as our neighbours do: from hence it is, my Lords, that our neighbours are every day encroaching upon us, and our trade is daily decaying. If a journeyman in any manufacture whatever, can live better in France or Germany on fix-pence a day than he can live in England on a fhilling, we may depend on it, that most of our tradesmen will find their way thither, if they are not prevented either by our own good politics, or by fome very bad policy amongst our neighbours: and if a mafter tradefman can get the fame work done in France for fix-pence, which would coft him a fhilling in England, he certainly can underfell the English tradefman in all the foreign markets in the world. The only method, therefore, to preferve our trade, is to take off these taxes, which now lie fo heavy upon the poor tradesmen and labourers; and. this the whole people of England know, can be done no other way but by a due application of the Sinking Fund. How fhocking then must it be to the whole nation, to fee that fund plundered of fo large a fum at once? The whole nation muft from thence conclude, that they must for ever groan under these taxes and burthens, which they now find almost insupportable, and which mult foon become abfolutely fo, by the decay of our trade and our manufactures.

This fund, my Lords, has therefore been clandeftinely defrauded of several small fums, at different times, which, indeed, together, amount to a pretty large fum: but by the Bill which we have ordered to be committed, (for granting to his Majefty a certain fum out of the Sinking Fund) it is to be openly and avowedly plundered of 500,000l. at once. After fuch a direct mifapplication of that fund, can any public creditor depend upon his ever being paid his principal fum? Can any public creditor ever think himself fecure, even of that yearly intereft or annuity which is due to him? By this Bill, he fees one half of the Sinking Fund applied to the current fervice of the year: this he fees done, and this, my Lords, he fees done at a time of the most profound peace and tranquillity: how then can he be cer

tain, but that the whole Sinking Fund may be next year ap plied to the fame purposes? He must then fee himself deprived of all hopes of ever receiving his principal fum ; and if the funds now appropriated to the payment of the yearly intereft or annuities, growing due to the public creditors, fhould hereafter prove deficient, where could they have recourfe for the payment even of those annuities? The Sinking Fund being otherwise applied, their annuities, or at least fome part of them, muft remain unpaid; and at last, perhaps, the whole might cease. Such a fufpicion may, even by this mifapplication, arise among the creditors of the public; and if such should arise, it would be the most terrible fhock that ever happened to the public credit of this nation. To prevent, therefore, any fuch suspicion, it will be abfolutely neceffary for your Lordships to come to fome refolution for quieting the minds of the people, and for affuring them, that no fuch mifapplication fhall for the future be admitted of on any pretence whatever.

Lord Carteret, May 30, 1733.

I WONDER to hear it affirmed by any Noble Lord in this House, that the public creditors have any manner of right in the Sinking Fund: they certainly have no right to any part of it: they have a right only to receive their yearly interest when it comes due; for the payment of which there are other funds appropriated and therefore as long as they are regularly paid their intereft, they have nothing to fear, they have nothing to complain of. It is well known that the Sinking Fund was from its very firft original, fubject to be difpofed of by Parliament; and the Parliament has it still in their power to apply it to the paying off a part of the public debt, or to whatever other public ufe they fhall think moft proper; and in this year, there is as much of it applied towards the paying off the public debts as is either necessary or convenient.

By the fame Bill, my Lords, there is a million to be applied towards the paying off a part of the public debts of the nation,

which is more than the creditors of the public either defire or expect. The circumstances of this nation are now so happy, and the public credit fo well established, that none of the public creditors defire to have their money: on the contrary, my Lords, we fee that those funds bear the highest price, and are the most fought after, which are expected to be the longest in being paid off. Under fuch circumftances we have an opportunity to look about us, and to apply a part of that fund where we find it is most wanted: this is what is propofed by this Bill. It must be granted, my Lords, that the landed Gentlemen have of all others borne for many years the greatest fhare of the public charge; they are, therefore, the first that ought to be relieved; and for this reafon, 500,000l. part of the Sinking Fund, is to be applied to the current fervice of the prefent year, in order to relieve them of a part of that burden they have long laboured under. Since then by this Bill the landed Gentlemen are to be relieved, and the fervice of the year provided for without contracting any new debt, or laying any new burden on the people, it must be allowed to be a public benefit. It is, my Lords, a good defign; such a design as can give no man an alarm; it can raise no jealousfies or fears, and is, there fore, highly deferving your Lordships approbation and support. Duke of Newcaffle, May 30, 1733.

THE Meffage that has been read, will, I dare fay, meet with no obftruction in this Houfe. It is with pleasure, Sir, that every good subject fees the Royal Line fo ftrong, as to fecure a long duration of happiness to these kingdoms, in the perfons of his Majefty's defcendants: and the attachment of his Royal House to the liberties of this nation, give us all reason to hope, that fucceeding Princes will tread in the paths of his prefent Majefty, who has been hitherto fo careful of all his fubjects rights, and fo watchful over their prefervation.

Sir, his Majefty has been fo tender of asking for any thing on account of his own family, that they are now, in cafe of

his demife, in a more precarious fituation than the children of any Gentlemen of fortune in England. In fuch an event, Sir, which heaven avert! no Gentleman can, from the hiftory of our conftitution, take upon him to fay, in what manner they have a right to be provided for. I believe a future Parliament will reflect with gratitude upon the bleffings of his prefent Majesty's reign, and make a fuitable provifion for his Royal progeny; but I imagine no Gentleman in this Houfe, would chufe to leave the provifion of his younger children upon a precarious footing. Parliaments, like other bodies, are changeable; and it would be an unpardonable negle& in his Majesty, as a father, fhould he leave fo numerous an iffue to the uncertainty of a parliamentary provifion to be made after his demise.

The other only method, by which his Majefty's younger children in fuch a cafe could be provided for, is by the Prince upon the Throne. But, Sir, tho' I have, and I believe every Gentleman has, the greatest opinion of the virtues of the Royal Person who is the Heir of the Crown, yet we are to confider, that his Royal Highness is blessed with a young progeny; and that, as no man can answer for events, if the two Royal lives fhould fall before the children of his Royal Highness are of age, the Government devolves upon a Regency: and give me leave, Sir, to fay, that there is no precedent in this nation, nor any pofitive law now in being, that can determine, as the Royal Family must in such a cafe ftand, to what person the Regency devolves. This confideration is of itself fufficient to juftify the application now made by his Majefty to this Houfe; it is no more than any private Gentleman would do, to put his younger children above a precarious dependence: and I dare fay, that no Gentleman will think, that his Majefty ought to be put under disabilities, which every one here, who is a father, would look upon as hard and unreasonable.

I hope Gentlemen are fully convinced, how becoming it is in his Majefty, as a father, to make fuch an application; and how becoming it is in us, as a House of Commons, to answer VOL. I.

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it

not

it in the most effectual manner: the only confideration, therefore, that Gentlemen can now have, is with regard to the quantum that is demanded by this Meffage. As to that, Sir, I will venture to say, that when we grant it, it is the smallest provifion that ever was granted for the Crown of Britain; nay, the whole of the provision for four Royal Perfonages, does not amount to one half of what former Parliaments have thought but a moderate provifion for one. King James, Sir, when Duke of York, had 100,000l. fettled upon him by Act of Parliament; and that, I think, is the only parliamentary provifion for younger children that can ferve as a precedent on this occafion, because it is the only one fince the Restoration; for before that time the Crown had a great property in lands, and could, without a parliamentary concurrence, provide for its younger children. King Charles the IId had a lawful iffue of his own body to provide for; the children of King James were married, and their fettlements made before he came to the Crown; King William had no children; Queen Anne had none that lived till after fhe came to be Queen; and the daughters of his late Majefty were married before his acceffion to the Throne of Britain. Upon the whole, therefore, I believe there never was a demand made by the Crown more reafonable and moderate than this is. It is for a provifion to younger children, which cannot be made without confent of Parliament; and a provifion fo moderate, that I dare Tay, no other objections to it will be made in this House, but that it is too little. Therefore I humbly move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill, to enable his Majefty to fettle an annuity of 15,000l. per annum upon his Royal Hignefs the Duke of Cumberland, and his heirs; and alfo one other annuity of 24,000l. per annum upon the Princeffes Amelia, Carolina, Mary, and Louisa.

Sir Robert Walpole, May 3, 1739.