If I cannot give
peace to my country, I give it to my conscience.
But what, says the financier, is peace to us without money? Your plan gives us
no revenue. No! But it does; for it secures to the subject the power or refusal,
the first of all revenues. Experience is a cheat, and fact a liar, if this power
in the subject of proportioning his grant, or of not granting at all, has not
been found the richest mine of revenue ever discovered by the skill or by the
fortune of man. It does not indeed vote you L152,750 11s. 23/4d, nor any other
paltry limited sum; but it gives the strong box itself, the fund, the bank--from
whence only revenues can arise amongst a people sensible of freedom. Posita
luditur arca. [Footnote: 68] Cannot you, in England--cannot you, at this time of
day--cannot you, a House of Commons, trust to the principle which has raised so
mighty a revenue, and accumulated a debt of near 140,000,000 in this country? Is
this principle to be true in England, and false everywhere else? Is it not true
in Ireland? Has it not hitherto been true in the Colonies? Why should you
presume that, in any country, a body duly constituted for any function will
neglect to perform its duty and abdicate its trust? Such a presumption
[Footnote: 69] would go against all governments in all modes.
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