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For raising this fum, the minifter propofed the following
WAYS AND MEANS:

Land and malt

Produce of the confolidated fund

Surplus of grants of 1796

£. 2,750,000

1,075,000

420,000

Surplus of the lottery, after deducting the fum due upon it

200,000

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The chancellor of the exchequer then proceeded to ftate the terms of the volu tary loan of 18 millions, fo creditable and glorious to the country. The intereft then to be provided for that lon was no more than 51. 125. 6. per cent. per annum; he faid he should not think himielt juftifiable if he were to provide a lefs fum than for the whole as a permanent annuity; and alfo to add the ufual fum of one per tent, to the finking fund, as if the loan was not to be paid off. In this view, taking the intereft at gl. 12s. 6d. and adding one per cent. on account of the finking

18,800,000

5,500,000

£. 27,945,000

27.945,000 27,047,000

£. 298,000

co

fund, would make the whole of the intereft to be provided, about 61. 155. for every 100; hence the intereft on the 18.000.000 would be 1,215,000. He proposed that exchequer bills fhould be iffued to the amount of 5,500,000l. becaufe he was convinced that fo many might be circulated both with nomy and advantage. Other fpecies of floating debt had been found to be injurious, from the enormity. of the difcount to which they fell on account of the length of time they had to run. The intereft on thefe exchequer bills would be 275,000l.

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The total excess of the navy debt beyond the estimate of f} 8,250,000

1796, was

Of this fum, a provifion had been made for

Therefore interest must be provided for the difference, viz.

Having taken 2,500,000l. in the eftimate of fupply, he was confident he should cover every poffible demand under the head of navy debt, if he provided intereft for 3,000,000l. more,

4,000,000

4,250,000

The items of the different fums for which intereft was to be provided, and for which new burdens were to be laid upon the people, when recapitulated, ftood as follows:

For

For the intereft of 18,000,000l. of loan

For intereft on 5,500,000l. of exchequer bills
For ditto of excefs of navy 8,250,000!.

For intereft of future excefs of navy 5,702,000l.
Substitute for abandoning the collateral fucceffion bill

1,215,000

275,000

315,000

277,000

140,000

£. 2,222,000

From this was to be deducted the intereft upon the subfcription to the loan of 2,000,000 by the East-India company

Therefore the fum of intereft to be provided for by new taxes would be

112,000

2,110,000

The following is the recapitulation of the new taxes which the chancellor of the exchequer propofed for raifing the intereft of the feveral fums above stated.

EXCISE.

Ten per cent. on teas

240,000

Ten per cent. on coffee

30,000

Additional duty on fales by auction, 2d. in the pound on

ettates, and 3d. on goods

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On bricks, 18. per thoufand

36,000

Spirits, 1d. per gallon

Licences on Scots diftillery

210,000 300,000

Total excife . 856,000

CUSTOM S.

Sugar, 2s. 6d. per cwt.

280,000

Pepper

10,000

Ten per cent. on brimstone, iron, oil olive, and staves
Five per cent. on all other customs, prize goods, coals, and

wine excepted

Other articles on import, such as starch, bricks, &c.".

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Addition to the affeffed taxes and new houfe tax, 10 per cent. 290,000

Regulation of stamps.

Additional poftage, and regulation of the poft-office

Stage coaches, additional

30,000

250,000

60,000

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Such were the refources from which he proposed to draw the necellary fums to provide for the intereft of the enormous expence of the year. The new duties, he said, were diffused over so many articles

that they would operate with equal-
ity, and yet would not bear hard on
the poor. By the production of the
taxes it might be inferred, that the
war had not materially injured the
fources of our prosperity.

The permanent revenue for the year, ending 10th of
October, 1796, amounted to

of }

And notwithstanding the operation of the new duties, the average produce of thofe duties for the last three years

was

On the fide of fupply he had taken but the fum of 3,000,000l. to meet the further extraordinaries for the

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14,012,000

13,855,000

year 1797, though they amounted to a much larger fum the preceding year.

The amount of the navy debt, according to the papers? 15,171,000

furnished by the board, was

And by adding for the increase of debt to the 30th of December

1,000,000

The total up to that time would then be £. 16,171,000

Mr. Pitt then alluded to an expence of a particular nature which had been incurred during the interval of parliament; the affiftance which minifters had thought proper to grant to the emperor without a public difcuffion: the reasons which he gave for this conduct were, that in the critical fituation of the country, it might have been matter of extreme delicacy to have brought forward a public difcuffion en the propriety of advancing a fum to a foreign court; and the confequences might have been to have fuggefted a grant too fmall for the wants of our ally, or too large for the means of the country. A fum of about twelve hundred thoufand pounds had, he believed, been allotted to his imperial majefty; a future opportunity would be afforded for the difcuffion of this topic, which he only mentioned, that no circumftance connected with the national expenditure might be kept

1797.

back on this occafion. He should propofe a fum of three millions, with a view of enabling minifters to make advances to our allies, if we were compelled to perfevere in the war; at the fame time we were not to confider fuch fums as loft to the country; we had feen too many of thofe qualities, the inherent companions of good faith and honour, in his imperial majesty, to entertain any fufpicions with refpect to his conduct: he should therefore propose (he faid) the vote of three millions.

Mr. Fox reprobated, with his ufual energy, this unconftitutional mode of proceeding. The minister now, he faid, had spoken out plainly; he had acknowledged that he had given to the emperor, without the confent of parliament, twelve hundred thousand pounds, and that he was to continue to do it if he thought it neceffary! Those who were members of the laft parC

liament

liament could not have forgotten, that for the last three months of that parliament, not a week had elapfed in which fome queftion was not put to the minifter, in which he was called to declare, whether he intended to grant any pecuniary affiftance to the emperor. Did he mean to fay, that he intended to give it, but that his own authority for that purpose was fufficient? that it was fuperfluous to fubmit fuch a fubject to parliament, and that he could iffue the money of his own authority? Perhaps he did he might borrow an example from his own conduct to keep the measure in countenance. It was of a piece with his advice to his majesty to continue him as his minifter against the declared opinion of the house of commons in the year 1784. Now he had gone one ftep farther, and fhewn to the people of Great Britain that he was a better judge than the parliament of Great Britain, to whom their money, and how much of it alfo, fhould be given. "If,"faid Mr. Fox," thefe are the fentiments to be acted upon in this country; if the minifter be permitted to carry them into effect, I declare, for myfelf, that the conftitution is not worth fighting for. On the 27th of December, 1795, you met: did he give you any intimation of his having advanced the money before you were called together? did he give you any intimation before this very night Not a word. For this conduct he ought to be impeached. He has had it in his power to confult you long ago upon this fubject, as it was his duty. He has neglect ed to do fo, by which he has manifefted a determination to difpofe of the money of the people without confulting their reprefentatives. What reafon can be affigned for

this, but that he thinks his judgment better than the judgment of the reprefentatives of the people of Great Britain? The minifter fays, that we should feel the utmost confidence in lending our money to the emperor, becaufe we have feen in the emperor thofe heroic qualities which ufually accompany good faith. Now, fuppofing heroifm to be a juft criterion of good faith in pecuniary concerns, I should like to try the effect of this mode of reafoning. Suppofe for a moment that we were in a state of neutrality with the French republic, and it was proposed that we fhould lend money to the French, would the minifter fay we should lend them money? certainly he would not; and yet, if good faith in pecuniary engagements was to be meafured by heroic qualities, there are none to whom we ought to be more ready to lend; for of their valour they have given abundant proofs." Mr. Fox then proceeded to ftate the fituation of the emperor and the French at this moment; in which he maintained, that, with all the fucceffes of the Auftrians in the latter part of the prefent campaign, another could not be opened under circumftances of more advantage to the emperor than thofe in which he had been placed at the commencement of the laft.

He here took notice of the fucceffes of the French in Italy, and, by way of anfwering the praises beftowed on the good qualities of the houfe of Auftria, he inftanced the cruelties that had been exercifed on La Fayette, which he faid had excited horror all over Europe.

He then obferved the minifter's calculations of events: year after year he had calculated upon the events of the war, and year after

year

year the public had been mifled by his calculations. At one time he was fure the navy debt would only be a million and a half; after that, he calculated the fame debt at four millions; then at fix or feven millions, and now it was ftated to be above fixteen millions. What fecurity had the house and the public that the minifter would not mifcalculate in future as he had already done in the courfe of the prefent war? By his mif-calculations he had added to the debt of this country one hundred and fifty milions, and rivers of human blood had been made to flow all over the world.

The minister now talked of peace; but as he was fo fond of his own calculations, he wished he would fome day fit down in his closet and calculate what a fum of human happiness he had deftroyed already; what a watte of human life he had occafioned, because he could not fooner discover that the French were capable of maintaining the accustomed relations of peace and amity with other powers. Here Mr. Fox took notice of the difference between the minifters of the elector of Hanover and thofe of the king of Great Britain, with refpect to the prudence of making peace with the French republic. He had heard it faid, that the spirit of the people of this country was great: he believed it to be fo; he gloried in that fpirit; but if the fyftem, on which this war was carried on, was to be continued much longer, he had his doubts, he faid, of the continuance of that spirit.

A great people, who faw hun. dreds of thousands of their fellow creatures fall, their national debt encreased above one hundred and fifty millions, their credit finking, the neceffaries of life becoming, by their price, almost entirely out of the reach of the labouring clafs (and

all this because one man, or a few men, in the country, made falfe calculations), were not likely to preferve their ancient spirit.

The national debt was now above four hundred millions; he had not calculated exactly what portion of it was owing to this war altogether, but he was now ready to declare what he often had declared, and ftill oftener felt, that it was unjust at its commencement, impolitic in its progrefs, and, he believed there was not one man of fenfe who had any wishes for his country's welfare, who did not from his heart wish it at an end. Perhaps the minifter might think the cape of Good Hope an equivalent for all we had fuffered : if he did, neither his humanity nor his judgment was to be envied. Mr. Fox faid he was afraid that no queftion would be ftated that night on the propriety of lending money to the emperor without the confent of parliament, and therefore he' could not manifeft by his vote his opinion upon the fubject: however, whenever it came before the houfe he fhould meet it with his direct negative, for it was " a vio. lent and daring attack upon the British conftitution."

The refolutions were then put and carried.

On the 8th of December Mr. Hobart brought up the report of the committee of ways and means, which was read a first time, and on the queftion being put for its being read a fecond,

Mr. Fox rofe. He faid it was his ardent with that every member of the houfe might pay the moft ferious attention to the fubject, under a strong conviction that the greateft exertions would be neceffary to put the finances of this country in a proper fituation; but this was not the point to which he proposed to call the attention of the house: it

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was

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