governments would be bound to discharge the debts so incurred.

Sir Francis Burdett did not allow the debate to drop without a sally against ministry. He could not understand the refinements and shades of recognition which had been dwelt on with so much labour; to him recognition was a very simple word, bearing a very simple and obvious meaning. He therefore thought there must be some further motives for the delay than were brought forward. All that the right honourable gentleman said amounted to this, that ministers had not made up their minds as to what

measures they intended to take. But he had heard that the Lord Chancellor had declared that he would not recognise the independence of South America. This let in some light upon the delay. The animosities and heats which suspended the measure were not raging in Mexico-they existed nearer home. It was in the cabinet they were formed as must always be the case in a cabinet so formed, divided as it was upon every great question, whether of foreign or domestic policy.

The debate hereupon closed, and no farther proceedings on the subject took place during the session.

MINISTERS had this year every prospect that their financial career would be smooth and favourable. This branch of public economy was in that prosperous state, which, requiring no demand on the public purse, but some what the contrary, left little opening for discontent. Mr Hume's research into the details of public expenditure having now been extended, over and over, through all its branches, there remained little which had not been met in some shape or other. His strictures, therefore, were likely now to be both fewer in number, and more easily answered. All this, however, did not secure ministers from some difficulties, and having some combats to wage. From the experience of several successive years, the nation had acquired the habit of looking for a successive, and even augmenting reduction, of the public burdens. Its expectations had now risen so high, as to embrace the entire remission of the assessed taxes, which, though not, perhaps, the most really burdensome, have always been the most heavily felt, in consequence of being directly paid out of the pockets of the consumer. The plain truth,

however, is, that if we except the income tax, against which the claim was certainly fair, the public had no right to look to the remission of any other tax, as the result of peace. With that exception, the war had been carried on by loans, not by taxes; and the provision for the interest of these loans, and for their gradual extinction, stood quite as much in need of being continued after peace as before. If taxes had been taken off, it had been by temporary and casual operations, not admitting of repetition. The only farther source which could now be looked to, was the increased revenue arising out of the newly begun and slowly advancing public prosperity; but which could not amount to much in any one year. The boon which ministers had to give was thus limited, and the mode in which they distributed it afforded ground for controversy. A considerable portion of it was destined, less to act upon the accommodations and enjoyments of the bulk of the people, than to liberate some particular branches of industry from the restraints under which they had laboured, and to smooth down the withdrawing from others

monopolies which had been conferred upon them contrary to sound policy, and to the general interests of society. This was not only a system less generally popular, but it was one which, from causes that will fall to be remarked in the chapter on commerce, excited even the dissatisfaction of numerous classes.

Although ministers, when pressed on this subject at the opening of Parliament, declined giving more than very general intimations, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was not long of presenting the House with an outline of his financial project for the year. This, he observed, it had been usual to defer till near the close of the session, prior to which time it had been impossible to estimate the fluctuating expenses which were likely to arise out of a state of war. At present, however, when the view was plain before them, he thought it desirable to lose as little time as possible, and to give Parliament full opportunity of considering the proposed measures. On the 23d February he made the following exposé :

According to papers already laid before Parliament, it appeared that the net produce of

revenue had been £63,415,529 10 03 The expenditure. 56,704,607 19 7

£6,710,921 10 5

From this balance, which might be roundly estimated at about 7,000,000. there was to be deducted 5,000,000l., to be appropriated to the payment of the national debt; and, on the whole, there would be left a surplus of 1,652,000l. to be appropriated by government, with the sanction of the House. He would now proceed to a review of his estimate of last year, and the real produce of the present. He had estimated the customs at 10 millions. They had produced 11 millions. The excise had not come up to his

estimate; he had made the estimate 26 millions. The produce had been 25,342,000l. But this falling off had been in consequence of 130,000l. allowed upon the malt duty returned, 380,000l. upon hop duties not received; and of the alteration in the distillery laws of Ireland and Scotland. He was happy to say, however, that the consumpt of exciseable articles had partly increased, which showed the prosperity of the country, and the increased ability of the lower classes of persons to indulge in those commodities. He would now proceed to state the ways and means for the next year. He took the customs at 11,500,000l.; the excise at 25,625,000l.; the stamps, assessed taxes, land tax, &c. as they stood in the last year. The honourable gentleman then proceeded to advert to the Austrian loan, which, he said, he considered as a God-send, and therefore he was persuaded the House would not begrudge to apply it to some objects, which otherwise it would be difficult to effect; amongst them, he should, in the course of the session, propose 500,000l. for new churches; 300,000l. for the repair of Windsor Castle, 150,000l. during the present year, and 75,000l. for the two following years. He should also propose to vote a certain sum for the King's library, upon which subject much discussion arose last year. Every. one seemed of opinion, that the building thus to be erected should be worthy of the state of the arts in this country. He had to state to the House, that an opportunity had occurred of purchasing, for the decoration of this building, the gallery of pictures belonging to the late Mr Angerstein, at the sum of 60,000l. He should therefore propose to take a vote for that sum also out of the Austrian loan. If the House should sanction this expenditure, the surplus would be 2,763,000l. ; but before he stated the way in which

that would be rendered available, he must remind the committee that the credit of the country had much reduced the rate of interest; and, as we had no prospect of foreign war, we might reduce the 4 per cents, which amounted to 75 millions. It was proper to state, that there was no necessity for the government to give any notice that the 5 per cents should be reduced. Therefore they only required a month's notice of dissent. In the 4 per cents, a notice of six months must be given, if they applied to the principle of assent. What he proposed was, a notice to pay off in six months the 4 per cents, except to such who in six weeks should agree to receive 100l. in 34 per cents, instead of 100l. 4 per cents. If one third assented, there would be 50 millions to be paid off in October. If the contrary, there would be but 17 millions to be paid off in October; and he proposed that the new 34 per cent stock should not be paid off for five years. This was not to be done without some advantage, and therefore he gave the bonus in the time to which the stock was to continue, rather than in money. The result of this would be an annual saving of per cent on the interest, and that would be 375,000l. a-year. He had now to ask the House to accompany him a little farther than the present year; not that he could prophecy, but, looking at a continuance of peace, at the end of 1827, we must arrive at an increase of revenue by the provident and watchful care of Parliament over the public expenditure. He then took a review of the items at the same rate as in the present year; but, taking the customs at 250,000l. over the present estimate, there were bounties which were excessive in the course of this year and the next, particularly that for the whale fishery, which had been considered utterly useless. These bounties amounted to 500,000l. a year. There were other bounties, such as

those for the curing of herrings, and other fish. These might be proper, while our herring fishery was behind hand, but now they ought to die a natural death. This would be a saving of 70,000l. ayear. Other bounties might be considered useless, as that of the Irish linen exports. If they gave a bounty above the duty on the raw material, we were taxing ourselves to fill the exchequer of foreign states, from which we drew the raw material. He, therefore, proposed to reduce the bounty on coarse linens, and the others 10 per cent in each year, until they ceased altogether; and that would be a saving of 100,000l. a-year. As to excise and stamps, he would not anticipate any increase, though it was to be expected an increase would take place. He calculated the expenditure of 1825, 6, and 7, the same as this year, except in the miscellaneous, and the result was, that there would be a surplus for 1824 of 1,275,000l., and in 1827 there would be a surplus of 4,130,000l. ; but the question was, what would they do with it? In his opinion they could do a great deal of good. The most rational way would be, to let it go in reduction of debt. But it was the obvious duty of the House to revise our system of taxation, in order to prepare for a state of war. In this view, he meant to apply the surplus to the fiscal and commercial regulations. What it was his intention first to reduce was, an article which had lately incidentally occupied the House, viz. rum. It was his intention to reduce the duty on rum, but not lower than that on the English distiller. The reduction was to be one shilling and three half-pence, so as to make it the same as British spirits; this was giving relief to the agricultural interest of the West Indies, and this would be a reduction of 150,000l. The next reduction was to be on coals; but his view was not, under present circumstances, to reduce the coal duties entirely. His object

was, to reduce it in such a way as not to get into the same difficulties again, when they were obliged to lay on additional duties. This tax pressed with peculiar severity on London, where it was 9s. 4d., while at the out-ports it was only 6s. He therefore proposed a reduction of 3s. 4d. on sea-borne coal in the port of London. There was a duty of 10s. a ton on coals brought by the river Thames, and 7s. 6d. for that brought by canals. This was a useless and prohibitory duty, which, for the soul of him, he could not understand. He could not see why the consumer should not be released from these restrictions, leaving a duty on inland coal such as it could fairly bear. He calculated that the effect of this would be to increase the consumption, and only be a loss to the revenue of 100,000l. There were various branches of our trade encumbered with duties and restrictions, amongst these were wool. As the law now stood, the duty was 6d. per pound, and was formerly only a penny. Even in the country, there had been meetings on the subject, and some thought the restrictions on foreign wool should be allowed to continue; but he saw no objection to a free export and import of wool, except 1d. on British wool exported. This would do away with endless legislative absurdities. The loss he reckoned from this would be 350,000l. There was a very high duty on raw silk, and a positive prohibition against the foreign manufactured articles. All political economists had declared, that these prohibitory regulations were absurd and impracticable. As they had begun to remove them, what would foreign nations say, but that it was a mere illusion. When capital was now in search of means upon which to expend itself, it was the best opportunity to get rid of these antiquated prejudices. Let them fence themselves by laws, they were constantly evaded.

Every one who had been at a sea-port must have seen ladies of a very comfortable corpulency, and who were in due time delivered of their load of silk. But the tricks were endless, and produced perjury, and other crimescrime would beget crime, for nemo repente fuit turpissimus. The fact was, that we were obliged to keep up a navy to prevent smuggling. He was confident that our silk manufacturers would drive out those of other nations, if we took off the duty on raw silk, and took measures to throw the trade open. It was high time to throw down the idol, and erect the statue of commercial liberty in its stead. He therefore proposed to take off the duty on raw silk imported from the East Indies, leaving a duty only of 3d., and on silk from China and Italy of 6d. ; and goods imported (plain silks) should be 15s. per lb., figured 20s., and all other goods, as shoes, gloves, &c., a duty of 30 per cent ad valorem. This would be a loss of 462,000l. The total then was, rum 150,000l., London coals 100,000l., wool 350,000l., silk 462,000Z.

total, 1,662,000l. of reductions; and, in three years, it would be 3,700,000%, which deducted from the surplus, would leave a small balance of little more than a million. It had been represented, that the reduction of the small remaining duty on salt would be of little use; but he certainly thought the faith of government ought to be kept. It might, however, become a question, whether it would be proper to reduce that duty farther. He had now gone through all his statements, and it could not but be gratifying to be able to take off more taxes to the amount of above a million. We had increasing revenues, with a decrease of taxes. We saw the country increasing in wealth and power, not by petty intrigue, or blustering insolence, but from a conviction, on the part of other countries, of our credit and our honesty.