SUBSTANCE OF THE ADDRESSES.

We shall not anticipate the reader’s own reflection, by pretending to comment upon either the matter or form of this harangue, which however produced all the effect which the sovereign could desire. The houses, in their respective addresses, seemed to vie with each other in expressions of attachment and complacency. The peers professed their utmost readiness to concur in the effectual support of such further measures as his majesty, in his great wisdom, should judge necessary or expedient for carrying on the war with vigour in all parts, and for disappointing and repelling any desperate attempts which might be made upon these kingdoms. The commons expressed their admiration of that true greatness of mind which disposed his majesty’s heart, in the midst of prosperities, to wish a stop put to the effusion of Christian blood, and to see tranquillity restored. They declared their entire reliance on his majesty’s known wisdom and firmness, that this desirable object, whenever it should be obtained, would be upon teems just and honourable for his majesty and his allies; and, in order to effect that great end, they assured him they would cheerfully grant such supplies as should be found necessary to sustain, and press with effect, all his extensive operations against the enemy. They did not fail to re-echo the speech, as usual; enumerating the trophies of the year, and extolling the king of Prussia for his consummate genius, magnanimity, unwearied activity, and unshaken constancy of mind. Very great reason, indeed, had his majesty to be satisfied with an address of such a nature, from a house of commons in which opposition lay strangled at the foot of the minister; in which those demagogues, who had raised themselves to reputation and renown by declaiming against continental measures, were become so perfectly reconciled to the object of their former reprobation, as to cultivate it even with a degree of enthsiasm unknown to any former administration, and lay the nation under such contributions in its behalf, as no other ministry durst ever meditate. Thus disposed, it was no wonder they admired the moderation of their sovereign in offering to treat of peace, after above a million of men had perished by the war, and twice that number been reduced to misery; after whole provinces had been depopulated, whole-countries subdued, and the victors themselves almost crushed by the trophies they had gained.

Immediately after the addresses were presented, the commons resolved themselves into a committee of the whole house; and having unanimously voted a supply to his majesty, began to take the particulars into consideration. This committee was continued till the twelfth of May, when that whole business was accomplished. For the service of the ensuing year they voted seventy thousand seamen, including eighteen thousand three hundred and fifty-five marines, and for their maintenance allotted three millions six hundred and forty thousand pounds. The number of land-forces, including the British troops in Germany, and the invalids, they fixed at fifty-seven thousand two hundred and ninety-four men, and granted for their subsistence one million three hundred and eighty-three thousand seven hundred and forty-eight pounds and tenpence. For maintaining other forces in the plantations, Gibraltar, Guadaloupe, Africa, and the East Indies, they allowed eight hundred forty-six thousand one hundred and sixty-eight pounds, nineteen shillings: for the expense of four regiments on the Irish establishment, serving in North America, they voted thirty-five thousand seven hundred and forty-four pounds, eight shillings and fourpence. For pay to the general and general staff officers, and officers of the hospital for the land-forces, they assigned fifty-four thousand four hundred and fifty-four pounds, eleven shillings and ninepence. They voted for the expense of the militia in South and North Britain, the sum of one hundred two thousand and six pounds, four shillings and eightpence. They granted for the maintenance of thirty-eight thousand seven hundred and fifty men, being the troops of Hanover, Wolfenbuttle, Saxe-Gotha, and Buckebourg, retained in the service of Great Britain, the sum of four hundred forty-seven thousand eight hundred and eighty-two pounds, ten shillings and fivepence halfpenny; and for nineteen thousand Hessian troops, in the same pay, they gave three hundred sixty-six thousand seven hundred and twenty-five pounds, one shilling and sixpence. They afterwards bestowed the sum of one hundred eight thousand and twelve pounds, twelve shillings and sevenpence, for defraying the additional expense of augmentations in the troops of Hanover and Hesse, and the British army serving in the empire. For the ordinary of the navy, including half-pay to sea-officers; for carrying on the building of two hospitals, one near Gosport, and the other in the neighbourhood of Plymouth; for the support of the hospital at Greenwich; for purchasing ground, erecting wharfs and other accommodations necessary for refitting the fleets at Halifax in Nova-Scotia; for the charge of the office of ordnance, and defraying the extraordinary expense incurred by that office in the course of the last year, they allowed seven hundred eighty-one thousand four hundred and eighty-nine pounds, six shillings and sixpence. Towards paying off the navy debt, buildings, re-buildings, and repairs of the king’s ships, together with the charges of transport service, they granted one million seven hundred and one thousand seventy-eight pounds, sixteen shillings and sixpence. For defraying the extraordinary expenses of the land-forces and other services not provided for by parliament, comprehending the pensions for the widows of reduced officers, they allotted the sum of nine hundred fifty-five thousand three hundred and forty-four pounds, fifteen shillings and fivepence halfpenny. They voted one million to empower his majesty to discharge the like sum, raised in pursuance of an act made in the last session of parliament, and charged upon the first aids or supplies to be granted in this session of parliament. They gave six hundred and seventy thousand pounds, for enabling his majesty to make good his engagements with the king of Prussia, pursuant to a new convention between him and that monarch, concluded on the ninth day of November in the present year. Fifteen thousand pounds they allowed upon account, towards enabling the principal officers of his majesty’s ordnance to defray the necessary charges and expenses of taking down and removing the present magazine for gunpowder, situated in the neighbourhood of Greenwich, and of erecting it in some less dangerous situation. Sixty thousand pounds they gave to enable his majesty to fulfil his engagements With the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, pursuant to the separate article of a treaty between the two powers, renewed in the month of November, the sum to be paid as his most serene highness should think it most convenient, in order to facilitate the means by which the landgrave might again fix his residence in his own dominions, and by his presence give fresh courage to his faithful subjects. Five hundred thousand pounds they voted upon account, as a present supply towards defraying the charges of forage, bread, bread-waggons, train of artillery, wood, straw, provisions, and contingencies of his majesty’s combined army, under the command of prince Ferdinand. To the Foundling hospital they granted five thousand pounds; and fifteen thousand for improving, widening, and enlarging the passage over and through London bridge. To replace divers sums taken from the sinking fund, they granted two hundred twenty-five thousand two hundred and eighty-one pounds, nineteen shillings and fourpence. For the subsistence of reduced officers, including the allowances to the several officers and private men of the two troops of horse-guards, and regiment of horse reduced, and to the superannuated gentlemen of the four troops of horse-guards, they voted thirty-eight thousand five hundred and ninety-seven pounds, nine shillings. Upon account, for the support of the colonies of Nova-Scotia and Georgia, they granted twenty-one thousand six hundred ninety-four pounds, two shillings and twopence. For enabling the king to give a proper compensation to the provinces in North America, for the expenses they might incur in levying and maintaining troops, according as the vigour and activity of those respective provinces should be thought by his majesty to merit, they advanced the sum of two hundred thousand pounds. The East India company they gratified with twenty thousand pounds, towards enabling them to defray the expense of a military force in their settlements, in lieu of a battalion of the king’s troops now returned to Ireland. Twenty-five thousand pounds were provided for the payment of the out-pensioners of Chelsea hospital. For subsequent augmentation of the British forces, since the first estimate of guards and garrisons for the ensuing year was presented, they allowed one hundred thirty-four thousand one hundred and thirty-nine pounds, seventeen shillings and fourpence. They further voted, upon account, towards enabling the governors and guardians of the Foundling hospital to maintain, educate, and bind apprentice the children admitted into the said charity, the sum of forty-seven thousand two hundred and eighty-five pounds. For defraying the expense of maintaining the militia in South and North Britain, to the twenty-fourth day of December of the ensuing year, they voted an additional grant of two hundred ninety thousand eight hundred and twenty-six pounds, sixteen shillings and eightpence: and, moreover, they granted four-score thousand pounds, upon account, towards defraying the charge of pay and clothing of the unembodied militia for the year ending on the twenty-fifth day of March, in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-one. For reimbursing the colony of New-York, their expenses in furnishing provisions and stores to the troops raised by them for his majesty’s service, in the-campaign of the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-six, they allowed two thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven pounds, seven shillings and eightpence; and for maintaining the British forts and settlements on the coast of Africa, they renewed the grant of ten thousand pounds. For the maintenance and augmentation of the troops of Brunswick in the pay of Great Britain for the ensuing year, pursuant to an ulterior convention concluded and signed at Paderborn on the fifth day of March, in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty, they granted the sum of ninety thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine pounds, eight shillings and elevenpence farthing; and for the troops of Hesse-Cassel in the same pay, during the same period, they allotted one hundred and one thousand and ninety-six pounds, three shillings and twopence. For the extraordinary expenses of the land-forces, and other services, incurred from the twenty-fourth day of November in the present year, to the twenty-fourth of December following, and not-provided for, they granted the sum of four hundred twenty thousand one hundred and twenty pounds, one shilling. To make good the deficiency of the grants for the service of this present year, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine, they assigned the sum of seventy-five thousand one hundred and seventy pounds, and threepence farthing. For printing the journals of the house of commons they gave five thousand pounds; and six hundred and thirty-four pounds, thirteen shillings and seven-pence, as interest at the rate of four per centum per annum, from the twenty-fifth day of August in the present year, to the same day of April next, for the sum of twenty-three thousand eight hundred pounds, eleven shillings and elevenpence, remaining in the office of ordnance, and not paid into the hands of the deputy of the king’s remembrancer of the court of exchequer, as directed by an act made in the last session of parliament, to make compensation for lands and hereditaments purchased for his majesty’s service at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth, by reason of doubts and difficulties which had arisen touching the execution of the said act. For defraying the extraordinary charge of the mint during the present year, they allowed eleven thousand nine hundred and forty pounds, thirteen shillings and ten-pence; and two thousand five hundred pounds upon account, for paying the debts claimed and sustained upon a forfeited estate in North Britain. They likewise allowed twelve thousand eight hundred and seventy-four pounds, fifteen shillings and tenpence, for defraying the charge of a regiment of light-dragoons, and of an additional company to the corps commanded by lieutenant-colonel Vaughan. Finally, they voted one million upon account, to enable the king to defray any extraordinary expenses of the war, incurred, or to be incurred, for the service of the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty; and to take all such measures as might be necessary to defeat any enterprise or design of his enemies, as the exigency of affairs might require. On the whole, the sum total granted in this session of parliament amounted to fifteen millions five hundred and three thousand five hundred and sixty-three pounds, fifteen shillings and ninepence halfpenny: a sum so enormous, whether we consider the nation that raised it, or the purposes for which it was raised, that every Briton of a sedate mind, attached to the interest and welfare of his country, must reflect upon it with equal astonishment and concern: a sum considerably more than double the largest subsidy that was granted in the reign of queen Anne, when the nation was in the zenith of her glory, and retained half the powers of Europe in her pay: a sum almost double of what any former administration durst have asked: and near double of what the most sanguine calculators, who lived in the beginning of this century, thought the nation could give without the most imminent hazard of immediate bankruptcy. Of the immense supply which we have particularized, the reader will perceive that two millions three hundred forty-four thousand four hundred and eighty-six pounds, sixteen shillings and sevenpence three farthings, were paid to foreigners for supporting the war in Germany, exclusive of the money expended by the British troops in that country, the number of which amounted, in the course of the ensuing year, to twenty thousand men: a number the more extraordinary, if we consider they were all transported to that continent during the administration of those who declared in parliament (the words still sounding in our ears) that not a man, nor even half a man, should be sent from Great Britain to Germany, to fight the battles of any foreign elector. Into the expense of the German war sustained by Great Britain, we must also throw the charge of transporting the English troops; the article of forage, which alone amounted, in the course of the last campaign, to one million two hundred thousand pounds, besides pontage, waggons, horses, and many other contingencies. To the German war we may also impute the extraordinary expense incurred by the actual service of the militia, which the absence of the regular troops rendered in a great measure necessary; and the loss of so many hands withdrawn from industry, from husbandry, and manufacture. The loss sustained by this connexion was equally grievous and apparent; the advantage accruing from it, either to Britain or Hanover, we have not discernment sufficient to perceive, consequently cannot be supposed able to explain.

The committee of ways and means, having duly deliberated on the articles of supply, continued sitting from the twenty-second day of November to the fourteenth of May, during which period they established the necessary funds to produce the sums which had been granted. The land-tax at four shillings in the pound, and the malt-tax, were continued, as the standing revenue of Great Britain. The whole provision made by the committee of ways and means amounted to sixteen millions one hundred thirty thousand five hundred and sixty-one pounds, nine shillings and eightpence, exceeding the grants for the service of the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty, in the sum of six hundred twenty-six thousand nine hundred ninety-seven pounds, thirteen shillings and tenpence halfpenny. This excess, however, will not appear extraordinary, when we consider that it was destined to make good the premium of two hundred and forty thousand pounds to the subscribers upon the eight million loan, as well as the deficiencies in the other grants, which never fail to make a considerable article in the supply of every session. That these gigantic strides towards the ruin of public credit were such as might alarm every well-wisher to his country, will perhaps more plainly appear in the sum total of the national debt, which, including the incumbrance of one million charged upon the civil-list revenue, and provided for by a tax upon salaries and pensions payable out of that revenue, amounted, at this period, to the tremendous sum of one hundred eight millions four hundred ninety-three thousand one hundred and fifty-four pounds, fourteen shillings and elevenpence one farthing.—A comfortable reflection this to a people involved in the most expensive war that ever was waged, and already burdened with such taxes as no other nation ever bore!

It is not at all necessary to particularize the acts that were founded upon the resolutions touching the supply. We shall only observe that, in the act for the land-tax, and in the act for the malt-tax, there was a clause of credit, empowering the commissioners of the treasury to raise the money which they produced by loans on exchequer bills, bearing an interest of four per cent, per annum, that is, one per cent, higher than the interest usually granted in time of peace. While the house of commons deliberated on the bill for granting to his majesty several duties upon malt, and for raising a certain sum of money to be charged on the said duties, a petition was presented by the maltsters of Ipswich and parts adjacent against an additional duty on the stock of malt in hand: but no regard was paid to this remonstrance; and the bill, with several new amendments, passed through both houses, under the title of “An act for granting to his majesty several duties upon malt, and for raising the sum of eight millions by way of annuities and a lottery, to be charged on the said duties: and to prevent the fraudulent obtaining of allowances in the gauging of corn making into malt; and for making forth duplicates of exchequer-bills, tickets, certificates, receipts, annuity orders, and other orders lost, burned, or otherwise destroyed.” The other three bills that turned wholly on the supply were passed in common course, without the least opposition in either house, and received the royal assent by commission at the end of the session. The first of these, entituled, “A bill for enabling his majesty to raise a certain sum of money for the uses and purposes therein mentioned,” contained a clause of approbation, added to it by instruction; and the Bank was enabled to lend the million which the commissioners of the treasury were empowered by the act to borrow, at the interest of four pounds per cent. The second, granting to his majesty a certain sum of money out of the sinking-fund, for the service of the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty, comprehended a clause of credit for borrowing the money thereby granted; and another clause, empowering the Bank to lend it without any limitation or interest; and the third, enabling his majesty to raise a certain sum of money towards discharging the debt of the navy, and for naval services during the ensuing year, enacted, that the exchequer bills thereby to be issued should not be received, or pass to any receiver or collector of the public revenue, or at the receipt of the exchequer, before the twenty-sixth day of March, in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-one.