On the motion of lord H Petty, the house went into a Committee of Ways and Means, to which the several public accounts presented this day were referred.
§ Lord Henry Petty rose ,he said, to state to the house the Supplies which it would be proper to vote for the current year, and the ways and means to meet those supplies. The duty imposed on him he felt to be extremely arduous, and one which he was convinced he should be wholly unfit to execute, unless he had the indulgence of the house, In submitting the statement he had to lay before the house, he proposed to go into no length of observation of speculation, not only from an unwillingness to detain the house, but because there could be very little comparative importance attached to his conclusions, compared with the facts which he should open to the committee. But the same motive that made him sparing of observations of his own, induced him to wish as far as the 565 house would extend its indulgence, to be as ample with respect to the facts as possible: and, on this Occasion, departing from the common course, he should, before he entered into the question of the supplies necessary for the current service of the year, endeavour to satisfy the house as to the state of the country in point of finance, past and present, particularly the state of finance in which the country had been found this year; requesting that gentlemen would carry their knowledge upon that subject in their minds throughout the whole of his statement, as they would find it necessary to their perfectly understanding what it would be proper to adopt for the service of the current year. The principal, and he might say the only great feature in the state of the finance of the country, was the amount of its burthen or annual debt, funded and unfunded; and the next consideration was the means the country was in possession of to meet that debt, with a view to discharging the interest, and also that which he trusted the house would never lose sight of, namely, its ultimate and final extinction. He should first state the amount of the debt on the 1st of February 1805, then the augmentation of that debt in 1806.—The amount of the funded debt on the 1st of Feb. 1805, was 493,127,000l. the annual charge upon which was 18,000,000l. The amount of debt redeemed up to that day was 111,797,000l. the annual charge upon which was 6,834,000l. making together of debt, redeemed and unredeemed, 603.924,000l. and an annual charge of 24,904,000l. In the course of the year 1805, there was made an addition of 34,400,000l. creating an annual charge of 1,392,0001. besides 2,420,000l. for the discharge of the loyalty loan, at an annual charge of 53,000l. making a total for that year of debt 36,827,000l. and of annual charge 1,445,000l. Against this was to be put a diminution of 531,000l. of debt, and 16,000l. of annual charge by the redemption of the land-tax, and by the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt a diminution of debt of 12,148,000l.; making a total diminution of debt to the amount of 12,679,000l. and a diminution of annual charge to the amount of 386,000l. This presented, at the commencement of the present year, an amount of funded debt of 517,280,000l. The amount of debt redeemed was 123,476,000l.—With respect .to the Unfunded Debt, he would follow the same course, comparing the 566 state of it in 1805 and 1806. On the 5th Jan. 1805, there were outstanding exchequer bills to the amount of 25,253,500l, of which were provided for 12,388,400l., leaving unprovided for 12,865,100l.; navy debt, 5,100,000l.; treasury bills 692,599l.; barracks 1,567,000. Ordnance expences and arrears of civil list, making a total of 20,305,686l. On the 5th Jan. 1806, the outstanding exchequer bills were 27,180,400l. Of which, in anticipation of aids 12,180,400l. leaving unprovided for 15,000,000l.; navy debt 9,570,000l.; treasury bills 530,751l.; with charges for barracks, army debt, ordnance charges, and civil-list arrears, making a total of 23,168,747l. Thus there was an addition to the unfunded debt of 2,863,161l.—He came now to the Ways and Means to meet this amount of debt, which he had thought it necessary to state thus fully and fairly, in order that the public might be completely aware of its situation, and that it might be prepared to make the. necessary exertions. The first of these was the Consolidated Fund, consisting of permanent taxes to the amount of 33,035,501l. from which Was to be deducted for arrears of assessed taxes, 110,000l. leaving a balance of 32,935,501l. The charges on the consolidated fund were the charges of the public debt, amounting to 23,102,733l.; for paying off the five per cents.4,757,518l. making with civil list arrears of 958,000l. pensions 284,866l. miscellaneous services 2,170,000l. interest of the imperial loan 497,473l. and other lesser items, a total of 30,188,000l.; from which after deducting 430,000l. for the purchase of the legal quays, there remained 29,758,000l. chargeable on the consolidated fund: so that on the consolidated fund there was an excess of charge of 3,177,500l. beyond the preceding year. This state of the consolidated fund he wished gentlemen to bear in mind, as it was to the consolidated fund that we were to look for the payment of the interest of the public debt.—But he wished them also to attend particularly to the state of the Sinking Fund, as it was to that we were to look for the extinction of the debt. In the year ending Feb. 1, 1803, the interest redeemed by means of this fund was 5,835,000l.; the unredeemed debt, Was at that period, 480,572,000l. Thus the proportion of the sinking fund to the unredeemed debt was then 517,280,500l. making the proportion 567 of the redeemed to the unredeemed as 1 to 68. After this it was unnecessary for him to enter into any eulogium on the Sinking Fund, nor to detain the house with any panegyric on its former effects, or the hopes that might be entertained of its future operations. The advantage of that fund was very sensibly felt in the prices of stock, and in contracting for loans, which it enabled the public to obtain on better terms. Therefore independent of considerations of good faith which would induce the house to hold and cling to a system once adopted, it was pledged to support it, having had positive and tried experience of its utility.—His lordship then went into an enumeration of the state of finance in Great Britain in 1805, in order, as he observed, to make the house more particularly acquainted with the precise situation of the country. Total of the navy expenditure, 14,377,513l. Total of the army, 17,183,696l. Ordnance, 4,490,853l. with several other charges, amounting in the whole to 43,690,418l.—Having stated the debt, the means, and the expenditure of the year, he hoped the .house had all the necessary previous information with regard to the true state of the country. I shall now, said the noble lord, recapitulate the supplies of the present year, either already voted or to be proposed.