MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
A.D. 1824
Parliament reassembled on the 3rd of February. It was opened by commission, and one of the leading topics of the speech was, the general prosperity of the country; which congratulations were echoed back in the addresses of both houses.
ATTACK ON MINISTERS WITH REFERENCE TO SPAIN, ETC.
Early in this session the affairs of Spain occupied the attention of both houses. In the upper house Lord Lansdowne deplored the fate of that country, which was occupied by French troops, and thought that a greater advance should have been made towards our complete recognition of South American independence. In the commons, Mr. Brougham attacked the tyranny and particular cruelties of the Austrians in one peninsula and of Ferdinand in the other, and denounced the impotent efforts of government to ward off the blow from the constitutionalists. Subsequently our foreign policy was discussed, on motions made by Lords John Russell and Nugent, but Mr. Canning successfully vindicated it. He showed that the conduct of Great Britain had been regulated by a due regard for her own interests and dignity, as well as by an honourable attention to the first principles of international law; and that while we preserved peace, we had by bold remonstrances paralysed schemes formed by the holy alliance for extending their system of interference from the government of Spain to the internal condition of her colonies. These explanations were satisfactory to the house, and the motions were not pressed to a division. Before the close of the year, ministers gave a pledge of their sincerity by admitting the South American colonies into the rank of independent powers. Treaties of amity and commerce were concluded with Mexico, Columbia, and Buenos Ayres, which gave a fresh impetus to trade and commerce.
FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
With the prosperity of the country the public revenue improved. Taxes had been remitted last year to a considerable amount, but notwithstanding this the revenue had increased. It produced £57,672,999, leaving a clear balance of £1,710,985 over the expenditure, besides the established sinking-fund of £5,000,000. The chancellor of the exchequer proposed to employ a part of this surplus in a grant of £500,000 for the erection of new churches; of £300,000, for the renovation and improvement of Windsor Castle; and of £60,000 for the purchase of the Angerstein pictures, in furtherance of a design to establish a national gallery for the fine arts. In his financial calculations for this year the chancellor of the exchequer anticipated a continued surplus, on the strength of which he proposed a further repeal of taxes to the amount of more than £1,000,000; and as an auxiliary measure, he suggested the discontinuance of certain bounties on fisheries and manufactures, which he considered no longer necessary. In his arrangement an extension of the scheme for reducing the interest of the national debt formed a prominent feature. He proposed to convert the old four per cent, stock, amounting to £75,000,000, into a new fund, bearing interest at three and a half per cent.; and giving the holders the option of being-paid off at par, or of acceding to the new plan. This arrangement met with the decided approbation of parliament, and was carried into execution with great facility. It may be mentioned that during this year Austria unexpectedly repaid £2,500,000 for loans advanced by the British government during the late war. This was but a small dividend on the debt due to England, but it enabled the ministers to be liberal, as they were disposed.