If the duty were reduced to 2s. per gallon, it was not improbable that the quantity charged would be increased to 12,000,000 gallons; the revenue in that case would sustain a loss of only 156,000l. in the first year. It would require 13,560,460 gallons, at 2s. to yield the present amount of duty; and at 2s. 4d. per gallon, 12,000,000 gallons would produce 44,000l. more than the present amount of duty. He expected, that even in the present year, the loss would not exceed 200,000l.; and he felt confident that, in future years, this alteration would occasion no loss whatever to the revenue. He was aware it might be objected that there was an obvious inconvenience in making so great a difference between the spirit duties of Scotland and Ireland, and that the consequence might be extensive smuggling. His answer was, that if smuggling was found to prevail to a serious extent, government would do its utmost to prevent practices so injurious to the commerce and to the morals of the country; and if the ordinary means at the disposal of the executive, were not found sufficient for such a purpose, no doubt an assimilation of the duties would be rendered necessary. At the same time, he felt bound to acknowledge that he should have recourse to such an arrangement with the greatest reluctance; the more so, because he would have to relinquish 440,000l. per annum, in order to bring both duties to a condition of equality. The Chancellor of the Exchequer admitted that the surplus, which he contemplated, was extremely small, considering the pressing exigences to which a great empire like ours must occasionally be subject; and he should regard it as wholly inadequate to meet the contingencies of any year

in which the fiscal changes were in the nature of increase, and not of decrease, of taxation. But, looking at the history of recent times, and the buoyancy and elasticity of our present resources, he entertained the fullest confidence that no danger whatever could arise from relying on so small an estimated excess of revenue.

Mr. Baring expressed his opinion, that it was impolitic to trust to so small a surplus, which a variety of contingencies as for instance, the casualties to which agriculture was exposed-might annihilate entirely. He considered the reductions which had been proposed in the customs, except in the article of oil, as a wanton tampering with the revenue. Currants, prunes, &c. were mere luxuries, and, as such, were legitimate objects of taxation. The removal of the duty on coals, also, he considered impolitic, not only as an useless sacrifice of revenue, but for the injury it might occasion to our own manufacturers, by the facility it was affording to the manufacturers of other countries. He did not suppose that the coal of this country was likely to be exhausted; but it might be so far decreased as to reach a price which would be seriously felt by the people, and greatly injurious to our manufacturers. The noble lord might have taken off the stamp on leases, the duty on insurances of farming stocks, and five shillings from the duty on malt, which would have been a sensible relief to agriculture, and would have been much more beneficial than the repeal of the house tax, which was only a relief to the landlords. The noble lord had attempted to reduce forty millions of stock, and there were five millions of dissentients; and he had not mentioned how he intended

to provide for that sum. He (Mr. Baring) had heard of transactions on the Stock Exchange, by government, such as had never before occurred. The commissioners of the sinking fund had the appropriation of the sum applicable to the reduction of the national debt, and had also the management of the assets of the savings' banks. The several acts of parliament gave them power to deal with these assets as was most expedient; but no one ever dreamed that they were to become jobbers in the funds, in order to assist the Chancellor of the Exchequer in any financial operation. The commissioners, however, had sold 2,348,000l. of the stock of the savings' banks, for the purpose of enabling the noble lord to carry on his operation for the reduction of the four per cents. He charged the noble lord, first, with jobbing in the funds with the stock of savings' banks; and secondly, with doing this in the dark. On all former occasions, the commissioners of the sinking fund gave public notice of their transactions; but in this case there was no notice. Any person in his confidence, who knew when he was giving directions to sell, might make a fortune by it. He knew an instance of a clerk in the treasury, who, by knowing the financial intentions of the government, left a landed property of 10,000l. a-year to his family.

The chancellor of the exchequer replied, that the gain on the sale of the savings banks' stock amounted to 118,8771.; and that it was of considerable advantage that the commissioners of the banks should have been able to take, as they had done, stock of the dissentients, to the amount of 2,500,000l. Upon this, Mr. Baring

observed, that the money realised by the sale of stock at 95 or 96, had been invested in exchequer bills at par. Now, exchequer bills bore interest at the rate of 1d. a day for 100l., while the savings' banks were obliged to pay 24d. a day interest on the deposits; so that the noble lord would be the greatest conjuror that ever existed, if he could prove this transaction to be a gain to the savings' banks.

Mr. Herries added, that if the noble lord had made a profit on the first operation, he had lost it in the second; for, he could not see how any gain could be made by selling stock at 95 or 96, and re-investing the money at 100.

The resolutions proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer were adopted by the house.

The operations of the commissioners of savings' banks, which had been referred to in the discussion on the budget, arose out of the plan which the government had brought forward for the reduction of the 4 per cent. annuities, created in 1826. This plan was announced to the public on the 7th of May; and on the 9th, was expounded by the chancellor of the exchequer to the house of Commons. The principal details of it were the following:-All holders of the stock, commonly called 41. per cent. annuities, 1826,' who should not signify their dissent, were to have for every 100l. of that stock of new 3 per cent. annuities, the dividends upon which should be payable on the 5th of July in each year:-These new 3 per cent. annuities were to be added to, and consolidated with, the existing new 3 per cent. annuities, and were not to be liable to redemption until the 5th of January, 1840:-The holders of

4 per cent. annuities, 1826, were to receive the half-year's dividend due the 10th of October, 1834; and one quarter of a year's dividend was to be payable upon the new 3 per cent. annuities on the 5th of January, 1835:-Books were to be opened at the Bank of England, from the 8th of May to the 28th of May, both days inclusive, for receiving notices of dissent:-Persons out of the United Kingdom during the whole of that period might express their dissent at any time before the 6th of July, 1834-and persons in any other quarter of the world, except Europe, might express such dissent at any time before the 1st of March, 1835.

The dissentients were to a greater amount than had been anticipated. The number of persons who had expressed their dissent before the 9th of June was stated, by the Chancellor, of the Exchequer, to be 969; and they held 4,600,000l. of 4 per cent stock. In order to provide the funds necessary for paying them off, a resolution was passed on the 9th of June, that the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt, should make the necessary payments to the dissen.. tients, out of the monies, stocks, or exchequer bills held by them under the savings' banks act; and that the dissented stock should, from the 10th of October following, be deemed to be converted into an equal amount of new 3 per cents, which were to be vested in the commissioners, and placed in their names in the bank books to the account, entitled, "the funds for the banks of savings." A similar clause was introduced into the act, 4 and 5 William 4. c. 31, for carrying the scheme into effect.

On the 10th of October, the reduction was completed without difficulty.

On the 18th of February, Mr. D. W. Harvey moved for a select committee to inquire into the grounds on which the several pensions on the civil list had been granted. Lord Althorp, without undertaking to defend all the grants, met the motion by an amendment, reciting the reductions which had been made in the amount of the charge for pensions, and the various acts which regulated them, and declaring it to be the duty of ministers to guard against the misappropriation of the fund. The motion was negatived by 190 to 180. On the 5th of May, Mr. Harvey renewed the subject, by moving that an address might be presented to the crown, praying an inquiry into the pension list. Mr. Strutt moved, as amendment, for the appointment of a select committee to ascertain the nature and extent of any abuses which might have occurred in the granting of pensions. The original motion was negatived by 390 to 148; and the amendment, by 311 to 230.

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Among the financial affairs of the year, a motion ought to be noticed, which Sir W. Ingleby brought forward on the 22nd of February, for taking into consideration the propriety of the total or partial repeal of the duty on malt. To compensate for the 4,845,000l., which would thus be lost to the revenue, he proposed taxes on gambling houses and titles, and additional taxes on gin and foreign wines. The motion was opposed by the ministers, and was rejected by 271 against 170.