vide new taxes in lieu of fuch as had failed, in order to make up the fum for which thofe taxes had originally been given. The top-tax for inftance, had been elimated at 120,cool. It appeared however, that its actual produce would amount to no more than 70,000; and, when the odifications which were now introduced fhould come into operation, the whole would be reduced to an inc me of 50,000l. In this cafe he held it to be the duty of the chancellor of the exchequer, either to propofe a new tax that would be efficient for 120,000l., and repeal the fhop-tax, or a tax that would produce 70,000l., the fum by which the actual produce of the fhop-tax fell fhort of the amount at which it had origina ly been eftimated. Inftead of applying an imaginary forplus to the purpofe of intituting a finking fund, he would have advifed the creation of an actual mile lion by the introduction of new taxes, and the placing the fund upon a folid foundation, which was now built upon nothing but vifion ary predictions.

Mr. Fox ftated two specific ob jections to the plan which was defcribed by Mr. Pitt. The first was the idea of making the fum appropriated inalienable in time of war; and he endeavoured to point out feveral difadvantages which would refult from this provifion. His other objection was pointed against the circumftance of making the engagement into which parliament entered for paying off the debt, a matter only of general obligation, and thus leaving both the commiffioners and the object of their inftitution liable to be annihilated by a future parliament. He reminded the houfe of the mode of the original inftitution of a plan for pay

ing off a part of the national debt, which had been by a fubfcription of individuals, to whom the faith of parliament had been engaged to redeem fpecific portions at certain ftated periods. He dwelt upon the difference between the two plans, obferving that under the latter, the engagement of parliament was held equally facred, with the pledge generally to pay the intereft of the national debt; and undoubtedly, nothing fhort of a national bankruptcy would have prevented the fums for which the nation was engaged, from being paid to the individual fubferibers. Mr. Fox alfo expreffed fome doubts, whether the compelling the commissioners to lay out the money on certain days might not raife the market, and to difcover tellers, when none might voluntarily offer, might not fo far inhance the price of the ftock, as to occafion the benefit to be entirely lo to the public.

Mr. Pitt replied to the objections of Mr. Fox. He obferved, that the idea of paying off a part of the debt by a fubfcription of individuals, had been fuggefted to him by feveral perfons, and had received his own approbation, but that he had afterwards been obliged to reject it on account of the inconveniencies to which it was liable. With regard to preferving the fund to be invariably applied in diminution of the debt, this was to be confidered as the most eflential circumftance of the meafure, To fufter it at any time or upon any pretence to be diverted from its object, would be to defeat and overturn the whole of his pain. He hoped therefore when the bill he fhould introduce fhould once have paffed into a law, that the houfe would hold itfelf fo lemnly pledged never to listen to any propofal for its repeal,

Upon the fecond reading of the bill for the establishing of a fund to be inalienably applied to the paying off the national debt, which took place on the fixth of April, Mr. Huffy aligned feveral reafons, though ardently attached to the idea of a fiuking fund, that induced him to fear, that the appropriating any part of the public revenue to this purpofe was not yet practicable, He declared, that he had felt great fatisfaction, when Mr. Pitt, in taking notice of the excefs of the expenditure of the prefent year be. yond the general fatement in the report of the committee, had faid, that, though there might, upon the four enfuing years, arife an excels of disbursement to the amount of three millions, he had however no doubt that money would come into the hands of the public fufficiently early to answer that demand. But upon recollection he had found, that the receipt of that money was extremely uncertain. The payment of the debt of the Eaft India company was not a thing that could he counted upon with fecurity, confiding the embarraffiment in which the affairs of that company were in volved. The unclaimed dividends at the bank could not be applied to the fervice of the nation, without fecurity being given to the public creditor, that the money fhould be forthcoming when properly called for; nor ought it to be touched without a diligent fearch after the owner of the dividend. Mr Huffey complained of the inconveniences hat would arife from the quantity of exchequer bills which were at this time unfunded, declaring, that, if great care were not taken, the refult would be, that the public in their traffic in the funds would buy dear and fell cheap.

On the fourth of May Mr. She

ridan brought forward a number of motions, of which the houfe had been for fome time in expectation, and the object of which was to cenfure the report which had been prefented by Mr. Grenville's committee. Thefe motions he fupported by a fpeech of great brilliancy, and in the coufe of which he difplayed a very intimate and comprehenfive acquaintance with the fubject of finance. It was not his purpose to enter into any argument refpecting the principle of the bill for the eftablifhment of a finking fund, or to difcufs the propriety of applying the furplus fuppofed to exift, in the manner provided by that bill. The object, upon which he intended to enter, was, the examination of the great and important queftion, whether there actually exifted any furplas. He was well aware, that, however intimate were the connection of the fubject with the welfare of the nation, it was not one of thofe, in which the house took any great delight, or to the difcution of which they were fond of attending. The critical fituation of the country however, and the magnitude of the object in question, he hoped, would be thought to entitle it to their par ticular notice. In the commencement of fo important a business, plain-dealing was first of all indifpenfibly neceffary. Above all it behoved that houfe not to deceive itfelf, to glofs over nothing, to avoid nothing that made against the defired purpose. Under this impreffion it was, and not with any defpondent ideas of the national refources, that he meant to call their attention to the report upon the table; and he conceived that he fhould be able to prove, that it was drawn up upon erroneous principles, that it was replete with mistaken calculations, that the committee had acted under G 4 a de

>

a delufion, and that the effect of the whole was too fallacious to deferve their reliance, as the ground of a proceeding of fo ferious and important a nature. Mr. Sheridan begged leave, once for all, to be understood as not meaning to convey any imputation on the perfons who compofed the commities; at the fame time that he must confefs, that he thought the manner in which the committee had been formed liable to great objection. Mr. Pitt had gone the length of avowing, that he fhould not be afhamed to deliver lifts of his own friends to be ballotted for to form the committee. He fhould have imagined, that a fair and impartial committee, compofed of men of different fentiments, men, who were as likely to have drawn out the dark fide of the queftion as the favourable one, would have been the best adapted for fuch an occafion.

The committee, in the exordium of the report, obferved, that the large amount of the taxes propofed fince the commencement of the late war, the difficulties under which the different branches of our commerce laboured during the continuance of that war, and the great and increafing prevalence of illicit trade' previously to the measures recently adopted for its fuppreffion, appeared to render any averages of the amount of the revenue in any former perods, in a great degree inapplicable to the prefent fituation of the country. The very reverse of this reafoning ought to have prevailed. The committee would have done much more

wifely to have flated the averages of former periods; and where, Mr. Sheridan afked, was the difficulty, fince peace was no new fituation to this country? The favourite object of the report was to hold up the meafures, recently taken by the minifter

7

of the day for the prevention of fmuggling, as the principal caufe of the fuppofed increafe of the public income. Mr. Sheridan contradicted this pofition. He mentioned fugar and feveral other articles, the revenue upon which could not fuppofed to have been affected by these measures. Indeed he knew not how thole meafures could in any respect be faid to have tended to the increafe of the revenue, unless it was in the effect of the commetation-tax. The operation of that regulation was to increase the cou fumption of tea in this kingdom, and particularly of teas of the finer fort, and thus to extend a trade, the balance of which had already been fo highly difadvantageous to this country. The immediate confequence of this measure was, that the East India company was placed urder the necellity of taking up from the public according to the estimate of one of her most active members, Mr. Baring, four millions of money. This was doubtlefs an overitatement; but whatever were the fum, the company must borrow it of the bank, and parliament be the fecuri ty, which was exactly the fame as if they had lent it themselves. Mr. Sheridan pointed out feveral at icles which appeared to him to have been erroneoutly calculated; the game duties, the poft-horfe tax, the duty on gloves, the duty on medicines, the fhop-tax, and the

tax on attornies. To what a vast number of years must parliament look forward, even admitting that the committee had been founded in

its arguments, for the completion of their wonderful defigns? The picfent members of the houfe would be departed, and their political exiftence terminated. They, the old grey-bearded ftewards, who had rack-rented the tenants, diftrained

their

their goods, and levied executions, would be then no more; they would have left the new parliament Like a young heir to come into the poffeffion of an unincumbered elate. Mr. Sheridan obferved, that there were many expences that would probably come upon the public before the year 1791, of which the committee had not taken the leaft notice in their report. He declared, that he thought 1,800,000l. too low for the peace eftablifliment of the navy. He reminded the house, that our fituation was now very different from what it had been at the end of the war before the laft. We could then reft in fecurity with a much smaller naval force than was now neceflary for our protection. The national glory and honour were at that day a fufficient guard; but, though our efforts had been wonderful during the late war, ftill it was to be remembered, that we had been unfuccefsful. When the fyftem of fortifications had been reprobated, the houfe would recollect, that they were all agreed in the premifes that it was right to pro tect the dock-yards; and that, when the new-fangled mode of protection was rejected, it was determined to defend them in the old fashioned, vulgar way, by a strong navy. He at the time, and he believed many others had expected, that a part of the money refused for the fortifications would have been demanded for the purpofe of ftrengthening the navy. Belide, though the propofed fortifications had been rejected, yet fome fortifications there would be, and they certainly would coft fomething. Another expence was, the civil lift, for it was pretty generally understood, that the king ftood in need of the whole 900,000l. for his own expenditure. The establish ment of the other branches of the

royal family must be added to the general climate. There was an, other fubject which could not long be deferred, and that was the increafe of the income of the prince of Wales. Thefe additions to the expenditure, together with feveral others which Mr. Sheridan enumerated, amounted to 4,000,000l.; to pay which he faw nothing in the report which deferved to be depended upon. At prefent it was clear there was no furplus, and the only means which fuggeftel themfelves to him for procuring the fum wanted to commence the fyftem, was a loan of a million for this fpecial purpose. For the minifter might fay with the perfon in the comedy, "If you will not lend me the money, how can I pay you?" Certain he was, that to rely on the report on the table, and to proceed with a bill founded upon fo fallacious principles and fo erroneous reafonings, would be the height of rafinefs and prefumption. It would be trusting too much to chance; and, if Mr. Pitt were imprudent enough to risk it, it would ill become that house to countenance fuch a conduct. If they did, they would act like a fchool-boy, who, for the fake of getting at the fruit, grafped at the first branch which he could reach, and not only pulled down the unripe fruit, but deftroyed the bloffom, the bud and the bough, the hopes of a future crop.

Mr. Sheridan's refolutions were as follow: "That the expected annual amount of the national income ftated in the report of the committee, appeared in no respect to have been calculated upon the average receipts of a number of years, but was fixed at the amount of the produce of one year only, with the addition of the probable increase of the new taxes: That it appeared, that the account

of

of the annual expenditure, as oppofed to the amount of the income fo calculated, was not a ftatement of the prefent existing expenditure, or of that which mult exilt for fome years to come, but was formed from the probable reductions, which it was alledged would have taken place in the profpect of permanent peace towards the end of the year 1791: That the different branches of the revenue, in the period upon which the future was calculated, appeared to have been fingularly productive, particularly in the cultoms: That it did not appear, that any means had been taken or information called for, in order to ascertain whether fuch an mcrease of revenue had arifen from caufes which were likely to have a permanent operation or otherwife; and that fuch an inveftigation was indifpenfably neceffary: That the uncertainty of eftimating by fuch a criterion the expected future produce of the revenue, was still more evident upon a comparifon of the quarter day ending the fifth of April laft, with the fame quarter in the preceding year upon which the future income was calculated; by which it appeared that the amount of the latter quarter was inferior in the article of cuftoms by the fum of 188,2151. 135. 4d. to the former: That in the faid report there were certain articles of receipt erroneoufly stated, as proper to be added to the future annual income, and other articles of expence erroneously omitted to be added to the expenditure: That the fums voted, and to be voted for the prefent year confiderably exceeded 15,397,4711.: That the means by which the deficiency was to be made goed arofe from aids and debts that belonged to the prefent year only: That there was no furplus income ow exifting applicable to the reduction of the

national debt: That a furplus income in the enfuing quarters could arife only in the renewal of a loản for an extraordinary million, borrowed upon exchequer bills in the last year, and which it would be unneceflary to make but for the purpofe of fecuring that furplus: That an extraordinary increase of exchequer bills was an inexpedient anticipation of that affiilance which government might receive in the event of a peculiar emergency: That the faving to the public upon the intereft of money borrowed in this way, was rendered precarious by the neceffity of the more fpeedy if fing of fucn bill, in order that the object for which the loan was made might be effectuallyan wered: That, admitting, that by the foregoing means the expected furplus would arife upon the three enfuing quarters, it appeared, that there would then be an interval of nearly four years, before the commencement of that permanent peace establishment, which was to furnith in the reduction of its fervices the expected furplus: That in this period it appeared from the vouchers annexed to the report and other papers that a fum amounting to 4,000,0col., besides 2.cco,cool. duc to the bank, would be wanted above the ftated annual income: Finally, that for this fum of 6,000,0ul. there appeared to be no adequate provifion or refource." The refolutions were carried in the negative without a divifion.

It was not difcovered till the finking fund bill was in a committee, that a part of the powers delegated by that bill to the new commiffioners ran counter to preceding acts of parliament. The matter was thus explained to the houfe by fir Grey Cooper. The bill affumed and delegated a "power to pay off and redeem the redeemable public an

nuities