but previously entreated them not to give a Rake's ear to a subject necessary for their consideration, though painful to their patience. Your debt, said he, including annuities, is 2,667,600%; of this debt, in the last fourteen years, you have borrowed above 1,900,000/. in the last eight years above 1,500,000/. and in the" last two years 910,090/. I state not only the fact of your debt, but the progress of your accumulation, to shew the rapid mortality of your distemper, the accelerated velocity, with which you advance to ruin; and if the question stood alone on this ground, it would stand firm; for I must further observe, that if this enormous debt be the debt of the peace establishment, not accumulated by directing the artillery of your arms against a foreign enemy, but by directing the artillery of your treasury against your constitution; it is a debt of patronage and prostitution.

The next quantity I shall consider is, the growth of your expenses for the last fourteen years; I will consider all your expenses, that you may see the whole of your situation; I will consider the expenses of collecting the revenue, of bounties, of establishments, of extraordinary charges, and the interest of the public debt; and I say, on a comparative view of expenses of two years, ending Lady-Day, 1781, the increase in the latter was above 550,000l. a sum astonishing, if you consider that the whole biennial revenue and estate of the nation is not 2,000,000%. and that the whole additional supply is not 520,000l. so that the mere increase of national expense, in the course of fourteen years, has exceeded one fourth of the nation's estate, and the whole of her additional duties. Let the right hon. gentleman high in office, who calls these expenses ordinary expenses, who calls the supplying them by new loans the ordinary supply, justify this enormous increase; let him prove, that the scale of the expense of government was too small in 1767; let him shew what exertions we have made by sea or land; let him produce some nobler monument than secretaries provided for by Ireland, or than their creatures satiated by Ireland, or their supporters paid by Ireland, to justify this rapid accumulation. I can produce the record of parliament, to prove that in 1767, you thought your expenses too great, for you refused the first proposition for an augmentation in 1767, and gave as a reason that you were then overburthened, and in 1769, you complied with a second application, upon a promise of reduction, which promise was broken; and in 1771, you resolved, that the then expenses of government ought greatly to be reduced, though incomparably less than at present.

I have considered the growth of your expenses, I will next consider the growth of your revenues; you made since 1767 two efforts to raise them, one in 1773, when you granted in new taxes about 180,000l. and another in the last session, when you granted

what was estimated at near 300,000l. for the two years, but in our experience has produced something less than 50,000l.

The revenues of the two years ending 1781, including loan duties, and aided by new taxes, have produced 1,908,000. In the two years ending 1767, without new taxes, the revenues, including the loan, produced 1,846,000!. Increase of revenue in the two years ending 1781, 60,000l. Increase of expenses

550,000l. a sad disproportion this! The cause of it is obvious; we are governed by a succession of ministers, who have no interest in this country, but that of raising themselves from those beggarly difficulties, to which they reduce the king and kingdom. I know not how it is, but at first we are charmed with them, we admire their affected consequence, and easy effrontery. They find in the private indulgence of the gentlemen of the country, public support; the nation becomes implicit, and from a course of bad and profuse policy, is periodically convulsed; we were so in 1779, and from distress, the effect of our bad policy, became for that time virtuous. I speak of the session of 1779, with diffidence, because I had some share in its proceedings: I shall therefore only give it negative praise. I will say of the early part of that session, that no man then talked of the public with contempt, nor of liberty as a matter of speculation, nor did gentlemen of property affect to join government in the putting a negative on all constitutional questions. The secretary at that time left parliament to itself, and the people to themselves; he did not pension a press to write against the liberty of the subject; he did not connect himself with libellers, nor was he himself a traducer of men; he could neither corrupt nor answer, nor did he take into his venal hand a lifeless pen to propagate the poison of his prostitute principles; but such times are over, we are now more aristocratic and abject, and we argue on public subjects, as we did before on the freedom of our trade, with the same confidence and indifference.

I have stated the growth of your expense and your revenues. I will state the excess of the latter, it is 484,000l. in the two last years: how will you supply such a deficiency? Not by borrowing session after session on lotteries and loans, nor by adding to your taxes, for then you must nearly double your additional duties, which are little more than the deficiency. Nor can you wait until the increase of population and manufactures, which certainly will increase, but will not increase with a rapidity sufficient to supply the biennial deficiency of 484,000l.

It was said in a former debate, that we were adequate to our present expense; and we were taught to believe, that the ability of the nation had in the last year greatly increased. I deny the fact: : on examining the exports of the manufactures of cotton,

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woollen, and linen, we shall find the exports of the two former have been next to nothing, and the export of the latter greatly declined; and on examining the import of cotton and woollen, we find the increase prodigious; and on the whole I do say, that the year 1781 was above half a million in these articles less in your favour, than in the year 1780, so much better was the non-consumption agreement than the free trade hitherto has been. The gentleman, and particularly one right hon. gentleman, has mis-stated our state of commerce, but he has been much more inaccurate in the state of our revenue; for I remember in the last session he stated the new taxes as adequate to produce 260,000/. in the two years, but in the experiment, they have not produced 50,000l. He stated the new tax on sugars at 55,000/ a-year, which tax has not produced more than 20,000. stated the tax on wine at double the produce. saving under the heads of pensions and of exceedings, and also a new revenue by the establishment of a post-office under our own law. This promised saving, and this post-office, would have amounted to 90,000l. which is a greater produce than all his taxes; and to shew how apt the most intelligent man is to be deceived in a ministerial situation, when he speaks on the subject of revenue, I will state a very remarkable transaction which relates to the right hon. gentleman in Lord Buckinghamshire's administration, in 1777. A motion was made to resolve, that in every session of the present reign, we had added to the public debt; the right hon. gentleman voted for the resolution, and gave this reason, "that Lord Buckinghamshire's administration should be "contrasted with his predecessors, who had added to the public "debt," inasmuch as under Lord Buckinghamshire the practice of accumulating debt was to cease; but in the ensuing March we borrowed 300,000%. and in the next session 610,000l. I state these things, not to reflect on the right honourable member, but to shew his fallibility on the subject of trade and revenue.

I have stated your expenses as exceeding your income, 484,000l. and as having increased in fourteen years above half a million. As to the application of your money, I am ashamed to state it: let the minister defend it; let him defend the scandal of giving pensions, directly or indirectly, to the first of the nobility, with as little honour to them who receive, as to the king who gives. Let him defend the minute corruption, which in small bribes and annuities, leaves honourable gentlemen poor, while it makes them dependent. When you go into the committee, you will find abundance of matter; the biennial charge of barracks, equal to the lodging money of the army, and you will find the resident army not more than nine thousand, though stated at some thousands more; you will find waste as well as corruption; you will find the mere ex

pense of furnishing the Castle, ridiculously extravagant; but I should be ashamed to enter minutely into these items; let a committee be appointed. He adverted to the late administration, and the promise of Sir Richard Heron, not to add or supply a pension, which promise had been broken. He addressed himself to Mr. Eden and Mr. Foster, to warn them against expensive measures, and from falsely estimating the abilities of the nation; he inveighed strongly against every species of expense and venality, of unaccountable waste, and ill-directed profusion; and moved that a committee should be appointed to examine the expenses of the nation, and to consider of such retrenchments as should seem necessary.

Mr. Foster said, that unprepared as he was, he was able to refute every position the honourable gentleman had adduced: he observed Mr. Grattan had taken a period of profound peace, and compared it with a period of war. From such a comparison no inference could be drawn, which could be fair or conclusive. He said, that asserting they had borrowed 910,000l. in two years, was uncandid, for that sum was to answer the expenses of at least four years, and in some measure, of six years. That the manner of stating the expenses in 1767 and in 1781, had been uncandid; for the whole aggregate charge of, including bounties, &c. and loan interest, had been stated as the expense of government; whereas the payment of bounties, &c. (which were granted by parliament) the government could not control, and the interest of the loans the parliament could not diminish. Now, said he, the bounties in two years, ending Lady-day, 1767, amounted to about 34,000l. whereas the bounties in two years, ending Ladyday, 1781, produced 200,000; and if we further deduct from our present expenses, the salaries of the vice-treasurers, and clerk of the pells, amounting to near 30,000%. in two years, which were not on the establishment in 1767, and for which they gave up their fees in favour of the public, the increase of our expenses will not appear very enormous, if we consider how much the nation has risen in consequence, and that we are in a state of war. He said, there were other errors in Mr. Grattan's account, and that the increase of our expenses was by no means alarming, or so extraordinary as had been represented. That the expenses of government were not greater in the last two years, than in the two years ending Lady-day, 1777; and that they were less than in the two years ending Lady-day, 1779, by a considerable sum. He said, if Mr. Grattan had been candid, he would have taken two periods of war, but that he had declined; he would therefore state the expenses of government in the two years of the last war, ending Lady-day, 1763: the civil and military list, and extraordinary charges, amounted at that period to 1,679,043.....the civil and military list, and extraordinary charges in the last two

years, amounted to 1,683,162/.; the excess in the last two years is therefore only 4119%. a sum, which he thought could not justly alarm the nation: 4000l. increase in the course of twenty years!

He then adverted to Mr. Grattan's assertions, respecting the taxes he had proposed in 1779. The honourable gentleman had said, he had estimated the taxes at 130,000l. a-year, and that they had produced only 50,000l. in the two years ending Lady-day, 1781. What kind of argument was this, to say they had produced only 50,000% in two years, when they had been in operation only nine months? He had, as it was fair to do, estimated the taxes on an average produce of the six last years, and in some his calculation had proved true. He could not have divined that the sugar bills would have combined and ceased working, in hopes of monopoly; nor have divined the loss of the West-India fleets, the capture of our islands, the danger of navigation from the war, and the increased price of the commodity. He should have calculated otherwise. Respecting the post-office, he never proposed it as an actual fund: but as an Irish post-office was then in contemplation, he thought it better that the kingdom should rest in the hopes of such a fund, than lay duties in the place of it, which might be unnecessary.

What the honourable gentleman has said respecting the balance of trade, would really alarm him if it were true. (Mr. Grattan said, he confined himself to the articles of linen, cotton, and wool.) Mr. Foster proceeded. The balance of trade must be taken upon the whole of our trade. We never have had such large exports of beef as of late; those of pork had been incredible. If their linen markets were bad last year, the markets of the present year were uncommonly good; and in the first year of our free trade, they had exported woollen goods to the value of 400,000. Who could think, that under these circumstances, the balance of our trade had declined? (Mr. Grattan here interrupted Mr. Foster, and said, I admit that the nation is rising fast to prosperity, if ministers do not oppress her.) Mr. Foster gave other advantageous views of the situation, both of the expenses and revenues; and he concluded by saying, that as he had refuted every position Mr. Grattan had adduced, as reasons for going into a committee; and as he saw no one of any kind, which could induce him to think a committee necessary, he should oppose this motion. In asserting the necessity of economy, he said he had ever been, and ever should be, its warmest advocate.

Mr. Eden observed, that an inquiry into the state of the pub. lic expenses, would shew he was using his best industry and exertions to promote an efficient collection of the revenue, and to prevent improper expenditure. He would not however admit a proposition resting upon assertions of public poverty, which was not felt,