Mr. Western's Motion relative to the Effects of the Resumption of Cash Payments on the Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce Mr. Whitmore's Motion for a Bill to amend Mr. Maberly's Motion for the Remission of 27. Combination of Workmen Bill Reciprocity of Duties Bill-Proposed Altera- 1824. Page 224 Liverpool and Manchester Railway Bill Mr. Maberly's Motion for the Repeal of the Feb. 10. Bank Charter, and Promissory Notes Acts 443 14. Treaties with South America-Navigation Laws 464 Mr. Huskisson's Exposition of the Effects of SPEECHES OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM HUSKISSON, &c. &c. STATE OF THE PUBLIC FINANCES. July 9, 1817. Mr. Tierney moved a series of Resolutions relating to the State of the Public Finances. After they had been opposed by Mr. Charles Grant, who moved the previous question upon them, Mr. HUSKISSON said, that he must, in the first place, defend his noble friend* from the misrepresentation of having ever maintained, that twenty-two millions must be the ultimate peace establishment of the country. What his noble friend had expressly declared was, that twentytwo millions was the amount below which it could not be reduced in the first year after the termination of the war; but he had admitted, that subsequently it might be made susceptible of a greater reduction, and that reduction had accordingly been effected. As to the supposition, that a hundred millions might have been saved during the war by greater economy, the thing was impossible; as the checks and regulations, which it might be easy to enforce in time of peace, were utterly impracticable during an • Lord Castlereagh. extensive war, when a larger discretion must necessarily be allowed to those entrusted with the execution of naval and military operations. As to the nine millions which, it had been said, had been uselessly squandered in fortifications, it was easy, now when the danger was passed, to stigmatize all measures of precaution as idle and unnecessary. With regard to an assertion which had been made in the course of the debate, that the revenue of the country was not at present more than equal to the charges upon it, the same had always been the case at the conclusion of a peace. In 1786, when the Sinking Fund was first established, the country had been three years at peace; during which three years considerable additions had been made to the public burthens by new taxes. Mr. Pitt had then stated, that when the country should arrive at the permanent peace establishment, a surplus of one million ought to be looked to, as applicable to the reduction of the public debt. No specific period had, however, been stated by Mr. Pitt for the accomplishment of this object. Now, we had been only two years at peace; and instead of the public burthens having been augmented, a number of taxes had been remitted. The two periods, therefore, were not fairly subjects of comparison. There was, in 1786, a deficiency in the receipts, as compared with the expenditure, of 4,884,000l. What did Mr. Pitt do in that year? Precisely what his right honourable friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had done in this. He added no less than 5,500,000l. to the unfunded debt, by the issue of exchequer bills, in order to cover the existing deficiency. He confessed he had heard, with some surprise, from the right honourable mover of these resolutions, his description of the state of the country during the last war. According to that description, the period of the American war was one of nothing but distress, while that of the last war was, on the |