The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-05 00:00:00

THE QUARTER'S REVENUE.
Woes the Oiairser.)

The quarterly returns of the revenue will be made
up to-morrow night, the sth inst. Although there is still
a week's receipts to be taken into account, the general re-
sults are sufficiently known to warrant a close calculation of
the amount to be reckoned upon, as well as comparison be-
tween the quarter and the year just ended, sad the corre-
sponding quarter and year ending Junuary 5, 1851.
There will probably be • falling off of something like
700,000:, in the present quarter, as compared with the
quarter endiqr Jan. 6, 1851, and the falling off upon the year
will exceed by a little that amount. The relative comparisons
of the year and of the quarter are nearer to each other in
amount than they generally are. This coincidence is accounted
for by the same celiac to which the reduction is to be generally
attributed. The reduction in the receipts is entirely owing
to the remission of taxation. The window-tax is no longer
collected ; and the bowie-tax, which was substituted in
part, has not yet been received into the Exchequer. The
window-tax was collected half-yearly, commencing in April
and in October, consequently the half-year's amount of the
repealed tax is to be set oft against the defieieney apparent
in the returns of the present quarter. For se much of it
as is comprised in the inhabited house-tax, which was im-
' peed as a substitute, in part, for the abolished impost, is
not yet iu course of collection. It is nut lust, however ;
is only postponed. The window-tax yielded about
1,800,0001. • year ; if that were still in aurae of
Collection, it would have produced in this quarter
I something like 900,0001., a sum more than enough to
cover the present deficiency of itself. When the Chancellor
of the Exchequer gave up the window-tax, and substituted
the inhabited house duty, he did not calculate upon losing
more than 1,000,0001., and it is likely he will not lose so
much. But for the present quarter it is not this difference
only that is to be accounted for, but the whole sum is to be
taken into account, for the house-tax is scarcely yet in
*mew of collection. la some districts the amount is not
yet assessed, and even in the most forward quarters the col-
lections have not got beyond the appeals against the new
assessment. It will be seen that the leading items of the
ordinary revenue are not merely in a sound, but in a most
prosperous condition, in spite of the reductions effected in
each.

In the Customs the amount collected in this quarter will
be about equal to the amount raised in the corresponding
quarter of last year, which was 4,596,7001.
In the Excise there will probably be a falling off in the
amount collected in this quarter, as compared with that of
1830-51, of no Ices than 160,0001. This tolling off occurs in
the following head• of collection, viz. : malt, hops, and
soap. In the corresponding period of last year two instal-
ments of hop duty were collected, viz., the instalment pay-
able is the ordinary course, and the instalment of the duty
on the growth of the preceding year.
In Stamps, there will be • reduction of 30,0001. to
40,0001., which may be attributed to the receipts of the
preceding year haying been augmented by the number of
legal instruments which had been deferred beyond the
10th of October, 1850, for the purpose of obtaining the ad-
vantage of the reduced rate of stamp duty granted by the
act 13 and 14 Victoria, cap. 97.
_ _ _

In trim there will probably be a decrease of about
700,0001., owing to the repeal of the window duty, and the
collection of tho house-tax not having yet been received.
There will also be a small falling off in the property tax,
of from 10,0001. to 20,0001., which arises altogether from
the payments in the present quarter being more backward
than in the corresponding quarter of last year.
_ . _

In the Post•o®ce the lacrosse will be considerable. The
revenue derived from this head in the quarter ended Jan.
5, 18.51, was 152,0001., whilst it is probable that in the pre-
sent quarter that amount will be exceeded by more than
100,0001.

There will be also an increase in the item of miscellane-
ous receipts.
Such are the leading features of the forthcoming ac-
counts of the quarter's , and of the comparative
state of the quarter and of the year, as compared with the
corresponding accounts of the ordinary revenue in the
year and the quartet ending Jan. 6, 1861.
Often as we have had grounds fur congratulation during
the last four or five years, there never was • statement
perhaps so eminently satisf►ctory as the present. In spite
of reductions of taxation year alter year, the receipts keep
up to almost the highest amount which they had ever
reached.

But a more gratifying picture still is the diminution of
expenditure, which is carried so far by judicious reduc-
tions, es well as by the constant falling in of the expensive
legaeies left upon the country by previous misgovernment as
to leave us a surplus upon the year of income over
expenditure of more than 3i million pounds sterliug—the
greatest amount ever yet known or available, even in the
days of the abandoned Sinking Fund. It is not to be
therefore taken fur granted that the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer will take that sum as the groundwork of his esti-
mation for the Budget of 1852. The estimate is made, not
of what was the actual balance on the first day of the year,
but of the estimated balance for the ensuing year, from the
sth of April. The surplus last session was estimated at
near two millions, which was partly applied in the reduction
of taxation, and partly in liquidation of the Debt—a prin-
ciple which was enunciated as the basis of future opera-
tions by the First Minister of the Crown and by the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, and the soundness of which was
very generally allowed. In this year we shall, in all pro-
bability, ban a minks Mat to dispose of in reduction of
present and future be:thew—an amount, in fact, greater
than ever was available in any one year since the days of
sound modern finance.