The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-04-06 00:00:00

STARCH.

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T. G. DIXON, 45 A, WhitAkiargste, Enll, Yorkshire.

SATURDAY, APhIL 6, 1878,

----- - - -
THE REVENUE AND THE BUDGET

That the national revenue for the financial
year ending on the 31st March should hays
been only a little over £200,000 short of eighty
millions sterling, may well cause a feeling of
regret that at a time of peace it should be
necessary to take such an enormous sum out of
the Dockets of the people. For a revenue of
eighty millions means an expenditure of a like
sum, and it has been seen during the past
twenty years that the tendency of expenditure
is to increase, notwithstanding every effort
made in the direction of its diminntion.
Twenty years, although a mere speck in the
life of a 5!,,,113, is one in which mighty
changes may be wrought in its fortunes; indeed
in less than half that time the map of Europe
has been completely changed. At the same
time it is a convenient period for retrospect,
inasmuch as the memories of most of the news-
paper readers to-day are enabled to follow it.
Going back, then, to 1858, when the Emperor
Napoleon was upon the throne of France, it is
seen that the expenditure was sixty-eight
millions, or a proportion of .C 2 8s isd per head
of the population. The outlay, although con-
siderably 1553 than that of the previous year,
was exceptionally heavy, because it involved
some of the charges arising out of the Crimean
War. In 1859 it dropp,d to sixty-four millions,
but that was the year of the French invasion
Panic and in 1860 the consequence was seen in
the rise of the expenditure to sixty-nine
i
millions. It further rose n 1861 to seven Ly-two
millions and thres-quarters, a proportion of £2

lOs 8d per head. Then it began surely, al-
though at first s!owly to decline, and in 1806 it
had gone down to sixty-five millions, or a pro-
portion of 5.:2 4s 2d per head of the population.
That was the lowest figure touched in the two
decades under examination, for in 1868 the
cost of the Abyssinian campaign had sent it up
to seventy-one millions, and although in 1870
it fell to sixty-eight millions, it had again gone
up to seventy-one two years later, and has since
been steadily augmenting, until we find it the
vast sum which it now reaches. It is now four-
teen millions a year more than it was twelve
years ago, and in the present condition of
Europe is likely to be augmented rather than
diminished.

The national expenditure may be compared
with a huge snowball which grows in bulk the
longer it is in existence. Nearly a century ego
the House of Commons passed a resolution that
the. power of the Crown had increased, was
increasing, and ought to be diminished. The
same language may well be applied to the ex-
penditure. But there is a great difference
between this, and the power of the Crown.
Practically the expenditure is in the hands of
the people themselves through their representa-
tives in Parliament. The Crown can simply
recommend it, and the House of Itrds cannot
even alter a money bill sent up from the Com-
mons; it can only accept or reject it If the
people, through those whom they have elected,
decide that a ccrtain amount of expenditure is
necessary, it is not for the peers to make any
amendments in the way of raising the money,
and, if they reject the Bill, they deprive the
executive of the means of providing for the
administrative service of the realm. This is a
very serious step to take ; and, therefore, ready
and truly the control of the expenditure is in
the hands of the House of Commons, a body
no longer Court favourites, or nominees of the
House of Lords, but freely chosen by the con-
stituencies. During twenty years many
ministers have been in power, and many Parlia-
ments dissolved. Lord Pahnerston has been
succeeded by Lord Derby, Lord Derby by Lord
Palmerston again, Lord Pahnerston by Lord
Russell, Lord Russell by Lord Derby, Lord
Derby by Mr. Disraeli, Mr. bisraeli by Mr.
Uiadstone, Mr. Gladstone again by the present
Prime Minister, and with every effort to keep
down the expenditure, it has steadily grown.
Ike conclusion to be drawn, and not an un-
reasonable one, seems to be, that the people, in
wilose hands the matter ready is, find that they
are better able to meet their ihibitities than
they were some years ago. If the expenditure
grows, the number of the people increases at
the same time, and although we are now
paying so much more than we were in 1858,
the actual proportion per head of the population
is less.

In the Budget forecisti which are annual.),
presented to the public, a very old acquaintance
is certain to appear upon the scene. Tha!lS
the Income Tax. Revived in 1843 by Sir
Robert Peel at the rate of 1:2 18s 4tl per cent.
in order to force a large number of articles
from the excise duties, no Finance Minister
has since been able to extinguish this impost.
It has been threatened more than once, find
Mr. Gladstone, when Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer in 1853, drew up a scheme WlliCll, if
carried out, would have put an end to it i,
seven }ears. But the Ciitheau war intervened,
and when 1860 arrived, Mr. Gladstone, who
had returned to his former office, wanted al,
the money that could be got tor the defenceb
of the country :unlit the French invasidu panic
a,ready referred to. Tile income lax
not be parted with, and although it, littS Sitict
gone down to the low figure of twopence in th,
pound, it has not been parted witu. it has
survived denunciations, and inquiries of Pariia-
mentary Committees, and exists in the face oi
countless resolutions levelled at it,and intended
to hastea its exiinawa. Yet it is not sur-
prising that the Minister of Finance is in no
nurry to part witu an engine of taxation when
the addition of a single penny in the pounu
brings in an extra million and three-quarters
sterling. A three-penny income tax now brings
in bad a 'Didion per annum more titan a se wen-
penny rate a generation ago, a striking Drool
of the increase of natioLal wealth, and ol the
development of that prosperity which in spite
of temporary clouds and checks has had sued au
undoubted and substantial existence.