GENERAL HISTORY. 



[101 



lected, that it was the duty of the 

 commissioners for the redemption 

 of the national debt, to apply the 

 sinking fund to that stock which 

 could be had on the best terms, 

 and that it was therefore in the 

 power of those commissioners 

 always to maintain the new stock 

 in its relative proportion. They 

 had indeed such a command in 

 the money market as would ena- 

 ble them effectually to guard 

 against any undue depreciation of 

 the new stock. In order to put 

 the committee in more complete 

 possession of his plan, he would 

 read it to them in its detailed 

 form : — £see next page'] . 



The committee would observe 

 that the rate of interest was lower 

 than could have been expected 

 at the termination of an expen- 

 sive war, and under all the cir- 

 cumstances in %vhich the country 

 was placed. This interest it was 

 proposed to provide for by can- 

 celling stock accoi'ding to the act 

 of 1813. If the committee would 

 compare the terms on which 1 1 

 millions of naval exchequer bills 

 were funded in 1785 by Mr. Pitt, 

 with the present plan, the differ- 

 ence in favour of the latter would 

 be immediately seen. The fiinds 

 were only at 56 in 1785, which 

 was a period of peace ; but by 

 the operation of the sinking fund, 

 which had enabled the country 

 to make such extraordinary ef- 

 forts in the late war, the funds 

 were at 57 even at the close of 

 that war, and they were now as 

 high as 80. With this fact be- 

 fore the committee and the pub- 

 lic, every man must see that no 

 doubt could be entertained of the 

 success of the new stock. Of 

 that success those most interested 



and most competent to judge 

 were already fully assured. Some 

 doubt, he understood, had been 

 expressed whether the holders of 

 exchequer bills would be willing 

 to fund them on the terms pro- 

 posed ; but he apprehended that 

 there was no ground for such 

 doubt ; first, because it was for 

 the advantage of those holders to 

 subscribe, and secondly, because 

 he never remembered an instance 

 in which subscribers had declined 

 to perform the optional part of 

 their engagement. — Adverting to 

 the act of 1813, and reverting to 

 the charge of interest, he observ- 

 ed, that it was his intention to 

 propose that that charge should 

 be defrayed out of the sinking 

 fund. This proposition, however, 

 he meant to bring forward on 

 another day, taking care to pro- 

 vide that no reduction of the sink- 

 ing fund should take place within 

 the present year. The committee 

 would remember that by the act 

 of 1813 it was provided that there 

 should be a reserved sum of 100 

 millions of stock in the hands of 

 the commissioners for the reduc- 

 tion of the national debt for cer- 

 tain purposes, and he was happy 

 to say, that of that sum about 

 90,000,000/. had already been 

 provided. A sum of 84',000,000/. 

 had indeed already been adver- 

 tised in the Gazette. The charge 

 of interest upon this occasion, or 

 any other charge to be imposed 

 upon the sinking fund, he pro- 

 posed to have defrayed in such a 

 manner, as not to reduce the 

 present amount of the fund in the 

 hands of the commissioners. To 

 the reduction of that fund, he was 

 indeed by no means disposed to 

 assent ; and therefore his purpose 



was, 



