By the act passed in 1796, for estab lishing the new sinking fund, the annual sum of one million was placed in the hands of commissioners, who are, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Mas ter of the Rolls, the Accomptant Gene ral of the Court of Chancery, and the Governor and Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, for the time being, re spectively. This million was to be issued in four equal quarterly payments, and to be applied either in paying off such re deemable annuities as shall be at or above par, is such manner as may be di rected by future acts of Parliament, or in the purchase of annuities below par at the market price. The dividends on the sums redeemed or purchased, with the annuities for lives or term of years that fall in or expire, and the sums which may he saved by any reduction of inte rest, were to be added to the fund, which, according to the original act, was to con tinue thus increasing till it amounted to four millions per annum ; which it was then computed would be about the year 1812, when upwards of fifty-six millions of stock would be redeemed. From this time the dividends on such capital as should in future be paid off or purchased by the commissioners, with such annui ties as might afterwards fall in, were to be at the disposal of Parliament.
The commissioners were directed by the act to make their purchases " in equal portions, as nearly as may be, on every day (Saturdays and Mondays ex cepted) on which the same shall be trans ferable. ' They were empowered to subscribe towards any public loan, to be raised by an act of Parliament upon per petual annuities, subject to redemption at par ; and on account of the sums Issu ed to them, and of the stock purchased to the first of February in every year, was directed to be annually laid before Parliament on or before the 15th of February. The purchases at first were all made in the 3 per cents. probably with the view of redeeming the 5 per cents. if the state of the public funds should render such a measure practica ble, or of inducing the proprietors to agree to a reduction of the interest at the time when they would become re deemable.
On the 17th February, 1792, the mi nister proposed, for the purpose of ac celerating the operation of the fund, that the sum of 400,0001. should be issued, in addition to the annual million ; and stated that, in consequence of this and future intended additions, it might be expected that twenty-five millions of 3 per cents. would he paid off by the year 1800: and that in the year 1808 the fund would have arisen to four millions per annum, being the sum to which it was restricted by the original act. The accumulation, however,
was not to cease till the interest of the capital discharged, and the amount of expired annuities, should, together with the annual million only, and exclusive of the proposed additions, amount to four millions. But the most important im provement was a provision, that when ever in future any sums shall be raised by loans, on perpetual redeemable annui ties, a sum, equal to one per cent on the stock created by such loans, should be is sued out of the produce of the consoli dated fund quarterly, to be placed to the account of the commissioners ; and if the loan, or any part, is raised by annuities, for a longer term than forty-five years, or for lives, • computation is to be made of what will be, at the end of forty-five years, the actual value of such part of the annuities as may be then outstanding, and the sum to-be placed to the account of the commissioners is to be equal to one per cent. on the computed future value. By this means this immediate progress of the fund was accelerated, and future loans were put into a regular course of redemp tion.
This appropriation of one per cent. was to form a distinct fund; and a sepa rate account was directed to be kept of the progress of each fund, by which it ap peared, that on the first of February, 1802, the original fund had increased to 2,534.1871. ls 9d and the new fund to 3,273.1431. 2a. 3d It was now deemed expedient to unite the two funds, and to apply the whole amount indiscriminately to the reduction of the total debt. 1 With this view, the former injudicious limita tion of a flood established professedly on the principle of compound interest, was done away ; the usual annual grant of 200,0001. per annum was made a perma nent charge upon the consolidated fund ; and the whole amount 'of the sinking fund was directed to be regularly applied to the purchase or redemption of stock, "so as that the whole of the several re deemable public annuities, now charged upon the public funds of Great Britain, shall be paid off within forty-five years from the respective periods of the crea tion of such respective charges and pub lic annuities." The total sum which has been paid for the amount of stock thus bought up was 79,465,8771. Os. 10d.
The above statement is exclusive of the find for the reduction of that part of the debt of Ireland which has been funded in Great Britain, by which 4,628,9261. 3 per cent. stock has been redeemed ; and like wise of the appropriation for the reduc tion of the Imperial debt, by which, at tbe above period, 829,4261. stock had been redeemed.