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CHAPTER XI.

The Budget.

N June 17th, the House having resolved itself into a committee of Ways and Means,

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, (the right hon. Nicholas Vansittart), declared that he could not rise to perform the duty which that day imposed upon him, without feeling sensations unusually painful at the recollection of the singular situation in which he was placed, and the remembrance of the lamented individual whom he that day represented. Considering in whose place he stood, whose papers he held in his hands, and whose plans he was about to state to the House, he felt rather that he was executing the last of the official duties of his lamented friend, than the first of his own. Happy should he have thought himself if he could, at the close of the day, resign those papers again into his hands, after supplying his place upon a mere occasional absence; but happier still if he could inherit his talents and virtues, and close a life of public service with the same testimonies of public approbation, and equal consciousness of unblemished integrity.

Under these peculiar circumstances, the committee would not expect him to do more, than to state as briefly as possible what, with the exception of a few particulars, which he would point out

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when he came to them, was the intended budget of their departed friend.

He should, in the first instance, recapitulate the charges of the present year, and then proceed to. the statement of the Ways and Means by which it was proposed that those charges should be defrayed.

The whole amount of the supplies was already within the knowledge of the committee, having, excepting a few inconsiderable votes for miscellaneous services, been agreed to by the House. It certainly was an enormous, he might even say, a terrible extent of charge; but he had the consolation to reflect that, great as it was, the resources of the country were still equal to support it.

On a reference to the papers on the table, it would appear that, for the navy, exclusive of ordnance for the sea service, the sum voted was 19,702,3991.:-for the army, including barracks and commissariat, and the military service of Ireland, 17,756,1601.;-an additional vote of 90,000). for the barrack, department had been agreed to by the House; but the treasury had determined to strike off this sum, and diminish the grant in the appropriation act by that amount. This diminution of charge proceeded from a resolution to post

pone

pone the execution of the projected barracks at Mary-le-bone park, and at Bristol and Liverpool He begged to be distinctly understood on this part of the subject; he by no means meant to insinuate any disapprobation of the plan for the erection of those barracks, on the contrary he thought it probable that a considerable part at least of the plans which had been sanctioned by the votes of the House would be ultimately carried into effect; but his noble friend at the head of the treasury board and he had not sufficiently considered the subject to be able to give a decided opinion upon it, and they had determined not to make themselves responsible for works of great magnitude, and of no immediate necessity, without full considera

tion.

The extraordinaries of the army incurred last year, beyond the sum granted, amounted to 2,300,000l. besides which there. had been voted for the present year 5,000,000l. for Great Britain, and 200,0001. for Ireland.

For the ordnance, including Ireland, 5,279,8971.

The miscellaneous services, including a few sums not yet proposed to parliament, and 400,000l. for the Irish permanent grants, might be taken at 2,350,000).

It was also intended to propose a vote of credit of 3,000,000!. for Great Britain, and 200.000l. for Ireland. The subsidies grant. ed in the present year were nearly the same as those of the last, being for Sicily 400,000l. and for Portugal 2,000,0001.

These several items would there. fore stand as follows:

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Navy, exclusive of Ordnance Sea service... 19,702,399 Army, including Barracks, and Commis

sariat

Ditto, Ireland

Extraordinaries,

14,577,698

3,178,462

}

17,756,160

England

5,000,000

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200,000 S

5,200,000

Unprovided ditto last year.

2,300,000

Ordnance, including Ireland.

5,279,897

Miscellaneous (including 400,000l. Irish

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equal to the amount actually paid on that account in the preceding year; it was also proposed that the amount of Exchequer bills to be issued on the aids of the next year should be less by 2,387,6001. than those which had been circulated in the year preceding. He felt himself bound to state that this arrangement, which formed part of the intended plan of his late right hon. friend, had been suggested to him by the directors of the Bank of England, who thought that the circulation of exchequer bills had been carried to too great an extent; and this suggestion sufficiently proved that the directors of the Bank were not actuated by that desire which was so often and so unjustly attributed to them, of increasing the gains of their

Total joint charge as above

corporation by an unlimited extent of paper currency.

The three items which he had last named, amounting to 4,187,8921. constituted the separate charge of Great Britain, and when added to the sum of 58,188,4561. which was the total of the supplies he had before stated, made the general amount of 62,376,3481. to be deducted the Irish proportion of joint charge, amounting to 6,845,7001. and the Irish proportion of the civil list and charges on the consolidated fund, being about 180,0001. nd making together 7,025,7001.

From this was

The result was that the total of the supplies to be provided for by Great Britain, was 55,350,6481.

....

SEPARATE CHARGE.

6. 58,188,456

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The way in which he proposed to meet this charge, enormous as it appeared to be, was as follows.

The annual duties were taken as usual, at 3,000,000l.; the surplus of the consolidated fund, estimated on grounds which he should presently explain, 3,600,000l.; the war taxes which he should also explain, might, including the property tax, be taken at 20,400,000l.; the lottery 300,000l.; the loan in the 5 per cent. annuities contributed by the subscribers of exchequer bills in the spring of the present year, 6,789,6251.; chequer bills in tended to be issued on the vote of credit 3,000,000l.; and he should observe that this last sum would make no addition to the unfunded debt, an equal sum granted on the vote of credit of the last year, having been funded and not replaced by any fresh issue; the old naval stores which since the recommendation of the committee on public expenditure, had been carried to the public account, would produce 441,2181.

The next item would be the

surplus of ways and means, of last year, amounting to 2,209,6261.; but it would be necessary for him shortly to explain in what manner this surplus arose. Considerable sums had been granted in the year 1811 in exchequer bills charged upon the aids of that year. Of these, together with other exchequer bills, about 5,500,000!. had been funded in the spring, and a part of the aids of the year 1811, which had been appropriated to the repayment of these bills, had been thus set free and was applicable to the service of the present year, amounting, after the deduction of a small deficiency of ways and means of 1811, which existed previously to such funding, as stated in the disposition paper before the House, to the sum he had mentioned, of 2,209,6261.

The only article of ways and means which it remained for him to enumerate, was the loan contracted on the preceding day of 15,650,0001:

The various items would therefore, stand, as follows:

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The ways and means exceeded the supplies about 40,000!.

He would now return to the mode in which the amount of the surplus of the consolidated fund, and of the war taxes, had been calculated.

The surplus of the consolidated fund had been estimated upon the average produce of the principal branches of the revenue in the last three years, adding thereto so much as was necessary to complete the estimate of the yearly receipt of the permanent duties imposed in the last session. The average produce of the customs in that period, with the addition he had mentioned, was 5,106,000l.; of the excise 18,188,000l.; of the assessed taxes 5,999,000l. of the stamps 5,191,000l.; and of the post office 1,240,000l. To these principal branches of revenue were to be added other funds of a less considerable, but generally of a less fluctuating nature. Of these the principal was the land tax remaining unredeemed, amounting to 1,035,000l.; there were also the duty on pensions and personal estates, which would produce 141,0001.; the surplus of exchequer fees about 60,000l.; the crown lands about 50,000l.; and some other small branches of revenue, producing together about 246,000l.; and making, together with the greater branches of revenue before stated, in the whole, 37,262,000l.; to which adding -2,706,000). of war taxes appropriated to the consolidated fund, the total income of that fund -would be 39.958,000l.; from which deducting the charge as it stood previously to the loans of the present year amounting to 34,504,000l. there would remain

gross surplus of 5,454,0001From this was first to be deducted the additional charge created by the loans of the present year, amounting to 1,900,000l.; but against this charge should be set the expected produce of the taxes of the present year, which, to the 5th of April, 1813, might be estimated at 951,500)., deducting which sum, there would remain 954,500l. to be deducted from the surplus he had stated of 5,454,0001. leaving a net surplus of 4,499,5001. Before this sum could be applied to the service of the year, the sum of 927,000l. which still remained due upon the grant of the preceding year, must however be made good. The remainder which would be applicable to the ser vice of the present year, would therefore be 3,572,500). He should accordingly propose a vote of 3,600,000l. as being the nearest round number.

He was aware that it might probably be thought unfair to estimate the produce of the revenue for the present year, upon the average of the three last, as it might be stated that the revenue was gradually declining. This, however, upon an examination of the accounts, would not appear to be the fact. The total produce of all the duties in the quarter ending the 5th of July, 1811, fell considerably short, even to the amount of 760,0001. of the quarter ending the 5th of July, 1810. The quarter ending the 10th of October, 1811, fell short, by 469,0001. of the corresponding quarter in 1810; but the quarter ending the 5th of January, 1812, exceeded the quarter ending the 5th of January, 1811, by 31,000); and the quarter ending the 5th [H2].

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