The Statesman. — London, England, 1812-06-18 00:00:00

.SM;m . clan exhibited evident of . Moils, and here l ie was *holly unable to pratieed. fieveril Members called out "sit down—sit down,"--which •he 41d a smelling bottle was handed to Me V and a glass of wreas t u e md. r e prorred. After a pause of a few moments he ' I had this frank conversation with the Noble L o rd; and I did state to him, that I thought they ,ere committing the same fault, as the projected cabinet itself, because of the imputation which their resignation would necessarily cast upon the Govern ment." filen. Mr. Sheridan became again unable to pro.. m il, so as tote intelligible, and he sat down. But He u nderstood him to say, that in the last conversa. Coo which he had with the Noble Lord, he admitted that they were right after ail, in their determination. Alter a pause of a few moments, Mr. Jekyll rose, and proposed, that as Mr. Sheridan was so extreme ly indisposed, the business should be postponed, and Friday next was accordingly fixed for its being resumed.] SINECURE BILL., Mr. Bankes's Sinecure Bill mu read a third time and passed, Ertel a few observations from Mr. W. W 3 nee. --- BARRACKS. The Hon. Mr. WARD rase to empire, before he renewed his notice upon the erection of t!.e Mary-le-bonne Barracks, whe el. rit was 4111 tile Intention of Government to carry the plan Imo comities 1 • . Mr. WHARTON said they did not ; that their , erection was pihtpotted till Biller inform, ion could bf obtained upoh the sub. F et.--[1,019:1 ant/ e , reitted elvers ;1..4..1 the Opposition.) Mr. W ARO then withdrew his notice. Mr. BIOUGIIAM asked, whether it was intended to go on with the erection of the I.lverpool and Bristol Barracks' Air. 14 H .l RTON replied, that they abo were gib en op for the present, till turther information was procured upon the sub . ject.—[LoLd chsering.) • • . • ' 'BUDGET: COMMITTER OF WAYS AND MEANS. Mr. VANSITTART said he could not rise to address the House without feeling a painful sensation, when he considered in whose place hi stood, whose duties he had to perform, and whose papers he held in his hand. Happy had it been, if that lamented individeal had lived to do what he was then going to attempt, hot happier than all, it would be, if he ehnuld be able to imitete his unblemished integrity.— [lcer, hear!] —When the House recollected the very short time which had occurred since the place he then occupied had been confided to his unworthy bands, they would be prepared to expect that be bad taken the system of his departxd Friend exactly as be bad found it, except in a very few instances, which be should specify when be arrived at them. He begged, therefore, it might be distinctly uuderstood, that he was now bringing before them the budget of his lamented frier.o.; and he should proceed to state, as briefly and as intelligibly as his faculties would permit him, the charges for the current year ; charges, heavy indeed,but which, he was happy to say, were not beyond the resenrces of the country. Much of what would be required, indeed, had been already voted by that House, hot he should go through the whole in de tail. The Naval Supplies had amounted to above 19,700,0001. exclusively of the Extratirdinaries.— Tee Army, including the Barrack and Commissariat 1 departments, to 11,577,0001. In the estimates that 1 bad passed through the House, 90,0001. more were included, but those 90,0001. were struck off, in con-' I sequence of the erection . of the barracks being sus pended for the present.—{{leer, hear!] Upon the propriety or impropriety of that measure, ho desired : . be understood u &ins no opinion ; but the Trea s.,ry did not feel itself justified in becoming respon sible for the sums necessary, without a fuller com prehension of the plans. At a future period he should, perhaps, have to call upon the House to vote that sum when such information had been obtalued as was .deemed requisite. In the Army Extraor. dinaries there were 2,500,0001. being the amount unprovided for last year, besides which 5,000,0001. i were required for the current year, of which I 200,0001. were for Ireland. It being intended to provide as large an establishinent this year as last, and I five millions being required for the last year, the same sum was now to be raised. Of the Miscellaneous Estimates a great part bad been already voted, but there were some which yet remained to be brought for ward. They amounted to about 6,600,6001. and be sides that sum, a vote of credit as liberal as that of last year would be' requircl; 3,000,0001. for England, 200,0001. for Ireland, 400,0001. for the service of Sici ly, and 2,000,0001. for the Prince Regent of Portugal. The total charge for the United Kingdoms would amount to 62,000,0001. leaving to be provided for, by Great Britain alone, 59 . .350,0001. This charge, an enormous one he was ready to admit, it was pro posed to meet in the following manner :—Annual Daties,-3,000,0001. • by the surplus of the Como. Mated Fund, 3,606,0001.; produce of the War Taxes, including the whole of the Property Tax, 20,400,0001. ; Lottery, 300,0001. ; by a Lull in the b per cents. 6,789,0061.; by Exchequer Bills, issued upon the Vote of Credit, 3,000,0001. ; amount of Exchequer Bills funded, 5,400,0001. ; amount of , old Naval Stores sold laSt year, pursuant to an Act of Parliament, which was to be attributed t 0 , ,. the labelers of the Finance Committee, 441,0001.;.1 '4209,0001. ; being the surplus of the Ways and Means voted last year, and the Loan which had been subscribed for thttt day 15,650,0001. The Right Hon. Gent. then entered into. a minute state. meat of the amount of the various branches of the re. venue during-the last year. The total of the Conso lidated Fund, including the Customs, Excise, &c. was 37,263,0001. to which was to he added the pro duce of the Permanedt and War Taxes. The esti-, mated produce of the War Taxes for the present year, calculated upon an average of the last three years, would amount to 10,410,0001. which, together with. the arrears of the Property Tax, would form a sum of 20,400,0001. Ile was aware that an objection might probably be stated to be the basis of this estimate, as it was generally apprehended that this part of the revenue was in a state of decline. It had certainly un. dergone a considerable decrease in the quarter ending October lest. It had fallen off in the such of 411,0001. In the following quarter, however, it sit. ceeded the former produce 31,0001.; and in the last experienced a much larger rise. The Escheqqe} jlills already funded iii the 5 per Cents., amounting to rather more than 12,000,0001. would, in order to defray the interest, require 666,0001. - per annum.— He regretted much that the terms on which the Loan had been contracted for were not more advantageous than they were to the public interests. The interest, however ) at which the money hid beeq borrdwedi THE STATESMAN. althot!gb high as compared to the terms on *Mob the bargains o the last three years had been made, was still less than that Which had bffen been given in pe riods of war: Perhaps, indeed, the contractors had even now mdre to complain of than the public; and be'was sure that, Considering the situation of the country, and the Consequences of the late Loans to the contractors, the House would join hint in the 'Wish that the present may prove more profitable to them than at present it is likely to become. lie had 'now arrived at that star of his duty, of which the performance was the most irksome and painful, that of pro'posing to the House those additional burthens which the necessities of the times and of public affairs required to be imposed upon the country. The sum necessary to be raised to discharge the Interest of the newly funded debt would be 1,900,0001. He ' proposed to provide this by a series of different mea sures. The first to which he should beg leave to call the attention of the House, he was happy to say, was a tax that would fall upon nobody. [A laugh.] Per. baps it ought not in strictness of language, to be called a tax, as the sum intended to be raised would arise from the discontinuance of the. bounty on the export of Printed Goods. From a sum of compa. ntively trifling amount, this bounty had risen to 308,000. He felt an entire confidetiee that the with drawing of this bounty would not materially discou rage our manufactures, and that they had advanced to that state of pert cfon as to require no other aid and assistance, than that unrestricted vent and gene ral demand, which, in the event of a change in the state of the Continent, might safely be anticipated. :The present bon n'y varied from one half-penny to 1-Id. per yard, according to the quality of the manufacture, and the retention of this trilling encouragement could not be considered as cil ciliated to do any serious injury in depressing our exports. The Committee would vaturally bear in mind, that in every proposition, having in view the object to which they w re direct ing their attention, trey had only a choice of evils, and they must be elute:it to select those which ap peared, under all the circumstances attending them, the least exposed to any just objection, or welt-founded llear!]—He had in the next place to submit a duty on Hides and Skins imported. A tax of three half-pence per pound would, by a cal culation formed on the large quantity recently brought from South Amerita, produce 325,000 1 . per annum. He was of opinion that no reasonable objection could be raised to an addition to the duty on Gass, that manufacture being p, otected from fort ign competition by a positive prohibition. Ile should estimate the produce of this at 328,00:M. A small increase to the tax on Tobacco, of 10 per cent. as the present duties could not be seriously felt, and he should only take the amount at 107,0001. He had now to propose a duty of another kind, dilfering from the preceding, inasmuch as it would be brought forward in the shape of a regulation. The present Duty on Auc tions would be extended in its application, not in its amount, by this mnsure. It was a matter of pretty general noto. iety, th it property was often put up to a nominal sale, w:lich fictitious sale was not at present subject to a pa) ment of the duty. It was intended by this measure that the duty should be equally a; plLable, excapt in cases where the pro perty in gne:tioa should be proved to have actually chauged hands within the period of 12 months. It was of course quite impracticable to form any thing like a precise estimate of the probable produce of this extension. Premising, therefore, that it was simply matter of conjecture, he would state it at 100,0001. An increase of Id. on the Postage of Letters convey de beyond the distance of twenty miles, might he cal culated as likely to yield a sum of 220,0001. and to this he did not apprehend that material or general objection would be felt. 'the Committee would re collect that in the year 1800, when a Noble Lord, now a Member of the other House, held the office which he himself had now the honour to fill, a duty on Private Breweries had been submitted to the House. Many strong considerations were then urged against it, and the measure was finally abandoned. It had been, however, the intention of his late Right lion. Friend to have brought it forward a second time, so modified as to be entirely free from the principle which was chiefly resisted, that of introducing the Excise into private houses. To get rid of the neces sity of resorting to this unpopular expedient it had been proposed to substitute the principle of an equal and general commutation on heads composing families. 1 The whole scheme had, however, been subsequently abandoned, both from a persuasion that the amount would fall far short of the estimate, and that the equality, which it was the leading object of, the mea sure to preserve, was in fact unattainable, and that the burden would rest principally on the poorer classes, who, in the instauces in which they practised private brewing, naturally brewed only , to the extent prescribed by necessity, while the rich brewed also for the purposes of hospitality. In now referring to the Assessed Taxes, he had found it his duty to re commend to the Committee some few alterations and increase on their different heads. In the first in stance he should propose an additional tax of 4s. to 1 the '2l. Bs. now paid you Male Servants. Upon ee -1 casional Gardeners 4s. making the whole duty on ' this description of. Servants 10s. Upon Mercantile • Agents and Riders the increase would be from 21.85. I . to 31. That on other Clerks from 11. 4s. to 21. A similar duty on Drivers of Carriages would be sub jected to a similar increase. Occasional Waiters to , a duty of 20s. and Servants occasionally employed in Agriculture to one of 4s. The tax on Carriages, which was now 111. 15s. it was his Intentiou to raise !to 121. On Horses used only for Pleasure, a new ' duty of 4s. making the amount of the entire duty I el. 17s. tad. On Horses used exclusively for the par : poses of Husbandry a tax of 3s. ed. but on those employed in the occupations of trade, being of con siderably greater vaineetiOs. He believed he skeet(' also suggest some incenie of the duty on Dogs, apa although he was himself no sportsman, he conceived that some distinction might be fairly introduced,' anti bat Greyhounds, as furolishing .Geutlemeu - with greater pleasure, should be subjected to a propor tionately larger duty [a Mae]. for Game-keepers an additional tax of, four shillings ,, for servants not assessed the same su m, and for those assessed an ad ditional tax of ten shillings and sixpeiice. His' esti r'mate of the total produce was 1;903,0001.;. and he now begged leave to congratulate the Committee,' that at a time When It was generally epasirlered4liat is the eiisting state of the leiotirMp of th, oototry , taxation had fo u nd it s li m i t it had been found ptac. imperiously demanded minute and immediate in. .11cIsb_ le to subm it a scheme ' of increased duties that vestigation.—[Hear, hear, h e ar !]—AltlZoo el her threatened so little general inconvenience, and what finances were in this reduced condition. no klouti c .. *IS most material, so little pressure on the lower or- t man denied that no part of the Uni' ed li:ngdom had tiers of society. lie had had it contemplation to been, or continued to be , more ra ,, ' , lly ini ror. of f er a few observations, b u t he believed that he had " ing :the rent of land had' enormousi. risen, P the trespassed sufficiently long on th e a tt en ti on o f the progress made in agricul nre had , esen gr:evr, and ;ter Committee, and would, therefore, reserve them to a . manufactures were not meeli , 11,• inj , tred by the w i •a rc r u i m n s w ta h n ic ce h s w i e t w w e a r g e e i n i g o a t ged a — li;t i l . e t u s t i t i d i : p r ila a r ll ! these future stage of the proceedi ng . Mr. HUSRISSON obse rve d ' c that in the present 1 circumstances of the country, he was decidedly of nearly all the produce of the taxes imposed in Ire. opinion that a more judicious selection of objects land had of late years declined In proportioo to her could not have been made, than that of his Right prosperity, and her consequent Mall, of paYiug them. ' Hon. Friend.—[Hear, hear!]—When the p lan In, the • year of 1799, the impost, upon loathe gave should have undergone some m o difi ca ti on i n it s future a Revenue of 55,0001. and in 1811, it had ;alien .stages through the House, he h a d no d ou bt th a t it t o 40 ,0001. though the employment of (het article -*ould be al acceptable as any measure of this cha- must have amazingly augmented. The same remark racter could be in the present state of the resources would apply to the Tax on Malt. in 1799, the are• of the country. He would now, however, with the rage quantity o n which th e d u t y was c h arge d, was permission of the Committee, • recal to their recoller- 12,000 barrels, and in the last year, it was only don a few of those observations which he had thought : 7000. To what then was this diminution owing ' it his duty to make three Sessions ago, and to apply The Hon. Member charged no individual, but it ap. to them some of those facts and examples which sub-' peared to him certain, that bisides great laxity its j sequent experience had furnished in confirmation of ' the collection of the Revenue ' there was something his former reasonings. He had then stated as like a c onn i vance a t fraud. [Hear, hear!] The a general principle, that the only secure means to . country was doubtless deeply iudebted to the Chan. I which the country could look, to enable it to sup- cellor of the Exchequer for Ireland for the unceasieg port the arduous and protracted struggle in which ' pains he had taken to procure a more adequate col. ' it is engaged, was the adoption of every practice. ! lection of the taxes, but he had failed,.sitice nothing Ible measure of retrenching and equalizing its ex- but a complete change of system, in Mr. Huskisson's penditure.' He had added, that the then existing ' opinion, could effect so desirable an object. Tee %ystem of Loans and War Taxes could not be con-: defalcation would appear the more remarkableos hen tinned for any great length of time. What had re- it was known that in Ireland, not one direct tax cent changes and events tended to establish ? In i • was imposed, and in this respect, that her situation 1810, the amount of debt funded was upwards of was better than that of any other country of the j sixteen millions ; in 1811, 19,500,0001.; and in world, with the exception o f th e Culled States. The ' 1612, to '27,870,0001. The state of the public i truth was, that the public credit of Ireland stood funds at These different periods, corresponded with I much higher than that of Great Britain 9 and yet this the increasing demands, and strongly countenanced I country lending to her assistance she could by no those apprehensious which he had entertained.- 1 means afford. He would venture to assert, that if The three per Cent. Consols were in 1810, at the 'by this circumstance, the public credit of Great !tine of contracting for the Loan, at 70; in 1811, I Britain had net been so grievously injured, the Loan 'at6s ; and in 1812, at 56. The charge of the. Loan ' just negociated might have • been contracted for ,on had risen from 61. 4s. to 71. 4s. The Rlght, Hon.: terms 5 per cent, better than those actually obtained. Gentleman then entered into a discussion of the ' [(bar, hear 1 To correct defects in the various financial policy of the last three years, and blamed' respects he had hitherto pointed out, was by no f the interference with the Surplus of the Consolidated I means all that was necessary, because if the system ',Find. He reprobated the tax of last Session on I hitherto pursued was to be continued, a revision of Spirits, contending that it produced no addition to j our foreign and domestic establishments would be • the revenue, while it served to encourage elicit dis- j absolutely necessary. [Velar, hear! i The Naval tillation, to the detriment of public health and mo- 1 and Military branches of our expenditure must be rids. 'lt was evident that if by doubling a duty they closely examined ; and it •was impossible for any diminished the legal consumption of a commodity, individual, even though he should have spent nothing was gained. We had recently taken upon his• whole life in public concerns, to form even a ourselves the provision for paying the interest of the vague calculation as to the result : that it would tie Irish Loan, but this provision appeared to be entire- j highly advantageous to the finances of the nation ly forgotten, unless the Chancellor of the Exchequer I was clear, and that it would not be detrimental to for Ireland had included it in his Budget. The I its safety and interests was equally certain ; much Hon. Member then proceeded to what appeared to I might however be effected by the revival and invir. him to be the most important part of the subject, ' ration of the Public Credit ; and let whoever would and which consequently required from Government be Ministers, they would not deserve their stations, the most anxious and unceasing attention • he meant if they did not make the attempt. It was now too the state of the public credit, which had been so much late in the present. ear to accomplish the design ; but depressed by the heavy demands upon it. The addi- he trustee, that in the interval between this and the tion to the Funded Debt of 1810, created a stock of succeeding Session some plan would be digested cal. not quite twenty-five millions and a half, and in 1811 culated to effect the object in view. It was far of not quite twenty-eight millions and a half, and from his intention, in the present melancholy state even this augmentation had the effect of lowering of the interior, to produce despondency ; such a the funds from 70 to between 50 and 60. The ca- feeling should at no time be indulged in..a state that pital stock of the present year, however, to be only existed to any purpose while it was free, but added to the public Debt, was not less than he was yet to learn that any advantage was to be de. , fifty-two millions, amounting nearly to the wbole rived from shrinking from facing our dangers, as, in increase of two years preceding. To what then might his opinion, nothing could be gained from a con• we not exigct that the price of the Funds would ceolment of our real situation. It was true, that shortly be reduced, and with what serious conside- in the manufacturing districts distress existed, which ration did not this momentous subject require from cast a general gloom over the prosiaect of public af those who had the management of the Finances of fairs, but the cloud was transitory, sun-shine would the Empire ?—This depression of the Public Credit, soon be restored ; and although we.might not long which naturally created such alarm with all thipk- be able to continue our foreign exertions to the ex. ing men, bad not arisen from any national discs- tent to which they had hitherto been carried, yet he ters that we had sustained, but it had taken place was convinced that the stamina of the nation were at a time when the affairs of the State had been con- unimpaired, and that its resources were in-a state of I ducted with almost unexampled success, and in the ;progressive improvement. [Hear, hear!] Farther • face of a Sinking Fund, of not less than fourteen land great sacrifices might be necessary to enable us millions. The terms of the loan that had this year ,to support the arduous struggle in which liberty and I been contracted for, were less favourable than any ljustice fought against tyranny and• artifice, and if j that had been obtained since '1798: the war taxes ! they were called for he was so firmly persuaded of then produced little more than four millions, and the I the public spirit of the people, that they would Sinking Fend was in its infancy, not amounting to I never be backward to supply the means for cond. more than one-hundreth part of the National Debt ; I truing the triumps of our fleets and armies. i ! whereas now it had itscended to an importance which Lord A. HAMILTON conceived that the Income authorized the most sanguine hopes as to its ultimate Tax which, in this country, reached so low as 601. ; effects, since it was more than one forty-sixth part a-year, should also, in fairness, be extended to Ire -lof the National Debt. In noticing this subject, land. • . !he could not in too strong terms point out to the Sir J. NEWPORT would take that opportunity of I Committee the impolicy of raising money for the pub- submitting some suggestions on the, subject of Irish I lic service at such a disadvantageous rate of interest, Finance, which had been introduced by the Hon. and it appeared to him that it would be far better to Gent. and his Noble Friend. He fully assented to 1 I obtain it by general taxes, which would in the end the truth of their remarks on the extreme dispropor. ' affect the people in a much less proportion. This j tion between the respective revenues of the two I was another reason for attemtzting by a change of I countries, whch had been increasing ever since the system, if necessary, to invigorate the present debi- I Union • but it did not proceed from the want of new litated condition of the public credit of the country, ! taxes being nominally imposed on Ireland. The re. particularly at a period wheri even the necessary de- venue of that country in 1808 was 4,570,0001. ; mends upon it were so extensive. He trusted that since then nominal taxes to the amount of 1,200,0001. the Committee would allow him to point out a few , had been imposed, and yet the produce of the reve extraneous circumstances which had caused this de-i nue was 400,0001. less than in 1 8 08 . The radical pression, and which, if duly attended to, might pro- defect lay in the mode of collection ; and his opi n ion duce considerable relief. The most important of I was, that much more would be done by proper re these was the extent to which it had been thought ne-igulations in the mode of levying the taxes, than by emery, at the sacrifice of our own, to support the! the imposition of new ones. The espeuces of cal credit of Ireland. It was a matter that required im- lection were enormous, and impossible to be ac- I mediate investigation, because it might be deemed one , counted for, except on the supposition of the gross. iof the roots of the evil. What was the condition of ' eat abuses. In 1806 the expence of collecting the Ithe sister kingdom in the year 1812? Last year the in- customs in Ireland was 9 per cent. and the excise 8 terest upon her debt was 4,400,0001. exceeding by per cent.; but in 1810, it had-risen to 20 per cent. half a million the whole amount of her revenue; so in the former, and to 14 in the latter. Hence must that, in fact, she had no revenue at all which was pro- ,be inferred the grossest corruption. It stood on the ideetive of benefit to the kingdom in general. Since! Journals of the House, that whole bodies of men the Union, 'in the course of 1% years, the addition : convicted of the grossest corruption in the collection made to her public debt was 68,500,0001. the in-lof the taxes, had not only. not been dismissed, but terest upon which was 3,190,0001. and the increased actually promoted. Of this Mr. Beauchamp Hilt revenue intended to provide for the payment of that was a pregnant instance , Our Income 'Tay in Ire iinterest, did not exceed' 1,370,0001. This was the I land would only increase the number of absentees ) l actual condition of her financial concerns since thel one of the great evils under which it laboured. • Union so that, year after year they had been gra- I Colonel BASTARD ' ex p ressed his intention not ! dwell/proceeding from bad to Worse, nor did it ap-Ito vote for a single new tax, till the noo s e that they were now in a train to amend. - The came to some resolutions of economy . The Minis - Increase of the charge for the management of the !tem of the Crown had always had too much facility Revenue was not. less singular. Before the in railing taxes. While bankruptcy stared us in the Union it was 350,0001. and now it vies no less than face on the one hand, and famine on the other, why were not the waste lands belonging to 'the Crown ht),Pooo4.bai:etoho•aligillogoloths,,,ed.Refenl,37o,ll49itietworl.7heso collected no sold, sold, and converted to some useful purpose? . loss than 650,0011 . wets charged foe _managing After- Aeon. farther. conversation, the restdsk* 1 3 370,0001. Such a - stete # tang' !a his view were put cud carried. _ I L .• t .., , , _ se I er, •••-• • • , ...- ..a II•MEi I