It has been remarked, in the account of a former debate, that no doubt could really exist of the determination of government to join with the allies in a war, against Buonaparte. This, how ever, was a measure of such serious consequence, that many hesitated to concur in it without fuller proof of its political necessity; and some felt considerable doubts as to the moral justice of drawing the sword to compel a nation to discard a ruler whom it had with apparent consent adopt ed. Under the impression of these feelings, Mr. Whitbread, on April 28th, rose to make a motion for an address to the Prince Regent. As his speech, and those of the members on each side who joined in the debate, consisted chiefly in the recapitulation of matter al ready brought into discussion, a very concise account of the result will be here sufficient. The hon. gentleman began by commenting upon the gross delusion practised on the public by the ministers in taking no notice of the treaty between the allies signed at Vienna, on March 25th, of which they had received an account on April 5th, when the Regent's message was brought down on the 6th, and taken into consideration on the 7th, by which suppression they had held forth the possibility of an alternative between peace and war, whilst in fact they had en⚫ gaged themselves to the latter. He then made some severe animadversions on the declaration of

the allies, by which one individual was placed out of the pale of civil society, and endeavoured to show that there was neither justice nor policy in making him the object of a war. He concluded by moving, "That an humble address be presented to the Prince Regent to intreat his Royal High ness, that he will be pleased to take such measures as may be necessary to prevent this country being involved in war on the ground of the executive power being vested in any particular person,"

Lord Castlereagh, in opposition to the motion, began with de fending the conduct of govern ment with respect to the charge of concealment, by saying, that he was unwilling, by a prema ture disclosure of a treaty of which the ratifications had not been exchanged, to prevent a re-consideration of the policy to be pursued towards France under the circumstances which had recently occurred. He then attempt. ed at length to invalidate all the reasons for placing a confidence in Buonaparte's future conduct, which had been adduced by the mover, and expressed a decided opinion of the necessity as well

as

the justice of dispossessing him of power. The debate, in which many members partook, not without considerable asperity, ended in a division, in which the numbers for the motion were 72; against it 273.

O

NApril14th Mr. Tierney rose to move for an inquiry into the excesses of the civil list. He said, there had been such an enormity in the expenditure in that department, and such an efficiency in all committees hitherto appointed for an inquiry on the subject, that unless a new one should be nominated with extraordinary powers, there would be an end to every thing like control over the royal expenditure. He then stated, that since 1812, parliament had provided, for the purpose of squaring the civil list accounts, the sum of 2,827,000l. In 1812 there was a sort of recognition of the expenditure of a further sum of 124,000l.; but in stead of this excedent, which might be said to be sanctioned by parliament, the actual excedent in the last two years and three quarters had been 321,000l. The total of the sums of the parliamentary estimates, and the excedents connived at by parliament, amounted to 3,299,000l. which was the whole entitled to be expended in two years and three quarters; but the charge during that period was no less than 4,108,000l. being anexcess beyond

the allowance of 809,000l. The excess was actually greater, for 100,000l. had been voted to his royal highness for an outfit. It appeared therefore that his Royal Highness, in less than two years and three quarters, had expended above 900,000l. beyond his allowance, and that, after being allowed to exceed it by 124,000l. The next point was to show that the civil list, for a length of time, had been in the practice of a yearly encroachment above the parliamentary allowance. In no one case of an average of years had it been attempted to keep within reasonable bounds. The knowledge of this had generally been kept from parliament till it was become necessary to have the civil list debt paid off, a principal means of effecting which, was the leaving of the droits of admiralty at the disposal of the crown. Three committees had been appointed in different years to in, quire into the civil list expenditure, the last of them in 1804, and they all suggested the propriety of a new estimate, that parliament might know to what extent the liberality of the public could go. In Mr. Pitt's time an

estimate was accordingly made, which stated that 979,000l. in addition to the relief afforded to the civil list, by taking 83,000l. from it to other departments, would prevent the necessity of any further recurrence to parliament. It was said that this estimate fell short of the charge; but how this happened to be the case, was left in the dark, and must continue to be so till the appointment of a committee with additional powers.

Mr. T. then went through a variety of statements of expenditure deduced from the accounts before the House, with remarks upon them, tending to shew the profusion and extravagance which prevailed in different departments. It was obvious, he said, either that there was some person who gave bad advice to the Prince Regent, or at least some person who abstained from giving good advice; for it was impossible not to believe that his Royal Highness was kept in the dark upon these subjects. He concluded by moving "That a select committee be appointed to take into consideration the account presented to the House upon the 20th of March last by Mr. Arbuthnot, by the command of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, relating to his majesty's civil list, and to examine the said account, and report the same as it shall appear to them, together with their observations thereupon, to the House; and that the said committee have power to send for persons, papers, and records."

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that if the right honourable Gentleman had omitted the latter clause of his motion, he should

have given it his approbation, as it was but anticipating his own intention; but in his opinion no case had been made out to warrant giving powers to a committee never before granted upon the subject of the immediate revenues of the crown. By taking too narrow a view of the accounts upon the table, he had presented them in a fallacious light, and had drawn unfair conclusions. The chancellor then went into a short review of the accounts, and particularly considered the expenditure since 1811, which had been charged with peculiar extravagance. He said, that in this period, Parliament had thrown several burdens upon the civil list for political purposes, and for the establishment at Windsor, which made a great part of the apparent augmentation. The attention of the House had especially been drawn to the three quarters from April, 1814, to January, 1815, which was taking the most unfavourable portion of the year, as it concluded all the charges for the reception of the Royal Visitors. The remaining branch of the civil list expenditure, was that of the occasional payments, chiefly relating to diplomatic expenses, which he thought ought to be provided for by a distinct grant, as forming no part of the expenditure of the king's household. On the whole, he allowed that it was proper, for the purpose of inquiring into the propriety of some alteration of the plan of the civil list expenditure, as well as into the reason of the excess in the last year's expense, that a committee should be appointed, but he saw no necessity for arming it with extra

ordinary powers. He therefore moved as an amendment the omission of the latter clause of Mr. Tierney's motion.

The remainder of the debate, in which several members on each side took a part, turned upon the propriety of giving these powers to a committee; they who supported the original motion contending, that without them the committee would prove as ineffectual as all others had been; while the opposers spoke of such an inquisition as indelicate and disrespectful to the crown, and endeavoured to lighten some of the charges which had been brought of extravagance inthe expenditure. That however a strong impression had been made by the statements produced, was manifest on the division, when the amendment of the chancellor of the Exchequer was carried by no greater majority than 127 to 94.

Mr. Tierney determined upon making another effort for the same purpose A select committee having been appointed for examining into the state of the civil list, he rose, on May the 8th, in order to make a motion on the subject. He said, that he had made two suggestions to the committee; 1. that the great object ought to be to examine in what way the enormous expenditure of the civil list had been superintended; 2. that the committee ought to give to the House some detailed estimates, in order to ascertain what reasonable bounds ought to be put to the expenditure for the royal family. To the first of these, the committee had fully consented with the last they only complied in part, being of opinion,

that such conduct would be indecorous in the committee; but they recommended that a motion for the purpose should be made in the House. The right hon. gentleman then entered into a statement of particulars of the accounts in the lord chamberlain's department, in order to shew the vast and growing increase of expenditure, which made a particular inquiry necessary; and he concluded with moving, That the select committee appointed to take into consideration the account presented to the House on the 20th of last March by command of the Prince Regent, have power to send for Mr. T. B. Mash, of the lord Chamberlain's office.

Lord Castlereagh first spoke in reply, and endeavoured to shew, that there was no necessity to deviate from the respectful course which had always been adopted towards the crown." For this purpose he gave explanations of various articles which had been adduced by the mover.

Mr. Rose confessed that in all former applications respecting the civil list, the accounts had been furnished in such a way as to throw no light whatever on the subject; but he said that at present such minute details had been given, that every one might judge of its state without examining witnesses, viva voce.

After several other members had spoken, and Mr. Tierney had made his answer, the House di vided, when the motion was ne. gatived by 175 against 119; the minority being not only considerable in number, but highly respectable in weight and character.

The report of the select com

mittee referred to, was afterwards printed by order of the House. Among the benefits expected from the conclusion of a general peace in the last year, scarcely any was more cordially greeted by the people in this country than a liberation from that burthensome and vexatious impost, the property tax, which was necessarily to expire at a certain period after the signature of a definitive peace. In the suspicion, however, that ministers might be tempted to renew it, as the easiest mode of providing for the great demands which would be occasioned by the winding up of the war expenses, petitions were drawn up in almost all the principle places in the king dom, to be laid before parliament, warmly deprecating such a mea, sure. Whatever might have been the intention of the government, this decided expression of the national desire had the effect of causing the adoption of other financial plans; and on Feb. 9, the chancellor of the Exchequer declared his intention of submitting to the House of Commons several important measures relative to the public finances; of which the property tax would not be one, unless in the event of the non-ratification of the treaty with America. On the 20th, at a committee of ways and means, the chancellor of the Exchequer introduced his plan of new taxes to supply the place of the want of the property tax as far as five millions, of which, however, only the amount of 3,720,000l. was at that time brought forward. Several of the taxes, especially those which bore hard on trade and manufactures, were strongly opposed, and vari

ous modifications were made, the general system being persisted in, till the events in France replunged the country into all its difficulties,

On April the 17th the Chancellor of the Exchequer moved the postponement of the second reading of the assessed taxes bill, and declared his purpose of referring, on a following day, the acts relating to the property tax to the committee of ways and means, with the intention of moving the continuance of the same. This took place on the 19th, when a long and animated debate ensued, which principally turned upon that political state of affairs, which occasioned a recurrence to his finan cial measure, In the course of it, Mr. Brand moved as an amendment, the adjournment of the debate till that day fortnight, on the ground that it was at present problematical, whether we should be in a state of peace or war. The House dividing on the amendment, it was rejected by 183 votes to 58, and the original motion was agreed to. On the 20th, a resolution from the report of the com. mittee was read, stating its opinion in favour of granting, for the term of one year, the same duty on property as had been laid by the last consolidated act, which, after the defeat of another proposed amendment for delay, was agreed to, and leave was given tọ bring in a bill accordingly,

Of the further progress of the bill it is unnecessary to give a detailed narrative, since the measure was fully determined upon; and many of those who disapproved of the tax were convinced of its necessity at the present juncture. A motion by Mr. Grenfell, for re