The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-01-27 00:00:00

COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said,
that, in obedience to the opinion already expressed
by the House, in referring the Speech of the Lords
Commissioners to a Committee of Supply, he rose
now to move, that the House du resolve itself into
the said Committee. It was not his intention, on
the foment occasion, to propose any specific grant;
he merely meant to make the ordinary motion.

On the question being put from the Chair, that
the House do resolve itself into a Committee of
Supply—
S:r ROBERT WILSON rose and said, that, as
new Member, anxious to address the House on the
present occasion, I.e had to entreat the indulgence
which, in their courtesy, was granted under such
circumstances ; he therefore trusted they would
grant him, who stood so much in need of their
courtesy, all the indulgence winch it was usual to
bestow on a new Member. He was afraid that
some of the observations which he should think it
his duty to snake on the motion now before the
House, would not elicit for him much of the appro.
bastion of even the Gentlemen whom he considered
as his political friends; and sure he was that none
of his observations would receive the approbation of
other Gentlemen high in place in that House.
From the latter be could expect nothing but severe
noimnilversion—he could expect nothing else from
men who, knowing the state of public aftitirs, and

.the whole interests of the nation and its difficulties,
should yet, by the adoption of every species of
fallacy and delusion, by every breach of promise,
still emotion and carry on a ruinous system of
finance, to the ultimate destruction of the ge-
nuine interests and mesas of the country, and
merely content themselves with the consolation,
that the evil may be prevented from bursting in all
its horrors upon the people, until the deathly or
their own adniiiiistration was sealed, and until they
were themselves removed from the fine of feeling
theft:its which they had entailed upon their country.
He did not mean to offer the observation. lie hail to
make in the House as if he were a (11:411 cheaply
versed in the arithmetical calculations of a rev,rul.ir
financier ; lie had only to state that he derived the
little information he had tit such topics from the
books and statements of able men, some of whom
were Members of that House. If he drew his in-
formation of the general state of the country from
the heavy amount of Poor's Rates, if lie drew it
from the list of insolvent debtors, from the dread-
ful hat of criminals, or the alarming amount of the
list of hankropts—if he drew it Ilona any or these
sources, he had still before him the dreadful result of
a nearly ruined people. He was fully aware that
the detail* of the finances of a country like this
must necessarily be of much intricacy, but without
troubling the House with the varirms reasons which
operated upon his mind, from the best information
he could command, he sl Id merely assert his
perfect conviction that it was a matter of utter im-
possibility for the people of this country to pay the
expenses which must necessarily botch to the due
niaintemince of the authorities of Government,
and at the same time contribute to the liquidation
of those charges which were necessary to meet the
interest of the eight hundred millions of the unre-
deemed national debt, which a series of bed go-
vernment had entailed upon it. lie was iististied
that it was impossible to pursue the pre-ant syatem
with any thing like an ultimately benefiejal effect.
%Vhy then was the property of the country—why
were its resources for successive generations to be
mortgaged in so vain is hope ? It would take, at.-
cording to the present plan of ministerial financiers,
not less than 1,300 millions every thirty years to
pay the interest alone, without redeeming a single
shilling of the debt itself. He knew well that a
great deal had been said, and was still expected
from the returns of the sums paid ill the shape of
interest into the general mass of national property.
He was ready to give as much force as it deserved
to the reoperative powers of money, 4'106 so
passed and repassed throughout the channels of in-
ternal wealth ; but he thought there wars a great
difference between the operation of that revenue.
which was raised through its own unforced natural
channels, and that which was oppressively raised, and
which then passed through the absorbent strainers of
a corrupt and extravagant Government, before it was
suffered to drop again into any channel of national
wealth. When the financial concerns of other coun-
tries had fallen into a state of dilapidation, means
were taken to recruit their strength and re-establish
their energies by the reduction of national expel).
diture, and the alteration of such fiscal laws as the
state of the times required. In such a state of
things the body politic improved its health, and
displayed an ameliorated appearance. In the other
state, where no such recruiting means were applied,
its appearance became sunken, emaciated, and ex-
pressive of its decay and unhealthiness. The state
of the poor of this country showed, iii full force,
the health of the State. When it required eight
millions annually to administer to the wants of an
industrious poor, what most be thought of the
state of such a country ? This is, by many, attri-
buted to the increase of the population of late
years; but did not the fruits of the earth keep
pace with this increase? There were many other
causes, and they were causes of a political nature.
He thought, in plain fact, that the Ministers of
this country had brought it into such a state, that
the question was not, whether the Batik would re•
new its cash payments or its Restriction Act, but
whether a state of insolvency should not at once be
looked forward to and prepared, which, while it relies!.
ed the intolerable berdeis that bears down the national
resources, would yet press with thee least possible
prejudice to existing institutions, and the landed in-
terest of the country. He certainly could not see
how this could be done without the greatest sacri-
fices, or even how it were impossible for the Minis-
ters, who had so terribly involved the country, to
attempt the experiment of relieving it in the way
which the state of the people rendered most eligible.
He would further say, that if the country were at
this moment called on to make sacrifices, it was
impossible to make them with any effect or chance
of relief, while the Government was conducted
without a real attention to effectual retrenchment
and economy. In such imbecile hands, if the
means of the country were again re-established, so
as to place its affairs in a flourishing condition, the
very state of prosperity would by such men be
converted into an eventual ruin for the country :
they would return to the old system, the evils of
which were now so bitterly felt by the country.
There would be an armament equipping to put
down the republican spirit of liberty, which the
South Americans were IDOW struggling to establish ;
there would be another for the support of the Be-
loved Ferdinand in the Old World, to enable
him to put to the sword the patriots in his
mien country, who resisted his tyranny mid op-
pression. l'here would be an expedition to In-
dia, to subjugate all the independent States, to
check and divert all the native channels of revenue,
and occupy all the territories which covered the face
of the earth between the Indus used the Caspian ;
there would be another war to devastate France,
and support the Holy Alliance. America and
Africa would have also their share of the military
protection of the English Ministers, and all the
blessed advantages which would result from it. The
power to wring resources, stanch invested Ministers
with the means of inflicting so much wile-spread-
ing evil, he would not delegate to any hands with-
out a more adequate cheek and better regulated
system of expenditure than appeared to him to sub-
aist at this moment.,. He would not allow the same
power of remortgaging the existing encumbrances
of die nation to ally Inc.,, however high may
be their character, much less, indeed, would
he to the turn who at present wielded such a
portentous privilege. He would not consent to
grant it even to those men he held most
dear—who set the brilliant example of surreittleinig