The Sun.
London, England, 1819-05-19 00:00:00

' to continue the Property Tax, for on that rested
all their hopes of a remedy. The Property
Tax wes rejected, as every Member of the House
well keesv,,and.Mtoisters bad not resigned._ That
was nor to be expected.—(Laughter.)-It-anight
have been thought that they would have formed
some other• Plan, but they gave up.the War 'Malt
Duty, uliich had not been asked, and then re-
solved -to- have no--plan whatever—(itt-lighter) ;
but to live their whole 611)e on the bounty of the..
Bad:, or what was still more agreeable to them;
oti he CitopFeeof4ceidents.--s,(Laughter,.).—ln 1816
they had borrowed nine millions, .postponed 'the
re,payment of three millions due to the Bank, and
renewed theyestrictions On cash payments for two
years. Thus ended the whole of the financial ope,
rations of that year ! In' the next, the House
heard the 'most flattering speeches and anticipa,
tions of prosperity.' The Stocks were to he at
par, and the 51ierCents. to be paid off. Nothing
would equal the flourishing condition of the coun-
try. Ile did not wish to lay the blame of all
those speeches on the Right Hon. Gentleman op-
posite (the Chancellor of the Exchequer).
.The
Noble Lord (Lord Castlereagh) was equally, re-
sponsible for them ; for the Chancellor of the-
Exchequer only spoke what was the sense of the
Cabinet. They really believed that the 5 per-Cents.
were to be paid off ; and had that been effected,
they would have committted a 'fraud. That year
ten millions had been added to the unfunded debt.
At the,openieg of 1818, every thing was- still
represented in a flourishing condition : dream-,
of ,prosperity were still flitting. before the eyes. of
the Ministry, and even the -.Report 'of . the Cote,
notice of Finance stated that the time was not
far distant when a great saving would he tiffecteu
to the country. That year the Right. HorsOurable
Gentleman oppdsite bad brought in his Three
and a Half Per Cent. Stock, as a preparation for
paying off the .Five per Cents. The payment of
the. 9 .000,0001. due to the Bank was te I
sti bilS•\
peilded for another year, and it becathe necessary
that the resumption of cash payments should be
,suspended also, and accordingly the relent to.
payments in specie was postponed till the sth
July, 18(9. He had moved last year for the
appointment of a Committee to inquire into the
affairs of • the Bank, , but then no one would
hear of such a tiring. Secti a proceediue, it was
thought, would be improper, and.the House came
to a vote against it;.and- thus one entire year was
lost. This, yeer such. an inquiry had- been pro,
posed and agreed to, and the year which had-in-
tervened between his motion and that which had
been curtied, it appeared to him, was sacrificed
merely because the proposition for the inquiry
referred to had cone, in the first instance, from
,the• Opposition instead of from the Ministerial
side:of the House. It might be supposed by some
that the year which has thus passed away was
necessary to enable the Bank to -prepare for the
resumption of cash-payments. No .such thing,
This was denied by Ministers theniselves. The
course now pursued had been statett to hare re,.
stilted flow unforeseen circumstances, but the
circumstances in question, he would maintain,
had not been unforeseen. Cnuh4 any thing, he
would ask, be more contemptible than the cone
duct of Government had been in these matters
during the last three years, in which they had
accomplished so little ? It was material that the
House should look to the final result of their mea-
sures. On the sth Jan. 1819, the puhlie debt,
funded and • unfunded, amounted to '845,0001.—
This was its amount in last January. On the sth
Jan. 1816, it amounted to 859,000,0001. It
would then.he seen, that in the three years which
bad passed since the Peace, the reduction of the
public debt which had been effected, amounted to
'14,000,0001. and no more. From this reduction,
however, some allowance ought to be made for
the assets in hand in .1816. At that period, from
the excess of certain grants, owing to particular
circumstances, there remained in the hands of
Ministers a soon of about 5,90,001. To this
might be- added arrears of :the Property Tax,
which, with the former sum, placed at theelis-
poaal of Ministers altogether the sum of
8,460,0001. Deducting this sum from that by
which the National Debt bath been reduced with-
in the period referred to-, the, real total ba-
lance of
.iMprevement effected during the three
.first years of peace would be found to be not
otie farthing more than .5,700;0001. Thus, then,
, in the year 1819-theanation -was left' with a debt.
of 845,000,0001. after three years of peace, which
debt was not likely to- he speedily. diminished.
The hope held Out to them with respect .to the re-
duction of the public debt, he had -not -much faith
in. It ought to be known generally that these
were, in fact, nothing more than those entertained
by the Chancellor of the Exchequerand the Noble '
Lord opposite. It was true they had before them
what was called the Report of a Committee, but
which, was, in fact, nothing more than the Report
of the Chancellor of the Excheqiier; -That Re
port bad certainly curve to the House through the
Chairmeo of a- Committee, but it-had first beep,'
handed to him by the Right 'Honourable-Gentle-1
man at the head of the financial department. svhai
on this occasitm had thought proper to avail hitn
self of other organs than his own. 'From that
report it appeared that there was areal surplus of
1,900,9001. applicable to the reduction of the
public • debt in the present year. 'This, soap-
plied, would in the course of -the next two years
effect a diminution of the debt, and with the
5,700,0001. already mentioned, and other items
which he. enumerated, would make the total re-,
ductioo accomplished in five years of peace amount
to the sum of 12,000,0001. and no more. Now,'
he would ask, if after this statement, which could
not be disproved, he had not a right to bring for-
ward a motion like that which he should submit
to the House this night •? Was it not time fur the.
House to intet fere when Ministers were pursuing
such a course ? Let any man who heard him lay
his hand on his heart, and say, if he could, that they
Aught to continue their career, and go on sacri-
ficing the interests of the nation as they were now
doing, because they felt that they coeld not keep
their places if they ventored.On bringing forward
such measures as the circumstances of the Coun-
try required. - He had shown; that after five yeats
of peace, if they were suffered to go on, but
12,000.,0001. of•the'eleht would be redeemed, and
"thee the country would-find itself encumbered
with a debt of more than 800,000,0001, to meet

" the events which might then arise, and, it 'ne-
.cessary, with such a hurdle!) to enter 'upon a new
war. He would now offer a few words oil the
situation in which Ministers stood with re-
spect to the Bank. The House were aware
that •the Consolidattd Fund was the and to
which 'the public' creditor had to looPtor'itis
dividend, Whatever went to that, Find waS bps
plicable for the discharge of his diMend. Now
thar fund was at present in arrear to the amount of
3,300,0001. -There was no immediate promise of
improvement. To that 3,300,0001. was to be
added 2,700,0001. payable us the Bank, making
together a charge of 6,000,0001. Now, did the
House know that. the payment of the dividends
every quarter depended upon the good will of the
Bank ; and if the Bank were to turn round on
the Chancellor of the Exchequer and say, we
will not lend you the. 6,000,0001, you want to
pay your dividends, the Bight Hon. Gentleman
could no more raise the sum wanted for that our-
fiose than he could raise the dead ?—But if he could
find other means of raising the money waisted to
satisty the public creditor, was it well that in a
time of peace the payment of dividends should
be left to depend eotirely on the good-will of the
Bank. He was tar from saying that the Bank
would desire to give the public creditor any in-
convenience, because it might:be their interest
as well as their duty to avoid doing so ; but was
the state of things which •he had described that
which ought to remain ? Though it was not
likely that they would . take a course different
trom that which they had hitherto pursued ; yet
as they thooeht thsy were at present not very
kindly used, what' wouid be the consequence, if
they should quarrel with the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, for taking that line,of conduct which
he might think it his duty to prefer, and,leave
him to do with the disidetids as he could ? lie
would now take sonic notice of the. recent finan-
cial operations of the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer. In the last year, the sum of 27,000,0001.
had heen raised by loan, anti- no provision bad
been made for the interest to be paid on it or for.
a sinking fund applicable to it. Nothing had
been brought forward to meet the charge of its in-
terest, which amounted to 1,600,0001. Assum-
ing .the loan, in the present year, 'would be
22,000;6001. the interest on that sum, added to
the charge he bad just mentioned, would leave
the sum of 2,900,0001. to be provided for on.
account of the two loans. Here then the
HoUse would see they were placed in, an extra-
ordinary situation, inasmuch as they had arrived
at the end of the third year of peace, without
having provided for paying the interest of the
money which they had been obliged to bor.
at the end of the second. He had heard
a rumour abroad, that it was intended to meet
this charge by imposing new taxes: If the
Sinking. Fund were resorted to on this oc-
casion, the House must make up their minds
to lose the Nv hole of the 'miserable and
contemptible surplus, the 1,900,0001. which he
had announced to be at present applicable to the
reduction of the National Debt. The proposition
for imposing new taxes was one that deserved
very serious consideration. He would now dis-
tinctly tell the Chancellor of the Exchequer that
he would never vote for one new tux till he had
placed the finances of the country on a proper and
an intelligible footing. To vote new taxes would
be doing no good. It would only goad and blis-
ter the public, year after year, to no purpose, in
order to bolster up a little longer a system which
ought not to he persevered in, and which, from
the incessant fluctuations which accompanied it,
made it impossible for any man to
,know what
proPerty_ he possessed. if, as •he had hoped would
have been the case, some More simple and. hoe].
ligible plan of finance would have been brought
forward, there might have been some tempti-
tions to vote new taxes, but he would vote
for none while no reform of our financial
system was attempted. This Ministers had not
thought proper to set themselves about, anti
,going on as they did at present, they surned their
backs on their country, anti proved that they,
wanted heart-vigilance and energy sufficient.
ly to serve it. At present, as 'he had
already said, no man could tell the amount of his
property. Immediately after the peace the funds'
were at 63. A year ago they %vele at 83, having
risen no less than 20 per cent. anti now they had:,
got down again to 72. These fluctuations gave for-
tunes to Many, but destruction to many more. Such:
a system had made the people of this country a
nation of gamblers and stocksjobbers. He did.
not mean to say those who were concerned in the
funds had not a right to make use of . their saga-
city, and do that which was most for their own
' interest, but be viewed the 'preSent Government'
as responsible for ail Ole losses that wt re sustain-
ed. It was now understood that money was to
be raised by a loan in the present year, and spes
.cidation was as usual on.the alert. 'Next January
would not arrive without bkinging numerous re-,
ports of what would be the cease pursued by the
Chancellor of the tkehequer in 1820 ; and those.
fluctuations would continue, in the midst of which
uo Man could say his property was secure. When
he said this, he did not mean to say that property
would not be.secure froM violence, but lie meant
that those fluctuat itins would take place that must
seriously affect property in a manner which be, in
• his conscience, believed might be.prevented, if the
finaneeol the country were put on a proper foot-'
jug, and .which it was most desirable to-avoid..
at the end of five years of Peace, but 1.2,000,000/.
being paid off, any of those possible occurrences
should take place to which in the former part of
his speech be had alluded—if any hostile nego-
ciation should take place—if it should only be
necessary to fit out an armament, the situation of
this country, with a debt of 833,000,0001. would
be most perilous. This too was no secret—it was
known, to foreigners, and
,to ,theM it would be.
useless 'to talk of the valour of our armies and
navies-,be was going to add of tbe• wisdom of
our Councils, but that was quite out of the clues:.
!ion. It was useless to talk of all these, if
we possessed not the means of putting 'theft.' in
action, and these means would be wanting if
souse improvement were not made in our con-
dition. The present motion, he confeed (in Isis
view of it, went to alter the present Adniinis-
tfatiou. He thought be bad made out a case.
which jnstified hint in saying, the 'situation of

• • sod
the country required t4e aid of vigoous
oble
strong Councils. He was glad to see the '„,ht
Lord admitted this, and this admitted he tbOTl4O/
the House bound to interfere, by grantitlzas,
which- would be the object of the present tu—,loo
Wpoever looked at the present_internal situses.
,of liarountry, must rig* that no Min! for
istet ho was able or inclined to briUg ff).ll"ins
those subjects most intimately connected wit" 1,,
welfare in a way calculated to benefit the Peq,t
What had been done with the Poor Lawsbeea
Committee bad sat, and several Bills had 1051
brought in, which had failed. :Of the tw" to.
that were introduced, one had survived its in
duction, and the other was now in its last,''etc
nies. Was it not extraordinary that liul6'ena
should, in time of peace, find no leisure to a!rois
•with effect :even to affairs like these ?
had ot late done nothing. 'He was now 31117,4
on the 18th of May, and he would ask the 1-I°_,,,a
what bad been done in the course ot the
Session ? He would tell them what. TbeY
attJ
now just got through the Army Estimates' ae.
they,had done nothing else. There had bee" iv
deed a Committee appointed to inquire int° 90J
affairs of the Bank. He bad moved for one, od
Ministers,. instead of acceding to his motit,,,l'
appointed a Committee of their own. His bat
ject was to alter the present Administrati°l4ol
those who voted with him for the present 01°100
need not go with him to that'extent. EverYd-ejs
who voted against him would, in effect, reccli
perfect confidence in the wisdom and vigour°, ion
present Ministers, and declare it to be his 01111',,(1.
that their career ought not to be , interruPwe
• Those who voted for his motion would only de Bpd
that the situation of the country was alarmihg%
°
ought to be taken into immediate considersiw4
A mall might vote for the motion be was 8-iesti
to make, and yet consistently say, ‘e that 1:150.011
of wishing to see Abe Opposition in place,' of
them all hanged."—(A laugh.)—But antes
~te~
explained themselves to the contrary, it 'o'oo
dos
to him that they could not vote against tlie
tion without giving their unqualified apPobliaigbt
to the course pursued by Ministers', But it I%ieri
he supposed he only wished to displace gifin;je
that he himself might march into place. '-^-0
ha
dared that no man wished less for office °swig
did. He begged the House not to s"PrgrioArf
in saying this he laid claim to any extract',ol
Merit. It had never been his opinion-that any
ought to be ashamed of saying be wished tooie4
fice, and he held those very cheap who endettv°Kei
to win popular favour by pledging thellls;er°
never to accept a place ; for if this prinelPlebe
acted upon by every man, what then would lit to
satiation of the country ? Every man °lig 11)0°
wish for office, provided,he could enter it 1.4
his own principles, and with a conviction 1"10.y.
might beneficially exert himself for the cunt lit
But notwithstanding such were his opini°118(1 foe
would repeat it, he himself, no longer wislie el;
,office. And why did he not ? Because, fl'('lelc:
be was now, thank God, in good health., bes
pa
that within himwhich' told Lim that be yrs.,,,ese
lout* the little he had once been. And -"
could he gain by office ? When a Gentient,,, tho
small private fortune accepted a high office 'JP!
State, he .was sure to lose by his prom0011',"
still if he thought that with his friends be try
do good, there was no sacrifice that ibe;., re),
not prepared N.
Could be,done without into office. He was' convinced that n° to;
Admiuistrati aof
and meaning no disrespect individoallY "It
felt
of the Gentlemen opposite, he could not 10, 00(19
that as a.wbole they were feeble, and did ti°l3:
and could do no good,' for the country, °t oil
'they might take his word for ; it was the 0‘).),1 of
not only of those out of doors, but of Int),Litt
those who voted with them every nigl't", cots
some might say, if the present Government? 00
removed, where could they find a betterf
could only say, that if any persons were °
nion that a better Administration than irk
tbd
sent could not be• found, they must 01'1,060
country in' a very bad state indeed. His "of Or
would be for a Committee oti the' State colsl'
mmankteatostrjooning them ano Floe
_Nation, in which this qiiestion conk,' be ot
tiered. Nothing more was wanted on the Pi seal
that House, than an exercise of their g°° sit
st!,
on the best means of retrievin our aff'"r'o 1r;
he. considered that lie performed hishis dill wilt
'Country, putting it in the way of cnosicoiarY
that question on which its best interestro6,ol
depended. He might be told that this III"
was prematurely brought on, but be thong"d tor
observation was not called for, as he b81,0511t
by
faitnoth wtouchinith thg
on the Righte
affairs of ihee ourabl
BauGet.°' orl
~"
teriug at large into his financial plans. lie), fitt"
ever, was of opinion, that no time would be 0000
debate the Bank Report, as that when the
should be in a Committee on the Stat:c:o:l'e,4l-
Nation, It was to he remembered, Otetid
that subject came before them, they 11":1v0011i
more to do than merely to consider bur,'
They would have 'to pull (loan as well as t-, bit
r o
up. Ministers, -it was to be remember Dice,
given two different opinions on the sante
in one case they- bad pit it on ree%; ticd
a Bank-note for
.one pound was in coati) goL;
ceptation equal in value to one pound 1110 (Vic
they had declared in two volumes then ot/teo
table, one of which was their own, ant; tidy
bad come to them from the Lords, not
their value.was not the same, but tharthe,.'coft.tP7
not be
.of the same value. The consequent' ,jjauti;
was, that no man out of doors couldifor°L,boice feto
ment on the real state of the case. g
for of the Exchequer had stated that `)-60anc-1
state what were his views respecting (be oqi
of the :country when he brought f°l.%fficiell,
Budget, This, however, would not be SI
if fei°li
for him, but. he Mighthe better satisfictiorruer,r,
lutions were brought forward like those 010
introduced by a' Right Hon. Gentienr,iog
v t 6
Canning) on the Catholic Question, piet'b -tit p
House to go into it in the ensuing se9siTtU ttirei
this done, Ministers would be oblige( theeYii
their thoughts seriously to the subject, or t 000'
of his Royal Highness the Prince Begs of
be opened, and he would see the necessitY
playing other persons in the service of tbleriiiiLigll
Ministers ought to he obliged to him for 'tberikt/
this motion forward, as it would enable
I foot. r OP'
see, not perhaps who were their rea del'
Who were those on whose votes they wigLi•