The Express.
London, England, 1848-03-09 00:00:00

NOTICE.

THIS number of S CAMPS issued to the DAILY NEWS
by the authorities of the Stamp-office, during 1817, woo
From JAN. 1, to DEC. 31, 3,447,009
This, we believe, is within eight per cent of the nutober
issued to the Morning Herald, Morning Chronick, and
Morning Post, ALL YCT TOOFTHER.
In addition to the above, i,ned to the DAILY NEWS,
Morning Paper, there were issued for the Evening Edition,
THE EXPEESS,
From JAN. 1, to DEc. 31 778,714
Which was more, we believe, than were issued either to
the Globe or Standard, Evening Papers.

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LONDON, THURSDA Y,MARCH9
TIIE nominal scrutiny of the national income and
expenditure annually instituted by parliament is, to
use a vulgar word for a shabby trick, little better
than humbug. The House of Commons is allowed to
discuss the army, navy, and ordnance estimates; to
take a flying shot at the " miscellaneous estimates"—
a supplemental budget of small vote a required to pay
for odds and ends in all departments; and now and
then, by special favour, to argue about the merits and
demerits of a particular tax ; but on no occasion is a
fair statement submitted to it of the whole annual ex-
penditure distributed under its various heads. Are
there five among the oldest members of the House of
Commons who can tell us how much is paid one year
with another for the support of our judicial establish-
ments? A vote is taken towards the expenses of the
Bankruptcy and Insolvent Courts, or the new County
Courts, and so forth ; but no account is submitted to
parliament of what is paid for our whole judicial ma-
chinery, from the Court of Chancery downwards. The
consequence is, that most proposed reforms in the ad-
ministration of law are gladly seized upon as an ex-
cuse for establishing new courts, and getting. new
votes to maintain them ; the old courts are in the
meanwhile kept up at the old cost. When a
manufacturer adopts new machinery he gets rid
of the old in whole or in part, and gains by eco-
nomy as well as by efficiency in the change ;
hut our old law machinery is kept working away at
the old expense in addition to the new, and we lose in
purse without gaining much in any other way.
This juggle would be impossible were an explicit
statement laid before parliament every year of
all the money expended upon our courts of
law, and the manner in which every pound of it is
applied. What is here remarked about our expendi-
ture on legal institutions is true of our expenditure
on education, in support of the national church, on the
Post-office, and so forth. A large amount of our annual
expenditure is clandestine, and never passes under the
investigation of parliament. While this practice is
allowed to continue, any systematic and efficacious
economy on a large scale is impossible. The members
of the House of Commons are made (voluntary or in-
voluntary) dupes, and kept squabbling about the
smallest modicum of the national expenditure, while
all sorts of peculation and misappropriation may, for
aught they know, flourish in the rest.
A return moved for by Dr. BOWRING, and
delivered yesterday, comes most aptly to illus-
trate the working of a part of this system. It
is a return "of all amounts paid into the Ex-
chequer, but deducted for costa of collection or
any other purpose, from the gross receipts of the
various revenue departments; and of all amounts re-
ceived by departmento of expenditure from any other