Good Hope, the Dutch fettlements, St. Domingo, Martinique, and Corfica. He contended, that, inftead of our having degenerated from the conftitutional jealoufy of our ancestors, a larger confidence had been given to minifters under George I. and II. than at prefent. A million and a half had been raised for fecret-fervice-money for ten years, and no proceedings paffed upon it; and afterwards, when parliament required an account of it, the minifters advised the king to refufe it. Mr. Jenkinfon concluded by moving the order of the day. The arguments of Mr. Grey were ably feconded by Mr. Curwen, who infifted upon the propriety of an inquiry into the expenditure of public money for the fatisfaction of the public at large, by whom that money was raifed. The acquifitions to the country, which had been fo much infifted upon, he was far from confidering as advantageous to us, as he was entirely of opinion that colonization tended to weaken a country, and would finally terminate in ruin. The refult of an inquiry into the wafte of men and money in our different expeditions, would fully prove that thefe had been no advantage to the country. After entering at large into what appeared to him to have, been the mifconduct of minifters, he thought, that, fhould they perlift, they would compel the people to fpeak for themselves, not from any love of French principles, but from the Burthens under which they groaned. The inquiry was further fupported by Mr. M. Robinfon and Mr. Martin. It was oppofed by Mr. Steele, Mr. M. Montague, and Sir G. Page Turner, who elegantly obferved, that it was not our bufinefs to confefs our poverty, nor to The fpoil our own trade by crying finking fish. Mr. Steele admitted that the expences had exceeded the eftimates, though not to the extent which had been stated. The navy estimates, in the three years of the war, were about, 15,000,000l. the debt, during the fame period, was about 13,000,000l, but this could not be faid to be incurred without parliamentary fanction. The fur ufually allowed per man, fince the revolution, had not for fome time, even in peace, been found fufficient. The minifter, therefore, after the first year of the war, had ftated this debt, and had fince coutinued to do fo, together with the means for difcharging it. The whole of it, except one million and a half, had already been provided for; and the houfe, by its proceedings upon this statement, had fully fan&tioned the tranfaction. real amount of the extraordinaries of the army was, he contended, only 7,500,000l. Whatever difregard to the appropriation act had been charged to the prefent minifter, the fame practice had been conftantly in ufe in 1792, and for years antecedent to the paffing of that act. The provifion of the prefent year, for the re-payment of 2,600,000l. to the army fervice of 1795, with the addition of the further extraordinaries to be voted, he was ready to pledge himfelf, would be more than fathicient to pay the army without leaving fixpence in arrear. Large arrears had indeed been due to the ftaff; but there only remained 1900l. unpaid for 1793, and 16,000l. for 1794. Though he admitted it had not been ufual to pass a vote of credit fo early, yet it had been applied fix months pre-. vious to the grant. In regard to barracks, 610,000l. had been expended, and 150,000l. more was. Recellary neceffary for their completion; in this were included beer, forage, &c. Of the fix millions iffued for the difcharge of the unfunded debt, five millions and a half were in circulation before the war. On comparifon of this with any former war except 1778, there would, he faid, be found little difference in the expence. Mr. Grey, in reply, enforced his former arguments, and thought much of what had been urged was irrelevant to the fubject. With refpect to the provifion faid to be made for the navy debt, he obferved that there had been no explanation in what it confifted. No permanent taxes had been provided. The lottery, he obferved, was a fund in its nature fo unfixed, that it could not be regarded as available for more than incidental claims and emergencies. This fum of five millions was, therefore, he contended, a part of the unfunded navy debt, and his statement perfectly accurate. With respect to the army, the statements, he admitted, were nearly juft; but there was a faving of 1,500,000l. which, applied to the army debt, formed a deduction from it to that extent. Admitting this as a proper deduction, there remained a debt of feven millions and a half, confequently an excefs of two millions and a half above the debt in the American war. But this deduction could not be made; for, were the arrears paid, the debt would be according to his statement. A vote of credit was not, as had been ftated, an authority to raife a fum which might be applied at the difcretion of ininifters. The act ftated that it was for the enfuing year, and for profpective unprovided fervices; nor would he admit of a construction which violated both the letter and fpirit of the aft An application contrary to the enactment of a bill was a fraud and a falfehood. The act of appropriation exprefsly directed the application of fums to particular fervices, to which minifters paid no refpect. A refolution of the house, May 15th, 1711, ftrongly expreffed difapprobition of 6000l. having been taken from the navy fund by the minifter, to fupply the army; and stated fuch a diverfion of the public money as leffening the credit of the navy. What ought, then, to be the diffatisfaction of the house, to behold a fyftem of uniform violation of every act of appropriation, and to an extent the moft alarming? Other acts were alfo violated. From the difpofition paper, it appeared that certain fums had been iffued for particular fervices, while it was notorious thofe very fervices were unpaid. This was the cafe with the money for cloathing the army, in which a balance of 16,000l. was due from midfummer 1794. With refpect to the bank, nothing had been faid. His original statement refpecting barracks was, he contended, juft; and 22 millions of permanent revenue would be neceffary to provide for the intereft of the national debt with the accumulated expences occafioned by the war. On a divifion for the order of the day, moved by Mr. Jenkinson, the ayes were 207, noes 45. Notwithstanding the ruinous ftate in which the finances of the country were evidently involved, in the month of April two ftrange though not unexpected political phænomena prefented themfelves, to alarm the thinking part of the British fenate: thefe were a fecond budget, and a fecond loan, in the fame feffion. The The chancellor of the exchequer on the 18th of that month brought forward his fecond budget. He propofed that measure, he faid, with a confiderable portion of anxiety and folicitude; and after revolving it in his mind with care and deliberation, he approached it with a fincere and rooted confidence in the refources of the country, which he believed to be fufficiently abundant to difappoint the proud and prefumptuous expectations which France had founded upon a contrary fuppofition. He divided the general difcuffion which he fubmitted to the confideration of the house of commons, into three distinct heads : First, the substitution of fuch new ways and means as he fhould fuggent in lieu of thofe propofed be fore Christmas, which, after due in quiry, he had thought it policy to relinquith: Second, the statement of fuch fervices as had not been foreseen in providing for the fervices of the year, and in propofing to the committee the means of meeting thofe fervices: Third, the meafures that he thought it would be advifable to adopt, in order to remove the diftrefs occafioned by the temporary demand for money, and in order to give facility to commercial credit. Under the first head Mr. Pitt obferved, that, in ftating the ways and means in December, he had mentioned his intentions of providing taxes for a calculated yearly reyenue of 1,120,000l. of which £135,000 was to arife from a certain tax on printed cottons and calicoes; but it had been fince thought advisable to withdraw it. As a sub ftitute to the amount of the greateft part of the deficiency occafioned by the withdrawing of this tax, he fhould propofe a tax on dogs; 1796. a measure firft brought forward by Mr. Dent, which he calculated to produce 100,000l. a year. This fum, deducted from the amount of the deficiency arifing from his relinquishing the propofed tax on printed cottons, left 35,000l. for which he proposed to provide after the following manner: The duty on hats had been found to decline yearly in its produce fince its firft inftitution, on account of the facility of evading it. He therefore propofed a mode of collecting it, as fimple as it was likely to be effectual, which was, that, inftead of being collected by a ftamped paper, which was eafily feparated from the hat, it fhould be collected by a ftamp upon the lining of the hat; in a way which would make it impoffible for the wearer not to know whether he had or had not paid the duty. This regulation he estimated to produce 40,000l. per annum more than the old mode of collecting that duty; which, added to the dog tax, would produce 140,000l. This fum was more than fufficient, he obferved, to fupply the deficiency occafioned by abandoning the tax on cottons. For the fake of uniformity, we fhall here state the remaining tax which the minifter this day propofed, viz. a new duty on wine. He contended, that, fuppofing the new duty which he was about to impofe should contribute towards the diminution in the confumption of wine, it would naturally lead to an increase in the confumption of other liquors, which might be more beneficial to the country in other refpects, and perhaps equally productive to the revenue. As to the danger of a decrease in the con fumption, he felt no anxiety on that account, because he found that the laft tax, instead of operating to L pro promote that decrease, had, on the contrary, been attended with an increafed confumption of that article. He propofed to the houfe a tax which would make an addition of fixpence a bottle to the confumer. This would amount to 20l. per tun, exactly the fame as the former tax, and would produce annually 600,000l. As he wished for a fum of ready money to pay the bank their fhare of the navy debt, &c. he should make it attach, like the former tax, immediately on the vender according to his ftock in hand, which he calculated to produce between 350,000l. and 360,000l. From 900,000l. to 1,000,000l. would therefore be the produce of the prefent year towards the fum permanently necef. fary to defray the fum borrowed; a confiderable portion would not be paid in the prefent year, particularly on extraordinaries; there would therefore be a large furplus of cash in the prefent year, applicable to the purposes hereafter to be mentioned. Upon the subject of a farcity of money, the chancellor of the exchequer allowed there had exifted an inconvenience from the increafed demand. This fcarcity, he contended, was rather the refult of the increafed commerce of the country than of its decrease, and of the poverty of the nation. One of the caufes of the prefent temporary fcarcity was the fupport of our foreign allies, and our army extraordinaries: but there were other caufes not connected with the difficulties of the country, but connected with its large growing refources and rich increafing profperity!!! It was a well known fact to deep and acute politicians, that the circulating me. dium of a country must bear a certain proportion to the extent of active capital, and to the extent of commercial fpeculation. The re medy he propofed for this fcarcity cf cafh, was the funding of the un funded debt, becaufe, under fuch circumftances as the prefent, there would naturally be a confiderable demand for difcount at the bank, and the large unfunded debt would make it impoffible in the bank to fupply the merchants fo much in advance, as they might do if the debt were funded. He therefore propofed the funding of 3,500,000l. of exchequer bills, for which an additional interest of two and a half per cent. would be to be provided, and alfo to find cash for the 500,000l. of navy bills held by the bank. The feven millions and a half, which he proposed to raise, would be applicable to affift the bank, whilft it provided for the different fervices incurring and incurred. He obferved that the two objects of providing for the remaining fervice exifting or forefeen, and for giving that relief neceffary from the general state of credit, would produce an increase of intereft of the annual fum of 575,000l. a year. It was therefore important, for the purpose of raifing the juft hopes of this country, and of diminishing the hopes of our enemies, that we should fhew that our refources were equal to meet the fervice and all the exigencies of the prefent year. The chancellor of the exchequer alfo ftated to the committee the increafed charges in the army, ordnance, and navy, which it might be neceflary to provide for, and which had occurred fince the statement of the budget at Christmas; as alfo the fervices which were not at that time forefeen, and the mode which he meant to propofe for defraying them. That That mode, he faid, was connected with another object, viz. that of giving relief to the general ftate of credit in the country, and to the demand for accommodation in the commercial world. The measure was to take out of the mar ket a great proportion of the paper conftituting the unfunded debt, and by that means to relieve the bank from the advances which they had made, fo as to enable them to allot a larger fum of money to commercial discounts. Charges to be provided for, and which had occurred fince the statement of the first budget. Of fervices not provided for under the head of army ex traordinaries, which had occurred fince the 31ft of De cember Of ordnance The additional fum required for building barracks, eftimated at The fum for fecret service, above the fum included in the last estimate, and including relief for the clergy of France £.535,000* 200,000 267,000 100,000 And the fum which, in the laft ftatement, the ways and means were short of the supply 177,000 These fervices made together 1,279,000 To which he added a fum which he felt would be necefsary to make good the further army extraordinaries up to the end of the year 1796 Making, in all, of new services above the statement opened in the month of December laft for the fervices of the current year, the fum of He next proceeded to the provifion which it was neceffary to make for the funding of fuch parts of the increase of the navy debt during the war, as had not been provided for in the course of the preceding years, and not to leave any which had not been provided for of that debt incurred fince the commencement of the war, or rather fince the first of December 1791. The fum for which intereft was found in the courfe of the year 1795, amounted to 3,594.00ol. because it had been the custom always to make provision in the pre 1,221,000 £.2,500,000 ceding year as far as may be calcu lated; to that must now be added 1,640,000l. of navy debt already incurred. He next ftated what debt it might be found neceflary to incur, fuppofing the war to continue to the 31st of December 1796. He had mentioned it before Christmas as likely to amount to 2.500,00 1. but as that debt had stretched out by the operation of unforeseen caufes to the amount of above 1,600,000l. more than was then expected, the other additional expences of the prefent year he eftiL2 mated |