contemplation to submit to the consideration of the House, a new arrangement with respect to the draw-backs on sugar, the produce of which, added to the 250 or 260,000l., which he calculated on deriving from the sources already mentioned, would be more than enough to provide for the charge created by the interest on money borrowed. The right hon. gentleman concluded with moving the first of the following Resolutions :

1. "That the proposal of the governor and company of the Bank of England, That, in consideration of the advance of three millions sterling for the public service, in the manner, and upon the terms and conditions hereinafter mentioned, the said governor and company be authorized and empowered by parliament to increase their capital stock, which now consists of 11,642,4001. to 14,553,000l. ; and that the proposed increase of 2,910,6001. be appropriated amongst the proprietors of bank stock at the rate of 251. for every 1001. of bank stock which they respectively held on the 23d day of May 1816; and that, until repayment to the said governor and company of the said sum of three millions, the promissory notes of the said governor and company expressed to be payable to bearer on demand, shall be received in payment of all sums of money which now are or shall become payable for any part of the public revenue, and shall be accepted by the collectors, receivers, and other officers of the revenue authorized to receive the same if offered to be so paid, fractional parts of

twenty shillings only excepted:That, in consideration of the above proposed increase of the capital of bank stock, and of the notes of the said governor and company being received in payment of every branch of the public revenue as aforesaid, the said governor and company are willing to advance the sum of three millions sterling for the public service, to be paid on such days during the present year, and in such manner, as parliament shall direct and appoint; the repayment thereof to be secured, with interest at the rate of 3 per cent. per annum, payable annually, and to be repaid at such period as parliament shall direct and appoint, not beyond the 1st day of August 1833, and to be charged and chargeable upon, and to be repaid out of the consolidated fund, unless otherwise provided for by parliament,' be accepted.

2. "That towards raising the supply granted to his majesty, there be issued and applied the sum of three millions, to be advanced by the governor and company of the Bank of England, in pursuance of the said proposal.

3. "That, towards raising the supply granted to his majesty, there be issued and applied the sum of 5,663,7551., being the surplus of the grants for the year 1815.

4. "That towards raising the supply granted to his majesty, there be applied the sum of 599,9161. 3s. 6d., being fifteen seventeenth parts of the sum of 679,9051. arisen from the sale of old naval and victualling stores.

5. "That, towards raising the supply granted to his majesty,

such

such part of the balance remaining in the hands of the governor and company of the Bank of England, for the payment of dividends on the public debt, be advanced, from time to time, for the service of the public, provided that if, at any time, the said balance shall be reduced to a less sum than 100,000l., then so much of the monies advanced by the said governor and company shall be repaid to them as shall be equal to the sum by which the said balance shall be less than the sum of 100,0001.

6. "That towards making good the supply granted to his majesty, there be issued and applied the sum of 43,2471. 3s. 11 d., which have been issued to sundry persons at the receipt of his majesty's exchequer, prior to the 5th day of January 1810, and which, not having been paid, remain as outcash in the chests of the four tellers of the said exchequer.

7. "That, towards making good the supply granted to his majesty, there be issued and applied the sum of 13,2051. 5s. 3 d. remaining in the receipt of his majesty's exchequer on the 5th of January 1816, for payment of certain annuities for terms of years which expired annis 1792, 1805, 1806, and 1807.

8. "That, towards making good the supply granted to his majesty, there be issued and applied the sum of 6,3261. Os. 94d. remaining in the receipt of his majesty's exchequer on the 5th of July 1815, and charged upon the consolidated fund for services which cannot now be claimed.

9. "That towards making good the supply granted to his

majesty, there be issued and applied the sum of 72,9731. 15s. 3d. remaining in the receipt of his majesty's exchequer on the 5th of January 1816, on the funds for payment of annuities on lives granted annis 1745, 1746, 1757, 1778 and 1779, on which the lives have expired since the 5th of January 1802.

10. That, towards raising the supply granted to his majesty, there be issued and applied the sum of 6,5451. 5s. 4d., being the amount of money paid by the receivers general of the land-tax to the governor and company of the Bank of England on account of the pay-master general of his majesty's forces, in pursuance of an act of the 37th year of the reign of his present majesty, for raising men for the army and navy.

11. "That towards raising the supply granted to his majesty the sum of thirteen millions be raised by exchequer bills for the service of Great Britain.

12. "That towards raising the supply granted to his majesty, the sum of 1,200,000l. Irish currency, be raised by treasury bills for the service of Ireland for the year 1816.

13. "That towards raising the supply granted to his majesty there be applied for the service of Ireland the sum of 79,9851. 16s. 6d., arisen from the sale of old naval and victualling stores."

The first Resolution being put, Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald rose to state the supply and ways and means for the service of Ireland. He said, he felt it to be unneces→ sary to trespass on the committee at any length. The circumstances

of

of the finances of Ireland had been gone into so recently, and he had himself received so patient a hear ing, and so much indulgence when he submitted the late resolutions to the House, that he should not now be justified in going over the same ground. He should briefly state the amount of the supply which was required for the year 1816, and the ways and means by which he should propose to parliament to make provision for it. It would be necessary only to advert shortly to those principles which he had endeavoured to illustrate on a preceding evening, and though the measures which he had declared it to be his intention to recur to as a source of present supply had not yet received the express approbation of the House, yet the liberal view which had been taken of the whole of our financial situation, and of the proceedings consequent upon it, would justify him, he trusted, in not proposing any new taxes in aid of the services of the present year. The estimated quota of contribution for the year 1816 was 3,145,6561. British, as had just been stated by his right hon. friend, making in Irish currency the sum of 3,407,7941.; the charge for interest and sinking fund on the present debt is 6,826,7301. including management, making the total supplies 10,234,5241. The state of the consolidated fund was as follows: the surplus balance in the exchequer on the 5th January, was 1,448;0S61., and there was remaining of loan, raised in Great Britain for the service of the last year, 2,622,6411. British, being in Irish currency 2,841,1941.: a total sum of 4,289,2801. From

this he was to deduct arrears due on that day. The arrear of contribution for 1815,-2,942;280k British, being 3,187,470l. Irish: the outstanding treasury bills and lottery prizes, 28,8761., and for inland navigations; and the expenses of the office for the public records, 81,3641., the total of the arrears was 3,297,710k, which, deducted from 4,289,2801. leaves a balance of 991,5701. ༥ ཟླ་ ༤

Having recapitulated the supply, he had to state the ways and means. The surplus of the con solidated fund as appeared above, 991,5701, the produce of the revenue he should only estimate` at 6,000,0001.; one-third of the profit on lotteries which Ireland was entitled to receive, 100,000l.; 'repayment of sums paid by Ireland for naval and military services being advanced out of the revenue of the last year, 111,9601. His right hon. friend had before stated the loan on treasury bills for which an act has passed both houses of parliament, of 1,700,000l. British, making 1,841,6661 Irish, and that a further loan on treasury bills would be required to be issued in the present year for the sum of 1,200,0001.," being a total of ways and means of 10,245,1961. to meet the supply of 10,234,5241. ****

The committee were aware of the reduction of the revenue in consequence of the repeal of that portion of the malt duty in Ireland which corresponded with the late war duty in Great Britain: it was only what the act of union had prescribed: but as a measure of relief, sensibly as it might be felt in this country, it would not be less felt in that where the ex

ample

He

ample had been followed. had always regretted the necessity of augmenting the malt duty; but it was to be remembered, that he had never had but a choice of difficulties. The deduction from the revenue, including the repayment of duty on stock, in the hands both of distillers and maltsters would be, he feared, 300,000l.; other small duties repealed would make a total diminution in the revenue of 350,000l., and when the committee recol lected that the whole of the nett payments into the exchequer in the last year amounted to 5,845,9451., he was sure he should not be charged with estimating the annual produce of the revenue too loosely when he took it at 6,000,000l., he feared rather that he should be accused of an excessive estimate. He thought himself grounded, however, in hoping for what must be the increase of more than half a million from that improved system of collection which was visible in every departinent, and for which the chiefs of departments deserved the greatest praise-[Hear, hear!]. He could not better excite that industry, or stimulate that exertion than by showing to the different boards that parliament looked to them to prevent, by their exertions, the necessity of fresh taxation, and he knew that he did not reckon on their exertions in vain. There was no principle more important to be kept in view, particularly in Ireland, than that it was better to collect your old taxes well, than to delude the public by suggesting new and unproductive imposts. He did not found his estimate of VOL. LVIII.

revenue solely on a vague expectation of its produce; the assessments principally of the inland taxes had been formed upon a more correct system, and in no branch of our revenue had a collection been more improved. He expected in the present year a great increase from those duties, and without referring to the excise revenue, or to those disputed questions connected with the distillery, which he purposely avoided, because they were likely to become the topics of discussion at another and a more convenient time; it must be obvious to every man that if the practice of illicit distillation should be checked in some degree (he was not sanguine enough to hope for its immediate extinction) the excise revenue would become the main source of our contribution. fear either, that the internal difficultics of Ireland would press so heavy as in the last year, a year of sudden and unexampled distress. That distress was easily to be traced in the diminished consumption of some of the most productive articles, not only in our excise but in our customs also. He hoped that our horizon was brightening a little, and that he might be justified in the estimate of six millions which he had assumed. The produce, besides, of the quarter to the 5th April last had considerably exceeded the corresponding period in the preceding year.-Ile had omitted to refer to stamps; which he ought not, as the increase had been considerable in that branch of the revenue.

He did not

The right hon. gentleman proceeded to state the charge on the [G] treasury

treasury bills to be issued. Two acts had already passed, authorizing different issues; the one was, however, to supply 2,470,000l. in bills payable within this year, and the charge for which is included in the annual charge of the Irish debt; that sum indeed made almost the whole amount of the unfunded debt of Ireland; of course, he was not required to make any further provision for that issue. By the other act there was a grant of 1,700,000l., and he should to-night submit a resolution for 1,200,000l. besides, the whole making in Irish currency, 3,041,C6GI., the interest of which, at 5 per cent., with a sinking fund of 1 per cent., would create a charge of 182,5001. annually. When the committee recollected that Ireland had abstained from encroaching on her sinking fund, and called to mind also the relative proportions of the sinking funds of Great Britain and of Ireland, as well as those which they bore to the respective capital of their common debts, they would, he trusted, approve of provision being made for the above charge, by cancelling a certain portion of stock, now standing in the names of the commissioners in Ireland for the redemption of the national debt. In England the principle had been acted on. If it should meet the approbation of the committee, he should have the honour to state the details more parti ularly on a future day. The amount of capital redeemed in Ireland was, in 5 per cents., 1,852,0721., in 4 per cents., 294,500l. In 3 per cents., 3,745,9581., making in all, 7,892,3301. The whole of the 5

and 4 per cent. stock he should propose to cancel, and a portion of that in the 8 per cents., amounting to 2,231,9141. The dividends upon these stocks he had calculated as yielding 182,5001, sufficient to cover the whole charge of interest and sinking fund created by the loans of the present year, which he had stated. It would be right that this should be made applicable to the same charge whenever the stock thus created became a part of the funded debt. He might be permitted to observe, that the capital thus cancelled was much less than that existing in Ireland when the sinking fund was first established there, the amount of debt then in Ireland (in the year 1797) being 5,825,000l. The annual income of the sinking fund applicable in Ireland will still remain more than sufficient for the debt it has to act upon there, the whole income of it being at present 736,4301. He had directed calculations to be made of the proportion which the sinking fund of Ireland would bear to the debt of Ireland after this deduction had been made. He had on a former night ventured to promise that we should still bring to the consolidated revenues, a sinking fund, richer than that of Great Britain in proportion to our respective debts. He believed he had stated that it would remain as 1 to 54; he was more than borne out by the calculation since made. He trusted that parliament would concur with him in this view of the measure to be taken: indeed, he saw no alternative. They would recollect how little proportion it bore to the de

mands