CHAP. 1786. Answer. Progress of the measure. the injury of the public. Before the plan could work any beneficial effect, it was not improbable we might again engage in war, and be tempted to repeal the act, annul the institution, and divert the appropriation of its stock to the immediate services of the year: he, therefore, in forcible terms, recommended proceeding by individual subscription. Mr. Pitt shortly vindicated the statements of the committee. The idea of paying off a part of the debt by subscription had been suggested to him; but he would not adopt it, on account of certain inconveniences. His great desire was, in all times, particularly in war, to preserve the fund inalienable and sacred: to suffer it at any time, or on any pretence, to be diverted from its proper object, would be to ruin, defeat, and overturn the whole plan. The motion was agreed to without a division. In this debate, no objection was offered against the principle of the proposed measure; the censures of opposition were applied only to the details of the committee, their supposed exaggerations in stating the financial prosperity of the nation, the remote period at which effectual relief was to be expected, and the probable intervention of occurrences by which that hope might be frustrated. The progress of the bill was not moved by Mr. interrupted by any division. Mr. Sheridan, prefacing them with a speech in his usual style of strength and ability, moved fourteen resolutions, expressing opinions unfavorable to the report of the committee; but although he declared that his propositions contained only facts which could not be negatived, the House did negative them all, without a division. April 6th. Sheridan. May 4th. Mr. Fox's proposition. 12th. When the bill was in a committee, Mr. Fox observed that his great objection had been to making the sinking fund inalienable in time of war. Difficulties might exist in effecting a new loan, and, in such a case, the minister should not only propose taxes to pay the interest, but also to keep up the sinking fund; and the commissioners should be empowered to accept the loan, or so much of it as the public money in their hands would pay for. Thus if, when a new loan of CHAP. LIX. 1786. Agreed to by six millions was proposed, there should be one million in the hands of the commissioners, they should take so much of the loan, and the bonus or douceur would be a benefit to the public. Mr. Pitt giving his hearty concurrence, the clause was read and agreed to; but Mr. Pitt, it was afterwards withdrawn, on the ground that, by weekly purchases, the price of stocks would be advanced: a benefit to the public which was deemed but withdrawn. more than commensurate to the proposed measure*. motion. In the upper House, an opposition to the bill, in 20th. the shape of an improvement, was attempted. Earl Proceedings in the Lords. Stanhope, who had before disclosed his opinions in a Earl pamphlet, proposed, on the motion for committing the Stanhope's bill, a resolution, declaring it highly important that a provision for reduction of the national debt be permanent; the public faith so fully pledged by an express contract, that a breach of it should be equivalent to an act of bankruptcy. He proposed that books should be opened at the Bank, to receive the names of such holders of three per cent. stock as should be willing to accept of ninety pounds for every hundred, whenever the public should be desirous of redeeming at such price. His lordship's plan embraced various other details, and he supported his opinion by reading five letters from bankers and brokers; but the House disposed of it by a motion for the previous questiont. The bill passed with little further discussion. 26th. This act, which was extremely popular, was consi- General view dered to form a certain, permanent, and inalienable of the measure. fund for reducing the national debt, consisting of an annual million, and of all the annuities for lives or for limited terms as they should expire; the taxes appropriated for the payment of them still continuing to be levied. The commissioners were to pay off, with the consent of Parliament, any branch of the debt which might be above par, and buy any branches of it which See Sinclair's History of the Revenue, vol. iii. p. 526, n.; and it should not be forgotten that the author claims to himself the credit of Mr. Fox's clause, having published it a twelvemonth before the motion was made. Three per cent. stock bore at this time the price of about £73 per cent. CHAP. 1786. March 29th. Arrears of the civil list. April 5th. posed. were below par*; or, if there were no such means of employing the money, to purchase such funds as were thought most eligible, although above par. All dividends arising from such purchases were also to be immediately invested in the same manner. The purchases were to be made regularly, on four days in every week; and the commissioners might subscribe a sum, not exceeding their annual income, in any new loan. And, lastly, whenever the income, including the annual income, should amount altogether to four millions, the dividends due on such part of the principal or capital stock as should thenceforth be paid off, should be considered as redeemed, and be disposed of as Parliament should direct†. On the day that Mr. Pitt produced this plan to the House, he also was the bearer of a message from the King, requiring the aid of Parliament to discharge the arrears of the civil list, and an augmentation of its amount. Mr. Sheridan, in debating the other question, noticed this as a most inauspicious commencement of a day in which the public had been taught to entertain the pleasing expectation of finding a surplus revenue in their favour. In the Committee of Supply, the Chancellor of the A supply pro- Exchequer declared the regret felt by his Majesty in thus appealing to the liberality of Parliament. Every effort had been used to limit the expenses of the civil government and the royal household within the allotted sum of eight hundred and fifty thousand pounds. In the last regulation of the civil list, Parliament had provided that, out of nine hundred thousand pounds, a yearly deduction of fifty thousand should be made for discharging, by instalments, a sum of five hundred and fifty thousand pounds, issued for payment of former debts; after which, the nine hundred thousand pounds was to be allotted to the civil list. It followed, either that Parliament had ordained that, at a future period, £100 is the par price of an annuity of £5. It has also been stated as the par price of one of £3 by most writers on the finances. + Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. iv. p. 101. the amount of the civil list should be fifty thousand pounds more, or, for the present, by that sum less, than was necessary. Experience had proved the latter to be the case; a fresh debt of fifty thousand pounds had been incurred above what remained unpaid of the former arrear, making together two hundred and ten thousand pounds. He should, therefore, move for that sum which would defray incumbrances, and leave the entire annual sum of nine hundred thousand pounds for the civil list. CHAP. LIX. 1786. A desultory conversation, rather than a debate, Debate. ensued, in which some pointed observations were made and judicious answers given. Mr. Drake said that, in looking over the account of the debt, he had been astonished to find one thousand and twenty-nine pounds charged as three quarters' salary due to the Master of the Hawks, while the Chairman of the Committee of that House received only fifteen pounds. Mr. Pitt explained, by stating that the office of keeper of the hawks was not retained either from necessity or from views of state and magnificence, but because it was a patent employment, granted in the reign of Charles the Second, and hereditary in the family of the Duke of St. Albans. Mr. W. Stanhope alluded to the situation of the Prince of Wales, his building Carlton House, a finer palace than, probably, he could afford. of the Prince Several other members alluded to the insufficiency of of Wales. His Royal Highness's allowance; and the same subject was renewed the following day: but Mr. Pitt declined all explanations, confining himself to the business before the House-the King's message. It was asserted that, in 1782, the King had given assurances of his having so reduced his expenses, that the eight hundred and fifty thousand pounds would be sufficient; and attempts were vainly made to draw from the premier a pledge that applications should not be renewed, and some censure was expressed on the appointment and salaries of ambassadors; but the resolutions passed without a division. Mention made After a similar discussion, the Lords unanimously April 5th. adopted the proposition. Supply granted. YOL. IV. CHAP. 1786. Wine sub jected to the A measure of finance, which effected a considerable improvement in the revenue, and occasioned some discussion in Parliament, was the application of the excise law to the duty on wine, which had hitherto been under the customs only. The bill was first debated in the committee, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer, having adverted to the frauds which were practised, observed that, supposing the consumption at that day only equal to that of thirty-six years before, the annual loss of revenue by fraud exceeded two hundred and eighty thousand pounds. He alluded to the attempt which had been made by Sir Robert Walpole to introduce a similar regulation, the failure of which he ascribed to causes and circumstances which could no longer operate, or had ceased to exist. Fears were entertained that it would be attended with effects inconsistent with the constitution; that it would occasion a prodigious expense; that the people would be subject to slavery, by making their houses accessible at will to the excise officer; and that, by increasing their numbers to an undefined extent, an insurmountable bulwark would be added to the influence of the Crown at elections. Such were the arguments which excited a popular clamour, to which the minister was obliged to yield: but now, the excise, then in its infancy, was better understood; experience had shewn it to be the most effective, and least expensive, mode of collecting revenue; the charge would not exceed thirteen thousand pounds a year, a sum very insignificant in comparison with the improvement to be made: the number of additional officers would be less than one hundred and seventy; and even if so unimportant a body could be feared, as an addition to the influence of the Crown, they were by law prevented from voting or interfering at elections*. The new regulations of excise would subject wine to a survey and taking of stock, and required a permit on the transit from place to place. Thus the internal manufacture would become liable to the same duty as the foreign importa * By 22 Geo. III. c. 41, commonly called Mr. Crew's Act. See c. 43. |
