THE BUDGET.
The budget was opened by Lord Henry Petty on the 28th of March. From his statement it appeared that the unredeemed debt of Great Britain and Ireland was about £566,000,000, of which the annual interest was about £27,500,000. The supplies of England and Ireland for the year were estimated at £62,187,465; and among the ways and means, were a loan of £18,000,000 and an augmentation of the new taxes to £19,500,000, to be effected principally by raising the income-tax from six and a half to ten per cent. The new Chancellor of the Exchequer also imposed a duty of forty shillings a ton on pig-iron; an additional duty on beer and spirits, in Ireland; and a paltry tax on appraisements. The duty on pig-iron and the increase of the income-tax raised a storm of opposition; but they were nevertheless decreed. As the burdens of the people were so increased, it was deemed expedient that some attempt should be made to prevent the misapplication of the money raised from the public. It was proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that, beside the five commissioners to whom the task of general investigation had hitherto been confided, particular auditors should be appointed; and though this new arrangement was to cost from £28,000 to £42,000 per annum, his proposition was agreed to. Some slight improvements were likewise made in the acts regulating commercial intercourse between Great Britain and Ireland; and a law was passed for permitting the free interchange of grain of every kind between the two islands. By the burdensome imposts of this year the new ministry obtained much odium, the friends of Pitt taking care to enhance their disgrace in the sight of the nation by ridicule and reproach. Mr. Canning, in particular, assailed them both by his oratory and his pen, impugning even their motives. “All the talents,” as this ministry was called, indeed, stood in no very enviable position in the sight of the country at large.