to the succeeding session of parliament. Before this
session was closed, however, the temporary regulation act of Sir William
Dolben was renewed till August, 1790.

ELECTION OF SPEAKER.

Early in June Lord Sidney resigned the office of secretary of state
for the home department; and Mr. Grenville, who had so recently been
nominated speaker of the house of commons, obtained the appointment. Sir
Gilbert Elliot again became a candidate for the vacant chair; but the
ministerial nominee, Mr. Henry Addington, was elected by a majority of
two hundred and fifteen against one hundred and forty-two.

PITTS FINANCIAL MEASURES.

On the 10th of June, Pitt opened his financial scheme for the year. In
doing so, he congratulated the house and the country on the fact,
that his hopes of the efficacy of the sinking-fund, etc. had been well
founded. The permanent income declared necessary by the committee of
1786 to defray the annual demands, was L15,500,000; and for the last two
years it had exceeded that sum by L78,000. As, however, there had been
several extraordinary expenses, such as paying the debts of the Prince
of Wales, fitting out the armament of the summer of 1787, &c, he stated
that it was necessary to raise one million by loan, and to increase some
taxes or duties to pay the interest of this loan. The new duties which
he proposed were laid upon newspapers, advertisements, cards, dice,
probates of wills, and horses and carriages, none of which, he
conceived, would press at all on the poor, or heavily upon the rich. To
increase the revenue by further prevention of fraud, Pitt introduced and
carried a bill for transferring the duties on tobacco from the customs
to the excise; it having appeared, on inquiry, that one half of this
article, which would have produced " revenue of nearly L300,000, was
obtained by smuggling. Sheridan again controverted the statements of
Pitt; and on the 10th of July he moved, "that a committee be appointed
to inquire into the state of the public income and expenditure; into the
progress actually made in the reduction of the national debt since the
year 1786; and into the grounds on which a reduction of the same may
be expected in future, and to report the same, with their observations
thereon, to the house." Sheridan pledged himself to prove that the
report of the committee of 1786 was not founded in fact; and that for
the last three years the expenditure had increased to the amount of