such an inference. He has most successfully shown, on various occasions, that true economy consists in a course altogether opposite to that which he now adopts. He has reduced to figures, and recorded in Resolutions, the proofs of that economy, demonstrating, by the most irrefragable evidence, that to accumulate debt, in the maimer and to the extent now proposed by this plan, is the very reverse of good management. He has shown you what you have actually saved by raising a large portion of your supplies within the year. I will not fatigue the Committee by a detailed reference to these proofs. They will find them in the Speeches of my Right Honorable Friend, to which I have already referred.

If our resources are not infinite and absolutely inexhaustible; if we have already dipped deep into those resources; surely it the more becomes us well to consider, whether the remainder are not now in danger of being dissipated with unnecessary celerity? Whether, by mortgaging now, at usurious interest, that income which we had wisely set aside for the discharge of existing incumbrances, we shall be more at our ease some few years hence? Whether, by accumulating debt now, upon terms which may oblige us to redeem it at an expense nearly double hereafter, we are compensated for the immediate pressure of usurious interest, by the prospect of future relief? Let Gentlemen look round the world, and show me a state once in difficulty; let them look among their acquaintance, and show me an individual, once involved, that has ever been brought round and saved by these, or such-like expedients. If they still doubt the delusion of such a system, one example drawn from the financial affairs of this country, and brought before them, not by a comparison of distant transactions, but confined to the three last years of the present war, will, perhaps more forcibly than any more general view, open their eyes to the wasteful consequences of the proposed plan.

Let us compare the terms of the loan of 1810 with the terms of the loan of 1812, both in the three per cents. In 1810, for every £100 sterling the contractors received 140l. 7s. 6d. three per cent. stock in 1812, for every £100 sterling they received £176 three per cent. stock. A loan of 28 millions, the amount assumed by my Right Hon. Friend to be hereafter annually raised, would, if negotiated upon the terms of 1812, add to the amount of

debt in each year £10,000,000 of stock, and to the permanent annual charge £404,000 (money value), more than if negotiated upon the terms of 1810. And who shall say that, under this plan, future loans will be raised even on the terms of 1812? Neither is this all in 1810 the Exchequer Bills were circulated at an interest of three pence per day for every £100. The interest is now three pence halfpenny. This is another increase of annual charge, exceeding £200,000. Let Gentlemen calculate what these differences only would amount to in the next four years, both in in creased debt and in increased permanent charge; and then they will have some faint idea of the economy of a plan, the tendency of which, it is admitted, is to lower the price of the funds. On the other hand, there can be very little doubt, if the Sinking Fund were left to its natural growth for those four years (with the same amount of loan), that the funds would revert to the more favorable prices of the year 1810.

Another consideration of economy is, that the reduction of interest upon the five and four per cent. stocks, which has always been looked to as one of the advantages that would speedily be realized by the Sinking Fund on the restoration of peace, and which would produce a saving of nearly three millions a year, must necessarily be retarded by the effects of the proposed system.

I am aware that it may be said to me,- If, after all, you are of opinion that this measure is so doubtful with respect to public faith, in policy so hazardous, and in economy so expensive, what is it that you would recommend?" My general answer is, that it forms no part of the duty of an individual Member of Parliament, neither holding a responsible situation, nor possessing those means of informing and maturing his judgment which properly belong to office, to go beyond the sphere of his duty. That duty I have discharged, by stating my conscientious opinion upon the present plan. It certainly is not necessary, and it may not be altogether prudent, for me to go further. But, knowing, as I do, all the difficulties of my Right Honorable Friend's situation, and anxious, as I am, to satisfy him and the Committee, that it is not my disposition to add to those difficulties, I am prepared to state what has occurred to me for obviating the fundamental objection which I feel to the intended measure in its present shape, if the patience of the Com

mittee, which I have already so much abused, should incline them not to refuse this further indulgence.

My Right Honorable Friend stated to this Committee, on a former occasion, that during war, but especially during the present war, the country possessed means of taxation, which, from their nature, could not be permanently continued in time of peace. In this I agree with my Right Honorable Friend, thinking with him, that the war-taxes, productive as they already are, might, however, be considerably augmented. That the permanent taxes do not admit of the same latitude, is an opinion which of late years I have more than once declared in this House. I also agree with my Right Honorable Friend, that an alteration will, at some time hereafter, be requisite in the Sinking Fund Act of 1802, so as to render more equal, and to extend over a larger portion of time, that relief which the Public will derive from the extinction of the debt contracted prior to that period. I subscribe to the opinion, that to have devolved the whole of that relief upon one year, is an unwise departure from the original Acts of 1786 and 1792; but, on the other hand, I contend, in the first place, that no alteration is immediately necessary; and 2dly, that, whenever it is attempted, the object which we ought to have principally in view should be, both as to Sinking Fund and debt, to revert, as much as possible, to the salutary provisions of those original Acts.

The simultaneous extinction of a very large portion of debt, and an accumulation of Sinking Fund, that would become unnecessarily large for some years before that event shall take place, are the two inconveniences against which my Right Honorable Friend wishes now to provide. In order of time, the too great accumulation of the Sinking Fund is the first of these evils: it must necessarily precede the other. But, surely, this is not an inconvenience which is either now pressing upon us, or is likely to arise, so long as we are compelled to borrow far beyond what the Sinking Fund can redeem within the year. On the one hand, therefore, it cannot be said that any such evil now exists to call for our immediate interference; on the other, I have the clear and recorded opinion of my Right Honorable Friend, that the Sinking Fund cannot be touched, "either with justice to the stockholder, or sufely to the State, so long as the accumulation of debt continues."

Let us then examine, whether, upon the grounds which I have stated, my Right Honorable Friend's plan cannot be so amended as to bring it within those limits of justice and safety, which he has so accurately defined. For that purpose we must find the means of avoiding the necessity of impairing the efficacy of the Sinking Fund at the present moment.

Now my Right Honorable Friend is already provided with taxes to the amount of £1,130,000, for the present year. He wants about £700,000 more to meet the estimated charge. The course I should take would be in substance this:-First, I would charge these seven thousand pounds. permanently upon the income of the Sinking Fund: but secondly, I would repay to the Sinking Fund, within the year, and out of the produce of the war-taxes, a sum equal to the charge so thrown upon it in the first instance: and thirdly, I would impose new war-taxes to that amount, unless upon examination it should turn out (as I believe it would) that by the improvements already made, or which might be made, in the assessment and collection of the property-tax, an increase in its produce to the full amount required might be expected in the present year. If such an increase may be reckoned upon, no new taxes would be necessary beyond those which the Chancellor of the Exchequer is actually prepared to impose.

If the war should continue, I should in like manner charge the interest of the loan of the next year upon the Sinking Fund; replacing to the Sinking Fund the amount of the sum so charged out of the produce of the war-taxes, and increasing those taxes by an addition equivalent to the amount so transferred to the Sinking Fund.

The advantages of this mode of proceeding, as compared with that of my Right Honorable Friend, would be these: first, you would avoid breaking in upon the efficacy of your Sinking Fund during the war: secondly, by charging upon that fund the interest of the loans, you give to the contractors at once that permanent security which the war-taxes, from their nature, do not afford: thirdly, you maintain the disposable revenue at its present amount: fourthly, by the growth of the Sinking Fund, you would revive and sustain public credit; (raising the loans in consequence upon far

cheaper terms;) and fifthly, the unredeemed debt would be smaller by many millions at the close of the war.

I should not object to mortgage, in this manner, the Sinking Fund to the amount in the whole required by my Right Honorable Friend for the next four years, if the continuance of the war should render such a sacrifice necessary.

If at the end of the four years, or sooner, peace should be restored, we should then be in a situation to revise the Act of 1802, without injury to the public interest, or to the public creditor; but, even then, I should think it improvident to interfere too hastily with the operations of the Sinking Fund. I would still continue to repay to that Fund, by a portion of the war-taxes, to be continued specifically for that purpose, the full amount charged upon it on account of loans, until the state of public credit should admit of a reduction of interest on the five per cent, stock.

When we shall not only have ceased to make any addition to our existing debt, but shall farther be enabled to reduce the interest on a large portion of that debt; then, I should say, the time would be arrived, when, without prejudice to the State, or injury to individuals, you might leave the charge of those loans upon the Sinking Fund, unreplaced by any further repayment from other

sources.

The reduction of the five per cent. to a four per cent. stock would be an advantage of no small consideration, which is at least postponed by the plan of my Right Honorable Friend. The saving by this reduction of interest, when it takes place, will be more than one million a year; a saving either to be made over to the Sinking Fund, or to be appropriated to the public service, as may appear most expedient, under all the circumstances of the country, at the time when it may take place.

In 1819, we should have the further aid of the Imperial Annuities (230,000l. a year), which will then fall in; and in 1821, the charge of the loan of 1807, amounting to 1,200,000/. a year will be set free. Without anticipating the duty of a future Parliament, as to what may be the most proper application of these sums; it is obvious that these resources, from the proximity of their falling in, might, in the event of peace, afford further facilities in the execu