The territorial acquisitions of the East India Company, the undoubted right of the Crown, that is, of the state and people of Great Britain, might be rendered another source of revenue, more abundant, perhaps, than all those already mentioned. Those countries are represented as more fertile, more extensive, and, in proportion to their extent, much richer and more populous than Great Britain. In order to draw a great revenue from them, it would not probably be necessary to introduce any new system of taxation into countries which are already sufficiently, and more than sufficiently, taxed. It might, perhaps, be more proper to lighten than to aggravate the burden of those unfortunate countries, and to endeavour to draw a revenue from them, not by imposing new taxes, but by preventing the embezzlement and misapplication of the greater part of those which they already pay.
If it should be found impracticable for Great Britain to draw any
considerable augmentation of revenue from any of the resources above
mentioned, the only resource which can remain to her, is a diminution
of her expense. In the mode of collecting and in that of expending the
public revenue, though in both there may be still room for
improvement, Great Britain seems to be at least as economical as any
of her neighbours. The military establishment which she maintains for
her own defence in time of peace, is more moderate than that of any
European state, which can pretend to rival her either in wealth or in
power. None of these articles, therefore, seem to admit of any
considerable reduction of expense. The expense of the
peace-establishment of the colonies was, before the commencement of
the present disturbances, very considerable, and is an expense which
may, and, if no revenue can be drawn from them, ought certainly to be
saved altogether. This constant expense in time of peace, though very
great, is insignificant in comparison with what the defence of the
colonies has cost us in time of war. The last war, which was
undertaken altogether on account of the colonies, cost Great Britain,
it has already been observed, upwards of ninety millions. The Spanish
war of 1739 was principally undertaken on their account; in which, and
in the French war that was the consequence of it, Great Britain, spent
upwards of forty millions; a great part of which ought justly to be
charged to the colonies. In those two wars, the colonies cost Great
Britain much more than double the sum which the national debt amounted
to before the commencement of the first of them. Had it not been for
those wars, that debt might, and probably would by this time, have
been completely paid; and had it not been for the colonies, the former
of those wars might not, and the latter certainly would not, have been
undertaken. It was because the colonies were supposed to be provinces
of the British Empire, that this expense was laid out upon them. But
countries which contribute neither revenue nor military force towards
the support of the empire, cannot be considered as provinces. They
may, perhaps, be considered as appendages, as a sort of splendid and
shewy equipage of the empire. But if the empire can no longer support
the expense of keeping up this equipage, it ought certainly to lay it
down; and if it cannot raise its revenue in proportion to its expense,
it ought at least to accommodate its expense to its revenue. If the
colonies, notwithstanding their refusal to submit to British taxes,
are still to be considered as provinces of the British empire, their
defence, in some future war, may cost Great Britain as great an
expense as it ever has done in any former war. The rulers of Great
Britain have, for more than a century past, amused the people with the
imagination that they possessed a great empire on the west side of the
Atlantic. This empire, however, has hitherto existed in imagination
only. It has hitherto been, not an empire, but the project of an
empire; not a gold mine, but the project of a gold mine; a project
which has cost, which continues to cost, and which, if pursued in the
same way as it has been hitherto, is likely to cost, immense expense,
without being likely to bring any profit; for the effects of the
monopoly of the colony trade, it has been shewn, are to the great body
of the people, mere loss instead of profit. It is surely now time that
our rulers should either realize this golden dream, in which they have
been indulging themselves, perhaps, as well as the people; or that
they should awake from it themselves, and endeavour to awaken the
people. If the project cannot be completed, it ought to be given up.
If any of the provinces of the British empire cannot be made to
contribute towards the support of the whole empire, it is surely time
that Great Britain should free herself from the expense of defending
those provinces in time of war, and of supporting any part of their
civil or military establishment in time of peace; and endeavour to
accommodate her future views and designs to the real mediocrity of her
circumstances.