Under the head of repayments to the bank, he proposed the sum of 1,054,000l. and the sum of 1,370,000l. to discharge exchequer bills issued on the credit of the consolidated fund for 1796, and paid also by the bank. The next sum was 1,110,0Col. for the discharge of navy and exchequer bills, raised by an act of the preceding session, upon a vote of credit in 1796. The deficiency of the consoliated fund required the sum of 2,177,000/. The last sum he alluded to was the vote of credit to the amount of 3,000,000l. As 500,000l. had been paid to the emperor, he wished to be provided with the further sum of 2,500,000l. in order that further advances might be made to him as exigencies might require. Thus the minister went through the whole of the supply, all the particular articles of which he observed it was not possible to calculate soon enough to insert them in the budget which he had opened before Christmas. For the sake of perspicuity the following recapitulation of the whole supplies for the year 1797 is inserted. Navy Army Army extraordinaries Treasury bills and army warrants Army extraordinaries for 1797 Ordnance, extraordinaries, and barracks Advances to the merchants of Grenada Annual addition to the sinking fund Deficiency of land and malt L. 12,061,000 350,000 Repayment to the bank for advances to the consolidated fund 1,054,000 of 1795 Ditto for 1796 Further deficiencies of land and malt Deficiency of the consolidated fund To discharge exchequer bills issued on the credit of the consolidated fund for 1796 Vote of credit for 1797 Mr. Pitt next stated the ways and means by which this large sum was to be raised. A loan of 18 millions had already been voted, 2,750,000l. for the land and malt, and 420,000l. for the surplus of grants for the year 1796. He observed, that of the 18 millions to 1,370,000 900,000 try. He proposed a further loan of two millions, if sanctioned by parliament, to assist our faithful ally in The land and malt Surplus of grants his present struggle. The aggregate of the ways and means in the two budgets was as follows: Loyalty loan, according to the first budget Exchequer bills Growing produce of the consolidated fund, by estimation Total of ways and means for the year 1797 L. 2,750,000 420,000 18,000,000 200,000 3,000,000 2,000,000 16,500,000 L. 42,870,000 He then stated the terms of the new loan of 18 millions as follows: For every 1001. subscribed the subscriber was to have Every 100l. subscribed, to have the value of L. 104 17 From hence, he said, there would be a profit of 47. 178. for every subscription of 100l. which, except in a period of such difficulty as the present, was larger than he should be willing to allow; but this was not the whole of the profit; there was a discount to be added, which he had felt it his duty to make higher than usual. The common rate was three per cent.; he proposed to make it four per cent. in order to encourage the prompt payments upon the loan; the whole bonus, therefore, would be 6l. 17s. per cent. to every subscriber when the discounts for prompt payments were taken in. The chancellor of the exchequer next proceeded to what he called the unpleasant task of enumerating the new taxes he had to propose for raising the interest upon the several sums borrowed, of which the following is a summary statement. L. 320,000 The consolidated duties on stamps in general, doubled Tax on property transferred by private contract, at 4d. per pound 170,000 Copies of deeds to be given in evidence to be stampt 40,000 On the probates of wills above the sum of 300l. 40,000 An additional duty of 14d. upon the stamps of each newspaper 114,600 Increased daty on advertisements 20,000 On attorneys' certificates 15,000 On ornamented plate 30,000 Duty equal to the tolls on all carriages passing turnpikes 450,000 L1,199,000 1797. D Here Here the minister omitted three articles which he supplied the next day upon a suggestion of Mr. Fox, namely, L. On bills of exchange 40,000 Insurance from fire 35,000 Omitted in the sums mentioned on the produce of the stamps on copies of deeds 10,000 These sums being added, the whole produce of the new taxes made the sum of Mr. Fox rose, and observed, that however unfounded the financial calculations of the chancellor of the exchequer had formerly been, they were even exceeded in delusion by his statements that day, which were altogether unprecedented in the history of finance. He came forward in December last, and having succeeded in obtaining a supply of 18 millions, he came forward again in April, and repeated the experiment by calling upon parliament for the same sum. The minister ought to be reminded, that, on the seventh of December, he told the house that the 18 millions then advanced were given not so much with an idea of prosecuting the war, as with an earnest hope of enabling him to forward the desirable work of peace, and that he stated that sum to be an ample supply for the exigencies of the state. After making some observations upon the statements given in, of the produce of the taxes, Mr. Fox contended, that there still remained a deficiency of 357,000l. though he did not from thence argue, that, because the minister was minus for that, sum, he should have immediately proceeded to provide for it; but he would contend, that for him to maintain that he had a surplus when he was actually deficient was an illusion of too gross and palpable a nature to impose upon the understanding. But if the taxes of 1796 produced the 1,284,000 sum it was intended they should, there would then be a deficiency of 88,000l. and that, according to the report of the select committee, at the beginning of the session there was a deficiency of 357,000l. and in October the right honourable gentleman came forward and funded his navy bills, and in December he made his loan; he ought then to have announced that the produce of the taxes was not equal to meet the public exigencies. Instead of the taxes which had been proposed, it appeared that the sum of 1,800,000l. in taxes would not have been too much for the various exigencies of the moment. The report of the select committee, he said, did not deserve the eulogium which had been passed upon it: according to their account, the deficiency amounted to 210,000l. whereas he (Mr. Fox) calculated it at 470,000l. He next examined the estimates for the navy service. In December the minister stated, that the probable increase of the navy debt would be two millions and a half, and this he called a very ample estimate; next he raised it to four millions; and, lastly, in April, when he brought forward his second budget, he called for 8,764,000l. more. The number of men voted for the service of 1795 was 110,000, the vote for the current year was for 120,000 men. Instead therefore of making the increase less than it had been in the preceding year, the chancellor chacnellor of the exchequer should have made it proportionably greater; it ought to have been 6 or 700,000l. more than his estimate." Notwithstanding all the heavy burdens." said Mr. Fox," and all the dreadful taxes we are about to impose this day, we have still one million more to provide for the exigencies of the public service." With respect to the proposed loan of 200,000l. to the emperor, to enable him to pay the interest of a sum which he had formerly borrowed of this country, Mr. Fox observed that this was very different language from that held out by the minister when he applied to the people to be security for the house of Austria, and when he extolled the good faith of the bank of Vienna. The loan was made to him in critical circumstances, and he was not to pay the interest then due because he still remained in critical circumstances. The house was called upon near the end of April to provide 18 millions additional. Three payments only had then been made good upon the loyalty loan, and there were still seven-tenths to be paid, which amounted to 12,600.000/.; so that, between then and the first day of the next January, the enormous sum of 30,600,000l. was to be collected for the public exigencies. In 1796 the subjects were burdened with new taxes, which produced the an nual sum of three millions; but the taxes imposed for 1797 amounted, by estimate, to seven millions and a half. What arguments were used to reconcile them to bear quietly such a load? Indeed, they had been told very rhetorically, that "they had not been scratched by the war,' but he feared these new impositions would lead them to conclude that they should be desperately wounded by it. Mr. Grey said, there was an article in the report of the select committee which he wished to have explained. There was a sum of 1,500,000l. stated to be unfunded debt, unprovided for. He wished to know, whether certain sums had not been specifically granted last session of parliament for the payment of this charge, the money for which had however been diverted to other purposes? If this were the case, the right honourable gentleman had violated the acts of appropriation, and diverted the money granted to parliament in a manner highly criminal. The chancellor of the exchequer replied, that the objection which had just been made was founded entirely in, misconception. sum alluded to had not been granted by parliament for that specific purpose, nor had there been any violation of the appropriation act. When the loan was made for the purpose of paying off the debt on the exchequer bills, the bank had not availed themselves of the opportunity to subscribe, and there was power by the act of appropriation to pay them in cash. This, at the end of the year, made the grant exceed the supplies, and the sum of 150,000 7. mentioned by Mr. Grey, so far from being concealed, was comprehended in the last budget, and was paid out of the supplies of the year 1797. The resolutions were then put, and all agreed to without a divi sion, except that which imposed an additional tax of d. on newspapers. On this head the house divided→→ Ayes 151-Noes 43. The several bills for imposing the new taxes proposed by Mr. Pitt in his statements in the two budgets for the current year, were regularly and successively brought into both houses of parliament, and most 01 them were passed with few altera D 2 tio Inland navigation duty, by some new regulations, would cause a deficiency of 90,000 Newspaper advertisements 40,000 Transfer of property 80,000 Total deficiency L. 660,000 These deficiencies Mr. Pitt proposed to supply by the following new taxes: Surplus on Scotch spirits On horses employed in agriculture Mr. Sheridan strongly opposed the tax on horses used in husbandry. Mr. Burdon contended for the necessity there was for the landed interest coming forward, and shewing they were willing to take their share of the burden. He wished to see an additional land-tax upon a more equal scale, in which he was seconded by Mr. Dent. The committee divided on the horse tax-for the resolution 83-against it 8. The other resolutions were carried, and the bills passed with little variation. On the 29th of April, the chancellor of the exchequer presented L. 182,000 150,000 15,000 14,000 200,000 as to the house of commons a message from his majesty, recommending it to them to enable his majesty to make remittances from time to time, to be applied to his service in Ireland, in such manner should be approved by the parliament of that kingdom to an amount not exceeding 1,500,000l. on provision being made by them for discharging the interest and charges of a loan to that amount; and also to consider of guaranteeing a loan on the account of his ally the emperor, to be applied in making good the advances to the amount of 1,600,000l. which had been |