amounts to a sum almost equal to the total value of both the imports and exports of this country in the year 1787; and when they recollect that since the commencement of the present war, taxes have been laid on commodities on which the duties had been lowered to the extent of 1,952,000l. Yet in the speech given to the public, with little more than a few exclamations of disgust at the opinions of my noble friend, is all that mass of important matter, detailed to you upon a former occasion, passed over without animadversion. I confess it excites my curiosity, to see whether the noble lord will this day as flippantly condemn, and as superficially investigate, the less important considerations which it falls to my lot to submit to you. My lords, it is only when compared with the subject my noble friend brought before you, that, in speaking on the detail of our finances, I can think of using the term "less important." For those who have considered how fatal to the interior policy of every government derangement in finance has proved; who recollect the conspicuous share which it had in producing the fall of the Roman empire; and who have seen its recent effects in the origin and progress of the French Revolution, must sympathise with me in saying, that there is no subject I can consider more interesting, except the causes that have fatally produced the gloomy prospect which the unpleasant duty of this day will oblige me to display. We in this House are accustomed to hear noble lords in office dilate upon a subject which, on my conscience I believe, there is no one in this country but themselves who would think of introducing: I mean the advantages this nation has acquired in the present war, and the successes that have attended our arms. But, I believe, even amongst them, there is not one who will be disposed to compare our successes with those of the French in the war ending with the peace of 1783; yet the derangement of their finances (created in the moment of their greatest prosperity, exhibiting a deficit smaller than what I am afraid truth will compel me to state to your lordships as existing in this country) levelled a prouder nobility than that I have the honour to address, and a clergy in power and opulence far surpassing those I see before me. When we look back to those times, we derive also, from a recollection of the situation of this country, lessons that ought to be useful to us at the present moment. Was it the success of the French arms that reduced us almost to sue for peace to the enemy? No, my lords; there is no man who does not remember, that, to the credit and honour of our navy, at no period of our history were its successes more brilliant and glorious. The fatal and careless profusion in our expenditure, which distinguished that period, was in reality the sole cause of the humiliating situation of that day. Amongst the many who then loudly censured the extravagance and profuse expenditure, there was none who with more relentless and unforgiving rancour condemned the conduct of those who had occasioned it, than the present minister. From his affected purity, from the solemn pledges he had given in the Report of the committee of the House of Commons on finance, of which he was a member, and in the speech made by his majesty in the year 1782, when he was a minister, we had reason to expect something more of caution and economy in the conduct of our expenditure. Unfortunately however for this country, the evils then complained of, and principally censured, have in this war been carried, under his auspices, to an extent unparalleled in the annals of that era. The money voted by parliament on estimate in the last three years of the war, has not only far exceeded what was voted in the first three years of the war with France, Spain, Holland, and America; but that expenditure, by means of votes of credit and extraordinaries, so much censured as the cause of our difficulties, has been carried to a far greater and more alarming excess. In three years ending 1780, the total estimated expense of the army, navy, and ordnance amounted to 27,160,000l. In the three years including 1795, the expense voted by estimate amounted to 35,514,601.. But the excess is proportionably much greater in the money expended without an estimate being previously submitted to parliament; for we have the mortification to see, that the total. amount of unestimated expense in the three year sending 1780, was 19,174,8017.whereas in the three years ending 1795 it had arisen to the enormous sum of 31,386,730l. making an excess of upwards of twelve millions in this latter period, expended in the manner which was stated as so alarming, and which is considered by the best-informed men who have treated upon the subject, as so destructive of all parliamentary control, and constitutional principles. The consequences have been such as we might naturally expect. In proportion as the neglect of forms and the relaxation from the regular parliamentary mode of providing for the public expenditure have increased, the enormous expense of the war, in which we have been involved, has augmented: the expenses of the American war up to the year 1781 amounted to the sum of fiftythree millions; but we have now to regret that in the prosecution of the present we have already created an addition to our funded debt of 93 millions, and loaded the people of this country, oppressed with taxation, with the additional sum of 4,500,000l. annually. Under these circumstances it was with astonishment I heard detailed to your lordships, with surprise I have seen handed to an oppressed people, a consoling statement of certain public circumstances in the years 1795-6, when compared with the years 1783-4. On the fairness of the selection of the year 1783 for such a comparison I shall have much to say to your lordships; at present I shall only remark, that whether fair or unfair, it was admirably suited to the convenience of the noble lord who made the statement. Had he selected any of the years during the last war, we should have been able to have quoted his own authority for the flourishing situation of the finance at that time and to have contrasted it with the opinions he holds on the state of the fiDance at present. In 1789, the noble lord taught us to believe," that the rise in the excise and customs, evincing the extent of home consumption, implied an increasing produce and a quick circulation; and that every known criterion as well as every external appearance concurred in proving the quantity of money within the country to be unusually great." In 1783, however, the noble lord passed a transient moment with us in opposition; and the impression under which his notes of that day were formed, whilst it renders them convenient for his present purpose, will perhaps account for the sort of statement he has produced. For though the noble lord declares" that it was not his wish, even if he had power to accomplish it, to lead you or the public into opinions of the situation of the country more fa * Lord Auckland's Letter to lord Carlisle. vourable than the truth would justify;" I must assert that a statement more strained in its items, more calculated to deceive by its result, never was exhibited upon any occasion. He begins by calling your lordships' attention to a comparison of the price of 3 per cent consols at these two periods. Perhaps it may occur to you, that as he selected the 2nd of May, 1796, he might have looked at the price of stocks on the 2nd of May, 1783, before he proceeded to state the price of 3 per cents January 1784. Perhaps you may with me think, that in the beginning of this comparative statement he might have at least suggested, that in May 1783, the price of three per cents actually was 68. But I am sure you will agree with me in thinking, that in contrasting the price of India stock at these two periods, he exhibits to us consistency, and displays a continuation of the same disposition to fairness, in totally neglecting to state, that in May 1783 the price of India stock was 138; and that the East India company, authorized by parliament, and enabled by the sums of money called in from the proprietors, have since that period increased their dividend 24 per cent. So that, if the increase arising from the additional dividend was taken from the present price of the stock, it would leave it on the second of May 1796 somewhere about 168; and instead of exhibiting an account of India stock 1784 at 121, and in May 1796 at 209, he must have suggested that the price of India stock was 138, and that, independent of the augmentation of dividend, it could not be fairly stated in May 1796 at more than 168. The noble lord next proceeds to state to you the increase of exports and imports that has of late years taken place. I know it is a favourite doctrine to build conclusions on the state of our commerce and revenue upon this ground; but I much doubt the solidity of them. With. out commenting on the known inaccuracy with which these accounts, more particularly that of our exports, are formed, there is much in the present circumstances of the country, and in the reduced trade of our enemy, that leads me to think it a temporary and not a permanent augmentation. The total value of the exports and imports in 1795, exceeds the total value of the exports and imports in 1791 by seven millions; but instead of finding that there has arisen from this any increase of revenue, lord's comparative view of circumstances, the taxes existing in 1791 have fallen is framed in the spirit which animated him short in the year 1795, to the extent of up-in forming for your lordships' information wards of 800,000l. With regard to the those on which I have already had occacotton wool, the importation of which sion to comment. The existing taxes has so much increased, one would have before the American war, on an average imagined that, in this instance at least, of nine years to Michaelmas 1782, prothe fact might have satisfied the noble duced 8,144,000l. In the year ending lord; but instead of five millions of Michaelmas 1782, the produce of the pounds, which he states to be the an- same taxes was 7,897,000l.; and in one nual importation for five years, I think year ending Michaelmas 1783, they proI can say from some authority, that the duced only 6,933,000l. Thus, in the importation in 1783 was 7,800,000l.; commencement of the three years with and that the average importation of the such impartiality selected for this com five preceding years exceeded consider-parison, we find that the produce of the ably seven millions of pounds.-On the noble lord's statement of the exports of British merchandize to India, I have only to say, that if I recollect right, the exports of British merchandize 1795-6, were computed at 1,100,000l., instead of 2,200,000l. Without entering into any minute details of the affairs of the East India company, let me only suggest to the noble lord, that the improvement made in the stock, per computation, amounts since 1783, to 2,765,7831.: the receipt of the company from the proprietors during that period is nearly five millionsa circumstance which gives no very favourable impression of the great improvement in the affairs of the company since 1783. The next subject to which the noble lord has adverted, is a comparison of the amount of the permanent taxes on a three years average to the 5th of January 1784, with what he calls the amount of the same taxes, after making "allowances for the intermediate changes and arrangements of the revenue,' on a three-years average to the 5th of January 1785. The former he states to be 9,876,000l., the latter, 12,381,000l. I should have conceived that, if in other respects this species of comparison had been unex. ceptionable, it might have occurred to the noble lord, that the public could see no great cause of triumph in the revenue of the country producing something more in the three first years of this war, with all the improvements in our manufactures, than it did in a period of three years when we were reduced by a sixyears war, the most general in which this country was ever engaged, and before the tide of commercial transactions could have resumed its wonted channels. But it requires little examination indeed to discover, that this article in the noble old taxes had decreased 246,000l. below their produce on an average of the nine antecedent years. And towards the conclusion of these favourite three years the produce of the same taxes fell short 1,210,000l. In one respect I think it was inconsistent with the noble lord's circumspection and prudence to call your attention to the produce of the taxes at this particular period. For when the public recollect, that this great diminution of upwards of one million in the produce of the revenue happened immediately on the conclusion of the last peace, perhaps they may anticipate with some degree of dread what will be the probable situation of our revenue, when peace shall be restored to this exhausted country. The next consoling circumstance which we are called to contemplate is the navy debt in December 1783, and on the 2nd of May 1796. The first is stated by the noble lord to be 15,510,000l., the last 2,300,000l. How this sum can be fairly stated as the existing navy debt, I am at a loss to discover. The sum left unprovided for Dec. 31st, 1795, is equal to the existing navy debt in December 1792, which was somewhere about 2,700,000l. The bills registered on the course of the navy, between the 31st Dec. 1795 and the 31st March 1796, amount to the sum of 2,800,000l. But if the noble lord, instead of selecting the 2nd May 1796, had made the comparison between the navy debt outstanding Dec. 1783 and Dec. 1795, it would have presented to your lordships eye, and that of the public, a very different account. You would have seen that, if at the former period it was 15,500,000l., it amounted at the latter to 13,800,000l., and if he had chosen by anticipation to have given your lordships' a view of what may be the probable state of the navy debt in Dec. 1796, if it increases in the same proportion in which it appears to have increased by the papers before you during the first three months of the present year, it will then, together with what was left unprovided for at the end of last year, amount to 13,900,000l. Indeed, the noble lord must know, that in selecting the 2nd of May 1796, he has chosen almost the day of the year the most favourable for this strange comparative account of the navy debt. In the comparison the noble lord has made of the bank advances to the public, afraid lest in any one instance the year 1783 should have the advantage, however inconsiderable, of the year 1796, he has provided himself with a private account of the amount of advances May 2nd, 1796; for if he had confined himself to the various documents before parliament on this subject, he would have been obliged to have stated to you that the advances made by the bank amounted on the 12th Sept. 1795 to 11,800,000l.; on the 9th Dec. 1795 to 12,200,000!.; | and on the 31st December to 11,600,000l.: | in every instance exceeding the amount of the advance in 1783. In stating the advances of the bank in 1783, the noble lord has not explained whether he included the navy bills at that time in possession of the bank. If he did, your lordships will easily see that, to make the comparison with any degree of fairness, there must be a farther sum added to the balances in 1795 equal to the amount of the value of navy bills at that time in the possession of the bank. | fund, alone amount to 27,500,000l.; exceeding by five hundred thousand pounds the total of the outstanding unfunded debt in January 1784: which your lordships will permit me to remind you was after the conclusion of a six-years war of notorious and reprobated extravagance. -The sinking fund is the next object to which your attention is called. In 1783 you are told there was no sinking fund ; in 1796 you are informed it amounted to 2,500,000l. If at either period a sinking fund is talked of to hold out an idea of surplus, it can only tend to deceive. In 1783 there was a thing called a sinking fund, and in 1796 there is a thing called a sinking fund; but in reality, instead of possessing any surplus in the former year, there was a loan of twelve millions; in the latter, two loans amounting to 27,500,000l. I now come to the concluding and undoubtedly the most important article in this comparison. The noble lord states "the amount of revenue (including the land and malt) below the computed expenditure on a peace establishment of fifteen millions in 1783 at two millions. And the amount of revenue (including the land and malt) above the computed expenditure on a similar peace establishment, with the addition of increased charges for the debt incurred by the present year 1795, 3,400,000l." This statement derives its importance not so much from the comparison it exhibits, as from the fact it advances, that if we were fortunate enough now to experience the blessings of peace, there would be an acMy lords, the next article in this ac- tual surplus of 3,400,000l. Before, howcount exceeds every thing on which I ever, I proceed to exhibit the fallacy have hitherto had occasion to remark. which this holds forth, I must detain your The unfunded debt is represented as lordships by remarking on the form of amounting in January 1784 to 27 mil- the proposition and on the nature of the lions-May 2nd 1796 it is stated as no-premises. I am disposed to censure the thing. What, then, has become of the balance of 11 millions due to the bank? Has he totally forgotten, that after all his strained ingenuity in frittering down the existing navy debt, he has confessed that the sum due May 2nd 1796 is 2,300,000l.? But let me once more entreat your lordships attention to a plain statement of what would have been the shape of the account, if the noble lord had selected for his comparison the same month in 1796 he had chosen in 1784. In January 1796 the articles of navy debt, bank advances, arrears due to the army, and the deficiency of the consolidated form of the proposition, because it holds out to you, for the first time since the sinking fund has been established, that its produce is to be deemed a surplus disposable like any other surplus at the will of parliament; instead of considering it, as it hitherto has been, and I trust, ever, will be treated, as forming as much a part of our necessary expenditure as the navy, army, or ordnance. With the premises upon which this proposition proceeds I cannot agree; for I can conceive nothing more calculated to delude, than to state that there exists a possibility of our peace expenditure amounting to so small a sum as fifteen millions. The noble lord must know that the committee of the House of Commons, in 1786, reported that the peace establishment, including the sinking fund, would be 15,478,000l.; and the committee saw no prospect of the affairs of the country being in such a situation as to get upon this peace establishment till the year 1791, that is, the eighth year after the conclusion of the late war. But when the year 1791 arrived, the noble lord knows that another committee of the House of Commons declared they did not conceive a possibility of forming a peace establishment that should cost less than about sixteen millions annually; and that instead of foretelling the period, as the former committee had done, when the country could confine its expenditure within so narrow bounds, they did not even pretend to foresee the time when our expenses could be so far diminished. When the noble lord states fifteen millions to you as your probable peace establishment, he knows also, or he ought to know, that the average annual amount of our expense from 1786 to 1791, as stated in the report of the House of Commons, was 16,816,985l. Yet in the face of all these facts, the noble lord holds out the prospect of your entering on an immediate peace establishment of fifteen millions. The papers on your table not only prove that the revenue has fallen off from year to year, but even from quarter to quarter. I must, therefore, submit to your lordships, that when we perceive this gradual and constant diminution, the accurate mode of estimating the produce of a future year would be to suppose, that as the same cause exists, a diminution may probably take place in the next year proportionable to that which took place in the last. Calculated on this principle, the total receipt of the old taxes will only amount to 12,623,583.; to which if you add the share of the 53d week, the various sums arising from old duties included in the new taxes in the statement now on the table, and the bounties paid to seamen out of the customs, the probable produce of the revenue, including the land and malt, as estimated by the committee, will be 15,531,583.; and this, my lords, is the total of what I think I can fairly state to the public, independent of the new taxes, as applicable to the future peace expenditure. In offering to your lordships my conjectures concerning our future expenses, I must remind you that I have already stated my reasons for thinking it absurd to speak of fifteen millions as our probable expenditure if the blessings of peace were restored to us, and the grounds on which I conceive that the lowest estimate I can with justice make of our last peace establishment is not what the committees fancied it would be, but what it actually proved to be on an average of five years, 15,816,000l. In estimating, however, our future expenditure, we must add the sum of 200,000l. annually voted for the sinking fund, and a sum of at least 500,000l. additional peace establishment, which the increased half-pay of the army, and all the various new establishments must render absolutely necessary. Your lordships will then perceive, the annual peace expenditure being 17,500,000l., and the annual receipt only 15,500,000l., there will be a deficiency of two millions. There is also a deficiency in the new taxes of more than 500,000l.; which, added to the two millions, makes in all a probable deficiency of 2,500,000l. This must be provided for, could we suppose that we have already borrowed a sufficiency, if peace should be restored in the course of a few months, to discharge the necessary expense in winding up the concerns of the war; but I am afraid there is no reason to indulge such a hope. I am convinced that your lordships must, on the contrary, think that I mention a sun far inferior to what will in reality be required, when I state the probability of ten millions more being found necessary. This will create a farther deficiency of upwards of 600,000l. making in all a deficiency to the alarming extent of 3,119,000l. Large as this sum may appear, I wish I could even stop here; but when I know that the expense of the war last year exceeded 31 millions, and that it is impossible, in a country where every species of property is so largely taxed, that money can be expended without contributing to the revenue, I must call your attention to the probable effect on the revenue of withdrawing the war expenditure. I know this idea has been attempted to be ridiculed; but till some of your lordships will deign to show the possibility of the smallest expenditure taking place in this country without aug. menting the revenue, I must continue to believe that a very large sum, even of the present diminished receipt, arises from the expenses occasioned by the war, and that a formidable diminution must take $ |