GENERAL HISTORY. 



[9. 



CHAPTER XI. 



The Budget. 



ON June 17th, the house hav- 

 ing resolved itself into a 

 committee of Ways and Means, 



The Chancellor of the Exche- 

 quer (the right hon. Nicholas 

 Vansittart), declared that he could 

 not rise to perform the duty which 

 that day imposed upon him, with- 

 out fteliiig sensations unusually 

 painful at the recollection of the 

 singular situation in which he was 

 placed, and the remembrance of 

 the lamented individual whom he 

 that day represented. Considering 

 in whose place he stood, whose 

 papers he held in his hands, and 

 whose plans he was about to state 

 to the House, he felt rather that 

 he was executing the last of the 

 official dutiesof his lamented friend, 

 than the first of his own. Happy 

 should he have thought himself if 

 he could, at the close of the day, 

 resign those papers again into his 

 hands, after supplying his place 

 upon a mere occasional absence ; 

 but happier still if he could inherit 

 his talents and virtues, and close a 

 life of public service with the same 

 testimonies of public approbation, 

 and equal consciousness of un- 

 blemished integrity. 



Under these peculiar circum- 

 stances, the committee would not 

 expect him to do more, than to 

 state as briefly as possible, what, 

 with the exception of a few parti- 

 culars, which he would point out 



when he came to them, was the 

 intended budget of their departed 

 friend. 



He should, in the first instance, 

 recapitulate the charges of the pre- 

 sent year, and then proceed to 

 the statement of the Ways and 

 Means by which it was proposed 

 that those charges should be de- 

 frayed. 



The whole amount of the sup- 

 plies was already within the know- 

 ledge of the committee, having, 

 excepting a few inconsiderable 

 votes for miscellaneous services, 

 been agreed to by the house. It 

 certainl)' was an enormous, he 

 might even say, a terrible extent 

 of charge ; but he had the consola- 

 tion to reflect that, great as it was, 

 the resources of the country were 

 still equal to support it. 



On a reference to the papers on 

 the table, it would appear that, for 

 the navy, exclusive of ordnance 

 for the sea service, tlie sum voted 

 was 19,702,399/. ;— for the army, 

 including barracks and commissa- 

 riat, and the military service of 

 Ireland, 17,750,160/. ;— an addi- 

 tional vote of 90,000/. for the bar- 

 rack department had been agreed 

 to by the house ; but the treasury 

 had deteraiined to strike off this 

 sum, and diminish the grant in the 

 appropriation act by that amount. 

 This diminution of charge pro- 

 ceeded from a resolution to post- 

 pone 



