deration of the matters referred to them by the house, they had arranged feveral papers relating thereto under diftinct heads, containing the different articles of the public income and expenditure.

But that before they entered on the first part of their report, they thought it neceffary to premife, that they had confined their examination to the present ftate of the revenue, as it appeared either from the amount actually received in the periods contained in the papers referred to them, or from the beft eftimates which they could form of the produce of fuch articles as had not been brought to account in thofe periods, but compose nevertheless a part of the prefent income of the public. The large amount of taxes impofed fince the commencement of the late war, in addition to the then fubfifting revenue, the difficulties under which the different branches of our commerce laboured during the continuance of that war, and the great and increafing prevalence of fmuggling, previous to the measures recently adopted for its fuppreffion, ap.

peared to them to render any ave. rages of the amount of the revenue in former periods in a great degree inapplicable to the prefent fituation of the country; on the other hand, they did not think themselves competent to difcufs the various contingencies which might in future operate to the increase or diminution of the public income: a revenue fo complicated in its nature, and depending fo much on the various branches of an extenfive commerce, must always be liable to temporary fluctuations, even although no cir cumftances fhould arife to occafion any permanent alteration in its produce; that they had therefore judged it proper to fubmit to the wisdom of the house fuch an extenfive confideration, and to state in their report the prefent amount of the public income, as refulting from the papers before then.

After making all the neceffary deductions, the feveral articles of the annual public receipt and expenditure, from Michaelmas 1784 to Michaelmas 1785, and from January 1785 to January 1786, flood in the report as follows;

RECEIPT

RECEIP

T.

§ 1. Total net payments into the exchequer, from Michaelmas 1784 to Michaelmas 1785 - £. 12,321,520 Deduct therefrom

The refpited duties paid by the Eaft India Company Excefs beyond the future amount of the window duties

£.401,118 46,189

11,874,213

§ 1. Total net payments into the exchequer, from 5th January 1785 to 5th January 1786 - £• 12,499,916

Deduct therefrom

The refpited duties paid by the East India Company Excefs beyond the future amount of the window duties

2. Further produce of the window duty imposed by the 24th Geo. III.

3. Further produce of the duty on two-wheel and four-wheel carriages

5. Further produce of the duties on horfes, waggons, and carts

6. Further produce of taxes impofed in 1784

103,000

£.9,275,769 258,000 900,000

7. Further produce of taxes impoted in 1785, including the improvement of the medicine duty8. Paid at the excife and alienation office, in part of civil lift

9. Produce of the land and malt

[H]

Mr. Pitt opened the fubject at large, and with confiderable ability, claffing and arranging the different articles under their feveral heads with great clearness and perfpicuity. He began with obferving, that the neceffity we were under of adopting fome means or other for the diminution of our national debt, was a point upon which all perfons and parties were univerfally agreed; as to the quantum of the fund to be provided, it was as univerfally agreed that not lefs than a million annually ought to be appropriated for that purpose.

From the report before the house, to which he paid the highest compliments, might be feen, he faid, what were the means of the country for effectuating this purpose. It exhibited at one view the whole national finance, including the income and the expenditure of the state.

The committee had taken two periods from which to ascertain the annual amount of the revenue; the one the year ending at Michaelmas 1785, and the other the year ending on the 5th January 1786. In the former of these periods the whole income was 15,379,182 1.; in the latter it was 15,397,4711. The different articles from which this revenue arofe, he obferved, were next to be attended to; they were all branches of the revenue payable yearly, but feveral of them had not yet been received into the exchequer; at the fame time he added, that fuch as had not yet been received, being levied by affeffments, were on that account as capable of being afcertained by fuch affeff~ments, as if they had been actually received. Thus the net money already received into the exchequer

for the year ending Michaelmas 1785 was 11,874,2131.; and for the year ending in January 1786, 12,042,000 l.; the other yearly fums, which he stated from the report, as calculated from affeffments, and yet to be received, would, he faid, when added together, amount, in the year ending at Michaelmas 1785, to 3,365,000l. which, added to the receipts for that year, 11,874,000l. would produce above 15,379,000l. In the fame manner the affeffed yearly fums to be received for the year ending in January 1786 would together make 3,354,000l. which, added to the money actually received in that year, would produce 15,397,000 1. Having thus before them the whole annual income of the ftate, it remained to confider what was the annual expenditure; it would appear from the report to amount to 14,477,003 1. This fum, he obferved, was of a two-fold nature, confifting of fuch items as might be exactly afcertained, and fuch as were fluctuating. Under the firft head, he included the interest of the national debt, 9,275,7691.; exchequer bills 258,000l.; the civil lift 900,000 1.; the charges on the aggregate fund 64,600 l.; and appropriated duties 66,5381.; amounting together to 10,564,907 1. Under the laft head he claffed the charges of the navy, army, ordnance, militia, and mifcellaneous fervices, which from their nature were fluctuating and uncertain. But as the committee, in calculating the expences of the different fervices, had purposely gone upon the largest and moft extenfive establishments, it would be but reasonable to fuppofe that the real expences would fall fhort of thofe ftated in the report.

Thefe

Thefe fluctuating expences of the navy, army, ordnance, militia, and miscellaneous fervices, the report had stated at 3,913,2741. which, added to the fum of 10,564,907 1. under the first head of permanent expences, makes the whole of the expenditure 14,478,181 l.; which, deducted from 15,397,000l. the amount of the income, left a furplus, of about 900,000 1. towards the discharge of the national debt. But in order to make up the remaining 100,000 l. it would be neceffary to levy fresh taxes to that amount, to compleat what feemed to be univerfally received as the fum which ought to be applied to the purpose in question, viz. one million annually. This he meant to do by adding one penny per gallon to the duty on fpirits, as it now ftood, and which had been reduced 5 d. per gallon on the old duty by a late act of parliament. This tax he fhould calculate at 60 or 70,000l. He fhould next propofe an alteration in the mode of meafuring deals and battens, with a view of correcting certain abuses, which at prefent tended to defraud the revenue. From this regulation, he faid, 20 or 30,000l. per annum would arise to the public. Laftly, he fhould propose a tax on hair powder and pomatums, which might bring in from 15 to 30,000 1. per annum. Thus, agreeable to the katement made in the report, there would be a clear furplus of at least a million annually, for a finking fund, to be applied to the reduction of the national debt.

per ann.

Mr. Pitt next proceeded to obferve, that the amount of the expenditure, as ftated in the report, with respect to the navy, army, and ordnance, although it was large and

ample, as calculated for times of peace, and as they were to ftand in future, yet that it fell infinitely fhort of what was the actual expenditure for those establishments for the prefent year, or what would be fo for two or three years to come. The effects of the late tedious and expenfive war, he said, would be felt for fome time longer, and the neceffary claims it had left on the public purfe were fuch as it was wife and politic to comply with thus, for inftance, the naval halfpay and penfion lifts were unavoidably much increased, and a number of fhips, which were now on the ftocks, were to be compleated, in order to fave the expence that already had been incurred by them, and which otherwise, from the total decay of the veffels, would be loft. By fuch means the allowance for the navy, which according to the report was only 1,800,000l. amounted in the prefent year to 2,400,000l. In the fame manner the exceedings of the army, arifing from the fame enormous increase of the half-pay lift, and pension lift, amounted to 260,000l. over and above the fum allowed for that fervice in the report. The whole of thefe exceedings in the army and navy, on their prefent establishment, above what was ftated in the report as the amount of their permanent expenditure, was above 750,000l. This was a fum, which from its very nature would gradu ally diminish, and in time be reduced to nothing. Suppofing it to laft four years, it would then be equal to a fum of 3,000,000 1. For this fum a provifion was neceffary; but he added, such were the extraordinary refources of the country, although not immediately ca[H] 2

pable

pable of being claffed under any certain head of revenue, that it would be unneceffary to lay any fresh burthens on the people for that purpose.

Mr. Pitt took this opportunity of entering at large into the actual and probable refources of the country. He first stated the furplus on the feveral funds, and the army favings, at 450,000l. the arrears still due from pay mafters at 1,000,000l.; a lottery, if it should be thought proper to have one, at 140,000l.: a great deal, he faid, was to be expected from the increase of the cuftoms, which had been uniform ever fince the means adopted for the fuppreffion of fmuggling. Other regulations relative to the cuftoms, he faid, were now in agitation; alfo fuch as refpected the wine duty, and above all a plan for the confolidation of the customs. From all thefe regulations, there was but little doubt, but that the growing refources of the country, and the contingent receipts of the different fums he had mentioned, would be more than fufficient, without a loan, to difcharge the exceedings which our eftablishments, during the next three or four years, would amount to, beyond their permanent level, as ftated in the report. But if it fhould be otherwife, he nevertheless was of opinion, that money fhould rather be borrowed for the discharge of thofe extraordinary demands, than that the inftitution of the fund in queftion fhould be poftponed, or infringed upon at any time after it was established. Mr. Pitt next proceeded to explain the mode he meant to adopt, in order to insure the due application of this fund to its defined object: he propofed, he faid, to veft in a certain number

of commiffioners the full power of difpofing of it in the purchase of stock for the public in their own names. Thefe commiffioners should receive the annual million by quarterly payments of 250,000l. to be iffued out of the exchequer before any other money, except the intereft of the national debt itself; by these provifions, the fund would be fecured, and no deficiencies in the national revenues could affect it, but fuch must be separately provided for by parliament.

The accumulated compound intereft on a million yearly, together with the annuities that would fall into that fund, would, he faid, in twenty-eight years, amount to fuch a fum as would leave a furplus of four millions annually, to be applied, if neceffary, to the exigencies of the ftate. In appointing the commiffioners he should, he faid, endeavour to chuse persons of fuch weight and' character as cor. refponded with the importance of the commiffion they were to execute. The fpeaker of the houfe of commons, the chancellor of the exchequer, the mafter of the rolls, the governor and deputy governor of the bank of England, and the accountant general of the high court of chancery, were perfons who, from their feveral fituations, he should think highly proper to be of the number.

The next point that Mr. Pitt confidered was the supplies and ways and means for the present year, which he faid were in fuch a state as would enable the house to put the plan for the reduction of the national debt into immediate execution.

Mr. Pitt ftated the whole of the Supplies, including a fum of 210,000l.

granted