they might in point of utility,) there would be wanted 300,000l. for the West Indies alone, and, on the whole, from 700,000l. to 800,000l. He objected, also, to the estimates for miscellaneous services; which, he contended, must exceed 74,2247., the sum for which it was made out.

He came next to consider the shifts to which (he observed) the right honorable gentleman had resorted, in order to defray the extraordinary expenses of the year. Five hundred thousand pounds were to come from the East India Company. They were to pay 300,000l. last year; and he had then objected to the right honorable gentleman's taking credit for a sum which the company had not acknowledged to be due. No part of that sum had been paid into the exchequer; and, because the payment had been, and was still, disputed by the company, credit was again taken for a much larger sum; which he firmly believed would no more be paid than the former. The company had denied that they owed any such sum to government; they had drawn up a case for the consideration of counsel; and if the facts were as they were stated to be, he had no scruple in saying, that the claim of government was not well founded.

The right honorable gentleman amused the committee with fine stories of the increase of our trade and shipping, and the flourishing state of our fisheries; but, instead of entering into any exemplification of what he had advanced on that subject-the truth of which he wished as much to rely on as any man -he begged leave to call the attention of the committee to the commutation act; which (he contended) had failed in every circumstance for which those who supported it stood pledged to the public. Instead of the supply of tea, which the company were bound to import by that act, to answer the increased demand-to have a year's stock on hand and to keep the prices as low as by the commutation they ought to do-they had not imported a

quantity equal in any one respect to those purposes. This he did not charge on the company as blameable; their finances had not enabled them to do it; and would government call upon. them to pay 500,000l., in order to enable them to do that which they had not been able to do before? There was no way of doing this, but by enabling them to increase their capital as the value of it decreased, as had been done in the famous South Sea scheme.

With regard to the commutation act, he asserted again, that the compact with the public had been broken in every respect. In the first place, it was to destroy smuggling, which had been argued as the principal advantage that was to be obtained from it; and yet it was notorious that it had not done this. The company was to supply, not only England, but all Europe with tea. One hundred and eighty thousand pounds had been sent to the continent to buy up the whole stock there; and by the last accounts from China, the foreign shipping there was four times greater than it had been at any former period. We now sent to China 1,500,0007. annually, instead of 305,000l. or 400,000l., which we used to send before; and, notwithstanding this great increase of the balance against us, from the high price of tea, and the quantity that would soon be imported on the continent, there was reason to believe that smuggling would again prevail as much as ever. This breach of compact with the public, he affirmed to be a strong charge against those in whose hands the superintendance and management of the company was placed; and whose duty it was to see that the engagement with the public should be fulfilled. He objected, also, to the method in which the commutation duty was paid; and that it passed unnecessarily through various offices, instead of being paid immediately into the exchequer. He concluded with observing, that, in the present real state of the finances, and the evident inefficiency of the commutation act for the purposes

for which it was passed, he saw no reason why a duty of 200,000l. or 300,000l. should not be raised on the article of tea.

Mr Pitt replied and in the course of his speech observed, "Upon the whole, he lamented that the honorable gentleman had taken that opportunity of quarrelling with him; and that he had not been able to find a more plausible pretext for his opposition to the subject, under discussion of the committee, than by his dreams and reveries on the commutation act.”

Mr. Sheridan declared, that so far from having sought an opportunity of quarrelling with the right honorable gentleman, he had suppressed much of what he felt on the delusion, which had that day been practised on the subject of the finances and the resources of the nation. The right honorable gentleman (he admitted) had, at last, explained the nature of the claim on the East India Company, If it was not found to be just, the money was to be refunded;—this circumstance, however, had been considered of so little importance, that the right honorable gentleman had not thought it worth mentioning in his first statement--if this was not a shift, he did not know what term to bestow on it. The commutation act (he conceived) was at least as intimately connected with the ways and means of the year as the whale fishery, or any other of the amusing tales with which the right honorable gentleman had entertained the committee; calculated, no doubt, to call their attention from his figures to the more pleasing excursions of his imagination. He was now more than ever convinced that the right honorable gentleman himself, had not so good an opinion of that commutation act as formerly, from his readiness to give him a share in it. He persisted in his opinion, that the enforcing the claim on the East India Company, for a disputed debt of 500,000l. was highly unjustifiable, at a time when, for want of money, they were unable to fulfil their contract with the public. In every point of view in which he had considered the subject, and it had

occupied much of his mind, he was more and more convinced of the fallacy of the right honorable gentleman's reasoning. He denied that 74,000l. could possibly defray the expense of the miscellaneous services; and he was persuaded that the great extent of the works carrying on, both at home and abroad, under the name of fortifications, must create a very great increase of expense on the ordnance estimates of future years. The whole The whole expense of the nation could not be taken at less than sixteen millions annually, a sum which considerably exceeded the present amount of the whole revenue. He was, therefore, for adopting a more effectual mode of relief, than the delusive schemes which the right honorable gentleman held out to the public from year to year-for no other purpose but to put off the evil day. Let us then (concluded Mr. Sheridan) be manly enough to look our affairs in the face; let us provide the only true remedy by extending our resources, so as really to meet our expenditure. Such a proceeding was becoming the dignity of the empire, and was much more likely to render us formidable to our enemies, than by subdividing the Landgrave of Hesse, or overturning the Dutch constitution.

MAY 14.

COUNTY ELECTION BILL.

The order of the day having been read, for the house to go into a committee on the county election bill, the blanks in the several clauses were filled up, and the bill, with the amendments reported, ordered to be printed, and farther considered on the ensuing Monday.

Mr. Jolliffe observed, that he considered the bill as having a tendency rather to take away than to secure the rights of freeholders, and therefore it was his intention, at the time of its being reported, to make a motion on the subject.

Mr. SHERIDAN reminded the house, that, in the course of a debate which had taken place, the pre

ceding week, he had occasion to make mention of the commutation act, which gave rise to some conversation, that ended in a sort of challenge from the right honorable the Chancellor of the Exchequer to him, to enter upon a full and fair discussion of the effects of that statute; which challenge he had immediately declared his readiness to accept. As he did not therefore like to appear willing to meet any question, that he was not actually desirous to go through with, he meant to move for some necessary papers; a list of which he would read to the house; and if they were granted (and he saw no probable cause of objection), after they should be put upon the table, he would name a day, if possible in the course of the present session, for the discussion of the subject. Mr. Sheridan then read a string of motions, touching the quantity and sorts of the different teas in the East India Company's warehouse, previous to the arrival of the first ship from China this year, &c. &c. &c.

The question on the first motion was put and agreed to; but the Chancellor of the Exchequer afterwards entertaining some doubts how far it might be consistent with policy, to let the East India Companies on the continent into possession of the knowledge of the exact state of our East India Company's stock of tea in hand, the motion which had been carried, was by consent withdrawn; and Mr. Sheridan agreed to make his motions upon the following day.

COMMUTATION ACT.

Mr. Sheridan, on being called to from the chair, expressed his concern to find himself under the necessity of postponing his intended motions respecting the commutation act until the next day; but he had just learnt from those who had expressed some doubts as to the propriety of letting his motions go, that they had not yet had time enough to enquire whether they ought to consent or not.