GENERAL HISTORY. 
‘of the capital created inthe present 
‘year by funding, was70,888,000/. 
The interest on this was2,577,000I. 
the sinking fund 1,090,000/. ; the 
total annual charge to the coun- 
try 3,689,000/. The rate per 
cent at which the whole of the 
sum raised in the present year 
had been obtained was, to the 
subscribers (including thesinking 
fund), 5/. 14s. 23d. The total 
charge to the country was, every 
thing included, 8/. 3s. 5id. He 
wished to show whathad been the 
‘impression made on the stocks by 
the financial operations of the 
‘present year, and to compare them 
with that which had formerly been 
produced by those measures ren- 
dered necessary to prosecute the 
late war. In 1795, a loan was 
obtained at 4/. 14s. per cent. In 
that and the following year 137 
millions were added to the na- 
tional debt, and the effect of this 
‘on the stocks was such, that for a 
Joan borrowed at thebeginning of 
1797,the public were compelledto 
pay 6/. ‘7s. percent, being an in- 
crease ofinterest,and consequent- 
ly a depression of public credit of 
33s. per cent on the amount of 
the loan, and of 35 per cent on 
the interest paid in the former 
year. Now, since the year 1813, 
the public debt had been increas- 
ed one hundred and eighty-seven 
millions, and the effect was this: 
—in that year we paid 5/. 8s. to 
the subscribers; we this year paid 
5l. 14s. 2d. on the whole amount 
borrowed. So that with this im- 
mense addition to our debt, no 
greater depression on public cre- 
dit was observable than 6s. 2d. 
per cent on the loan, and about 
5} per cent on the former inter- 
est. This might be considered to 
[43 
result ‘from an astonishing: in- 
crease of public credit since the 
period to which he had referred, 
or to the improved situation of 
the country. And which ever 
way it was viewed, the effect was 
equally gratifying. To provide for _ 
the annual charge of 3,689,000/. 
the House had already supplied 
by taxes of customs andexcise on 
tobacco, and on excise licences, 
about 600,000/., and there were 
now under the consideration of the 
House additions tothestamps and 
ostage to the amount of about 
1,200,000/. more, making in the 
whole a provision by new taxes 
of about 1,800,000/. Thus it 
would be seen about half the ne- 
cessary supplies were provided by 
taxes now agreed to, or in pro- 
gress through the House. For 
the remainder, he proposed to 
takea sum of from 1,800,000/. to 
1,900,0002. out of the sums in 
the hands of the commissioners 
forl iquidating the national debt, 
as he was authorised to do by 
the act of 1813. The sum in 
their hands was at present about 
70,000,000/., and he proposed to 
cancel so much of that as would 
suffice to meet the remainder of 
the charge created by the loan.— 
He wished it to be borne in mind, 
as a consideration of no small im- 
portance, that a large proportion 
of the immense sum called for 
must have been supported by the 
country as arrears of the late war, 
had not the recent events again 
placed us in a tate of hostility to 
France. On the most moderate 
calculation, no less than twenty- 
one millions would have been 
sufficient. Of this 12,000,000/. 
were for the arrears of the army 
extraordinaries ; for the payment 
