did his duty in propofing a new tax for that amount. Hav ing argued this ftrongly, Mr. Pitt faid, what had principally called him up, was the intimation of the doubts which the right honourable gentleman had stated, as to the utility of advancing the male-fervants tax, unless fome regulations were at the fame time adopted to render the collection of that tax less fraudulent and more productive. The observation of the right honourable gentleman in that part of his speech, he was ready to acknowledge, was perfectly natural and perfectly wife, viz. that fo to increafe a tax, now fraudulently collected, would be to increase the burden of the honeft few who paid it, and to enhance the benefit felt by the many, who by fraud and evafion procured an exemption from the payment of it. The fact was, in the variety of subjects he had to advert to in his former speech, he accidentally omitted to inform the Committee that it was his intention, and indeed he had a refolution drawn, and which he meant to move before the Committee rofe, in order to apply a regulation that he trufted would render the collection efficient, and make the tax infinitely more productive; and that was, to put the collection into the hands of those who now collect the house tax; and instead of suffering the tax on fervants any longer to remain a voluntary tax, which those who were liable to, were to fend and pay of their own accord, to have perfons call regularly to demand it, in like manner as they did the land and house tax, and various other taxes. He took notice of what Mr. Dempfter had faid of the wafte lands, and faid, they were and had been for fome time under confideration; but it was not fo eafy a matter to digeft and put into form, fit to be ftated to that House, as gentlemen might imagine. The fubject had been lately adverted to once before, by an honourable friend of his under the gallery, (Mr. Rolle) and measures were now actually taking respecting them, fo that he hoped he should shortly be able to state fomething refpecting them to the Houfe. With regard to what an honourable gentleman had faid of the hawkers and pedlars, he could only declare, that his information was derived from complaints fent from all parts of the kingdom, in which it was uniformly ftated, that hawkers and pedlars were not more injurious to the fair trader than to the revenue itself; that they were great inftruments and promoters of fmuggling, and of various other practices that could not but prove detrimental to the public intereft. In answer to what Mr. Fox had faid, as to whether the navy bill-holders were willing willing to fubfcribe at the discount of a quarter per cent. per month, he declared, that he had the best reafon to think that they would, viz. the express declarations of the parties themfelves. Mr. Rolle put fome farther questions to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which Mr. Pitt anfwered. Mr. Sheridan also spoke in explanation, declaring, that Mr. Sherithe right honourable gentleman either did not or would dan. not understand him; he had not faid, that it was the duty of a Chancellor of the Exchequer immediately to come forward and propose a new tax as foon as he difcovered a deficiency in any of his former taxes; what he had faid, was, that there was no fund in exiftence that could be applied towards the payment of the intereft of the fix millions of navy debt, that the right honourable gentleman had laft year attempted to provide for. With regard to Lord John Cavendifh's taxes, which the right honourable gentleman had fo unneceffarily lugged into the debate, he had again and again faid they were taxes unavoidably brought forward, when there had been but a very fhort time to confider them previously to their being propofed, and that, all the circumstances of the cafe confidered, it was easy to account for their being deficient. Mr. Medley condemned the tax on female fervants, and re- Mr. Medley commended a tax on gentlemen of the bar and on folicitors in lieu of it. Mr. Medley gave a droll account of the great increase of barrifters, declaring, that where he lived in the country, there formerly appeared but two or three at every quarter feffions, but that the black gowns were fo numerous now on fuch occafions, that the old town-hall was not large enough to hold them, and they had been obliged to build a new one on their account. He was, he faid, himself defcended from a counsellor, but in his ancestor's time things were far different from what they were at prefent. Mr. Medley approved of the propofed abolition of hawkers and pedlars, who, he declared, were a nuifance to the country, deftroying the trade of country fhopkeepers, felling damaged goods, taking away the money that ought to be fpent in each town, and doing other mischief. Mr. Brickdale alfo approved of the abolition of hawkers and pedlars. Lord Mahon faid, he could not help differing from his Lord Mahon right honourable friend about the propofed female-fervant tax; but a way had occurred to him of removing all objec Maj. Grant Mr. Powys. Mr LeMef. tion to the measure, and even of converting the objections that had been urged against it into arguments in its behalf, and that was, to make an exemption in favour of families who had above a certain number of children, and to relieve them from the payment of one half of the tax. It was, his Lordship obferved, impoffible to do this in taxes upon articles of confumption, or articles in a manufactured state, such as leather, &c. but it was eafy to do it in the prefent cafe, where the tax ftood open, separate, and distinct. Major Grant made a few obfervations on the different taxes, and greatly commended the new regulations intended to be adopted, with regard to the tax on male fervants; that alone would, he thought, nearly produce fufficient to make up the fum the tax on female fervants was given for. If not, a tax by way of licenfe, to be taken out by fuch as chofe to indulge themselves in wearing hair-powder, would make up the deficiency. Mr. Grant faid, the post-horse tax wanted regulation greatly. At a diftance from London, it was collected of the fubject regularly enough; but little or none of it found its way into the coffers of the public treasury, it being funk by a connivance between the innkeepers and the turnpike men: he recommended that the mode of collecting it fhould be changed, and that it should in future be collected wholly at the turnpikes, and the Commiffioners made refponfible for it. Mr. Powys faid, there was much to be praised in what had fallen from the right honourable gentleman that day; little to be doubted, and ftill lefs to be cenfured. Mr. Powys did not approve of the propofed tax on female fervants. Mr. Le Meffurier, in rather a long speech, commended the defigned abolition of hawkers and pedlars, though he said they little affected the place he reprefented. He thought the propofed tax on fhops the part of the budget the most exceptionable, and used fome arguments to prove that the tax on female fervants was not fo exceptionable as gentlemen had imagined. It was a tax, he obferved, that would be equally diftributed throughout the kingdom, and would be always paid by the mafter of the family, and not fall on the servants themfelves; and he was perfuaded no married man would keep a woman fervant the lefs on account of fuch a trifle as the tax. If, when the bill came in, dairy-maids should be exempted, as fome gentlemen had advised, he declared he would rife and propofe the exemption of another fort of dairy maids, very useful in all families where there were children, viz. wet nurses. Mr. Dempfter reiterated his arguments in favour of Mr. Demphawkers and pedlars, declaring that abolishing them would fter. be ftabbing at the vitals of the internal commerce of the king dom. Mr. Alderman Sawbridge reprobated the proposed tax on Mr. Ald. female fervants, intimating his aftonishment, that the right Sawbridges honourable gentleman fhould be hardy enough to have ventured at the propofing of fuch a tax. He reminded the Committee, that it had been fuggefted by an honourable Baronet two years ago, and was then treated with ridicule by all parts of the House, and had kept the honourable Baronet an object of public ridicule without doors ever fince. Mr. Sawbridge condemned the propofed tax on fhops as a most partial propofition, that would bear harder upon the inhabitants of the metropolis, than of other parts of the kingdom. Sir Richard Hill faid, he must once more make a propofi- Sir Richard tion that he had for two years paft made in vain, viz. that a Hill. tax be laid on places of public diverfion. It was, he obferved, a difgrace to Great Britain, as a proteftant country, not to draw fome revenue from the money spent in diffipation. Above five hundred thousand pounds, he understood, were spent in places of public entertainment, and furely a fifth part of it might be spared towards the exigencies of the flate. Every other country in Europe made their places of entertainment contribute, and we ought to follow the example. The very paying down the money to enter the theatre, or Ranelagh, or Vauxhall, was, he faid, a tacit declaration, that we could fpare the money; and it was a strong proof of the declenfion of an empire, to be raising a revenue from taxing the neceffaries of life, and at the fame time to be afraid to touch our pleasures, and the diffipation of the times. Sir Richard faid a good deal about the propofed tax on female fervants, which created much laughter in the Committee; but Sir Richard declared he had no intention to be ludicrous, agreeing perfectly with the poet, that "Immodeft words admit of no defence, "For want of decency is want of fenfe." At length the first resolution was agreed to, and then the Chancellor of the Exchequer moved a string of resolutions, containing all his ftated taxes. After which the House was refumed, and the report ordered to be brought up this day. Tuesday, Tuesday, May 10. The chairman of the Committee of ways and means brought up the report of yesterday, and the following are the refolutions contained in the budget. 1. Refolved, That towards raifing the fupply granted to His Majefty, the farther fum of one million be raised by loans on Exchequer bills to be charged upon the first aids to be granted in the next feffion of Parliament; and fuch Exchequer bills, if not discharged with intereft thereupon, on or before the 5th day of April, 1786, to be exchanged and received in payment in fuch manner as Exchequer bills have usually been exchanged and received in payment. "That all perfons interefted in, or entitled unto any bills payable in courfe of the Navy or Victualling offices, or for tranfports which were dated on or before the 5th day of June, 1785, carry the fame (after having had the intereft due thereupon computed up to the 5th day of July, 1785, and marked upon the faid bills at the Navy or Victualling offices, refpectively) to the Treasurer of His Majefty's navy, shall have in exchange for the fame, from fuch treafury, or his pay-mafter or cafhier, a certificate to the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, for the amount of the principal and intereft computed thereupon; and the perfons who shall be poffeffed of fuch certificates, upon delivery thereof to the faid Governor and Company of the Bank of England, fhall be entitled, in respect of the fame, to 1111. 85. capital ftock for every 100l. contained in fuch certificates, and fo in proportion for any greater or leffer fum; fuch capital stock to be attended with annuities, after the rate of five pounds per centum per annum, to commence from the 5th day of July, 1785, payable half-yearly, in lieu of all other intereft; the faid annuities to be irredeemable, until twentyfive millions of the public debt, bearing interest at the rate of either three pounds per centum per annum, or four pounds per centum per annum, fhall have been redeemed or paid off: and that all perfons interested in, or entitled unto fuch navy, victualling, and transport bills, made out between the faid 30th day of June, 1783, and the 1ft day of January, 1785, who fhall, on or before the 5th day of June, 1785, carry the fame (after having had the intereft due upon fuch of the faid bills as now bear an intereft computed and marked upon the faid bills to the 5th day of July, 1785, at the Navy and Victualling offices, refpectively) to the Treasurer of His Majefty's |