granted in aid of the civil lift, at 12,477,0861. The fum of 210,000l. in aid of the civil lift, was to difcharge certain outstanding exchequer bills to the amount of 180,000l. for which the civil lift ftood mortgaged, and about 30,000l. additional debt, which it had incurred during the last year. The ways and means to fatisfy thefe demands Mr. Pitt ftated at 13,362,480l. which included 5,000,000l. by exchequer bills, to be iffued for the purpofe of paying off certain exchequer bills to the fame amount, which already made part of the fupplies for the current year. Agreeably to this calculation, there would, after deducting the amount of the Supplies from the ways and means, remain a furplus of 885,3941, This fum, he faid, would be more than fufficient to put his propofed plan into immediate execution. It would allow 250,000l. a quarter to be iffued to the commiffioners for the three fucceeding quarters of the current year. The amount of this would be 750,000l. which would leave a balance for the beginning of the following year of 135,3941.

Mr. Pitt, before he fat down, entered into a short recapitulation of the different points he had difcuff ed.-First, That the yearly income of the ftate exceeded the permanent level of its expenditure, by a fum of 900,000l. Next, that this fum would be increased to a million by means in no wife burthenfome to the people,-Thirdly, That altho' the prefent eftablishment exceeded in certain inftances the fame eftablishments as stated in the report of the select committee, yet there were ample refources, and contingent and outstanding receipts, fufficient to Overbalance fuch exceffes, without

having recourfe to any fresh taxes:

And lafly, that the ways and means for the present year would be fufficient to furnish the supplies, together with the fum of 250,000l. to be applied quarterly towards the eftablishment of the new fund; and, after all, would leave a confiderable balance to be carried to the next year. Mr. Pitt concluded by moving, "That the fum of one million be annually granted to certain commiffioners, to be by them applied to the purchase of ftocks, towards difcharging the public debt of this country; which money fhall arife out of the furpluffes, exceffes, and overplus monies compofing the fund, commonly called the finking fund."

The policy of the principle upon which this motion was founded, viz. the policy of making the income of the ftate fo far exceed its expenditure as to leave a confiderable furplus towards the liquidation of the public debt, was on all fides univerfally acknowledged, and it was accordingly carried in the affirmative without a divifion.

At the fame time several objections were stated by Sir Grey Cooper, Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan, and Mr, Huffey, to what they termed the infufficiency, and in fome inftances the impolicy, of the mode which Mr. Pitt had adopted to accomplish fo great and fo defirable an end.

These objections were of a twofold nature: 1ft, Such as tended to fhow that the fuppofed excefs of 900,000l. in the national income over its expenditure, arose from falfe and mistaken calculations and conclufions in the report of the feleft committee, and fuch as the real ftate of the finances of the country by no means warranted; 2d, Such

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as

as went to the purposed mode of applying that excess or surplus, provided it existed. The fubftance of the different arguments made ufe of in fupport of the objections which come under the first of these heads were as it were concentered in a series of refolutions moved by Mr. Sheridan on the 4th of May, and whilst the measure was in its paffage through the house.

Thefe refolutions, which were negatived without a divifion, were, Ift, "That the expected annual amount of the national income stated in the report of the committee, appeared in no refpect to have been calculated upon the average receipts of a number of years, but was fixed at the amount of the produce of one year only, with the addition of the probable increase of the new taxes: 2d, That it appeared, that the account of the annual expenditure, as opposed to the amount of the income fo calculated, was not a statement of the present existing expenditure, or of that which must exift for fome years to come, but was formed from the probable reductions, which it was alledged would have taken place in the profpect of permanent peace towards the end of the year 1791 3d, That the different branches of the revenue, in the period upon which the future was calculated, appeared to have been fingularly productive, particularly in the cuftoms: 4th, That it did not appear that any means had been taken, or information called for, in order to afcertain whether fuch an increase of revenue had arifen from caufes which were likely to have a permanent operation, or otherwife; and that fuch an investigation was indifpenfably neceffary: 5th, That the uncertainty of eftimating by fuch a criterion the expected future

produce of the revenue, was ftin more evident upon a comparison of the quarter-day ending the fifth of April laft with the fame quarter in the preceding year upon which the future income was calculated; by which it appeared that the amount of the latter quarter was inferior in the article of customs by the fum of 188,2151. 13 s. 4d. to the former : 6th, That in the faid report there were certain articles of receipt erroneoufly stated as proper to be added to the future annual income, and other articles of expence erroneoufly omitted to be added to the expenditure: 7th, That the fums voted and to be voted for the prefent year confiderably exceeded 15,397,4711.: 8th, That the means by which the deficiency was to bę made good arofe from aids and debts that belonged to the present year only 9th, That there was no furplus income now exifting applicable to the reduction of the national debt: 10th, That a furplus income in the enfuing quarters could arife only in the renewal of a loan for an extraordinary million, borrowed upon exchequer bills in the last year, and which it would be unneceffary to make but for the purpose of fecuring that furplus : 11th, That an extraordinary increase of exchequer bills was an inexpedient anticipation of that affiftance which government might receive in the event of a peculiar emergency: 12th, That the faving to the public upon the intereft of money borrowed in this way was rendered precarious by the neceffity of the more speedy iffuing of fuch bills, in order that the object for which the loan was made might be effectually anfwered: 13th, That, admitting that by the foregoing means the expected furplus would arife upon

the

the three enfuing quarters, it appeared, that there would then be an interval of nearly four years, before the commencement of that permanent peace establishment, which was to furnish in the reduction of its fervices the expected furplus: 14th, That in this period it appeared from the vouchers annexed to the report and other papers, that a fum amounting to 4,000,000l. befides 2,000,000l. due to the bank, would be wanted above the stated annual income: Finally, that for this fum of 6,000,000l. there appeared to be no adequate provifion or resource." In fupport of fuch objections as were made to the mode of applying the fuppofed furplus, it was urged, that fuch part of it as rendered the fum appropriated unalienable under any circumftances whatever, was highly impolitic; that it tended to tie up and fetter the revenues of the country, when their application to fome particular purpose might be of the highest importance. Alfo, that the obligation to pay the money was only of a general nature, and not an obligation to individuals. In the latter cafe the pledge was held facred, and stood upon as fure a footing as the acknowledgment of the national debt itfelf; whereas a general obligation was liable to be annulled by parliament, upon the flightest pretence even of conveniency:-Laftly, that the prefent large amount of unfunded exchequer bills, which were to be charged on the aids of next feffion, would become a great and ferious evil, as they would oblige the commiffioners, from the quantity that would be at market, to buy their ftock dear, and fell it cheap, and confequently defeat the very plan in question.

In fupport of the first of thefe ob

jections, Mr. Fox, on the day for reconfidering the report of the committee on this bill, moved a clause to impower the commiffioners therein named to accept so much of any future loan as they should have cath belonging to the public in their hands to pay for. This, he faid, would obviate the great objection he had to the prefent bill, on account of its making the finking fund unalienable under any circumftances whatever; it would relieve that diftrefs the country would otherwife be under, when, on account of a war, it might be neceffary to raise a new loan: whenever that fhould be the cafe, his opinion was, that the minifter fhould not only raise taxes fufficiently productive to pay the intereft of the loan, but also fufficient to make good to the finking fund whatsoever had been taken from it.

If therefore, for inftance, at any future period a loan of fix millions was propofed, and there was at that

time one million in the hands of the commiffioners, in fuch case they should take a million of the loan, and the bonus or douceur thereupon fhould be received by them for the public. Thus government would only have five millions to borrow inftead of fix, and, from fuch a mode of proceeding, he faid, it was evident great benefit would arife to the public.

This claufe was brought up by Mr. Fox, and received by Mr. Pitt with the ftrongest marks of approbation. Another claufe, enabling the commiffioners named in the bill to continue purchafing stock for the public when at or above par, unless otherwife directed by parliament, was moved by Mr. Pultney, and carried. The object of this claufe [H] 4

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was to throw upon parliament the refponfibility of giving fresh inftructions to the commiffioners, whenever the funds fhould be at or above par, or in cafe of its neglect, ing to do so, to render the confequences imputable to fuch neglect.

The bill, with these additional clauses, was read a third time on the 15th of May, and carried up to the lords, where it also paffed without meeting with any material oppofition, and afterwards received the royal affent.

On the 22d of May, May 22d, Mr. Pitt prefented a bill 1786. for transferring certain duties on wines from the customs to the excife. This was one of the plans he had in view for increafing the revenue, and which he had before given the house notice of, when he proposed the finking fund of a million annually.

The prefent amount of duties on wines, he faid, was at this moment lefs, by 280,000l. per annum, than what had been the amount in the middle of the last century; and yet at the fame time there was no doubt, but that the confumption of that article was confiderably increafed fince that period.

This defalcation he attributed to two caufes: first, the fraudulent importation of large quantities of foreign wine without paying the duties; and fecondly, which he looked upon as the principal caufe, the fale of a spurious liquor under the name of wine, made at home. Thefe caufes, he faid, would be removed by the operation of the prefent bill; which, by impofing duties upon the fpurious equal to thofe on the genuine commodity, would either fupprefs the former, as was moft likely, and thereby increafing

the demand for foreign wines, not only increase the revenue, but extend in return the fale of the various articles of our home trade; or it would oblige the fpurious commodity to pay the fame duties as the genuine, and not fuffer both the confumer and the revenue to be cheated at the fame time. The bill would likewife insure the payment of all duties imposed on fuch foreign wines as should hereafter be imported.

The carrying this improvement into execution by means of the excife laws, Mr. Pitt was aware, would be regarded with an eye of jealoufy by the house; but the bill specially provided against any general extenfion of the excife laws, and only permitted the officers of excife to enter the cellars and warehouses of fuch as dealt in wine, and not the dwelling-houses even of those.

The bill was objected to upon two grounds: first, on the difficulty of applying the excife laws to fuch a commodity as wine; and fecondly, on the impolicy of ever extending thofe laws beyond their present limits.

Under the firft head it was contended, that the practice of gauging, fo applicable to brewers, was perfectly incompatible with refpect to fuch an article as wine; that the continual increafe and diminution of the trader's ftock would baffle the endeavours of the officers to keep a regular account of it, and yet the whole fyftem of excife regulation was founded on that principle.

But the objections which arose from the very nature and operation of the excife laws themselves were much more warmly infifted upon. The mode of trial adopted by those laws, with refpect to offences com

mitted against them, were reprobated, as foreign and abhorrent to the law of the land. It was urged that the commiffioners of the excife were themselves the fole judges between the officer informing and the fuppofed offender: that the informer was concerned in the conviction, as he had by law one half of the commodity forfeited. Added to this, the proceedings were fo fummary, that only three days were allowed for the appearance of perfons fummoned to anfwer before the commiffioners: that the particulars of the charge itfelf were not specified in the fummons, which might be left with a fervant or a child, or in the key-hole of the door. Under thefe circumftances it was stated to be very poffible that the accufed might be condemned without knowing that he was to be tried; and the execution of the fentence might be the firft notice he had of the charge. In fupport of thefe objections, and in order to obviate as much as poffible the evils which were in

Loughborough, who, in addition to what had been urged against the general principle of the bill, attacked with a peculiar degree of feverity a claufe which had been introduced into the bill whilft in the committee. The purport of this claufe was, to prohibit the jury, in cafe of any fuit commenced against an officer of the excife for improper feizure, and the officer being able to fhew a probable caufe for fuch feizare, to grant the plaintiff a verdict, exclufive of the value of the things feized, of more than two-pence damages, or any cofts of fuit, or to inflict a fine that should exceed one fhilling. This, his lordship faid, rendered nugatory every appeal made to the laws of the land for redrefs. As to the term a probable caufe, falfe information was a probable caufe, and that might continually be af figned: figned thus the thus the rights and powers of juries were infringed, and they were made mere cyphers; the excifeman was placed beyond their jurifdiction, and might laugh both at them and the courts in Westminster-hall. In the courfe of his fpeechy he particularly addrefied himself to the carl of Camden, as a perfon who had ever defended the rights of juries, and without changing his former opinion on the fuoject, could not acquiefce in the claufe in question. Lord Camden, in return, confcffed that the clause was far froin meeting with his approbation; but as any alteration would destroy the bill for the prefent feffion, he fhould rather give way to the claufe in quetion than fet afide the whole bill, which would be the cafe if any amend, ment took place.

The