pose we must find the means of avoiding the necessity of impairing the efficacy of the Sinking Fund at the present moment. Now my right honourable friend is already provided with taxes to the amount of 1,130,000l., for the present year. He wants about 700,000l. more to meet the estimated charge. The course I should take would be in substance this:-First, I would charge these seven hundred thousand pounds permanently upon the income of the Sinking Fund: but secondly, I would repay to the Sinking Fund, within the year, and out of the produce of the war taxes, a sum equal to the charge so thrown upon it in the first instance: and thirdly, I would impose new war taxes to that amount, unless upon examination it should turn out (as I believe it would) that by the improvements already made, or which might be made, in the assessment and collection of the property-tax, an increase in its produce to the full amount required might be expected in the present year.-If such an increase may be reckoned upon, no new taxes would be necessary beyond those which the Chancellor of the Exchequer is actually prepared to impose. If the war should continue, I should in like manner charge the interest of the loan of the next year upon the Sinking Fund; replacing to the Sinking Fund the amount of the sum so charged out of the produce of the war taxes, and increasing those taxes by an addition equivalent to the amount so transferred to the Sinking Fund. The advantages of this mode of proceeding, as compared with that of my right honourable friend, would be:-first, you would avoid breaking in upon the efficacy of your Sinking Fund during the war: secondly, by charging upon that fund the interest of the loans, you give to the contractors at once that permanent security which the war taxes, from their nature, do not afford: thirdly, you maintain the disposable revenue at its present amount: fourthly, by the growth of the Sinking Fund, you would revive and sustain public credit (raising the loans in consequence upon far cheaper terms): and fifthly, the unredeemed debt would be smaller by many millions at the close of the war. I should not object to mortgage, in this manner, the Sinking Fund to the amount in the whole required by my right honourable friend for the next four years, if the continuance of the war should render such a sacrifice necessary. If at the end of the four years, or sooner, peace should be restored, we should then be in a situation to revise the Act of 1802, without injury to the public interest, or to the public creditor; but, even then, I should think it improvident to interfere too hastily with the operations of the Sinking Fund. I would still continue to repay to that Fund, by a portion of the war taxes, to be continued specifically for that purpose, the full amount charged upon it on account of loans, until the state of public credit should admit of a reduction of interest on the five per cent. stock. When we shall not only have ceased to make any addition to our existing debt, but shall further be enabled to reduce the interest on a large portion of that debt; then I should say, the time would be arrived, when, without prejudice to the State, or injury to individuals, you might leave the charge of those loans upon the Sinking Fund, unreplaced by any further repayment from other sources. The reduction of the five per cent. to a four per cent. stock would be an advantage of no small consideration, which is at least postponed by the plan of my right honourable friend. The saving by this reduction of interest, when it takes place, will be more than one million a year; a saving either to be made over to the Sinking Fund, or to be appropriated to the public service, as may appear most expedient, under all the circumstances of the country, at the time when it may take place. In 1819, we should have the further aid of the Imperial Annuities (230,000l. a year), which will then fall in; and in 1821, the charge of the loan of 1807, amounting to 1,200,000l. a year, will be set free. Without anticipating the duty of a future parliament, as to what may be the most proper application of these sums; it is obvious that these resources, from the proximity of their falling in, might, in the event of peace, afford further facilities in the execution of the suggestion of which I am now stating only a very general outline. It Let us suppose that we act upon the principle of this suggestion, and that peace is not restored sooner than the end of the year 1816. We should, by that time, have mortgaged the Sinking Fund to the amount of about six millions. Its whole amount applicable to the reduction of debt, in 1816, would be upwards of eighteen millions. is not over-sanguine to assume, that by the effect of the continuance of such a Sinking Fund, with its annual improvement, for two years after a peace, the interest on the five per cent. stock might be reduced to four per cent. On the other hand, it cannot be denied by those who are acquainted with the nature of our war taxes, that several of the most productive (independent of the property-tax, which, in a more or less proportion, must, I think, be continued, at least for some years, as the foundation of our peace establishment) might without difficulty be maintained for two years after the restoration of peace; say till the close of 1818. The Sinking Fund would then have reached nearly to twenty millions. By deducting the aid of the war taxes, it would, in the year 1819, be reduced to somewhat above fourteen millions, or fifteen, if the saving by the contemporaneous reduction of the five per cents. should be allotted to it. From that period, so long as peace as peace should continue, we should have annually the gratifying task to perform, of remitting to the people more or less of their burdens; and we might look back upon our past difficulties with the cheering recollection, that a firm adherence to the principles laid down by Mr. Pitt in 1792 had enabled us to provide for all the exigencies of this tremendous and protracted contest, without for a moment swerving from that strict good faith which at once raises our character and doubles our resources; at once enables us, by exertions unparalleled in our history, to uphold the glory of our arms in every quarter of the world, and to find in the public credit at home the means by which such exertions are to be sustained. I will not weary the Committee by going into further details of the alteration which I could wish to see introduced into the plan of my right honourable friend. If the principle of that alteration should once be admitted by him, I am sure that he would be infinitely more competent to direct its application than myself. By adopting it, he would remove the only insuperable objection which I feel to his plan; that which arises from its directly breaking in upon the Sinking Fund, and diminishing its effective amount and operation, under circumstances, which, according to my right honourable friend's own words, more than once quoted by me, render such interference neither consistent" with JUSTICE to the Stockholder, nor with SAFETY to the State." Mr. Alexander Baring observed, that he entertained nearly the same view of this important question as Mr. Huskisson; the impression of whose admirable speech, he trusted, he should not weaken by any thing he might take the liberty of urging. Mr. Henry Thornton said, he had listened to it with the utmost attention, to discover whether it contained any errors or mistatements; but he had only perceived one trifling mistake, which his honourable friend had himself afterwards corrected. Mr. Tierney added, that every possible means which could be taken to expose the danger and absurdity of the plan, had been taken by Mr. Huskisson, and was convinced that his speech would be attended by the happiest results to the best interests of the country. The Resolutions were agreed to, SINECURE OFFICES-JOINT PAYMASTER OF April 6. Mr. Creevey having submitted to the House a resolution, having for its object to abolish one of the offices of Joint Paymaster of the Forces, the existence of which had been declared useless, by the Select Committee on Sinecure Offices, Mr. HUSKISSON declared himself unfriendly to the proposed resolution, which involved the principle, that the House of Commons had a right to legislate, with a view to the abolition of the office in question, or of any other office, without the concurrence of the House of Lords. To agree to such a resolution would, in his opinion, be to establish a precedent which might be very injurious in its consequence. He saw no reason for assuming, that the Lords would not adopt the Sinecure bill. To accede to the motion would be to furnish any noble lord, who might be hostile to that Bill, with the argument, that the proceedings of the Commons, in sending the Bill up to them, were a mockery; as, before the discussion of the measure in the upper House, the House of Commons had proceeded to legislate for the abolition of a particular office, the abolition of which was provided for in the Bill itself. If the present resolution were agreed to, why might not similar resolutions be proposed, for addressing the Crown to abolish other objectionable offices? and yet, so to pro |