April, 1801, amounted to no lefs than 1,750,000l. It was his determination to provide for every deficiency, and to fund the largest poffible quantity of exchequer-bills, fo as to leave nothing afloat. To make good thefe deficiencies, and to fund thofe exchequer-bills, would require a fum of 6,610,000l. which, added to 35,587,000%. of charges to be paid by Great Britain, would give a total of 42,197,000l. to be divided between the two countries, thus: Great Britain, for its 15-17ths of its joint expenfe, and thofe charges which belonged to her, would have to defray, in round numbers, 37,870,000l.; and the charge falling on Ireland, would be 4,324,000%. Mr. Pitt having flated all the fums requifite for the fupplies of the year, and the proportions in which they were to be borne by the two countries, fubmitted to the committee

25,500,000l. to be raised by way of loan. There was a rivalship between two great parties which fhould take the loan. They had taken it without premium or bonus, except the discount on prompt payment. The terms were 125 confols, valued at 707. 15s.—50-15 reduced, value 291 5s.-for every 1007.

The first tax propofed, for paying the intereft of the loan, was an additional duty on tea above 2s. 6d. per pound, of 10 per cent, ad valorem, which he calculated would produce the fum of 300,000%.

The next tax was on the article of paper, the prefent duty on which he propofed to double: providing an exception, however, in favour of paper-hangings, and glazed paper, ufed in particular manufactures, and allowing a discount, to the full amount of the duty, on all paper used in the publication of diurnal prints. The produce of this tax he estimated at 130,000l.

He proposed that the drawback on the exportation of calicoes be taken off, and that the prefent duty of twopence-halfpenny per yard, be advanced to threepence-halfpenny, which would amount to 155,0004, making the total of the excife 586,000l.

On the tax on timber, ftaves, and deals, he proposed an increase of one-third, which increase he esti at 95,000/.

The export trade of pepper, the whole of which was, in fact, in our hands, he allo confidered as a proper article of taxation.

On all exports of every kind he propofed a tax of fixpence per pound, which, he calculated, would produce 101,0007.; and on all articles confumed at home a duty of threepence in the pound, which he estimated

of the import or exports, and home confumption, might be expected to make up, together, the fum of 119,0007. An addition of twentypence per cwt, on fugar, he expected to produce 166,0001. A duty on raisins would produce 10,000; and a duty on lead 120,0007.

The next tax Mr. Pitt propofed was, an additional duty on horfes of every defeription, not excepting even thofe employed in agriculture: though that on the latter would only be to a fmall amount. On every horfe employed in agriculture, he propofed an additional duty of 4s. for each, which would produce the fum of 136,0007. On pleasure horles, where only one was kept, an additional duty of 10s. for each, which would produce the fum of 170,0007.: making the whole prodace of the additional tax on horfes, 306,0002.

An increase of one-half of the exifting fiamp-duty on all bills and notes, he estimated at 112,0001. To double the prefent duty on all policies of infurance in fhipping tranfactions, would produce 145,000/On all deeds of conveyance of property, which bore, at prefent, a tax of 10s. per fkin, he propofed to place an additional duty of 3s. per fkin, which would produce 93,000. Total amount of additional ftampduties, 350,000. The next and the laft fubject of taxation to which Mr. Pitt called the attention of the houfe was one, he obferved, in which the revenue was railed in a way the most fatisfactory, and the moft confiftent with the interests of the people: for it was only a duty on that which individuals fourd more convenience in, than could be obtained by any other mode they could adopt; and VOL. XLIII.

to the expenfe of any other convenience, very little indeed. By paving to the public, in the article alluded to, individuals paid infinitely lefs than they would be obliged to pay, if they were to take the thing upon themfelves. The duty he meant was that on the poítage of letters. Various regulations refpecting diftances, crofs-road pofis, packets to Ireland, foreign letters, and enclofures in foreign letters, it was eftimated would produce a revenue of 80,0002. With refpect to the penny-poft, Mr. Pit propofed that the prefent rate fhould be donbled: that is, that, inftead of a penny, every letter fhould, in future, be charged twopence. The produce of this additional penny was cftimated at 17,000l. The whole produce, to be drawn from the new poft-office regulations, he cftimated at 150,0007.

permanent taxes exceeded, on the 5th of January last, that of January, 1800. January, 1801, might be called the era of our profperity as well as trial. At this period, our imports and exports were more than they were in the year 1791. If we looked at the state of the debt, we had abundant confolation: for, ftruggling, as we had been, with difficulties, and increafing a debt, which we could not have avoided, yet, by a rigid and fcrupulous adherence to the fyftem long fince adopted for the difcharge of that debt, according to the engagement we had entered into with ourfelves, in the year 1786, we had paid off no lefs a fum than 52,000,000l. of the capital of our debt: a fum which, but for that engagement, and our fcrupulous adherence to it, would have been now a burthen to the people of this country. The total amount of our finking fund was 5,000,000l. annually. Of the burthens impofed on us by this unexampled war, more than one-half had been employed, not in fupporting ourselves; under engagements entered into by ourselves, but to pay the debts contracted by our anceftors. In former times, the courfe was, to make comparisons of the revenue of a year of war with that of a year of peace, by way of fhewing how productive fome years of war had been; but now the climax was not that of going from a year of war to a year of peace, to thew the flourishing state of our commerce and revenue: the course must he that of comparing one year with another; for the war had been attended with a conftant increase of our commerce and revenue: fo that *we were distinguished by our profperity, commerce, and naval fupe

riority, above all the other nations of the world. And it was fingular, but not more fingular than true, that very year, though we had fuffered fo much, and that recently, from unfavourable feasons, the prefent year, 1800-1801, was the proudeft that the country had ever known with refpect to its commerce. It might well be matter of wonder to fome, though it was not, that, in fpite of all the alarms, lamentations, and momentary defpondency, which had been fo induftrioufly preffed on the minds of the people, from circumftances too well calculated to have that effect, this country fhould be the only one in Europe, that had, in this great ftruggle, the memory of which would be dear to the world, preferved the full benefit of a conftituton, which was adapted to fupport the public liberty and private happinefs of a people, who bad fhewn their affection for a fovereign, that had, at all times, fhewn for them the feelings of a father. A people which had fhewn a vigour and a firmness, worthy of being guided by the wifdom of fuch a parliament. Such was the view, exhibited by Mr. Pitt, of the fate of the public, at the clofe of his own adminiftration.

The feveral refolutions towards granting a fupply to his majefty were agreed to, and, in the form of bills, through the ufual ftages, pafled into laws. In the courfe of the different reports and readings of the refpective bills, strong objections were made to feveral of them, as being too oppreffive to the poor, and even middling ranks of fociety, or bearing too hard on different purfuits of induftry. It was eaffer to point out their preffure, than to remove it by any fubftitutes; yet, in

a few

a few inftances, fome amendments to certain bills, for the relief of certain claffes, were propofed and adopted. On the motion of Mr. Rofe, an amendment was made in the refolution refpecting the tax on paper; as the new duty would materially affect the interefts of the proprietors of newspapers, who, by former acts, were prevented from raifing the price of their papers above fixpence to the difcount they already received, in the purchafe of ftamps, there was allowed an additional difcount of four and a half per cent. which would leave them on nearly the fame footing on which they ftood before the new tax on paper was impofed. Hackpey coach-horfes were exempted from the new duty; and an exemption was also made in favour of farmers employing only two horfes, and of whofe farms, the annual rent did not exceed 301. It has already been obferved, that the fum borrowed by Great Britain, for the fervice of 1801, was 25,500,000.; but it was neceffary, for the fervice of Ireland, to borrow about 2,500,000 for which, of courfe, Ireland was to provide a fum for the payment of the intereft: fo that the whole loan, contracted by the government of the united kingdom, was 28,000,000. In the bill for this loan, there was a claufe, inferted in the committee, authorizing the commiffioners of the treafury in Ireland to fet apart certain fums for the repayment of that part of the loan, which was made for defraying the charges of the eftablifhment of Ireland.

Mr. Abbot, in the house of commons, February 12, obferved, that, in confequence of the union between Great Britain and Ireland, it would

be neceffary to enact many laws, with reference to those which were already in force, with regard to Ireland. He therefore moved, that an humble addrefs might be presented to his majefty, praying that he would direct a copy of the ftatutes of Ireland to be laid before the house, which motion was agreed to. On the 21st of February, he obferved, that the public finances of Ireland fhould be fubmitted to investigation, in the fame manner as thofe of this country, in order that the fate of the finance of the empire, at large, might clearly appear before the houfe. For this purpofe, he had framed feveral motions, claffed under different heads, and made as fpecific as the nature of the fubjects appeared to him to require of which the fubftance was, to fhew the income, the expenditure, the trade, the debis, the arrears, the balances in the hands of the public accountants of Ireland, and the price current of exports and imports: all thefe articles, for the year ending on the 5th of January, 1801, as far as the accounts could be made up or estimated. Motions for the papers neceffary for the investigation of all thefe fubjects were made and agreed to. Thus the revenue and expenditure of Ireland were brought, like thofe of England and Scotland, under the eye and control of the imperial parliament. To the ufual committees, one was added, to take into confideration what additional orders, and what other regulations it might be proper to make relative to the proceedings of the houfe of commons, in confequence of the union of Great Britain and Ireland, and to report the fame, with their opinion thercon, from time to time, to the houfe.