§ Mr. Curwenwished to put a question to the chancellor of the exchequer, relative to the statement which he had made last night. He was induced to do so from an examination of the accounts of the year 1816, which exhibited a deficiency so great, notwithstanding its extraordinary 159 resources, that he was induced to distrust the present assertions of the right hon. gentleman. He should show, on the one hand, the sums which had been raised on various loans in that year, and then the progress which had been made in the reduction of the debt. In that year the Bank advanced at 4 per cent. interest 6,000,000l. The Bank advanced without interest 3,000,000l. There were surplus grants of 1815, 5,663,755l. Loan for England 3,358,654l.; to this must be added the increase of unfunded debt in the year 1816, 1,321,729l.; making a total increase of debt 19,344,038l. It remained to be seen what was the reduction which was to be set against it. By the finance accounts it appeared, that the sinking fund in the same year had amounted to 13,252,600l. Deduct this from debt contracted, as specified above, and the difference was 6,091,538l. So that there was really contracted a debt of more than six millions in that year, over and above the loans for Ireland. He imagined also that there should be added to this increase of debt the deficiency in the consolidated fund, being about 600,000l. If there was any error in this statement. no one would be more ready to correct it than he should be.
The Chancellor of the Exchequersaid, that he could not at once answer the statement of the hon. gentleman without examination. There was in the last year an arrear of war taxes, which made a difference between that year and 1816. The statement of the hon gentleman did not apply to the year just past.
§ Mr. Curwensaid, it was true that his statement did not apply to the year 1817, except by inference; but it related to the last period of which the House bad any accurate financial knowledge. Was he to understand the chancellor of the exchequer, that after payment of the expenses of the year, civil and military, and of the interest of the national debt, there yet remained an overplus of three millions?
The Chancellor of the Exchequersaid, that on the 1st of January, 1818, the whole of the unfunded and funded debt was less by nearly three millions, than it was on the 1st of January 1817, after all the services of the year had been answered.