The Express.
London, England, 1855-02-22 00:00:00

STATISTICAL SOCIETY.-DEFENCE OF
LOANS RAISED BY MR. PITT.

The following is a farther portion of Mr. New-
land's papers read before the Statistical Society oa Moods,

last:

AND SOCIITT IN TB

WALT PAST OP 1793.

" The war commenced under
tinsel embarrassment in the country.
" The harvest of 1792 was the third of the dark series
of gessoes of deficient preduei which marked the fourteen
years from 1789 to 1802 (both inclurive). The harvests of
1789 and 1790 had been defective, but that of 1792 was
seriously unfavourable. At the end of September (1792)
the price of wheat had risen to 535. 4d. (from 40s. 11d.), end
on the 9'h of November following errrtvion was pro-
hibited, and importation was allowed at a low duty.
" But there was aggravated mercantile discredit we well
as scarcity. ' Immediately minding the declaration of
war,' says Mr. Tooke (Hist. 1., page 17C), ' there MY •
great maid= and derangement of commercial credit, net
only in this couatry but in the princi;al trading cities
of the continent of Bayou.' Of that discredit the
wet was in no sense the origin. It arose out of
a treks of masse of a special nature and of;
logy outinuanee. The failures begin in November,
1797, When,' says MasPhersou, 'there were no fewer
than 106; sad there were very few months in all the yews
preceding 1792 +berets the Chasette, that doleful register of
commercial miscarriage, had exhibited above the belief that
number.' (Aassefe, iv., 254.) The war did not of course
teed to relieve embarrasseseate already so chronic. The
unmediated number of bankruptcies 'in November,' I
again quote MacPherson, as a asstemporary of the period,
" wee prodigiously eatuded by the number and amount of
thaw which took plies is the spring and summer of this
yeas (1793), via. :-105 in March, 1793; 299 in May; 188
in April; 168 in Jane; 108 in July.
" Many houses of the moat intensive dealings and most
established iredit failed, and their fall involved vast num-
bers of their earreepoadents sad connections in all parts of
the sea try In the general distress and Camay every one
leaked ea his seighboar with caution, if not suspicion. It
was impassible to raise any money upon the security of
nulineey and shares in caul., for the value of such
property suned to be annihilated in the gloomy appreltew
Must the seeking state of the country, its commerce,
_ sal
munfeetures ; and those who had any money, not knees.
keg where they could place it with tarty, kept it unions
*yid and looked it up in their coffers.'
There is abundant collateral testimoay that this dismal
picture is not overcharged. To the failures of the merchants'
and measfsetarers was added the still more disastrous

of great ia-

failure ef amorima oaagpl iamb!
" to Awn MIS) tais ainaabiamioe to that it was
seeemary for dm ewverwmeEll EC Welly eztraor inary moa-
ners@ of relief; Mist a Califie, Of merchants at the Man-
akin House om ala Ord Olin it was agreed to apply to
Mr. Pitt to ukase itadolsor Bills on the seetrit, of
goods, oast uaraltaadisit, and other property. Parlia-
ment was accordingly &Mod to, and as the 29th (April),
Exchequer Bills to the exam% of 5,900,000/. ware ordered
to be applied as advanese ; and it is exceedingly discredit-
able to the opposition that they attempted to convert even
this obvious and imperative measure of interference into a
ground of charge against the minister and into a source of
party triumph. Mr. Fox thought it worth while to con-
tend seriously that the proposal to make temporary ad-
vances to merchants on ample security, and at a high rats
of interest, was even in the midst of such a • ' a viola-
tion of the constitution, and a suspicious means of placing
undue power in the bands of the executive. The measure,
however, was perfectly successful, and in point of fast, the
moral effect produced by the assurance that assistance could
be obtained prevented in most oases, any assistance being
applied for.
"ran FIBS! LOAN OF THU WAN or 4,500,0001., IN /LARCH,

1741.—in =nosy sap ire izsuis.

"We are now in a condition to trace the history of the
first loan raised by Mr Pitt on the opening of the war.
" The emoted of that loan was 4,500,000/., and it was
raised in Three per Cent. Consols, at the rate of 721. mosey
for even 1001. stock, or according to the more convenient
mode of quoting the terms of each transactne-1381. 16s.
stock for every 1001. stoney, and the rate of interest there.
fore to the lender wail 41. 3e. 4d. per cent. per annum. The
bargain for the loan was concluded between the llth and
17th of March, 1793.
"It is important to have before us &statement of the quan-
tity of funded debt standieg under the different denoneins
Lions of *trek on the 6th of January, 1793, or at the time
when this loan was contrasted, and snob a statement will
be found in the following kora
"AMOUNT OP TEE /UNDID DEBT OP GREAT EZITAIN AS
IT STOOD ON 6TH BANVAET, 1793. (COMPILED PROM
DR. HAMILTON, P. 319.)
Funds. Stoat Stock.
Three per Cent Camels £107,400,000
Three per Cent. Reduced 41,340,C80
148,940,000
Three per Ont frank flea Reek and 2069,009
Three per Cant. Annuities, 1731
Three per Cent. Annuities, 172 i
Bank of England

Pour per Cent. Conic
Five per Cent. Navy

187.61000 e
32,750,000
1700,000

The total annual charge for annuities of various kinds
ezistieg oa 6th January, 1793, was 1,293,0401. ; and of this
sum, as fur cask be ascertained, 680,00 W. were ' Long
Annuity,' eapirine 6th January, 11560. The remaining
613,0601 were annuities for lives and abort terms, at, say,
20 years' purchase. The 630,0001 Long Annuities per nu-
n= would represent a eapi'al of 13,6u11,000/.
" It is very material to observe upon this statement, that
the two great descriptions of stork, the T:-.ree per Cent.
Coniols and the Three per Cont. lizdue,d, amounted to
Lucre than GO per coot. of the total of the Landed debt; and
that the Four and Five per Cents. were of comparatively
small amount.
" The first love of 4,600,000/. now in question has been
very severely criticised, as being, at a single leap, a gross
departure from sound principle.. It is said that the loin
ought to have been negotiated by open or individual sub-
scription ; and ought to have been raised in either 4er 6
per cent. stock. Now what are the facts ?
" On the 11th of March, 1793, 11r. Pitt laid the Budget
before the Jimmie a speech full of detail, and after show-
ier that the dellei.ncy in the Ways and Means wee
4.6000.0001., ho added, that he proposed to raise that sum
by ' .ndividual loans, hut the particular terms of such loans
he had not specified, nor even his desire of ea
taring into them at all till the accounts were fairly;
helve, the hou'e, and every one apprised of the
state of the revenue of the country.' He thee read
a figured statement, in which he estimated that the money
maid be obtained at the rate of 75 per cent. Mr. Pitt 's
speech concluded with an appeal for the support of the
boom under the trying circumstance's of the country; andl
this gave Mr. Sheridan an opportunity for saying' that the '
speech contained little novelty in it, .zcept the novelty of
istrodueing, nn a day devoted to figures, all the arts of de-
elamation. The right bon. gentleman had suddenly laid
down his resell and slate, MI it were, and grasping his
truncheon, had abashed with an harangue, more calculated
for the Formal of an army g to storm a French re-
doubt than a minister of finance diaatraietg anoints in the

• TM taty anaakag er bisirmataiss wag as Minn :—ls 1791, 789
et whigh nal egg a many teak; In 1791, 664, at wtigh or WWI a
anuntry Ink; b 171131, 1,636, of widen tarustyula were gauntry
Maga.