The opinion which Dr. Price has since so strongly urged was very prevalent; and as much anxiety concerning the debt existed, it was considered important to apply this surplus invariably to the discharge of the great debt, and to borrow by new loans when the public exigencies required it. Thus, although from 1718 to 1731 was a period of peace, the following sums were borrowed:— 1718 £505,995 1719 312,737 1720 500,000 1721 1,000,000 1725 500,000 1726 370,000 1727 1,750,000 1728 1,230,000 1729 550,000 1730 1,200,000 1731 500,000 ————————— £8,418,732 The money procured by the sinking fund for the discharge of the national debt, from 1716 to 1728, amounted to £6,648,000, being a trifle more than the debt contracted during the same period. In 1728, it was found that the principle could not be preserved; and the interest of the loan of that and the following year was charged on the fund, while the additional taxes imposed to pay the interest of the loans were applied to increase it. A short time after, the plan of preserving the sinking fund inviolate was abandoned; and in 1733, £500,000 was taken to meet the expenses of the year; in 1734, £1,200,000 was taken for the same purpose; and in 1735, it was even anticipated, and the principle, in effect, abandoned. From that time its operations grew feeble, its produce was often devoted to other purposes, and it was found necessary to have recourse to it when the expenses exceeded the revenue, and no new taxes were imposed. In the peace which followed the treaty of Utrecht,—a period of twenty-six years,—£7,231,508 was the amount of debt discharged by the sinking fund; and in war the produce was applied to the expenses of the year,—loans being raised for the additional sums required. This fund produced at its commencement, in 1717 £323,439 From 1717 to 1726, both inclusive 577,614 ” 1727 ” 1736 ” 1,132,251 ” 1737 ” 1746 ” 1,062,170 ” 1747 ” 1756 ” 1,356,578 ” 1757 ” 1766 ” 2,059,406 The further and feeble operations of this fund are unnecessary to trace, as, although it continued nominally in the accounts of the Exchequer until 1786, when Mr. Pitt’s sinking fund was introduced, it did little in peace, and nothing in war. From 1717 to 1772 it produced but twenty millions, being about £357,000 annually.