ARMY AND NAVY ESTIMATES, ETC.
On the 23rd of January the commons voted 120,000 men, including marines, for the service of the navy during the present year. A few days after the secretary at war moved the army estimates, which amounted to £12,395,490 for 312,000 men under various heads of service; on which occasion lie stated that in the United Kingdom there were 600,000 men in arms, including volunteers, of whom 240,000 were fit for active and immediate service. The budget was opened on the 13th of February, when the supplies stated amounted to £44,500,000 for Great Britain and Ireland. The ways and means comprised a loan of £20,000,000 for Great Britain, and £2,500,000 for Ireland; and a considerable addition was made to the war-taxes. Thus the income-tax was raised to six and a quarter per cent., and the salt-duty was augmented by one-half. The new taxes were estimated at £1,000,000; yet Pitt, while thus adding to the public burden, and while war menaced England on every hand, congratulated the house on the increasing prosperity of the country. At this time, however, the prime minister had lost much of his usual confidence, arising partly from his declining health. Although in the prime of life, Pitt, from the task which he had undertaken, and which he so energetically performed, was now in constitution a worn-out man. The burden of office was too great for his strength; and it had become manifest that he would never arrive at the allotted age of man.