t which existed between her and Austria, and from her exhausted
finances; and Spain from the recent defeats in Biscay and Catalonia.
Austria remained our steadfast ally; but Austria too wanted money, and
thought herself entitled to call upon England for a subsidy. On the 4th
of February Pitt delivered a message from the king, intimating that
a loan of nearly five millions sterling would be wanted to aid the
exertions of his imperial majesty in the ensuing campaign, on the credit
of the revenues arising from his hereditary dominions. Much discussion
arose upon this subject. Fox said, that the recent defalcation of the
King of Prussia, after he had obtained our gold, ought to operate as a
caution against all advances to German princes. This was just; for the
subsidy granted to the King of Prussia had been most foully applied; it
had not been employed on the Rhine, or the Moselle, but on the Vistula;
not against republican France, but against the Poles. Even Pitt and his
supporters were forced to admit that the conduct of Prussia was bad; but
they insisted that there was a wide difference in the case and conduct
of Austria, whose own vital interests were dependent on the issue of
this war. Austria also had shown herself sincere in the cause; her
generals might have made mistakes, but she had made great and costly
exertions in the common cause, and, notwithstanding failures, still
remained firm. The motion for complying with the emperor's demands was
agreed to by large majorities.

SUPPLIES, ETC.

After previous discussions on the navy and army estimates, on the 23rd
of February Pitt submitted his annual statement on the supplies to the
consideration of the house. The force required for the service of the
year was 85,000 seamen, and 15,000 marines; 120,000 regulars for guards
and garrisons; 56,000 militia; 40,000 regulars for Ireland, and the West
Indies, and other colonies; besides fencibles and volunteers, foreign
troops in British pay, and embodied French emigrants. The supplies
demanded for the support of these forces were L16,027,000, to which sum
was to be added L200,000, annual subsidy to the King of Sardinia. The
whole expenditure amounted to L27,540.000, and the loan proposed was
L18,000,000, the largest, up to this period, ever voted by parliament.
In order to make up the remainder, new duties were imposed upon tea,
coffee, raisins, foreign grocery and fruits, foreign timber, insurances,
writs, and affidavi