pend. It is very obvious that nothing would more conduce to the obtaining of so public a good, than to make the exportation of our own manufactures, and the importation of the commodities used in the manufacturing of them, as practicable and as easy as may be.”

The words above italicised describe clearly the fiscal policy of Walpole, and in the ensuing session he prevailed on Parliament to remove the export duties on 106 articles of British manufacture and the import duties on thirtyeight articles of raw material. Just as the creation of the Bank of England had rallied the moneyed classes to the Whigs, so Walpole's reforms secured to the Hanoverian succession the support of the manufacturers. Walpole's policy towards the Colonies is better dealt with later; it may suffice to say that he interfered as little as possible, and then only to modify in their favour the working of the Navigation Acts. Indeed, it may be said that in England also he was most successful when he contented himself with modifying the restrictions of the older policy of State control. If, as in the case of the famous Excise Bill of 1733, he attempted to introduce fresh regulations, however salutary, he found himself face to face with opposition which cannot wholly be laid to the charge of his political enemies.

Walpole's Excise Bill, 1733.—The Excise Bill of 1733 is often misunderstood. In his desire to help British commerce Walpole desired to encourage the growth of the British mercantile marine by all possible means, especially as he seems to have had less faith in the Navigation Acts than most Whigs. In his endeavour to make the whole island" one general free port and magazine and store-house for all nations" he intended a gradual extension of the excise until he had abolished import duties on foreign goods in favour of excise duties on their consumption in England,

One of his earliest fiscal reforms had been a provision that tea, coffee, and chocolate might be imported free of charge if they were stored in bonded warehouses; the duty was only payable when the owner of the goods sold them for consumption in England. Not only did this system help traders by making fewer demands on their capital, but also it largely increased the revenue. His plans for extending the excise both to all imported goods and to home productions such as salt were violently attacked, despite an able pamphlet by Walpole in which he exposed the drawbacks of the existing system and explained the advantages of the proposed alterations.

Unfair Criticism of the Scheme.-In his eagerness to avoid opposition if possible, Walpole confined the actual Bill of 1733 to a proposal to convert the import duty on tobacco into an excise duty on its consumption. However, the word "excise" brought back unplesaant memories of the inquisitorial system under the Long Parliament; the opposition newspaper, The Craftsman, edited by Pulteney and Bolingbroke, fanned the flame of dissatisfaction by all means fair and unfair. Its writers accused Walpole of aiming at arbitrary power by a scheme "to load food, clothing, and all the other necessaries of life" with a general and crushing excise. Men were told that their homes might be entered at every hour by an excise officer, one of a band whose votes would place Walpole permanently in power and make Englishmen as subservient to the Government as Continental peoples. Even the loyalty of the soldiers wavered at last, and every where was the cry "No slavery, no excise, and no wooden shoes!"

Results of Walpole's Failure.-Walpole bowed before the storm and withdrew the Bill, saying that he would not be the minister to enforce taxes at the expense of blood. Actually the Tories injured themselves, for Walpole had

hoped for an increase of revenue from the scheme which would allow him to decrease or perhaps even abolish the land tax. Like a wise statesman Walpole realised the unfair character of the land tax, which fell with equal weight on good and bad land alike. However, the period of almost incessant war that ensued on his fall made reforms in taxation impossible, and the fiscal arrangements remained in favour of the manufacturers. Perhaps it was a good thing that Walpole's experiment failed, for capitalists, favoured by the existing system, were able to take advantage of the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century. Indirectly too the nation benefited; Walpole's policy, both successful and unsuccessful, was largely responsible for the enormous growth of the nation's wealth which enabled statesmen, and especially the younger Pitt, to finance the long wars against France and to build up the new Colonial Empire, as well as to establish freely the independence and prosperity of the nation.

It was the irony of fate that Walpole survived the loss of his excise scheme only to lose power for the unsuccessful conduct of the war with Spain, which he had done his best to prevent. If Captain Jenkins really did lose his ear by the violence of a Spanish coastguard, Walpole could have no sympathy either with him or other smugglers. There can be no doubt that in practice English traders flagrantly disregarded the limitations imposed by the Treaty of Utrecht on their trading with Spanish America. England had barred the rest of the world from her American and West Indian plantations by similar restrictions. Perhaps if Walpole had been allowed by popular opinion to solve commercial questions by negotiation instead of by war we should have been spared the revolt of the American colonies, whose success was largely dependent on the help of England's commercial rivals.

3. BREAK-DOWN OF THE SYSTEM.

Parliamentary Colbertism and the Colonies. It was natural that the American colonists should dislike the unfavourable position assigned to them under the system of Parliamentary Colbertism, although so long as they were in danger from the French and the Indians they had to profess to accept it. From the foundation of the colonies English traders had assumed a right to monopolise the colonial market and to be the sole channel of European trade with the colonists. After the Revolution such companies as survived were of little use to Parliament in regulating the colonial trade with America, and the favourite policy was that of strengthening the Navigation Acts. Ships were registered, and ship-owners had to enter into bonds not to carry cargoes save to destinations approved by the Government; practically only England was available.

The "Enumerated" Products.-By the Act of 1660 colonial products were divided into two classes: fish, cereals, and timber, the chief exports of New England, were "unenumerated" and could be exported anywhere; but tobacco (Virginia), rice and cotton (the Carolinas), sugar (the West Indies), and naval stores (all colonies) were "enumerated" and could only be sent to England. Rice and naval stores were added to the enumerated list only in 1706. After the Act of 1696 these restrictions were stringently enforced, and the colonists felt more aggrieved. However, in 1730 Walpole allowed the rice of Georgia and Carolina to be exported direct to any port in Europe south of Cape Finisterre in Spain, provided that the ships and crews used were British. In a few years the rice of Egypt and North Italy had been largely driven out of the market.

The West Indian Trade.-The West Indies were the most favoured of the plantations, and their trade was developed in England's favour both on economic and political grounds. Walpole was very well disposed towards them, and shortly before his fall he allowed the West Indian traders to export sugar direct to foreign countries if British ships were used. "A dozen years before Walpole went to the Treasury the whole trade with the plantations-about £1,300,000 both export and import was only a few thousand pounds more under the head of export, and it was a third less in import, than that which was carried on with Jamaica alone five and twenty years after Walpole left the Treasury. In the same interval the total export trade from England with all the world had risen from six million pounds a year to more than twelve millions." 1

Walpole's Colonial Policy.-Walpole's interest in the prosperity of the colonies was not due to any expectations of raising a direct revenue from them. The story is often quoted of his reply to a suggestion of an ex-colonial official that, as the Excise Bill had failed, he should tax the American colonists: "No, I have Old England set against me, and do you think I will have the New England likewise? In 1739 he refused a similar suggestion, and maintained that "his object had always been to encourage colonial commerce, because the greater the prosperity of the colonies the greater would be their demand for English goods; and that was the true way to turn colonies into a source of wealth to the mother-country." As Burke put it, "Walpole treated the colonies with salutary neglect." Perhaps Newcastle, the minister

1 Quoted in Morley's Walpole, p. 168, from Burke's Observations on the Present State of the Nation.