82] ANNUAL REGISTER, 18l6. 



treasury bills to be issued. Two 

 acts had already passed, authoriz- 

 ing dilTerent issues ; the one was, 

 however, to supply 2,470,0001. in 

 bills payable within this year, and 

 the charge for which is included 

 in the annual charge of the Irish 

 debt ; that sum indeed made al- 

 most the whole amount of the un- 

 funded debt of Ireland ; of course, 

 he was not required to make any 

 further piovision for that issue. 

 By the other act there was a 

 grant of l,700,(X)0l., and he 

 .should to-night submit a reso- 

 lution for 1,200,0001. besides, 

 the whole making in Irish cur- 

 rency^ 3, 041, CG6\., the interest 

 of which, at .5 per cent., with a 

 sinking fund of 1 jierccnt., would 

 create a charge of 18'2,500l. an- 

 nually. When the committee re- 

 collected that Ireland had abstain- 

 ed fi om encroaching on her sink- 

 ing fund, and called to mind also 

 the relative proportions of the 

 sinking funds of Gieat Britain 

 and of Ireland, as well as those 

 which they bore to the resi)ective 

 capital of their common debts, 

 they would, he ti'usted, approve 

 f)f provision being made for the 

 above charge, by cancelling a 

 certain portion of stock, now 

 standing in the names of tlie 

 commissioners in Ireland for tiie 

 redemption of the national debt. 

 In England the principle had been 

 acted on. If it should meet the 

 a])probation of the committee, he 

 should have the honour to state 

 the details more particulaily on a 

 future day. The amount of ca- 

 pital rcdeciiied in Ireland was, in 

 5 per cents., 1,852,0721 , in 4 

 per cents., 294,5001. In Si; per 

 • cms., 3,745,9581., making in ail, 

 7,892,3;iOl. The whole of the 5 



and 4 per cent, stock he should 

 projiose to cancel, and a portion 

 of that in the 3\ per cents., 

 amounting to 2,231,9141. The di- 

 vidends upon these stocks he had 

 calculated as yielding 182,5001., 

 sufficient to cover the whole 

 charge of interest and sinking 

 fund created by the loans of the 

 present year, which he had stated. 

 It would be right that thie should 

 be made apj)licable to the same 

 charge whenever the stock thus 

 created became a part of the fund- 

 ed debt. He might be permitted 

 to observe, that the capital thus 

 cancelled was much les.s than that 

 existing in Ireland when the 

 sinking fund was lirst established 

 there, the amoimt of debt then in 

 Ireland (in the year J 797) being 

 5,825,0001. The annual income 

 of the sinking fund applicable in 

 Ireland will still lenuiin more 

 than suiiicient for the debt it has 

 to act upon there, the whole in- 

 come of it being at present 

 73(j,430l. Pie had directed cal- 

 cidations to be made of the ])ro- 

 portion which the sinking fund 

 of Ireland would bear to the debt 

 of Ireland after this deduction 

 had been made. lie had on a 

 former night ventured to promise 

 that we should still l)ring to the 

 consolidated revenues, a sinking- 

 fund, richer than that of Great | 

 Britain in proportion to our re- 

 spccti^e debts, lie believed he 

 had stated that it would remain 

 as 1 to 54 j he was more than 

 borne out by the calculation since 

 made. He trusted that parlia- 

 ment Avould concur with him in 

 tliis view of the measure to be 

 taken : indeed, he saw no alter- 

 native. They would recollect how , 

 little proportion it bore to the de- 

 mands 



