national debt, and of balances remaining in the Exchequer on the 5th January 1817, which, though it does not come strictly within the view taken by your Committee of the income and expenditure properly belonging to the year, as compared with each other, is nevertheless an important circumstance in the finance of the year, as it constitutes a real diminution of debt, as will appear by the following account: Compare of DEBT Redeemed and Contracted in 1817. Debt on Consolidated Fund on the 5th January 1818 Amount of Unfunded Debt, Exchequer. £. Bills, and Navy and Ordnance Debt, 63,198,114 at 5th January 1818........... £. 1,628,844 Actual diminution of Debt from the 5th January} £.2,642,517 1817 to 5th January 1818 ing Fund of Exchequer Bills.. 2,560,000. In the statement relating to the current year, the first object of attention is the excess of the probable expenditure beyond the estimate formed by your Committee last year. This excess arises 1st. From the charge of the 3 per cent stock created, and the Exchequer Grant of 1818, for Interest and Sink-€. bills funded in the present year, of Deduct probable diminution by which there will be payable in the course of the year about 961,4887.; while, on the other hand, as the dimi- Estimate in Fourth Report nution of the charge of the unfunded debt, consequent upon this funding, will not take effect in its full proportion Exchequer Bills withdrawn 260,000 2,300,000 .... 2,230,000 Difference.... £.70,000 before the close of the year, there will probably be an increase of 70,000%. under that head likewise, beyond the estimate of the Com mittee. Army. Estimate of the Com- £. mittee Amount voted .... 8,500,000 2nd. By an exceeding in the army grant principally arising from the charge of the dis8,967,974 embodied militia, which, having been formerly provided for by a charge upon the growing Difference.. £. 467,974 produce of the land tax, and paid by the receiver-general, was not included in the esti mate stated by your Committee in their fourth Report; and from an increase in the amount of the half-pay and Chelsea allowances. 3d. By an exceeding in the navy grant, chiefly owing to the expense of certain naval Amount voted 6,950,000 works at Plymouth, Sheerness, and some other of the principal dock-yards; upon which your Committee have stated their opinion in their eighth Report. Navy. Estimate of the Com- £. mittee.......... Difference.. £.456,800 Ordnance. L. 1,150,000 Difference.... £.95,600 4th. By an exceeding in the ordnance grant, chiefly occasioned by the increased allowance to the ordnance for supplies furnished by that department to the navy; the nature of which is pointed out by your Committee in their ninth Report. 5th. By an excess of the miscellaneous grants, to the extent of 83,2001. Deficiency of Ways and £. Payment to Spain. And, lastly;-By the extraordinary charges specified in the margin, including the payment of 400,000l. to the court Means............ 259,686 of Spain, in pursuance of the convention with 400,000 that power, relative to the abolition of the slave trade. These various items of increase form altogether an amount of 2,872,606, by which the expenditure of the year 1818 may be expected to exceed the sum within which your Committee, at the time when their fourth Report was drawn up, had hoped it might have been limited. Sinking Fund of Funded Debt .................. Do. of Exchequer Bills...... £.737,744 £. 560,000 Of this amount of the probable expenditure 14,832,467 for the current year, there will be applied, for the reduction of the national debt, 15,392,4671.; this being deducted from the total sum, would £15,392,467 leave 52,697,014., as the real expenditure, agreeing very nearly with the total income, which, as estimated by your Committee in their fourth Report, would amount to 52,505,3641. Your Committee having thus laid before the House their view of the income and expenditure of the last and of the present year, and having explained the grounds upon which they are led to entertain a confident belief that their estimate of the revenue of the United Kingdom, presented in the last session (which has hitherto been justified by the actual receipts), will, on the average of the current and future years, be at least fully realized; it now only remains for them, in order to fulfil the instructions of the House, to present such a view, as they are enabled at the present time to form, of the pro bable bable income and expenditure of the year ending 5th January 1820. With respect to the Income, the preceding part of this Report renders it unnecessary for your Committee to add any observation in assuming it, for the ensuing year, at not less than 52,500,000l. In order to present a general view of the probable Expenditure for the year 1819, the detailed estimates of which could not be prepared at the present time, with any satisfactory accuracy, by the several departments, your Committee have endeavoured to obtain the best information that could be afforded by the principal officers of those departments, with respect to the probable increase or diminution of expense, under the several heads into which the foregoing estimates of your Committee have been divided; having reference in particular, to the charge which would be created by the reduction of a number of troops, both on the army and ordnance establishments at home, equal to those which now compose the army of occupation in France, if that army should be withdrawn at the end of the present year. The result of those inquiries is, 1st. That, under the head of the consolidated fund, there will be a diminution in the total charge, as compared with that of the present year, by the amount which has been included in the estimate of your Committee, for the charge (payable within the year) on account of the late funding; viz. 961,4881., as your Committee understand that the whole charge of that funding is, from the 5th January next, to be defrayed by the cancelling of stock redeemed, and now standing in the names of the commissioners for the redemption of the national debt, conformably to the act 53 George 3rd, aided by imperial annuities to the amount of 230,000, which will expire in the year 1819. This head of expenditure may therefore be estimated at 45,636,000l. 2nd. That the charge for interest and sinking fund of Exchequer bills, being estimated upon the amount which will be outstanding after the proposed diminution of the unfunded debt in the present year, may be stated at To be cancelled At 3 per Cent for Interest, and 1 per Cent for Sinking Fund £. 16,000,000 L. 44,000,000 1,760,000 1,760,000l. 3d. That in the army Estimate of 4th Report and Appendix ......................................... 45,636,675 and ordnance there will probably be an increase of expense, under the Exchequer Bills granted, 1818. 60,000,000 above-mentioned contingency; viz. the return of the troops from France, by necessary additions to the half-pay, Chelsea pensions, pay of general officers, &c. &c. (after taking into consideration the average yearly saving by casualties) to the extent of 300,000l., making the total sum for the army, navy, and ordnance 16,972,000l. 4. That the miscellaneous services may be assumed at 1,700,000l. Amount for the Army, Navy, and Ordnance, for 1818 16,672,000 300,000 L. 16,972,000 Supposing therefore no extraordinary charges to occur (and your Committee do not learn that at present any such are foreseen) the ။ whole whole expenditure would amount, according to the foregoing esti. mate, to In which is included, for the redemption of debt (by estimate) £.66,068,000 14,981,000 Leaving............ £.51,087,000 as the amount of the expenditure, exclusive of the sinking fund; which being compared with the estimated revenue, amounting to 52,500,000l., there will appear to be a balance of 1,413,000l. of income, beyond the probable expenditure in the year ending the 5th January 1820. It thus appears, that with respect to the year 1818, the income may be considered as very nearly balancing the expenditure, exclusively of any increase or diminution of debt; and that in the year 1819, after making allowance for the probable increase of expense unavoidable upon an event, which, under the treaty of peace with France, must occur, if not in the next year, within little more than two years from the present time, the expenditure (exclusively, in like manner, of the sum to be applied in reduction of debt) will be within the probable income: from whence it will follow that any improvement of the revenue beyond the limits of the estimate, on the one hand, and every diminution of expense that may be made in future years, on the other, would have the effect of creating a surplus annually applicable to the diminution of the public debt; an object to which the wisdom of parliament, and the exertions of the government, cannot be too stedfastly directed; which has, indeed, taken place to some extent in each of the two years, whereof the actual expenditure has been under the consideration of your Committee, although not effected by income belonging to the ordinary receipt of the year, as they have specifically pointed out in their fourth Report, as well as in the present; and to the furtherance of which your Committee are willing to believe, that the measure to which they alluded at the close of their fourth Report, viz. the reduction of the interest on the 5 and 4 per cents, must, under a continuance of the present favourable prospects, and with the growing abundance of capital in the United Kingdom, materially contribute at no distant period. 25 May, 1818. (It has not been thought necessary to add the appendices.) THE FINANCE THE FINANCE ACCOUNTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, FOR THE YEAR ENDED FIFTH JANUARY, 1818. Class. I. PUBLIC INCOME. II. CONSOLIDATED FUND. ¡Class. V. PUBLIC EXPENDITURE. VI. PUBLIC FUNDED DEBT. III. ARREARS AND BALANCES. VII. UNFUNDED DEBT. IV. TRADE AND NAVIGATION. VIII. DISPOSITION OF GRANTS. |