and a half. Then as to the sinking the charge on the old system, and fund, on comparing the difference, that on one branch of the noble it appeared, that at the close of lord's, was only 394,0001. twenty years, the fund would be in He would next proceed to the proportion of 1-10th to the debt, fourth head; which was, the comon the present plan; and on the new parative quality of the two systems plan, that it would be in the propor- to afford relief to the country from tion only of 1-17th; and there was, the present pressure; and here he therefore, the whole of the differ- was perfectly prepared to admit, ence in favour of the old system. that if relief could be granted, which But this was not the only point of would not ultimately be injurious to difference; for, after twenty years, the country and to the stockholders, the fund on the old system would it ought to be allowed to those who go on increasing; whereas, on the had so manfully borne up against noble lord's plan it must be de- the accumulated pressure which the clining. He must beg the noble state of the times rendered neceslord's assistance for additional data sasy. This was a point which, if it on this point; but even upon four of could by any means be accomplished, the noble lord's own tables, he ought to be aimed at. would undertake to shew lim the This being his opinion, he was principle of ruin which prevailed in disposed to meet the noble lord on his plan, if he would only consent his own ground, and to maintain to look at its effects for ten years the comparative merits of the old. subsequent to the close of the pe- system, iu the point of administering riod of twenty years from the pre- relief to the people, or at least in sent time. that of not adding materially to the He would now proceed to the burthens which at present pressed third head, and consider the compa- upon them. Now he had shewed rative merits of the two systems, in that, if parliament could persuade point of charge to the public. Now, itself to take the excesses of the if we should go on with the plan of sinking fund, these might be made single loans at one per cent. sup. a part of the ways and means. The posing 11,000,0001, to be borrowed excess would amount to upwards of annually, the annual clrarge would u millions in 1816. He had stated, be 733,0001.; and on a capital of that loans might be made upon that, 220,000,0001. at the close of the either upon the one system or the period we should have. 14,660,000l. other. Taking the excess of the Then how did the charge stand on funds then, together with the annuthe noble lord's system? By supple- ities, and the noble lord's tares, you mentary loans he would borrow would have considerably beyond 13 204,000,0001. for which he would' millions as ways and means on the provide 14,266,000l. The other old system. On the new systeid branch of his loans would absorb you would have upuvards of 14 milthe war taxes. The charge then by lions. But upon the old system it the old system being 14,660,0001. would only, upon the whole, require and that for the noble lord's sup- a difference of 369,0001. in taxes plementary loans being 14,266,000l. to carry you on. But the noble The difference between the whole of lord bad the war loans separate from the sinking fund, amounting in the gross to 330,000l. to be charged on the consolidated fund for the present, which should be ultimately relieved by the excesses of the sinking fund when they accrued. By this plan, while the additional burdens on the people would not be very heavy, the noble lord would only have to borrow 4 millions, instead of 204 millions, and he would be relieved from the necessity of mortgaging the war taxes. But there was another way. It appeared by table N.' that upon the old system, the sinking fund in the course of four years would yield an excess of 11,140,000l. being 140,000l. beyond the amount of the loan. If we could, therefore, go on, till 1811, we could proceed without any addition to our debt, and would have 24 millions of war taxes free.-Now for four years all that would be necessary to provide for the loans would, over and above the annuities and taxes proposed by the noble lord, be only 646,000l. These he offered to the noble lord, to relieve him from touching the war taxes. the supplementary; and these absorbed the war taxes so, that 21 millions were thus mortgaged, in order to save 369,000l. of taxes. He did certainly then object to the noble lord's mode of carrying his plan of relief into execution. It was proper to mitigate the pressure upon the people, if that could be done, and therefore he, felt that it was incumbent on him to suggest some mode by which the noble lord might be relieved from his difficulty on that head; and he hoped it would appear to the noble lord himself, that he had preferred the double and expensive plan to the simple and economical. Why then, taking the ways and means which the noble lord had taken for his plan, we had ways and means to cover annual loans of 11 millions for nineteen years on the old system; but then, in order to make them availing for present relief, he admitted that an operation was necessary. It was to be considered, how they arose; for it was clear that they did not arise in a ratio with the loans- they arose principally in the last years of the whole period; for the excesses did not continue till 1816. Now taking the noble lord's taxes and annuities, with 733,000l. to be raised in additional taxes to cover the loans, there would be about 3 millions for the first ten years without mortgaging the war-taxes, from which he wished to relieve the noble lord. But in order to make up the half of the ways and means provided by the noble lord for twenty years, being upwards of 14 millions, there were still wanting 4,500,000l. to complete the sum of 7 millions, for the first ten years. This 4 millions, he proposed, should be raised by additions to the loans of each year, the interest and His lordship then proceeded to comment upon the dangers that would result from mortgaging the war taxes, and the great difficulties which it would occasion in providing for the peace establishment. He need not enter upon his fifth head, in order to examine the comparative merits of the systems, with a view to the state in which they would leave the income of the country at the close of the period. He had already shewn, that on the old system there would be no mortgage of the war taxes. The war loans and supplementary loans were complete loans, and would swallow up every thing; but if we abstained from these these we should come to a period when we could carry on the war to any length of time, without adding to our debt. The noble lord then went into a long statement to prove that the debt in the year 1826, would exceed the aggregate by 6 millions, and insisted that there was no possible pre tence to justify the measure of mortgaging the war taxes. It might be justly questioned, whether the interest of the stockholder could be advanced as a claim to fetter parliament; but surely it was not to be denied that his interest was not wholly to be disregarded. He put it to the common sense of the house, if the stockbroker would not prefer a sinking fund of 11 or 12 millions, and a loan of 12 millions, to a sinking fund of 26 millions and a loan of 32 millions; and more especially when it was considered that that very loan of 32 millions would create a capital of 50 or 60 millions. He was free to say, that however the noble lord might mean, and he had no doubt of the rectitude of his intentions, still the plan of the noble lord carried with it a fallacy big with the worst consequences to the ultimate prosperity of the finances of this country. That plan appeared to him to be masked under the complicated machinery of the noble lord's system; a system certainly in his mind more to be admired for its practical facility and dispatch in easing the people, not so much of their burthens as their money, than for all the vaunting speculations of its theoretic economy; but while he thus freely and explicitly stated his objections, let him not for a moment be suspected as unwilling to withhold his tribute of respect to the manly, clear, decisive, and ingenu VOL. XLIX. ous tone, that in so great a degree characterised the manner of the noble lord, in submitting to the house that plan of finance, to which a strong and imperious sense of public duty had impelled him to advance the objections he had already submitted to the house: still more was be called upon to applaud the ingenuousness of the noble lord, in attributing in his last year's statement all the beneficial results to their true and only source, the genius, the information, and the virtues of that great and enlightened statesman, now no more, who had identified his claims to immortality with the strength, the wealth, and the glory of this country. Under the last change of administration, he had subjected himself to. severe and repeated rebukes from the leading personages of that admi nistration, for having said that which, in his mind, every day had since tended rather to confirm than dis prove. He should now with encreased confidence repeat, what had then exposed him to such severe ani madversion, that never was a country handed from one government to another, in a prouder situation than that in which this country had been in, when transferred from the auspicious guidance of his right honour able friend, to the management of the gentlemen who were now re sponsible for its prosperity. He apologised for the long, and no doubt tiresome detail into which he felt himself unavoidably obliged to enter, and thanked the house for the very patient attention with which it had been pleased to honour his humble efforts to discharge a public duty of great and paramount considera tion. His lordship then concluded with reading the following resolutions :Y y "Tuat “ That it is proposed by the new for the interest and sinking fund of plan of finance brought forward by the same to arise proportionably in the chancellor of the exchequer, that the respective years,) an annual loan the annual excesses of the present of eleven millions might be provided sinking fund, above the interest of for, for nearly nineteen years, by the debt charged upon it in any given the application of the same funds; year, should be declared to be at viz. the annuities, amounting to the disposal of parliainent, and ap- 683,0621, the excesses of the sinkplicable to the public service; and ing fund, amounting to 11,122,809). it appears that the aggregate pro- and the new taxes intended to be duce of the said excesses between imposed by the new plan, amountthe years 1816 and 1826 will amount ing to 2,051,000l. on which the supin the whole to 11,122,8091.; that plementary loans are to be charged.” annuities to the amount of 683,0621. will fall in between the years 1807 and 1826. Sir James Pulteney's Plan of Finance " That it is proposed by the new in the House of Commons, March plan of finance to charge on the ag- 3, 1807. gregate produce of the said excesses of the sinking fund, and upon the Sir James Pulteney rose to resaid annuities, the interest and sink- mark on certain resolutions respecting fund of 204,200,000l. supple- ing finance which he had to propose. mentary loans, and to impose in aid He stater, that he wished it to be of the said aggregate produce, be distinctly understood, that he did not tween the years 1810 and 1816, new take upon him to propose to the house taxes to the amount of 2,051,000l, a plan of finance, but to suggest a " That, in addition to the supple- method of following up the ideas of mentary loans so to be provided for, the noble lord (Petty) iu a more ecoit is proposed by the new plan to nomical way than that proposed. raise war loans to the amount of He concluded by stating a comparison 292,000,0001. on the credit of the of the two different states of finance war taxes, amounting to 21,000,000l, at the end of twenty years as pro . “ That the war and supplemen- duced by the noble lord's plan, and tary loans of each year, added to so the one digested by himself. That much of the war taxes as may re- at the end of twenty years the main unmortgaged, will produce in permanent debt, according to the each year respectively the sum of noble lord's plan, would amount to thirty-two millions. 318,311,4951. ; whereas the perma« That, in order to raise the said nent debt at the end of the same pe. sum of thirty-two millions in each riod, according to that he proposed, year, without mortgaging the war would amonint only to 285,595,7051. taxes, there would be required, in leaving a difference of 32,715,7901. addition to the twenty-one millions Again, according to the noble lord's of war taxes, an annual loan of ele, plav, the permanent sinking fund, at ven millions only. the end of that period, would amount " That, without any mortgage to 12,768,9001., whereas, according upon the war taxes, (supposing the to his plan, it would, at the end of the charge, and the permanent provision same period, amount to 14,359,9001.; leaving S leaving a difference of 1,591,0001. templated. The mass of what I have The total permanent taxes would, in received in the course of these transthe one case amount to 2,051,0001. actions is voluminous; but little has in the other to 1,985,2281. leaving a been given under the sanction of an balance of 65,7721. oath, so as to constitute formal and [The parliament was dissolved, and legal evidence. It is chiefly in the the ministry changed, without either form of letters, often containing such of these plans being adopted.] a mixture of rumours, conjectures, and suspicions, as render it difficult to sift out the real facts, and uuadAmerica. - Burr's Conspiracy. viseable to hazard more than general Message of the President; con- outlines strengthened by concurrent taining a Developement of the information, or the particular credi. Conspiracy. bility of the relator. In this state of the evidence, delivered sometimes Washington City, Jan. 25. under the restriction of private confiTo the Senate and House of Repre- dence, neither safety nor justice will sentatives of the United States. permit the exposiog names, except Agreeably to the request of the that of the principal actor, whose house' of representatives, communi- guilt is placed beyond question. cated in their resolution of the 16th Some time in the latter part of instant, I proceed to state, under the September, I received intimations reserve therein expressed, information that designs were in agitation in the received, touching an illegal combi- western country, unlawful and unnation of private individuals against friendly to the peace of the union; the peace and safety of the union, and that the prime mover in these and a military expedition planned by was Aaron Burr, heretofore distinthem against the territories of a pow. guished by the favour of his country. er in amity with the United States, The grounds of these intimations with the measures I have pursued for being inconclusive, the objects uncersuppressiug the same. tain, and the fidelity of that country I had, for some time, been in the known to be firm, the only measure constant expectation of receiving such taken, was to use their best endeafurther information as would have vours to get further insight into the enabled me to lay before the legisla- designs and proceedings of the sus'ture, the termination, as well as the pected persons, and to communicate beginning and progress, of this scene them to me. of depravity, so far as it has been It was not till the latter part of acted on the Ohio and its waters. October that the objects of the conFrom this, the state of safety of the spiracy began to be perceived, but lower country might have been esti- still so blended and involved in mysmated on probable grounds, and the tery, that nothing distinct could be delay was indulged the rather, be- singled out for pursuit. In this state cause no circumstance had yet made of uncertainty, as to the crime conit necessary to call in the aid of the templated, the acts done, and the lelegislative functions. Information gal course to be pursued, I thought now recently communicated, has it best to send to the scene, where brought us nearly to the period con- these things were principally in trans Yy2 action, |