tion to reflect that I have been enabled to acquit this part of my duty with so little inconvenience to the public.

Now, before I conclude this part of the subject I am speaking of, I shall beg leave to trouble the house with a few words on the subject of the income tax. At the time I first proposed that tax, I had reason to hope, from the best calculation I could make that that tax would yield ten millions per annum ; but I have been mistaken in that calculation, and therefore I feel that I can no longer rely on more than six millions; and it would on that account be irrational to hope that the application of it should be directed to the purposes originally intended. I did first propose it with a view that it should be a war tax, which, in time of peace, should repay the excess of the public debt beyond a given amount. If I was to push it so as to make it a perpetual tax, I feel that I should be destroying the object itself for which I introduced it. If it should be made a mortgage for the sums to be borrowed, it cannot be available for the purposes of carrying on the war; and therefore it would not be consistent with my duty to prolong the period for which this tax should be mortgaged. But although it has fallen short of my original estimate, it will go a great way to answer the purposes which I at first intended. Suppose the whole amount should happen to be ten millions a year, it would not even then be necessary to mortgage it to the extent at which I had originally proposed. Since the time this tax was introduced, there have been eighteen millions of the public debt discharged by means of the redemption of the land-tax. I wish, however, to carry this consideration a little farther: I do think it right to look forward to the object of confining this tax to the reduction of the debt to the amount at which it stood in the year 1798. I think it will be better to reserve the income tax as a war tax, than to push it to the whole extent to which I at first intended. I think it better to adhere to those principles we should now have in view-the prin ciples of raising a part of the supplies within the year by means of this tax, and of enabling the public to borrow those sums that shall be necessary for the service of each year. Whoever will recollect the circumstances under which we borrowed money three

years ago, and compare them with the state of the country in which we have been enabled to make the present loan; whoever looks at this loan and compares the terms of it with those of former loans, must see and feel the great ability which the country possesses of making increased exertions. But although these exertions, so far as they might tend to prevent the increase of public burthens, cannot be carried to the extent which I flattered myself two years ago they would then be; yet it is proper that we should see whether there are not great and essential resources still to be found in the tax on income, taking it at the limited amount of six millions. That tax under certain modifications, together with the aid of the sinking fund, will be found to produce the greatest advantages to future times. After a peace shall be concluded, it will operate as a powerful means of reducing the amount of the public debt; and if we look forward with confidence to these flattering prospects, we shall have no reason to think ourselves mistaken in our hopes if we continue the same scale of exertions we have hitherto done. It is therefore my opinion, that the tax on income ought to be continued as it now is, until it shall, with the aid of the sinking fund, have reduced the debt to the amount at which it stood in the year 1798, when I first proposed that tax. We shall then have conferred the most essential and lasting benefits upon the public; and posterity will not have reason to say that we had done too little, or that we had not made great sacrifices for their benefit. The capital created in the present year will add twenty millions to the public debt, which, added to the fifty-six millions already charged on the income tax, will make a sum of seventy-six millions; the whole of which sum, according to the calculations I made last year, will, by the operation of the sinking fund, together with the income tax, be redeemed in the space of six years. I hope, therefore, that this will appear to be no very discouraging state of the country after the numberless difficulties we have had to encounter. It is not for me to anticipate new trials-to look forward to embarrassments and distresses greater than those we have already experienced; but sure I am that, if the members of this house will be as true to their

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own character, to their own honour, their consistency, and their powers, as the attachment and vigour of the country at large has been true to them, none of those difficulties that may arise will any longer be felt. I hope and trust that the unshaken firmness of this house, united to that of a brave and loyal people, will hereafter continue to produce the same effects which they formerly have done; and that with regard to our native energy and our radical strength, there will be nothing to dishearten us-nothing to make us in the slightest degree shrink from the performance of our duty. I doubt not, Sir, but we shall continue to be animated by that spirit, and guided by that wisdom, which have at all times belonged to, and distinguished the name of Englishmen.

It is with uncommon satisfaction that I have to direct the attention of the house to two or three leading considerations, which will give gentlemen an idea of the resources which this country has to depend on. In the first place, I have to state that the perma nent revenue of this country has far exceeded any thing it had ever been before, or any thing which the most sanguine hopes could have anticipated. The amount of the revenue for the year ending in January last, has exceeded by the sum of 1,800,000l. what was computed by the committee, which had taken into its consideration the finances of the country. If we look to the state of our public debt, we shall there behold sufficient to do away every kind of despondency, and raise our hopes. We shall find, that by adhering to the system established several years ago, of appropriating a certain sum towards the liquidation of the national debt, no less a sum than 52,000,000l. of the capital of that debt has been completely paid off, and that the total amount of the sinking fund is five millions sterling. We find, therefore, that notwithstanding the burdens of this war, more than one half of the debt contracted by our ancestors at one time has been completely paid off. We find that the amount of our permanent revenue is greater than it has ever been in any former years either of peace or war; and, what is still more deserving of your consideration, that, during the whole course of this war, which some gentlemen have

thought proper to call disastrous and ruinous, this maritime nation, exposed as she has been to such numberless difficulties, to the hostility of so many powers, and obliged to maintain an immense naval and military force, has every year been increasing in resources. We have increased our external and internal commerce to a greater pitch than ever it was before; and we may look to the present as the proudest year that has ever yet occurred for this country. The manufactures exported from this country amount in one year, according to the latest estimate, to the value of twenty-four millions, and the amount of foreign produce that has been exported is no less than seventeen millions. If, therefore, we compare this of war with former years of peace, year we shall, in the produce of our revenue, and in the extent of our commerce, behold a spectacle at once paradoxical, inexplicable, and astonishing: we shall see, that, in spite of the alarm and agitation which has often prevailed in the course of this arduous contest, in spite of the difficulties occasioned by the strange conduct of foreign nations, in spite of the despondency which has occasionally prevailed, we have still been adding to our resources, and increasing the means of continuing a war that was undertaken and carried on for the maintenance of our honour, our independence, and safety; for the defence of all that was dear to the ci vilized world, and for the existence of a constitution eminently adapted to all the purposes of public liberty and private happiness. Amidst all the dangers that surround us, and the difficulties with which we may be embarrassed, we have still the consolation to think, that we can look up with confidence to our power and resources; that we have it in our power to meet and defeat all the schemes and combinations, which our enemies may practise or raise up against us. From this animating prospect we can look back with heart felt satisfaction to what we have done; we can say to the world that we have discharged a most difficult duty; that, under all circumstances, we have maintained our consistency and our independence; and in short, Sir, that we have done every thing, which was at once calculated to preserve the rights of a just and benevolent sovereign, under whose reign the people have

enjoyed such unexampled happiness-every thing that could tend to exalt the character of a great and wise legislature, and preserve the liberties of a brave and loyal people.

MR. PITT then moved the various resolutions in conformity with his speech, which were carried in the affirmative.

March 12, 1801.

LORD CASTLEREAGH having moved, as a preliminary to anothermotion, of which he had given notice, respecting the necessity of continuing to enforce martial law in Ireland, "That the act for the suppression of the late rebellion in Ireland be read,"

Mr. Sheridan rose, and, after expressing his objections to the measure pro posed, moved, "That the House do now adjourn."

MR. PITT:

I feel that the debate in which we are now engaged, involves the whole merits of the proposal which my noble friend has announced his intention to submit, though by the singular use which the honourable gentleman opposite has made of a mode of proceeding within the order of the house, we are nominally discussing his motion for adjournment. That course which the honourable gentleman has adopted, is the more extraordinary, as every thing that he said, every argument he adduced, would have applied as well after the proposition had been explained, as it did before my noble friend's motion was anticipated.

Before I proceed to the main question, however, I beg leave to take notice of an observation of the honourable gentlemant, on which he seemed to lay great stress, as he pronounced it with uncommon emphasis. The honourable gentleman appeared to be surprised at a remark of my noble friend, that the necessity which demanded a measure so unexampled as that which he was about to propose, was the effect of the malignant character of the