The Sun.
London, England, 1835-08-15 00:00:00

THAMES TUNNEL.

Mr. WALTER begged to ask the Noble Lord whether an
opportunity would be afforded him of bringing the motion of
which he had given notice on this subject before the House, if
he now gave way to the Government?
Lord JOHN RUSSELL feared that no opportunity
would be afforded during the present session.
WAYS AND MEANS.

On the motion of the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE-
QUER, the Order of the Day for the House resolving itself
into a Committee of the whole House on Ways and Means,
was read.
THE BUDGET:-

The SPEAKER having left the Chair,
The CHANCELLORofthe EXCHEQUER roseandsaid,
Sir, in my endeavours to dis:•harge my duty—the duty that has
fallen upon me of stating to this House the state of the finances
of the country at this moment, I shall endeavour to do it as
clearly and as briefly as I possibly can ; but Sir, I shall
require the utmost extent of indulgence that the House
can afford, fur there is nothing so dry as a statement of
figures : but as this is the most important of all questions to
the country, I hope that in the midst of these dry cal-
culations, and even although the narration of the facts which
I am about to lay before the House may be dry, yet at
the same time, as they will show the state of the important
financial affairs of this great country, I trust the House will
extend that indulgence, not to me, but to the subject.
Sir, I trust that that will be the .case, for the difficulties
are much increased upon me by considering that I stand,
unfortunately I may say, succeeding in the exposition
of the state ,of the finances, one whose character, one
I may say, whose personal —as 'well • as peculiar man-
ners gave- him a peeulier =claim upon men of all parties.
I cannot hope, comiderint: that the last statement was made by
Lord Althorp—nhose sincerity men of all parties were
willing to admit—but I trust, though I have to fol-
low him, who was a man of the character I have
given him, and it would be unbecoming in me to say
more I have mentioned it merely for the purpose of
stating that the course which I will pursue will be the same
course which was accustomed to be taken by him
while he held the same office which I now fill.
Before I approach the subject I should wish further to call
the attention of the House to one cause of difficulty 1 have to
encounter. It is a difficulty proceeding from a cause of which
neither the country nor myself will complain. I mean, Sir, the
past reductions in the taxation, for it must be clear that
every reduction which is made renders it more difficult
to carry out the principle hereafter. But the dif-
fgollty being increased, that increased the merit of car-
rying further reductions into execution. I shall not go
into details of great • length ; but it is actually neces-
sary t 43 bring before the Committee an account of
the reductions which have been made ; and, in
doing this, I shall not confine myself to those
made by the Adminifitration to which I have the honor to
belong ; but, in justice to other Administrations, I shall
notice the enormous reductions which have been carried
into effect since the peace.—(Hear, bear.) I find that
the gross amount of the reduction made in the taxation
since the year 1814—which is a fair way of calculating the
removal of pressure upon the people.—l find that it amounts
to no less than FORTY MILLIONS, ONE HUNDRED AND
NINETY-ONE THOUSAND POUNDS, approaching, actually, with-
in five or six millions of the amount of the revenue at
present. Of that sum, 40,191,090/., no less than 6,954.000/.
was a reduction effected by the AdininifitrAtiPP of Lord Grey.
In like manner, with respect to the reduction of tiv VotP#
of Supplies, taking the matter in the fairest way I can
take it from the year 1817, down to the present period,
on averages of four years—from 1818 to 1821 the average
shows an annual arawn4 of supplies of 18,872,0001.
The average of the next four years coming down
to 1825, shews an average of 16,721,0631 Front Mr) to
1829 there was an increase, for it amounted to the
sum of 18,023,000/. From the year 1830 to the year
1833, the average was reduced to 16,115,0001., and in the
year 1831, the annual supply amounted to fourteen million
four hundred a„ai 4ev,epty-nine thousand pounds; and in 1835,
the supply voted amounts tq 14,136,0001. So that we
have in that interval reduced the Applies voted
from a sum of 18,872,000/. which was the average of the
first four years, to a sum of 14,136,0001., which is the amount