A respectable article, wh...
The Times, 1824-02-28T00:00:00

A respectable article, wvhich, by an Evening publication, we perceive must have appeared in an unrespectable paper of yesterdlay morning, replies to our strictures on the financesystem proposed for the present year. Weshallmake a few comments on this production. It is certain, as we are charged, that we have been the advocates of as open a commerce as possible with the continent of Europe: but does it from thence follow, that we must approve of lhe project of the CIIANCELLI.O of the ExCnEQrER? The present situation of the country-is such, after a long peace with a thriving revenue, andl with establishments that ought to be reduced, that it has a right to expc-ct the re- mission of taxes. N?ow can the CIIA\CELI.OR of the Ex- CHEQUER say, that his change in the commercial practice of the coun try, with respect to the wool and silk trates, is the remission of a tax? If it be, let them tell us to ivlhat imount, by estimate, the tax is remitted ; andl we will with pleasure inform the dealers in those articles, how much the 3overnment has done for them. Mr. Roli\-so N said in the louse, that he would be content to lose about eight hundred ;hlousand pounds on the experiment: but do the dealers in wool and silk gain what lhe loses-do they take what he gives? Tihat of whiclh we complain, therefore, is, hat hlc has presented the nation with the execution of a bheory, when it was looking for the remission of a tax. WVe did not reprobate the repeal of the coal-duty of the )ort of Loldon ; hut we reprobated it as a substitute for the repeal of the windowr-duty over all the kingdom. In that cnse, wc said it was nothing ; and we asscrted generally, that frivolous, uncertain, delusive boon';, were hel( out to as ini the financec plan, instead of the repeal of soime heavy- prcssing tax. It is said that thecobject of Governmentini preceding years, was to favour the agricultural interest, and that -with " that view, the property-tax (along with others named) "was rcpi'aled ;" wvhereas the trath is, that the property- tax, from the manner in which it was collceted, bore Itss heavily upon the agricultural than upon any other interest. WVhile we are upoan the subject of our own financecs, we may add a little,also,upon our Austrian money-connexicn. We should wish to know the proecss by wlhich the compo- sition was agreed to and accepted. WVe fin(d from the ac- count ofthe original loan, that the "engngementis dated the t8th of iMlay, 1794, an(d relates to a loan of 3,000,0001.; "the second is dated the 14tli of May, 1795, and is for a "farther sum of 1,600,0001. upon the samne conditions; "making together 4,600,0001. As security for these sums, "on the 26tlh September, 1794, a box wvas deposited at the "Bank of England, containing twenty-five mortgage "bonds of the Bank of Vienna, of 1,600,000 florins each, making together forty millions of florins, wlhich are esti- "mated at 4,000,0001. sterling; and on the 4tb Decem- "ber, 1795, another box was deposited, containing tweenty- "one such bonds, amounting to 21,333,333 florins and 20 kreutzers, estimated to be cqual in value to 2,133,3331. 6s. Sd. sterling." Surely. with such ample securities in our hands, on which, according to M1r. PITT, we miglht have sued the ENt PEnOR in his own Courts, it is too much to talk of the generositv of the Imperial debtor, and to hail his inperfect payment as a " God-send."