The annuities and other debts charged at this time upon the _taille_ alone, amounted to 26 millions a year; and by this scheme, the whole was to be paid off in 8½ years. Besides these, there were engagements upon other branches of the revenue, which sold at different prices. All were to be set upon a proportional footing. The annuities which sold the dearest, were at 7½ years purchase, which were to be paid in 11½ years. Thus, by the Cardinal’s scheme, the debts of France, which at this time bore an interest of about 45 millions, were entirely to be paid off, in about 12 years, without any new imposition; and when that was concluded, the lands were to be discharged of 26 millions of yearly _taille_, near two millions sterling, and the King was to have a clear revenue of 53 millions, or about 4 millions of our money, which with the 26 millions taken off the _taille_, make 79 millions; the total amount of the French revenue at that time. I shall now point out the characteristic differences between the principles upon which the credit of England and France were established, at the two periods of which we have been speaking. Had two such writers as Davenant and Richlieu been to be met with in the same age, and at a time when England and France were engaged in contracting debts, the contrast would have been stronger; but as it is, it suits our purpose. The debts contracted in France from 1708, when credit fell, to the end of the war in 1714, were in consequence of rapine and extortion, as in Richlieu’s time: and the operations upon them, after the peace of Utrecht, resemble those of Richlieu in some very material circumstances. Such as, 1_mo_, That all the debts were then, by an act of power, put at 4 _per cent._ without any regard to the original stipulations. 2_do_, That what the Cardinal despaired of accomplishing, the Regent undertook, and executed, at a great expence to the King, and with great injustice to many individuals. He established a commission, called the _visa_, to inquire into the unfunded debts, which amounted to 600 millions. His intention was, to discover the effective sums which had been paid for the grounds of debt. The most favourable classes of these debts consisted in arrears of pay to the army, indemnities for pillage, and the like, constituted by notes issued from the office called the _extraordinaires des guerres_, which were diminished ⅕; the second class was diminished ⅖; the third class ⅗; and the last of all, sums due to brokers, usurers, &c. were diminished ⅘.