第81章 LETTER 8(23)

Since we had committed a successful folly,we ought to have reaped more advantage from it than we did:and,whether we had left Philip,or placed another prince on the throne of Spain,we ought to have reduced the power of France,and to have strengthened her neighbors much more than we did.We ought to have reduced her power for generations to come,and not to have contented ourselves with a momentary reduction of it.France was exhausted to a great degree of men and money,and her government had no credit:but they,who took this for a sufficient reduction of her power,looked but a little way before them,and reasoned too superficially.Several such there were however;for as it has been said,that there is no extravagancy which some philosopher or other has not maintained,so your experience,young as you are,must have shown you,that there is no absurd extreme,into which our party politicians of Great Britain are not prone to fall,concerning the state and conduct of public affairs.But if France was exhausted,so were we,and so were the Dutch.Famine rendered her condition much more miserable than ours,at one time,in appearance and in reality too.But as soon as this accident,that had distressed the French and frightened Louis the Fourteenth to the utmost degree,and the immediate consequences of it were over;it was obvious to observe,though few made the observation,that whilst we were unable to raise in a year,by some millions at least,the expenses of the year,the French were willing and able to bear the imposition of the tenth,over and above all the other taxes that had been laid upon them.This observation had the weight it deserved;and surely it deserved to have some among those who made it,at the time spoken of,and who did not think that the war was to be continued as long as a parliament could be prevailed on to vote money.But supposing it to have deserved none,supposing the power of France to have been reduced as low as you please,with respect to her inward state,yet still I affirm,that such a reduction could not be permanent,and was not therefore sufficient.

Whoever knows the nature of her government,the temper of her people,and the natural advantages she has in commerce over all the nations that surround her,knows that an arbitrary government,and the temper of her people enable her on particular occasions to throw off a load of debt much more easily,and with consequences much less to be feared,than any of her neighbors can:that although in the general course of things,trade be cramped and industry vexed by this arbitrary government,yet neither one nor the other is oppressed;and the temper of the people,and the natural advantages of the country,are such,that how great soever her distress be at any point of time,twenty years of tranquillity suffice to re-establish her affairs,and to enrich her again at the expense of all the nations of Europe.If any one doubts of this,let him consider the condition in which this kingdom was left by Louis the Fourteenth:the strange pranks the late Duke of Orleans played,during his regency and administration,with the system of public revenue,and private property:and then let him tell himself that the revenues of France,the tenth taken off,exceed all the expenses of her government by many millions of livres already,and will exceed them by many more in another year.