re returned as elected. In this matter Pitt did not display
his usual tactfulness. Excusably enough in so young a man, he allowed
himself to be swayed by personal feeling, and his feeling was
ungenerous. With the exception of a small knot of friends like Dundas,
he kept himself aloof from his supporters and was ignorant of the
annoyance with which they regarded this attempt to deal harshly with a
defeated foe.[190] A bill passed that session ordered that polls were
not to last more than fifteen days, and that any scrutiny should be
closed six days before the return to the writ was due. Fox sued the
high-bailiff for neglecting to return him and obtained L2,000 damages.

[Sidenote: _PITT'S FINANCE._]

In spite of this mistake Pitt's position was strengthened by his success
in dealing with finance. National credit was low; the public debt of
Great Britain had grown from L126,043,057 in 1775 to L240,925,908,[191]
and the 3 per cent. consols were at about 57. Heavy expenses entailed by
the late war were still to be met, the civil list was in arrear, and the
revenue was grievously diminished by smuggling. In order to make
smuggling less profitable, Pitt largely reduced the duties on tea and
foreign spirits, and made up the loss on the tea duties by a
"commutation tax," an increased duty on houses according to the number
of their windows. He also made smuggling more difficult by a "hovering
act," which subjected to seizure vessels hovering off the coast with any
considerable quantity of tea or spirits. A deficit of L6,000,000 he
supplied by a loan, and in raising this loan he abandoned the old evil
practice of allotment among selected subscribers and opened it to public
competition. A second point on which he made a new departure was his
declaration that all sound finance should be directed towards
extinguishing debt and that consequently "a fund at a high rate of
interest was better for the country than those at low rates". The
unfunded debts were large, those ascertained amounted to L14,000,000,
and as outstanding government bills were at a discount of 15 to 20 per
cent., these debts depressed the funds. Pitt at once funded nearly half
as an instalment. Lastly the required charges exceeded revenue by over
L900,000, an enormous sum for that time, and he proposed to make up the
deficiency by taxation.

The number of the new taxes is a third point specially to be noted in
his budget. One proposed tax, on coals, he withdrew in