tha sums of L4. Is. and L3. 19s. 6d. per ounce, and at any rate between
the 1st of October, 1820, and the 1st of May, 1821, at any rate between
the sums of L3. 19s. 6d. and L3. 17s. 10 1/2 per ounce, but that such
intermediate rate having been once fixed by the Bank, that rate shall
not subsequently be increased; that from the 1st of May, 1823, the Bank
shall pay its notes, on demand, in the legal coin of the realm; and
that it is expedient to repeal the laws prohibiting the melting and the
exportation of the coin.

Another select committee was appointed this session, on the motion of
Lord Castlereagh, to inquire into the income and expenditure of the
country. The receipts for the year ending the 5th of January, 1818, were
L51,665,458, while those for the following year were L54,620,000. There
were, however, certain arrears of war-duties on malt and property, which
reduced the income of 1818 to L49,334,927, while the arrears due to
January, 1819, amounted only to L566,639: the expenditure was also less
by about L650,000 than was expected, so that the result was a total
surplus of L3,518,000, applicable to the reduction of the national debt.
If one million were allowed for the interest on the loan, observed Lord
Castlereagh, there remained two millions and a half of surplus
revenue. Mr. Tierney remarked, that an old debt on the sinking-fund,
of L8,300,000, which must be liquidated before the surplus in question
could be made available for the expenses of the current year, had
been altogether concealed. The various taxes, taken together, exceeded
L7,000,000; but this was the extreme of the amount applicable to the
army, navy, ordnance, and miscellaneous services; how then, he asked,
could it be possible that, with an income of only L7,000,000, and an
expenditure of L20,000,000, both ends should be made to meet, and
a surplus be left? Would it not be a gross delusion to speak of the
sinking-fund as applicable to the public service, while government were
obliged to borrow L13,000,000 a year to support it? The chancellor
of the exchequer answered, that this statement included certain
particulars, which could not be admitted in making a fair comparison. By
taking the whole charge of the consolidated-fund and the sinking-fund,
it had been shown that our expenditure exceeded our receipts. This must
necessarily be the case, since a great portion of the war-taxes had been
abolished. Parliament had relieved the country of L15,000,