was proposed, with certain modifications and exceptions, to raise the war duties of the customs from one fourth to one third. An addition would be made to the duty on sugar of three shillings per cwt. These additional duties would produce £.700,000 a year. Tobacco would

be taxed under the excise, and it was calculated would afford 300,000 a year of additional duty.

To cover the interest aud other charges upon the loan, a sum of 1,136,000 a year, was still to be provided, which was proposed to be done in the following manner :

The noble lord concluded his speech by expressing his determination, and that of his colleagues, to administer the government with economy, and to reform abuses wherever they could be detected; and after an allusion to the labours of the naval and military commis. sioners, and assurances that ministers were ready to follow up any plans and improvements, which these enquiries might suggest, he announced to the house that steps were taking to recover the sums lost to the public by malversations in the West Indies, and that measures had been adopted to put a stop to the scenes of fraud, perjury, and peculation, which had so long prevailed in that part of the em. pire.

Instead of entering into a detailed account of the discussions, which arose on this and subsequent occa sions, upon the propositions recommended by the chancellor of the

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It was objected to the course of proceeding taken by ministers on this occasion, that it was contrary to the usage of parliament to bring forward the ways and means before the estimates of the year had been voted; and this usage was founded on the obvious and reasonable principle, that parliament ought not to burthen the subject unnecessarily, and therefore ought not to provide greater ways and means than the sums granted in the committee of supply. But, the ways and means now proposed by the chancellor of the exchequer, greatly exceeded the supplies voted by the house; for the army estimates of the present year had not yet been submitted to its consideration; and no precedent,

it was said, could be found since the revolution, of bringing forward the ways and means till the army estimates were voted.:

It was admitted on the other side, that there was considerable inconvenience in bringing forward the ways and means before the estimates for the army were regularly before the house; but it was maintained that there was nothing in this proceeding which counteracted any fixed principle, and the inconvenience of delaying the budget till the army estimates could be produced, would be much greater than that which attended the present mode of proceeding. The same sort of inconvenience had been felt last year in the vote with regard to subsidies, the amount of which depended on treaties with foreign powers, which at that time were not con- cluded. Care would be taken by the chancellor of the exchequer that the ways and means should not exceed the supplies to be voted. It was to be recollected, that we had an army estimate already voted for five months; and as to precedents, there was one in 1802, when the navy estimates were voted first for four months, then for two, and then for the remainder of the year. It was also contended, that, in this case, the ways and means did not amoun to the supplies by several million; because none could be called taxes, among the ways and means. till they were appropriated by parliament; and in that sense the supplies already voted, exceeded the ways and means by several millions. But to this mode of reason ing it was justly answered by opposition, that it proceeded on the fal Jacy of confounding two principles in themselves perfectly distinct; the

one, that the public money should not be applied without the express consent of parliament; the other, that parliament should not burthen the people unnecessarily, and consequently should neither by loans nor taxes, impose burthens in a committee of ways and means, till the necessity of them had been ascertained by previous votes in the committee of supply. It was at the same time admitted, that a rigid adherence to this rule, could not in all cases be observed; and, indeed, the existence of permanent war taxes, to the amount of eighteen or near twenty millions annually, was, it must be confessed, no small devia, tion from this principle.

The property tax bill encountered great opposition in its way through the house, not so much from the members seated on the opposition bench, who, on the contrary expressed their hearty approbation of its principle, and praised the ministers for bringing it forward, as from independent members of parliament, who disliked the harshness and rigour of its provisions, and disapproved of such an enormous addition to the present heavy bur thens of the people. Several modi. fications and alleviations of the tax were accordingly proposed, to some of which the ministers acceded, though they rejected the greater part of them, on account of their tendency to diminish the productiveness, and destroy the efficacy of the measure,

Mr. Francis objected to the sudden increase of the duty from six and a half to ten per cent, and ridiculed the attempt of ministers to represent the precise rate of ten per cent, as the natural limit of the tax, which no future chancellor of the exche

quer

quer would ever venture to exceed. -The same honourable member objected to the clause, compelling persons with small incomes to pay the duty in the first instance, and go afterwards to the tax office for repay ment, if they desired to avail them selves of their right to the legal abatement. Such persons, he coutended, were unable to collect a sum large enough to discharge the duty, and if they did, the trouble and difficulty of afterwards recovering the money from the tax office, would deter them from attempting it, or subject them to greater loss and inconvenience than the object was worth. Mr. Francis could not conceive why the interest on exche. quer bills, and other floating securities, was not made liable to the tax, in the same manner as the dividends on the funded debt paid at the bank; and he strongly recommended, that the duty should be extended to the dividends, belonging to aliens, not resident in the kingdom, a measure, which he attempted to justify, and reconcile to the principles of policy, consistency, and equity.

Of these suggestions the only one fully acceded to by the ministers, was that of levying the duty on the unfunded, in the same manner as upon the funded debt. The propo sal of taxing the property of aliens, not resident in the kingdom, was shewn by Mr. Fox to be repugnant to the principles of sound policy, inconsistent with the faith of parliament, and contrary to the fun. damental maxim of the constitution, that no one should be taxed, who was not really or virtually represented in parliament. Arrangements, it was said, would be taken to facilitate the recovery of money

from the tax office; and on further consideration the scale of abatements was considerably énlarged beyond the original intentions of the government. Persons employed in laborious or handicraft occupations, whose wages did not exceed thirty shillings a week, were exempted entirely from the duty, and the abatements in favour of life annuitants and small tradesmen, which originally applied only to persons with incomes under one hundred pounds a year, were extended afterwards to incomes of one hundred and fifty pounds. Some further deductions of less importance were afterwards added; but a motion of Mr. Wilberforce to grant au allowance on account of children, was negatived on a division; and the clause for levying the full amount of ten per cent on all income derived from funded and landed property, after a long and interesting discussion, was carried by a majority. In the course of this debate, Mr. Fox owned to the house, that he was not a friend to the tax, or any of its principles or operation; he was sensible the objections to it were just and innumerable; but his majesty's ministers were reluctantly forced to adopt it, under the pressure of circumstances, which they had at least the consolation to reflect they had no share in producing. After this public declaration from the leading member of his majesty's government in the house of commons, it surprises us to find, that on the third reading of the bill, a clause was brought up by one of the secretaries of the treasury, to exempt from the operation of the tax the stock or dividends belonging to his majesty, in whatever name they might stand in the books of the

bank

bank of England, on the same being duly proved to be his majesty's property. This clause having been suffered to pass without opposition, no observations were made upon it in the house, and therefore it is impossible for us to guess upon what principle, if opposed, it could have been defended. His majesty is one of the three estates of parliament, and no reason can be given why his property should not be taxed by the house of commons, that would not apply equally to exempt the property of members of the house of lords. No exemption or abate. ment had been allowed to any of his majesty's subjects, but in cases, where, if the tax had been collected, the persons liable to it must have been forced to apply for parochial aid for their subsistence. Such, at least, was the principle which during these discussions, had been laid down broadly by his majesty's government; and, except in this instance, acted upon with no small rigour and impartiality. The loss to the public, by the exemption of his majesty's private fortune, from the operation of the tax, was probably inconsiderable; but, in times like these, when sacrifices of such enormous magnitude were required from the people, it was indecent and impolitic, to introduce a distinction between his majesty and his subjects, which seemed to imply, however falsely and untruly, that he was desirous to withdraw from the pressure of those burthens, to which they submitted with such fortitude and resignation.

The pig-iron tax, which the chancellor of the exchequer had taken at £.500,000 a year, met with great opposition in the house, as a tax affecting a raw material, which

was afterwards wrought up, and manufactured in articles, where the burthen of the tax would be out of all proportion to the benefit derived from it to the exchequer. Mr. Wilberforce calculated, that the tax would produce not more than £.200,000 a year to government, while it would cost a million to the public. Objection was also made to it, as a heavy and injudicious tax ou machinery, on agriculture, on coals, and on various manufactures, where iron was consumed in great quantity, and where no proper substitute for it could be devised. There is no doubt, that the representations of iron masters and others, on this occasion, stating the ruinous consequences of this tax to their manufacture, were grossly exagge rated, but such was the impression they made on the public mind, that after having been left with a majority of only teu on a question for the commitment of the bill, minis ters were induced to give it up. The tax which the chancellor of the exchequer proposed in lieu of it, was one on private brewers, which excited against him a still more violent outcry in the country. It was in vain that he dropped the most obnoxious clause in the bill, as originally introduced; the prejudices against it, were so strong among the country gentlemen, that he was compelled to abandon it entirely. Baffled in these two measures for raising the interest of the loan, he had recourse at length to the expedient of adding ten per cent to the assessed taxes, which was submitted to without opposition. Though the readiness shewn by ministers on these occasions, to give way to public opinion, was so far to their credit, the necessity to which

they

they were driven, of increasing the assessed taxes, after having failed in two different plans of taxation, left an unfavourable impression in the country, of their financial talents and resources. The increase of the assessed taxes led, however, to a measure, that met with general approbation. In consideration of the severe pressure of the taxes on persons who had large families, a bill was passed, granting to parents an allowance out of their assessed taxes for every child they had above two, provided the total amount of their assessment was under forty pounds a year.

The Irish budget was opened by Sir John Newport, the Irish chancellor of the exchequer, on the 7th of May. It appeared that the supply voted for Ireland was 8,975,1941.; and the ways and means provided by the chancellor of the exchequer were estimated at 9,181,4551. The loan, which was for two millions, had been raised at seven shillings per cent less than the loan for England, and this was regarded as a favourable symptom of the growing prosperity of Ireland, and of the confidence reposed in its government.

Several new taxes and regulations concerning the revenue, were proposed, which it was calculated would produce 307,6551. a year. The exports of Ireland, it was stated, had been greater in 1805, than in any year since 1792; and the course of exchange had been lower, and more fixed for the last four months, than it had been for several years.

In the course of the discussions that arose on this subject, it appear ed, that great mismanagement and abuse prevailed in the collection and administration of the Irish revenue.

Sir John Newport stated, that the balances of deceased and dismissed collectors amounted to 220,000; and Mr. Parnell shewed, that notwithstanding the undoubted encrease of opulence in Ireland, and though the taxes imposed since 1802 had been estimated to produce 1,800,000, the actual increase of revenue was only 70,000. It appeared, indeed, that the disparity between the revenue and expenditure of that country, was truly alarming. The expenditure was at the rate of more than eight millions and a half a year, while the revenue was less than three millions and a half, and the whole of it, a few thousands only excepted, mortgaged for the payment of the interest on the debt.

The late chancellor of the Irish exchequer, Mr. Foster, strongly recommended to Sir John Newport to raise a great part of the supplies within the year, by means of war taxes; a proposal which the right honourable baronet answered, by shewing how inefficacious the right honourable gentleman's own measures had proved, when directed to that object. His additional taxes on wine and tobacco, for example, instead of increasing, had actually diminished the existing revenue; and though he had imposed taxes, the produce of which he estimated at 1,200,000l. a year, the whole addition they had made to the revenue, did not exceed 70,000 a year. Sir John Newport was ready, however, to do Mr. Foster justice. That right honourable gentleman had projected regulations, which would very much have improved the reve