Strike off what they had got by new taxes and anticipations, and, he said, they would still be deficient to a great amount. The amendment was agreed to, and the resolution so amended passed the committee.

Mr. Sheridan then moved the second resolution. He said it was taken from the resolution of 1786. He had left out some words, because they were more favourable to his argument than he thought it required. These he would add as an amendment; and let the committee then vote that words were not in the report, which were copied from it, if they could.

The amendment was agreed to, and the resolution so amended negatived. The third and fourth resolutions were afterwards agreed to with some amendments. The chairman was ordered to report progress and ask leave to sit again to-morrow.

JUNE 7.

REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE OF 1791.

MR. SHERIDAN said, that those of his resolutions which had been already moved, had met with so discouraging a reception, that he now found he had nothing to gain, and that all his exertions in their favour would be useless. Having experienced, however, so much opposition to his statement of the income of the country, he should now only try whether the same opposition would be continued to his statement of its expenditure, and for this purpose go on with a few more of his resolutions. He should take occasion, at some future period, to bring them all forward in a form in which they might be inserted on the journals of the house.

The resolutions from the 5th to the 10th were then read, and after some short and desultory conversation, successively negatived.

Here Mr. Ryder moved,—“ That the total amount of the interest and charges of the public debt, and of the sums issued for the reduction thereof, of the charges on the aggregate or consolidated fund, and of the sum granted for the supplies, during the last five years, excepting the sum of £207,000 which remained to be provided for in the present year, under the head of deficiency of grants, has been defrayed by the produce within the said years of the permanent taxes, by the annual aids on land and malt, and by the sums arising from extraordinary resources, with the addition of a loan of one million raised by tontine, and of £187,000 raised by short annuities." Which motion, after some conversation, was carried.

They then proceeded to the 11th resolution, upon which Mr. Pitt moved an amendment," That the sum for defraying the armament of 1790, and keeping up the additional number of seamen, was defrayed independently of the ordinary

income." This amendment was adopted. The 12th, 13th, and 14th resolutions were then read, and negatived; the 15th was also negatived without a single objection stated; the 16th was agreed to; the 17th, with an amendment enumerating the several articles which raised the estimated expenditure of 1791 so much above that of 1786, was also agreed to.

Mr. Sheridan now moved an additional resolution, in substance" that the estimated expense of the navy, army, ordnance, militia, and miscellaneous services, by the report of the committee of 1791, exceeds that of the committee of 1786 by £434,293 which was agreed to.

The 18th was negatived, and the 19th, as dependent on the former, withdrawn. On the 20th, Mr. Steele proposed amendments, stating that the excess of the sum voted for the service of 1791, above the estimate of the committee of 1786, includes various articles of expense, that will not occur again.

Mr. Steele's amendments were introduced, and the resolution agreed to. The 21st and 22nd were withdrawn; the 23d was agreed to, with an amendment; the 24th was negatived without any objection stated; in the 25th, Mr. Ryder introduced the substance of several others, though in a very different form; the 26th was withdrawn; the 27th, 28th, and 29th, were negatived without any objection stated.

Mr. Fox here observed, that the intention seemed to be to negative all that were evidently true, and that could neither be supported nor opposed by argu

ment.

The 13th resolution was then read. Mr. Pitt moved an amendment, that the words from "that," to " money," be left out, which was accordingly adopted. The 32d, 33d, and 34th resolutions were negatived.

Here Mr. Pitt moved, "That during the said five years the sum of £5,424,592 including £674,692 arising from the annuities expired or unclaimed, and from dividends on stock bought, has been applied to the reduction of the national debt; and that the annual interest on the stock bought, and the present amount of the annuities expired or unclaimed, appears to be £254,804, in addition to the million annually charged on the consolidated fund." The motion was put and carried.

The remaining resolutions, the 35th, 36th, 37th, 38th, and 39th, were all negatived.

The report was ordered to be received the next day.

JUNE 8.

REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE OF 1791.

MR. SHERIDAN said, that unsuccessful as his exertions had been to obtain a true statement of the revenue and expenditure for the last five years, he would not, as his opponents had done, attempt to negative any resolution of fact. The resolutions which he had moved, he was certain, exhibited a more clear and

correct view of the finances than those contained in the report; and for that reason he should move the previous question.

The previous question was negatived, and a string of resolutions moved, and agreed to.

Mr. Sheridan said, that having given notice of his intention to endeavour to get his resolutions put upon the journals, which could not be done by moving them in a committee, he should now move the first.

Mr. Pitt said, that the resolutions having been fully discussed in the committee, he should move the previous question on every one of them; and which being carried on all, except the last,

Mr. Sheridan observed, that compelling the chancellor of the exchequer to resort to the previous question, was precisely what he had in view; as it showed that the right hon. gentleman felt the resolutions to be facts, and dared not allow them to stand on the journals as negatived. Mr. Sheridan said, the last of his resolutions, with a little alteration in the preamble, was as applicable to the resolutions adopted by the house, as to those with which it was originally connected, and he should take the sense of the house upon it. He then moved,

"That, upon due consideration of the report made this day from the committee of the whole house, to whom the consideration of the report from the select committee of 1791 was referred; and also upon consideration of the two reports of 1786 and 1791; and of the several accounts before the house relative to the public income and expenditure, it appears proper and necessary to declare, that the great increase proposed to the permanent peace establishment, in the report of 1791, ought not to be considered as receiving countenance or approbation from the house of commons, until the causes of the same shall be explained, and the necessity of them made manifest."

The house divided-ayes 19; noes 34; majority 15.

SUMS VOTED FOR CARLTON HOUSE.

The report was brought up by Lord Sheffield, the chairman of the committee, who moved that it should, with an humble address, be submitted to his Majesty.

MR. SHERIDAN recommended it to his lordship to move "That the report lie on the table and be printed." The object was, that the whole transaction might be fairly known, and the misrepresentations done away which had been circulated respecting it. This he wished more particularly, on account of the ex

traordinary mistake of keeping back a paper (No. 5) which he had long contended was delivered in at the treasury, and which was at length produced. The omission had made a deep impression on many gentlemen; and was the more extraordinary, as that paper was the most important of all; showing how the money had been applied; and the papers first presented, among which another was substituted for this, contained a note, signed George Rose, stating "the commissioners of the treasury had no official knowledge of the application of the money after it was issued." Mr. Sheridan said, he did not mean to take any further notice of this; but he hoped those in whose care the paper was, would be severely reprimanded by their superiors for the neglect.

The report was ordered to be printed.

FEBRUARY 17, 1792.

STATE OF THE PUBLIC INCOME AND EXPENDITURE.

The house resolved itself into a committee, to consider the state of the finances. Mr. Pitt represented them in so favourable a light, that a diminution of the public burthens might reasonably be expected. The permanent taxes, from 1791 to the commencement of 1792, had produced £16,730,000; exceeding the average of the last four years about £500,000; deducting from which the total of the expenditure-amounting, by the reductions proposed, to £15,811,000-the permanent income would exceed the permanent expense, including the million annually appropriated to the extinction of the national debt, by no less than £400,000. The supplies wanted for the present year would amount to £5,654,000; for which the means provided amounted to a sum exceeding the former by £37,000. From the foregoing statement, Mr. Pitt was of opinion, that the surplus of the 400,000 would enable government to take off such taxes as bore chiefly on the poorer classes, to the amount of one-half of that sum; and to appropriate the other half to the diminution of the public debts. By the methods projected for the redemption of the debt, £25,000,000 would be paid off in the space of fifteen years; towards which the interest of the sums annually redeemed should be carried to the sinking fund, till the annual sum to be applied to the redemption of that debt amounted to £4,000,000. Having made this favourable representation of the state of the finances, Mr. Pitt finished by a warm eulogium on the actual prosperity of the nation.

MR. SHERIDAN said, the splendour of the right hon. gentleman's speech had made such an impression on the committee,— they had been so led away by the figures of rhetoric from attending to the figures of arithmetic, that he should find it difficult to recal them to the true object of the discussion. He

fancied, however, this dazzling beauty would not be found so captivating to the people; for, after the rapturous statement of prosperity which they had heard, it would be a disappointment to them that all accounts of surplus sunk so infinitely small. Who that had read or heard the reports of a surplus of £1,200,000, and of nearly £900,000 being actually in hand, would have believed that in truth the surplus would turn out to be no more than £58,000? He was generally incredulous on these anticipating reports; but he confessed, when he heard of the king's coming down, announcing a surplus, and the minister immediately after, holding out taxes to be repealed, he thought there must be some stupendous increase of revenue; and his confidence would have been greater, if he had not unfortunately heard all the minister's former pledges, and particularly that solemn, religious pledge, that no interruption should be made to the application of our surpluses, until they amounted to £4,000,000 a year. He then examined the statement of Mr. Pitt, and drew from his review this conclusion-that the increase of our prosperity had not brought with it a proportionate increase of our revenue. The increase of the latter was to be ascribed to the new burdens laid on the people, or to the regulations of the old taxes, which, in fact, were so many additions to them. Taking the reports of the two committees as his guide, he took the amount of the new and regulated war taxes from the general total, and showed that the actual increase of the permanent revenue since the year 1786, was £130,000. If he was asked fairly, from experience, whether the amount of our taxes was such as to warrant the legislature to dispense with a part of them, he would frankly answer no.-But if he was desired to revise the whole system of our taxation, to see if the people might not be materially relieved from the most grievous of their burdens, and the revenue be even improved thereby, he would yield his cheerful consent, and think that the house might render most essential service to their constituents. The plan pursued by the right hon. gentleman, which was calculated to embarrass the house, caused him and every gentleman an insurmountable difficulty. It was held out to the nation, that the crown, from a motive of endearment, had proposed relief to the people, and that the minister had even named the taxes which were to be abolished. If they should, from a sense of their