178 



avert, if possible, the calamity of war be- 

 fwoi'd France and Spain. 



Ill tlie east of Europe, liis Majesty flat- 

 ters himself that peace will be preserved ; 

 and \m Majesty continues to receive from 

 his allies, and generally from other powers, 

 assurances of tlieir unaltered disposition to 

 cultivate with his Majesty those friendly 

 relations which il is equally his Majesty's 

 object on his part to maintain. 



We are further comnianded to apprise 

 you, that discussions having long been 

 pending with the court of Madrid, respect- 

 ing depredations committed on the com- 

 merce of his Majesty's subjects in the 

 West Indian seas, and other grievances of 

 which his Majesty had been under the ne- 

 cessity of complaining ; those discussions 

 have terminated in an admission by the 

 Spanish government of the justice of his 

 Majesty's complaints, and in an engage- 

 ment for satisfactory reparation. 



We are commanded to assure you that 

 his Majesty has not been unmindful of the 

 addresses presented to him by the tvro 

 Houses of Parliament, writh respect to the 

 foreign slave-trade. 



Propositions for the more effectual sup- 

 pression of that evil were brought forward 

 by his Majesty's plenipotentiary in the 

 conferences at Verona; and there have 

 been added to the treaties upon this sub- 

 ject, already concluded between his Ma- 

 jesty and the governments of Spain and 

 the Netherlands, articles which will extend 

 the operation of those treaties, and greatly 

 facilitate their execution. 



Gentlemen of thet House of Commont, 

 His Majesty has directed the estimates 

 of the current year to be laid before you. 

 They have been framed with every atten- 

 tion to economy ; and the total expendi- 

 ture will be found to be materially below 

 that of last year. 



The diminution of charge, combined 

 with the progressive improvement of the 

 revenue, have produced a surplus exceed- 

 ing his Majesty's expectation. His Ma- 

 jesty trusts, therefore, that you will be 

 able, after providing for the services of the 

 year, and without affecting public credit, 

 to fliake a farther considerable reduction 

 in the burthens of his people. 

 niy Lords and Gentlemen, 

 His Majesty has commanded us to state 

 to you, that the manifestations of loyalty 

 and attachment to his person and govern- 

 ment, which his Majesty received in his 

 late visit to Scotland, have made the deep- 

 est impression upon his heart. 



The provision which you made in the 

 last session of parliament for the relief of 

 the distresses in considerable districts in 

 Ireland, has been productive of the hap- 

 piest effects ; and his Majesty recommends 

 to your consideration such measures of in- 

 ternal regulation, as may be calculated to 

 promote and secure the tranquillity of that 



Political Affairs in February. [March I , 



country, and to improve the habits aad 

 condition of the people. 



Deeply as his Majesty regrets the con- 

 tinued depression of the agricultural inter- 

 est, the satisfaction with which his Majesty 

 contemplates the increasing activity which 

 pervades the manufacturing districts, and 

 the flourishing condition of our commerce, 

 in most of its principal branches, is greatly 

 enhanced by the confident persuasion, 

 that the progressive prosperity of so 

 many of the interests of the country cannot 

 fail to contribute to the gradual improve- 

 ment of that great interest, which is the 

 most important of them all. 



In the debate on the motion for the 

 address, Mr. Brougham made a speech 

 on the iniquitous pretensions of the 

 confederacy of despots, called the 

 Holy Alliance, which we lament our 

 inability to insert ; but which, for libera- 

 lity, noble sentiments, and true elo- 

 quence never was exceeded, even in 

 the British parliament. 



On the 21st Mr. Kobinson, the new 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer, made 

 his Parliamentary Statement of the 

 Finances. 



The whole revenue of the last year, in- 

 clnding Property and unappropriated 

 War Taxes, might (he said,) be estimated 

 at— 



Kevenne . . ^54,415,049 



Expenditure . • 49,449,130 



Leaving a surplus of . „£'4,965,519 

 The revenue of the present year, 

 making allowance for the taxes which had 

 been reduced, and adding the arrears, 

 would come to d7,096,255i. and the esti- 

 mated expenditure to 6ii,260,188<. But 

 from this last sum there had to be made 

 deductions which would reduce the total 

 expenditure of the year to 49,832,000/. of 

 M hich the particulars might be taken :— 

 Total expence of the 

 Funded Debt 



.£30,112,000 



Contingent charges . 2,860,000 



Interest of Exchequer Bills . ],200,oo0 



Army . . . 7,363,000 



Navy .... 6,443,000 



Ordnance . . . 1,380,000 



Miscellaneous . . 1,494,000 



c£49,852,000 



By comparing this with the estimated 

 revenue, there was a surplus of 7,224,235i. 

 available to the relief of the public bur- 

 dens. He calculated that, under all the 

 circumstances, and allowing for all the 

 diminutions, there would be in the present 

 year an improvement, on the whole, of two 

 millions, as compared with the estimate 

 taken from the last. The first item to 

 which he would advert, was the Customs, 

 theprodnce of which, for the present year, 



he 



