had considered the principle laid down by the noble lord who preceded him unwise. He had felt how desirable it was to consolidate the different acts relative to the assessed taxes and the stamp duties, and considered that a good opportunity, when making improved regulations for the collection of both, to make a small addition in certain items. He had already done so with respect to the assessed taxes, and he was now to propose a similar course with respect to the stamp duties. If, by these means, without adding considerably to the burdens of the public, they could contrive to provide for the present year, they might in the next and following years resort to the principle which had been so generally ap proved of; unless upon a review of the state of the taxes, whoever might fill the situation he occupied, should be of opinion that, by regu. lation or modification, a supply could be obtained without increasing the pressure upon the public, and to relieve the war taxes.

The addition to the amount of the stamp duties, he said, would arise from an application of the ad valorem principle to other instruments than those to which it at present applied. It had on a former occasion been in contemplation to apply that principle to all conveyances of real property, by making the instrument invalid if the stamps were not of the legal amount; but, as it would be hard to render an instrument of no effect merely be cause of the stamp not being of the legal amount, the design was abandoned. He did not mean to carry his provision to that extent, but that a specification should be made ~ of the amount of the consideration, VOL. L.

and that the duty on the stamp should be in proportion. And he proposed to apply this principle, not only to all conveyances of real estates, but to the admission to offices of courts and government. At present the duty was 20%. upon all offices of the courts, without regard to the income. He should propose to reduce the duty upon the lower offices, and to raise that upon the higher offices. Upon all offices, the income of which should not exceed 60%. no duty would attach; upon all over 60%. and under 1507. the duty would be 87.; upon all over 150l. and under 3007. it was to be 201.; and so in proportion upon higher incomes. It was also proposed to make some alteration in the duty on indentures, but not to carry it higher than it was before the year 1804, and in some cases to reduce it lower. There was likewise some addition expected from the duty on attorneys' indentures. The duty at present on articles of indenture, to an attorney of the superior courts, was 110l., and of the inferior courts 55l. The same duty which applied to indentures to solicitors in chancery, should also apply to proctors, for he could not see why, when the advantage was equal, the parties should not be subject to similar duties. He proposed that the duty of 55l. should extend to indentures to the writers to the signet in Scotland. In the duty on collations and donations, a small alteration was to take place; for where they gave the right as fully as induction and institution, the duty, which did not at present attach, was to apply. With respect to infeoffments, a small addition was to be made, the duty being at present only 17. 10s.: it was pro

[H]

posed

posed to raise it to 3., the duty applicable to another mode of conveying real estates by lease and release. An addition was also proposed to the duty on the grant of honours and preferments; the duty was at present but 201. in all cases. In Ireland, the duty on the creation of a duke, marquis, or earl, was 2004; on the creation of a viscount 150.; and on the creation of a baron 1004.: and he could see no reason why this country should not adopt the same rate of duty which existed in that. Some slight alteration was to be made in the duty upon the grant of leases of crown lands; at present it was 201. and where the lease was beneficial, that was not an improper duty; but as under the present regulations, the leases of crown lands were not more beneficial than those of any private individual, the duty ought not to be levied unless where the lease was beneficial. The public would not be a loser by this reduction, because the party always paid less in proportion to the amount of the duty.

Úpon the grants of money and pensions, it was proposed that the duty should attach upon the ad valorem principle on the higher grants, though it would apply on a reduced scale to the lower. A duty was also to apply to policies of insurance on lives, which had been exempted in 1804, though there was no reason why they should be so exempted. Another head to which he wished to call the attention of the committee was the case of promissory notes re-issuable, issued by persons calling themselves bankers. He proposed that every person issuing such re-issuable notes should pay twenty pounds a-year

for a licence. The duty upon such notes was at present three-pence each, and he proposed to raise the duty upon all to four-pence each ; but when the notes were payable only in one place, the duty was to be sixpence each. Another alteration was intended relative to the manner of transferring the shares of joint stock companies. At present the duty was collected only in proportion to the nominal value, but it appeared to him that it should be in proportion to the real value. As to law proceedings they were already so highly burthened, that no addition could possibly be made to them. There were only some small instances, which we could scarcely consider but as omissions in the year 1804. Thus he proposed a duty of one shilling on all summonses before a master in chancery. With respect to probates of administration in Scotland,the duty was to apply in the same manner as in England. As to legacies, the duty applied on all above twenty pounds, except a residue, and then the duty did not attach till the residue amounted to 100%. It was proposed that the duty should apply indiscriminately to residue and legacies. It remained for him only to explain how the principle he stated was to apply to conveyances. The duty at present was thirty shillings on all conveyances of land. This duty he proposed to lower on conveyances of smaller property, and to raise it in proportion to the value on the higher degrees of property. In all cases where the consideration should not exceed 150l. the duty was to be one pound; between that and 300%. one pound ten shillings; between 3007. and 5001. two pounds ten shillings; between

posed in a way that would be least felt by the community in Ireland. It was well known that in Ireland, as well as in England, distillers evaded the malt duty in a considerable degree by using raw corn instead of malt. He therefore proposed to extend to raw corn used in distillation the duties at present imposed on malt. It was also his intention to propose an additional duty on foreign spirits imported into Ireland. These sums, together with a saving in the management of the Irish national debt, would more than cover the charges of interest and sinking fund of the three loans,

ers of 3 per cent stock to transfer that stock to the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt, with the view of receiving in its stead equivalent annuities. Mr. Perceval rose to propose certain resolutions to the committee for this purpose.* All, however, that he intended for the present was, after having briefly explained the nature of his proposition, to move the reading of the first resolution, pro forma, and then to propose that the committee should report progress. The committee, he observed, must be perfectly aware that the operation of the sinking fund had recently very much increased the price of stocks. There was every reason to believe, that by the continuance of that operation, they would still further increase in price. It was not to be doubted that, if the measure were consistent with public faith, it would be extremely desirable to give the nation an opportunity of discharging the whole of the national debt at the present price of the stocks, because that would preclude the effect which any future advance in the price of stocks must have in retarding the operation of the sinking fund.There were two objects which the sinking fund had in view the one to provide for the final redemption of the national debt; the other to keep up the price of stocks in the market, so as to enable government, whenever the exigencies of the state might require it, to make an advantageous loan for the public. These objects, however, were in some degree inconsistent. In some degree they counteractedeachother.

Whatever

Whatevermeasure raised the funds, and thus enabled government to borrow on the best terms, prevented the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt, from reducing that debt on the best terms. Now the measure proposed would combine both these objects. It would tend to increase the price of stocks, and it would at the same time secure the redemption at a low price, of so much stock as might be transferred antecedently to the rise produced. Every person who transferred his stock to the commission ers would be entitled to such an annuity as would be equivalent to the value of the stock and of his life; the calculation proceeding on the principle that the sum which he would have otherwise received as interest, the additional sum granted as an annuity, and the compound interest on the whole, would redeem the sum originally transferred, within the period to which his life will be calculated as like ly to extend. Now if the stocks continued to rise, the redemption of that sum could not be effected without this measure. The whole merit of this plan, therefore, rested on the justness of the expectation that the stocks were likely to rise. And Mr. Perceval was ready to admit, that if the contrary should take place, the measure would have a tendency directly opposite to that which he expected. A great deal of conversation ensued about the principle and mode of calculating the value of lives, and the probable rise or fall of stocks; and apprehensions were entertained by some of the members, that the price of the funds, instead of rising, would fall in consequence of a defalcation of revenue arising from a stagnation

of trade. But besides the objections to the measure proposed, drawn from the calculations of political arithmetic, there was one much insisted on of an ethical nature.

Mr. Windham, disclaiming all intention of entering into any detailed observations on the plan in the present early stage of its appearance, observed, that there was this obvious and fundamental objection to it, that it tended in a greater or less degree to vitiate the morals of the lower orders of the people.

He was afraid that too many parents would be found who would be very willing to sacrifice the future interests of their children to their own immediate gratification. The system of annuities was too generally attended with such consequences, and he saw nothing in the plan now proposed, to obviate such effects in the present instance.

Sir John Newport, too, deprecated the holding out any inducements to the lower classes to speculate in annuities. If there were vices in a country, government ought not to partake of them. In France, in the time of the rentes viageres, there had been many instances of persons who sacrificed the interests of their posterity for their own immediate gratification. This was not consonant to the feelings of the people of this country, and he should deprecate any measure that would have the effect of assimilating the habits and morals of this country to those of France. Neither could Mr. W. Smith abstain from bearing his testimony to the immoral tendency of this plan. He looked upon these annuities as a moral poison, which should not be circulated.

But Mr. Huskisson defended the plan