diture and of receipt. The supply for each year, as gentlemen are aware, includes all the establishments and the charges for the various branches of the publick service, together with all incidental charges which are defrayed by annual grants. It is independent of the interest and charges of the national debt, of the million annually issued to the commissioners of the civil list, and of the other charges on the consolidated fund. The amount of all these articles is 11,391,000l. and being permanently fixed, forms no part of the supply voted in each year.

For the navy we have voted this year 16,000 seamen, of which the charge is 832,000l. for what is called the ordinary of the navy, 672,000l. and for the extrordinary building and repairs (including the work in the dock-yards) 350,000l. We have also voted 131,000l. towards the reduction of the navy debt, which is sufficient for defraying the whole of the extra expenses of the naval department in the last year (including those of the armament) as far as they have not been already defrayed by the surplus arising from former grants. These sums together make 1,985,0001.

The establishment of the army for the present year is 1,474,000.; the extraordinaries 277,0001.; besides 63,000l. advanced for the troops in India, which will ultimately be repaid by the company. The total voted for the army is 1,814,000l.

For the ordinary expenses of the ordnance there has been voted 221,0001.; for the extraordinaries nearly 157,0001.; and under the head of services performed in former years, but unprovided for, 44,0001. making in the whole the sum of 422,0001.

The estimates for the colonies and plantations amount to about 31,0001.

Various miscellaneous services, including the exe pense of African forts, the mint, the roads in Scotland, the maintenance and transportation of convicts, the sum paid for printing journals, and some other articles (particularly a compensation to the owners of African vessels for losses sustained in consequence

of the late regulations, and likewise to the settlers removed in the year 1786 from the Mosquito shore) amount in the whole to 114,0001.

There are two other articles which always form part of the annual statement of the supply, under the heads of deficiency of grants, and estimated deficiency of the land and malt, the nature of which is fully explained in the report of the committee of the last session, and for which allowance is made, though in a different shape, in the comparison of the permanent income and expenditure. The amount of the deficiency of grants is 436,000l. which includes in it the sum of 123,000l. repaid to the bank, in consequence of the diminution of their floating balance, out of which 500,0001. had been advanced for the supply of last year; and the deficiency on the land and malt may be estimated at 350,0001.

To these articles I shall propose to add two others. The first is 100,0001. out of the supplies of the present year, to be applied towards the discharge of the exchequer bills issued on account of the Spanish armament; by which means we shall be enabled to repeal immediately the additional duty on malt, the produce of which for the present year was appropriated to the separate fund created for that purpose. The second is an additional sum to be issued in this particular year, beyond the annual million, for the reduction of the national debt; and, on the comparison of the supply with the ways and means for the year, I think it will appear, that the sum may be safely stated at 400,0001.

I have now enumerated all the articles of the supply, except the debentures to the American loyalists. These I omit, because they are nearly balanced by the profit on the lottery, which I do not mean to include in the statement of ways and means.

The first article of the estimated ways and means for the present year, is the amount of the annual duties on land and malt, which may here be taken at 2,750,0001. because exchequer bills will be issued on the credit of these duties to that amount; and the

deficiency in the actual produce of the duties will, according to the usual practice, become a charge on the supply of future years, as the deficiency of the produce of former years is a charge on the supply of the present year. The next article consists of the sums which may be expected to be applied towards defraying the supply of the year out of the produce of the consolidated fund. This fund includes in it the whole amount of all the permanent taxes, and is applicable, in the first instance, to the payment at the end of each quarter of the permanent charges which I have before had occasion to enumerate. Any surplus which remains after payment of those charges is, from time to time, disposable by parliament; and a sum equal to the expected amount of that surplus in the course of a year is always voted as an article of ways and means. In voting the ways and means, it has for some time been the practice to calculate from the 5th of April in the current year, to the 5th of April following: so that the grants for the supply of each particular year are not expected to be completed till the expiration of the first quarter in the subsequent year. In the present instance, however, there remained a sum of 155,000l. out of the actual surplus of the consolidated fund on the 5th of January, 1792, after making good the whole sum granted for the service of the year 1791, which had not been estimated to be completed till the quarter ending the 5th of April, 1792. The increase of the revenue having defrayed the whole charge, and furnished this actual surplus, as early as on the 5th of January last, and the 5th of April next, will yield a further surplus (after paying the interest of the debt, and other fixed charges) which, instead of being applied, as was estimated, to the service of the year 1791, will be applicable to the supply of the present year; and to this is to be added the growing produce of the consolidated fund for the succeeding twelve months, from the 5th of April, 1792, to the 5th of April, 1793.

The expected amount of the disposable surplus on the 5th of April next, I state at 486,000l.; and in forming this calculation, I suppose the whole produce of the permanent taxes, during the current quarter, to be equal to the average formed from the corresponding quarters in each of the last four years, which amounts to 2,970,000l. To this is to be added the expected produce, during this quarter, of the temporary taxes appropriated to defray the expense of the Spanish armament, because, up to the 5th of April, those taxes are directed to be carried to the consolidated fund, and the proportion of the expense of the Spanish armament, which was charged on the supply of 1792, has been already defrayed out of the produce of the revenue up to the 5th of January. Supposing these taxes to yield in this quarter a sum equal to their average produce in the three quarters since they have taken effect, their amount will be nearly 200,000l. and this, added to the sum before stated, will make a total of 3,170.0001. From this is to be deducted the amount of the interest of debt, and other fixed charges on the consolidated fund for this quarter, which is about 2,684,0001. leaving a remainder of 486,0001.

The further amount of the sum, which may be expected to arise from the surplus of consolidated fund between the 5th of April, 1792, and the 5th of April, 1793, I propose to estimate in like manner on the average of the four last years, making the necessary deduction on account of the taxes which I shall on this day propose to you to repeal.

The total amount of the revenue on that average, exclusive of land and malt, was 13,654,000l. The annual amount of the taxes proposed to be repealed is about 223,000l.; but as some arrears will be received from these taxes subsequent to their repeal, the sum to be deducted on this account in the present year, will not be to that amount, and may be estimated at about 163.0001. The total amount of the interest of debt and other fixed charges on the consolidated fund is (as I have already stated)

11,391,000l. There will, therefore, on these suppositions, remain a disposable surplus of 2.100,0001. to which is to be added a sum of 200,000. which there is good ground to suppose will be repaid to the publick during this year from the balances of different accounts. These articles of ways and means added together amount to 5,691,000l. The articles of supply which I have enumerated, amount in the whole to 5,654,000!. so that the ways and means exceed this supply by 37,0001.

I have already observed that, in the supply of the present year, there are some articles included, which exceed considerably the estimate of the permanent annual expenditure in the several branches of the publick service. These consist principally of the additional sum of 400,000l. proposed to be issued to the commissioners; the sum of 100 0001. granted in lieu of the malt duty; the sum granted for the navy debt; that repaid to the bank; the advance on account of the troops in India, and some excesses in the army estimate; in the unprovided estimate of the ordnance; in the miscellaneous services and the deficiency of grants; and they all appear peculiar to the present year, and not likely to recur in future, except as far as an annual addition may hereafter be made to the sums issued for the reduction of the national debt.

In speaking, however, of the future expenditure, I am aware that contingencies may occasionally arise, which cannot at present be foreseen; but, as far as I have now the means of judging, I am not aware of any specifick article in which there is likely to be an excess beyond the permanent estimate, except in the amount of the small sums which may be still necessary for completing the works for the protection of the dock yards at home, and the expense of carrying into execution the plan of fortifications in the West Indies, which will be a subject of separate consideration. And with a view to these articles, or to other contingencies that may arise, I have the satisfaction of thinking, that they will probably be fully balanced