moving, that the sum of L.306,000, exclusive of L. 221,000 given by a vote of credit, be voted for the Office of Ordnance, for the year 1819.

Mr Hume said, that he observed L.1,500, exclusive of the expence of materials, charged for the manufacturing of gunpowder. The consequence of this manufacture was very injurious to the manufacturers of gunpowder throughout the country. He hoped, therefore, it would be given up by his Majesty's Government beyond what they actually wanted. There was another item with respect to which he wished to ask a question. How were vacancies in the staff of the artillery filled up? He had heard that the Master-General had ordered that every other vacancy should be supplied by a cadet from Woolwich, and a half-pay officer. If it was so, thanks were due to him for that arrangement. He had stated, when the army estimates were voted, that a similar arrangement ought to have been adopted in the army, by which L.330,000 would be saved in getting recruits. There was one other item to which he begged to advert. The committee, now so much relied on, had recommended that Ceylon, the Mauritius, the Cape of Good Hope. Heliogoland, and the Ionian Islands, should pay their own expences; yet they were all charged in the present estimate to the amount of L.620,000. Why was their recommendation, which was so much attended to when agreeable to Ministers, neglected in this instance?

Mr R. Ward acknowledged that he was connected with the first question respecting the manufacture of gunpowder. The gunpowder manufactured was superior in point of excellence to any manufactured throughout the world. The manufacture was, however, reduced to the smallest quantity that could keep it alive.

As to the second question, he did not understand it, for the Artillery had no staff. The honourable member proceeded next to reply to the question as to the colonies. The usual charges were only continued, no provision having been made for discontinuing them.

The sum of L.20,094 : 16: 10 was then granted for the current service, contingencies, stores, &c. on account of the year 1818, not provided for by Parliament, after a remark from Mr Calcraft that L. 14,000 appeared to him sufficient for that purpose. The sum of L.10,000 was next proposed, for defraying the expences of the reduction of the ordnance military corps for the year 1819, and after a few words from Mr Hume and Mr R. Ward, the grant was passed. The following sums were likewise voted, viz. L. 275,667, 18s. on account of the allowances to superannuated, retired, and half-pay officers, to officers for good services, to superannuated and disabled men; also for pensions to widows and children of deceased officers lately belonging to the seve ral ordnance military corps for the year 1819: L. 6,022: 3:5 on the above-mentioned heads of accounts, for broken periods between 1st of January and 31st of December 1818, and not provided for by Parlia ment: L.34,484 2: 6 for superannuated, or retired allowances to the civil officers, artificers, and labourers, in the office of ordnance, and also for pensions to widows, and for offices suppressed: L.101,008: 15:4 for the civil and military expences of the ordnance in Ireland: and L. 12,000 on account of allowances to retired officers of the late Irish artillery and engineers, and also for pensions to their widows.

On the 9th of June, the House having resolved itself into a Committee of Ways and Means, the Chancel

lor of the Exchequer rose, and be gan by remarking, that the subject on which he was about to address the House having already undergone considerable discussion, it would be less necessary for him to do more than submit the details of the plan by which it was proposed to carry the late resolutions into effect. It had been resolved that additional taxation, to a certain amount, was requisite for the purpose of placing the revenue on a proper relative footing with the expenditure, and to avoid as much as possible the necessity of resorting to future loans. He should therefore proceed in the usual form, by first stating the supplies already voted, and afterwards the means by which it was proposed to make them good. It would likewise be his endeavour to explain the nature, extent, and probable operation of the additional taxes which he was now to bring forward. In so doing, he should have to take a general view of our financial prospects in succeeding years, without, however, going into those minute calculations which had been amply detailed in a late report of the Finance Committee. A general reference would be sufficient to render clear and intelligible his present propositions. To begin with the first great branch of our expenditure --he meant the charges for the military service of the country-the house must be aware that the Army Extraordinaries still remained to be provided for. The sum total of the charge, ordinary and extraordinary, was L. 8,900,000. A complete grant for the navy had been already made of L.6,436,000; and for the ordnance department of L. 1,191,000.

The house had come to a vote respecting the miscellaneous services, but there were still some branches of them unprovided for. Amongst these was

the compensation to the poor clergy, and the Irish miscellanies, which, together, might be estimated at L. 1,950,000. In conformity with the regular course of parliamentary proceeding, he should not move for the supplies applicable to those objects on this occasion. He should leave also for future consideration the question of borrowing 12 millions from the sinking fund. The total charge, therefore, was L. 18,477,000, the interest on which was L.1,570,000, and formed, with the addition of L. 434,000 outstanding Exchequerbills, an entire sum of L. 20,477,000. To meet this charge, the house had voted the annual tax on sugar and tobacco, together with the temporary excise duties. He should move also in the course of that evening for the continuance of the lottery, estimated at L. 240,000; and the application of the produce of naval stores, estimated at L. 334,000. The aggregate amount of these means he should take at L.7,074,000; and under these circumstances it was obviously necessary to resort to the extraordinary resource of a loan to the amount of about 13 millions and a half. The intended resumption of cash payments made it an unfit period for bearing hard on the money market, and a further sum would be required for the reduction of the unfunded debt. With these views he had to propose two loans to the consideration of the committee. The first was one of 12 millions to be raised by contract; and the other he should bring forward on an early day, when the general policy which it involved might be fairly discussed. At present he should content himself with remarking, that in order to avoid any pressure on the money market, it was proposed to take the other 12 millions at twelve successive months,

from the sinking fund, a sum of 4 millions would be the utmost that would be called for by the probable exigencies of the country. He had now to develop to the House the means by which he proposed to raise the L. 3,000,000 that were necessary for realizing those financial views which had been previously submitted to the consideration of the House. Before he entered on this subject, however, he wished to state the amount of the unfunded debt, and its proportion to the supplies already voted. A sum of L. 49,000,000 had been provided for by the votes of the present session, L. 44,600,000 in this part of the united empire, and L. 4,440,000 in Ireland. Exchequer bills to the extent of L. 20,000 were outstanding, to which must be added a vote of L. 16,000,000 and L. 2,500,000 of Irish Treasury bills, The whole of this debt was therefore about L. 38,500,000, and show. ed a reduction of L. 10,500,000. He had now to propose the imposition of some fresh taxes, with the view of strengthening the consolidated fund, and to pay the interest of the loan of last year, as well as provide for the interest of the present. The charge for the last year was L.1,600,000, and for the present would be L. 1,442,000, making a total of L. 3,042,000 to be raised in new taxes. The calculation of their produce was a matter of account, and it was not necessary to be precise in that respect. The principal branch was a duty on foreign wool, the estimated produce of which, together with the consolidat. ed customs, was L. 500,000. He had every reason to believe that this calculation was correct. The amount would necessarily fall into the consolidated fund, and thus enable Parliament to make good those engagements, in the faithful perfor

mance of which public honour and public credit were involved. With the exception of the duty on wool, the new taxes all resolved themselves into matters of minute detail, and would be best understood from the separate schedules which were prepared, and would be put into the hands of every member. By transferring the collection of various duties from the Board of Customs to the Commissioners of Excise, a considerable advantage would be derived. It was proposed to place the duties on cocoa and chocolate upon the same footing as the duties on coffee, which had been reduced in consequence of representations made on the part of our West India colonies. The other articles of taxation to which he had to call the attention of the Committee were tobacco, tea, and pepper. The duty now payable on the importation of American and Plantation tobacco was 9d. and a fraction per lb. ; upon West Indian, 1s.; and 2s. upon Portuguese and Spanish. By equalizing the duties on East Indian and West Indian produce, and with the addition of the excise, the entire result would be 4s. on colonial, and 6s. on foreign tobacco. The effect of this regulation would, according to his estimate, be, to produce a sum of L. 500,000. Upon coffee the existing duty was 73d., and by raising it to 1s. per lb. on plantation coffee, and from 2s. 4d. to 2s. 6d. on the foreign, he calculated the produce at L. 130,000. An increase of the duty on pepper of from Is, 101d to 2s. 6d. per lb. would, it was conceived, yield a sum of L. 30,000. The amount of customs and excise duties on tea was at present 96 per cent., the former being small, and its abolition being a matter of convenient arrangement. By transferring it to the excise, and by the addition

of 4 per cent., a further sum of L. 130,000 might be raised. A considerable saving might be effected, as well as additional facility given to commercial transactions, by doing away those multiplied regulations which were established by the present system of our custom-house duties. There were two other articles on which he had to propose an increase of duty, and the first of these was malt. By an addition of 1s. 2d. per bushel, or 9s. 4d. per quarter, and by an extension of it to Ireland, he anticipated that a sum of L.1,400,000 might be raised. All these new taxes indeed, with the exception of that upon spirits, he should propose to extend to Ireland. With respect to the calculation which he had entered into on a former evening on the subject of the price of malt, he had been confirmed in the opinions which he had then expressed, by subsequent inquiry and consideration. Upon the average of the last year, the price of malt had been four shillings per quarter lower than it was at the period when the last diminution of the duties took place. The result of the honourable gentle man's statement stood thus:-Malt, in 1818, was L. 3, 17s. per quarter, and in 1819, L. 4, 10s.: he allowed 101 lb. of hops to a quarter of malt; which, in 1818, were at 4s. per lb., and this year at 9d.; so that the total cost of material in 1818 was L. 5, 19s., and in 1819, L. 5:8:4; and deducting the one from the other, there would be left a balance in favour of the present year of 10s. 8d. in the brewing of a quarter: His opinion therefore very fairly was, not only that the present price of beer could bear the additional tax on malt, but that if the coming harvest were favourable, the public might even look for a reduction of the present

price. The only remaining article to which he had to call the attention of the committee was that of spirits distilled in England; for he did not mean at all to touch those of Scotland or Ireland. The present duty per gallon upon British spirits was 1s. 9d., which he proposed to raise to 2s.; upon malt and sugar wash it would be 2s. 6d., and upon British wine 3s. The whole amount produced by these alterations would be L. 500,000.

It was far from his wish that the price of spirits should fall; and if the result of the new duty should be, that the consumers of spirits should diminish, and those of that wholesome and habitual beverage of the people of England, beer, should increase, it would benefit at once both the morals and the health of the people. Having gone through these details he had little more to offer, unless some honourable gentleman wished him to repeat any part of the subject that he had not rendered perfectly intelligible.

Mr Grenfell here observed, that he had not quite understood what the right honourable gentleman had said regarding the L. 11,000,000.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer was happy that his attention had been recalled to this point, especially as it was connected with what he was about to have stated. He had said that he hoped the present would be the last time he or his successors in office should have to discharge the unpleasant duty of calling for a loan and for additional taxes. With reference to the L. 11,000,000, he had observed that 13 millions were required to balance the expenditure of the present year with the income; but that he hoped in the next year, partly from reductions of charge principally on the unfunded debt, and other causes,