pofes, thofe purpofes must be to fubject minifters to a fine while the war continued! This he thought a whimsical idea, efpecially when it was confidered that the fentiments of the house and of the country had already been expreffed upon the fubject; and when it was manifeft that peace at prefent could not be obtained. Mr. Tierney reprobated the invectives which had been thrown out by the minifterial fide of the houfe against his honourable friend the propofer of the refolution. He contended that the refolution which, with a mere error of tranfcription, formed the model of the prefent motion, had been paffed in times fully as good as the prefent, and by a parliament fully as much enlightened: he could not fee, therefore, what reafon there was for the fneer which the right honourable gentleman had indulged. After fome explanation from Mr. chancellor Pitt, and Mr. Nicholls had explain ed, the latter withdrew his motion. The next meafure relative to finance, difcuffed by the commons, was a motion of Mr. D. P. Coke, for limiting the fees of the tellers of the exchequer during the prefent diftreffed and calamitous fituation of the country. The houfe was then fitting in a committee on fome claufes in the triple affeffiment bill. At the time he made this motion (December 22d) he allured the committee that he was prompted by no perfonal hoftility against any of his majefty's minifters; on the cortrary, he wished them to retain their places, because he felt extremely averse to the doctrines of the gentlemen who were likely to fucceed them, efpecially to the doctrine of parliamentary reform, which, if attempted, and effected, muft, in his opinion, be productive of much mifchief, and muft neceffarily end in a revolution. But he thought at the fame time, that the country muft feel furprifed, nay, indignant, if the houfe were to oppofe bringing up a claufe tending to limit the enormous fees which the measure then under difcuffion would throw into the hands of the noble lords who held this and other lucrative offices, and that at a moment when the people was groaning under an almost unfupportable weight of taxes. The chancellor of the exchequer contended, that though the motion might be free from a fpirit of hoftility to the noble lords in queftion, it was very far from being free from very great injuftice; for it went to deprive thofe noble lords of what they poffeffed as the juft rewards of the great public fervices which their fathers had rendered to the country, and which they held as a freehold tenure confirmed to them by an act of parliament; nor was there any thing in the prefent at to warrant their being thus deprived of two thirds of their income, as it would not make the addition of one filling to the fees of the tellers of the exchequer. Sir William Pulteney thought the motion of Mr. Coke had a clofe connexion with the affeffed tax bill, and expreffed his furprise that gentlemen appeared averfe to a claufe which propofed the applica. tion of fuch enormous fees to the exigencies of the country instead of putting them in their pockets when the people laboured under fuch general diftrefs. After fome animadverfions from Mr. fecretary Dundas, the houfe divided on the motion of Mr. Coke- Ayes 6, noes 75. CHAP. CHAP. III. Land Tax Redemption Bill. Debates upon that Subject-In the House of Commons in the Lords. Second Budget, and a Recapitulation of the whole Ways and Means for the Year 1798. Repeal of the Clock and Watch Tax. Bill for confolidating the feveral Duties upon Houfes and Windows. Bill for impofing new Dugies upon Imports and Exports, Refolutions for that Purpofe agreed to. TH HE favourite meafure of finance, of all which were propofed by the chancellor of the exchequer in the courfe of the feffion of 1798, was a bill for the redemption, or more properly for the perpetuation and fale; of the land tax, For this purpofe he rofe on the 2d of April, in purfuance of notice he had given to the houfe, and ftated the outline of his plan, the object of which was to abforb a large quantity of ftock, and in the procefs to transfer a portion of the national debt into a landed fecurity: the quantity of ftock thus to be transferred was to equal, at least in its amount, the quantity of land tax which fhould by thefe means be extinguished, and fhould be applicable to the public fervice. He pointed out to the committee, that this operation would produce a much larger fum than that which was at prefent produced by the land tax; and that confiderable gain, in a pecuniary point of view, would neceffarily refult to the public. But this was only a collateral advantage attending the meafure, and one upon which he laid the fmallest ftrefs. The great and important benefit which he expected to arife to the public, from the adoption of this plan, would be the diminution of the flock, which at that moment preffed fo hard upon the public credit. He faid that the amount of the land tax was about two millions a year, which had for near a century been annually granted, and according to the fame rate for different counties. He propofed by this measure, to reduce fo much of the public debt as should leave an income of two millions four hundred thousand pounds applicable to the public fervice. The pecuniary advantages arifing from this meafure were obvious from this statement, because the public would difpofe of a revenue of 2,000,000l. for which they would clear of public debt to fuch an amount, that the intereft would produce a fum of 2,400,000l. leaving a clear gain of 400,000l. Under thefe circumftances, the fituation of the perfon who purchafed the land tax would be that of having a landed fecurity for his property, and that at a rate fo favourable as to render it a very defirable object; the public would be a confiderable gainer, and eighty millions of capital would be taken out of the market. He fhould not only propofe to place a fum of 2,000,000l. under the annual controul of parliament; but he should propofe, that the fum of 2,400,000l. fhould be placed in that fituation; fo that in fact, instead of lofing any of the conftitutional checks which parliament parliament poffeffed before, it would have a greater check over the public revenue than it had at that moment. It had been objected to this plan, he faid, that the land tax, which it was the object of this meafure to perpetuate, was in many inftances, fo unequal as to amount abfolutely to an abufe; and to perpetuate an abufe was certainly a great evil. Many gentlemen had ftated to him, that if the land tax was at prefent equal in its operation, they would confent to this measure; but they could not give their confent to make abuses more permanent than they were. To thefe objections he answered, that if gentlemen had féen the tax voted from year to year, for near a century, without any attempt being made to correct this inequality, he thought it was not un fair to conclude, that as long as the land tax continued, it was as likely to continue under its prefent arrangement by annual votes, as it would be if rendered perpetual. This obfervation he wished to put ftrongly to the good fenfe of the houfe. As eftates had defcended from hand to hand for near a century, with the inequalities originally infiituted in the land tax, it would be exceedingly difficult to impofe new valuations upon property. It had been faid, that this regulation would lead to a new land tax: fuppofe a new land tax fhould be im pofed; it was clear that it could not be impofed upon any eftate which had been discharged of the old, in any other proportion than it would be upon any other eftate upon which the old land tax ftill remained, except that the amount of the land tax, at the time it was redeemed, fhould be deducted from the eftate, otherwife the operation of it would be unfair. He contended, that by this plan, all perfons who redeemed their land, tax would be fully as fafe from any additional burden as thofe who had not redeemed it. With refpect to the operation which this meature would have upon landed gentlemen, fuppofing that other perfons purchafed the land tax which attached upon their eftates, he remarked, that this objection was founded upon an idea, that every gentlemen poffeffing a landed eftate land tax, In the plan which he had might not be able to purchase his to propofe, every advantage would not only to induce him to purchase be given to the owner of the estate, the land tax, but to facilitate his effecting that object. But if within a certain time (which the committee the land fhould not be able to purwould hereafter limit) the owner of chafe, provifion would be made, that even in that cafe, their fituanot be left entirely hopclefs; but tion, or that of their heirs, fhould that a farther period fhould be allowed them, to take advantage of the purchase. With refpect to the pofed, that the payment fhould be terms of the purchase, it was proregulated by the price of stock; and that the payment fhould never he made in money, but always in a transfer of flock. This was unqueftionably as good a mode of payment as if it was paid in money, and would have the effect of faving the intereft, and would accommodate itfelf to every fluctuation of the ftocks. Suppofe the ftocks were price at which they now were, the taken at 50, which was about the intereft which a perfon might make cent.; and confequently the number of money in the funds was 6 per of years purchase was between fix, teen and feventeen years. He meant that the land tax fhould be taken at twenty years purchase. From this ftatement it would appear, that there there would be a transfer of forty pounds of stock for every one pound of land tax redeemed. Upon this principle, if the ftocks were at 75, then it would be at thirty years purchase, and fo on, always making a difference of one year's purchafe for every 24 per cent. variation in the stocks; and the refult of the whole of this measure would be that the public would gain one fifth, or 400,000l. As for landed gentlemen, fuppofing them capable of purchasing their tax, he thought that giving them an opportunity of doing it at twenty years purchase was a fufficient temptation to induce them to make the purchase; and, on the other hand, it was a confiderable advantage to the public to fell the land tax at twenty years purchase, while others were redeeming the flock at the rate of between fixteen and leventeen years purchase. He admitted, that there was a difference between funded and landed fecurity, in point of value; landed property was hardly ever fold for less than from twentyeighty to thirty years purchase; whereas funded property was at about fixteen or feventeen years. It was therefore obvious that great advantages were given to the purchafer when he was given that which was equivalent to landed property at twenty years purchase; the fhare, therefore, asked for the public, was little, while the advantage it afforded to the individual was great, if it was to be called landed fecurity; but he did not mean to fay it was in every respect the fame, because it was an unimprovable eftate. It was his intention to give every poffible advantage to the holders of land, and of course to exclude ftrangers from purchafing the tax. For this purpose it was proposed to give a power to every man who had even a temporary right to the eftate, to fecure on the eftate the money which he might borrow for that purpose, thus to put the tenant in tail and the tenant for life in the fame fituation with the tenant in fee; and it was alfo propofed to give a power of felling part of a fettled eftate to free the reft from the burden of the tax. If the owner was not able to redeem the tax, then it was propofed that he fhould not be permitted to redeem it till that period when the monied men would have the leaft objection to return to the poffeffion of ftock: the period he would fix would be, when the old finking fund fhould be at what was called the maximum, that is, when the intereft was no longer to go on in a compound ratio; this would be when the old finking fund would amount to 4,200,cool. annually. If then the country Thould be able to get through the difficul ties of the prefent moment, they had a right to look forward with confidence; they would foon arrive at a period at which they would have a finking fund of between feven and eight millions, applicable annually to the reduction of the national debt. When that hap pened there must be an end of all difficulties refpecting the public credit; there would then be an end of all difference between landed and funded property. He next fpoke to the fluctuation to which the land tax on particular estates was liable. By the mode of divifion pointed out in the land tax act, the charge on particular diftricts continued unaltered; but this was not the cafe within the districts; there alterations would be found to take place. He believed, however, that in moft part of the kingdom the operation of the the repartition of the charge on individual eftates was very little. The places molt liable to variation were towns, and parts where new buildings were establishing. In the metropolis it was very confiderable, In Mary-la-bonne the tax was every day lighter. Where a change was likely to take place, it was thought moft advifable to fuffer the proprietar to redeem it at its prefent rate, and he might then wave the advantage in the event of an increafe in the tax, and fubmit to the lofs which he would fuftain by an abatement; or he might, if the commiffioners thought proper, go on receiving the difference between the prefent and future rates of the receiver-general, in cafe of an increafe, and fettling with the parish in the other alternative. It might happen that a purchafer might contract not orly for the land tax of individual eftates, but also for that of a district, in which cafe no fluctuation would arife. Such were the outlines of a plan, the details of which were neceffarily long. Mr. Pitt concluded with propofing fifteen refolutions, which, as they formed the flratum of the bill, are inferted here. I. That it is the opinion of this committee, that the feveral and respective fums of money charged by virtue of an act of the prefent feffion of parliament, intituled, "An act for granting an aid to his majefty by a land tax, for the fervice of the year 1798," on the refpective counties and places in Great Britain, in refpect of the premifles in the faid act mentioned, lying within the fame counties and places refpectively, to be raifed, levied, and paid unto his majefty, within the fpace of one year, from the 25th day of March, 1798, fhall, from and after the expiration of the faid term, continue, and be raised, levied, and paid yearly, to his ma jefty, his heirs, and fucceffors, from and after the 25th day of March, in every year, for ever; subject, nevertheless, to the rules, regulations, reftrictions, and conditions of redemption, to be prescribed. II. That it is the opinion of this committee, that it fhall be lawful for commitioners to be appointed for that purpose, to contract and agree with all and every persons or perfon, bodies politic or cor, porate, having or holding any manors, meffuages, or tenements, for the redemption of the land tax charged upon their refpective manors, meffuages, or tenements, according to the affeffment and pound rate to be made in pursuance of the faid act; and that the confideration to be given for fuch redemption fhall be fo much capital ftock of public annuities, transferable at the bank of England, bearing an intereft after the rate of three pounds per centum per annum, commonly called the three pounds per centum confolidated annuities, and the three pounds per centum reduced annuities, as will yield an annuity or dividend, exceeding the amount of the land tax fo to be redeemed by one-fifth part thereof; fuch capital ftock to be transferred to the commiflioners for the reduction of the national debt within the period of five years, from the day of by four inftalments in every year; videlicet, on the first day of May, the first day of Auguft, the first day of November, and the first day of February, in each year: the first instalment to be made on fuch of the faid days as fall next enfue after the entering into fuch contract; but with liber. ty to any perfon to ftipulate with the |