The general rule of foreign courts is, to receive only those who are received at home. The king could not with propriety require any point, of foreign governments, the refusal of which would not afford his majesty just grounds of resentment or remonstrance.

It would be neither for the king's dignity nor for the queen's comfort, that she should be made the subject of such a question.

To this it was replied, for the queen, that with respect to this new proposition on the part of the king's servants, it should be taken into immediate consideration; but her majesty's law officers observed, that her majesty was not in the situation referred to in the above reasoning, having been habitually received at court in this country for many years, and having only ceased to go there in 1814, out of regard to the peculiarly delicate situation in which the unfortunate differences in the royal family placed the late queen.

The latter observation was met, on the part of the king's servants, by a re-assertion of his majesty's undoubted authority on this point, whether as king, or as Prince Regent in the exercise of the royal authority; that the court held by her late majesty was in fact the court of the Prince Regent, then acting in the name and on the behalf of his late majesty, and that the present queen, then princess of Wales, was excluded from such court.

No. 5.-PROTOCOL of the fifth conference, held at the foreign office, June 19th, 1820. The protocols of the preceding conferences were read, and agreed upon.

Her majesty's law officers stated, that the proposition of yesterday had been submitted to her majesty, and that it had not produced any alteration in her majesty's sentiments.

In order to avoid any misinterpretation of the expression used on mentioning their belief that her majesty might overcome her reluctance to go abroad, viz. "under all the circumstances of her position," they stated, that they meant thereby, the unhappy domestic differences which created the difficulty of her majesty holding a court, and the understood sense of parliament, that her majesty's residence in this country might be attended with public inconvenience.

They also protested generally, in her majesty's name, against being understood to propose or to desire any terms inconsistent with the honour and dignity of the king, or any which her own vindication did not seem to render absolutely necessary.

The titles of the above Papers having been read by the clerk at the table,

Lord Castlereagh said, that he felt it to be his duty to apprize the House, that his majesty, feeling that every effort should be made to prevent the necessity of proceeding farther with the delicate question which had recently been brought under their notice, had consented that it should be considered elsewhere. In consequence of the course adopted having failed to produce the desired effect, he was authorized by his majesty to present certain papers, by which the whole of the proceeding would be communicated to parliament. He felt great pain in stating that the course proposed and adopted had not led to any satisfactory arrangement on the subject. From the great importance and the extreme delicacy of the question, the discussion of which had been repeatedly deferred, he felt that it would be very improper on his part, and exceedingly unfair towards the House, to press the consideration of the subject un. til gentlemen possessed the most authentic information connected with it. By that means the House would be relieved from the painful situation in which it at present stood, and would be enabled to judge of the efforts that had been made to arrange this unfortunate business. The papers were now in the progress of being printed, and would be given out to gentlemen early to-morrow. He therefore felt it to be his duty to move that the House should adjourn over, till Wednesday, the consideration of this question. It was necessary, before they proceeded to the farther consideration of the king's message, that all the circumstances of the case should be laid before them; that they should be enabled, at once, to view it in all its bearings, before they determined how they were to dispose of a question surrounded by so many difficul

ties.

His lordship then moved, "that the papers do lie on the table."

Mr. Brougham, in seconding the motion, begged to express to the House his concurrence in the view the noble lord had taken of this subject. He assured

the noble lord that he could not feel greater pain than he experienced, in consequence of the want of success which had attended the effort that had been made to adjust the unfortunate differences that had occurred between those illustrious personages. He was anxious that the papers should be printed; and he hoped, when they were in the hands of gentlemen, they would find no reason to award any blame to her majesty; there was nothing contained in them that could cast any censure on her. It was possible -barely possible-amongst the many other peculiarities of this distressing case, that the House might be induced to adopt the opinion that no blame attached to either party.

The motion was then agreed to; and the consideration of his majesty's message was further adjourned till Wednesday.

THE BUDGET.] The House having resolved itself into a committee of Ways and Means,

The Chancellor of the Exchequer rose. He stated, that feeling how difficult it was under the circumstances in which the House was then situated, for him to obtain that attention without which a financial discussion could not be intelligible or satisfactory, he should in the shortest, as well as the clearest, manner in his power state those particulars which it was his more immediate duty to bring under the consideration of parliament on that day, without attempting to enter into the discussion of general topics, which might be introduced with equal propriety on other occasions.

The first point to which he wished to call the attention of the committee, was the amount of the supply which had been granted for the service of the year under its several departments, and he should then proceed to show the funds from which the expenditure was intended to be defrayed, adding such explanations at the close of his statement as appeared to be necessary to elucidate the several points to which he had referred.

The first great head of expenditure to which he should call their attention, was that of the army. For military services there had been granted in the present year, including some items which still remained to be voted, the sum of 9,422,000l. In the preceding year the grant had amounted to 8,782,000l., but the actual expense had exceeded that sum, in con

sequence of the augmentation of force which had taken place towards the close of that year, and which had been partly included in the votes of the present session. Much as he might regret the causes which led to this augmentation of force, he should not then think it necessary to trouble the committee by entering upon them, being satisfied that the conviction was general in the country, as well as being sensible in his own mind, that the augmentation had not arisen from any voluntary disposition in the government to increase the military force, but from the urgent necessity of finding additional protection for the loyal and indus. trious part of the population of the country.

He next adverted to the naval services, which amounted to 6,586,000l.; and under which head of expenditure there had also been an increase of 150,000l. arising principally from the same necessity which had produced the augmentation of the expences of the army, an additional number of 2,000 marines having been voted to perform garrison duty on shore.

The ordnance estimates amounted to 1,204,000l. being nearly the same as in the last year; and in both the actual expense considerably exceeded the sums granted by parliament, the surplus being made good by the sale of stores remaining at the close of the war, and which it was no longer necessary to preserve.

The miscellaneous services he should estimate at 2,100,000l. being about 22,000/. more than in the year 1819; but in the estimate of the present year he included the sum which it had been supposed would be necessary for the expences of the coronation. The total amount of the heads of expenditure which he had enumerated was 19,313,000l. being about 825,000l. more than those of the last year; but this excess in the expense of the general service of the state would be in part compensated by a diminution of the charges of the unfunded debt, which, in 1819, had amounted to two millions, viz. 1,570,000l. for interest, and 430,000l. for sinking fund on exchequer bills. In the present year it was only necessary to provide one million for the interest, and 410,000l. for sinking fund. The total sum to be provided for the service of the year would therefore be 20,723,000l., while, in 1819, it had been 20,488,000l. But, in addition to the pension necessary to be made for the services properly belonging to the year, there was to be added a sum for

To meet these charges, the first article of Ways and Means was the continuation of the usual annual taxes, amounting to 3,000,000l. The next would be a grant upon the produce of the temporary excise duties which had been continued since the war. In the year 1819, 3,500,000. had been granted upon those duties, being about equal to their actual produce in the then preceding years; but owing principally to the variations of payment which had been caused by the consolidation of the excise duties, in July last, there remained on the 5th July, 1820, a sum of 900,000l., still to be made good upon that grant. He should, therefore, for the present year, propose to vote only 2,500,000l. upon that fund, in order that the grant might be nearly completed before the month of April next. The remaining articles of ordinary income were the lottery and the old naval stores. The former he should estimate at 240,000l. and the latter at 260,000l., being the produce of the sales of the last year. The total amount of these several items of ordinary income was six millions, which being deducted from the supply he had before stated, would leave the sum of 20,700,000l. to be provided for by extraordinary means.

He had already had occasion to explain to parliament the mode in which seven millions of exchequer bills had been funded, and a loan of five millions contracted, and he had had the satisfaction to observe, that the terms which he had obtained for the public in each of those transactions had met with the general approbation of the House. He should now further propose a vole sanctioning a loan of

would be necessary to vote, but of which he could not offer a specific estimate. It would arise from the repayments which might take place of advances made to corporations or individuals under the authority of the act of the 57th of his late majesty, for affording encouragement to public works. Under that act, about 1,000,000l. had been advanced in exchequer bills, which would become due in October next, and for the payment of which parliament had made provision in the present session; but the individuals who had received these loans were in many instances allowed to repay them by distant instalments, so that only a small proportion of the sums advanced could be expected to be repaid in the present year; the whole transaction would, however, be ultimately wound up without any loss to the public, and at a rate of interest, which would afford provision for all the charges attending the operation of the act.

Having thus stated the various items of Supply and Ways and Means, it might be necessary to explain the situation of the unfunded debt, as settled by the votes of the last year, and as now proposed to be reduced by the arrangements for the present. The amount of exchequer bills, authorized to be issued by the acts of 1819, was 36,500,000, to which was to be added the sum of 1,000,000/. issued, as he had before observed, under the 57th of the late king, and also 2,000,000%, of Irish Treasury bills, the value of which the Bank of Ireland had advanced to government. He should propose for the present year to grant 29,000,000!. of exchequer bills, and 1,500,000 of Irish Treasury bills, making together 30,500,000l. and making a diminution of the unfunded debt compared with the last year, as he had before stated, of 9,000,000l. The exchequer bills he should propose to vote this evening, but to reserve the Irish treasury bills for a future occasion, as he was not certain whether the Bank of Ireland, which had already exchanged 500,000/. of the Irish treasury bills, held by them for English exchequer bills, might not be de sirous of exchanging a further sum in the same manner.

The terms of the sinking fund loan he should propose to regulate by those of the contract which had been entered into for the loan of 5,000,000l. it appearing to be the most equitable principle, that the sum of public money borrowed from the commissioners of the sinking fund should be taken at the same rate of interest as that at which the money of individuals had been advanced. The payments of this loan would be so arranged as to leave the sum of 5,000,000l. applicable by the commissioners to the purchase of stock in the year ended the 5th July, 1821. In the year ended 5th July, 1819, the sum applied by the commissioners had amounted to about 4,400,000l., including about 600,000l. applied in Ireland. In the present year, the total sum would be somewhat more than, 5,000,000l., of which between, 600,000l. and 700,000l. would also be applied in Ireland, leaving about 4,400,000l. for purchasers in England; and here it might be proper for him to answer a question, which had been more than once put to him by the hon. member for Penryn, viz. why, as the sinking fund now amounted to 17,000,000l. and would therefore have been sufficient, in addition to the proposed loan of twelve millions, the remaining sum of five millions had not also been borrowed from the sinking fund, so as to leave no sum to be borrowed from individuals. To this he should answer, that although the amount of debt remaining unredeemed at the close of the year might have been nearly the same in one mode of proceeding as in the other, yet it appeared to him that the effect upon credit and public convenience would have been extremely different in the two cases. The purchases of the commissioners had not only the effect of cancelling a certain portion of stock at the end of every year, but by their equable and regular operation they in a degree regulated the market during the whole of the year, and prevented those sudden fluctuations which the accidental circumstances of forced sales and of the combinations of speculators might otherwise occasion. Whatever might be the necessity of an individual to bring his stock to sale, he knew that there was a constant and considerable purchaser in the market, and that he could not fail at last with the delay of a few days to obtain the fair current price of what he had to sell. It was also to be. recollected for how many years the public had been accustomed to the constant

practice of these purchases, and how much their feelings might have been acted upon, and their apprehensions excited by the total cessation of an establishment, which has always been deemed so beneficial. He had not indeed been without some alarm at the effect which might be produced upon public opinion in the last year, when a loan from the sinking fund was for the first time carried into effect. He was ready to allow that the experiment had ended more favourably than he had apprehended it might do, but the difference was very great between the diminution, though considerable, and the total cessation of a resource of this kind. In future, indeed, he hoped that this ground of difference of opinion between the hon. member and himself would no longer exist, for he saw no reason to depart from the expectation which he had last year held out to parliament that the loan lately concluded would be the last, which so long as peace continued, the government would be under the necessity of contracting, except by application to the commissioners for the sinking fund.

He was here naturally led to explain a part of the subject, which had on various occasions been alluded to, and which nearly connected itself with this question

he meant a comparison between the estimates which had been formed in the session of 1819, and the actual result of the finances of that year. He was ready to admit that it was less favourable than had been anticipated; but he contended that the failure was not so considerable as to exceed ordinary fluctuations, or to justify the alarms which had been frequently expressed. The finance committee in April, 1819, had estimated the total income of the United Kingdom at 54,000,000l., its actual produce had been very near 53 millions, of which, however, 500,000l. had arisen from taxes imposed since the committee had made their report. The diminution, therefore, of revenue which arose almost wholly in the October quarter, and in the branch of customs might be taken at 1,500,000l. They had estimated the clear excess of income beyond expenditure at about 2,000,000l., to which would have been added the amount of any taxes afterwards imposed. The actual excess estimated in various ways might be taken from one million to a million and a half, and though certainly much less than was desirable to secure the prosperity of the country in