Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Selections From Cobbett's Political Works, Vol. 2: Being a Complete Abridgment of the 100 Volumes Which Comprise the Writings of "Porcupine" And the "Weekly Political Register"
The great alteration, or rather the total abandonment, of theoriginal plan of our sinking fund, took place in the year 1802, and in the act which was passed on the 22nd of June In that year, that Is, stat. 42nd of 'the King, c. 72, wherein the former act, as far as related to the real re. Deemingd provision, was repealed; and the stock purchased, and to be pur chased, 'by the commissioners was made to remain unredeemed, the inte rest still being to be paid on it, as it now is. The merit of the original plan was questionable. It was, I think, pretty evident, that, unless we began to extinguish at once, as the Americans did, we never could do it afterwards and, that which might have been foreseen has now proved to be the case. The sums paid quarterly from the Exchequer into the hands of the commissioners, answer no other end than that of keeping up the price of the funds, by creating a demand for stock, a considerable pur chase of which the commissioners are, by law, obliged to make every week. SO that, in fact, the 6,000,000l. A year, which Mr. Pitt tells us the sinking fund produces, is, so much money raised yearly in taxes, for the purpose of enabling the minister to make such purchases in the stock. Market as shall prevent the commodity from falling to a degree that would blow up the system; upon exactly the same principle that the old. Woman sent her daughter on before her to market with money-to buy up other people' s eggs, in order to keep up the price of those that she was about to bring In her basket.
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