PITT’S FINANCIAL MEASURES.
On the 7th of March, Pitt moved for the appointment of a select committee of nine persons, for the purpose of reporting on the state of the public revenue and expenditure. The report of this committee was highly satisfactory. The amount of the revenue for the current year was estimated at £15,397,000, while the permanent expenditure and the expences of the peace establishment would only require £14,478,000, thereby leaving a surplus of more than £900,000. In consequence of this, Pitt, on the 29th of March, brought under consideration the national debt and his new sinking-fund. He thought that the surplus might be increased to one million, without burthening the people, and he moved that such a sum should be annually granted to commissioners, to be by them applied to the purchase of stock towards discharging the public debt of the country. The new taxes which he proposed, in order to raise the surplus to one million, were an additional duty on ardent spirits, and new duties on certain kinds of timber and perfumery. In making this proposition Pitt showed that he was full of hope for the future. He calculated that the accumulated compound interest of the one million so appropriated, added to the annuities which would fall into the fund, would, in the course of twenty-eight years, leave a surplus of four millions per annum, to be applied, if necessary, to the exigencies of the state. His entire conviction was, indeed, that this new sinking-fund would rapidly reduce and eventually discharge the whole of our enormous national debt! The commissioners he proposed under this act, were the speaker of the house of commons, the chancellor of the exchequer, the master of the rolls, the governor and deputy-governor of the bank of England, and the accountant-general in chancery. The speech which Pitt uttered upon this occasion was so convincing to the house, that all but a few members ventured to enter the fairy car with him, and those who dissented from his views were looked upon as little better than madmen. Among those who dissented were Burke, Fox, Sheridan, and Sir Grey Cooper, who endeavoured to show that the premier’s hopes were visionary. Sheridan, indeed, asserted that there neither was nor could be any surplus, and he said, that the only means which suggested themselves to him were a loan of a million every year. “The right honourable gentleman,” he wittily remarked, “might say with the person in the comedy, ‘If you wont lend me the money, how can I pay you?’” In conclusion, Sheridan moved a long string of objections, which were all negatived without a division; but on the day for reconsidering the report of the committee on the bill, an amendment, as moved by Fox, was adopted, to the effect, “that whenever a new loan should hereafter be made, the commissioners should be empowered to accept the loan, or such proportion of it as should be equal to the cash in their hands; the interest and douceur annexed to which should be applied to the purposes of the sinking-fund.” Pitt declared this amendment to be an auspicious omen of the ultimate success of the plan; and that its propriety and necessity were so obvious as to overcome the spirit, and prejudice of party, and to create an unanimity in persons, who, more from accident than inclination, were so frequently of different-opinions. With Fox’s amendment the bill passed both houses without a dissentient voice, and on the 26th of May his majesty gave his assent to it in person.
In pursuit of his great plan of financial reform, Pitt next turned his attention to the frauds committed on the revenue, in the article of wine. At this time large quantities of wine were smuggled into the country, and a spurious liquor was made and sold at home under that name. To prevent these evils, on the 22nd of May, Pitt presented a bill for transferring certain duties on wines from the customs to the excise. This transfer was made, after several divisions, despite the exertions of Fox to render the measure unpopular, and the obstruction given to it by those in the trade, as well as by others, who urged the difficulty of applying the excise laws to wine, and the impolicy of extending those laws beyond their existing limits. It is probable that there were some who conceived that this measure would tend to render the minister very unpopular; and it must be confessed that the step was a very hazardous one for him to take. Englishmen had never looked with complacency upon the intrusions and interference of excisemen, and there was still a strong national feeling against any extension of the excise laws. When Sir Robert Walpole, indeed, brought in a bill which had a tendency to extend these laws, although he was at the time he introduced it at the very height of his power, it nearly cost him his place. But the principles of commerce and taxation were now better understood, than they were in the days of Walpole, and the well-disposed among the people felt convinced that the state of the revenue required the adoption of every measure tending to its improvement, whence Pitt triumphed. The bill was followed by another, which had reference to frauds committed on the customs, by false accounts of imported goods, and the re-landing clandestinely such as had received drawbacks at their exportation. To prevent such practices, Pitt brought in, and carried through parliament, M’hat was called “The Manifest Act,” which enacted that no article should be imported into Great Britain before the master of the vessel had delivered to the custom-house officer a manifest, or declaration, stating the place where they were laden, with a full description of them, verified on oath; that no vessel should sail from any British port, till the owner of the vessel had given a bond for two hundred pounds, that he would not re-land any part of its cargo illegally; and that no goods, entitled to drawback, should be put on board for exportation, except by duly licensed persons.
At a subsequent date Pitt endeavoured to ascertain whether the crown-lands could not be rendered more productive. To this end, and in consequence of a message from the king, he moved, in the house of commons, for the appointment of commissioners to inquire into the state of woods, forests, and land revenues belonging to the crown, as well as to sell or alienate fee-farm and other unimprovable rents. This bill passed the commons, netn. con., after the adoption of certain amendments, moved by Mr. Jollife, to protect title-deeds, and to bind the commissioners to report their proceedings in parliament. In the house of lords, however, it met with the stern opposition of Lord Loughborough, who objected to the bill because it did not agree with the king’s message; because it repealed two old acts, and created a new power for the sale of those lands, without any exception of the rents reserved in the former acts, for divers persons, and for other purposes mentioned in those acts; and because the powers granted to the commissioners were dangerous to the people and derogatory to the honour of the crown. Notwithstanding this opposition, the bill was ultimately carried and received the royal assent.
In the midst of his exertions for financial reform, and before the Sinking-fund Bill passed into a law, a message was delivered to the house from the king, by the minister, stating, that it gave him great concern to inform the commons that it had not been possible to confine the expenses of the civil list within the annual sum of £850,000, now applicable to that purpose. This message was the more remarkable as, in 1782, when Pitt was chancellor of the exchequer, the king, in his speech from the throne, had stated that he had so regulated his establishments, that his expenses should not in future exceed his income. The sum now required to free his majesty from debt, contracted partly before and partly since that period, was £210,000; which sum, after considerable opposition, in the course of which the necessity of economy was strongly enforced, was ultimately voted.
DEBATES ON INDIA, ETC.
In consequence of the commutation tax, and the preventive measures taken against smuggling, the sale of tea at the East India-house had by this time increased nearly threefold. This enlarged trade, connected with other circumstances, induced the company to apply to parliament for an act, empowering them to make an addition to their funds. A petition to this effect was presented on the 25th of May, and Pitt proposed and carried a bill, which enabled the company to add £800,000 to their stock, and also to sell a surplus of £36,000 a year, received from the exchequer, over and above the annuities which they paid to their creditors, which would produce a sum equal to that which they were empowered to add to their stock. Previous to this, in consequence of intelligence from India, Pitt felt called upon to adopt some plan for amending the act of 1784. A bill was brought in for this purpose by Mr. Dundas, which bill conferred on the governor-general a privilege of acting in cases of importance, without the consent of the other members of the council; enabled the directors to unite the offices of commander-in-chief and governor-general in the same person; rendered not only the present, but the farmer servants of the company, whether resident in India or not, capable of being appointed to seats in the respective councils; empowered the governors of presidencies to nominate temporary successors to members of council who might die or vacate their office; altered a clause in the former bill, which compelled the company’s servants to rise by gradation; repealed another, which required from them a disclosure of their property, on oath; and made several changes in the court of judicature and mode of trial for crimes and misdemeanors in India. This bill was strongly opposed by Fox and Burke, with other members of opposition; but, after several debates and divisions, it passed both houses, and received the royal assent.
The only other business of importance brought under notice during this session, was the impeachment of Warren Hastings. This will be noticed in the following section, where we propose to take a retrospective view of the progress of the English arms, and our policy in that part of the world. After much discussion on this subject which was left undecided, on the 11th of July parliament was prorogued.