the general conduct of the Government, the public expenditure, the situation of the country, and the necessity, in our present circumstances, for the most rigorous and uncompromising economy in all departments of the State. Having adverted in succession to the topics alluded to in the speech from the throne, and on which he said nothing substantially different from the remarks made by the different speakers who had preceded him, the honourable gentleman observed, that after what had passed last session, and after the recommendation to the House of Commons in the speech from the throne, they were bound to take an early opportunity of examining the state of the revenue and of the public accounts, in order to place the finances of the country on a footing which might support the commanding situation which Great Britain held among the nations of Europe, and he expected that his Majesty's Ministers would make some explicit statement of their intentions on the subject. What the commanding

state of England might be in political discussions in Europe, he could not state: But, what the "commanding situation" of the country was, in point of revenue, he could very distinctly show the House from the accounts on the table. The maintenance of the public credit, by securing the payment of the public dividends, was strongly recommended by his Majesty; but if the House examined the accounts, they would find that the Consolidated Fund was above nine millions in arrear; and therefore that if the Bank of England refused to make advances to Government, the public creditor could not be paid. He was extremely anxious to call the attention of the House to a subject of vital importance, as connected with the revenue; a subject which, if rightly understood, would enable his Majesty's Ministers to make much greater reductions of expense than they had hitherto been able to effect. He had taken the trouble to make out three statements with reference to the national income and

Collection of the Revenue

4,351,837 4,405,757 4,249.236 4,136,642

site to follow him, he would hand over to them copies of that statement. (Here Mr Hume handed to the Treasury Bench two printed copies of the statements given below, which occasioned considerable merriment in the House.) It appeared and he was merely quoting from those tables which had been extracted from the public annual Finance Accounts laid before Parliamentthat the total expenditure (exclusive of the Sinking Fund) was, for the year 1817, L. 58,544,049; for the year 1818, L. 57,872,428; for the year 1819, L. 57,392,544; and for the year 1820, L. 57,476,755; and that the total expenditure, including the Sinking Fund, was, for the year 1817, L. 73,062,340; for the year 1818, L. 73,225,194; for the year 1819, L.73,698,135; and for the year 1820, L.74,987,348. It appeared, therefore, whilst the income was stationary, or had rather decreased since 1817, that the total expenditure had gone on gradually increasing. Was there any justification

for such an increase? By no means. Had the gross receipt of the revenue increased? No; for although in 1818 the right honourable gentleman imposed on the country three millions of additional taxation, yet, although the revenue in England had in consequence increased, the revenue in Ireland had proportionably decreased. So that it appeared that the people of England were additionally taxed to keep down the people of Ireland, where the revenue was decreasing by the misrule and oppression that was carrying on there. He pledged himself to prove to any man who was acquainted with the first four rules of arithmetic, that the right honourable the Chancellor of the Exchequer had, by his management, lost fifteen millions to the country since he had taken the administration of the Treasury. Such, at least, was the amount which appeared to have been lost, as far as can be made out from the public accounts. This was no slight charge; and he therefore begged the atten

...............

Amount of Expenditure, includ

come of Great Britain and Ireland, (exclusive of loans) for the four years, 1817, 1818, 1819 and 1820, was L.235,768,462; and that the total expenditure for the same period, (exclusive of Sinking Fund) was L. 231,285,776, exhibiting a total nett surplus of revenue of the United Kingdom in those four years of L.4,482,686. Since making out that statement, he (Mr H.) had found that the sum of L.316,993 paid for Quarantine packet expenses ought to have been deducted from that

amount, and the nett surplus of revenue over expenditure (loans and sinking fund excluded) would only have been L. 4,171,693. He would, however, for the present, take the larger sum as the surplus. Had that four millions and a half been properly husbanded, the debt would have been reduced to that amount. The 3 per cents. having been at an average about 70, the surplus of L. 4,482,686 ought to have effected a reduction of L. 192,117 of annual dividend; and

£. 51,136,792.

be

1,300,000