Note 198 — Chapter XV · ON THE REIGN OF WILLIAM III.

The debt at the king's death amounted to £16,394,702, of which above three millions were to expire in 1710. Sinclair's Hist. of Revenue, i. 425 (third edition).

Of this sum £664,263 was incurred before the revolution, being a part of the money of which Charles II. had robbed the public creditor by shutting up the exchequer. Interest was paid upon this down to 1683, when the king stopped it. The legislature ought undoubtedly to have done justice more effectually and speedily than by passing an act in 1699, which was not to take effect till December 25, 1705; from which time the excise was charged with three per cent. interest on the principal sum of £1,328,526, subject to be redeemed by payment of a moiety. No compensation was given for the loss of so many years' interest. 12 & 13 W. 3, c. 12, § 15; Sinclair, i. 397; State Trials, xiv. 1 et post. According to a particular statement in Somers Tracts, xii. 383, the receipts of the exchequer, including loans, during the whole reign of William, amounted to rather more than £72,000,000. The author of the "Letter to the Rev. T. Carte," in answer to the latter's "Letter to a Bystander," estimates the sums raised under Charles II., from Christmas 1660 to Christmas 1684, at £46,233,923. Carte had made them only £32,474,265. But his estimate is evidently false and deceptive. Both reckon the gross produce, not the exchequer payments. This controversy was about the year 1742. According to Sinclair, Hist. of Revenue, i. 309, Carte had the last word; but I cannot conceive how he answered the above-mentioned letter to him. Whatever might be the relative expenditure of the two reigns, it is evident that the war of 1689 was brought on, in a great measure, by the corrupt policy of Charles II.