great, and fhould, by and by, explain from what circumftances. The Committee of 1786 found the annual amount of permanent taxes at They had estimated it at It produced in 1786 Falling fhort of the estimate £.12,042,697 12,797,471 11,836,531 960,940 The Chancellor of the Exchequer, continued Mr. Sheridan, whose bufinefs it was to raife public credit as high as he could, that he might lofe as little as poffible of his own, refolved to get rid of this deficiency, and to fcrew up the annual receipt by every poffible means. It was highly proper to do this; but it ought to have been done openly, on a fair ftatement of the caufe, inftead of being done by what was called regulation of taxes, which were in many cases new taxes, and other indirect methods. It was a falfe principle that the true ftate of the finances was not to be told to the Public. Being once fairly and honeftly stated, and open and avowed means provided to remove any deficiency, public credit would increase with public confidence. As one inftance of indirect revenue, the affeffed duties, on pretence of frauds and evafions, were transferred from the Excife to the Stamp Office; and inftead of the ufual mode of prefuming every man to be innocent till he was proved guilty, every man was prefumed to be a defaulter, who could not prove that he was not. Under the threat of a rigorous and expenfive Exchequer procefs, it was affumed that no man had paid at the Excife Office, and all were called upon to pay at the Tax Office. Those who had paid and had miflaid their receipts, or who did not like trouble, could not apply at the Excife Office, as they were told they might do, to have the payment made there returned, and by this mode a confiderable fum was obtained, but certainly in a very unfair way of taxation. Something fimilar to this happened when 10 per cent. was added to the affeffed duties, as part of the ways and means, for the expences of the Spanish armament. About three months after, the Collector came at Lady Day, and demanded 10 per cent. not for a quarter, but for a whole year. With just as much propriety, in point of principle, might he have demanded it for ten years. All these indirect modes of raifing money did harm. Retrospective taxes deprived the confumer of the option which he ought to have, of using or not using the thing taxed; they infulted the feelings of men, and taught them to confider taxes not as a fair and neceffary contribution for f for the public benefit, but as a harsh and unexpected impofition. The average of 1786 and 1787 was Lefs than the estimate by The average of 1786, 87, 88, was The average of 1786, 87, 88, 89 L.12,295,663 501,808 Thus all the accounts in which the great increase of the revenue had been blazoned forth, for four years, had been circulated for the purpose of deluding the Public, and obtaining an eafy concurrence to the progreffive increase of annual expences. The average of 1786, 87, 88, 89, 90 £12,879,308 81,837 If the calculation, Mr. Sheridan faid, were made on the amount of the permanent taxes, and the land and malt, the refult would be ftill more unfavourable to the estimate of the Committee of 1786. That Committee, befides the taxes on which they calculated, pointed out various additional aids, fo that the Public had a right to expect a confiderable furplus above their eftimate. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had not been sparing of regulations; he had modified and amended tax bills with all the effect of new taxes, and extended the odious fyftem of Excife, and yet, with all these helps, the average produce of the revenue, fince that estimate was made, gave only the inconfiderable excefs above stated Gentlemen must own, that there never was a period more favourable to the increase of the revenue in all its branches, or than which a more favourable could be expected. Now, in the produce of 1790, which alone had faved the credit of the Committee of 1786, even in appearances, there were circumstances which contributed to fwell the amount that could not be expected to be permanent. The produce of the fiftythird week, which came in only once in fix years, was 193,000l. By the additional duties on fpirits, impofed before Christmas, about 100,cool. had been brought into the account of that year, which was only an anticipation of the receipt of the next year. The duties on fpirits exceeded what they produced in 1786, by 500,000l. There was also an extraordinary increase on tea, wood, and tobacco. It had always been admitted, that putting tobacco under the Excite laws, would increase the revenue for a fhort time; but it was denied that the increase would be permanent It remained to be feen whether it would be fo or not. The Committee of 1791 faid the increase of revenue might be relied on, beVOL. XXIX. 4 L. caufe 1 cause it was on articles of general confumption. The articles ftated were fo, but on many other articles of general confumption there appeared, from the accounts, to be a decrease. In the two last years, 240,000l. had been taken out of the hands of the Receiver General of the Customs, which was confidered as a floating balance not likely to be diminished; but whether diminished or not, it could not come in aid of future years. On looking at these, and other articles, Mr. Sheridan faid, he did not think that the receipt of 1790 would be permanent. The felect Committee had very properly diftrufted the receipt of that year, and founded their eftimate on an average of three years. As he meant to follow their report as closely as he could, his refolutions were founded on that average. The expenditure fince 1786 exceeded, on an average, the calculation of the Committee by about one million. This excefs had been defrayed by extraordinary aids, which were now first properly brought forward, and claffed in the report of the felect Committee. They amounted to fix millions; and by fo much fince 1786 had the annual expence exceeded the permanent annual income. From the account of extraordinary aids, the Committee excluded the Dutch loan; now if the inftalments by which it was repaid were paid into the hands of the Commiffioners for reducing the public debt, that exclufion would be proper; but as they were added to the ways and means of the current year, the repayments would be spent while the annuity on which the principal was raifed, remained, and would be as much an addition to the public debt as any other whatever. He was not lefs furprised, he said, at another paffage of the report. After ftating the extraordinary aids, it added, "From the "nature of the articles, which haye compofed thefe extraor"dinary aids, it is evidently impoffible to form any estimate "of what farther receipt may be expected under fuch of "thofe heads, as can recur in future." This feemed to imply, that fome of those aids might be expected to be efficient, or that fomething_confiderable might be ftill expected from the whole. He afferted, that none of them could be efficient to any degree, except the lottery. The refpited arrears from the India Company, amounting to 522,500l. being paid, could produce nothing for a future year. The arrears of land and malt due before 1786 had gradually diminished to a very small fun, and were now exhausted. Of the impreft monies and monies repaid, amounting to 820,1651., 600,000l. was received from the India Company for the expence of troops in India. This ought rather to be confidered as a loan than an aid, because it was a claim which the Company had always difputed, A right honourable gentleman (Mr. Dundas) had, indeed, faid, "Let us get the money, and fee how they will get it back;" but if there were not a certain management, he would not fay, collufion, between Government and the Company, there could be little doubt, but that they would get it back on the fair conftruction of the act of Parliament, on which it was demanded. This appeared to fwell the payments under that head for the laft two years to a large amount; but if it were deducted, the produce of impreft monies, and monies repaid, had fallen to nothing. The repayments of the Dutch loan, Mr. Sheridan faid, as he had already fhewn, muft either be applied to the extinction of debt, or the fum lent, added to the increase of funded debt. The army favings, which had arifen from the iffues of the war, were no longer productive; in short, not one of the heads of extraordinary aids could be looked to in future, except the lottery, if Parliament fhould think fit to continue it; and he fhould never think the finances in a flourishing fituation while fo mifchievous a fource was reforted to. Such being the future profpect of the revenue, what was the state of the expenditure? The Committee of 1786 efti mated the navy at 1,800,000l.; the Committtee of 1791 estimated it at 2,000,000l. What confidence could the public give to fuch eftimates, when they faw fuch an increase, without any reafon affigned for it, and when they faw a fum voted for the current year confiderably exceeding the highest eftimate? The Committee of 1791 had not stated any time at which a peace establishment, according to their estimate, might be expected; and in forbearing to do this, they had been wiser than their predeceffors. He wished that Ministers would try a peace establishment, if it were but a year or two, by way of experiment, to fee how the circumftances of the country could bear it. The estimate of the army in 1786, was 1,600,000l. in 1791, it was 1,748,8421. The ordnance in 1786, was 348,000l. In 1791, it was 375,000l. The noble Duke, at the head of the ordnance, ftated fuch reasons for the increase, as fhewed that new articles were always likely to arife, and that no estimate was to be depended on. The noble Duke, who was a great economift, and had many qualities that fitted him for his department, if he were not fo great an engineer, added reafons to his eftimate, and then fhewed how little faith was due to it. Mr. Sheridan faid, that he had now run over the heads on which his refolutions were founded; and he requested, that when the Chancellor of the Exchequer heard them moved, he would not negative or move the previous question upon them, unless he could fhew that they were falfe. He faid 4L 2 this, Mr. Pitt. Mr. this, because he had moved refolutions on the report of the Committee of 1786, which, though as clear in point of fact, from the report, as that two and two make four, the right honourable gentleman had negatived, on pretence that they contained facts indeed, but facts which it was not neceffary to declare. It was hardly needful, Mr, Sheridan faid, to read the whole of them, because they were not a series of logical inductions, but independent facts, and he fhould move the first. Mr. Chancellor Pitt wifhed to hear the whole, because the object of the Committee was not merely to inquire, whether the refolutions were true or falfe, but whether they were material to declaring the ftate of the finances, as it ap peared in the report of the fele& Committee. Mr. Sheridan then read his refolutions, with comments Sheridan. on each. The laft, he faid, was an inference from the whole, which, if true, it was a duty which they owed to their conftituents to declare. Mr. Pitt. Mr. Rofc. Mr. Fox. Mr. Chancellor Pitt rofe as foon as the refolutions hai been read, and remarked, that in the manper in which they had been now read, it would be utterly impoffible, at the first view, to enter into the variety of detail, or follow thefe refolutions through the multiplicity of calculations. At the fame time he expreffed his defire that they should un dergo a full and fair difcuffion. There were fome of them he faid, with which he agreed; others to which he would diffent, but upon the general view, he did not think that they needed be put to the queftion; and the conclufion which he would draw from the whole would be effentially different He therefore wifhed, that for the prefent, the honourable gentleman would only move his refolutions, and leave them to be confidered. Mr. Pitt faid, he likewife was willing to read the refolutions on the other fide, in order that gentlemen might be furnished with the means of comparison, and t enabled to come fully prepared for the difcuffion. His ch ject was to render the statement of the bufinefs fa plain, that every man in the country might be fully acquainted with fubject, in which certainly he was most materially interefted, the fituation of its finances. Mr. Role thought it would be best to move the refolutions, and have them printed; which, though not strictly regula might be done by a general concurrence. Mr. Sheridan expreffed his affent to this method. Mr. Fox faid, he had no intention now to enter into de bate, but fomething had fallen from the right honourable gentleman, for which he was forry. With fome of the refolutions he had expreffed his agreement, to others his diffent, but that upon the general view he thought that they needed not |