against the prince's claim, upon the reasonableness of applying the revenues of Cornwall to the maintenance and education of the prince during his minority. Sir Francis Burdett supported the claims of the prince, whom he wished to see maintained in splendour and independence. He considered that he had been treated in an unworthy and degrading manner by those ministers, who, in other respects, were guilty of the most lavish prodigality. After some observations from Mr. Tyrhitt, lord Temple, Mr. Dent, and some other gentlemen, Mr. Manners Sutton made a very able reply. He said, one of his learned friends had conceded the question of right; another of them had stated, that the question was merely whether the revenues of the dutchy ought to have been applied to the support of the prince during his minority? and a third had considered it merely a question between the prince and his majesty. He differed from all those opinions, and conceived it was a simple question, whether the public had a right to receive those revenues in the prince's minority and apply them in aid of the civil list? Whether, in fact, the public was not a debtor to his royal highness? As to a petition of right, which had been suggested, one of the best legal authorities in the country had declared that it would not lie in a matter of personal property. He conceived that his majesty had nothing to do with the question, but that it lay merely between the prince and the public. After a short explanation from the solicitor-general, the house divided, Majority against entering } 57 into the prince's claims This division, against government, shows the sense of the house to have been strongly in favour of entering into the prince of Wales's claims as duke of Cornwall upon the country; nor could it be conjectured what rational motive the minister could have in refusing to his royal highness, that justice which the meanest subject would have in a parity of circumstances, a right to require and to obtain; and which to refuse, assuredly, in the eyes of the public, left the prince an injured and oppressed individual. He had long been supposed to have been indebted for considerable sums; his debts were far from being liquidated; his income contracted to a sum much inferior to the support of that splendour which sound policy as well as established usage had rendered indispensably requisite to his high station. He now came forward, before the high council of the nation, solemnly and formally to state that he was not the debtor but the creditor of the public; that the sums he had received as a bounty, were but a part of his right; that they were insufficient to any other purpose, save that of compelling him to relinquish his royal establishment, that his creditors might be satisfied by the fruit of his retrenchment; that should he attain the object of his claim, his sole object was the discharge of his remaining debts, and the residue of those which had been (contrary to the good faith which should be found in the conduct of princes) compromised; and that, at all events, he might be suffered to make his case out for his own satisfaction and that of the public, whatever might result from it. This was assuredly a subject which called for the examination and intervention of parliament. Legal redress was not only an indelicate mode of proceeding between such parties as must in that case have been the litigants; but also extremely difficult and uncertain in its own nature: yet to this just and reasonable and temperate requisition, was objected by the minister, that there was no precedent for such a claim; that many great legal opinions were adverse from its being brought forward; that it was not quite certain that the balance would appear in the prince's favour; and that some doubt existed upon the mode and correctness of the calculations which had been made use of in the prince's statement. To expose the futility and frivolity of this mode of reasoning would be to waste the time, and weary the patience of our readers. Suffice it, that it did not receive the sanction of the public opinion, and, in times of less interest, would doubtless have excited a considerable degree of resentment and unpopularity against those who acted so unjust, so unwise, and so impolitic a part. But the definitive treaty, the signing of which about this time was made publicly known, and the repeal of the income tax, which was now confidently asserted would be one of the immediate acts of the government, engaged, to the exclusion of every other topic, the public interest and attention. CHAP. CHA P. XI. Parliamentary Proceedings continued.-Budget for the Year brought forward.-Conversation in the House of Lords on the Definitive Treaty. -Sir Francis Burdett's Motion for an Inquiry into the Conduct of the late Administration-Amendment moved by Lord Belgrave-withdrawn-original Motion negatived by a great Majority. New Militia Bill.-Motion to take into Consideration the Definitive Treaty on the 14th of May-in the House of Lords by Lord Grenville-in the Commons by Mr. Windham-Debates thereon in both Houses.-Motions by Lord Carlisle for Papers relating to the Definitive Treaty in the Lords-by Mr. Elliott in the Commons-Debates thereon in both Houses.-Motion by Dr. Lawrence for Papers respecting East India Affairs. THE HE length of time which had elapsed between the signing the preliminaries and the definitive treaty, the uncertainty of the negotiation itself having a favourable issue, and the doubts which necessarily resulted from the uncertainty whether it should be for a war or a peace establishment that the country was to provide, delayed, for a considerable time, the production of the budget for the year. It was not till the 5th of April that it was brought forward. It was the greatest which had ever before been brought forward in the house of commons, as, besides the loan to cover the expenses of the year, the minister had resolved to give up the income tax, and fund the 56,000,000l. with which it was charged. The total sum to be funded this year amounted to 97,934,000l. of which 56,445,000l. was previously charged on the income tax. Eleven millions odd had beca funded on account of outstand try would justify. The terms on which the loan had been effected, warranted him in congratulating the house and the country upon the great confidence expressed by the monied persons in the extent and stability of our resources. In this bargain 1007. in moncy was given for every 131. 19s. 3d. in stock. The three per cent. consols were taken at 75 As to the income tax, he highly approved of the wisdom which planned this tax, and the spirit which so long supported it; it was to that, in a great measure, that he attributed the comforts we now enjoyed, and our success in the arduous contest we had maintained. After professing great regret at finding it his unavoidable duty to propose new taxes to the amount of the interest of so large a sum as 97,934,4371., he submitted the following taxes to the committee, as likely to be efficacious and as little burdensome as possible to the people: Mall, Hops, and Beer.. On malt he proposed to lay a tax of 1s. d. in the bushel. On hops, 24d. and 3-20th in the pound, so as to make the hop duty 3d. per lb. On strong beer, he proposed a tax of 2s. a barrel. He was sorry that the price of malt liquor, now a necessary of life, should be raised on the public, but it now became necessary to lay on such taxes as would be likely to be effectual. This tax he calculated at 2,000,000l. Assessed Taxes. On this point he proposed not so much to raise a new tax as to increase the old one in a ratio of nearly one third. However this increase might be felt by some, yet it must be recollected, on the other hand, that the pressure of the income tax was now taken off. He calculated this at 1,000,000l. Exports and Imports. As to this tax, he proposed it without any regret, and even with pleasure, for it had met the perfect approbation of many of the most intelligent men who had been consulted on the occasion. The convoy duty was now going to be taken off, and this tax substituted in its place. It would be lighter than the convoy duty, and proportioned in such a manner as to do no injury to commerce. Those taxes taken all together amounted to 4,000,000l. which exceeded by near S00,000l. the supply that was wanting. After having stated the new taxes that would be necessary, he gave an outline of his plan with respect to the consolidated and sinking funds. There were, in fact, two sinking funds now subsisting the first had been created in 1786, by the vote of 1,000,0007. annually for the reduction of the national debt. The second had been created by the resolution of the house in 1792, that one per cent. of every loan to be made in future should go to the discharge of the capital so created. He wished to consolidate these two sinking funds, and enable them to operate jointly on the consolidated debt. Considering the national debt at 500,000,000l. the sum, great as it is, might be discharged in forty-five years. He hoped much that a firm and temperate system, uniting the spirit of conciliation with that of firmness, without ever insulting other nations, would insure a continuance 2 tinuance of peace and security. He concluded, by moving a resolution, that 25,000,000l. should be raised by way of loan. Mr. Whitbread, after many observations on the new taxes which would affect the brewers, approved much of the general principles on which Mr. Addington had rested his hopes of future peace. He approved also highly of the repeal of the income tax; and although the chancellor of the exchequer approved in words of the conduct of his predecessor in finding out this solid system of finance, yet by his actions in renouncing it, he expressed a severe but merited condemnation and sarcasm at the same time. Mr. Pitt most ably defended his conduct against the attacks of Mr. Whitbread, against whom and his colleagues in opposition he directed some severe attacks, for abandoning their posts in parliament, under the idea of the country being irretrievably ruined, while he himself was introducing this most efficient and solid system of fi nance. After a few other observations from different gentlemen, the resolutions were agreed to without a division. - On the 10th of April, in the house of lords, lord Carlisle called the attention of the house of lords to some points which he conceived of the utmost importance to the country. "It was," he said, "understood, at the treaty of Amiens, the interests of the prince of Orange were to have been particularly attended to. A compensation was even stipulated for him in the trealy; but scarcely was that treaty signed, when the French and Dutch plenipotentiaries retired to a corner of the room, and signed between themselves an article, by which it was expressly provided that Holland was not to contribute, in any way whatsoever, to this compensation. And yet it was notorious to all the world that it was the government of Holland which had plundered the prince of Orange of property to the value of more than 100,000l. annual revenue!" His lordship then proceeded to take notice of other defects in the definitive treaty. The right of cutting logwood was gone. The treaty of Methuen, and the commercial advantages we enjoyed in right of it with Portugal, were at an end. We could no longer navigate to the Dutch spice islands in British bottoms. This was indeed a glorious peace for Holland, in exactly the same proportion as it was shameful to us! His lordship concluded, by calling the particular attention of the house to the indemnities of the prifice of Orange, and thought every explanation was due to the house on that subject. Lord Pelham, not conceiving that any of those points were regularly before the house in discussion, declined, for the present, entering into any explanation on the subject. Lord Grenville said, it would not be difficult to get over the point of form, by framing a motion suitable to the object of the noble lord's speech. He thought the house ought to address his majesty, beseeching him to suspend the rati-. fication of the definitive treaty till satisfaction was given the country on all those great objects which he had before called their attention to, and to some of those points the noble |