civil list 2,050,000.; the halfpay 2,800,000l.; the ordnance 1,376,6417. and the miscellaneous expenditure he calculated at 2,300,000l. There was a considerable increase, in consequence of calling in the miserable Irish tokens, and by a payment made to America pursuant to the stipulations of the treaty of Ghent. The sum thus paid was about 250,000l. which America claimed as compensation for slaves which had been taken and placed under the protection of the British government, but which were the property of American subjects. The amount of the claim had been left to the arbitration of Russia, and that power had awarded the sum he had mentioned. The result of the items he had mentioned was, that a surplus would be left on the account of the present year, amount-ing to 443,5281. Now, it might be asked, how could this surplus apply to the years 1826 and 1827? He would say, that assuming as the basis of the receipts of those years that of the year 1824, (and it was already shown that the assumption went on very probable grounds), and not assuming any increase for those years, the result would be, that the net revenue of 1826 would be 56,195,000l. and the expenditure, 55,330,3241. leaving a surplus of 864,6761.; and taking the year 1827 on the same principle, it would give an income of 56,360,000l. and an expenditure of 55,105,3241.; leaving a surplus of 1,254,676l. It might be asked, how the income of 1827 should exceed the expenditure by so large a sum? He would inform the house, that it was calculated to arise from a measure which he would submit in the course of the

present session, and the outline of which he would now state. The committee were aware that, in the discussion which took place last session on the duties on sugar, it appeared that a considerable sum was paid as bounties on the exportation of that article; and according to the scale of duties paid, it was evident that the bounty on the exportation exceeded the amount of duty paid by three shillings in the hundred weight. When a discussion arose on a former occasion, those duties were laid on an ascending scale according to the price, so that while the duty was no more than 27s. the drawback amounted to 30s. Now, he contended, that this arrangement rested upon no sound principle, for foreign powers, who saw our error in this point, were disposed to take advantage of it; and by laying additional duties on sugars exported from England, and imported into their states, they put these three shillings bounty into their own treasury. The committee would admit, that the continuance of such a system on our part would be absurd. However, it might, perhaps, interfere with several existing interests to have this drawback or bounty repealed all at once, he would therefore propose that, from the 26th of July, 1826, it should cease altogether; and that the scale of ascending duties should also cease to exist. It was true, that this regulation might affect some interests, but it was right to state that those interests might be compensated on other points, by a reduction of the duties on other articles of their produce. The result of the calculations which he had detailed to the committee

was,

was, that there was a surplus from 1824 of 1,437,744l.; from 1825, of 443,5281.; from 1826, of 864,6781. ; from 1827, of 1,254,676l., being a total of 4,000,6241. When he had made this calculation last year, he had been asked what he would do with the surplus? He now answered that a great deal might be done with it, and he thought he could satisfy the house that the application of it which he would recommend, would be most advantageous, looking to all the interests of the country. He thought

those interests would be best consulted by endeavouring to extend that prosperity upon which we now congratulated ourselves to all parts of the world to which our trade had reached. He had three objects in view in the application of our surplus revenue in those years. The first was to extend our commerce, by increasing the facility of consumption of foreign produce in this country: the next was, the carrying farther the attempts which had been made to exterminate that monstrous evil, smuggling; and the third was, the remission of a portion of direct taxes, provided he was not driven by that to an abandonment of the two other points, which he considered of much more importance to the general interests of the country than the partial remission of direct taxes. He knew well the feelings which were entertained on this subject. He knew it was said that ministers might obtain a great accession of popularity by the repeal of the assessed taxes. He did not wish for popularity when it was to be obtained at the expense of the better interests of the country; and that those inter

ests would be sacrificed if the two points to which he had adverted were neglected, he entertained no doubt. The benefit to be derived to the nation from the repeal of the assessed taxes would be very trifling indeed if put into competition with the good effects which might result from an attention to the two other points he had stated. To come to the first of thesethat of an extension of our commerce with foreign nations-it was to be observed, that the house had already admitted the principle for the extension of which he contended, by the good sound sense it displayed in getting rid of many of those prohibitory duties which so long fettered our intercourse with foreign nations. Much, he admitted, had been already done in this respect, but much still remained to be done; and he hoped that no great length of time would elapse before his right honourable friend (Mr. Huskisson) would have to submit a motion for the repeal of the whole of the duties on foreign produce. He was satisfied that such a measure would not interfere injuriously with our domestic produce, but would, in the end, be found of the utmost advantage to every class of the community. It would be unnecessary for him at that moment to go into the detail of all the articles of foreign produce upon which the very high, and, in many cases, the prohibitory duties ought to be withdrawn, but there was one upon which he could not avoid saying a few words-he meant foreign iron. He hoped that those engaged in the production of iron at home would not object to the introduction of foreign iron. Indeed, if they consulted their own interests they

must

must be aware that such a measure would, in the result, be to their advantage. The price of iron had lately risen to an enormous height, not from any new speculation in that article-not from any belief that the country was to be covered with iron railroads, and that all the iron which could be dug out of the bowels of the earth would be required to supply the demand; but from a general increase of trade produced by the increased and increasing comforts and prosperity of the people in this and other nations. The fact was, the supply of iron in this country was not at all in proportion to the demand. He knew that there were at the present moment, foreign orders in Sheffield and Birmingham, which could not be executed, because the manufacturers there could not supply the articles at the price which the foreign customers could afford to pay. The consequence was, that several such orders had been withdrawn, and were sent to other countries, where, though they could not be executed in the same good style, yet, as being much cheaper, they were preferred by those who could not afford the higher price. Surely it was not sound policy in this country to continue restrictions which had the effect of thus crippling a very important branch of her manufacture. He was happy to say, that very many of the ironmasters whose transactions in that trade were most extensive, did not object to the measure which was about to be proposed, of reducing the duty on foreign iron. They were above the narrow and selfish policy of opposing the introduction of a foreign article which might

seem for a moment to come in contact with their own trade, but which in reality would be a benefit to them by giving an increased stimulus to other branches of our domestic manufacture. He thought the interests of the community would be best consulted by reducing the duty from 77. to 17. 10s. As the high duty had acted as a kind of prohibitory duty on the importation of foreign iron, the immediate loss to the revenue would not be any thing worth naming; but he was certain that before the end of the year, it would be found that the low duty would have made a considerable addition to the income from customs. It was to be observed, however, with respect to this particular duty, that the change from the high to the low duty should be effected with caution, and should not be made with respect to all countries at once; and this was his reason-one of the objects which he had in view in removing those high prohibitory duties was to set to other nations an example of what would in the end be for their as well as our interests. Some countries had already shown a disposition to avail themselves of it; but it could not be expected that all countries would at once enter into our feelings on the subject. We ourselves, it should be recollected, were a long time before we got rid of the trammels which fettered our trade in these points. There were, however, some states who were willing to adopt our regulations, and to open their ports to articles of our produce. To these the remission of the heavy duties would for the present be confined, and they would find from us a full compen

sation for the advantages they were thus disposed to give. But to those nations who were still so far behind in a practical application of commercial knowledge to those who continued to heap restriction upon restriction, it was not to be expected that we should grant advantages which they withheld from us. Still he had every reason to hope, that the exclusion of those states from the benefits of a more enlightened commercial policy would be but temporary, and that before long, all nations would see the propriety of imitating an example which must, in the end, be for their advantage. He had no doubt that our example would, in the end, produce general imitation, provided that we ourselves were consistent-that we did not alter our policy-that we did not undo in one year the good which we had effected in another. It was to such purposes as these that he was disposed to apply a portion of our surplus revenue in this and the two succeeding years, and he thought that such an application would be of more real and permanent benefit to the country, than the present repeal of a few taxes. There was another article of foreign produce upon which, though the duty was high, it had not a prohibitory effect. He meant the duty on hemp. This, though it was not an article which interested the community generally, was still of great consequence to a very important class-the shipping interest. The high duty pressed upon them heavily, and it was necessary that they should be relieved; for after all, our naval interest formed the grand fulcrum of our national prosperity. He would propose a reduction of 50

per cent. on the duty on hemp, that was to reduce from one penny to one halfpenny in the pound. The immediate loss to the revenue from this reduction would be about 100,000l. The next article on which he would propose a reduction would be coffee, which, though not very important in itself, was so in reference to an interest of great value to the country. The duty on West India coffee at present was 1s. in the pound, and that on East India and other foreign coffees was higher. He did not mean to say that this was a very heavy duty in itself, yet he found that the consumption of coffee had not within these few years kept pace with other articles of that kind, and the inference he drew from this was, that the decrease of consumption had been caused by the increase of duty. That duty had been increased in 1819, and since then the consumption had very considerably fallen off. To renew the consumption, he would propose to diminish the present duty one-half; and another object which he had in view was to give every encouragement to our West India planters for its cultivation. It was known that coffee was produced with much less labour than many other articles of our West India produce; and though it could not be expected, nor would it be desirable, that this cultivation should supersede the production of other articles, yet, as it could be done with much less labour, it was of importance that it should be encouraged. The reduction he intended, was from 1s. to 6d. in the pound, by which he calculated a reduction of revenue to the amount of 150,000l. The next article to which he should call the attention

of

of the committee was one of which the consumption appeared to be materially affected by the amount of duty which had been often noticed in that house. He had been asked in the last and the preceding session, what reductions did he intend to propose on foreign wines? and his answer was, that he was not then in a situation to propose any change in the duties as they then stood. He did not argue against or deny the principle of reduction in those duties, for he could not be blind to the facts, that since the duties had been increased, the consumption had continued to decrease; but, as he said, he was not, the country was not, in a situation to render a change in the law prudent, as other countries were not disposed to meet the change with corresponding relaxations of their prohibitory system. He did not mean to consider the article of wine as a luxury. This would be carrying the thing too far. It was used in some cases as a medicine, and a very useful one; but at all events, it was an article, from a reduction of the duties on which, the middling classes would derive an important advantage. He would not view any reduction of the duty, as it might affect the higher classes. They, no doubt, would benefit by the change, and he did not grudge them the advantage, but he hoped that nobody would believe the alteration of the duty to be made with any reference to them. He had noticed the decrease of consumption by the increase of duties; and by that decrease, the power of other nations to take our commodities had been also reduced. Now in looking at the amount of consumption of wine, he found that

in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803, when the duty was much lower than its present rate, the average consumption in this country was, of French wines, 2,745,590 gallons, and of port and other wines in the same time, the consumption was 7,396,165 gallons. He spoke now of Great Britain only. And he found that in the year 1824, nearly a quarter of a century after, notwithstanding the immense increase in our population, in our trade, commerce, and in our general prosperity, the consumption of French wines was 254,263 gallons; and of Portugal and other wines, it was reduced to 4,847,976 gallons. He confessed he could account for this decrease only in one way. He might be told that the habits of the people were changed, and that they drank less wine now than formerly. He admitted they did, but he believed it was because the higher duty prevented them from getting it at the same price as formerly; and as the high duty was the cause of the decrease of consumption, he knew of no better remedy than to lower that duty. In the reduction which he should submit to the committee, he would not merely go back to the duty of 1801, but would carry it farther. The duty on French wines he would reduce from 11s. 54d. per gallon, to 6s., which was nearly 50 per cent. In 1803, the duty was higher than this, but in an article of this kind he thought it useless to make a reduction, except such a one as would be found to be a general benefit. On Portugal, Spanish, and Rhenish wines, the present duty was 7s. 7d. a gallon, which he proposed to reduce to 4s., which was also little less than 50

per