en, in truth, as much
a matter of political principle and of party feeling as of mere finance.
In the preceding session government had consented that it should be
printed; and on April 19th, Mr. Whittle Harvey moved this resolution
on the subject:--"That a select committee be appointed to revise each
pension specified in the return ordered to be printed on the 28th of
June, 1836, with a view to ascertain whether the continued payment
thereof is justified by the circumstances of the original grant, or the
condition of the parties now receiving the same, and to report thereon
to the house." After stating that there were 1303 persons on the pension
list, who received amongst them about L150,000 a year, Mr. Harvey went
into a history of the restrictions which had been laid on the granting
of pensions out of the civil list, from the original bill of Mr. Burke,
down to the accession of his present majesty. The motion was opposed by
Lord John Russell, on the ground that it contained a proposition against
which parliament had already decided, and as being inconsistent with
the practice which had been uniformly folio wed. Mr. Harvey's views were
enforced by Mr. Hume; but the motion was negatived by a majority of two
hundred and sixty-eight against one hundred and forty-six.

The chancellor of the exchequer opened his budget on the 6th of May.
He first explained that the receipts of the last year had exceeded
the estimate by the sum of L338,000; while, on the other hand, the
expenditure had somewhat exceeded the estimates. The income of last
year, he said, had been L46,381,000, and he calculated that it would
amount during the present year to L46,980,000. The total expenditure
would be L45,205,807 leaving a surplus of L1,774,193. But out of this
surplus payment would fall to be made, on account of the West Indian
compensation during the year, to the amount of L1,118,633, leaving, as
the utmost disposable surplus with which parliament had to deal, a sum
of L662,000. Had it not been for the sums payable to the West-India
planters, there would have been a surplus of L2,000,000. In applying
what surplus there was, he continued, to the reduction of taxation,
he preferred selecting those taxes the repeal of which extinguished
a source of fraud to those which merely afford relief. The duties
he proposed to reduce were those on paper, plain and stained, on
newspapers, and on farming buildings; and he proposed to give up those
on taxed ca