6J ANNUAL REGISTER, 18l6. 



whole wiit'umled debt li;ul been 

 brought down from upwards of 

 VAi millions to 4?,700/)OO. He 

 then look into consideration the 

 commercial state of the country, 

 rer'iiecting- which he said lie could 

 only gi\ e a statement of our ex- 

 ])ortalion for the three quarters 

 ending October lOtli, ISir^, the 

 latest period to which the ac- 

 counts had been made up. Of 

 these the amount was 4'2,4'25,3o7, 

 an increase of about 5^ millions 

 beyond the parallel jjeriod of 

 1814. This prosperous situation 

 did not prevent our labouring 

 under temporary embarrassments, 

 whicii lie attributed chiefly to the 

 depreciation of agricidtural pro- 

 duce ; and he then jnoceeded to 

 the remedies which lie had to 

 propose, of which there were two 

 classes ; a dimiaution of taxa- 

 tion, and a system of measures 

 for the sup])oit of pid)1ic credit. 

 The tendency of the Chancellor's 

 reasoning upon this subject iii 

 goiieial went to show, that the 

 public distresses would be much 

 more effectually rt'lieved l)y ab- 

 staining from borrowing money 

 in the present year, and, on the 

 contrary, relieving the stocks by 

 the operation of the sinking fund, 

 than by a great ciiminuticm of 

 taxation. Government did not, 

 however, pro])ose to omit the 

 latter relief to a certain extent ; 

 and a reduction of the proijcrty- 

 tax to five per cent, would inune- 

 diately take off seven millions of 

 taxes, of which sum the share of 

 tour millions would fall to the 

 agricultural interest, which he 

 also hoped further to i-elieve by 

 the remission of other taxes to 

 the amount of one million. 



The right hon. gentleman next 



proceeded to a summary of the 

 principal heads of the public ex- 

 penditure for the present year, 

 lie began with remarking, that 

 he w ished not to be understood 

 as laying d(nvn the outlines of a 

 permanent peace establishment, 

 as he was confident that he could 

 point out in future years reduc- 

 tions to the amount of several 

 millions ; and no (Mie could be 

 surprised, that in the first year 

 after so long and extensive a war, 

 it was impossible to carry all 

 those retrenchments into imme- 

 diate effect. There would be on 

 that rtight a vote jjroposed for 

 33,000 seamen, which was 10,0O0 

 more than were contemplated for 

 a peace establishment ; and the 

 whole expense for tliat depart- 

 ment was stated at seven millions. 

 W"\lU respect to tlie urmy, he did 

 not intend to propose a vote foi' 

 that service at present, but he 

 woidd give a general view of the 

 subject. The following were the 

 principal heads : for( os foi- home 

 service, Including (iuernsey and 

 Jersey, '2,5,000 ; for Ireland, an 

 equal mnnber ; and for the relief 

 of garrisons abroad 3,000 : for the 

 garrisons of (iibraltar, Malta, and 

 t^he Ionian isles, 11,000: for 

 America 10,000: tor the Ucst 

 Indies, 13,000: for the Cape of 

 Good Hope, the Rlauntius, Cey- 

 lon, St. Helena, <\c. 1^,000 : on 

 the whole, upon the British and 

 Irish establishments, !)9,000. The 

 force serving in F)ance for a 

 limited time was stated at 30,000, 

 the expense of which, however, 

 was to be defrayed out of the 

 contributions of the French go- 

 vernment, which had hitherto 

 been pimctually paid. He be- 

 lieved, that in point of law, these 



con- 



