The Statesman.
London, England, 1810-05-17 00:00:00

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z
iiircinldlelmposslble to carry on the war
for any lung time. Even in' the event of peace,
they would nut be -without their difficulties, as it.
would-be expected that a considerable share of the
public burthens shotild'be reduced. When his
Honourable Friend took part of the sur-
plus' of the Consolidated: Fund to meet the add;-.
tional chtrge of the present 'year, he. did not
'ouch Improve the prospect its the event of peace.
He advised the House to consider well the naeure
4vtd extent, and applicability of their resources,
**Rh a view to peace and, war. It was impossible
'always to go in this way, from expedient. to ex-
pedient; Satisfied with gutting over the difficulty
,of one year, without adverting to the next. • He
begged the . House to consider to what, if they
Went an in this way, they would come at last ?
He here related an anecdote which was current in
France before* ttevoltition—s-ome person asked,
the 'Minister ofFittance how they were to go on for
a number of years ? his answer was, that the state
of things, such as it was, wonid last their time; and
after them, no matter what' became of the. It.
nances. In a few years after came that hoisi.
hie catastrophe, the French Revolution. Ile did
not moan to say that any Minister of this country
Would have
.uttered or conceived so unworthy a•
sentimett but if the geese did not take an ex.
tensive view of the subject, and provide accord.
(ugly, it would not do its dety. He thought. that
by suitable re deetiotts peovieion might eo made fur
Wolk alternitivai, of peace and .wae,• and that
without any rlinsigition of our dominions, or of
the proper means' of defenceend carrying un the
war. If he
.had not thougitt•ins, he would 'not
•have been so ready to come forward with lOs ideas
on the subject: He had no doubt. that this might-,
beilone. Ile would not betray the secret.of OUT
-troakness, but the measure of our strength.
would not enter•at length into thesultjeet ; but'
next session it wouttl be the duty of Parliament to
consider it with attention. His Right Ilenoura.
Me Friend had resorted to a source which, would
' not mail in other years.' If .he could have found
taxes to answer his purpose, it would have been a
Meth better course, .and. one which no doubt he
,would have adopted.' Adverting to that part of
the statement where the increase of the duty on
stamps from 106,0001. to 1,200,0001. had been
ascribed to the regulations and additions of 1808,
he.obiervod that the stamp duties had been cense.
solidated in 1806, and hail been increasing by the
usual growth of the revenue, and the better mode
of collection, as well as by the new duties.
There e ere some articles, such as hank paper, &c.
in. which a diminution might be calculated upon,
though he allowed that an increase might be ex-
pected in other articles. lie disavowed whatever.
share of merit might be ascribed to himself for any
thing he had done in 1808 on this bead. The
sound principle was to take the whole of the taxes
and the charge upon thou.' They. were in some ,
instances above, in others below the charge, alto-
gether certainly above. But this course of his
Right Honourable Filend would only create the
,necessity of adding another million to next year's
boats, so that it was only shifting the ground ; he
might as well have placed the charge upon the
war taxes. It was, hei'ever, a cheering part of
the statement, that an additional burden• was to he
created this year. With regard to the statement
au the whole, however, lie hail been disappointed.
When. Ministers had made up their minds to advise
his Majesty to er)mise that the accounts would be
made up- with a rigid attention to economy, he lad
expected that a considerable reduction was to have
taken plea. He thought that reductions hail been
ititentied to be made in some of the larger estab-
lishments. ke did not say that any very great di.
mitintion could he made ; but he thought a reduc-
tion of some millions might lie elrecte,l without in.
jury to the country. He then adverted to the ar.,
goraants which had been used by one of the Lords.
of the Admiralty (Nit.. Ward) fur keeping up the
number of seamen to 1.15,000 men. It had been
said that,it was desirable to have a navy, nut only
sufficient to cope with the whole world- at sea, but
also a considerable reserve. To the general propo-
sition, that it was desirable,.he would assent ; but.
then he must balance the advantages and chile:lvan-
!ages. It was customary for people out of doori
to say-that liberty -was desirable; so it was ; bisC
then the Government of the country must se far•
infringe on that liberty, as to provide the Ways
and Watts of the fear, Ile repeated, that it was.
too much the practice for officers of Gore:Tempt'
to took at the expenditure in their several depart.,
mends, as applied to a favourite Object of- pursuit.
It had been said we might. be in difficulties with;
America; but it had not. beett.statod thet there'
was...,any particular reason to apprehend this.—
,'then the use of a large.reserve had been argued
lesson from' theediatortch which least been evinced
its sending,out the Expedition to Copenhagen.-.-
But in 1801, large Expedition bad been sent to
Copenhagen, and with great diratch, when the.
number.of seamen was mach mealier, and the salts
upon themealier,
service of the Nivy mite larger. There
were no less than ninety.tour sail of the line,
:French. Spanish, &c. Before the battle of Tree
falgarthe enemy had large fleets, and the numbers
of our kennel did nut exceed 120,000 at that
•titne. He thought .tielet•rdistiuction between the
present naval War, and • former *wars of the same
;description, was nut sufficiently attended to.—
The object formerly was to oppress the commerce
of the enemy, but, now even with 200,000 sea-
leen ',tithing could be done. By the injury done
to
.his. commerce usd revenue, we might have
ihoped furmerly to have driven the; enemy to rea-
"enable terms of petted... Now, however, there
;MAX no hgpe of doing. this by any such means.
al Bight' HonoeraWe Friend had ailed, what
progress Bonaparte hail made in his favourite ob-
ject, of obtaining ships, colonies, and commerce.
Bat Bonaparte had altered his policy in that re-
spect, for it now seemed to be his policy to de.
atroy commerce altogether, and whatever defici-
ency might be occasioned in his revenue, lie would
have no scruple in supplying by exactiens of any
kind. He had, besides, the commend almost of
the whole Continent, and could draw his supplies
from all quarters by land. He concluded by
ied-
verting to the state of Ireland, which bail to laise
five millions by extraurdivary moans. Hw depre-

. . .
rag sTATismAN.

cited any thing like despondency as to our re
sources., but at the same time urged the propriety
and necessity of husbanding them as much as pos.
sible.
Mr. ROSE concurred- in the wish of his Hon.
Friend who \spoke last, that every practicable re-
treuchment should be adopted, and that opinion s-
he hail already -communicated out of doors. He
felt strongly, that his Right Hoe. Friend (the
,Chancellor of the Exchequer" would present him-
self before the. House next Sessions with a very bad
graite, if he did nut prove that the utmost attention
had been. paid to economy in the public expendi-
tere ; but to -what amount the wished-for reduc- ,
don of that expenditure would extend, he thought,
it impossible at present to calculate. There was
happily, however, no reason to entertain any
gloomy apprehension.,, But. sufficient for the day
wits she evil thereof. 'There would, he trusted, be
a considerable reduction in the expenditure of the
navy, as his Hun; Friend had estimated, from the
present state of the enemy. •As to the propriety
of a provision for future years, and of an addi-
tional tax at present in lieu of the proposed ap.
propriation of the surplus of the stamp daty, he
could not help observing, that we had dime quite
-enough fur our posterity, and he helped, that they
would be able (o do as much for themselves.
Wo had, in fact, made such arrangements for the
,benefit of those who are to come after us, that no
lasi than teas millions per annum, were set apart to
-relieve them from debt, which sum was more than
the whole revenue of the country, when he first
entered into public life. How the resources of the
country had been so prosperous as the statement ,
of his Right Honourable Friend displayed, hsde-
dared himself unable to account. But somehow
it appeared, that front the industry and ingenuity
of tior merchants, every prohibitory measure of
Sonaparte had utterly failed of its object. In
fact, instead of limiting our tradei it had rather
extended iM ispita of 'the huitile proceedings of the
enmity.
- Mr: ULTSKISSON disapprolted of his Right
Honourehle Friend's measure in this instance,
that sufficient fur the day was the evil.. thereof.
On thocontrary, lie thought it would be wise,
in the present circumstances of the collet...ye to
consider of an arrangement• of some permanent
system ealenlited to guard against future evil.
Mr. TIERNE' thought •it necessary that
some inquiry should be instituted as to the cause
of the present state of our resources, in order to
ascertain whether that cause was likely to be per-
manent, or merely of a temporary nature. This
inquiry appeared the more necessary, as even an
old Menthes of the Board of Trade professes)
.himself unable te sae:emelt for that prosperity upon
which the House had been" congratulated. As to re-
trenchment, he heard no proposal of it—lie enuld
see no sign of it---notwithstendieg all the profes-
sions that had been made, lie saw a vote of Cre,
(lit equal to that of the last year, when we had
Austria and Sweden to subsidize ; and this vote tun
additiue to that already granted to Portage!.
What then could be the object of this vote ? it
reiteitity requirellexplaeation. As to the rise in
,the prico of Throe per Cent. Stuck, he thouglit
itsoWing" to artificial- causes, by llo,Mealls
time of ahlienal prosperity, although enabling the
(tight
,lionourahle Gentleman to conclude the
Loan. upon such advantageous• terms. lint the
• Right t-lionouraliks Gentleman seemed to have a
greet deal of good luck to help-him out. In the
first year of his fioanciar duties, the• Lean was
provided by his predecessors ; in the second year,
betueen 3 and -400,0001. of Annuities fell in; and
now a surplus reduce-Of Taxes offered, which,
however, he thought the (tight Honourable Gen-
tleman was grossly misapplying, in setting apart
to pay the interest of the Loan. This surplus
ought rather, in his judgment, be included in
the produce of the, Consolidated Fund, to which
it properly belonged, and a thew' tax imposiel to
defray the 'interest of the loan. But the Right
lienourable Gentleman broke a wisely-establish-
cd principle, merely to make a fetch at papal.
Parity, by a show of declitsine new taxes. This,
however, all thinking men-must feel to be mere &-
lecke). For the sum thus taken from the Conso-
lidated Fund must be. again supplied by new
taxes.; andif the Right Hon. Gentleman should gte
on`fruni year to year, appropriating a part of the
surpluseof the Consolidated Fund to pay the in-
terest of his loans, it was obvious the public could
not ultimately be gainers. • But the Right lion.
Gentleman was in fact violating his contract with
the public creditors, who lent their money upon the 1
security of the Stamp Tax, by appropriating the'
surplus of its prodoce to the payinent of the in. 1
serest upon a new Loan, and lie.was also neglect- j
ing to make provision for the future. Was the '1
Right Min.. Gentleman aware, while he thus de-
clined to look to future difficulties, that lie would
in the event of peace to-morrow be obliged to J
find nine or teu millions aeyear, of new taxes ?
Why
then be Ito improvident on this occasion '
Ho was not one of those who despaired of the re.
sources of theecouotry, oc wished to damp its
spirit, but he would strongly . recommend the.
Right lion. Gentleman to look minutely into our
situation. NVith that view he advised the Right 1
Honourable Gentleman, at an early period of the
Session, to institute a similar inquiry to those
which took plaeo in'l7B2 and 96. The necessity 1
for such an investigation was 'ebyious, nil. the
satisfaction of the Howse acid of the cbmitry it
ought to be immediately entered into. He was
persuaded that the Right Honourable Genttcsuen
did not himself know how the country was going
on, or how to calculate upon the meens of our
,future provision. Lt Was not for-the Right
neural& Gentlemine in the present state' and pros.
peel of Europe, to he contented with the making
of shifts. for a Session or„teo, bet to took to
some permanent system—to look particularly to
the reduction of our espendithre, for which no
disposition, whatevet was manifestede and to. ab-
stain from crippling the Consulidated• Fund. '
Mr.- PERCEVAI, vindicated the appropriation
he proposed. Tee Stamp TAIL alluded to UM.
confessedly much 'more than • was originally esti-
mated. This -was a mistake, and: the only way of
correcting- that mistake was by applying the stir_
plus to the relief of the public hum any new tax.

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-Him busied that this surpips canal bb flAtfy deemed
'as a•ptift: 'of what was-signally Can't: Willa surplus
sif-tha Consolidated ?hod, and :therefore the
Right ibritourable.,.ticatientaa's objections were
inapplicable., . That- there was a sating is
.tbu. proposed • expeuditure would, he asserted,
41,d obvious to any Man who examined the several
,heads of ' expente, • imeticularly in the Ord.
,Caot.e, the Army and Navy. As to the Vote
Of Credit, another opportunity would (Kell,
for discussing that 'topic. 13u1. although, from
the pretent state a 'Europe, -it was deemed mix.
dient to plate:tech a Soon ilt the dispi.ssi of his
. Majesty, it did not follow that *Unlit he expend.
ed. With respect to thy Right Hisoutiraldo Gen.
tleman's allusion 'to his good lock, he observed,
that the Right Honourable.
.Gentlesuau scooted
quite sore upon that 4inint.' HA the effects q
this good luck, as the Higta Honourable Goode,
man would iiave it, furnished another obstacle to
the wish of his _Hight Nei. Friend. For it sp.,
peered that, notwithstanding all the drivelliogsod
blundering ascribed to him and his colleagues, the
country was tinder their Covertimeilt, mitt is a
state of prosperity, which the Right lion. Geode.
man and his Friends, with all their talents, t .
I not deny. As to the reduction whieb had ;Acts
1 place in the produce •of the :Halt Doty, that, so.
toriously arose out of the stoppage of the Itait:fie.
I ries, which could only be of a temporary duca-
-1 lion ; and he had the CitisNetion to think that
this was the only branch of our cermet() otticii had
tottered in the slightest degree of diminution. The
Right Honourable Gentleman concluded with ob.
, serving, that he, did not mean in his allusion to
1 his lononrable Friend (Mr. iiiiskisson), to ittsi.
lunite that his lionosicable Friend meant, in a
former declaration of his, to create the false jai.
pression respectifos out* umeans, Which it certainly
produced. But lie thoolglot it right to adteri to
it, as the present appeared a proper opportunity
for removing that imprisssion.
Ms. Tl ERN E I. and Mr. PEE-WE VAL mutu-
ally explained. ..
Mr. 11. TIIORNTON. was apprehensive that
the caicolatimi Upon. thirlittristus, of the Co m*.
lidlii.4 Fund woold be food. to be rather vague
and uttcdrtain ; the .prodoess ,osf the year:. 1806,
..,pon, thafiend which had !mot so. much relied oss,
was in great pa'rt 'owing to the predict Otike du,
ties siptin Stamps, ratl4o Oats to any none, Taus
1 erected at that time- The great olsject wiSiild be
to' keiii the lornme and. eXpeutlitero of the.tortit.
try within one aoottreir ; the. surp/us .0( the Loam
fur each year over Oil ikniting eioN4l had. not tie.
creased.' in tlie due. proportnin ; thu increase of
isroduet in 1808 easel beets owing pritiripatly to the
mere - modification of li duty ad ruforeire, and
Could not make the-priaciple of any kited and
defitsite calculation. lie seemed its think that
it would go. mare to equalise the 'mutual propos...
lion the noCutile and expenditure should beat to
eat:ll'ooer, to resort in some .degrees to the aid of
new taxes. .
Mr. PFACE VA f, admitted that thi produce
in some isiossnre to the
in 1808, had beettowiug
Stamp Duties, hut its a still greater proportion to
the new Llogu!ittiou then erected. After mono
further observations from Mr. lioskiason, Sit
Thomas Turbos, and Mr. Rose, the Resolutions
were • read amt agreed to, and the Report, the
louse having resumed, was ordeftdto be reccirall
- .r.
on Friday. • • • .
IMAMS OF A DILI It A LTY.—DiTICE OF "134UVS-
WICK'S ANNUITY.
Mr. TIER N El" wished to know if the Right
Honourable Gentletnan would consetst to postpone
the question on the • third reading of the Hill,
I granting the annuity to the Duke of Drumstick,
from to-morrow for one fortnight ; as if he Would
consent to do so, lie (M r. T.) 'would defer his Mo.
lion respecting the !hints of Admiralty for that
period. . . 1 .
I. Mr. PE RC EV. A fAlissenting to do so,
Mr. TIERNEV gave. notice, that he would to.
morrow take the sense of the louse triton the sub.
1 ject. . -

IRL,II FLAX SEED.
Mr. FOSTRRpostpouctl his caution respecting
the Irish Flax Seed Tuesday.
itowntllAanoute—DUßLlN.
Mr.-FOS ER, postponed his titotion relative to
Ilowth Harbour till Milstlay.
SIR GF.GRGE +MME.
Sir JOHN NEWPOwr posipuned his nratiott
• t
respecting Sir 'George S ill -to=unigraw (this
day) se'nuight. ••
FOREIGN SALT Rill.: *lt, •
• Mr. A. COOPER brought:up the killed of
the Foreign Salt Bills which was received, and the
Bill ordered to be read a third time to.morrosr.
He also brought up. the Report of the Irish Strong
Beer (loamy Committee ; a hen a Bill was ordered
to behronght in pursuant to their Resolutions.
'The Hawkers' and Pedlars' Bill WAS ordered VA
he'read a third time to.morrow..— Adjourned.
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A shocking catastrophe occurred at the house
of Mrs. Limn, in Doke-street, Oxford-W..o'i,
on Monday night, Miss Julia Anna Lomat, het.
daughter, having. gone into her bed-room let the
candle fall, which set fire to her dress, and hp;
which she was so much !HUM that she died at sir.
o'clock on Tuesday morning.
A female child, not more than two months old,.
was found in an open boat flouting down the
above Westmitister.bridge, on Tuesday e'ren•••
ing. It was decently di•essed, and carefully a ral).•
pea up in flannel. A pipes aas Amnion ON; bro.
som of the infant, imps:l:soaq it as. an unpristectl.
eel oruhan.

t•
4411" 4a9; at linue Cetauctiter-plare,, tin Lady of
ihr WOWS,

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cp.,
Yesterda,v* the tidy hlitybress, only (laughter of the'
litilCistiPmf.the olAttd Atoottr, to 'I hoinas Kennedy,. liwi. of
Clutrlfttte-steeTt.. The eteretniroey wireperfornotNl Kt St, Ste--
pben's• Wolhitietke, by the Rev, hloutey. Woody IN Vr6.*
[ ttilik;s,Qhtilllitt. 1 ir•TI •

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Tliursday I •st,, nt Cli, too. Mn. B..szionalt; POitoon, of
Rokilitioeplo-ro Wilmsl)sl3, sister to me laie..er:er Pea.-
soo. Lay. of Cie likier. Temple.

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