H T dir visjem ad vd bober.06 bosc 28# 100,5m ďhoẻ to entude mic -19m lenouar 20th to bozma CHA P. III. NoLivery sme odi serem s -on to asiqiong iconog oft of FINANCE The Budget Mr. Maberly's Resolutions on the National C91Debt Mr. Hume's Motion on the State of the Nation, and Fortyfive Resolutions regarding the Finances Opposition to the Navy Estimates-Mr. Hobhouse's Motion to reduce the Army Discussion on the Expense of the Diplomatic Establishments. N the 13th of March, the opened the budget. Not confining there were repealed:The War Malt Duty 2,790,000 which might be estimated at 280,000. 1818 there were re mitted various assessed taxes for Salt .... Tonnage duty. ....... .... Hearths and Windows, Ire- £.1,400,000 300,000 1,295,000 160,000 200,000 ...... The War Customs, Tonnage, &c. Hearths and Windows, Ire 828,000 land 35,000 Rum 315,000 Coals 200,000 Making a total of Taxes re pealed in 1816 ........£18,288,000 In 1817 there were repealed or diminished taxes in England, Law Stamps Silk 527,000 Union Duties, from 1822.... 300,000 In the year 1825 the following Duties were repealed: Remainder of the Salt, 250,000 3,146,000 £.30,712,000 From which must be deducted the amount of Taxes imposed in 1819.. Leaving therefore a total remission of Taxes since the 3,190,000 year 1816 of .... £.27,522,000 ....... man in the kingdom could never have had the confidence to anticipate. In 1823, upon an estimate founded on the basis of £200,000 100,000 the revenue of the preceding year, 150,000 he had assumed that the customs, 900,000 the excise, the stamp duties, the 1,250,000 20,000 post office, the assessed taxes, for 276,000 England and Ireland, and sundry miscellaneous items, taken together, would produce an income of about 52,200,000l. The taxes repealed in the course of that session amounted to about 3,200,000%. During the period of the same session, he had calculated that there would be a loss to the revenue of 1,500,000l. arising from various causes; so that, in point of fact, the calculation would have been entirely verified, if the receipts for 1823 had been 1,500,000l. less than 52,200,000l. Now the actual receipts of the year were 52,018,000l., being less than the sum at which he had estimated them previously, and less, let it be observed, notwithstanding the amount of taxes repealed in that year, by the sum of 182,000l. only. In regard to the year 1823, therefore, no expectations had been held out, which were not amply fulfilled. In the following year, the revenue which he had anticipated upon the same items, was 51,265,000l. He had proposed the repeal of taxes during that twelvemonth to a very considerable amount, and calculated that the amount of loss, which the revenue would sustain that year, would be 530,000l. But the actual produce of the year's receipts, notwithstanding such a reduction of taxes, was positively more than the original estimate; for, the estimate being 51,265,000l., the actual produce was 53,562,0001; so that the actual produce of 1824 yielded very nearly 1,300,000l. above the While twenty-seven millions of taxes had thus been reduced, that reduction, so far from affecting the revenue of the country, and diminishing the productiveness of its various branches, had, in fact, given to them new energy, and justified every anticipation. He had been accused, he said, of uttering promises of prosperity which had not been fulfilled, and holding out prospects of increasing resources which had ended in disappointment; but the results of the last three years, 1823, 1824, and 1825, would sufficiently shew, that he had erred neither in his calculations, nor in the facts and principles on which they were made. A reference to the finance accounts would prove, that, in respect of each of them, not only were the expect ations which had been held out to the House in 1823 completely realized by the event, but that they were absolutely exceeded in a degree which the most sanguine On ac Malt Coffee.. estimate which he had formed, Tea The estimated amount of revenue for was..... The actual receipts for the same period.... Exceeding the Estimate therefore by 156,838,500 1,398,000 And yet, during these three years, taxes to the amount of no less than eight millions had been repealed. Thus, even more than what had been promised, had been performed; and it had been distinctly proved that the reduction of duties on articles of consumption had raised the produce of such duties by in creasing that consumption, and had thus kept up the revenue, while it added largely to the comforts of the people. The increase of consumption in different articles in 1825, as compared with 1816, was various, but it was uniform. Some of them were as follows: On the consumption of per cent. 161 36 Paper ...................... 55 In the expense, too, of collecting the revenue, a large saving had been effected. In 1818 that expense had amounted to 4,353,000l.; in 1825 it had been reduced to 3,832,000l., being a diminution of more than half a million. While taxation, and the cost of collecting, had been thus diminished, both the principal, and the yearly charge, of the debt had likewise been reduced. On the 5th of January, 1823, the funded debt amounted to 796,530,000%.; on the 5th of January, 1826, the funded debt was reduced to 778,128,000l., being a reduction, in the three years, of 18,401,000l. ; or at the rate, in each year, of 6,133,000l. On the 5th of Jan. 1823, the unfunded debt was 36,281,000l.; on the 5th of Jan. 1826, it was only 31,703,000l.; being a reduction of 4,577,000/ The reduction in the total charge of the debt, is the true way of estimating the real reduction effected in the burdens of the country, rather than by looking only at the reduction in the capital of the debt. Now on the 5th of Jan. 1823, the charge on the funded debt was 28,123,000l.: on the 5th of Jan. 1826, it was only 27,117,000l.; being a reduction of 1,107,000l. On the 5th January, 1823, the interest on Exchequer, bills was 1,100,000l.; on 5th Jan. 1826, it was 800,000l.; being a reduction of 300,000l. Taking both together, the charge on the funded and unfunded debt was on the 5th Jan. 1823, 29,286,000l.; and on the 5th January, 1826, 27,946,0001. being a reduction in the annual charge of the whole debt of 1,339,000l., in three years. It was of no consequence in what manner this reduction of charge was effected, whether by the operation of the sinking fund, or by some other means; the fact of the reduction was certain; and it was by the reduction of the charge that we ought to estimate, if we wished to estimate it correctly, the reduction of the burden of the debt. 66 If, therefore," said the right hon. gentleman, "while the people of this country have had their burdens thus diminished, every thing has been done by government and the legislature, which the honour, the security, and the advantage of the country required; if we have been enabled extensively to increase the means of religious worship; if we have added to the roads, the bridges, the harbours, of the kingdom; if we have spared something to the promotion of science and the arts; and if, during the last three years, we have reduced the taxation of the country eight millions, and have diminished the expense of the debt above a million, we have at least done something, and may boldly face our constituents in whatever part of the country, and at whatever time we may be called upon to appeal to them." With resources thus increasing under diminished taxation, and a reduced rate of expenditure, he stated, as follows, the proposed expenditure of the present year, and the funds by which it was to be met. Under the first head were many expenses of a permanent nature, which the House had already sanctioned by its vote, as follows: by different causes, which, during below their proceeds in the last the present year, would not be in year, and due allowance made for operation. Thus, in 1825, no less other unavoidable deficiencies. a sum than 1,050,000l. of duties, There would be a deficiency of had been refunded to dealers in 350,000l. arising from the reducwine upon the stock in their pos- tion of taxes in 1825, and a defisession. In consequence, likewise, ciency of about 1,300,000l., in the of the alterations in the system of excise, produced by diminished bounties which had been effected consumption. Allowance for all during the preceding session, there this had been made in the eswould this year be a reduction of timates; and the stamps, the post50,000l. Another, and an unfore- office, and the assessed taxes, had seen diminution of the revenue all been taken at lower rates than had arisen from an oversight in they had yielded last year, the the new acts for simplifying the stamps being estimated at 48,000l., whole system of the customs. It the post office at 46,000l., and the had been intended that the duty assessed taxes at 190,000l., less on tobacco should continue to be than had been received from them four shillings, the rate at which it in 1825. On the other hand the stood in the beginning of the year; miscellaneous items had increased. but by some mischance, scarcely A sum of 100,000l. was due from avoidable where such a mass of Holland, under a treaty with that scattered and minute regulations government, and ought to have were to be dealt with, the unin- been paid in 1825. It had not tentional but practical effect of the been paid; but, having been now new acts had been, that one shil- remitted, it would go to the serling of the duty had lapsed; and vice of the current year. About the duty having thus been, for the 108,000l. would be received from latter half of the year, only three lotteries; for, although the last shillings, instead of four shillings, lottery had been contracted for that branch of the revenue fell two or three years ago, its exist450,000l. short of what it would ence was protracted, in consequence otherwise have yielded. These of the usual course of conducting deductions from the revenue of lotteries, for two or three years. 1825 exceeded a million and a half; after they had been contracted for. yet, as they could have no place In consequence of an arrangement during the present year, they with the East-India company, that ought to be added to the corporation had become bound to 37,546,000l. received indepen- pay 60,000l. in consideration of an dently of them in the preceding increase of our naval force for the year; and the customs and excise security of their possessions. The would present, for 1826, a revenue new silver coinage for Ireland had of 39,096,000l. But as, in the cost the country last year 500,000l.: present state of the country, still in the present year the old coin labouring under the pressure would come back, and be available which it had felt for so many for the public service, to the months, it would be unwise and amount it was calculated, of about improvident to calculate on a 400,000%. With these additions to revenue equally large with that of the usual revenue, making every 1825, all the items had been taken allowance for the probable depres |