CHAPTER IX.

THE AUTHOR EXPLAINS HOW THE POLITICAL LEVIATHANS KEEP UP THEIR MONSTROUS CARCASES AT THE EXPENSE OF THE LITTLE FISHES. A JUST TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF AN UPRIGHT AND ABLE MINISTER.. THE AUTHOR PREACHES REASON ΤΟ A LITTLE DESPOT; ALTHOUGH HE IS AWARE THAT HE MIGHT AS WELL PREACH IT TO THE WINDS.

CHANCE now favoured these state-botchers, and threw in their way a journeyman, whose work buoyed up their leaden reputation for a while, and enabled them to come before the public with —“A new disposition of the Financial Resources of the Manor,"-by means of which, even if the war should continue, no additional taxes would be necessary within three years, and none of great consequence, (probably none)

within the next seven years, and none during the subsequent ten years. But then, the tenantry were to remain, during fourteen years to come, groaning under its present pressure, and longer, if any unforeseen circumstances (which the abilities of their pilots rendered more than an equal chance) should occur.

The plan, which was deemed a chef d'œuvre of politics, but which by schoolboys of twelve years of age is reckoned only two very simple rules of Arithmetic, was this:Any given sum, at 5 per cent. compound interest, will double itself at the end of fourteen years, but, at simple interest, the same sum will require twenty years. Now, if great A, the steward of Freeland, or any other country, borrow from little B, the people, 207. at simple interest, and great A lends little B, the half of it back again at compound interest: why, at the end of fourteen years, great A will have repaid little в his 201. with one half of his own money. (See Dilworth's, Walkingame's, or any other arithmetical school-book.) The idea of applying these rules to financiering schemes was originally hinted by an eminent mathema

tician to Billy Vortex, who brought it into practice, amidst the sneers, cavils, and illiberal objections of the short-sighted, long-tongued Brushites. xites

Time stamped its sanction upon the measure, and the Brushites now declared that their proposed plan was grounded on the flourishing state of the permanent revenue; —that is to say, on the revenue which had been established by Vortex; on the foundation which he had laid for his successors. Thus, whilst they tacitly acknowledged by distant words, that they could do no better than to follow the man whom they had ridiculed as wandering during his whole life; they proclaimed loudly by their deeds, that- Billy Vortex, in his grave, is still our political North-Star!!!

That what we have we prize not to the worth,
While we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost,
Why then we wreak the value; then we find
The virtue that possession would not shew us
Whilst it was ours.”

Shakespeare.

But even the application of this scheme of Vortex, was not the offspring of the brain of any of the Talents. No;-though we are not possessed of Fortunatus's wishing- cap, nor Gyges's ring; yet we can see as far into a millstone as the man who picked it; aye, and through a Treasury-wall too. A person of little note, who had furnished Vortex with the outlines of another of his grand schemes,-the Redemption of the Quit Rents, - had been rcwarded with a lucrative place in the moneyoffice; and he it was who planned this new financial disposition. True it was, that the household, as is always the case with great men when they have a mind to make other people's children pass for their own, had unpicked some of the seams, and sewed them up again; had taken a button from one part and put it on another but after all their botching and bungling, the coat was still the same and another man's coat. It fitted the tenantry, however, as almost any coat would have sat well upon them. They resembled a man in extreme pain, who will swallow with avidity and indiscriminately, brandy, or water, laxatives or astringents;

in hopes of experiencing even a momentary relief. The idea of not being worse, or not much worse than at present,-although for so long a period, and they were then as ill as they could well be, was a kind of relief to them.→→ Their love of their country, and their indignation against the little despot, who kept it in hot water, although he dared not meddle with it, lest it should burn his fingers, was superior to every other consideration. - Flay them for their country's good, and they would not have flinched: Roman virtue did not exceed Freeland pa tience.

The Brushites acquired a degree of reputation, which they should have blushed to have received, since it was at the expense of Vortex. They pocketed it, however; for 'suum cuique tribuetur,' was not to be found in their creed.

Some other fortunate circumstances had also occurred, by no means proceeding from the judgement or wise dispositions of the Brushites, to dispel part of the gloom which overhung the tenantry. The Bantam had discovered, at least he had reason to discover, that