HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
duct in this particular. excited 
against them a degree of odium 
and unpopularity proportioned to 
the former affeetion and regard en- 
_ tertained towards them. [Jt seemed 
to add to the sufferings of the peo- 
ple, when the property tax was 
raised to 10 per cent, and most of 
the former exemptions dome away, 
that a measure so grinding and op. 
pressive, should proceed from = per- 
Sous, who had opposed the triple 
assessment, the income tax, aid the 
property tax itself, when first intro- 
‘duced. Like the bird in the fable, 
_ which complained less of the sharp- 
ness of the point that wounded its 
bosom, than of the feather that 
winged and directed 
having been drawn from its own 
pinion, the people felt their suffer- 
ings aggravated, and exasperated by 
the reilection, that they were im- 
-posed by those, whom they had hi- 
therto cherished and supported as 
‘their friends, and whose elevation 
to power they considered (no mat- 
ter how erroneously) as in some 
degree their own work, or at least 
as a consequence of their supposed 
partiality towards them. It must 
at the same time, in fairness to the 
new ministers be acknowledged, 
the arrow, | 
67 
liament, and to the rigorous mea« 
sures taken to render them effec. 
tual, that they were enabled at a 
future period to hold out to the 
country the comsolatory assurance, 
that on the scale on which they had 
determined to conduct the war, no 
additional taxes would be necessary 
for carrying it on, to whatever pee 
riod, however distant, it might be 
prolonged. 
Lord Henry Petty, the new chan. 
cellor of the exchequer, opened ‘the 
budyet on the 28th of March, ina 
speech remarkable for the perspi- 
cuity of its statements and clear- 
ness of its arrangement, as well as 
for the professions of rigid econo. 
my, and of strict attention to the 
reform of abuses which it contained. 
He began, after some preliminary 
observations on the arduous task 
‘he had undertaken, by saying, that 
he should state to the house the 
amount of the public debt and 
charges upon it, and the produce of 
the consolidated fund, at the acces. 
sion of the present ministers to of- 
fice, that the people might be fally 
apprised of their situation, and pre. 
pared for the exertions and sacri-« 
fices, which he was compelled to 
demand from them. He then stated 
that it was owing to the heavy taxes that 
-imposed during this session of par- — 
The funded debt of Great britain, not redeemed, oe 
amounted on the ist Feb. 1806 to 
517,280,561* 
—— 
_ The redeemed debt by the commissioners, 101,145,802 
— transferred to the commissioners 
by reason of the land tax redeemed, 
Total of the redeemed debt of Great Britain, 
22,325,740 
? 
123,47 1,542¢ 
te * The funded debt of Ireland, not redeemed, amounted on the 18th 
~ March, 1806, to 
"The imperial loans not redeemed at the same date, + = 
Yotal of the national debt nat redeemed, 
» +The redeemed debt of Ireland, 18th March, 1806, — —_ 
The redeemed imperial loan, same date, — —_ — 
F2 
Tatal of the redeemed debt, — 
—— 35,484,052 
3,027,051 
_— 555,791,664 
2,913,948 
642,249 
— 127,027,739 
Total 
‘ 
