These truths have made
their way to the minds of the ministry, insomuch, as to have delayed
the execution of the new lease of the Farms, six months. It is
renewed, however, for three years, but so as not to render impossible a
reformation of this great evil. They are sensible of the evil, but it is
so interwoven with their fiscal system, that they find it hazardous to
disentangle. The temporary distress, too, of the revenue, they are
not prepared to meet. My hopes, therefore, are weak, though not quite
desperate. When they become so, it will remain to look about for the
best palliative this monopoly can bear. My present idea is, that it will
be found in a prohibition to the Farmers General, to purchase tobacco
any where but in France. You will perceive by this, that my object is to
strengthen the connection between this country and my own in all
useful points. I am of opinion, that twenty-three thousand hogsheads
of tobacco, the annual consumption of this country, do not exceed the
amount of those commodities, which it is more advantageous to us to buy
here than in England, or elsewhere; and such a commerce would powerfully
reinforce the motives for a friendship from this country towards ours.
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