house of lords, April 23, by lord Hawkesbury, the new secretary of state for the home department. Petty's plan; to which, indeed, the April 13. The house having resolved itself into a committee on the Loan interest bill, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer stated, that he had no objections to the interest of the Joan being secured according to lord H. P.'s plan for the present year, but wished to avoid pledging the house to approve of any part of that plan for the future. A similar declaration was made in the VOL. XLIX. taxes On the 31 of March, sir James Pulteney moved his resolutions on finance, pursuant to his former notice. He did not propose to enter on any detailed observations on his plan, til his calculations should be before the house; and should, for the present, content himself with shewing that a considerable saving would accrue without any incouvenience whatever. He proposed to take advantage of the war during the war, and to mortgage them only at the end of the war, and then to charge the war debt upon the war taxes. By this plan, there would be a smaller amount of permanent debt, and a larger sinking fund created, than by the new one proposed by lord H. Petty. this mode of finance, the supple mentary loans would not be felt during the war; and the amount of the war loan would be but 11 mil lions annually; the interest of which he proposed to provide for, in part, out of the proceeds of the sinking fund.-Sir James concluded with moving the ten following resolu tions, which were ordered to lie on the table, and to be printed : By 1. That in the new plan of finance, it is proposed to mortgage, during each year of war, a certain portion of the war tates, to provide for the payment of the interest and sinking fund of part of the loan, which shell be made in that year; and also to provide what shall be further wanted for the public service by a supple mentary loan. 2. That, the war expenditure being stated at 32,000,000l. it will be necessary, in addition to H the the war taxes unpledged, to make loans in the first year to the amount of 12,000,0007. in order to meet that expenditure, and loans to a larger amount in each subsequent year. 3. "That if no part of the war taxes were to be pledged, a loan of 11,000,000l. annually, would be sufficient for this purpose.-That the amount of the present sinking fund is 8,331,709, and therefore the annual interest of a loan to that amount might be provided, by appropriating for that purpose the interest of debt redeemed annually without causing any diminution in the present amount of that fund. That the interest of 2,668,2917. being the difference between the present amount of the sinking fund, and the sum of 11,000,000l., with the usual sinking fund of one per cent. upon the nominal capital, would be 177,8861. per annum, supposing the 3 per cents. to continue at 60: and that if it should at any time be thought expedient to appropriate for the interest of such sum, viz. 2,668,2917., a part of the interest redeemed by the operation of the sinking fund within the year, there would be on that account, a reduction of such sinking fund in each year to the amount of 133,418. That the employment of a consider. able sum in the purchase of stock, at successive periods throughout the year under the provisions which now regulate the purchase of stock by the commissioners for the redemption of the national debt, has a tendency to keep up the price of the funds, and is consequently, in the time of war, of advantage both to the public and to the stockholder. 4. That the sinking fund may in each year, be carried to the amount proposed for such year in the new plan, by making a supplementary loan equal to the amount of the dif ference between the sinking fund, as it would otherwise stand for such year, and the amount proposed in such plan for the purpose of supplying that difference. 66 5. That such supplementary loan, when added to the sinking fund, by reducing an amount of interest equal to the charge of interest increased by raising the same, it is obvious, that, whatever advantage might result from so large an increase of sinking fund, operating in the market, (if an increase to the amount proposed by the new plan, and wholly produced by adding to the loan of the year, can really be deemed advantageous,) might equally be obtained by this mode, without any additional burthen to the public. 6. That the smallness of the loan for the service of the year, in proportion to the sinking fund, must also have a tendency to keep up the price of funds. 7. "That this advantage will result in a greater degree from the system of borrowing 11,000,0007. only in each year, than by having recourse to the larger loans, which would be required for the service of each year under the new plan. 8. "That this mode of providing for the war expenditure, would con sequently be more advantageous to the public, and to the stockholder, than the new plan; and that if, upon the return of peace, a portion of the war taxes exactly equal to what would be pledged at the same period, by the new plan, were then to be pledged, to meet the annual charge of such portion of the total debt, as that amount of taxes would provide for for at an interest of 10 per cent., in cluding the sinking fund upon the same, the remainder would be the permanent debt, leaving the preseat annual charge of the portion of the debt so deducted and provided for, to be added to the amount of the permanent sinking fund. 9. "That the debt on the war taxes, being in the same manner deducted on the return of peace, from the total debt which may have then been contracted upon the new plan, the remainder would be the permanent debt incurred by that plan, and that, the sinking fund of the war taxes being deducted from the total sinking fund, which may have arisen within the same period, the remainder would be the permanent sinking fund. 10. "That the operations of the mode now proposed, whilst they afford some comparative advantage during the continuance of the war, would place the finances of the country in a much more favourable situation, at the restoration of peace, than those of the new plan, at whatever period peace may be concluded; and that at the termination of the period of 20 years, the comparison would be as follows: : According to his former statement, the Total of the Supplies to be de frayed by Great-Britain was, 40,527,0657. 11s. 8d. By his corrected Statement The Ways and Means by which the Supplies were to be covered, according to his former Statement, were By the corrected Statement . Leaving an Excess over Supples The terms of the Loan were, for every £.100 subscribed, The loan of last year, he observed, had been negotiated at an interest of 4l. 19s. 7d. Lord H. Petiy entered into a calculation to shew, that, by a deduction of the supplies which were extraordinary in the votes of the present year, such as the payment of the Loyalty loan, the subsidies to the king of Sweden (280,0007.), the emperor of Russia (¿00,0007.), and to the king of Prussia the remainder of the sum total on credit, and the excess of the extraordinaries of the present year, the supplies to be prospectively raised, would be reduced from the supplies of the present year, already stated, to 88,100,1307.-The first resolution being moved, Mr. Rose observed, that the noble lord had excluded from his consideration, in the first formation of his p'an, any estimate founded on the subsidies that might be necessary; and yet, scarcely a month had elapsed, when he came forward with subsidies to the amount of nearly one million! He had always been of opinion, that lord H. P.'s supposition that 32 millions would be suf. ficient prospectively for the war, was totally fallacious. Sir Thomas Turton said, the event had proved that the war expenditure could not be confined to 32 millions. After a few observations in explanation of the 3 statements before the committee, the resolutions were agreed to and ordered to be committed. Of the various plans of finance, that took up so great a portion of the time and attention of the house of com. mons in this session of parliament, it has been thought proper to give a ful ler account than is permitted, by our limits, to many other proceedings, because their object is of vast im portance; and because, out of the discussions to which they give birth, some results may arise for the cor rection and improvement of our political economy. In an account of the proceedings of parliament, relating to finance, the progress of the Commission of Military Enquiry is not to be omitted.-This commission, which had been appointed in the last year of the administration of Mr. Pitt, and renewed under the present administration, had brought to light abuses of very great magni. tude in the barrack department. It appeared that general Delancey, barrack-master-general, had been in the habit of drawing, through the medium of Mr. Greenwood, the army-agent, immense sums of the public money, long before they were wanted; and that in a part only *! accounts, (as there had not me for examining the whole,) were over-charges, and misats to the amount of no less han ninety thousand pounds. report of the commissioners, their third,) made early in esent session of parliament, ito Mr. Alexander Davison, r, and colonel of a regiment unteers. This man, who had lately tried for bribery at ns, and imprisoned for that *, soon after his coming out son, had been made treasurer ordnance; an office in which, three to four millions passed gh his hands of the public mo. It appeared from the rethat in consequence of a barwith general Delancey, Davison to receive a commission of two a half per cent. for supplying articles of beds, bedding, sheets, kets, towels, iron-mongery, dies, beer, and forage; but as to coals, he was to supply article as a merchant. It appeared from the report, that way in which the public was red by Davison, was two-fold. st, by following the example of Lancey, in drawing immense sums money, long before they were expended by him for the public service: he had always in hand a million or more of the public money; of the interest of which he thus deprived the public. Secondly, he imposed on the public in the price of the articles furnished. On this head there did not appear to have been any means of detection afforded, as far as re ated to the articles furnished on commission: but ample means of detection were found with respect to the coals, and the commissioners did not fail to make a proper use of them The bar. gain concerning the coals was this: Davison was to buy the coals on his own account, and to sell then to the barrack-office, at the wholes sale prices, at the several places where the barracks were situated: and, that these prices might be ascertained in a regular way, Davison was to produce certificates that his prices were fair; these certificates being signed by persons of the most perfect respectability. But it an peared that Delancey had never made any inquiry into the character, or the means of knowledge possessed by the persons who signed Davison's certificates, save in one single instance t. Had he conceived himself to be under any check or control, l. XLVII. (1806) p. 79. In the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, the certificates were generally signed sperson of the name of George-Richard Walker, a dealer in conls, and who Concerned with Mr. Davison under some agreement or contract, in supplyals for the barracks in Guernsey and the adjacent i-lands, for about four rs. He was afterwards Mr. Davison's agent for about two years more, in the ae basiness, at a conmission of 24 per cent, on an estimate price of the coals deed. He was also Mr. Davison's agent in supplying can les during the whole This person had, therefore, had a direct interest in cerutying high prices: and ad also au interest in the quantity delivered in; for winle he acted as Mr. son's agent, he received, on an agreed valuation of 65 shillings per chaldron, on The coals measured in the barracks. It was during this period, that the great cast in the cargoes sent to these islands appeared. Now this Richard-George aker was convicted of perjury and executed." Extracted from the Third Report fe Commission of Military Inquiry. See the whole Report in the Appendix to The Chronicle. H 3. |