66], 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1$13. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



The Budget, English and Irish. 



THE House of Commons on 

 March 31, being in a com- 

 mittee of Ways and Means, the 

 Chancellor of the Exchequer rose, 

 and said, that he should first men- 

 tion to the committee a transaction 

 which had taken place that morn- 

 ing. Government had made the 

 proposal to a considerable body of 

 merchants and bankers of funding 

 twelve millions of outstanding ex- 

 chequer bills in the same stock in 

 which they had lately been uni- 

 formly funded, namely, the five 

 per cent navy annuities ; for every 

 lOOZ. so funded, the subscriber to 

 receive 115/. 10^. of those annui- 

 ties. The rate of interest to be 

 paid by the public on this sum 

 would be 51. \5s. 6d. which, added 

 to the sinking fund upon it, would 

 amount to 6/. 18s. 7d. In addition 

 to this proposal, ithadbeentliought 

 advisable to give an option to 

 such of the holders of exchequer 

 bills as might think fit to subscribe 

 an additional 50 per cent in money, 

 for which they should receive de- 

 bentures. On these debentures he 

 proposed an addition of one per 

 cent, as a sinking fund for their re- 

 demption. After the right hon. 

 gentleman had made various ex- 

 planatory observations on this 

 scheme, he said, he would now 

 proceed, in conformity to his notice, 

 to submit to the consideration of 

 the committee the taxes which 

 would be necessary, in order to 

 make that provision for the sink- 



ing fund which was involved in the 

 bill in progress through the House, 

 provided it passed into a law. If, 

 on the other hand, parliament 

 sliould not think it advisable to 

 give the bill their sanction, at least 

 he would not be liable to reproach 

 for having neglected to provide 

 supplies which might be applicable 

 to defray the charge and sinking 

 fund of exchequer bills outstand- 

 ing. Reverting to the financial 

 occurrences of 1802, he observed, 

 that although the noble lord then 

 at the head of the Treasury (lord 

 Sidmouth) did not provide a sink- 

 ing fund for the sum funded in that 

 year, yet the taxes imposed to'de- 

 fray the interest and charges of that 

 sum had exceeded the estimate by 

 four or five millions. This excess 

 of produce, which went to the 

 consolidated fund, he (the chan- 

 cellor of the exchequer) might 

 have been justified in applying to 

 the services of the current year ; 

 but it was so important to maintain 

 the consolidated fund, that it ap- 

 peared to him to be very inexpe- 

 dient to take such a step, and tc 

 be far better, however inconve- 

 nient in other respects, to add to 

 the existing taxation. In additioii 

 to the 870,000/. which in the de- 

 velopement of his financial planJ 

 he had shown to be necessary to 

 supply the drain on the sinking 

 fund, the committee would recol- 

 lect, that in providing the supplies 

 for the last year, there was one 



