jectionable mode, to find taxes to defray the fums yearly expended, and not leave them a dead load on the enfuing year; he had therefore differed from the mode which had lately obtained, and stated the vote of credit for 2,500,000l. in the budget. It might be applied or not, as wanted, while it conftituted a floating capital. This was better than leaving it to increase the unfunded debt to be afterwards provided for; it was alfo the moft œconomical, as it was better to take the vote for both the ordinary and extraordinary fervice together, and fink them in one common fund, that the money of one fervice might not be idle, and the furplus be paid out of the vote of credit. Thus, with refpect both to the principle and application, the prefent mode was the leaft objectionable.

It was obferved by Mr. Fox, that the chancellor of the exchequer had confounded what was feparate and diftinct. He confidered a vote of credit, in a committee of fupply, as more eligible; but objected to it under one pretence, while he applied it to others. He did not himfelf fee how a vote of credit and the estimate could be blended without confufion. The queftion was, whether any unforefeen exigence had occurred, and if fuch could not be provided for during the affembling of parliament. If none had, why depart from the established rule? If any had, why not state it to the houfe? As to the advantages refulting from the new mode which had been introduced, he must stop in limine, and obferve, that in a vote of credit the money is not iffued till it is wanted; and that, for the current expences of the year, the money purpofely provided by eftimate is ready. It might be thought, from the great defire of regularity ex

preffed, none of the departments were even in arrear. The ordnance, the navy, the civil lift, were all, however, in arrear, and there were ftaff officers, who, fince 1793, had not received a fhilling. A vote of credit was, he contended, never applied to the deficiency of eftimates; and therefore the prefent vote was not confiftent with the laws of the country. Mr. Sheridan noticed, that the objection was made to the extent of the vote, and appealed to the preamble of the bill to fhew that the money ought merely to be applied to the fupply of future exigencies, when parliament was not affembled, Mr. Grey's motion was, however, negatived; and the third reading of the bill carried by a majority of 77.

On the order of the day for the vote of credit bill in the house of lords, it was oppofed by the earl of Lauderdale, who strongly infifted upon the danger and unconftitutional tendency of the present proceeding. He fhould, he faid, move for difcharging this order, and having it renewed for a more diftant period of the prefent feffion. No inconvenience could arise from the delay; or, if it did, it must be owing to the unwarrantable manner in which minifters were to apply it to fervices already performed, and not included in the proper eftimates, This anticipation of the refources of the country was not only a grofs violation of the law, but a palpable fraud attempted to be paffed on the houfe. The vote of credit for the laft year had been, as he would pledge himfelf to prove, immediately converted to ufes which accounted for the fubfequent di ftreffes of government, and the demand for money that arofe from the vote being diverted from its proper application, and was the original

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cause of the preffure that followed. Of the fums then voted, a great part had been immediately paid into the offices of the paymafters of the forces and the navy. The confequence of this application was, that ministers had been forced to raife money by the moft difgraceful means. His lordship inveighed with much force against the meafure of the Hamburgh bills, and ftated that treafury warrants had been used as a means of procuring fupplies; that the refponfibility of individuals was added to fatisfy the, perfons by whom they were held; that the tranfport board - an office unknown to the conftitution-had been in the practice of drawing bills, which were paid in confequence of the private order of Mr. Rofe; and money had alfo been raised by the pitiful expedient of felling the neutral captured veffels, while the owners were paid by navy

bills.

Lord Grenville referred to the preamble to the bill, and to the example of former wars, to prove that votes of credit were applied to the extraordinary expences incurred during the war; and defended the prefent measure by arguments fimilar to thofe advanced by the chancellor of the exchequer. His lordfhip vindicated the measure of the Hamburgh bills, on the ground of keeping up the general credit and refources of the country, and preventing the enemy from being acquainted with any temporary inconvenience. Much extraneous matter arose on this occafion; but after a debate of fome continuance between the earl of Lauderdale, and the earls of Mansfield and Hawkefbury, and lord Grenville, the motion was negatived without a divifion; and the bill went through the committee.

The third reading of the bill in the house of lords was again forcibly oppofed by the duke of Grafton, the earls of Suffolk and Lauderdale, and lord Thurlow, who concurred in the idea of the meafure being unconflitutional, and dreaded its mifchievous confequences,

The duke of Grafton obferved, that, had fuch a measure been practifed by minifters in the good times of the conftitution, it would immediately have been followed by a bill of indemnity for a proceeding fo repugnant to the principles of the conftitution. The means employed by minifters for raifing money were at once, his grace faid, difgraceful and illegal; and if fuch meafures were fanctioned, the conftitutional duties of the house of commons would be violated, and a part of the executive government draw to itself prerogatives which the conftitution did not allow it to exercife. Upon putting the queftion, it paffed, without a divifion, in the affirmative. On the following day the earl of Lauderdale entered a fpirited proteft against the measure.

In the mean time, several of the new-laid taxes met with confiderable oppofition. On the report of the committee on the tobacco bill, Mr. Huffey objected to this tax on account of its being raifed from the lower claffes of the people. Mr. Courtenay, general Smith, and Mr. Sheridan, objected to it on the fame account, as depriving the poor of almoft their only luxury. General Tarleton brought up feveral claufes for fupplying non-commiffioned of ficers and foldiers, while on board tranfports, with this article, duty free; which paffed. The horfe duty bill underwent fome alterations; and all working horfes under thirteen.

hands

hands high were exempted from the tax. Horfes ufed in the yeomanry cavalry, freeholders living on free holds from tol. to 151. a year, and perfons holding firms of 7ol. or freeholds of 351. per annum, were alfo exempted. The tax on printed cottons and callicoes was given up. That on collateral fucceffion was ftrongly oppofed by Mr. Sheridan; and the report of the budget underwent further oppofition in its fucceffive ftages. Mr. alderman Newnham remarked the inquifitorial power which the fucceffion bill muft neceffarily veftin certain perfons. Eve, ry circumstance relative to private property was expofed to public infpection, which would particularly fubject commercial men to great inconveniences. It was a tax on the bounty due to illegitimate children, to a well-tried fridid or domeftic, to the value of 6 per cent. It rendered the office of an executor fo complex and troublesome, that none fhould venture to become one without an attorney at his elbow. Mr. Newnham further objected to dividing the landed property into one bill, and the perfonal into another. After a variety of obfervations on the evil tendency of the bill, he moved for its being taken into confideration that day four months; which was feconded by Mr. Rafhleigh.

Mr. Fox thought the bill introduced a mode of taxation wholly inapplicable to the. ftate of this country. By this tax every fpecies of commercial property must be laid open. This was totally impoffible; and it was therefore impracticable, by any regulation, to obviate the objection to this tax; in order to pay a tax ad valorem, the value must be afcertained, and the state of the commercial property known to the world. Many

commercial poffeffions depended upon a balance of debts and credits: the nature of these debts must be neceffarily expofed. A man might lofe on one branch, and gain on another; and many were the inftances in which injustice, though it was not intended, was infeparable from the operation of the bill. In fome cafes the property bequeathed might be of fuch a nature, that it would not be poffible to ascertain its value. If by good fortune a man should extend the bufinefs bequeathed him, he must annually pay a proportion of the increafed advantages. In many other inftances there was no poffibility of estimating the value of property under this bill. In fome cafes it would produce a scene of confufion and intolerable vexation. Admitting the principle of this tax to be juft, he could fee no reafon why, at a future time, it should not be extended to lineal as well as collateral fucceffion. As far as it operated on property in the funds, it was, he thought, "a direct breach of faith in the government;" and a breach of faith which, in time, would fwallow up a confiderable part of the debt due to the proprietors of stock. As to that part of the bill which refpected the fucceffion to entailed eftates, the tax, he obferved, was to be calculated upon the life eftate, which, he contended, could not equit bly be put in practice. If, by any mode of calculation, it was eftimated that a man fhould live a certain number of years, and he died much fooner, it would then be found that he had paid more than a fair proportion. All this, however, was, he thought, fubordinate to that grand objection, that, to levy the tax ad valorem, a dangerous fyftem of difcovery muft be adopted.

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ticed the unequal operation of this bill in the inftance of a military man, who could only fell an annuity left him at four years' purchafe; whereas, those who were lefs expofed to hardships, lefs active in the defence of their country, might difpofe of it for thirty-one years' purchase; yet they would pay the fame tax. If the collateral property of all other defcriptions of men was thus to be affected, his lordship thought that of the church fhould not be exempted; but that all churchmen, upon tranflation or prefentation to a living, fhould, for four years, be obliged to give up a proportion of their annual income. The tax was impolitic, upon the established maxim that it was leaft injurious to the community to tax confumption and not capital. Taxes upon productive capital, he obferved, tended to withdraw it from the fupport of industry, and diminished that wealth on which circulation depended, and whence national profperity was derived. Our enemies would, he thought, have a very unfavourable idea of our refources, from our adoption of fuch unheard and untried measures. The arguments of lord Lauderdale were oppofed by lord Grenville and

the bishop of Rochester, who obferved that churchmen paid taxes in the fame proportion with other men: and the bill paffed.

The bill for a tax upon the fucceffion to real eftates met with ftill fironger oppofition. Mr. Rashleigh, Mr. Newnham, Mr. Crewe, lord G. Cavendish, &r W. Pulteney, Mr. Baftard, lord Sheffield, Mr. M. Robinson, general Smith, Mr. Harrifon, Mr. Buller, sir A. Fergufon, Mr. Francis, Mr. Sheridan, and Mr. Fox, ftrenuously oppofed it; it was fupported by the attorney and folicitor general, the fecretary at war, Mr. M. Montague, Mr. H. Brown, and the chancellor of the exchequer. On a motion from Mr. Sheridan for poftponing the third reading for three months, the majority against the motion was only one. Mr. Pitt then moved for its being again read the following day; when the ayes and noes being equal, the fpeaker gave a cafting vote for the motion. The bill, however, appearing fo thoroughly obnoxious, Mr. Pitt abandoned the measure, by moving the next day for deferring the third reading to that day three months.

MESSAGE from his majefty, relative to his difpobuon to meet any negotiation on

the part of the enemy, with a defire to give it the fpeedieft effect in producing a peace, was read by the

Ipeaker