ere was a general impression that the time had arrived when a
considerable saving might be effected to the country, by a reduction
in those stocks which bore the highest rate of interest. Early in the
present session, indeed, it was discovered that government contemplated
a plan for reducing the three and a half per cent, consols, which, at
the commencement of the year, had reached the price of 102 1/2. This
plan was developed by Mr. Goulburn, in a lucid and able speech, on the
8th of March. He was about to ask the house, he said, to deal with the
largest sum for which any government had been called on to propose
a regulation, being no less than L250,000,000 of money. Never, he
continued, was there a period when capital, seeking an investment, was
so plentiful, and the rate of interest so low as at present; and there
was nothing in the circumstances of the times which gave any reason to
suppose that this state of things would prove transient. The condition
of the public finances also was favourable to the proposed object; for,
thanks to the firmness of the house of commons, the revenue once more
exceeded the expenditure. In explaining this measure, he said that
he was not disposed to purchase an immediate relief by increasing the
burdens of succeeding times. He had, therefore, rejected the idea of
lowering the present interest by augmenting the capital of the debt. His
intention was to propose the conversion of the three and a half into
a three and a quarter per cent, stock, which should continue until
October, 1854, after which period the interest should be reduced to
three per cent., with a guarantee that for twenty years there should be
no further reduction. By this measure the public, from October, 1844, to
1854, would save L625,000 per annum, which saving, from and after 1854,
would become L1,250,000 per annum. Mr. Goulburn also proposed to make
such arrangement that, from next October, the payments of interests
would be nearly equalized in each quarter. His speech was received with
loud demonstrations of approbation from both sides of the house; and the
resolution being put, was carried unanimously. The bill brought in,
to give it effect, passed rapidly through its stages in the house of
commons; and it was carried through the upper house with equal unanimity
and facility, all being convinced that it was a sound and practical
measure, and honest withal to the public creditor.

The annual financial statement for thi