Upon the refult of their examination, the Committee find the actual average produce of the permanent taxes, for thefe four years, to be about L. 13,780,000 without adding the deficiency occafioned by the ftoppage of diftilleries. The Select Committee of 1791 eftimated the probable produce of the permanent taxes to be about L. 13,472,000 From this fum must be deducted the average produce of the taxes repealed in 1792, amounting, as appears by papers laid before the Houfe of Commons, on the 10th and 15th of February, 1792, to about 223,000l. leaving a fum of L. 13,249,000 Your Committee have alfo thought. it proper to afcertain the average produce of the permanent taxes during the four years which immediately preceded the prefent war; and they find the fame to have been, after allowing for the deduction of the fhop-tax, and the duties repealed in 1792, L. 13,831,000 Your Committee have the fatisfaction of obferving, that the actual produce of the fame taxes, on the average of the four years of war (without making any allowance for the ftoppage of the diftilleries) exceeds the estimate formed in 1791, by above 530,000; and is below their average produce in the four preceding years of peace only, by L. 50,000 Your Committee have next proceeded to examine the produce of the feveral taxes provided for defraying the increafed charge of the public debt, from the 5th of January, 1798, to the 5th of January, 1797; diftinguishing the produce of each year. In ftating the produce of these feveral taxes, your Committee think it neceffary to obferve, that the produce of new duties within the first year of their being impofed, can feldom afford correct means of eftimating their real productiveness. In fome inftances the first year has been more productive than fubfequent years; but, in general, the first year has been lefs productive, the collection of moft duties not taking place before a confiderable part of the current year has elapfed, and a confiderable part of the produce of the fraction of the current year not being paid into the Exchequer till after the termination of that year, and the modes of collection not being brought at their beginning to their greatest degree of efficacy, an accurate estimate of it cannot be made from the amount of its produce which appears upon the Exchequer account. Your Committee were, however, defirous of examining how far the produce of the taxes, impofed in the three first years of the war (of which alone, at prefent, your committee have been enabled to form any adequate judgment) appears fufficient to defray the charges of fuch part of the public debt as has been funded during the fame period. For this purpofe they have looked to the year moft diftant from their commencement, as affording, for the reafons above given, the best means to judge of their productiveness. In 1793, they find that the annual charge upon the public, on account of the intereft, management, and 11. per cent. upon the debt funded in 1793, was L. 252,812 The produce of the duties anfwerable for this charge was, in the year 1796, only - L. 166,813 But your Committee think it their duty to obferve, that this produce muft have been materially affected by the stoppage of the diftilleries, which prevailed from June 1795 to November 1796. 1796 In 1794, the annual charge upon the public, on account of the intereft, management, and 11. per cent. on the debt funded in 1794, appears to be L. 773,824 The produce of the duties continued and impofed in that year appears to have been, in the year L. 818,863 In 1795, the annual charge upon the public, on account of the intereft, management, and 11. per cent. upon the debt funded in 1795, was L. 1,227,415 The produce of the duties anfwerable for this charge was, in the year 1796 L. 1,332,794 In 1796, the charge upon the public, for the intereft, management, and 11. per cent. upon the debt created, was Z. 1,851,226 The actual receipt at the Exchequer of the duties impofed in that year was, on the 5th of January, 1797 - L. 604,644 Your Committee, for many of the reafons above affigned, do not think it poffible for them at prefent to form, upon fimilar grounds, an eftimate of a whole year's produce of the duties impofed in 1796; neither do they think it adviseable to delay this their first report, by entering into any detailed examination of the particulars; they feel it, however, their duty to obferve, that no adequate judgment can be formed of the future produce of these taxes from the actual receipt at the Exchequer at the abovementioned period. III. - Unfunded Debt and Demands outstanding. Your Committee have next proceeded to examine and ftate the amount of the unfunded debt and demands outstanding on the 5th of January, 1797, under the heads of Exchequer, Treafury, Army, Barracks, Ordnance, and Navy, as ftated by the respective offices in the feveral accounts annexed, re ferving to themselves the liberty of ftating in any future report any further information or obfervations thereupon, which a more detailed inveftigation may enable them to lay before the Houfe. They have diftinguished under each head-1ft, What part of the unfunded debt has been provided for; 21, What part, although provided for by the grants of former years, had not been paid on the 5th of January, 1797, by reafon of the confolidated fund not having produced the furplus at which it was estimated; and, 3dły, What What part appears at prefent to be balances from public accountants) unprovided for.. the following fums have been ad- propofed to be advanced to the Eftimates. Your Committee have next proceeded to examine and state the expected total amount of the public expences for the year ending the 5th of January, 1798, as far as the fame can now be ascertained or estimated by the feveral offices; and they find the estimates are as follow, viz. 1. Navy L. 12,935,496 0 0 In this estimate no future charge is included for neutral cargoes, as the value has not yet been afcertained by the affeffors appointed by the Admiralty Court. 2. Army. L. 6,897,958 5 11,034,959 5 0 4,137,000 The extraordinaries of the army for the current year appear now to be brought forward, for the first time, by way of estimate, having always constituted a part of the charge of the fucceeding year. 3. Barracks 4. Ordnance 5. Miscellaneous Services 449,076 0 0 1,321,024 9 2 1,149,843 17 In this fum are included 600,000l. proposed to be lent to perfons connected with and trading to the 26,890,398 11 iflands of Grenada and St. Vincent, and also a further fum of 464,9201. 17s. 6d. for articles which it has been ufual to pay, in the firft inftance, out of the civil lift, and to propofe afterwards to parliament to vote a fum fufficient to repay what has been fo advanced. 6 Brought Brought forward L. 26,890,998 11 8 6. A fum, upon account, for making temporary advances by way of loan, for the fervice of the Emperor The following articles were stated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer as part of the fupply for the year 1797, viz. 7. Deficiency of land and malt 8. Commiffioners for national debt Add to these a vote of credit, which your Committee are informed is intended to be propofed to parlia ment The repayments to the Bank of 1,023,000f. ftated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as part of the fupply for 1797, are omitted here, as having been included in the fum of 1,154,000l. ftated to be a part of the unfunded debt of the Exchequer, not sufficiently provided for on the 5th of January, 1797. V.-Ways and Means. Your Committee find that the ways and means already propofed for the year 1797, confift of Articles voted; viz. 2,750,000 18,000,000 420,000 to 500,000 0 0 350,000 0 2,500,000 0 0 L. 30,440,398 11 8 fums now annually applicable thereto, and of the further progrefs which may be expected to be made, as far as the fame can be at prefent afcertained, in the reduction of the debt now exifting. Your Committee have great fatisfaction upon this fubject, in contemplating the large means which are now annually employed for the reduction of the public debt, and the confiderable progrefs which has been already made towards that important end. The annual fum now applicable to that purpofe, appears to amount L. 3,359,799 6 2 The capital stock purchased by the application of the feveral fums, appears to have been, on the 16th of March, 1797 L.23,334,200 00 The further progrefs to be made in the reduction of the debt has been calculated, by order of the commiffioners, according to the operation of the annual million, 200,000 the intereft of the stock redeemed by it, the amount of expired and 27,945,000 unclaimed annuities, and an annual fum of two hundred thousand pounds in aid of this fund, granted by parliament, as applied to the reduction of the debt which exifted before the war, and confidered as then amounting to the fum of two hundred and forty millions. 21,170,000 1,075,000 5,500,000 - VI.-Reduction of Public Debt. Your Committee have further proceeded to ftate an account of the progrefs that has been made in the reduction of the public debt face the 5th of July, 1789, of the Thefe Thefe calculations, of courfe, depend upon the different prices at which the feveral stocks in which the public debt confifts may happen to be purchased. The earlicft date, according to thefe calculations, at which the whole of the debt that existed prior to 1793, and taken at two hundred and forty millions, would be cancelied, is thirty-three years, from the ft of February, 1797; and even the moft remote date at which it would be cancelled, does not exceed fifty-four years. Your Committee obferve, that the faid calculations relate only to the progrefs which will be made, upon different data, in the reduction of the debt exifting before the war, by the application of the funds provided for that purpose. amount to The reduction of the debt which has been incurred during the war, depends upon different confiderations. The amount of the finking fund applicable thereto, including the il. per cent. on account of the loan and bills funded in the prefent feffions, L. 1,341,411 The dividend on the ftock, purchafed thereby, is L. 77,068 The total amount of the new finking fund was L. 1,413,479 The capital of the new debt, to the reduction of which this fum is applicable, is L.. 130,665,896 In order to give the Houfe fuller information upon this part of the fubject, your Committee have called for further calculations; but in the mean time they think it neceffary to obferve, that the new finking fund appears to bear a much larger proportion to the new debt than the old finking fund, with its accumulations, the annual grant of 200,000l. and the annuities expired, does at the prefent moment to the old debt: and that the old finking fund, after reaching the fum of four millions, is no longer made applicable by law to the difcharge at compound intereft of what may then remain of the old debt: but the operation of the new finking fund is to continue at compound interest till the new debt fhall be totally extinguifhed. Report from the Committee of Secrecy appointed by the House of Lords to examine and ftate the total amount of Outstanding Demands on the Bank of England, and likewife of the Funds for difcharging the fame, and to report the refult thereof to the Houfe, together with their Opinion on the Neceffity of providing for the Confirmation and Continuance of Meafures taken in purfuance of the Minute of Council of the 26th of February, 1797. THE HE Committee having proceeded to take into their confideration the matters referred to them, report thereon as follows: With respect to the first part of the order of the House, by which they are directed to examine and report the total amount of outftanding demands on the Bank of England, and likewife of the funds for difcharging the fame, they called upon the Governor of the Bank, and upon Mr. Bofanquet, one of the Directors of the Bank (who at tended them in the absence of the Deputy Governor) for an account to that effect; which account, having by them been produced to the Committee, was verified by the Deputy Accountant of the Bank; and the fame having been examined by |