itself broken up—the elder branches thrown upon the parish. the younger upon the world—the females perhaps driven to the streets, the males to the hulks or the gallows! These are matters beyond the circle of the cold and passionless calculator. Arith- metic has no signs to express the wounded spirit or the broken heart, the wretched life or the premature death.
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