Star.
London, England, 1821-03-15 00:00:00

Austria in the Italian States, and when we consi7,
demi what sums she had amassed in consequence,
the principle ought not for a moment to be admitted
of allowing her to withhold so long the sum she
owed to England. Why was not Austria called.'
upon to relieve us from a debt contracted for her
own benefit? There was a very strong argument
, why she ought to be instantly urged for payment—
her finances were now in a flourishing state. He
found, on reference
,to the Vienna Gazette, of the
14th November, 1820, that not only was she enabled
tl payoff a large proportion of the old debt, but of
'the new likewise. He would ask the Noble Lord op-
posite(Castlereagli) if the claim of England had
been pressed when those paymenti were made? Un-•
lesi:socoe atraniements west speedily made for pay-.
pc!)py would naturally Ala that the money
which Ought to be se,* to England was employed in
~the erns* .was iiow in full activityaoinst
Italy.. ..the:urordi of Mr. Pitt, as del sped the
Kin s;Speicli, went to shew that the 'ectof the
10.1 u lias to en• Ale us, by the means of ustria, to
bring 'about a secure peace7—an object for which
Parliament at-the time wished to make ,every exer-
tion,. from an abhorrence of military tyrants .and
usurpers, which induced a sympathy for all those
who were struggling for their tights against.lawless
ambition. Even if our finances were in the .mcist
prosperous condition the House ought to inquire
nutely into our pecuniary relations with Austria, lest
we might be reproached with assisting that. Power
'in her aggression so hostile to the spirit of our Con-
stitution, and to that strict neutrality which we had
pledged ourselves to observe--(Hear, hear). It did
not appear that we were under any obligations to
Austria, which could claim an extraordinary indul-

gence on our part. Her commercial policy was de-
cidedly opposed to ours ; and he thought she was not
.entitled to any favour from us. Austria patronized
principles, in detestation of which we had spent our
deafest blood—principles which, if they were to be
brought to act against us, we should, even impaired
as our resources were, still prove that we had suffi-
cient means to counteract—(Cheers). The Honour.
able Member concluded by moving, that an humble
Address be presented to his Majesty, praying him to
order to be laid before the House copies of all com-
munications between his Majesty's Government and
the Government of Austria, so far as relates to the
repayment of the sums due by Austria to England,
under the Conventions of 1795 and 1797.
Lord CASTLEItEAGH said he did not rise to
oppose the motion, which he 'thought was brought
forward in a laudable spirit. He could not now go
back to the details of transactions which had been
pending for five and twenty years; but he took it for
granted that the calculation of the Hon. Member
which made the sum now due £17,600,000 was cor-
rect according to the rase of progressive interest.—
The original loan was 4,000,0001, exactly, and his
Majesty's Government had not neglected to make
application for the repayment when the proper time
arrived. This IA ould he seen when the correspond-
ence was laid before the House. He believed it was
in 1815, or 1317, that papers had been moved for
on the subject, and a question which had been raised'
upon them was very fully discussed. Of all the
German. Powers, Austria and Prussia had experienced
the greatest distress by the war, and it was on that
account that Great Britain and Russia consented to
give them precedence in receiving the contributions
from France. As to the reason why Austria was not
pressed for payment, a satisfactory one was given in
the other House, against which no objections had
been raised. An effort had since been made to pro-
cure from Austria a liquidation of our claims, but
this proved unsuccessful, and the House would learn
the cause when the papers were produced. Since
the loan no less than six or seven subsidiary arrange-
ments had been made with Austria, and the arrears
were made good without any proposition to set them
off against the claim of 1795. He would again say,
that when the documents were laid before the House,
a sufficient reason would appear why it had not been
deemed expedient to urge our demands.
Sir J. NEWPORT was ready to acknowledge that
the embarrassments of the Austrian Government
should call for forbearance ; but the Austrian Go-

vernment had now declared her finauces is a flourish-

ing state, and that she was able to pay off part of
her old debts. It was incumbent ou Austria, before
she could ask us for further indulgence, to she,/ she
had debts older than that due to us. Austria owed
a debt to the country, so did this House, namely, to
we that Austria was called on to make good her
obligation. The Noble Lord and his colleagues were
more especially called on to do this, since they as-
sumed to be the successors of Mr. Pitt, and claimed
his power; if they assumed his power, they were
bound to enforce his engagements.
Lord CASTLER EAG ft explained, and the motion
was then agreed to.

ARMY ESTIMATES.
The !louse, on the motion of the CHANCELLOR of
the EXCHEQUER, went into a Committee of Supply
on the Army Estimates. _

The etrAiasiaw then read a Resolution, proposing
81,468 men, exclusive of 11,791 to be disbanded, as
the number for the service of this year.
Mr. MACDONALD rose to oppose the Resolu-
tion. Ile should propose a reduction of 10,000 men;
and feeling that the reasons urged on a former occa-
sion were conclusive on the point, and feeling also
that he should be followed by Gentlemen much more
competent than himself; he should not preface his
Amendment with many words. His decided con-
viction was, that 60,000 men would be amply suffi-
cient for all purposes ; 25,000 for the Colonies, and
55,000 for the Home Service, exclusive of Artillery.
Ile would anew 5000 for reliefs, and this would
make the number 65,000 men. He saw no reason
why a larger number should be kept up. The House
WAS in this case to look at what was practicable, and
not at what was desirable. Therefore, he limited
the reduction to 10,000 instead of 16,000, the num-
ber• which he thought ought to be reduced. He would
not fetter the Government with respect to the places
where the reductions should be made, whether in
Great Britain or Ireland, in the old Colonies or in
the new. He hoped the Committee would agree with
the in order to effect useful reductions, they
must limit useless expenditure. He was willing to
agree to the neceska,ry amount of force, and no more.
however. le-t it should be supposed that he was in-
clined to strip the colutuy of a force propordoaed to