Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/348

 332 (in the firt years at leat) that it did not amount to o much. But it mut be oberved, that under thee ums were included all manner of public expenes, among which lord Clarendon in his peech to the parliament computed that the charge of the navy and land forces amounted annually to 800000𝑙. which was ten times more than before the former troubles. The ame revenue, ubject to the ame charges, was ettled on king James II : but by the encreae of trade, and more frugal management, it amounted on an average to a million and half per annum, (beides other additional cutoms, granted by parliament, which produced an annual revenue of 400000𝑙.) out of which his fleet and army were maintained at the yearly expene of 1100000𝑙. After the revolution, when the parliament took into it's own hands the annual upport of the forces both maritime and military, a civil lit revenue was ettled on the new king and queen, amounting, with the hereditary duties, to 700000𝑙. per annum ; and the ame was continued to queen Anne and king George I. That of king George II, we have een, was nominally augmented to 800000𝑙. and in fact was considerably more. But that of his preent majety is exprely limited to that um; and, by reaon of the charges upon it, amounts at preent to little more than 700000𝑙. And upon the whole it is doubtles much better for the crown, and alo for the people, to have the revenue ettled upon the modern footing rather than the antient. For the crown; becaue it is more certain, and collected with greater eae: for the people; becaue they are now delivered from the feodal hardhips, and other odious branches of the prerogative. And though complaints have ometimes been made of the encreae of the civil lit, yet if we conider the ums that have been formerly granted, the limited extent under which it is now etablihed, the revenues and prerogatives given up in lieu of it by the crown, and (above all) the diminution of the value of money compared with Rh