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26 Feb. HE celebrated plan of confolidating the duties of cuftom, alluded to by his majesty at the close of his fpeech from the throne, was brought forward in a committee of the whole houfe, by the chancellor of the exchequer, on Monday the 26th of February. In opening this bufinefs, Mr. Pitt began with obferving, that a reform had been long neceflary in the collection of the revenues, and could not be too foon introduced. Great and multiplied grievances exifted both in the excife, the ftamp office, and more especially in the customs: but it was to the last department that he had principally directed his attention, because in it the evil was moft predominant.

The first inftitution of the prefent fubfifting duties of cuftom, was by a ftatute of the 12th of Charles the fecond, under the names of tonnage and poundage. The first of these was an impofition on wines, laid on by the quantities imported; and the other was a proportionable duty calculated on the value of the feveral articles. This last duty of poundage, which was calculated on the value of the feveral articles, was of a nature liable to great inaccuracy and irregularity; the value of the goods was afcertained by a book of rates, and was computed on the quantities of the goods, either with respect to gage, to weight, or to taille—it was not a real value that was fixed upon them, fo that the duty should bear a certain proportion to that real value, but an arbitrary value, per haps according to their actual ftandard at the time of impofing the duty; but which, from the natural

fluctuations of trade and manufactures, was neceffarily liable to many changes and variations. This principle of taxation being once adopted, was purfued in every fresh fubfidy that had been granted for the payment of the intereft of the several loans that were raised from time to time. In fome inftances it was done by impofing additional duties, calculated by a per-centage on the duty before paid; in others a further duty was laid upon a different denomination of the commodity, either with refpect to its value, its bulk, its weight, or its number; and proceeding in this manner from period to period, it had at length, by the numerous additions fo made, and the unbounded increase of the articles of commerce, produced that mafs of confufion, that was now fo univerfally complained of, was productive of infinite inconvenience and delay to thofe, whom it was the interest of the country to have as free from all unneceffary embarraffments as poffible, the mercantile part of the nation.

Two modes had been devised for obviating thefe evils. The firft was, the forming of a compilation of the cuftoms on each article. This was ufeful to the merchant, who perhaps had neither leifure nor inclination to make fuch extracts from acts of parliament. But from the various revolutions that had fo frequently occurred in the customs, the system had been fo fluctuating, that in many inftances it had undergone a change, before the compilations to which he alluded were publifhed.

But even if this difadvantage did not attend the cuftom-house officer's

book

book of rates, it yet only tended to relieve, in a very inconfiderable degree, the grievance complained of; for although the calculations contained in the book might have been ever fo accurate, yet the merchant could not go to the custom-houfe and enter his goods immediately, by paying down the fum ftated in the book of rates. For as almost all of the additional fubfidies had been appropriated to fome fpecific fund, for the payment of certain specific annuities, he was obliged to wait until all the ufual calculations on each fubfidy had been made, the feveral acts by which fuch fubfidies had been granted having fo directed; and thus, in point of time, nothing was faved by the merchant.

The other mode which had been employed, was to apply for information to the custom-houfe officers. This had, in many inftances, been afeful to the merchant, but it was certainly improper to leave the mercantile part of the country at the difcretion of fuch perfons. Nor was it lefs fo that the officers themfelves, who were intended to be a check upon the merchants, were forced to Become their agents-a thing repugnant to every principle of reafon and policy. Thofe abufes, which he had stated to exift in the customs, obtained alfo, though not to the fame extent, in the excife, and in a certain degree in one other great branch of the revenue, the ftamps. He fhould therefore include thofe laft in his general plan.

The mode, by which he propofed to remedy this great abufe, was by abolishing all the duties, which now fubfifted in this confufed and complex manner, and to fubftitute in their Itead one fingle duty on each

article, amounting, as nearly as poffible, to the aggregate of all the various fubfidies already paid-only in general, where a fraction was found in any of the fums, to change the fraction for the nearest integral number-in general taking the higher, rather than the lower. There could, he faid, be no great objection to this very trifling rife; for otherwife an equivalent diminution must take place,or the confufion confequent on fractions must still continue. This advance from the fractions to the integral would produce an increase of revenue to the amount of about 20,000l. per annum, and would lay upon the public a burthen moft amply compenfated by the great relief, which the merchant would experience from the whole of the plan.

These were the great outlines of: his plan relative to the customs, a branch of the revenue in which reform was allowed on all hands to be the moft neceffary. It was impoffible to enter into a regular difcuffion on each point; but, if he could convey a general idea of what he intended, he should, in a great degree, attain his end.

The next object that claimed attention was the excife. Here many of thofe evils prevailed, which had been the ground of complaint in the cuftoms; and though the modes of collecting this part of the revenue were neither fo complex nor multifarious as in the other, yet they flood much in need of new regulations. All the articles of excife, fuch as beer, candles, fpirits, &c. &c. fhould be brought into one point of view, and the duties on each rendered fo fimple in the collection, that there could be no danger of miftaking them, and of

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trufting implicitly to the opinion of the officers of excife. This object he conceived would be attained by making one duty serve for all.

Having explained his intentions refpecting the confolidation of the duties, as far as the question ftood upon its own merits, he proceeded to obferve in what degree it might affect the fecurity of the public creditor. As many of the fubfidies which it was proposed to abolish were particularly appropriated to the payment of certain fpecified annuities, and as fome of the annuitants were entitled to a valuable priority of payment, it was doubted, whether fuch right of priority might not be infringed upon by abolithing thofe funds, from which fuch prior payments were to iffue, and Confolidating them all into one general mass. But it was by no means his intention that this valuable priority fhould be at all affected. The right of priority might as well be maintained by paying them all out of one general fund, as by paying firft one fet of annuities out of feveral funds, and the remaining annuities out of the furpluffes of those funds, provided that out of that general fund the first payments were actually made to the nuitants entitled to that priority. In fact this mode of proceeding at prefent actually prevailed. For the payments made to the annuitants were not out of the respective funds appropriated to the different annuities, but the whole of that bufiness was, at this moment, conducted at the Bank ne rly in the fame manner, as it would be, when the whole of the revenue was to be confolidated into one general fund. The ftate he apprehended had a right, confiftently with its good faith

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to its creditors, to make fuch alterations in the nature of its fecu rities as it should fee to be convenient and neceffary, provided on every fuch alteration it took care to fubftitute fuch a fecurity as should be fubftantially equivalent to that which was fo changed. But to put the public creditor perfectly at eafe, he fhould recommend, that not only all the feveral funds then confolidated fhould become chargeable with the public annuities, but that every other refource of the country, of any defcription whatsoever, should be a collateral fecurity for the payment of thofe debts-even the aids of the current year.

Thus the demands of the creditor would be always fatisfied; though at the fame time he was of opinion, that the propofed appropriation would never be neceffary z and he mentioned it rather as an expedient fitted to remove apprehenfions and fcruples, than as a measure to which neceffity would ever oblige them to have recourse,

The plan he had propofed was not brilliant, but fimple in its nature. It promifed no flattering accumulation of revenue, but fuch an arrangement as would relieve the officer of government from much trouble, and exempt the fubject from embarraffment and injustice. He had not adopted this fcheme on the authority of his own judgment only: it had been submitted to the confideration of gentlemen connected with the customs and excife, and had obtained their approbation.

He would encroach no further on the patience of the committee than to remark, that the refcinding of fo many laws and regulations, as this extenfive fyftem demanded,

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would require a variety of refolutions. They amounted to three thousand. With each of them, however, he would not at prefent trouble the committee; but would content himself with making a general motion to the following purport: “That all the duties of cuftom and excife, and certain duties of ftamps "in Great Britain, do ceafe and determine, and that other duties be fubftituted in their ftead."

The plan thus offered by Mr. Pitt met with the general concurrence of the house. Mr. Burke, who rofe immediately after the minifter, declared, that the measure proposed was in itself fo obviously neceffary, beneficial, and desirable, and the right honourable gentleman had opened it with fuch extraordinary clearness and perfpicuity, that he thought it did not become him, or thofe, who like him unfortunately felt it to be their duty frequently to oppofe the measures of government, to content themfelves with a fullen acquiefcence; but to do juftice to the right honourable gentleman's merit, and to return him thanks on behalf of themselves and the country.

Sir Grey Cooper alfo gave it his hearty concurrence, and faid, that its advantages were fo obvious and indisputable, that he could not avoid mentioning to the committee, that a confiderable progrefs had been made in the fame fcheme during the time, in which a noble lord had prefided in the treasury, under whom he had the honour to ferve: that in the years 1780 and 1781 he had, by order of the noble lord, often feen and held correfpondence on the subject with a very able and intelligent commiffioner of the cuf

toms.

He admitted that it was competent to the houfe to vary the fecurity given to public creditors; but he thought, that no variation or fhifting of the appropriation of fecurity ought or could be made confiftently with the extreme delicacy, with which public faith to creditors ought to be preserved, without the confent of the public creditors, who were to be affected by any arrangement however advantageous to the public.

Mr. Fox rofe merely to afk, whether due notification would be given to every public creditor, and that all fuch as were afraid, and did not approve of taking the new fecurity of the general fund, with the collateral fecurity of the aids of the year, would have the option of the appropriated fund the right honourable gentleman had defcribed ? Mr. Fox added, that he should always contend that the fecurity given to the public creditor, when he lent his money, ought not to be changed without the consent of such public creditor.

The chancellor of the exchequer faid, he certainly meant that there fhould be a full time allowed for notification to every public creditor of the intended change of the fecurity, and that each public creditor fhould have the option that had been mentioned.

As the duties to be

impofed upon French 7th March. merchandize, in pursuance of the late commercial treaty, were neceffarily a part of those, which were to be regulated in the plan of a general confolidation, the chancellor of the exchequer declared his intentions of including them in the fame bill; and accordingly, on the 7th day of March, the houfe hav