p to L16,690,000; but he proposed to take L16,212,000
as the probable revenue for the following year. The expenditure would be
lessened by L104,000 on the navy (2,000 seamen being discharged), and
about L50,000 on the army; L36,000 would also be saved by the
non-renewal of the subsidy for Hessian troops. There were, however,
additions, due to the establishment of the Government of Upper Canada,
and the portions allotted to the Duke of York (on the occasion of his
marriage with a Prussian princess) and the Duke of Clarence. The
expenditure would, therefore, stand at L15,811,000; but, taking the
average of four years, he reckoned the probable surplus at no more than
L401,000. On the other hand, he anticipated no new expenses except for
the fortification of posts in the West Indies and the completion of
forts for the further protection of the home dockyards. On the whole,
then, he reckoned that he had L600,000 to spare; and of this amount he
proposed to allocate L400,000 to the reduction of the National Debt and
the repeal of the extra duty on malt, an impost much disliked by
farmers. He also announced a remission of permanent taxes to the extent
of L200,000, namely, on female servants, carts, and waggons, and that of
three shillings on each house having less than seven windows. These were
burdens that had undoubtedly affected the poor. Further, he hoped to add
the sum of L200,000 every year to the Sinking Fund, and he pointed out
that, at this rate of payment, that fund would amount to L4,000,000 per
annum in the space of fifteen years, after which time the interest might
be applied to the relief of the nation's burdens.

Then, rising high above the level of facts and figures, he ventured on
this remarkable prophecy:

I am not, indeed, presumptuous enough to suppose that, when I
name fifteen years, I am not naming a period in which events may
arise which human foresight cannot reach, and which may baffle
all our conjectures. We must not count with certainty on a
continuance of our present prosperity during such an interval;
but unquestionably there never was a time in the history of this
country, when, from the situation of Europe, we might more
reasonably expect fifteen years of peace than at the present
moment.

Imagination pictures what might possibly have been the outcome of events
if Great Britain and France had continued to exert on one another the
peaceful and mutually benefic