134; ANNUAL REGISTER, «1803. 
might be found necessary. 
other points of finance, that state- 
ment exhibited: the’ melancholy 
expedient of a lean; but the ques- 
tion was, whether that-was the last 
time such a measure would be re- 
curred to? That publication con- 
tained also a statement of the reve- 
nueand expenditure of the country, 
and Jaid before the public, the 
comfortable yiew of a: surplus of 
even a million sterling! What the 
effect of such a statement must be, 
on the public at large, and on the 
metropolis, may be easily conceived. 
It was not long, however, before 
doubts weré entertained of the ac- 
curacy of these. statements, and 
they had fallen. nearly into com- 
plete discredit, when a noble lord 
(Auckland)was pleased tostep forth, 
and contend, that the calcula- 
tions in question, far from) being 
exaggerated, were below the truth. 
In considering the real state of the 
question, he would undertake to: 
prove, that the actual revenue at 
that very time, instead of yielding 
asurplus, was in fact more than 
two millions below the expenditure; 
which, therefore, as the result of 
that statement; exhibited. a ‘gross 
and inexcusable error of at least 
three jnillions sterling! _In another 
point of view, he contended, that 
the actual revenue would be found 
to fall even four million short of 
the peace establishment, as voted 
by the other house of parliament, 
in November last... In. calculating 
those points, he should: take the 
year as ending the 5th of January, 
and he had no hesitation in taking 
his statements from the documents 
he had_ before specified ; and that 
the statement made by the finan- 
cial minister, on the 19th of De- 
Among: 
cember, abounded in the grossest 
fallacy! His first reference would 
be to the 29th page of the publica- 
tion alluded to, and there the sup- 
posed expenditure was stated to be 
in the aggregate, 11,350,000/. from 
which were to be deducted 2-17 ths 
for the Irish proportion, and also 
the Irish charges upon the consoli- 
dated fund: but afterwards was to 
be added a charge of 500,000/. 
which would make the total ex- 
penditure of the navy, army, ord- 
nance, and miscellaneous services 
to amount to 10,533,000/. for 
Great Britain, In this part of 
the calculation, he had-to observe, 
that one material article of expense 
was entirely overlooked, namely, 
the extra buildings in the navy, 
whieh this year amounted to 
960,000/. The average amount 
of this most necessary expense 
during the last peace, was about 
500,000/. per annum, but allowing 
for the various differences which 
had taken place since that period, 
he thought the average expense 
of that department, could not in 
future be estimated at less than 
700,000/. per annum, which, add- 
ed to the other articles of expen- . 
diture, would form a total of 
11,283,000/. This would be the 
ageregate, when the expenses could 
be reduced to the amount stated in 
the speech, In considering the 
amount of the revenue, as set forth 
in the same publication, the noble 
lord argued, that certain heads 
thereof were not accurately dis 
cussed. He alluded principally to 
the consideration of the land and 
malt taxes. He then passed to a 
review of the statements in the 
consolidated fund, and described 
the real free revenue, to be only 
that 
