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The ways and means which he proposed for answering these charges, were embodied in a string of resolutions, of which the first and second referred to the already mentioned offer of three millions for the Bank of England; the third to the surplus of the grants for 1815, which, at the beginning of the session, he had calculated at three millions, but which, on more accurate enquiry, had been found to amount to 5,663,755.; the fourth to a sum of 599,916., arising from the sale of old naval and victualling stores; the 5th to unclaimed dividends of the Bank. The Chancellor mentioned, that "it was not fair that the Bank should retain in their hands sums which it was not likely should be called for, and which might indeed never be reclaimed. He therefore thought such money might be well paid over to the commissioners for the redemption of the national debt, to be by them applied to the liquidation of the public debt, subject to the future claims of the owners for restitution. He proposed that it should be arranged on this principle-that all stock on which no dividend was claimed for ten years successively, should be paid over to the commissioners of the national debt, to be by them applied in the manner he had already described. A register of all such payments he proposed should be kept both in the Bank and at the office of the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt, and this he thought would be better for the owners than even the present system, proverbially accurate as the Bank was in all its transactions."

The 6th resolution referred to "an extraordinary item of 140,000l. made up of small balances remaining in the Exchequer, the result of unapplied grants of former years, now amounting altogether to a sum not to be despised." The remaining supplies, amounting to 2,500,000l., were to be

provided for by an issue of exchequer bills to replace an equal amount of unfunded debt, which would be paid off. After a few observations from Lord Archibald Hamilton, Mr Baring, and Mr Tierney, these resolutions were adopted.

Mr Vesey Fitzgerald laid before the House his intentions with respect to the Irish revenue of the year. He began with saying, that the liberal views taken by the House on former occasions, justified him in expecting, that it would approve of his not having proposed any new Irish taxes, in aid of the services of 1816. He then stated, that the estimated quota of con. tributions for this year, was 3,145,656l. British, in Irish currency, 3,407,7941. The charge for interest and sinking fund on the present debt, is 6,826,730, making, with the inclusion of management, the total supplies, 10,234,524l. The state of the consolidated fund was as follows:-The surplus balance in the exchequer at the 5th January, was 1,448,086, and there was remaining of loan, raised in Great Britain for the service of the last year, 2,622,641l. British, being in Irish currency 2,841,194/. a total sum of of 4,289,2801. From this he was to deduct arrears due on that day. The arrear of contribution for 1815, 2,942,280l. British, being 3,187,470. Irish; the outstanding treasury bills and lottery prizes, 28,8761., and for inland navigations, and the expences of the office for the public records, 81,3647. the total of the arrears was 3,297,710., which, deducted from 4,289,280l. leaves a balance of 991,570.

Having recapitulated the supply, he proceeded to state the ways and means. The surplus of the consolidated fund as appeared above, 991,570.; the produce of the revenue he should only estimate at 6,000,000l.; one-third of the profit on lotteries which Ireland was entitled to receive, 100,000l.; re

payment of sums paid by Ireland for naval and military services being advanced out of the revenue of the last year, 111,960. Mr Vansittart had before stated the loan on treasury bills for which an act has passed both Houses of parliament, of 1,700,000l. British, making 1,841,6667. Irish, and that a further loan on treasury bills would be required to be issued in the present year for the sum of 1,200,000l., being a total of ways and means of 10,245,1961. to meet the supply of 10,234,524/.

Mr Fitzgerald then stated, that the House was aware of the reduction of the revenue in consequence of the repeal of that portion of the malt duty in Ireland which corresponded with the late war duty in Great Britain; it was only what the act of union had prescribed; but as a measure of relief, sensibly as it might be felt in this country, it would not be less felt in that where the example had been followed. He had always regretted the necessity of augmenting the malt duty; but it was to be remembered, that he had never had but a choice of difficulties. The deduction from the revenue, including the repayment of duty on stock, in the hands both of distillers and maltsters, would be, he feared, 300,000/; other small duties repealed would make a total diminution in the revenue of 350,000l., and when the committee recollected that the whole of the net payments into the exchequer in the last year amounted to 5,845,845l., he was sure he should not be charged with estimating the annual produce of the revenue too low when he took it at 6,000,000l., he feared rather that he should be accused of an excessive estimate. He thought himself grounded, however, in hoping for what must be the increase of more than half a million from that improved system of collection which was visible in every

department, and for which the chiefs of departments deserved the greatest praise. He could not better excite that industry, or stimulate that exertion, than by showing to the different boards that parliament looked to them to supply, by their exertions, the necessity of fresh taxation, and he knew that he did not reckon on their exertions in vain. There was no principle more important to be kept in view, particularly in Ireland, than that it was better to collect your old taxes well, than to delude the public by suggesting new and unproductive imposts. He did not found his estimate of revenue solely on a vague expectation of its produce; the assessments principally of the inland taxes had been formed upon a more correct system, and in no branch of our revenue had a collection been more improved. He expected in the present year a great increase from those duties, and without referring to the excise revenue, or to those disputed questions connected with the distillery, which he purposely avoided, because they were likely to become the topics of discussion at another and a more convenient time; it must be obvious to every man that if the practice of illicit distillation could be checked in some degree (he was not sanguine enough to hope for its immediate extinction), the excise revenue would become the main source of our contribution. did not despair either, that the internal difficulties of Ireland would press so heavy as in the last year, a year of sudden and unexampled distress. That distress was easily to be traced in the diminished consumption of some of the most productive articles, not only in our excise but in our customs also. He hoped that our horizon was brightening a little, and that he might be justified in the estimate of six millions which he had assumed.

He

On the succeeding evening, Mr J.

P. Grant made a motion for a committee on the state of the public finances, and on this occasion the attack on the views and plans of the Chancellor of the Exchequer was renewed. The desponding prophecies of approaching national ruin were as numerous, and, stranger still, as confident as ever.

But they were listened to, both within and without the House, with that suspicion which frequent experience of their fallacy had justified. The nation was distressed, but it was not despairing; and in the contemplation of its permanent gains, it found consolation for its temporary difficulties.

VOL. IX. PART J.

CHAP. III.

Bill for the Regulation of the Civil List.-Motion for abolishing the Office of one of the Secretaries of State.-Motion respecting the Augmentation of the Salaries of the Secretaries of the Admiralty.-Motion concerning Salaries and Emoluments in Public Offices.-Mr Grenfell's Motion concerning the transactions with the Bank.-Bank Restriction Act extended till 1818.Consolidation of the English and Irish Exchequers.-New Silver Coinage.

On the 3d of May, Lord Castlereagh made a motion for leave to bring in a bill for the better regulation of his majesty's civil list. The subjects involved in the regulation of this mea. sure, were," as his lordship observed, "of the most delicate nature; never theless, a variety of causes, and, among these, not the least effectual, the liberties which had recently been taken by some gentlemen of the opposition, in talking of the personal habits of the royal family, rendered it absolutely necessary that the feelings calculated to make his majesty's ministers avoid their discussion, should be overcome. In his introduction, the minister reprobated the vulgar error of supposing the whole, or even the greater part of the demands upon the civil list, to arise out of the private expenditure of the sovereign and his family, while, in truth, much the larger part of them were as strictly caused by the necessities of the public service, as any of the grants annually made for the army or the navy. If the expences thrown on the country by the unhappy state of the nomiral sovereign should be deducted from the annual expence of the civil list, it would not exceed 1,339,000. and of this sum only 409,000l. could

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During this period the revenues of the civil list, as he had already stated, were unequal to satisfy the demands they were intended to meet. In the seven years up to 1811, their average amount, under the settlement of 1804, was 995,000l. Since that period, from various circumstances, they had been swelled to 1,060,000/ It would be seen that the revenue, in the course of the seven years, had fallen short by about 1,000,000l. ; and since that period the deficiency had considerably increased. On the face of this statement it would appear that there was a

tendency in the settlement which had been made of the civil list to create debt. If the House looked to the eports of all the committees which had been appointed to inquire into this subject, it would be found, that every one of them had uniformly pronounced that the estimate of 1804 had been completely inadequate to its object, and was not in fact borne out either by those circumstances which had preceded, or by those which followed it. On all hands, the insufficiency of the civil list income had been allowed, and the augmentation of it had only been delayed on account of those casual aids derived from the war, of which he had already spoken. The gross amount of the debt which had accrued on the civil list since 1804, was 2,500,000l. The liberality of parliament had granted in discharge of that sum 762,000l. An advance made by the Crown from its West Indian revenues, and from the surplus of the Scotch civil list, to the amount of 1,738,000l. had still further reduced the debt. During the same period, it was to be recollected that the Crown out of the same funds (in the year 1807, he believed,) had advanced the sum of 1,000,000l. for the service of the public, to meet the supplies of the year. If, instead of doing that, the Crown had applied this sum of one million to the discharge of the debt on the civil list, so far from having occasion to apply to parliament for assistance, that sum would have more than covered the whole of the remaining debt, and would have effectually prevented the inconvenient pressure which it had experienced. But it was not merely this sum of 1,000,000l. which had been advanced in 1807, that had been furnished for the public service, by the liberal consideration of the Crown in the course of the war the sum of 2,800,000l. had been thus appropriated. These facts would go to prove, that if the Crown had been

in possession of its former revenues, it would not have had occasion to approach parliament for any assistance." The second object of his lordship's speech, was to give a perspective view of the probable future expenditure of the civil list, with a consideration of the adequacy of the funds appropriated to it, and the most economical method of augmenting them. The esti mate which he thought might be made, was 1,339,1957., presenting, when compared with that of last year, (larger, of course, as being made during war), a reduction of 139,000l. Should this be deducted from this sum, (as Lord Castlereagh judged would be just and proper,) the 170,000l. occasioned by the Windsor establishment, the privy purse, and the allowance to her majes ty, in consequence of the state of the king, the estimate would be reduced to 1,169,495. To this he thought no objection could be made, as it was precisely the medium between the charges that had occurred on the civil list between 1804 and 1811.

With regard to the proper mode of meeting the future expenditure of the civil list, as thus estimated, he thought that parliament must either increase the general allowance, for that service, by the 65,000l., which had been for the seven years up to 1811, the annual excess of its expenditure, and by a sum adequate to cover the Windsor establishment extraordinary, or withdraw from it certain charges which would relieve it to the necessary extent. The latter plan he recommended for their adoption. He thought nothing could be more unwise than to entail fluctuation in the expenditure of the civil list, by loading it with charges of a public nature, from their very essence so changeable. The charges which he wished to see removed from it were then particularized, (they consisted of various items connected with all the branches of public service,) and the

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