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to be provided for by the new taxes, it was no more than $15,000/.* The foundation of the whole of the prefent fyftem of finance, was the fame which he had offered to parliament last year, namely that there fhould be no loan contracted for, during any year, greater than what the amount of the finking fund could pay off. The refolutions moved by Mr. Pitt on the fupplies for the year, with ways and means, were agreed to, carried through the ufual forms of the houfe, and after undergoing feveral amendments, fome of which were fuggefted by Mr. Tierney in a string of refolutions which he proposed, were carly in July pafled into a law.

itself: fecondly, the home accounts, as refpecting, particularly, the company's concerns here. Under the firft of thele heads were to be found a financial statement of the condition of the respective places; accounts of the expenfes incurred; the amount of the debts in India; a deduction of the general furplus not applicable to the payment of thefe debts; the fums which res mained to be expended; with many other items in the eftimate not necellary for his prefent purpose to be (pecified. On the whole, taking a general view of the company's affairs at home and abroad conjointly, it would feem to be worfe 413,2201. than it was at the clofe of the laft feffion of parliament. He was obliged to confefs that there was a farther fum of On the 12th of March, Mr. Dun- 200,000l. which did not appear das stated first, what might be pro- on the face of these accounts, but perly called India accounts, as pethe reafon of that arofe from fome culiarly regarding the ftate of India circumftances attending the quick

We now proceed to give fome account of East India expenfes and

revenue.

RECAPITULATION OF THE NEW TAXES.

In many parts of the kingdom there was an extenfive circulation of fmall bank notes, or notes under 40s. amounting, as was computed, to 1,500,000. A tax of ad. on each, according to that number, would produce 62,000/. But in a matter of fo great uncertainty, he fuppofed the amount to be confiderably under that fum, and therefore reckoned it among other articles of taxation as follows: 750,000 annually, at 2d. each

British fugar, left for home confumption, 1,700,000 cwt. at 8s.
Clayed fugars from British plantations, in addition to all other duties,
200,000 cwt. at 4s. per cwt.

£42,000. 56,000.

40,000.

British plantation fugar exported: withhold 2s. 6d. per cwt. of the drawback, in addition to 4s. now retained on 358 cwt. Eaft India fugars exported 76,000 cwt. at 6d.

62,000.

Foreign plantation-fugar exported, 2s. 6d. per cwt on 111,000 cwt.
Refined fugar exported, 4s. per cwt. of the bounty now payable to be withheld
on 196,000 cwt.

14,000.

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39,000.

Coffee exported in 1798, exclufive of 327,000 cwt. at 45.

65,000.

316,000.

See a general view of thefe accounts, copied from "An Abstract of statements, relative to the affairs of the Eaft-India company, 1798, prefented to parliament in 1799." Appendix to the Chronicle, page 200*.

nefs of the paffage which fome of the hips had homeward. This fum would apparently fwell the balance against the company, but when the accounts, came fully to be examined, it would be found covered by the increased amount of their aflets. With refpect to the 413,220. in which the state of the company's affairs appeared worle now than laft year, that was a matter which he would better and more fully explain at a future period. Mean while he called the attention of the houfe to the difputed debt of one million between the Eaft-India company and the nabob of Arcott. Before that claim was established, it was impoffible that it could come into the ftatement of the company's affairs; and, though it appeared upon the account now, it was no new debt, and in fact, could not be included as a defalcation in the produce of the laft year. So far otherwife, the company's affairs would be 600,000/. better than in last year, were not that million included. All circumftances confidered, he faw nothing in the prefent statement by any means alarming. On the contrary, on a full retrofpect, there would be found the strongest grounds for confolation and fatisfaction. And he was entitled, he faid, to make that conclufion, from the immenfe improvement in the company's affairs, fince they had been under his own management. After all, the company's debt was certainly beyond what he could have withed it to have been. But, as it had been contracted, for the purpofe of purchafing investments, it was of courfe to be found in the increase of the company's aflets at home. They might naturally be induced to VOL. XLI.

fwell their estimates and fales at home, by bringing home as large cargoes as poffible.

Mr. Dundas now touched on a fubject, alarming (though it would feem unreafonably) to the Eaft-India company, but highly important to the British nation, and which, in the natural progrefs of events and ideas, muft one day force itself on the ferious attention of the British legiflature. The company, Mr. Dundas faid, fhould recollect that they were not merely a commercial body, but that they were alfo trustees for the imperial revenues of India. The wealth and commerce of the Eaft-India company was, no doubt greatly increafing, and there was no want of fufficient funds for extending it. But great and opulent as they were, there was no man living who muft not be fenfible that all the commerce with India, and all the wealth that might be brought home from our Eaft-India fettlements to this country was far beyond the power or the means of the Eaft-India company. The export of the wealth of India to Europe, as ftated to him, amounted to no lefs a fum than five millions fterling. If this was true, and that the capital of the company, whether confifting in exports, or in the furplus of the revenue of India, could bring home only two millions or under, the general intereft would require, that in fome fhape or other, as much as poffible of the three millions fhould be brought to British ports in British veffels, and not fuffered to go ftraggling in other vellels to other ports of Europe.Mr. Dundas, on this fubject, made ́ a very juft, as well as obvious, diftinction between what was fo much talked of, the clandeftine trade, or [0]

the

the traffic carried on for the private emolument of the company's own fervants, and the merchandize brought home by fhips of neutral nations articles which the company either was not able or willing to bring. The refolutions moved by Mr. Dundas were agreed to, and carried through all the ufual forms.

Various difficulties having occurred in executing the act of laft feffion, for the fale and redemption of the land-tax, Mr. Pitt, on the fixth of December, moved for leave to bring in a bill, to enlarge the time limited for the redemption of the land-tax, and to explain and amend the provifions of the bill introduced laft feffion for that purpose. It was

the general object of the prefent bill to facilitate the execution of the act of laft feffion, and extend its bene-, fits by a wider and more equal operation. Leave being granted to bring in the bill, it was read and agreed to, and, through the usual forms, paffed into a law.

A bill, brought in by Mr. W. Dundas, on the third of April, was paffed, for amending fo much of the acts for the redemption of the landtax, as far as they related to Scotland, likewife for extending the time for redemption, and for empowering the proprietors of certain eftates to fell a part of those estates for the purpose of redeeming the land-tax.

CHAP

CHA P. XI.

Metfures for the external Defence and internal Tranquillity of the British State.-Motion against any Negociations that might prevent or impede a Negociation for Peace.--Negatived.—Bills for continuing the Sufpenfion of the Habeas Corpus.-Digreffion to the State Prijon in Cold-Bath-Fields.

ROM the bufinefs of finance, or the fupplies, and the great object to which they were directed, we proceed, agreeably to our plan, to the meafures adopted by the legislature for the external defence and internal tranquillity of the state. But, it may not be foreign to the defign of an Annual Register to notice alfo fome of the measures propofed for thofe ends, and that were under difcuffion, though not adopted by the legislature.

On the eleventh of December, Mr. Tierney moved" that it was the duty of his majefty's minifters to advife his majesty againft entering into any negociations which might prevent or impede a negociation for peace, whenever a difpofition fhould be fhewn, on the part of the French republie, to treat on terms confiftent with the fecurity and interefts of the British empire." He was induced to think that the pacific difpofition, which, foon after the conference at Lifle, was manifefted by his majefty's declaration, had been abandoned, and that a new fpirit had begun to rife up, leading to an extenfive connection. It might be faid that this motion was an encroachment on the prerogative of the crown. But, as a member of

that houfe, he had as good a right to fay, that the fupplies fhould be granted exclufively for England, as to fay, that there fhould not be any fupply. It might be faid that this motion had a tendency to damp the fpirit which was now rifing in Europe. There was no fymptom rifing in any quarter, from princi ple: on which alone, the value of any fpirit and even the duration of it could be founded. After a review of Ruffia, Pruffia, Auftria, and the Ottoman Porte, he could fee nothing like a fyftematic course of oppofition to the ambitious projects of the enemy in general. A great confederacy against France, and that at a time when she did not poffefs the advantages of a fettled government, had already been formed and difcomfited. What produced the difcomfiture of the confederates? The fkill of the French or the jealoufy and indecifion of the allies? On either fuppofition the conclufion, from experience, would be the fame. Could it really be* believed that France, after having got Mantua, Luxemburgh, and other places, was more easily to be driven within her ancient limits, than the was before the made these acquifitions? He fhould think `it [02]

an

an encroachment on the prerogative of the crown were he to fay what is, and what is not, for the fecurity, the honour, or the intereft of the British empire. But minifters had put into his majefty's mouth, on the rupture of the conferences at Life, words tantamount to the fpirit of his motion. He quoted his majefty's declaration to that effect. "His majefty looks with anxious expectation to the moment when the government of France may fhew a difpofition and fpirit in any degree correfponding to his own. And he renews even now, and before all Europe, the folemn declaration that he is yet ready (if the calamities of war can now be closed) to conclude peace on the fame moderate and equitable principles and terms which he has before propof ed." Mr. Tierney did not propofe any thing that fhould bind government as to terms. He was anxious only to renew the fpirit of a declaration, which did honour to his majefty's councils at the time it iffued. If minifters departed from the fpirit of that declaration, and adopted any other, they should affign a reafon for fo doing. There could be but two: the aggreffion of the French in Switzerland, which was not a novelty, as Venice witnefled, and the victory of admiral Nelfon. This was unquestionably great and glorious: but, it fhould be recollected that the declaration, after the conference at Lifle, was made after the brilliant victory of lord Duncan. As to the objection, that this motion might operate as a notice to France that we could not any longer co-operate with our allies, he did not fay any thing of the terms on which peace fhould be made, and we might and ought

ftill to co-operate as last year, with our allies, by our naval exertions.

Mr. Canning expected from the honourable gentleman rather fome folid reafons, for the measure he had propofed, than an anticipation of the objections which he thought might be brought against it. As to the point of conftitutional form, he was not inclined to lay the greatest ftrefs on any objection on that ground. The motion, though extraordinary, was not wholly unprecedented. Examples were not wanting. But he prefumed that it would be farther neceflary for Mr. Tierney to fhew, as had been fhewn or attempted to be fhewn in all former inftances, that fome neceffity exifted which called for the interfe rence of the houfe of commons. Mr. Canning fummed up the substance of a long, yet lively peech (though dotted, after the manner of young men, with quotations) by ftating that the motion appeared to him to be founded on no principle of neceffity: fince, if it was intended for a cenfure on minifters, it was unjust; if for a controul, nugatory: as its tendency was to impair the power of profecuting war with vigour, and to diminish the chance of nego ciating peace with dignity, or feoncluding it with fafety.

Mr. Jekyll asked whether, in the moment in which we ftood, on the proud eminence of fuch a victory as that at Aboukir, was not the me ment to think of peace, in what state of our affairs could we turn our attention to that great objec with propriety? with propriety? This country, however, was again to be embarked on the ocean of continental politics, without knowing the purpoles for which we were engaged, or the extent to which we might be

involved.

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