mes, on the produce of industry and on the wealth of the idle. It
was carried in the lords without a division, and in the commons by a
large majority, and came into operation on April 5, 1799. During the
year 1799 Pitt raised L15,000,000 by loan, including L3,000,000 for
Ireland, charging the income tax with the interest and redemption of
L11,000,000. The loan was raised in the 3 per cents; it created L175
debt for each L100 money, and the rate was therefore 5-1/4 per cent. In
his next budget, for 1800, Pitt reported the supplies for the year at
L39,500,000. The produce of the income tax for the first year was
disappointing, and for the coming year he reckoned it only at
L7,000,000. In return for a renewal of its charter the bank of England
granted a loan of L3,000,000, without interest, for six years, and Pitt
further borrowed L20,500,000, including L2,000,000 for Ireland. The
income tax was charged with L13,500,000 of the British loan, and
additions were made to the taxes on tea and spirits. Public credit was
good and commerce and manufactures rapidly increasing, and Pitt obtained
the loan at an average rate of not quite 4-3/4 per cent.

But while commerce was flourishing the poor were suffering terribly from
scarcity. The spring and summer of 1799 were cold and wet, and the
harvest was wretched. During the twelve months which succeeded September
1, 1799, the average price of wheat rose to 106s. a quarter. Parliament
held several debates on the scarcity. Whitbread for the second time
brought in a bill for the regulation of the wages of agricultural
labourers; Pitt opposed it on sound economic grounds and it was again
rejected. During the spring of 1800 parliament made some proposals for
the husbanding of wheat and for bounties on importation, but, as we
shall see later, the scarcity grew more grievous. The distress of the
poor and the burden of taxation strengthened the desire for peace, and a
large meeting of London citizens petitioned parliament for negotiations
with France. In May the king was shot at in Drury Lane theatre. The
incident had no political significance; his assailant, Hadfield, a
discharged soldier, was insane and was sent to Bedlam.

At the beginning of 1800 Pitt's hopes were mainly founded on his scheme
of co-operation with the French royalists, which was rendered abortive
by Bonaparte's measures of pacification, and on the arms of Austria.
Thugut knew that from Bonaparte the emperor could not expec