their contributions to the present plan will rise in that proportion.

It now remains to be considered, as far as can be calculated, what, in all the circumstances, may be the produce of the tax. I have stated that 2,700,000l. is the amount of the assessed taxes, exclusive of the new burdens imposed last year. On the supposition of a treble assessment on the whole, the amount would be 8,160,000l. From the amount at present is deducted 90,000l. as the charge of collection. It cannot be expected that with the additional trouble that will be occasioned an increase of remuneration will not be required by those who collect them, but certainly the same rate of poundage will not be necessary. As charges of management, then, two-thirds will be applicable to the tax. The general amount will thus be 8,400,000l. judging from the observations which have been made from the produce and rates of payment for near four-fifths of the kingdom; and making allowance for the diminution occasioned by the half rates, single rates, and double rates, the whole reduction will not be more than 900,000l. or a million. This would be the whole diminution, without taking into view the balance on the side of produce which must arise from the 3 quadruple rates paid, as they are upon extensive sums. From the effect of this balance, then, the whole of the produce will be about eight millions. Still indeed there is another abatement to be taken into view. In the cases where income does not amount to 60l. a year there will be a total exemption, and proportional deductions according as the incomes of contributors fal! below the sums corresponding to the classes to which they belong. It is impossible to state any ground upon which these deductions can be calculated. Their amount must be wholly conjectural. So much, however, is certain, that means are thus provided for a very extensive scale of relief in different progressive stages. Thus we are sure that we obtain that essential object of preventing the burthen from pressing with severity upon those classes who ought to be exempted or relieved. The sum for which the whole produce is taken is seven millions. The sum, which upon the scale already stated it will produce, is

about eight millions, thus leaving 7 or 800,000l. to make any diminution which may arise from the abatements allowed, and to make allowance for such modifications as circumstances may require. Against any diminution which may be calculated upon the above heads, it may not be improper to consider the improvement which the assessed taxes will receive from the redoubled attention to their collection which may be expected to take place. These taxes have in many instances been evaded to a degree beyond all conception. In consequence of the enquiries which some late measures had occasioned, very important discoveries were made of the evasions practised in this branch of the revenue, which more recent investigations have tended to confirm. Every gentleman who looks at those who pay in the rank with himself must be satisfied, that more than the amount of the sum requisite to give every proper allowance to those who deserve mitigation, by putting an end to that evasion which has been so extensively practised, will be gained; and sure I am there must be but one mind and one exertion to counteract and to defeat such

fraudulent attempts. The call upon the possessors of horses, in consequence of the measures lately taken for the defence of the country, led to the discovery of very scandalous evasions of the revenue. I have heard of instances of this kind in cases so aggravated from the persons involved, and the rank of life in which they stood, that it would be impossible for any man to learn the particulars without mingled feelings of shame and indignation. Many of the persons guilty of these frauds are probably deterred from a discovery by a dread of,the penalties they have incurred. Perhaps, therefore, it may be politic to hold out some encouragement to those who shall give a fair account of the duties to which they are liable. This I state merely to shew that there is reason to believe that the accuracy of collection which will now be established, will serve in a very considerable degree to supply the deficiency which the application of relief to those who require it, may occasion.

Nothing more remains but to state one additional modification for which indeed there is no separate resolution, but the pro

priety of which the committee will perceive. It is a distinction in favour of those whose establishments are increased by numerous families. It might be proper therefore to adopt some regulation for those who have a certain number of children, and those who have no children at all, and to proportion the scale to the largeness of family, when those who have a certain number of children apply for relief. I'would propose, therefore, that, if entitled to that mitigation which they claim, they should be reduced in a rate below that to which by their income they would belong, and that those who have no families should be placed in a rank above that which they would otherwise occupy.

Having now explained the different points of regulation and modification which the scheme I have submitted to the committee will admit, I again desire gentlemen to keep in mind that if I am right in my idea of the necessity of raising within the year at least a certain proportion of the supplies of the year, the first question that occurs is, How is such a thing to be done? We are to inquire whether there can be a call upon income more general, more equitable, and more effectual, and at the same time more safe, than that which the plan before you contains? If a visible criterion must be selected, can there be any one more comprehensive, more capable of modification, more applicable to the cases which may call for exception or relief, than that which is now submitted to your opinion? Thirdly, can any system of correction be devised that better meets the inconveniencies which might arise from individual applications than the present? Such are the questions for your decision. The effort to be exerted is doubtless a great one. Seven millions, in whatever mode it is to be raised, is a great sum to be taken out of the pockets of the people. We must determine by some effort or other to provide the sum which the public service requires. Do we think then that to raise seven millions in this manner is an effort that ought not to be made, if by such an effort we shall he enabled to maintain the contest with more success, and to pursue it to a more speedy termination than by any other mode of exertion? If we are satisfied on these points we shall not listen to any general ob

jections, such as those that large contributions are always great grievances to the people. What we should consider is, whether less ought to be taken to maintain with vigour, and to prosecute to a successful termination, a contest for the preservation of the whole, for the safety of ourselves, and for the interest of posterity? We ought then to examine the subject carefully, jealously, and accurately, but with a fixed determination not to be deterred by the magnitude of the sacrifice; with a firm determination to follow up the principle of mitigating the burthen where relief ought to be applied, and of acting up to the full extent of the pledge which we have given; with a firm determination to exert every effort that may be required by the novelty of the crisis in which we are placed, and the magnitude of the objects for which we contend. Having said so much, I shall detain the committee no longer, but move the first resolution.

The committee divided on the first resolution,

THE report of the Committee of Ways and Means was brought up, and the resolutions in it were read.

MR. PITT then, (in answer to a question put to him by Mr, Hussey, respecting the application of the sinking fund for the reduction of the national debt), entered into a statement of the different calculations which he laid before the house when he opened the plan of triple assessment, and expatiated upon the advantages of applying the produce of the sinking fund to the reduction of the debt. He recapitulated his former observations upon that head. He said, he wondered that any idea should have gone abroad any where, that any interruption was to be. made to the operation of the sinking fund. It had been beneficially applied for the reduction of the debt now for eleven years, four of which were years of war. It was to be continued in its

full vigour. If this example of national firmness should be followed in any future war, and we should be able to terminate the present contest in a way that might afford us a chance of having a secure interval of peace-real, genuine, not a nominal or delusive peace, for a cousiderable length of time, the operation of the sums that might be applied, as those of the sinking fund had been, would be wonderful.

Mr. Hussey declared his alarm at the term "nominal or delusive peace," when peace at all events was so essentially requisite; and reminded the Chancellor of the Exchequer of a former assertion he had used, and of the flattering calculations he had built upon it (in which opinion he, Mr. Hussey, concurred with him at the time) that this country had every prospect of continuing long to enjoy the blessings of a profound peace.

MR. PITT replied:-I remember the declaration to which the honourable gentleman refers. It was made by me in the year 1792. It was at a time when I proposed, what was extremely agreeable to me, a diminution in the existing burdens of the public, and a continuation of the sum allotted to the discharge of the public debt. I did not pretend to assure the house that peace was at all events to be uninterrupted for any given number of years-that would have been an extravagant and illfounded assurance-but I thought, under the then apparent obvious political circumstances of all Europe, there never appeared a fairer prospect of the continuance of peace for a long interval. That in that conjecture I was disappointed, is most undoubtedly true; for which, however, I ought not to take shame to myself upon the suggestion of the honourable gentleman, since he himself acknowledges he was deceived also. Why were we both deceived? Because many of us beheld, with a degree of favourable feeling, the rising establishment of what was then a popular government in France, and saw principles of a pleasing nature in their appearance, but the extent of which, and the views of their professors, were not then developed-principles which professed economy at home, and peace abroad. We did not then see the seeds of that wide-spread harvest which has since been reaped; of that unbounded ambition abroad, and pro