A. D. 1800. 493 



March 10'" — The fum of ^^20, 500,000 was raifed for the public ferv- 

 ice by a loan, the fubfcribers to which received £110 in the three-per- 

 cent confolidated fund, and ^{"47 in the three-per-cent reduced fund, for 

 every ;^ioo paid in. [39, 40 Geo. Iff, c. 22] 



A variety of additional duties of excife were impofed upon home- 

 made and foreign fpiritous liquors. A new excife duty of five per cent 

 on the fale price was alfo impofed on all teas fold at or above 2/6 per 

 pound at the Eaft-India company's fales. \c. 23] 



March 25"" — The ufe of wheat for making ftarch was prohibited till 

 the i" of Odober i8oo. \c. 25] 



March 28"' — Though the charter of the bank of England v/ill not 

 expire till the i" of Auguft 1813, the proprietors at a general meeting 

 (January 9"') agreed to advance for the public fervice, on or before th« 

 5''' of April i8co, the fum of three millions in their own notes, on the 

 fecurity of exchequer bills, payable, without any interefl, on the 5"" of 

 April 1806. In cafe the price of the three-per-cent confolidated an^- 

 nuities fliall at any time before the 5'" of April 1 806 be as high as eighty 

 per cent, the bank have an option, on giving fix months' notice to the 

 treafury, to receive payment with a difcount of five per cent per annum 

 for the time w-anting of the full period of fix years. If the exchequer 

 bills, or any part of them, remain unpaid after the 5"" of April 1806, 

 they are to bear interefl from that day at five per cent per annum. The 

 parliament accepted the offer, and, in confideration thereof, now pro- 

 longed the company's privilege for banking, exclufive of all other com- 

 panies in England exceeding fix partners, till the i" of Augufi; 1833, 

 and one year's notice after that day ; on which, and on repayment of 

 all debt due to the bank by the treafury, the bank's exclufive privilege 

 will expire *. \c. 28] 



April 4'" — ^There being a neceflity for importing foreign corn, the 

 parliament engaged to make up the prices of wheat, wheaten flour, and 

 rice, imported in Britifh or neutral veflTels, however navigated, to cer- 

 tain rates, to be regulated by the average prices of the commodities, 

 and to operate in the nature of bounties f. \c. 29] 



May 1" The king was empowered to grant, till the 29"" of Septemr 



ber 1 801, to any Britifli fubjedl who has exported, or given fecurity for 

 exporting, goods to colonies in America belonging to any foreign Europ- 

 ean power, a licence to import the produce or manufadure of fuch 

 colony, not being prohibited arcicles, in neutral veflels, on paying the 

 duties payable on their importation in Britifli veflels. Sugar and coffee, 



* Mr. Thornton, one of the direflors of the Auguft 1834, tlie bank mnft neverthclefs remain 



bank, i'aid in parliament, that the propofal for re- an incorporated body till the lall penny of the na- 



ntwing the chatter originated with the directors of tional debt is paid oil. 



the bank, who faw fome reafon to appiehend an -j- This fecms to have been the kind of bounty 



intention of erefting a rival chartered bank, and given to the importers of corn by the Roman em- 



u'ere dcfrous to obtain a prevention of fuch a mea- peror Claudius, who has thence been crroneoufly 



fnre as ioou as polTible : — N. B. If the exclufive called the inventor of maritime iuluxance. S«e> 



privilege (hall be allowed to expire on the i" of V. i, /». ijl. 



