The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1807-02-03 00:00:00

PINAVek.

The New Plan of Filtnnce has, for its ohjt ct, to
provide the means of trisintaininu the honour and
independence of the Br.tish Empire, during the ne
cet►ary continuance of the war, without perceptibly
incte.tsing the burdens of the country, and with
nmoifest benefit to the interests of the public cre-
ditor.

The proposed measure is rounded on the line-
rishing state of the Permanent Revenue ; on the
great produce of the War faxes; on the high and
acco.ou'ating amount of the Sinking Fund; and on
some inferior aids to be derived front Revenoes set
fie. by Annuities originally granted for a term of
years. And now expiring. These eirrumstancr.s, so
favourable to the introduction and maintenance of
a New System, are justly to be attributed to the
wise, provident, and spirited exertions, which have
bad the -concurrent su[port of Parliament and of
the people, during the whole eventful period of the
last twe ty years.
. . . _

The plan is adapted to meet a scale of expendi-
ture nearly equal to that of the year 1806 ; and it
assumes. that during the war, the annual produce
of the Permanent and Temporary Revenues will
continue equal to the produce of the same year
1806. It is understood. that any further or un-
foreseen charge, or any deficiency of Revenue,
shall be separately and pecially provided for.

. •
Keepi- . g these premises in view, it is proposed
that the War Loans for the years 1807. 1808, and
1909, shall be twelve millions annually ; for the
year 1810. fourteen millions ; and for each of the
ten following years, sixteen millions.
Those several Leans, amount. ,g for the fourteen
years to 110 millions, are to be made a charge on
the War Taxes. which are estimated to produce
twenty-one millions annually.
drhe charge thus thrown OR the War Taxes is
meant Ito be at the rate of ten per cent. on each
Loan. Every such Loan will therefore pledge so
much of the War Taxes as will be equal to meet
this charge :—that is 2 Loan of twelve millions will
pledge 1,200.0001. of the War Taxes. And in
each year, if the war should be continued, a further
portion of the War 'faxes will, in the same man-
ner, be pledged. And consequently, at the end of
fourt,•en years, if the war should lan so long.
twenty-one millions, the whole produce of the Vs ar
Taxes. would be pledged for the total of the
Loans, which would at tdit time have amounted to
110 millions.

The ten per cent. charge thus accompanying each
Loan will be applied to pay the interest of the Loan,
and to form a Sinking Fund, which Sinking Fund
will evidently be more than five per cent. on such of
the several Loans ss shall be obtained at a less rats
of interest than five per cent.
It is well known, that a five per cent. Sinking
Fund, accumulating at compound interest, will re-
deem any sum of capital debt in fourteen years.
Consequently, the several portions of the War
Taxes, proposed to he pledged fir the several Loans
above-mcnrioned, will have redeemed their respettive
Loans, and be successively liberated, in periods of
fourteen years, from the date of each such Loan.—
The portions of War Taxes thus liberated, may, if
the War should still be prolonged, become applica-
ble in a revolving seems, and may be again pledged
for new Loans.

It is, however, shorn, by the printed calculations
and tablet. that, whatever may be the continuance
of the qperation, the Property Tour wit not be pay-
able beyond the period for which it is now granted
by the 46 Geo. DI. ch. 61; but will, in eve' y case,
be in force only during the war, and until the 6th
day of April next after the ratification of a Defini-
tive Treaty of Peace, and no longer.
It is next to be observed, that the charge for
the interest and Sinking Fend of the proposed
Loans. being taken from the annual produce of the
War Taxes. a deficiency equal to that charge will be
created in the amount of the temporary revenue ap-
plicable to the War Expenditure.
Supplementary Loans will be requisite to make
rod ihat deficiency.
Those Supplementary Leans must increase in pro-
portion to the increasing deficiency, if the war should
be continued; but the whole amount of the Loan, in
any one year, including that charged upon the War
Taxes, and the Supplementary Loan, will never,
oven in a periA of twenty years war, from the pre-
sent time, exceed 5,000,0001. in any year, beyond
the amount to which the combined Sinking Fund
of that year will have ben raised ; and upon an
average of those twenty years, will not exceed
3,800,0001.

It is proposed that the Supplementary Loans shall
be formed on the established system of a sinking
Fund of one per cent. on the nominal capital.
The charge so created will be provided for, clur-
jag the first three years, by the expiring Annuities;
and during that period the r )(tatty wit have the
great benefit of an exemption from all additional
burthens. A new spring rimy thus be given to the
energy of our commerce : at all events it will ob-
tain a security from the increased pressures which it
must otherwise eapseieace.
From 1810, and for the six following years, a
charge most be provided for, amounting on the
average of those seven years ts. Lot pore than
293,0001. annually: a slim in its-If sn small, in com-
parison with the great additions which have neces-
sarily been made to the uses in e.ch year, fox the
last fourteen ye.:rx, that it can scarcely be felt. and
cannot create any as to the men: of pro-
viding for it: But even this contparatively small
amount ma; probably be ninth dimini-hed by the
increasing produce of the af.tual Revenues, and by
regulations for their further improvement.
And thus provision is made, i‘n the scale of aftual
etpanditare, for ten years of war, if it should be
necessary, without any additional taxes, except to
the inconsiderable amount above stated. At the
close of that period, taking the 3 per Cents. at 60,
and reducing the wimple of the Public Debts at that
rate to a money capital, the combined amount of
the Public Debt: will be 587,360,0001. and the
combined amount of the several Sinking Funds then
existing will be tv,72C.0001. : whereas the present
anissat of the whole Public Debt, taken on the same
scale of calculation, is 332.793,0001. and the pre-
sent amount of the /baking Fend is ao more than
8.335.0. M.

-
If the srmr should stltl be continued beyond the
tea yaws tau► pp/aisles' ler, it is proposal to sake in

a the Oldie hardens certain !Yeasts re accru.i
kola the present Sinking Auld. That rand, whit'
Mr. Pitt (the great 'tab* of a system that wi I
immortalise Isis not*. *Originally proposed to limit
to le* miiliottrintinally, will, with the very lug
additions derived to it from this new plan, have
accumulated, in 'lBl 1, to so large an amount as 24
millions sterling. In the application of such a sum,
neither the true principles of Mr. Pits system, nor
any just view of the real interests of the public. or
even of the Stockholder himself, can be considete.'
as any lotsger opposing an obstacle to the means nt
obtaining at such a moment some aid in alleviation
of the burdens and necessiti sof the country. But
it is not proposed in any case to apply to the charge
of new Loans a huger portion of the Sinking
Fund than such as will always leave an amount of
Sinking Fend equal to the interest payable on such
part of the present debt as shall remain unredeemed.
Nor is it meant that this or any other operation of
finance shall ewer prevent the redemption of a sum
equal to the present debt in as short a period as that
in which it would have been redeemed, if this new
plan had not been brought forward. Not will the
final redemption of any Supplementary Loans be
postponed beyond the period of 43 years prescribed
by the At of 1792 for the extintlion of all tenure
Loans ; while each of the annual War Loans will
be successively redeemed in 14 years from the date
of its creation, so long as war shall continue ; and
whenever peace shall come, it will be redeemed
always within a period far short of the 43 years te-
quired by the above mentioned AA.
In the result, therefore, of the whole measure,
there will rot be imposed any new taxes for the first
three years from this time. New tars wf less than
300,0001. on an average of seven years from lal C)
to 1816. both inclusive, are all that will he rte es.
sail. in order to procure for the country the full
benefit and advantages of the plan bete described ;
which will continue for twenty years ; daring the
last ten of which again no new taxes whatever will
be reqnired.
It aNrears, therefore, that Parliament will he
enabled to provide for the prolonged expet.diture of
a necessary war, without violating any right or in
Ines: whatever, and without imposing further lair-
dens en the country, except to a small and limited
amount: and these purposes will he attri ed with
benefit to the public creditor, and in trtft corif low
ity both to the wise principles on which the Sinking
Fund was established, and to tho sevctal Acts of Pal -
Lament by which it has been regulated.

It is admitted, that if the tsar should he pro.
longed, certain portions of the War Tax-% wit
exception of the Property Tax, will be more or less
pledged for periods, in no case exzeedi...g fourteen
'pan. How far some parts of those taxes are of a
description to remain is force after the wart and
what may be the provision to be made hereafter on
a Peace Establishment, probably much larger than
in former periods of peace, are considerations uhich
at present need not be anticipated.
It is reasonable to assume, that the means and re-
souces which eaa now mainuiu the prolonged ex-
penditure of an exten.ive war, will be invigorated
and increased by the return of peace, and will then
be found amply seficient fee the exigencies of the
Public Service. Those exigencies must, at all events,
be comparatively small, whatever may still he the
troubled and precarious circumstances of Europe.
Undoubtedly, there prevails in the country a dis.
position to make any further sacrifices that the safe-
ty. independence, and honour of the nation n.ey
require; but it would he an abuse of that disposi-
tion, to apply it to unnecessary and overstrained ex-
ertions. And it must not pass unobserved, that in
the supposition of a continued war, if the Loans for
the annual expenditure should be raised according
to the system hitherto puttied, Permanent Taxes
must be imposed, amounting in the period outlined,
to thirteen millions additional revenue. Such an
addition would add heavily to the public burdens,
and would be more felt after the return of peace
than a temporary continuance of the War Taxes.—
In the mean time, and amides the other evils of war,
the country would be subjefed to the accumulated
pressure of all the old revenues, and of the War
Taxes, and of new Permanent Taxes.

The means of eficauating a plan of inch immense
importance, arise partly from the extent to which the
system of the Sinking Fund has already been CA? riod
in pursuance of the intentions of its author; and part-
ly Irons the great exertions made by Parliarne .t,
during the war, to raise the War Tires to their pre- ,
sent very large amount. It now appeals, that the
strong measure adopted in the but Session, by which
all the War Taxes,and particuhirly the Property Tax,
were so much augmented, was a step taken not mere-
ly with a view to provide for present necessities, hut
in order to lay the, foundation of a syst..m which '
should be adequate to the full exigencies of this un-
expeaed crisis, and should somoine the twe ap-
parently irreconeileable of relieving the '
public from all future pressure of taxation, and .A
exhib:ting to the enemy reso :tees by which we may
defy his implacable hostility. to whatever period it
may be prialenged.
'co have done this, is certainly a tecernpenee for
many sacrifices and privations. This is a comedic,-
tion which will enab!e the Country to submit with
cheerfulness to its present burdens, knowing, that.
although they may be continued in part fora limited
time, they will now be no further increased.

The Afrecnis Lira, Weirs, from Riga for
London, is calgared by a privateer, off Yarmouth.
Tire Bu:orter, Koret.os, from Dantsic for Liver
pool, is lost in the Orkneys.
A most fatal accident happened in a gun-smith's
slinp, in Chester, on Thursday se'nnight, in the
evening :—lt appears a ran had been brought into
• ie shop, without a lock, on get one put on. with-
ow, we believe, the person knowing it to be loaded,
nor, we are sorry to add, was any attempt made
to ascertain whether it was or not, by airy one in
the shop.—fhe gun in that state was put into a
rice, and an apprentice was affixing a lock on it,
whin a girl, about thirteen years of age, with on
infant child of the master's in her arms, came into
the shop, and stood near the muzzle, when the boy
unfortunately trying the lock, it went off, and
lodged the contents in her body, carrying with it
part of the infant's clothes, which it set lire to !
Immediate surgical assistance WAS procured, but
in vain, es she only survived the accidzat three
learners den hew.