For the fake of greater clearness, I will recapitulate the heads in the fame order that I have followed: The land rental then, after dedu&ting one-Efth, I estimate at The tenant's rental of land, deducting two-thirds of the rack rent, I take at 20,000,000 6,000,000 The amount of tythes, deducting one fifth 4,000,000 The produce of mines, canal navigation, &c. dedu&ting onefifth 3,000,000 The rental of houses, deducting one-fifth 5,000,000 The profits of profeffions 2,000,000 The rental of Scotland, taking it at one-eighth of that of 5,000,000 The income of perfons, refident in Great Britain, drawn from poffeffions beyond feas 5,000,000 The amount of annuities from the public funds, after deducting one-fifth for exemptions and modifications 12,000,000 28,000,000 The profits on the capital employed in our foreign com merce The profits on the capital employed in domestic trade, and the profits of skill and induttry Upon this fum a tax of 10 per cent. is likely to produce ro,000,000l. a year, and this is the fum which is likely to refult from the meafure, and at which I fhall affume it. I flatter myself that I have been extremely careful not to overftate any part of the fources. Gentlemen will recollect that the Affeffed Taxes were affigned to the payment of that part of the fum raised for the fervice of last year, which was not made a permanent debt, and of courfe this new tax upon income will be fubftituted in the room of those Affeffed Taxes, and will be made applicable to the fame purpose; and one of the great advantages of this plan will be, that the object for which the Affeffed Taxes were defigned will be sooner accomplished, and the public thereby more fpeedily relieved. The Affeffed Taxes were mortgaged for two years, and in the plan of the affeffment perfons with an income above 2001, a year were charged at the rate of the tenth of their income. By the prefent measure no perfon will be charged more than a tenth of his income, it will be therefore no additional tax upon those perfons who faithfully met the views of parliament, in the Affeffed Taxes; but it will be a relief to thofe who, in their zeal for the public fervice, outrun the voice of parliament, and by their voluntary contributions exceeded the fum that was called for by the tax. On the other fide, the present prefent measure will draw forth from those persons who ought to have paid a tenth of their income the fums which it was their duty to pay, and which, in many inftances, I am forry to fay, have been fhamefully evaded. Inafmuch therefore as it will only carry into more equal effect the measure. of last year, and as it will by that means produce the fum in a fhorter fpace of time, the advantage to the public will be the greater. It is recommended therefore both by its justice and its expediency-Juft, by being a more general and more equal call upon all defcriptions of perfons, and expedient by the promptitude with which the operation will be concluded. The advantage of a speedy repartition will be obvious to every gentleman; and surely it is a most desirable thing to put an end to those mean and scandalous evasions which have been practifed in the Affeffed Taxes, and which would make the burthen continue to fall more heavily on thofe who paid them with alacrity and truth. There are two or three confiderations, upon which I fhall just detain you a moment, upon this part of the plan. I fhall propofe it to commence upon the 5th of April next; and of courfe fhall propofe, that the Affeffed Taxes fhall be repealed at the fame period. It. would undoubtedly have been convenint for me that it should commence at an earlier date; but it is material that all the taxes of the year fhould be made up to the fame period., Now the Affeffed Taxes were made from the first of February, and there will therefore be the produce of two months Affetfed Taxes, namely from the 1ft of February to the 5th of April, which may amount to the fum of 700,000l. which will come into the ways and means of 1799. At the fame time calculating this propofed tax upon income for the complete twelvemonths, I muit take it up to the 5th of April, 18co, into my eftimate for 1799. In this way the fum to be drawn from this refource for the fervice of the year, is 10,700,000l. but from this fum there will be to be paid the. intereft of the 8,000,000l. charged upon the Affeffed Taxes, together with the fum charged on the confolidated fund for the deficiency of these taxes last year, as well as for the in tereft thereon for the prefent year. From the fum therefore of 10,700,000l. there will be to be deducted 1,500,000l. leaving a fum of 9,200,000l. applicable to the ways and means of the prefent year. Adding this fum to the land and malt, the lottery, and the other fources which I ftated on the outfet, there will remain the fum of 14,000,000l. to be raised. by way of loan; but of this fum we may fairly truft to the growing growing produce of the confolidated fund for the extinction of 4,500,000l. fo that but 9,500,000l. will be added to the permanent debt of the country. I trust that it will not be neceffary for me to go into any detail of argument to convince the committee of the advantages of the beneficial modeadopted laft feffion, of raifing a confiderable part of the fupplies within the year. The propriety of the measure has been recognized, and felt in a way the most gratifying to the feelings and to the pride of every Englishman. The principle has been proved to be the most wife and beneficial, though in the manner of carrying it into practice it has been fo fhamefully and grofsly evaded. The experience which we have had points out the propriety of correcting the errors of that plan, and of enforcing and extending the principle. If we' have been able, from the benefits of that measure, so evaded and crippled, to do so much, it is obviously our duty to feek for the means of perfecting the plan upon which we are fet out; and if we can find regulations and checks against the abuses that have been committed, it is furely wife and proper' that they should be made to apply to a more general and extenfive fcheme than that which we have already tried. It no longer refts upon theory, or upon reafoning; it is recommended to us by the fureft teft of experience; and if, by the efficacy of this plan, we have been able to difappoint the hopes of the enemy; to rife above all the attempts which they made to disturb our domeftic tranquillity; to remove the ap prehenfions of the defpondent, and to fhew them that all their fears of our being unable to continue the conteft, were vain; to affert the high and proud diftinction which we took in the maintenance of genuine government and focial order: if we have been able thereby to animate the public fpirit of Europe, to revive its difmayed energy, and to give a turn to the political afpect of the world, favourable to the cause of humanity, fhall we not perfevere in a courfe which has been fo fruitful of good? If we have proved that, at the end of the fixth year of war, unfubdued by all the exertions and facrifices we have made-our commerce is flourishing beyond the example of any year even of peace; if our revenues are undiminished; it new means of vigour are daily prefenting themselves to our grasp; if our efforts have been crowned with the most perfect fuccefs; if the public fentiment be firm and united in the juftice and neceffity of the cause in which we are embarked; if every motive to exertion continues the fame, and every effort we have made in the caufe is is a fource only of exultation and pride to the heart; if by the efficacy of thofe efforts, we have now juft the expectation of accomplishing the great object of all our facrifices and all our labours; if defpondency be diffipated at home, and confidence created abroad, fhall we not perfevere in a course fo fairly calculated to bring us to a happy iffue? Let us do juftice to ourselves. It is not merely owing to the dazzling events of the campaign that we are entirely indebted for the. proud ftation in which we now stand. Great and glorious as thofe atchievements have been, which cannot fail to be a fource of exultation to every British bofom, I fhall not detract from the high renown, and the grandeur of all those perfons to whofe fkill, vigour and determination, we are indebted for the atchievements that have aftonished and aroufed Europe, when I fay, that it is not altogether owing to them that we now feel ourselves in a fituation so proud and confoling. The grand and important changes which have been effected in Europe, are not merely to be afcribed to the promptitude, vigilance, fkill, and vigour of our naval department, whose merits no man can feel, or can eftimate more highly than I do; nor to the heroifm, zeal, patriotifm, and devotion of our tranfcendant commanders, and 1 fpeak particularly of that great Commander whofe fervices fill every bofom with rapturous emotion, and who will never ceafe to derive, from the gratitude of his countrymen, the tribute of his worth; nor is it to the unparalleled perfeverance, valour, and wonders performed by our gallant fleets, which have raised the British name to a diftinction unknown even to her former annals, that we are to afcribe all the advantages of our prefent pofture. No, we muft alfo do juftice to the wisdom, energy, aud determination of the parliament who have furnifhed the means, and the power, by which all the reft was fuftained and accomplished. Through them all the departments of his Majefty's governtment had the means of employing the force whofe atchievements have been fo brilliant; through the wildom of parliament the refources of the country have been called forth, and its fpirit embodied in a manner unexampled in its hiftory. By their firmnefs, magnanimity, and devotion to the caufe, not merely of our own individual fafety, but of the cause of mankind in general, we have been enabled to ftand forth the faviours of the earth. No dificulties have flood in our way; no facrifices have been thought too great for us to make; a common feeling of danger has produced a common spirit of exertion, and we have VOL. I. 1798. chearfully 1 chearfully come forward with a furrender of a part of our property as a falvage, not merely for recovering ourselves, but for the general recovery of mankind. We have prefented a phenomenon in the character of nations: it has often been thought, and has been the theme of hiftorians, that as nations became mercantile, they loft in martial fpirit what they gained in commercial avidity; that it is of the effence of trade to be fordid, and that high notions of honour are incompatible with the profecution of traffic. This hypothefis has been proved to be falfe, for in the memorable æra of the past year Great Britain has exhibited the glorious example of a nation fhewing the most univerfal fpirit of military heroism, at a time when she had acquired the moft flourishing degree of national commerce. In no time of the proudest antiquity could the people of Great Britain exhibit a more dignified character of martial fpirit than they have during the last year, when they have alfo rifen to the greatest point of commercial advantage; and, Mr. Chairman, they are not infenfible of the benefits, as well as of the glory, they have acquired; they know and feel that the moft manly courfe has alfo been the most prudent, and they are fenfible that by bravely refifting the torrent with which they were threatened, instead of striking ballances on their fate, and looking to the averages of profit and lofs, on ftanding out, or of yielding to the tempeft; they feel that they have given to themselves not merely fecurity, but luftre and fame. If they had, on the contrary, fubmitted to purchase a fufpenfion of danger and a mere paufe of war, they feel that they could only have purchafed the means of future and more deplorable mifchief, marked with the stamp of impoverishment and degradation; they feel, therefore, that in pursuing the path which duty and honour preferibed, they have alfo trod in the path of prudence and economy. They have fecured to theinfelves permanent peace, and future repofe, and have given an animating example to the world of the advantages of vigour, conftancy, and union. If the world thall not be difpofed to take the benefit of this example, Great Britain has at lea't the confolation to know, that the has given them the power. And if I were difpofed. Sir, to pay regard to drier and colder maxims of policy, I fhould fay, that every regard even to prudent economy would point out the courfe which we have taken as the moit advantageous for a people to purfue. it will be manifeft to every gentleman on the flighteft confideration of the subject, that in the end the measure of raising the |