BRITAIN. 



nts f 



There art proofs of the merit of this short admi- 

 nistration which appeal to moral feeling, anil arc in- 

 , less obscure than those depending on financial 

 calculation. They lent a cordial, and happily a 

 triumphant assistance, to the abolition of the slave- 

 trade ; they obtained a vote of the House of Com- 

 mons against the granting of places or payments in 

 reversion; thus taking from the crown the power of 

 dilapidating its own resources, and from the people 

 one source of the corruption of their leaders. Th>-y 

 delivered from slavery (that is, from service for lite,) 

 the Soldier, hitherto the only slave in a free country ; 

 and when they retired from office, m(ti!iiis cecii 

 ausis. They were dismissed, because they would not 

 promise to eease being the advocates for the religious 

 on of millions of their fellow subjects. The 

 ;\ of moving a bill for permitting Catholics 

 and other dissenters to be eligible to any situation in 

 the army and navy, had been announced by Lord 

 Howick in the Commons, and had been submitted to 

 his majesty by his ministers, and had met with his 

 approbation. Some doubts, however, as to the ex- 

 tent of the measure, were entertained by some mem- 

 bers of the cabinet, who at lust objected to the bill 

 in the strongest terms. His majesty was soon after 

 apprised, that the concession to the Catholics was of 

 greater extent than he had conceived it to be, and he 

 conveyed to Lord Grenville his disapprobation of 

 the bill. Ministers then endeavoured to modify the 

 bill, so as to reconcile it to his majesty's wishes, with- 

 out destroying its vital ess rice. Failing in this at- 

 tempt, they determined to drop it altogether; but at 

 the same time, to insert in the proceedings of the ca- 

 binet, a minute, reserving to Lord Grenville and 

 Lord Howick, first, the liberty of delivering their 

 opinions in favour of the Catholic question; secondly, 

 that of submitting this question, or any subject con- 

 nected with it, from time to time, according to cir- 

 cumstances, to his majesty's decision. Far from these 

 terms being granted, ministers were called upon, not 



only to withdraw the latter re nervation, but to nub- B f 

 slitute- in its place a written obligation, pledging ^.~ ' 

 themselves never again to linn;; forward a:iy thing 

 connected witli the Catholic question. These terms ci, anf?c ' f 

 having been declined, his majesty informed them, that ministry, 

 he must look out for other ministers. A new ad- 

 ministration was immediately formed. The Duke of 

 Portland was appointed first lord of the treasury ; 

 Mr Percival, chancellor of the exchequer ; Lord lil- 

 don, lord chancellor ; Lor.! Liverpool, secretary for 

 the home department ; Lord Castlereagh, for the war 

 department ; Mr Canning, minister for foreign affairs ; 

 Lord Mulgrave, first lord of the admiralty. 



After the battle of Fricdlaml, Sweden remained State of at 



alone faithful to her alliance with Britain ; 1: . on '" 



, , , c \ continent. 



had even, before that event, given several symptoms 



of secession, particularly in the appointment of Count 

 Romanzow as her minister for foreign affairs, a man 

 notoriously hostile to the English interests. Den- 

 mark affected a neutrality, which, in reality, she was 

 not only unable, but unwilling to maintain. The 

 greatest fear of her cabinet was for her German ter- 

 ritory. Thus the victories of Bonaparte brought 

 the French near her : she had not courage to col- 

 lect her troops in the face of that power; but in 1805, 

 when the coalition was formed against France, she 

 openly threw what little influence she then possessed, 

 into the scale of that country, and collected an army, 

 which, contemptible as it was, could only be meant 

 to watch the motions of Prussia, while the French 

 soldiers were lighting on the banks of the Danube. 

 France, the tyrant of the continent, was her natural 

 enemy ; but her weakness had made her willing to 

 bend so entirely to the views of that power, that she 

 had become willing to suffer from Britain, an enemy 

 created by the influence of France, deeper injune. 

 than France had yet inflicted. In the spirit of sub- 

 mission to France, she had solicited our government 

 to be excused from receiving our packet boats at the 

 ports of Holstein or Sleswig, and this was brought 



pledged for new loans. It was, however, shewn, by the printed calculations, that whatever might be the operation of the 

 continuance, the property tax would not bo payable beyond the period for which it was granted, by the 4C'th George III. ch. 

 65, but would in every case be in force only during the war, and until the 0th of April, after the ratification of a definitive 

 treaty of peace. 



The charge for the interest and sinking fund of the proposed loans being taken from the annual produce of the war taxes, a 

 deficiency equal to that charge would be created in the amount of the temporary revenue, applicable to the war expenditure. 

 Supplementary loans would be required to make good that deficiency. Those supplementary loans would increase, in proiwr- 

 tion to the increasing deficiency . if the war should be continued ; but the whole amount of the loan in any one year, including 

 that charged upon the war taxes, and the supplementary loan, would never, even in a period of 20 years from the pres. nt 

 time, exceed L. 500,000 in any year, beyond the amount to which the combined sinking fund of that year would ha- 

 raised ; and, upon an average of those 20 years, would not exceed L.3,800,000. It was proposed that the supplementary 

 loans should be formed on the established system of a sinking fund, of 1 per cent, on the nominal capital. The charge 

 ted, was to be provided for, during the first three years, by the expiring annuities, and during that period the country would 

 have the great benefit of an exemption from all additional burthens. From 1810, and tor tl ; chargv 



T/as to be provided for, amounting on the average of those seven years to not more than L. 29.'i,000 ummallj ; a sum in itself 

 <-o small in comparison with the great additions \\hich have necessarily been made to the li year for the lam 



teen years, that it would scarcely be felt, and could not create any difficulty as to the means of providing for it. 



Provision was thus made on the scale of actual expenditure for ten years of war, if it should 'J, without any ad- 



tlitional taxes, except to an inconsiderable amount. At the close of that period, taking the li i-r evnt ::t (>i>. 

 the whole of the public debts at that rate to a money capital, the combined amount of the public debts would be I.. 3^7.' 

 and the combined amount of the several sinking funds L. 22,720,000; herc;is, the then amount of the 

 taken on the same scale of calculation, was L. :;.52,7U 5,000, and the amount of the sinking fund no more than l,.--,o H.U6O. 



If the war should be continued beyond the ten years thus provided fur. : used to take 1 , 



certain excesses to accrue from the present sinking fund. That fund, with the very large additions d. ' 

 new plan, would amount, in IH17, to 21 niillion> sterling. But it was now proposed, in any case, to .'I'ply to I 

 new lo i'ltnd than such as would always leave an amount o; 



iblc on such part of the present <!; 1 ixmain unreduced. N 



.if finance, should ever prevent the .1 of a sum equal to the present debt, i:> 



n-ould have been redeemed, if this new plaai had. not JC.cn brought forward. 



