Star.
London, England, 1811-05-21 00:00:00

HUSH SUDItT.

Mr. FOSTER. said, theinterestof the Irish debt was
£4,259,000. The proportion of the joint expences of the
empire, and herown civil establishment is £6,569,000,
which in Irish money amounts to £7,116,000, which
with the separate expences for Ireland, required a supply
of £163,27,000. The ways and means to meet that
supply are the surplus of the Consolidated Fund,
' 8740,000, the ordinary revenue of Ireland £4,500,000,
one million of Treasury Bills, which he should propose
' to vote, two millions and an half which had been rai.
sed by loan in Ireland, and four millions and an half
which had been raised here for the service of Ireland,
making altogether a sum a little exceeding the supply.
Now, as to the loan which had been made in Ireland,
the terms of it were very advantageous. The Eng-
lish loan was raised at an interest of £4. 14s. I Id.
1 while in Ireland (where the interest of money is
higher), but et. 15s. 9d. was paid on every hundred.
In the Irish loan, for every hundred pound only £l2O
stock is created; whereas in this country for-every
hundred there is £l4O created. The Sinking Fund,
I is, therefore, not so large in the Irish loan; and there.'
fore taking in Interest and Sinking Fund for every
Bnoo received, Ireland pays £5. 19s. 9d. whereas'.
1 England pays £6 3s. 6d. for every 8100. He con-
fessed that it was not his intention now to propose
1 new taxes for the interest of the four millions and a
half raised in this country for the service of Ireland.
1 In the present financial embarrassments of Ireland,
he thought this would be impolitic, if not impracti-
i
I cable. He thought the proposal of his Right Hon.
Friend (Mr. Perceval) was a measure of no less wis-
dom than liberality. Ireland was a country that had
great and increasing resources. If those resources
were not nipped in the bud, but suffered to rise
to their natural level, there was no doubt of its abi-

If

lity to repay what was now advanced for its ac-
commodation. The first principle which he liked
to go upon, in proposing taxes for Ireland, was
an equalization of duty with what is paid in this
country on certain articles of consumption. The arti-
cle which he now fixed upon was tobacco, which paid
a duty very inferior to what it did in England. By the
equalization of this duty he calculated on an increased
revenue of £221,000. The next article was hemp.
The Irish Government had taken every pains to en-
courage the growth of hemp in Ireland, and a small
tax on foreign hemp might assist their endeavours.
'The produce of this tax he calculated at only £BOOO.
The gross amount of those two taxes was £229,000,
which exceeded by above £BO,OOO the interest of the
loan of two millions and a half. The Right Hon.
Gentleman then proceeded to observe, that he had
two other taxes to propose, though he did not rely
upon them as resources of great importance. The
first was, to raise the present duty on timber from
the United States of America, and to put it on the
same footing with the timber imported from other
foreign countries, at the same time rendering the
timber imported from our own colcinies duty-tree.—
As staves, however, were an article of much demand
for packing the native produce of Ireland, he did not'
mean to propose any additional duty on them. An-
other tax which he had to propose was, an additional
duty on cotton wool imported in foreign shipping,
which would raise it to the same standard as eiisted
in England, leaving the duty on cotton imported in
British shipping to continue the same. As matters
stood at present, the English duty on cotton was
liable to be evaded, by being first brought to Ireland
in American ships, and from thence exported to Eng-
land in British bottoms. The equalization he proposed
would remedy this. He meant also to follow theexam-
ple of hisßightHon.Friend by repealing he duty on hats
in Ireland; a tax which produced only a small revenue,
and being removed here, it was desirable that it should I
be repealed in Ireland also. Having made this state-
ment of the Ways and Means of the year, he should
be sorry to sit down without adverting to the state of
the commerce and agriculture of Ireland, and endea-
vouring to do away the idea that we had reason to
be seriously alarmed for the prosperity of that coun-
try. Before 1507, the exports of native produce never
exceeded seven millions annually ; in Iso9, these ex-
ports had risen to ten millions; in the last year, they
amounted to £10,781,000; and he could state, that
the tailing off in the commerce of Ireland during the
last year was chiefly with respect to the imports, which
had fallen from what they were in 1810, when the to-
tal of imports was 10 millions. He had also to add,
that the balance of trade was this year 52,189,000 in
favour of Ireland, and for thelast tour or five years the
exchanges with this country had remained remarkably
steady. Pie might also advert with satisfaction to the
rapid increase of tillage in Ireland. That country
never exported so much corn as it did in the last two
years, and the exportation was constantly on the in-
crease. The linen trade, the great staple of Ireland,
had. indeed fallen off a few thousand pounds in the
last year, but it was hardly worth speaking of. The
hoed and provision trade had also fallen off a little ;
but then it was to be considered that all the provisions
which were supplied for his Majesty's service. were
not entered in the Custom-house books. He had also
to add, that an unusual quantity of live cattle had
been exported to England, and that in the number of
hogs exported the increase had been prodigious within
a few years, not less than from five thousand to thirty
thousand head. This trade was not indeed so profitable
as that in provisions, but it still shewed that the produc-
tive powers of the country were rapidly on the increase.
—After the favourable reception which his Right
Hon. Friend's proposition met with, for relieving
Ireland from the pressure of providing for the loan of
four and an half millions during the present year, he
would say, that the liberality of the United Parliament
on this and many similar occasions, did call down the
gratitude of every Irishman. (Hear, hear!) Whether
we looked at what had been done in the Session for
the public charities in Ireland, the public works, and
the means for diffusing education, and thus correct-
ing the morals of the rising generation, he thought
that there was equal room for this sentiment. If we
adverted to trade, the benefits. of the warehousing
system had been also extended to Ireland ; light-houses
had been built along the coast; and in short, he did not'
know a single object that could improve the industry,
the trade, or the manufactures of that country that
had not been cheerfully promoted by Parliaments
He concluded with moving his first resolution, which,
was to impose a duty on timber imported from
America.
After some observations from Sir JOHN NEW-
PORT, and other Irish Members, the resolntions
were agreed to.--Adjourned at test o'clock►

~'~'_


EVENING STAR.

LONDON.

,

TUESDAY, MAY 21.
PRICE OP STOCKS THIS DAY AT ONE O'CLOCK.
Cana. money 64—fa account,
4 per Cent. SO-5 per Cent. Nvry 97
Elan. par to 4s. preen.—Bonds gas. 21s. prem.

DEFEAT OF THE FRENCH UNDER
MASSENA.

We have at length the satisfaction to announce a
most glorious, and, as there is every reason to believe,
a total Defeat of the French Army under MASSENA.
The following are the particulars, as they have
reached us from various quarters :