TH

HE houfe of commons, having refolved itself into a committee of ways and means, on February 18, IS; Mr. Pitt, appearing, for the last time, in the character of chancellor of the exchequer, produced, as he faid was now his duty, the charges for the current year, and the ways and means by which thofe expenfes were to be defrayed. The order he obferved, in this complicated bufinefs, was, firft to particalarize the expenfes for which provilion was to be made by the two countries, in the proportion fettled by the late measure of the union: and, in the next place, thofe charges which belonged, exclufively, to each kingdom.

The charges of the navy, amounted this year to 15,800,000l.; which was an advance of 2,000,0001. beyond those of the laft year. This, he obferved, was a general charge, a proportion of which was to be paid by Ireland. The army charges, this year, were 9,617,000l.: thofe of the last year, 8,820,0001. The account would then ftand thus: Army charges for 1801 £9,617,000 Extraordinaries for do. 2,500,000 Eftablishment for Ireland 3,78,000

Total military charges £15,902,000

The expenfes of the ordnance establishment for the prefent year, would amount to 1,659,000/. being an excels of a few thoufands beyond thofe of the former year. Thole for Ireland amounted to 299,000.; making a total of 2,757,000l.

He had allo to propose a vote of credit, for this country, of 800,000%. and 500,0007. for Ireland; which, he trufted, would be fufficient for every emergency; particularly, as in the prefent ftate of Europe, we were prevented from fending our fubfidies to foreign powers. The feveral fums which he had enumerated, and which belonged conjointly to both countries, amounted to 35,587,0007: of this fum, England was to pay, by agreement, 15-17ths, and Ireland, 2-17ths.

As to deficiencies, the firft he fhould notice was, in the incometax, which had been taken at feven millions, but which could not he expected to produce, in either year, more than fix millions. The difcount, on the late loan, amounted to 400,000l. The deficiency in the malt-duty was 400,0007. In the affeffiment of 1798, and the incometax of 1799, 1,350,000. The deficiency in the produce of the confolidated fund, as calculated to

April,

imated at 15,000l. This increafe of the import or exports, and home confumption, might be expected to make up, together, the fum of 119,000/. An addition of twentypence per cwt. on fugar, he expected to produce 166,000. A duty on raifins would produce 10,000.; and a duty on lead 120,0007.

The next tax Mr. Pitt propofed was, an additional duty on horfes of every defcription, not excepting even thofe employed in agriculture: though that on the latter would only be to a fmall amount. On every horfe employed in agriculture, he propofed an additional duty of 4s. for each, which would produce the fum of 136,000. On pleafurehorfes, where only one was kept, an additional duty of 10s. for each, which would produce the fum of $70,000: making the whole prodace of the additional tax on horfes, 306,000Z.

An increase of one-half of the exifting ftamp-duty on all bills and notes, he estimated at 112,000l. To double the prefent duty on all policies of infuranee in fhipping tranfactions, would produce 145,000/On all deeds of conveyance of property, which bore, at prefent, a tax of jos. per fkin, he propofed to place an additional duty of 3s. per fkin, which would produce 93,000. Total amount of additional ftampduties, 350,0001. The next and the laft fubject of taxation to which Mr. Pitt called the attention of the houfe was one, he obferved, in which the revenue was railed in a way the moft fatisfactory, and the moft confiftent with the interefts of the people: for it was only a duty on that which individuals found more convenience in, than could be obtained by any other mode they could adopt; and ... VOL. XLIII.

for which they paid, in proportion to the expenfe of any other convenience, very little indeed. By paying to the public, in the article alluded to, individuals paid infinitely less than they would be obliged to pay, if they were to take the thing upon themfelves. The duty he meant was that on the postage of letters. Various regulations refpecting diftances, crofs-road pofts, packets to Ireland, foreign letters, and enclofures in foreign letters, it was eftimated would produce a revenue of 80,000l. With refpect to the penny-poft, Mr. Pitt propofed that the prefent rate, should be doubled: that is, that, inftead of a penny, every letter fhould, in fu ture, be charged twopence. The produce of this additiona! penny was eftimated at 17.0007. The whole produce, to be drawn from the new post-office regulations, he estimated at 150,0007..

permanent taxes exceeded, on the 5th of January laft, that of January, 1800. January, 1801, might be called the era of our profperity as well as trial. At this period, our imports and exports were more than they were in the year 1791. If we looked at the state of the debt, we had abundant confolation: for, ftruggling, as we had been, with difficulties, and increafing a debt, which we could not have avoided, yet, by a rigid and fcrupulous adherence to the fyftem long fince adopted for the difcharge of that debt, according to the engagement we had entered into with ourselves, in the year 1786, we had paid off no lefs a fum than 52,000,000. of the capital of our debt: a fum which, but for that engagement, and our fcrupulous adherence to it, would have been now a burthen to the people of this country. The total amount of our finking fund was 5,000,000, annually. Of the burthens impofed on us by this unexampled war, more than one-half had been employed, not in fupporting ourfelves, under engagements entered into by ourfelves, but to pay the debts contracted by our anceftors. In former times, the courfe was, to make comparisons of the revenue of a year of war with that of a year of peace, by way of fhewing how productive fome years of war had been; but now the climax was not that of going from a year of war to a year of peace, to fhew the flourishing state of our commerce and revenue: the course must be that of comparing one year with another; for the war had been attended with a constant increase of our commerce and revenue: fo that we were diftinguified by our profperity, commerce, and naval fupe

It

riority, above all the other nations of the world. And it was fingular, but not more fingular than true, that very year, though we had fuffered fo much, and that recently, from unfavourable feasons, the prefent year, 1800-1801, was the proudeft that the country had ever known with refpect to its commerce. might well be matter of wonder to fome, though it was not, that, in fpite of all the alarms, lamentations, and momentary defpondency, which had been fo induftriously pressed on the minds of the people, from circumftances too well calculated to have that effect, this country should be the only one in Europe, that had, in this great ftruggle, the memory of which would be dear to the world, preferved the full benefit of a conftituton, which was adapted to fupport the public liberty and private happiness of a people, who had fhewn their affection for a fovereign, that had, at all times, fhewn for them the feelings of a father. A people which had fhewn a vigour and a firmness, worthy of being guided by the wisdom of fuch a parliament. Such was the view, exhibited by Mr. Pitt, of the state of the public, at the close of his own adminiftration.

The feveral refolutions towards granting a fupply to his majefty were agreed to, and, in the form of bills, through the ufual ftages, pafled into laws. In the courte of the different reports and readings of the relpective bills, ftrong objections were made to feveral of them, as being too oppreffive to the poor, and even middling ranks of fociety, or bearing too hard on different purfuits of induftry. It was eaffer to point out their preffure, than to remove it by any fubftitutes; yet, in

a few

a few inftances, fome amendments to certain bills, for the relief of certain claffes, were propofed and adopted. On the motion of Mr. Rofe, an amendment was made in the resolution respecting the tax on paper; as the new duty would materially affect the interefts of the proprietors of newspapers, who, by former acts, were prevented from mifing the price of their papers above fixpence: to the difcount they already received, in the purchase of stamps, there was allowed an additional difcount of four and a half per cent, which would leave them on nearly the fame footing on which they ftood before the new tax on paper was impofed. HackDey coach-horfes were exempted from the new duty; and an exemption was also made in favour of farmers employing only two horfes, and of whofe farms, the annual rent did not exceed 307. It has already been obferved, that the fum borrowed by Great Britain, for the fervice of 1801, was 25,500,000.; but it was neceffary, for the fervice of Ireland, to borrow about 2,500,000l. for which, of courfe, Ireland was to provide a fum for the payment of the interest: fo that the whole loan, contracted by the government of the united kingdom, was 28,000,0001. In the bill for this loan, there was a clause, inferted in the committee, authorizing the commiflioners of the treafury in Ireland to fet apart certain fums for the repayment of that partof the loan, which was made for defraying the charges of the establishment of IreLand.

Mr. Abbot, in the boufe of commons, February 12, obferved, that, in confequence of the union between Great Britain and Ireland, it would

be neceffary to enact many laws, with reference to those which were already in force, with regard to Ire land. He therefore moved, that an humble addrefs might be presented to his majefty, praying that he would direct a copy of the ftatutes of Ireland to be laid before the houfe, which. motion was agreed to. On the 21st of February, he obferved, that the public finances of Ireland fhould be fubmitted to investigation, in the fame manner as thofe of this country, in order that the fate of the finance of the empire, at large, might clearly appear before the. house. For this purpose. he had framed several motions, claffed under different heads, and made as fpecific as the nature of the fubjects, appeared to him to require: of which the fubftance was, to fhew the income, the expenditure, the trade, the debts, the arrears, the balances in the hands of the publie accountants of Ireland, and the price current of exports and imports: all these articles, for the year ending on the 5th of January, 1801, as far as the accounts could be made up or eftimated. Motions for the pa pers neceffary for the investigation of all thefe fubjects were made and agreed to. Thus the revenue and expenditure of Ireland were brought, like thofe of England and Scotland, under the eye and control of the imperial parliament. To the ufual committees, one was added, to take into confideration what additional orders, and what other regulations it might be proper to make relative to the proceedings of the houfe of commons, in confequence of the union of Great Britain and Ireland, and to report the fame, with their opinion thereon, from time to time, to the houfe.