which total amount, divided by feven, gives 255,597/. ys.
for the annual average expence incurred in the military department
at the Cape of Good Hope. But it would be the height
of abfurdity to fay, that even this fum, moderate as it is, was
an additional expence to Government in .confequence of the
capture of this fettlement^ fince it is not only compofed of the
expences of maintaining the garrifon, and the contingencies and
extraordinaries of the army, but it includes, iikewife, the pay,
the fubfiftence, and the clothing of an army of five thoufand
men. Now as thefe troops muft have been fed, dothed, and
paid in any other place, as well as at the Cape of Good Hope,
and as I have ihewn, at amuch greater expence, it is certainly
not fair to charge this fum to the account of the garrifon of the
Cape. Even in peace the commiffioned officers would have received
their half pay, which alone would amount to a fum
from 100,090/. to i j o ,o q o L
There is little reafon, therefore,in reality, for confidering the
Cape in the light of an expenfive fettlement. In fait, the futns
of money, that have been expended there, dwindle into nothing
upon a companion with fome of-the Weft India iflands, whofe
importance are a feather when weighed againft that of the Cape
o f Good Hope. Viewing it only as a point of fecurity to our
Indian pofleffions, and as a nurfery for maturing raw recruits
into complete foldiers, the queftion of expence falls to the
ground. .Of the feveral millions that are annually raifed for
the fupport of government at home, and its dependencies abroad,
$ fmall fra&ion of one of thefe millions may furely be allowed
for
for the maintenance of a ftation whofe advantages are incalculable.
But the article of expence, trifling even in war, could be no
obje£t Whatfoever in time of peace. The fortifications, which
were in the moft ruinous condition when the place was taken,
being finiihed in a complete manner, would require no further
expence than that of merely keeping the works in repair.; which
might amount, perhaps, to an annual fum of five thoufand
pounds. The contingencies and extraordinaries of the army
could not, at the utmoft, amount to twenty thoufand pounds ;
fo that twenty-five or thirty thoufand pounds would be the extent
of the contingent and extraordinary expences of the Cape
in time of peace; a fum that, by proper management, and a
prudent application of the revenues of the colony, might eafily
be defrayed out of the public treafury there, and leave a fur-
plus adequate to all the demands of the civil department, together
with the neceflary repairs of public works and buildings.
The manner in which I calculate is thus: from a review of
the colonial revenues, I find that the average in the Dutch Government
in ten years, from 1784 to 1794 was little more than
100,000 rix dollars yearly, but that by the regulations and new
impofts made by the Dutch Commifiaries General in 1793, the
amount in the following year was 21 x ,568 rix dollars. They
afterwards experienced a confiderable increafe, and from the
firft year of Lord Macartney’s adminiftration they rofe gradually
as follows.:
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