He had no difficulty distinctly to declare, that he looked upon a considerable diminution in our military expenditure as essential, if not indispensable, to the existence of the country. To prove this, he would call the attention of the Committee; first, to the scale of the public expenditure; secondly, to the difficulty of providing for the expenses of a protracted warfare; and, thirdly, to the peculiar character of the present contest. The extraordinary expenses of the last year amounted to forty-seven millions. The means of meeting this expenditure, arising from the ordinary revenue, did not exceed seven millions: so that no less a sum than forty millions was left to be provided for by extraordinary means. The war taxes amounted to nineteen millions; and thus a sum of twenty-one millions was to be provided for by loans. To shew the progress of the public expenditure, he would submit the following facts to Not of the Cabinet. Right Hon. Rt. Saunders Dundas, President of the Board of Control. Vice President of the Board of Trade, and Treasurer of the Navy. Right Hon. George Rose Viscount Palmerston { ..........Secretary at War. Charles Arbuthnot, Esq.......... Sir William Grant Sir Vicary Gibbs ....Attorney-General. Sir Thomas Plomer Solicitor-General. Ministry of Ireland. Duke of Richmond ..................Lord Lieutenant. Right Hon. John Foster ............Chancellor of the Exchequer. the Committee. In 1782, the net receipts of the revenue were ten millions; in 1792, they amounted to fifteen millions; in 1801, they were thirty millions; and in 1809 sixty millions. It thus appeared, that the amount of the taxes was six times what it was twenty-seven years ago, four times what it was sixteen years ago, and double what it was eight years ago. Gentlemen must be aware that some limit must exist, as to the extent to which taxation could be raised. The present taxes upon consumption could scarcely, he presumed, be carried further. The direct taxes would, perhaps, admit of some increase, although they were nine times as great as they were in 1793. It only remained, therefore, for them to diminish the scale of public expenditure, in order to avert the greatest calamity to which the country could be exposed-a failure in its finances. As in the affairs of a private individual, the best mode of counteracting this evil was, not to shrink from the contemplation of it, but to look it boldly in the face, for the purpose of adopting the best means of averting it. In this view of the subject, it would be well to enquire, whether any inconveniences that might arise from a reduction of our military establishments, would not be more than counterbalanced by the financial advantages that would result from such a reduction. In support of this opinion, the honourable gentleman made a comparison of the amount of the different army estimates, from the year 1801 to the present time. The same preparation, he observed, now continued, and in an aggravated degree, that was made when the enemy, from week to week, was expected on our shores. In the amount of the staff, this was peculiarly to be remarked. In 1801, when we were threatened by the French with instant invasion, and when Buonaparte had no other enemy to contend with, the whole expense of the staff was 85,0007. For the present year, when the necessity for it was by no means so urgent, it amounted to 286,000. The whole of our regular force at the present moment, was about 270,000 men. Now, allowing one-third to be ineffective, there would remain 180,000 regular troops for the defence of the country; so that, with the militia, the local militia, &c. four hundred thousand men might immediately be called into action. Now, when the usual force of the country was taken into consideration, and the numerous obstacles with which the enemy would have to contend, in in an attempt at invasion, it appeared to him, that a large portion of this force might be dispensed with, and the security of the country remain, undiminished. There was one point, however, to which he wished particularly to call the attention of the executive government. He did not wish to throw out any invidious imputations; but he could not think that the different military departments were adequately superintended. The efforts of each department appeared to him to be carried beyond the necessity of the case. If, in building a mansion, the owner, from the want of a settled plan, suffered his workmen, of every description, to follow each his own notions of strength, or beauty, or usefulness, his materials would prove insufficient, and his edifice become disproportioned. In the cavalry, for instance, he thought a considerable reduction might be made. The practice of buying for the army horses at two years old was highly inexpedient, for, by the time they were fit for service, the keep of each would have cost the country at least one hundred and fifty pounds. It had been declared, by high military authority, that, supposing an invasion to take place, the landing would, in all probability, be effected in a part of the country in which cavalry could not act. The superabundance in this branch of the service was confessed by the noble lord, in his ad mission, that it was impracticable to procure horses for all the men. Those who were not mounted must consequently be inefficient; and for this reason he wished them to be reduced to the number at which they could be kept in an efficient state. After some observations on the uselessness of the Manx Fencibles, the honourable gentleman proceeded to particularize the excess of the staff in Great Britain. There were, he said, in Scotland eleven generals to command eleven thousand men. Nor was he aware of the necessity for any staff in the Middlesex district, conceiving as he did, that the large staff at head-quarters must be amply sufficient for the government of that district. With respect to the waggon-train, he considered them an annoyance when on foreign service, and utterly useless at home. After stating various other branches of the service, in which the expenditure of the country might be advantageously curtailed, he observed, that some honourable gentlemen might be of opinion that the suggestions he had thrown out were the result of political feeling, and others might think, that if he entertained these opinions formerly, he ought to have expressed them. The fact was, that the opinions which he had just stated he had always entertertained; but, when in office, he had considered it his duty to state them only to his superiors, convinced as he was, that the revision and retrenchment which appeared to him so desirable, could be beneficially effected by the executive government alone. In a late public document, Buonaparte had anticipated a further existence of thirty years. He was therefore anxious that every means should be adopted to enable this country to maintain the contest for that period, if necessary, and thus to preserve and secure her independence against the machinations of her most inveterate and most active enemy. After a debate of some length, the several resolutions were agreed to. On the bringing up of the report, Mr. Maurice Fitzgerald, referring to Mr. Huskisson's statement, observed, that it contained the strongest evidence of the necessity of retrenchment, coming as it did from the best informed man, upon that subject, in the country. Mr. Whitbread added, that no one could suspect that honourable member of making inconsiderate and ill-digested propositions; so that whenever he came forward with suggestions of economical reform, those suggestions were entitled to the greatest respect. Entertaining, as he did, the highest opinion of the talents of that honourable gentleman, and of his perfect acquaintance with every branch of the public expenditure, he considered his secession from the administration as by far the greatest loss it had sustained. THE BUDGET. The House having resolved itself into a Committee of Ways and Means, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Spencer Perceval, entered into a detail of the expenses of the current year, and of the means and aids by which they were to be supplied. On the first resolution being put, Mr. HUSKISSon rose. He said he did not know whether his right honourable friend, in his very able statement, alluded to him as one of those who considered the country in a falling condition. If he did so allude, it must have arisen from a misconception, seeing that he had neither thought nor said any such thing. He believed the nation to be in that state of progressive improvement which, in a country where property was so well protected, could only be checked by some convulsion. What he had said was, that it would be difficult to devise new taxes, which would not be extremely objectionable; that there was a limit to taxation, and that we had nearly reached that limit: and, that he was correct in all this, the statement of his right honourable friend most fully proved. Indeed, his right |