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ient a heargence when resolutions should not going over the same ground. He should briefly state the amount of the supply which was required for the year 1816, and the ways and means by which he should propose to parliament to make provision for it. It would be necessary only to advert shortly to those principles which he had endeavoured to illustrate on a preceding evening, and though the measures which he had declared it to be his intention to recur to as a source of present supply had not yet received the express approbation of the House, yet the liberal view which had been taken of the whole of our financial situation, and of the proceedings consequent upon it, would justify him, he trusted, in not proposing any new taxes in aid of the services of the present year. The estimated quota of contribution for the year 1816 was 3,145,6561. British, as had just been stated by his right hon. friend, making in Irish currency the sum of 3,407,7941.; the charge for interest and sinking fund on the present debt is 6,826,7301. including management, making the total supplies 10,234,5241. The state of the consolidated fund was as follows the surplus balance in the exchequer on the 5th January, was 1,448,0861., and there was remaining of loan, raised in Great Britain for the service of the last year, 2,622,6411. British, being in Irish currency 2,841,1941. a total sum of 4,289,2801. From

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Having recapitulated the supply, he had to state the ways and means. The surplus of the consolidated fund as appeared above, 991,5701,: the produce of the revenue he should only estimate at 6,000,000l.; one-third of the profit on lotteries which Ireland was entitled to receive, 100,000l.; repayment of sums paid by Ireland for naval and military services being advanced out of the revenue of the last year, 111,9601. His right hon. friend had before stated the loan on treasury bills for which an act has passed both houses of parliament, of 1,700,000l. British, making 1,841,6661. Irish, and that a further loan on treasury bills would be required to be issued in the present year for the sum of 1,200,000l., being a total of ways and means of 10,245,1961. to meet the supply of 10,234,5241.

The committee were aware of the reduction of the revenue in consequence of the repeal of that portion of the malt duty in Ireland which corresponded with the late war duty in Great Britain : it was only what the act of union had prescribed: but as a measure of relief, sousibly as it might be felt in this country, it would not be less felt in that where the ex

ample

ample had been followed. He had always regretted the necessity of augmenting the malt duty; but it was to be remembered, that he had never had but a choice of difficulties. The deduction from the revenue, including the repayment of duty on stock, in the hands both of distillers and maltsters would be, he feared, 300,000l.; other small duties repealed would make a total diminution in the revenue of 350,000l., and when the committee recollected that the whole of the nett payments into the exchequer in the last year amounted to 5,845,8451., he was sure he should not be charged with estimating the annual produce of the revenue too loosely when he took it at 6,000,000l., he feared rather that he should be accused of an excessive estimate. He thought himself grounded, however, in hoping for what must be the increase of more than half a million from that improved system of collection which was visible in every department, and for which the chiefs of departinents deserved the greatest praise-[Hear, hear!]. He could not better excite that industry, or stimulate that exertion than by showing to the different boards that parliament looked to them to prevent, by their exertions, the necessity of fresh taxation, and he knew that he did not reckon on their exertions in vain. There was no principle more important to be kept in view, particularly in Ireland, than that it was better to collect your old taxes well, than to delude the public by suggesting new and unproductive imposts. He did not found his estimate of VOL. LVIII.

revenue solely on a vague expectation of its produce; the assessments principally of the inland taxes had been formed upon a more correct system, and in no branch of our revenue had a collection been more improved. He expected in the present year a great increase from those duties, and without referring to the excise revenue, or to those disputed questions connected with the distillery, which he purposely avoided, because they were likely to become the topics of discussion at another and a more convenient time; it must be obvious to every man that if the practice of illicit distillation should be checked in some degree (he was not sanguine enough to hope for its immediate extinction) the excise revenue would become the main source of our contribution. He did not fear either, that the internal difficulties of Ireland would press so heavy as in the last year, a year of sudden and unexampled distress. That distress was easily to be traced in the diminished consumption of some of the most productive articles, not only in our excise but in our customs also. He hoped that our horizon was brightening a little, and that he might be justified in the estimate of six millions which he had assumed. The produce, besides, of the quarter to the 5th April last had considerably exceeded the corresponding period in the preceding year.-He had omitted to refer to stamps; which he ought not, as the increase had been considerable in that branch of the revenue.

The right hon. gentleman proceeded to state the charge on the [G] treasury

treasury bills to be issued. Two acts had already passed, authorizing different issues; the one was, however, to supply 2,470,000l. in bills payable within this year, and the charge for which is included in the annual charge of the Irish debt; that sum indeed made almost the whole amount of the unfunded debt of Ireland; of course, he was not required to make any further provision for that issue. By the other act there was a grant of 1,700,000l., and he should to-night submit a resolution for 1,200,000l. besides, the whole making in Irish currency, 3,041,6661., the interest of which, at 5 per cent., with a sinking fund of 1 per cent., would create a charge of 182,5001. annually. When the committee recollected that Ireland had abstained from encroaching on her sinking fund, and called to mind also the relative proportions of the sinking funds of Great Britain and of Ireland, as well as those which they bore to the respective capital of their common debts, they would, he trusted, approve of provision being made for the above charge, by cancelling a certain portion of stock, now standing in the names of the commissioners in Ireland for the redemption of the national debt. In England the principle had been acted on. If it should meet the approbation of the committee, he should have the honour to state the details more particularly on a future day. The amount of capital redeemed in Ireland was, in 5 per cents., 1,852,0721., in 4 per cents., 294,500l. In 31⁄2 per cems., 3,745,9581., making in all, 7,892,3301. The whole of the 5

and 4 per cent. stock he should propose to cancel, and a portion of that in the 3 per cents., amounting to 2,231,9141. The dividends upon these stocks he had calculated as yielding 182,5001, sufficient to cover the whole charge of interest and sinking fund created by the loans of the present year, which he had stated. It would be right that this should be made applicable to the same charge whenever the stock thus created became a part of the funded debt. He might be permitted to observe, that the capital thus cancelled was much less than that existing in Ireland when the sinking fund was first established there, the amount of debt then in Ireland (in the year 1797) being 5,825,000l. The annual income of the sinking fund applicable in Ireland will still remain more than sufficient for the debt it has to act upon there, the whole income of it being at present 736,4301. He had directed calculations to be made of the proportion which the sinking fund of Ireland would bear to the debt of Ireland after this deduction had been made. He had on a former night ventured to promise that we should still bring to the consolidated revenues, a sinking fund, richer than that of Great Britain in proportion to our respective debts. He believed he had stated that it would remain as 1 to 54; he was more than borne out by the calculation since made. He trusted that parliament would concur with him in this view of the measure to be taken: indeed, he saw no alternative. They would recollect how little proportion it bore to the demands

mands made by England on her sinking fund in the last three years, and that during that period, though in the year 1811 England had acquiesced in the declared inability of Ireland to contribute by fresh taxes to the public exigency, and that every effort has since been made by Ireland to meet her difficulties, and that she now applies to this resource only when the resources of taxation are exhausted. If England has cancelled 250,000,000l., he would not say that she had not purchased a right to do it by the sacrifices she had continued to make, and if he now recurred to the same means of relief, it was known to those with whom he had acted, and indeed he hoped that the financial efforts which had been made would prove that he had not been eager to recur to

it.

He felt that it was unnecessary to dwell longer upon this or any other points, when he recollected the ample discussion which most of the topics received on a former night, and which many of them probably would still receive while the bills for consolidating the debts and revenues of both countries were in progress through parliament.

After various observations from different members, in which the

statements of the Chancellor of the Exchequer were represented as flattering and fallacious, the resolutions were put and agreed to.

The unexampled financial difficulties under which the nation laboured in the present year, necessarily rendered the plan for raising the supplies rather a provision against urgent and immediate events, than a satisfactory liquidation of the demands upon the public revenue; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself admitted that the expenditure of the year would much exceed the income. This gloomy situation of affairs was placed in its strongest light by Mr. J. P. Grant, who, on the 31st, rose to address the House on the subject. After a variety of observations on the expenditure, as stated in the resolutions offered by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the hon. gentleman moved a number of resolutions of his own, concluding with

one, which stated the deficiency of the present year at 17,877,0651. As we do not mean to protract this chapter by matter of debate which produced no result, it is enough to inention that the previous question being put and carried upon each of these resolutions, they wer or dered to be printed'.

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Revision of the Statute Book.-Motion on Extents in Aid.-Debates on the Slave Registry Bill.-Prince Regent's Speech on proroguing Parliament.

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On May 8th, Earl Stanhope rose in the House of Lords to submit a promised motion on the subject of the statute book. There were, he said, two precedents which involved his principle: one, the proposition of Lord Grenville in 1809, for forming into one act all those acts which imposed the punishment of death in revenue cases, which had been adopted the other, a proposition made by himself for referring to the judges, a bill to reduce into one act all those imposing the punishment of the pillory, which bill now lay upon the table. At the end of this bill of the judges, some observations were annexed, stating, that the pillory was made the punishment for some offences, not merely by statute, but by common law; and that they could not say, but that some statutes on the subject might have escaped them. In fact, he himself had pointed out two statutes of George II., to which they had not adverted-a proof of the disordered state of the statute book. The earl then enumerated a considerable number of instances, some of them very curious, of

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the contrariety and inconsistency of statutes; and affirmed, that at present the statute book was a perfect hotchpot, a chaos of darkness, disorder, and confusion. He concluded by moving, the House do resolve itself into a committee of the whole House, to consider of the best means of arranging the statute law of this country under distinct and proper heads."

The Lord Chancellor declared himself willing that the matter should be referred to a committee, to see to what extent the noble Earl's idea could be acted upon, though he had no hope that it could be carried to the extent which he seemed to suppose. Some good,

however, might be done.

After some further conversation on the topic, the Lord Chancellor moved an amendment, that the matter should be referred to a select committee; which was adopted.

On the 10th, Earl Stanhope reported from the select committee two resolutions, declaring the expediency, in their opinion, of arranging the enactments in the statute book under distinc heads, and that a person learned in the law should be appointed for that purpose, with a number of clerks under him. These resolutions

were

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