tude had been raifed; that in September the minifter had entered into a negotiation which, in a mercantile houfe, would have been confidered as an act of bankruptcy; in October had been obliged to meet parliament for a new loan;and in February had demanded a vote of credit to pay off arrears. While the minister contended that there were only five millions of the navy debt to be funded, ten millions of it were actually floating, feven millions of which ought at leaft to have been funded. The vote ofcredit of 2,500,000l. ought to have been provided for. The interest also on exchequer bills was 260,00ol. and for the management of the bank in the loan 329,000l. The ftoppage of the diftilleries could not be lefs than 600,000l. together with what was to be taken from grants for 1796. The whole would amount to 14,500,000l. which was the leaft we could expect of fervice remaining to be provided for. Inftead of what was conftitutional and what was expected, it would be found upon inquiry, that money was voted and not applied to the fervices for which it was fpecifically voted; nay, the provifions of an act of parliament had been in fringed. The difpofition paper did hot give the houfe an account it could depend upon. The money for paying and cloathing the militia, which had been voted, and ought to have been iffued at Midfummer 1794, was now in arrear. He understood, that 8oool. a year was paid to one agent for money advanced to government, and that money was due to staff-officers for duty on the continent. After a feries of accurate details, Mr. Grey contended that our peace establishment could not be lefs than 22,000,000l. a year; - that our 9

Non hydra fecto corporé firmier

Vinci dolentem crevit in Herculem."

He concluded by moving that the whole houfe fhould refolve itfelf into a committee, to inquire into the state of the nation..

Mr. Jenkinfon contended, in reply, that the prefent posture of affairs afforded no ground for fuch an inquiry, and that, without fuch as were peculiarly ftrong and fubftantial, there were many objections to one being inftituted. With refpect to the comparative expence with other wars, every war was more expenfive than the war preceding it; and, according to the wealth, profperity, and extent of the nation, this was an inevitable confequence. If, at prefent, the prices of provifions, &c. were nearly doubled to individuals, muft they not be equally fo to government? Muft not our expences and exer tions alfo keep pace with those of the enemy? If the war was juft and neceffary, - which he fhould always maintain, fince it had been fanctioned by parliament, then he did not fee why the expence of the war, which was alfo fanctioned by parliament, fhould be a fufficient ground for inquiry!!! The statements of Mr. Grey refpecting the American

-

£.22,585,332

24,453,338

1,868,000

19,286,000

20,964,333

1,678,333

Average of the three laft years war,

The excefs of the war over peace,. The money borrowed during this war, in proportion to that borrowed, in the American war, was at an advantage of one and a half per cent. in favour of this country. At the clofe of the peace of Aix la Chapelle, the funded debt was eighty millions; at the end of the next war it was 140 millions; which, if the prefent plan of funding one per cent, had been in practice, would not have been in exiftence at this time. This appropriation of a million annually was calculated to preferve individual liberty, the conftitution, and the very existence of the country; and the plan of paying off the national debt produced a faving to the nation fufficient to pay the intereft of the debt incurred in the profecution of this juft and neceffary war. The funded fyftem adopted by the prefent minifter would certainly leave a balance in our favour, however great might be the expences of the war. The exertions of minifters, he contended, were fully proportioned to their

expences. In the American war there were 314 fhips in commiffion; now there were 368, and thofe larger; and our troops, amounting to 217,206, were far more confiderable than in any former war; our exertions were greater than had ever before been experienced, and the expence of fubfidies not at all too much, confidering the benefit to be derived from them. There was, indeed, a large unfunded debt; but that was provided for in the ways and means of the year. Confidering the different quarters in which the war was carried on, it was impoffible to prefent more fatisfactory estimates: this, and the complícation of eftimates, fully justified raifing fums without the authority of parliament! Mr. Jenkinfon ftrongly defended the fyftem of barracks, as proper to be carried to its utmoft extent. With respect to what we had gained in the war, he adverted to the diftreffed state of the French navy, the acquifitions in the Eaft Indies, the Cape of

Good

Good Hope, the Dutch fettlements, St. Domingo, Martinique, and Corfica. He contended, that, in ftead of our having degenerated from the conftitutional jealoufy of our ancestors, a larger confidence had been given to minifters under George I and II. than at prefent. A, million and a half had been raised for fecret-fervice-money for ten years, and no proceedings paffed upon it; and afterwards, when parliament required an account of it, the minifters advised the king to refuse it. Mr. Jenkinfon concluded by moving the order of the day.

The arguments of Mr. Grey were ably feconded by Mr. Curwen, who infifted upon the propriety of an inquiry into the expenditure of public money for the fatisfaction of the public at large, by whom that money was raifed. The acqui. fitions to the country, which had been fo much infifted upon, he was far from confidering as advantageous to us, as he was entirely of opinion that colonization tended to weaken a country, and would finally terminate in ruin. The refult of an inquiry into the wafte of men and money in our different expeditions, would fully prove that thefe had been no advantage to the country. After entering at large into what appeared to him to have been the mifcondu&t of minifters, he thought, that, fhould they perfift, they would compel the people to fpeak for themselves, not from any love of French principles, but from the burthens under which they groaned. The inquiry was further fupported by Mr. M. Robinfon and Mr. Martin. It was oppofed by Mr. Steele, Mr. M. Montague, and Sir G. Page Turner, who clegantly obferved, that it was not our bufinefs to confefs our poverty, nor to

fpoil our own trade by crying tinking fish. Mr. Steele admitted that the expences had exceeded the eftimates, though not to the extent which had been stated. The navy estimates, in the three years of the war, were about 15,000,000l. the debt, during the fame period, was about 13,000,000l. but this could not be faid to be incurred without parliamentary fanction. The fum ufually allowed per man, fince the revolution, had not for fome time, even in peace, been found fufficient. The minifter, therefore, after the first year of the war, had ftated this debt, and had fince continued to do fo, together with the means for difcharging it. The whole of it, except one million and a half, had already been provided for; and the houfe, by its proceedings upon this fatement, had fully fanctioned the tranfaction. The real amount of the extraordinaries of the army was, he contended, only 7,500,000l. Whatever difregard to the appropriation act had been charged to the prefent minifter, the fame practice had been conftantly in ufe in 1782, and for years antecedent to the paffing of that act. The provifion of the prefent year, for the re-payment of 2,600,000l. to the army fervice of 1795, with the addition of the fur. ther extraordinaries to be voted, he was ready to pledge himself, would be more than fufficient to pay the army without leaving fixpence in arrear. Large arrears had indeed been due to the staff; but there ouly remained 1900l. unpaid for 1793, and 16,00ol. for 1794. Though he admitted it had not been ufual to pafs a vote of credit fo early, yet it had been applied fix months previous to the grant. In regard to barracks, 610,000l. had been expended, and 150,000l. more was neceflary

neceffary for their completion; in this were included beer, forage, &c. Of the fix millions iffued for the difcharge of the unfunded debt, five millions and a half were in circulation before the war. On comparison of this with any former war except 1778, there would, he faid, be found little difference in the expence.

Mr. Grey, in reply, enforced his former arguments, and thought much of what had been urged was irrelevant to the fubject. With refpect to the provifion faid to be made for the navy debt, he ob. ferved that there had been no explanation in what it confifted. No permanent taxes had been provided. The lottery, he obferved, was a fund in its nature fo unfixed, that it could not be regarded as available for more than incidental claims and emergencies. This fum of five millions was, therefore, he contended, a part of the unfunded navy debt, and his statement perfectly accurate. With refpect to the army, the statements, he admitted, were nearly juft; but there was a faving of 1,500,000l. which, applied to the army debt, formed a deduction from it to that extent. Admitting this as a proper deduction, there remained a debt of feven millions and a half, confequently an excefs of two millions and a half above the debt in the American war. But this deduction could not be made; for, were the arrears paid, the debt would be according to his ftatement: A vote A vote of credit was not, as had been ftated, an authority to raife a fum which might be applied at the difcretion of minifters. The act ftated that it was for the enfuing year, and for profpective unprovided fervices; nor would he admit of a conftruction which violated both

the letter and spirit of the act. An application contrary to the enactment of a bill was a fraud and a falfehood. The act of appropri ation exprefsly directed the application of fums to particular fervi ces, to which minifters paid no refpect. A refolution of the house, May 15th, 1711, ftrongly expreffed disapprobation of 6oool. having been taken from the navy fund by the minifter, to fupply the army; and stated fuch a diverfion of the public money as leffening the credit of the navy. What ought, then, to be the diffatisfaction of the houfe, to behold a system of uniform violation of every act of appropriation, and to an extent the moft alarming? Other acts were alfo violated. From the difpofition paper, it appeared that certain fums had been iffued for particular fervices, while it was notorious those very fervices were unpaid. This was the cafe with the money for cloathing the army, in which a balance of 16,000l. was due from midfummer 1794. With refpect to the bank, nothing had been faid. His original statement refpecting barracks was, he contended, juft; and 22 millions of permanent revenue would be neceffary to provide for the interest of the national debt with the accumulated expences occafioned by the war. On a divifion for the order of the day, moved by Mr. Jenkinson, the ayes were 207, noes 45.

Notwithstanding the ruinous ftate in which the finances of the country were evidently involved, in the month of April two ftrange though not unexpected political phænomena prefented themselves, to alarm the thinking part of the British fenate: these were a fecond budget, and a fecond loan, in the fame feffion.

The

The chancellor of the exchequer on the 18th of that menth brought forward his fecond budget. He propofed that measure, he said, with a confiderable portion of anxiety and folicitude; and after revolving it in his mind with care and deliberation, he approac! ed it with a fincere and rooted confidence in the refources of the country, which he believed to be fufficiently abundant to difappoint the proud and prefumptuous expectations which France had founded upon a contrary fuppofition. He divided the general difcuffion which he fubmitted to the confideration of the houfe of commons, into three diftinct heads:-

First, the substitution of fuch new ways and means as he fhould fuggeft in lieu of thofe propofed be. fore Chriftmas, which, after due inquiry, he had thought it policy to relinquish :

Second, the statement of fuch fervices as had not been forefeen in providing for the fervices of the year, and in propofing to the committee the means of meeting thofe fervices:

Third, the meafures that he thought it would be advifable to adopt, in order to remove the diftrefs occafioned by the temporary demand for money, and in order to give facility to commercial credit.

Under the first head Mr. Pitt obferved, that, in ftating the ways and means in December, he had mentioned his intentions of providing taxes for a calculated yearly revenue of 1,120,000l. of which £135,000 was to arife from a certain tax on printed cottons and calicoes; but it had been fince thought advisable to withdraw it. As a fubstitute to the amount of the greateft part of the deficiency occafioned by the withdrawing of this tax, he fhould propofe a tax on dogs; 1796.

a measure firft brought forward by Mr. Dent, which he calculated to produce 100,000l. a year. fun, deducted from the amount of the deficiency arifing from his relinquishing the propofed tax on printed cottons, left 35,000l. for which he propofed to provide after the following manner: The duty on hats had been found to decline yearly in its produce fince its first inftitution, on account of the facility of evading it. He therefore propofed a mode of collecting it, as fimple as it was likely to be effectual, which was, that, inftead of being collected by a stamped paper, which was easily feparated from the hat, it fhould be collected by a ftamp upon the lining of the hat, in a way which would make it impoffible for the wearer not to know whether he had or had not paid the duty. This regulation he estimated to

produce 40,000l. per annum more than the old mode of collecting that duty; which, added to the dog tax, would produce 140,000l. This fum was more than fufficient, he obferved, to fupply the deficiency occafioned by abandoning the