for the confidence of the country, who does not endeavour to deserve it by fearlessly stating his sentiments in this House. When we are talking of economy and retrenchment, I cannot come down here to take away the salaries of some petty clerks, or to reduce the pensions of a few poor halfpay officers, and shut my eyes to this proceeding, by which such enormous sums are to be voted to his majesty without inquiry. I know I am doing my duty; and, if I am at all acquainted with the character of the king, I am sure, that he will rather thank me, than blame me, for the part that I am taking. What is it we wish on this side of the House? Nothing more, than that the crown should stand well with the country; and, in times like these, can there be any thing more important, than that the people should feel a firm assurance that his majesty requires no further sacrifice from them, than is absolutely necessary to support the character and dignity of the throne.

Mr. Huskisson and Mr. Canning spoke in defence of the propositions of the chancellor of the exchequer, reasoning principally on the indelicacy of instituting an inquiry into the civil-list at the commencement of a new reigna proceeding of which our history furnished no example; and on the ungraciousness of supposing, that, because the crown of late had not exceeded the provision allotted to it, that provision was too abundant, and ought to be lowered.157 voted for lord J. Russell's amendment; 250 against it.

As his present majesty had, for many years before he formally ascended the throne, maintained a royal establishment, he could

not imitate the example of preceding sovereigns, who had generally retained those, whom, at their accession, they found in the pay of the crown, unless he had discarded those who had previously served him faithfully. An application was, therefore, made to parliament (July 5th) on behalf of those who had attended the late king as menials, or had been dependant on his private bounty. For this purpose 24,000l. was granted.

The estimates for the navy, army, ordnance, and the other branches of the public service, having, in the course of the session, been laid before parliament, and discussed in the usual manner, and with the usual results, the chancellor of the exchequer, on the 19th of June, brought forward the budget of the year. He began with the army expenditure, which, in 1819, had been 8,782,000l., but for the present year was estimated at 9,422,0002.; the increase being occasioned by the augmentation of force, which the situation of the country had rendered necessary. The naval expenditure amounted to 6,586,000l., exceeding the estimates of the preceding year by about 150.0007., in consequence of the additional two thousand marines, which had been voted to perform garrison duty on shore. The ordnance estimates were fixed at 1,2047. being nearly the same as in 1819, but in neither years could the actual expense be confined within the sum voted by parliament; and the difference had been, and would still be, defrayed by the sale of stores. The miscellaneous service amounted, in the last year, to 2,078,0007.; and in the present, including some

the current price of the market.

A lottery, we have seen, was one of the items of the ways and means. Upon the introduction of the bill, authorizing and regulating the lottery, Mr. Hume objected to some of the clauses. The chancellor of the exchequer yielded to the objections, and the clauses were withdrawn.

As the Scotch malt is inferior in quality to that of England, the usual practice, for nearly a century, had been to make the tax on the former only half of that which was borne by the latter. But late in the preceding session, when few of the Scotch members were in attendance in parliament, an additional duty had been imposed on malt, made in the northern part of the island. Petitions on the subject soon poured in from every quarter of Scotland; and on the 5th of July, lord A. Hamilton moved a set of resolutions, the amount of which was, that the late departure from the principle previously acted upon in the imposition of the duties on malt had been injurious to the general interest of Scotland. Mr. Vansittart contended, that if the duty in the northern part of the island, were less than in the southern, it would be necessary to prohibit the intercourse in grain between them; for no less than 250,000 quarters of barley had been lately imported from England into Leith, which would probably be sent back in the shape of malt or strong ales. He, therefore, opposed the resolution; and it was lost by a majority of 53 to 43. At the same time, the chancellor of the exchequer declared his willingness to propose a temporay allowance

of sixpence per bushel on malt made from big or beer in Scotland.

On the 4th of July, Mr. Hume proposed a series of resolutions for the purpose of directing the attention of the House to the expense of collecting the revenue, and the means of effecting considerable savings in that department. The first five of the resolutions related to the comparative amount of the nett and gross revenues of Great Britain and Ireland at different times, and the comparative expense of collecting them at these times; and the result of his statements was, that, though in proportion as the revenue increased, it ought to have been collected at a diminished rate of expense, that rate had, in fact, increased greatly, and was much higher in Scotland and Ireland than in England. The next three resolutions related to the offices of receivers-general, and went to abrogate no fewer than a hundred and sixty sinecure places. The first of these resolutions, said Mr. Hume, represented, that the office of receiver-general of the land aud assessed taxes was one of deposit, and for the remittance of the taxes from district collectors to the exchequer; and that, in the present state of the finances of the country, this service might be performed at a less charge to the public than was now incurred, with equal security against loss, and with equal efficiency to the public service. The second stated, that there were sixty-five receivers-general of the land and assessed taxes in England and Wales, who received 40,7177. in the year 1818, and 41,348/. in 1819, for the duties of their

office, although the greater number of them performed that duty entirely by deputy, and retained balances of cash in their hands, which, on an average of the two years, exceeded 374,000l. per annum. He would ask, why the receivers-general of the land and assessed taxes were allowed to retain balances in hand beyond the quarter, when the receivers in other departments of the revenue were required to make immediate payment? No reason could be assigned for allowing them this indulgence; and, if the whole duty was done by deputies, the salaries at present paid to the principals ought in future to be suspended, It was a notorious fact, that deputies even paid money to the principals to be allowed to do the duty, and such a state of things surely should not be permitted to continue. When receivers-general were first appointed, the facilities of transmitting money were not so great as at present there were only at that time a few banks in the whole country; but now their number amounted at least to 850. If it

had been proper to allow a percentage under these difficulties of transmitting money, surely the allowance ought not to be continued now, when these difficulties no longer existed. If asked what he would do with the receivers-general, he should say that government ought to give them such fixed salaries as their duty required, and that it ought to do away with the per-centage, which might be a fair mode of remuneration as to the collectors, but not as to the receivers. He had no doubt, that respectable persons could be found to discharge the duty of these receivers-general,

without any expense whatever to the public, and that banks would consider themselves sufficiently reimbursed by the use of the money between the period of collection and of transmission to the exchequer. But if government would neither reduce the salaries, nor give individuals an opportunity of collecting these taxes without any charge to the public, why not enable persons to contract for the land and assessed taxes, in the same manner as for the post-horse duty, especially as no loss of the public money had ever arisen from these contracts? He knew of no objection that could be urged against the system of allowing individuals to make tenders, as was done for the post-horse duty; and either this plan should be adopted, or the per-centage at present allowed should be entirely abolished, and salaries granted adequate to the trouble and risk attending the collection. It might be objected, that in this case sufficiently respectable security would not be given; but it was a sufficient answer to state, that in no department of the revenue was there so much deficiency and so great arrears, as in the department of the receivers-general. would observe, by the way, that the security required by government from collectors was excessive: he wished not to lessen the safety of the public money, but the office of a receiver-general ought not to be made a place of patronage. The ninth and tenth resolutions complained, that the allowances to distributors of stamps were much beyond the sum which the public ought to pay. Nearly 100,000l. were at present paid every year upon this

He

account; and it was notorious, that these offices were given to individuals, who did not discharge the duty themselves, or who, if they did discharge it in person, might do it for one-eighth of what they at present received. If this office were put up to those who wished to make tenders for it, instead of costing 6 per cent, as it at present did in Scotland, individuals of equal respectability would be found there, and in every part of the country, to do the duty for one-half, or even one-fourth, of what was paid.

now

The last of Mr. Hume's resolutions was merely a declaration, that the charge of managing the tax ou salaries, which came to between seven and eight hundred pounds a-year, might be saved altogether by a proportionate reduction in the amount of the salaries.

Mr. Lushington opposed the resolutions, contending that Mr. Hume's comparison of the present rate of expense for the collection of the revenue with its rate at former times, was inaccurate in its details, and proceeded on an erroneous basis. At the time to which Mr. Hume had referred, the charge of collecting the postoffice revenue (which was 27 per cent) was omitted in the estimate on which the honourable member founded his calculation, so that the then expense of collection appeared lower than it really was. Besides, in 1796 and 1797, we were at war, and the revenue was collected on an entirely different system: the salaries of public officers were then small, and the deficiency was made up by burdensome fees and irregular emoluments. The expense attending

the warehousing system did not exist, and few allowances on account of superannuation were made. The period of 1820, when all these circumstances were different, could not, therefore, furnish a fair contrast. The honourable gentleman had likewise made a very material error in the manner in which he had calculated the per-centage on the collection of the revenue, and had founded his calculation on the wrong column of figures. Neither was there any just ground for the comparison between the expenses of collecting the revenue in Ireland and Scotland, and in England; the state of the countries was very different, and especially of Ireland, where the charges were necessarily heavy. The honourable gentleman had called the system of receivers-general of taxes erroneous and mischievous, and had complained of the amount of the balances in their hands; but when it was recollected, that out of 330,000,000Z., since 1790, the nominal balance was only 117,0007., of which more than 100,000, was in a course of collection, leaving the desperate balance no more than 17,000l., it was abundantly in favour of the existing system. The balances were always most narrowly watched by the Treasury, and when they were greater than usual, letters were invariably written, requiring the receiver immediately to account. The poundage

allowed was 14s. 2d. per cent, As to the appointment of country bankers to these offices, government decidedly objected to it; and it had been found, that whenever a receiver-general had been deficient, it was owing to his connexion with some country