was prosecuted in a court in which he could not be punished? As doing penance was declared to be nothing more than going to a masquerade, he supposed the sheet was to be considered as a domino: to borrow a joke, therefore, from a good old jester, Rabelais, "Beati sunt, qui moriuntur in Domino." Mr. Bearcroft said, the members of his profession might as well leave it to others to find fault, and point out their foibles. With regard to their standing up for the ecclesiastical courts, in that they acted disinterestedly at least, for those were courts in which not one of them ever practised. Some sharp observations had been made upon his profession; but they gave him no concern whatever: for it was an old saying, that "the cursed fox thrives." Sir W. Dolben spoke against the Bill, and in favour of the twelvemonth being allowed. The committee divided on the question, that the words "six months," stand part of the Bill: Yeas, 91; Noes, 57. Prince of Wales's Debts.] Alderman Newnham said, he wished to put a question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer which materially concerned the Prince of Wales, and desired to assure him, that it did not arise from personal curiosity, but that he intended upon what might probably be his answer to ground a parliamentary proceeding. It was, whether it was the design of Ministers to bring forward any proposition to rescue the Prince of Wales from his present very embarrassed situation? for though he thought that his conduct during his difficulties had reflected greater honour and glory on his character than the most splendid diadem in Europe had upon the wearer of it, yet it must be very disagreeable to his Royal Highness to be deprived of those comforts and enjoyments, which so properly belonged to his high rank. It would be an indelible disgrace upon the country, if the situation and income of this exalted personage were any longer to remain so meanly circumscribed. Mr. Pitt answered, that as it was not his duty to bring forward a subject of such a nature as that suggested by the hon. gentleman, except at the command of his Majesty; it was not necessary for him to say more in reply to the question, than that he had not been honoured with such a command. Alderman Newnham then gave notice, [VOL. XXVI.] that he should, on the 4th of May, bring forward a motion for the consideration of the House respecting his royal highness the Prince of Wales. Debate on the Budget.] The House having resolved itself into a Committee of Ways and Means, Mr. Chancellor Pitt remarked, that it was with no small degree of pleasure, that he assured the House, that he should not be under the necessity of trespassing for a great length of time upon their patience whilst he submitted to their consideration some necessary particulars. It was a matter of much satisfaction to him, that he had such an account to lay before them of the state of our finances as would show that the promising picture which he had on former occasions described to them, was by no means flattering or exaggerated. The services of the current year would be discovered to be amply provided for, although it had not yet been found practicable to reduce many of our. most expensive departments to the level of what might have been expected, and what a select committee in the course of the preceding session had described a proper permanent peace establishment. At the same time, the plan for the diminution of the national debt had been strictly adhered to, and the several quarterly payments of 2.50,000l. for that purpose had been regularly made good. Mr. Pitt then went through the several articles of supply which had already been voted, and those which remained to be voted, stating first,, that there had been voted for 18,000 seamen 936,000l.; for the ordinary of the navy 700,000l.; for the extraordinary 650,000l.; making the whole of the navy service 2,286,000. This was considerably more than the estimate formed by the finance committee last year, which was 1,800,000l., so that, in this establishment, there was an excess of 486,000l. beyond what might be expected as the permanent expense of it in future times of peace. For the army had been voted 1,411,069%.; for the army extraordinaries, as staff, guards, garrisons, &c. 420,000l.; making 1,831,0691. The permanent peace establishment of this service had been estimated by the committee at 1,600,000. So that there was an excess of 231,039. Under this head had also been added a sum of about 50,000l. for victualling the loyalists in their new settlements in Nova Scotia. The ordnance had been voted at [3 T] 328,557%., which was rather short of the estimate made on that branch of the service by the committee. The amount of miscellaneous services was about 328,000l., and other particular services of a miscellaneous nature, though not usually classed under that head, as for making roads in Scotland, improvements of a similar nature in Nova Scotia, the British Museum, &c. amounted to about 96,000l. There was another head of supply, which, for the last time, it would be necessary to vote this year, and this was, to make good the deficiencies in the several appropriated funds. Having stated the nature of those deficiencies, and how they arose out of the old system of appropriations, under which each particular tax or object of revenue being appropriated to the payment of one or more particular annuities, was estimated at a fixed sum adequate to those annuities; and having remarked that, if the fund arising from that tax did not amount to the sum at which it was estimated, the deficiency was supplied out of the Sinking Fund, which was composed of the redundance of other appropriated funds, and was a counter security for them all; Mr. Pitt added, that such an article of supply would never be brought before that House again, after the Bill now under the consideration of the Lords, for the consolidation of the customs, should be passed; for by that Bill, all such appropriations were to be abolished, and the whole mass of the revenue thrown into one general fund. He mentioned particularly the several branches of the revenue in which those deficiencies had arisen, and the general amount of them, which, including the other articles of supply, amounted to the sum of 6,676,000l. Mr. Pitt next proceeded to state what the ways and means were, out of which this sum was to be furnished. Under this head he enumerated the land and malt tax, which he estimated at 2,750,000l. the surplus of the Sinking Fund up to the 5th of April 1787, amounting to 1,226,000l. a payment to be made by the East-India Company, which he stated at something short of 400,000l. A part of the balances due on army accounts and imprest money made another item in the calculation, which he stated at 240,000l. Of this 60,0001. had been already actually received, and of the remainder a considerable part had been admitted by the accountants themselves; so that it was more likely to turn out to be a narrow than an exaggerated statement. The whole of the money ascertained to be due and payable on this score was about 380,000%. but he would only calculate upon the receipt of 180,000l. which, together with the 60,000l. already received, would amount to 240,000l. Some increase of revenue would necessarily arise from the operation of the consolidation act, which, together with the duty to be paid upon the article of cambrics, which was now to be legalized, but which had hitherto been monopolized by the smuggler, he should set down at 100,000l. There had, he observed, been an uncommon falling-off in the receipts of the customs for the last year, which was a circumstance that could easily be accounted for upon such principles as would clearly show that it was not to be feared that such a defalcation would be permanent; on the contrary, it was fair to conclude, that, so far from continuing at the standard of the last year, our revenue of customs would experience an uncommon spring in the current year, even greater than it could be expected would be lasting. One cause of this falling-off was the uncommon badness of the last season in the West Indies, which had materially reduced the importation of our colony produce, insomuch that, in the single article of sugar, there was a deficiency of 350,000!. Added to this, it was to be considered what a general suspension of commercial speculation must have followed from the pending state of so many treaties of commerce with foreign nations. Such a circumstance must necessarily have given a temporary check to importation, because, until there was some certainty as to the event and tendency of those negociations and treaties, all foreign trade must have been exposed to a degree of risk and danger. But those two circumstances no longer continued to operate; for the present season in the West Indies promised to be the most productive of any which we had almost ever known, which would, of course, occasion an increased importation; and our foreign commerce being no longer obstructed by the unsettled state of our intercourse with other nations, and many new and extensive markets being opened for it, would necessarily return again with that spring and elasticity which always succeeded restraint. Mr. Pitt stated farther, that large sums had been received into the Exchequer, on account of several appropriated funds; the annuities charged upon which were not payable until the end of the half year, and of course, as all appropriations were to be abolished by the new arrangement, and the several charges upon them to be referred to the general fund in which the whole revenue was to be consolidated, there could, after the Consolidation Bill should have passed, be no objection to applying those sums to the immediate calls of the state, referring the payment of the annuities, with which they were now charged, to the receipts of the general fund. The whole of these resources taken together amounted to 6,767,000l. from which, deducting 6,676,000l. the expense of the service of the year, there remained a surplus of 91,000/.-There was, besides, another article, which it was usual to state on each side of the account, both as an article of supply and as an article of ways and means. This was, the article of Exchequer-bills, of which there were 5,000,000l.; these were in general annually renewed; but it was intended to alter the usual mode of renewing them, with respect to a part of those which the Bank held. The whole amount of those which were in the hands of that company was 2,000,000l. of which it was proposed to make 500,000l. on a new plan, such as should be convertible into cash in any week, or on any day of the year; and this was by making them to bear an interest of 24d. per pound per diem, which was at the rate of between 31 and 32 per cent. per annum. The remaining 1,500,000l. in the hands of the Bank, together with such other Exchequer-bills as were held by other proprietors, to continue on the old footing, and bear an annual interest of 31 per cent. of which it rose, being not yet passed; nor could he include the sums of money which he had stated to have been received into the Exchequer on account of appropriated funds; because it would be irregular to violate the appropriation, before a proper substitute had been established and completed. He then moved, "That, towards making good the supply granted to his Majesty, there be issued and applied the sum of 1,226,472l. 2s. 114d., remaining in the Exchequer on the 5th day of April, 1787, of the surplus of the Sinking Fund, subject to the disposition of Parliament." Mr. Sheridan begged leave to remind the right hon. gentleman that he had not fulfilled his promise, to give such an account of the finances as should afford perfect and complete satisfaction to the committee; but he had certainly fulfilled his promise of brevity; for he had been so extremely concise, that though he (Mr. Pitt), who was acquainted with all the grounds and circumstances to which the facts and figures which he had stated referred, could talk with familiarity and ease upon the subject without any farther explanation than that he had thought proper to give it; yet such brevity was rather an awkward circumstance to him, and those who, likę him, were to answer and speak after the right hon. gentleman. He thought the air of triumph assumed by the right hon. gentleman sat but awkwardly upon him, at a moment when another sort of demeanour would have better become the humiliating and mortifying situation in which he ought to feel himself when obliged to come forward and state the finances of the kingdom to be in so very different a condition from that in which Mr. Pitt said, he should not dwell much the committee had last year been so conupon the regulations already adopted for fidently assured they would prove to be the prevention of smuggling, nor of those in 1787. The right hon. gentleman, and which had been applied to the frauds in those who sat near him, would recollect the article of wine, or in the home distil- the statement contained in the Report of lery, all of which he expected would turn the Revenue Committee, and the manner out highly beneficial and salutary; nor in which it was contradicted when he ad. would he take into the present account vised them not to be too sanguine in their the probable amount of the additional expectations, that, because the year's re licences for retailing of spirits, that being ceipt ending Jan. 5, 1786, amounted to a measure calculated partly for the pur- 15,397,471. the year ending Jan. 5, pose of compensating and obviating the 1787, would turn out equally productive. reduction which was to take place in the He had, again and again, argued the duty on spirits, and partly to restrain a fallacy of making out an account in such too great consumption of that commodity, a way; but what he said upon the subject rather than with a view to revenue. On had been rejected with a sort of unbecom the present occasion, he could not, with ing scorn. What he predicted had, howpropriety, make any motion concerning ever, proved true; for now, instead of the this last article; the Consolidation Bill, out flattering prospect which the right hon. gentleman held out of our income equalling our expense, it was evident that the receipt of the last year fell 900,000l. short of the receipt of the year ending Jan. 5, 1786. He warned the Committee, therefore, against giving way to a delusion which might lull them into a dangerous inattention to the national circumstances; declaring that it was much more manly in 'ministers to state the real situation of the country, to look it in the face, and, if more taxes were really necessary, to lay them on, burdened as the people were already. He declared his concern to hear the East-India Company mentioned as a source of the right hon. gentleman's expectations, and that to so large an amount as 350,000l. That circumstance alone was sufficient to fill his mind with great doubt and suspicion of the soundness of all the various expectations which the right hon. gentleman had that day stated to the Committee. Mr. Grenville observed that he felt it more than difficult to refrain from silence whilst he heard the hon. gentleman repeating arguments which had already been answered and refuted. For his own part, he should not hesitate positively to declare, that there was no fallacy in the Report of the Revenue Committee, nor any delusion either in making up the abstract table of receipt and expenditure, nor in the observations which the Report contained. Mr. Grenville then read the following extract: "But before they enter on the first part of their Report, they think it necessary to premise, that they have confined their examination to the present state of the Revenue, as it appears either from the amount actually received in the periods contained in the papers referred to them, or from the best estimates which they could form of the produce of such articles as had not been brought to account in those periods, but compose, nevertheless, a part of the present income of the public. The large amount of taxes imposed since the commencement of the late war, in addition to the then subsisting Revenue, the difficulties under which the different branches of our commerce laboured during the continuance of that war; and the great and increasing prevalence of smuggling previous to the measures recently adopted for its suppression, appeared to your Committee to render any averages of the amount of the Revenue in former periods in a great degree inapplicable to the present situation of the country; on the other hand, they did not think themselves competent to discuss the various contingencies which may in future operate to the increase or diminution of the public income. A Revenue so complicated in its nature, and depending so much on the various branches of an extensive commerce, must always be liable to temporary fluctuations, even although no circumstances should arise to occasion any permanent alteration in its produce. Your Committee have, therefore, judged it proper to submit to the judgment of the House this extensive consideration, and to state in this Report the present amount of the public income, as resulting from the papers before them."-Was there, he asked, a man of common candour, who, after having heard the paragraph distinctly, could believe that the Committee either had asserted, or meant to assert, that the receipt of the year ending Jan. 5, 1787, would at all events equal the receipt of the year ending Jan. 5, 1786? So far from it, that it spoke expressly of the "temporary fluctuations to which a revenue so complicated in its nature, and depending so much on the various branches of an extensive commerce, must always be liable." He denied that there was any delusion in any part of the Report. He said he did not doubt but the hon. gentleman felt the usual anxiety for the credit of the EastIndia Company, and the same earnest desire to protect its rights that he had on all occasions manifested. Be that gentleman's opinion however what it might, he, who had some little knowledge on the subject, could say with confidence, that to no one of her resources could this country look up with more assurance of ability and power of support than to our East-Indian possessions. He spoke this from a familiar acquaintance with the domestic affairs of the Company, and from the very pleasing situation of affairs in India, as stated in the last accounts that had arrived. Mr. Fox said, that the whole of the matter in question between his hon. friend and the gentlemen on the other side of the House lay in a very narrow compass. Was 15,397,471. the sum given as the receipt of the year ending Jan. 5, 1786, or was it not? And if it was, as he believed it would hardly be denied, and all the business of appropriating a million of surplus was grounded upon that being the receipt of the year; was not his hon. friend correct in saying, that the receipt of the last year fell 900,000l. short of the re ceipt of the year preceding? He surely was. Mr. Fox took notice of the 300,000l. which the right hon. gentleman had said he had gotten of army and other savings, and declared, though he was willing to admit that it was so, yet the House had a right to a little farther explanation of that matter. But allowing that fact to be as the right hon. gentleman had stated it, this reduced the deficiency to 600,000l. Mr. Fox argued upon the rashness and folly of catching at one year's receipt, and that a remarkably good one, as a ground to judge what the probable receipt in future would be. He said, the right hon. gentleman had assigned as a reason for the deficiency in the last year's receipt, that it was a bad season in the West - Indies, and had assured the committee, - that this was to be a good one. He a little doubted whether West India estates were to be valued in that sort of way. After some further conversation, the Resolutions were agreed to.. he was ready to meet. What was the complaint of the hon. gentleman? That he had been calumniated for doing his duty as a member of parliament. Was that the case? He denied it. The hon. gentleman had written pamphlets; the hon. gentleman had published speeches; and from the moment they were published, and to be purchased, at eighteen-pence each, he contended that it was perfectly free for him or any other person to comment upon them with as much freedom as they chose. What was the case in the present instance? He had been accused of calumniating the hon. gentleman in prints and pamphlets; and as he was determined the hon. gentleman should never in future have cause to make the same complaint, he had actually published the most offensive thing he had ever written relative to the hon. gentleman in the Public Advertiser, in order to give the hon. gentleman an opportunity of taking what steps he pleased; and he (Mr. Francis) had informed the House, that he meant to com In a court of law, then, he would meet him; but except there was a complaint of a breach of privilege, it was a business which could not possibly come before the House. The major again declared that he disclaimed the most distant idea of attacking the hon. gentleman out of doors as a member of parliament; but as a writer of pamphlets, he had an undoubted title to answer the hon. gentleman, in a newspaper or pamphlet, as often as he thought proper. Libel on Mr. Francis.] April 24. Mr.mence a suit against him in a court of law. Francis rose with a newspaper in his hand, and said, that he neither meant to make a motion nor a complaint, but he hoped that he should not violate the order of the House, when he stated that there had that day appeared a most unfair and unwarrantable attack upon him, signed "John Scott;" and that he presumed the signature was, that of a member of that House [Major Scott nodded]. By the hon. gentleman's gesture he saw that it was; he had, therefore, to say farther, that as it was an attack upon him grounded upon a newspaper's account of what he had said in his discharge of his parliamentary duty, and in the execution of a particular office imposed upon him in that House, he meant to have recourse to the laws of his country for a remedy, and indeed he had already retained counsel for that purpose; but as a real signature was annexed to the letter, he should not proceed against the printer. Major Scott said, that although the hon. gentleman had made no motion, yet he hoped the House would permit him to say a few words in reply. The hon. gentleman had thought proper to inform the House that he had commenced a suit at law against him. What had the House to do with that? When first the hon. gen. tleman began his speech, he conceived that he was going to prefer a complaint of a breach of privilege, and that complaint Impeachment of Sir Elijah Impey.] Sir Gilbert Elliot gave notice that on the ensuing Tuesday he meant to bring forward the subject of the impeachment of sir Elijah Impey. Mr. Dundas, although he did not mean to object to the motion, entreated the hon. baronet to recollect that Parliament was not likely to continue sitting much longer, and that it would be absolutely impossible for him to complete his purpose in the present session. He submitted it, therefore, to his good sense and candour, whether it would not be more advisable for him to postpone the whole proceeding to the next session. Mr. Burke said, that no man was more in earnest than he was in the intended impeachment of sir Elijah Impey. because a greater and more flagitious criminal did not exist than he conceived him to be, and |