suspicion
that our fleet had been destined for the Baltic, while we were bullying
Spain, which had not offered any insult to this country; and that this
farce had been carried on until the King of Sweden had made peace with
Russia. The convention was defended by Lord Grenville, and the address
was carried by a majority of forty-three. Another debate took place on
this subject on the 15th of December, when Pitt gave in, in a separate
account, the expenses of the late armament; intimating at the same
time that some of those expenses, which arose out of the engaging an
additional number of seamen, must be continued, as these seamen
could not be all disbanded at once. The expenses incurred by the late
armament, and the funds necessary to keep up the additional number of
seamen, he said, was L3,133,000, which he thought might be defrayed
without entailing any permanent charge upon the revenue. He proposed
to defray it by temporary taxes, assisted by L500,000, which he
contemplated taking from the unclaimed dividends lying in the Bank of
England, the total amount of which he estimated at L680,000. This
latter proposition, however, excited such alarm in the great chartered
companies and to the mercantile world in general, that Pitt was obliged
to abandon it, and to accept of a loan of L500,000 from the Bank without
interest, so long as a floating balance to that amount should remain in
the hands of the cashier. The bulk of the money required was raised by
an increase of the duties upon sugar, British and foreign spirits, malt,
game licences, and by an increase of the assessed taxes, except the
commutation and land-taxes, part of which were to continue for two
years, and the rest for four only. Pitt also introduced, in aid of the
expenses of the armament, a variety of new regulations, to prevent the
evasions and frauds practised in the taxes upon receipts and bills of
exchange: these were to be permanent.

CHAPTER XVIII.

{GEORGE III. 1791-1792}

Debate on the War in India..... Dispute with Russia.....
Bill for the Regulation of Canada..... Slave-trade Abolition
bill..... Catholic Relief Bill, etc...... Bill to amend the
Law on Libels..... Financial Measures..... Impeachment of
Warren Hastings..... Parliament prorogued..... Progress of
the Revolution in France..... State of Public Opinion in
England, etc.

{A.D. 1791}

DEBATE ON THE WAR IN INDIA.

Soon after the Christma