[4]
To understand the nature of the public debt of England a man has only
to suppose one great national establishment, twice as large as those
of the civil functionaries, the Army, Navy, and the Church together,
and composed of members with fixed salaries, who purchased their
commissions from _the wisdom of our ancestors_, with liberty to sell
them to whom they please--who have no duty to perform for the
public,[5] and have, like Adam and Eve, the privilege of going to
'seek their place of rest' in what part of the world they please--a
privilege of which they will, of course, be found more and more
anxious to avail themselves as taxation presses on the one side, and
prohibition to the import of the necessaries of life diminishes the
means of paying them on the other.
The repeal of the Corn Laws may give a new lift to England; it may
greatly increase the foreign demand for the produce of its
manufacturing industry; it may invite back a large portion of those
who now spend their incomes in foreign countries, and prevent from
going abroad to reside a vast number who would otherwise go. These
laws must soon be repealed, or England must reduce one or other of
its great establishments--the National Debt, the Church, the Army, or
the Navy.
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