Star.
London, England, 1810-05-17 00:00:00

Th, produce of the :temp ()Wei he proposed 14
tab, at the amount of their produce hot year,
85,198,000. There were various other mime brantg
of revenue arising from pensions, land tar, and im_
prest monies, which, added to the various loorces
revenue he had before enumerated, would carry the
receipts of the Consolidated Fund to 1194,357,000
The SUMS which had heels transferred to tho C.orisol
lidated Fund from the war taxes rnt accounr she
loans of 1807 and 1809, amounted to £2,210,000
nually ; so that the whole receipts of the Consorya.
ted Fund were £37,597,000. The total amount off'
charge upon the Consolidated Fund, exclusive si
Ireland, and an allowance of £lOO,OOO to charm
'which might be thrown upon it in the course of 14
year, (a sum of £160,000 having been so appropt
aced in the course of last year), did not exceQ
£31,960,000, which sum, deducted from the receipt;
would leave a surplus of 45,637,000. It was natural
for the Committee to ask why, when the surplus ac.
cording to his own statement was so great, he should
propose to take it only at the amount of £4, ,o'4'
The reason of his sal doin so he was prepared tostate to the Committee, whieji would necessarily
leid
him to an explanation of the means by which he pro.
posed to cover the supply required for the charge o(
the loan, &c.

The accounts on the table would shew the Com-
mittee, that the receipts under the head of fps
had amounted last year to 4"5,198,000, which was
an increase above the receipts of the preceding -
year
of the sum of £1,296,907. This s.- ipereas. wag in
some degree, owing as well to the colleetien of
Certain -ar-
--
rears, as arising subsequent to, and out of • re-
gulations which had been adopted on his own sag.
gestion in the year 1608, in the Mt for eonsolidatiii;
the two
sled
of the duties on stamps. The charge te be provided
in that year amounted to £781,000, Of this 5e624,11te
had been provided by other means, anti 5t106,758
Stamps.only
T remainedak
oitiodf
itongblicekfraaveyraedgeot
years as the criterion of the produce of the stamp
duties, the excess of the receipts of last year would
give the amount derived from the regulations which
he had recommended. This average was C 3,856,030
which, deducted from £5,193,000, the receipt of last
year, would leave an excess of £1,236,970 applicable
to the public service. He was aware that in making
this statement he might be exposing himself to cen-
sure, for having maele so great a miscalculation of
the effects of his measure ; but whatever might be
thought of that, he was confident that the Committee
would take advantage of this increase, and apply it
to the service of the year. If the sum charged in
1808 on the Stamp Consolidated duties of .e 106,758
were deducted from the surplus receipts of last year,
it would leave a ba'since of nearly £1,130,000 arising
out of the additions and regulations made in the con-
solidation of the Stamp Duties in 1808. The propo-
sition then which he had to submit to the House,
and he should beg of Gentlemen to tax and continent
upon, and criticise it as they might think fit, was, that
the charge of €970,839. 12s. ltd. incurred upon the
Loan, and the funding of E Bills in the present
year, should be taken out ofi!rileZess of the rovistoot
made in the regulation of theism" Duties in 1808. If
the House could have matieireed such an excess firm
I the measure then resorted to, he had no doubt but that
they might have applied it lb the same manna as any
other unpins of Ways ant biseas, le the relief of
the burthen of that . year. Doc is entemittieg this
proposition to due Committee, he intreated tbsok not
to consider it as ceitaiping any thief new.. Having
granted these duties iniSt)B, the Nem was justified
in appropriating them to the charge of the resent
year on accounit4 the Loan. But it was not necessary
to run the appropriation to the full length of the ex-
cess of theneeeipts over the £108,738 soquirect for the
charge of 1808. He should propose to reserve a stun
of £150,000 from that excess, which would leave a
sum of £1,086,000, which, after coveting the charge
for the current year, would afford a balance of above
£115,000, applicable to the Consolidated Fund.—
, He was aware that many persons might feel consis
i derable objections to this proposition; but the more
such objections should be examined, the more they
would be found to contain nothing in comparison
with the adeantwes that would result from its adopt
tion. The first objection that perhaps would be
started was, that the House would consider it a new
Iprinciple to look to the actual receipt of former taut
for defraying the accruing burdwos of the curry%
year. It might too be stated, that in the year
11802, when a sum of £1,800,000 c;ily was wanted,
Mr. Addington had laid on taxes to a much larger
amount ; and yet in the following year, had pro-
ceeded to provide for its charges by new taxes.--
3iit such objection he might meet, by asking whe-
ther his proposition was the same with that sub-
mined to the House in 1802 ? Besides, Gentlemen
would recollect that Mr. Addington's measure
hid been brought forward in a year of peace! and
at a time too when he was making an alteration lathe
whole system of the Sinking Fund. When such an
alteration was in progress, it was natural to look ex
some new arrangements to provide for the charge g
, the yew., rather than to go back to the produce arising
I from the financial operations of a preceding year. If
1 some ccinsiderations of this description had not in-
fluenced the Ineastires resorted to on the occasion to
which be had alluded, or if the idea was then gene-
' rally entertained as at present, that an end ought
I to be pit to the progress of taxation so long
it amid be avoided, he was of opinion that t...-.
Minister of that (ley should have resorted to tlii. ma-
in or old tares, rather than impose new ones.—
, Though he could not, therefore, find any precedent
' for the measure he proposed in the instance to which be
t
had alluded, that could be no reason why, under the
different cireumstancessofthe times,themeasure should
not now be adopted on the grounds on which he felt
it his duty to ecommend it. In considering this part of
the question, he wished to bring to the recollection
of the Committee the plan which had been brought
forward in 1807. The principle upon which that
plan was founded was, that it was desirable to sus-
pend the laying on of any new taxes for three years
at least, in order to cherish the resources of the coun-
try. Consequently no new tax;; had been laid on in
that year, and, though the principle had not bee*
adhered to in 1808, no new taxes had been in, 444
in the year 1809. Thus the plan had been carried into
effect only in two of the three years orginslly Fejit
ed, but actually only in one, because the a4diolual
taxes and produce of regulations adopted in
the Inlet.
• . more thus
vening year, by producing above a million .