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The sum due to the East India Company was due upon a claim of several years standing, which had been submitted to commissioners in 1803 One million had been already paid, and another would be called for in the course of the present year.

The interest on exchequer bills had not hitherto been provided for when they were voted, but left to come in as part of the supply of the following year. It was thought advisable, however, at present, to bring that expence within the year, and to provide for it accordingly.

The grant of one million from the proceeds of ships captured prior to the declaration of war, was part of the droits of admiralty, which his majesty had been advised by his late ministers, graciously to apply to the public service of the state.

The loan, which had been negociated that morning, consisted of twenty millions, eighteen for Eugland, and two for Ireland, and had been obtained at the rate of £.4 19s. 7d. of interest for every £.100. War taxes. The beneficial effects of raising a great part of the supplies within the year, was strongly exemplified by the fact, that during the last war, the average increase of the national debt had been at the rate of 25 millions a year, while the average increase in the present war, was at the rate of only 12 millions a ́year; a difference to be attributed solely to the system of war taxes, which had not been introduced in the late war till near its close. The war taxes had been taken for the last year at fourteen millions and a half, and they had produced more than thirteen millions. It was intended to raise them for the current year to nineteen millions and a half,

of which five millions were to be raised by making the property tax more productive, and one million from the excise and customs.

The property tax was proposed to be raised from six and a half to ten per cent, and most of the pre. sent exemptions to be done away. It was thought more advisable to raise this tax at once to what might be termed its natural limit, than to increase it gradually, which might lead to the supposition that it was a fund to be drawn upon to an indefinite extent. Besides this addi. tion to the rate, it was expected, that the tax might be rendered more productive by judicious regulation. Great frauds and evasions were now practised, and the mode of exemption furnished the greatest facility to such attempts. It was proposed, therefore, in future, that the tax. should in the first instance be paid, and that those entitled to exemptions should afterwards, on making good their claims, be repaid from the tax office. It was stated with great satisfaction that the governors and directors of the bank had agreed to receive the duty on the dividends at the bank. As to the quantum of income to be made liable to the tax it was proposed that ten per cent should be paid on all property above fifty pounds a year, but that a scale of abatements should be introduced in favour of small tradesmen and small annuitants, whose income was less than one hundred a year. Some regulation would also be made in favour of hospitals and charitable institutions. The total sum expected from these alterations in the property tax was estimated at five millions.

Another million was to be raised from the customs and excise.

It was

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 wine duty, already existing, was to be declared permanent, and applicable towards the interest on the loan, amounting to

A duty of forty shillings per ton on pig iron, supposing the quantity manufactured to be 250,000 tons annually, would produce

An equalization of the duties on tea would produce A tax on appraisements was calculated at

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 empire.

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

Total

7.500,000

500,000

70,000

66,000

1,136,000.

exchequer, we shall confine ourselves to a brief and general abstract of the arguments for and against them, and to an account of the fate that finally attended them in the house

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, F 4

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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 incon venience 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 concluded. 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 amount to the supplies by several millions; 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 mil. lions. But to this mode of reasoning it was justly answered by oppo. sition, that it proceeded on the fallacy 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 as certained 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 deviation from this principle

The property tax bill encounter. ed 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 wenture to exceed. The same honourable member objected to the clause, compelling perSons with small incomes to pay the daty in the first instance, and go afterwards to the tax office for repaymeat, if they desired to avail them eives of their right to the legal alement. Such persons, he contended, 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 exchequer 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 king. dom, a measure, which he attempted to justify, and reconcile to the principles of policy, consistency,

and equity.

Of these suggestions the only one fally 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 fundamental maxim of the constitution, that no one should be taxed, who Was not really or virtually represented in parliament. Arrange ments, 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 enlarged 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 an allow ance on account of children, was negatived on a division; and the clause for levying the full amount of ten per cent on all iucome 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 collect ed, the persons liable to it must have been forced to apply for paro. chial 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 pro. bably 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 outaff of all proportion to the benefit de rived 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 on 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 exaggerated, but such was the impression they made on the public mind, that after having been left with a majority of only ten on a question for the commitment of the bill, ministers 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

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