be 30 years, and the rate of purchase will thus vary one year with every variation of two and a half per cent. in the price of ftock. From this statement of the comparative purchafe of the flock and tax, it is evident that the public gains one-fifth of the purchafe by the transfer of stock. "As far as the landholder is concerned, the queftion then is, whether 20 years purchafe will prefent a fufficient inducement to redeem, and whether 20 years be a fufficient advantage for what he parts with at 17 years purchase. This reits wholly upon the fuppofed difference between landed and funded fecurity. Landed property in general throughout the Kingdom fells at from 28 to 30 years purchafe; funded at prefent from 16 to 17. We are giving landed fecurity for funded, and at the rate of 20 years purchase. At this rate the share of advantage to the public is finall, to the individual it is very confiderable, if the advantage purchafed is confidered of the fame defcription as landed property. I do not fay, however, that it is exactly of the fame defcription as landed property; they are to be diftinguished by their refpective advantages and difadvantages. The benefit to the purchafer by redemption is lefs valuable than landed property in this refpect; it is dry and unimproveable poffeffion. Land, however, is improveable, and it fells not only on its prefent value, but on the calculation of progreffive improvement and fpeculative advantage. Other temptations to the purchase of land are command, influence, amufement, pleafure, occupation according to the temper and difpofition of the purchafer. It cannot be faid, however, that the purchase of this benefit is rendered more valuable by any of thefe advantages. It fhould be recollected, at the fame time, that the purchase of the tax, if not abfolutely the acquifition of enjoyment---if not a freedom from vexation, is freedom from fomething which a man would wish to be without. It has this advantage too, that if not fufceptible of improvement, it is attended with no rifk. The purchafer is exempted from the care of management and the trouble of collection, and taking all the advantages and difadvantages together, it may be confidered as a purchase of a very defirable nature. While the owner is thus induced to become the purchafer, the public, as we have seen, derives a very confiderable benefit from the tranfaction. "The next part of the plan is to give a facility to the possesfor of land alfo to become a purchafer. For this purpofe it is intended to give the tenant for life or in tail, the fame power to raise money by burdening the property as the proprietor in fee, provided, however, that the money fo raited fhall be ftrictly applied to the purchase of the tax. It is even intended to allow them to give a rent charge upon the property to the amount amount if convenient, to increase the facility of the poffeffor becoming the purchafer. It is likewife propofed to give the proprietors of fettled eftates power to fell fuch a portion of the eftate as fhall enable them to pay off the purchafe of the tax, providing that the money fhall be strictly applied for that purpofe. "Giving thefe facilities to the poffeffor to become the purchafer in the first instance, it appears neceffary to fix a certain period, after which, if they decline, third parties may buy. To these the terms fhall be the fame as to the owners. Landholders, however, are to have this fuperior advantage, that five years fhall be allowed for the payment of the inftalments. But if they do not pay the whole in ready money at first, they fhall be obliged to pay a fmall intereft for the fum remaining unpaid, in order to compenfate to the public for the non-payment of the whole immediately upon the contract being made. With refpect to third perfons purchafing, I have already faid that I fhall propofe the fame terms for them as for the land owners, varying, as has been flated to the Committee, according to the price of the funds, and always yielding one-fifth more to the revenue than the prefent amount of the Land Tax. To thefe third persons, I fhall fuggeft that one year only fhall be allowed for the paying off the inftalments. "It is neceffary, therefore, in order to call the means of refource thus furnished into action, to take third parties where the landholders decline. That the fituation of fuch third parties may not be too precarious, and that they may not be too easily divefted of the property they have acquired, fome provifions muft be adopted by which they may be fecured, and at the fame time the power of redemption preferved to the original owner. It is difficult exactly to fay what medium will balance the right to be given to thefe two parties, which will prefent to the monied men the temptation to buy and referve to the owner the power of redemption. The monied man must be induced to purchase by the difference which he fuppofes to exift between funded and landed property. This difference is greater or lefs according as the times are critical or tranquil. Land does not vary in time of war in the fame proportion as funded property. We may therefore conclude, that thofe who engage in fuch a fpeculation do it with a view to a period of war more than to any permanent motive. My object, Sir, is, where a third perfon pur chafes, that the land owners fhall not be allowed to repurchase till the period when the monied man fhall be fuppofed to have the leaft objection to return to ftock, and the land-owner the greateft facility of borrowing money. This period will be then at the happy moment when having furmounred the difficulties with which we have to fruggle, and triumphed in the content in which we are engaged; the confolidated fund fhall have attained its maximumn, and being no longer allowed to accumulate at compound intereft, the dividends thall be made applicable by Parliament. This will be when the confolidated fund fhall be 4,200,000l. Suppofing then that, by the exertions which we have made and continue to make, we fhould go through the difficulties we have to encounter, and pafs with fuccefs through this crilis of our fate, when the public debt fhall be met by the confolidated fund, there must be an end of all doubt of public credit; there must be an end of all queftion of national fecurities; of all diftinction between landed and funded property. That moment then, when leaft difcouraging for the monied man to revert to the funded fecurity, il all be fixed for the owner to avail himself of that redemption which circumftances had at first made impoffible. If not redeemed within a given time, however, it becomes material to render the property permanent with the purchafer, to the exclufion of the owner. Three years, then, after the expiring of the 10 years, at the clofe of which the power of redemption is permitted to the owner, feems to be a fair extenfion of the privilege. It would give to the owner an opportunity to purchafe, of which, from his circumstances, he was unable to avail himself on the first offer. It will give him time for preparation for domeftic arrangements, and for raifing the neceflary funds. "On the other hand, the fituation of the monied man will be this: that by a fmall facrifice he will obtain, in a period of difficulty and preffure, a landed inftead of a funded fecurity. Provifions are made to fecure to each the advantages which he will be most likely to prefer. "In the tranfaction, the fituation of the monied man is percifely this. During a period of difficulty and danger, he has got a landed fecurity inftead of that of the funds. This cafe, however, will require two regulations; firft, that if any perfon, not the owner, has purchafed by the transfering of an annuity, he fhall be repaid the fame quantity of stock upon the redemption, which he had transferred without regard to the price of fuch stock. Thus, fuppofing he had transferred to the public in payment when frock was at 50, and in the interval it thould rife to 75, he will derive all the advantage from, the rife, and may thus realize fifty per cent. upon his capital. At the fame time he is to have no rifk in cafe of a depreciation of the funds. Should they fall below fifty, he is to be reimbursed to the extent of the difference. The fituation of the stockholder who becomes a purchafer of the tax is precifey this, that he is fpeculating upon a rife, without any hazard of lofs from depreciation. "I have "I have stated thefe points to fhew the general tendency of the measure. It will now be feen that it is liable to no general objections which do not admit of a remedy; that the diffi culties in the detail are not fuch as to impede its progrefs; that the advantage to the public is confiderable, and the benefit accruing to the individual fuch as will render it an object for him to purchase. While the monied man is induced to come forward to aflift the State by purchafing the tax, a remedy is referved to the owner, to enable him, at a fixed period, to repair the disappointment he may have sustained from his original inability. "A variety of details must be involved in a measure like the prefent, but there are none which appear to be attended with great difficulty. On the prefent plan of repartition the amount of particular diftricts remains unaltered, thoug's it may vary within the diftrict, with the improvement or decline of the various parts. In the metropolis and confiderable towns. this is particularly the cafe. In the parish of Mary bone the extenfive improvement has rendered the repartition lighter, while in other diftricts it may become heavier from an oppofite caufe. Provifion, therefore, must be made for the fituation of an owner purchafing in the different cafes of increase or decline. "Thefe are the circumftances of the cafe which I have to lay before the House, and which I have conveyed in as short a ftatement as I was able. The object is one which requires confideration. In the firft opening of the matter, I avoided going into any minute detail, and although I feel it a matter of propriety in the outline, and fuch as deferves at least a favourable hearing; yet I wish it to be examined carefully, weighed difpaffionately and deliberately, and that Parliament may confider whether it is not fuch a measure as they ought in their wif dom to adopt at this arduous moment? I fhall follow the practice I have obferved in other instances with refpect to the form of proceeding; that of moving the firft refolution, and afterwards all the others in point of form, and then poftpone the confideration of the fubftance of the plan to another day. I fhall propofe taking the opinion of the Committee on Wednes day next; for the refolution will be printed and ready to be delivered to-morrow. I fhall propofe taking the opinion of the Houfe upon them on Thurfday following; and then that the whole fubject fhall go over until after the Hollidays, in order that Gentlemen may take them into the country, have an opportunity of converfing with their conftituents, and learning whether any local circumftances may, in any cafe, render any alteration. neceffary. I fhall now, without any further trouble trouble to the Committee, move the firft Refolution; but perhaps the Committee may wish to hear a statement of the heads of the Refolutions, which I fhall therefore take the liberty to read." The Chancellor of the Exchequer then read the Refolutions as follows. 6 "That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the feveral and refpective fums of money charged by virtue of an act of the prefent Seffion of Parliament, entitled, An act for granting an aid to his Majelty by a land-tax for the fervice of the year 1798, on the refpective counties and places in that part of Great Britain cailed England, in refpect of the premifes in the faid act mentioned, lying within the fame counties and places refpectively, to be raifed, levied, and paid unto his Majefty, within the space of one year from the 25th of March 1798, fhall from and after the expiration of the faid term, continue, and be raifed, levied, and paid yearly, to his Majefty, his heirs, and fucceffors, from and after the 25th of March in every year, for ever: fubject, nevertheless to the rules, regulations, reftrictions, and conditions of redemption to be prefcribed. That it is the opinion of this Committee, that it fhall be lawful for commiffioners to be appointed for the purpose to contract and agree with all and every perfon or perfons, bodies politic and corporate, having or holding any manors, meffuages, or tenements for the redemption of the land-tax charged upon their respective manors, meffuages, or tenements, according to the affeffment and pound rate to be made in purfuance of the faid act, and that the consideration to be given for fuch redemption fhall be fo much capital flock of public annuities, transferable at the Bank of England, bearing an interest after the rate of 31. per cent. per ann, commonly called the 3 per cent. confolidated annuities, and the 3 per cent. reduced annuities, as will yield an annuity or dividend, exceeding the amount of the land-tax fo to be redeemed by one-fifth part thereof; fuch capital ftock to be transferred to the commiffioners for the reduction of the national debt within the period of five years from the by four inftalments in every year, viz. on the 1ft of May, the 1ft of Auguft, the ift of November, and the 1ft of February in each year: the first instalment to be made on fuch of the faid days as fhall next enfue after the entering into fuch contract; but with liberty to any perfon to fipulate with the faid commiffioners, for the transfer of the whole of the faid capital ftock at one time, or within a lefs period than five years, fo that the fame may be made by even inftalments, at equal intervals between the period agreed upon, and by not lefs than four inftalments in each year of the faid period. day of "That it is the opinion of this Committee, that all bodies politic, corporate, or collegiate, corporations aggregate or fole, and ail guilds, mysteries, fraternities or brotherhoods, and all trustees or feoffees in truft for charities or other public purpofes, having any eftate or intereft in any fuch manors, meffuages, or tenements, whatever may be their eftate or intereft therein (other than tenants No: 21. ** 5 A at |