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CHAP. IV.

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Finance.-Budget.-Loan.-War Taxes.-Taxes to provide for the Interestof the Loan.-Irregularity of bringing forward the Ways and Means before the Army Estimates.-Property Tax.-Exemption of His Majesty's funded Property from the Operation of this Tax.-Pig Iron Tax.-Private Brewery Tax.-Increase of Assessed Taxes.-Assessed Taxes Allowance Bill.Irish Budget.-Regulation Bills.-Of the Office of Treasurer of the Ordnance. Of the Excise.-Customs.-Stamp Office.-Post Office.-Office of Surveyor General of Woods and Forests.-Custom-House Officer's Bill.-Inaudited Public Accounts.--West India Accounts Bill.-Auditors of Public Accounts Bill.-Abuses in the Barrack Department.-Grants to the Family of Lord Nelson-To Lord Collingwood.-Sir Richard Strachan, and Sir John Duckworth.-Royal Family Annuities Bill.-Corn Intercourse Bill-American Intercourse Bill.-Tortola Free Port Bill.-Woollen Manufacture Committee.

HE new ministers, in the meaTHE sures of finance, which they pursued during this session of parliament, were content with follow ing the systems, and exocuting the plans of their predecessors; and unless in shewing greater vigilance and anxiety for the detection and suppression of abuses, they seemed to be unambitious of any higher distinction, in this important branch of their public duty. The period of the year when they came into office, compelled them to adopt, in most instances, the estimates prepared by the former government; and in raising the ways and means for the current year, they adhered scrupulously to the principles laid down and followed by Mr. Pitt. The sinking fund for the redemption of the national debt, which many persons feared, or affected to

fear, would be far from secure in
their hands, and which some per-
sons both in and out of parliament,
urged them strongly to encroach
upon, they determined religiously
to respect.
The system of war
taxes, or the plan of raising within
the year a great part of the supplies
necessary for the public service,
they took up with zeal, and carried
to an extent before unexampled.
In the prosecution of this object,
so meritorious in itself, and benefi-
cial to the country, they had re-
course to a measure of taxation,
which bore peculiarly hard on the
middling ranks of life, and on those
industrious classes of society, which
are removed by one degree only
from indigence; and as the popu
larity of one branch of the admi-
nistration, lay chiefly among per-
sons of that description, their con-

duct

was

duct in this particular, excited
against them a degree of odium
and unpopularity proportioned to
the former affection and regard en-
tertained towards them. It seemed
to add to the sufferings of the peo-
ple, when the property tax
raised to 10 per cent, and most of
the former exemptions done away,
that a measure so grinding and op-
pressive, should proceed from per-
sons, who had opposed the triple
assessment, the income tax, and the
property tax itself, when first intro-
duced. Like the bird in the fable,
which complained less of the sharp-
ness of the point that wounded its
bosom, than of the feather that
winged and directed the arrow,
having been drawn from its own
pinion, the people felt their suffer-
ings aggravated, and exasperated by
the reflection, that they were im.
posed by those, whom they had hi-
therto cherished and supported as
their friends, and whose elevation
to power they considered (no mat-
ter how erroneously) as in some
degree their own work, or at least
as a consequence of their supposed
partiality towards them. It must
at the same time, in fairness to the
new ministers be acknowledged,
that it was owing to the heavy taxes
imposed during this session of par-
The funded debt of Great Britain, not redeemed,
amounted on the 1st Feb. 1806 to
The redeemed debt by the commissioners, 101,145,802
transferred to the commissioners

liament, and to the rigorous mea-
sures taken to render them effec-
tual, that they were enabled at a
future period to hold out to the
country the consolatory assurance,
that on the scale on which they had
determined to conduct the war, no
additional taxes would be necessary
for carrying it on, to whatever pe-
riod, however distant, it might be
prolonged.

Lord Henry Petty, the new chancellor of the exchequer, opened the budget on the 28th of March, in a speech remarkable for the perspicuity of its statements and clearness of its arrangement, as well as for the professions of rigid economy, and of strict attention to the reform of abuses which it contained: He began, after some preliminary observations on the arduous task he had undertaken, by saying, that he should state to the house the amount of the public debt and charges upon it, and the produce of the consolidated fund, at the accession of the present ministers to office, that the people might be fully apprised of their situation, and prepared for the exertions and sacrifices, which he was compelled to demand from them. He then stated that

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£. 517,280,561*

by reason of the land tax redeemed, Total of the redeemed debt of Great Britain,

22,325,740

123,471,542+

* The funded debt of Ireland, not redeemed, amounted on the 18th March, 1806, to

The imperial loans not redeemed at the same date,
Total of the national debt not redeemed,

The redeemed debt of Ireland, 18th March, 1806,
The redeemed imperial loan, same date,

Total of the redeomed debt,

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35,481,052 3,027,051 555,791,664

2,913,948 642,249 127,027,739

Total

Total of the funded debt of Great Britain re-
deemed and unredeemed,
Total of the annual charges of the funded debt of
Great Britain and Ireland, and the imperial loans,
Total of the sums annually applicable to the redemp-
tion of the national debt,

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Total of the unfunded debt, 5th Jan. 1806,
Total income of the consolidated fund in the year,
ending 5th Jan. 1806,

-

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640,752,103*

27,485,384

7,615,167 23,168,747

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33,035,501

29,951,639

Annual charges on the consolidated fund, as it stood
on the 5th Jan. 1806,
Surplus of the consolidated fund applicable to the ge-
neral service of the state,
Produce of the war taxes in the year ending 5th Jan.
1806,

In this part of his subject the noble lord pointed out to the house, that on the 1st of Feb. 1803, the proportion of the sinking fund to the unredeemed debt, was as 1 to 82, but that on the 1st Feb. 1806, the proportion was as 1 to 68. After this it was unnecessary for him to enter into any eulogium on the sinking fund, nor to detain the house with any panegyric on its former effects, or the hopes that might be entertained of its future operations. The advantages of that fund were very sensibly felt in the prices

3,083,862

13,171,499

of stock, and in contracting for loans, which it enabled the public to obtain on better terms. Therefore, independent of considerations of good faith, which pledged the house to adhere to this system, it was bound to maintain it from positive and tried experience of its utility.

The chancellor of the exchequer then proceeded to state the supplies wanted for 1806, and the ways and means by which he proposed to provide for them, as follows

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* Total of the national funded debt, redeemned and unredeemed, 682,819,403

Add

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Deduct on account of Ireland, 2-17ths

of the above sum of £.43,669,000 5,137,528 Deduct also 2-17ths for civil list and

5,297,528

43,618,472

other charges,

160,000

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Lottery,

Surplus of consolidated fund to 5th April, 1807,
War taxes,

Deduct as likely to be outstanding at 5th
April, 1807,

Loan,

380,000

3,500,000

19,500,000.

1,500,000

18,000,000

18,000,000

43,630,000

The preceding statement was accompanied by various explanatory observations from the noble lord, the most important of which we shall lay before our readers, in an abridged form, and in the order in which they are naturally suggested by the statement itself.

The army estimates had not yet been laid before the house, because the new military arrangements were

not completed; but there was every reason to suppose, that they would not exceed the sum stated in the account of the supplies.

In the miscellaneous services were included several important grants in contemplation, such as the provision for the family of lord Nelson, and for the remuneration of the seamen who had been engaged in the battle of Trafalgar.

F 3

The

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The sum due to the East India Company was due upon a claim of several years standing, which had been submitted to commissioners in 1803. One million had been alreaIdy paid, and another would be called for in the course of the present year.

The interest on exchequer bills had not hitherto been provided for when they were voted, but left to come in as part of the supply of the following year. It was thought advisable, however, at present, to bring that expence within the year, and to provide for it accordingly.

The grant of one million from the proceeds of ships captured prior to the declaration of war, was part of the droits of admiralty, which his majesty had been advised by his late ministers, graciously to apply to the public service of the state.

'The loan, which had been negociated that morning, consisted of twenty millions, eighteen for England, and two for Ireland, and had been obtained at the rate of £.4 19s. 7d. of interest for every £.100. War taxes. The beneficial effects of raising a great part of the supplies within the year, was strongly exemplified by the fact, that during the last war, the average increase of the national debt had been at the rate of 25 millions a year, while the average increase in the present war, was at the rate of only 12 millions a year; a difference to be attributed solely to the system of war taxes, which had not been introduced in the late war till near its close. The war taxes had been taken for the last year at fourteen millions and a half, and they had produced more than thirteen millions. It was intended to raise them for the current year to nineteen millions and a half,

of which five millions were to be raised by making the property tax more productive, and one million from the excise and customs.

The property tax was proposed to be raised from six and a half to ten per cent, and most of the present exemptions to be done away. It was thought more advisable to raise this tax at once to what might be termed its natural limit, than to increase it gradually, which might lead to the supposition that it was a fund to be drawn upon to an indefinite extent. Besides this addition to the rate, it was expected, that the tax might be rendered more productive by judicious regulation. Great frauds and evasions were now practised, and the mode of exemption furnished the greatest facility to such attempts. It was proposed, therefore, in future, that the tax should in the first instance be paid, and that those entitled to exemptions should afterwards, on making good their claims, be repaid from the tax office. It was stated with great satisfaction that the governors and directors of the bank had agreed to receive the duty on the dividends at the bank. As to the quantum of income to be made liable to the tax it was proposed that ten per cent should be paid on all property above fifty pounds a year, but that a scale of abatements should be introduced in favour of small tradesmen and small annuitants, whose income was less than one hundred a year. Some regulation would also be made in favour of hospitals and charitable institutions. The total sum expected from these alterations in the property tax was estimated at five millions.

Another million was to be raised from the customs and excise. It

was

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