The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-11 00:00:00

Ottlferna. (1111:

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1852.

THli QUARTER'S REVENUE.
Another quarter's day has passed, and the Revenue
returns—which will be found in another part of our
impression—continue to afford the most conclusive
evidence of the satisfactory results of the fiscal policy
entered into under the auspices of the late Sir ROBERT
PEEL. It is true that policy has not been fully de.-
veloped, that the country is still far from enjoying
the blessings of free and unrestricted trade ; but every
fact and circumstance combine to prove that we have
been proceeding in Ale right direction, and to
encourage us to increase our speed in order to arrive
at the goal. Many important reductions have been
made in imposts that materially affected the comforts
and prosperity of tehe people, hut there has been no
corresponding loss to the Exchequer. The almost
miraculous elasticity of our national resources is thus
established, and likewise the accuracy of the asser-
tion, that in fiscal matters, as two and two will not
always make four, so two deducted from four will
leave a greater balance than two. Relief may thus
be given to the subject, without any serious deficiency
being thereby occasioned to the public purse.
During the past year the iniquitous tax on
light and air was abolished, and although a house
tax wax was substituted in its place, the latter was
only estimated to produce one-third of the former
impost, so that under that head alone a loss of
1,200,0001. might have been anticipated, and this in
addition to the reductions of duty on coffee, sugar,
timber, &c., which came into operation during the
past year, and yet the entire deficiency for the year
amounts to only 437,3991., or little more than one-
fourth of the amount of actual loss under these heads.
But this is not all. It must be borne in mind that the
comparison is instituted with no ordinary period.
The financial year ending the lOth October, 1861
obtained all the benefit of the increased consumption
derived from the concourse of strangers drawn to-
gether by the varied attractions of the Crystal Palace,
and the desire to witness the extraordinary competi-
tion of the world's industry. Without any diminu-
tion of our burdens, we ;night have anticipated a
more formidable deficiency than that above referred
to ; but when we consider that practically there has
been an augmentation rather than a deficiency, we have
indeed cause to congratulate ourselves on the result. So
much for the annual comparison, that for the quarter
is even more surprising and gratifying. There is
actually an improvement of 28,9291., although the
corresponding
the period constituted the three months
immediately precedingclosing of the Crystal
Palace.

Looking now to the separate items, we find that in
the Customs there is a deficiency on the year and
quarter, on the former of 84,752/., on the latter of
298,264/. It is, however, under this head that the
effects produced by our numerous visitors last
year
would be most perceptible. The reductions on sugt eaarrt,
coffee, and amber also came into operation, so that
on the whole we may be well contented, that it has
been no worse.
The only other item of the ordinary revenue, in
which there is a decrease for the year, is that of
" Taxes ;" one which it may be remarked is less in-
fluenced than any other by temporary circumstances.
On that the falling off for the year is 1,157,2011.—
for the quarter only 5,8101. We have, however,
already explained that it was estimated that the sub-
skitntion of the hous3 tax for the window tax would
lead to a decrease in the receipts of 1,200,000/. There
is, therefore, no just reason for regret at this defi-
ciency.
We now turn to the bright side of the picture.
The Excise has always been considered as the best
index of the comfort and prosperity of the working
c 1464"• When it proves more than ordinarily pro-

ductive we may be well assured that there is content
1111 W happiness in the cottages and apartments of la-
boliting men—that those dependent on their daily
toil for their daily bread are in the enjoyment of
those humble luxuries which may almost be regarded
in the light of necessaries, and which should ever be
within the reach of every person able and willing to
work. Under that head we find an improvement
of .114,185/. on the year, and 163,901/. on the
quarter. Under " Stamps," again, which in some
degree affords an indication of commercial activity,
there is an improvement of 133,9321. on the year, and
of 96,8571. on the quarter. The " Property tax," as
it is facetiously termed, where casual income is
charged as heavily as accumulated and realised
wealth, likewise exhibits auspicious prospects. The
increase on the year is 53,6581., that on the quarter
45,4451. As this tax is:to the middle classes what
the Excise is to the less wealthy—the index to their
condition—this amelioration may be regarded with
peculiar pleasure.
Thanks to the judicious management of ROWLAND
HILL, the " Post Office" exhibits an increase of
26,0001. on the year, and that although the extraor-
dinary correspondence occasioned by the Great Ex-
hibition swelled the receipts of 1851. There is a
falling off on the quarter of 45,0001., which may rea-
-1 sonably be ascribed to a desire to increase the postal
facilities and expedite the communications throughout
the entire kingdom. In" Crown Lands" there.is an im-
proveraent on the year of 50,0001., while the quarter
is exactly the same. The receipts for the last year
amount in the whole to 220,0001. A few years since
before Lord DUNCAN instituted his searching inquiries
into the gross mismanagement of that important de-
partment, the average was not more than 100,000/,
Much more may, however, be accomplished. The
zealous and indefatigable Member for Glasgow esti-
mates that under judicious control this department
would produce a clear revenue of half a million of
pounds sterling. When we consider the hosts of
locusts battening on the public funds, and that the
stoppages in transitu before the money received in the
department finds its way to the Exchequer,
fur perpetual pensions, annual stipends, parks, 6-e.)
amount to no less than 286,646/. 155., we may be
thankful that so much has been rescued from the
greedy herd.
In " Miscellaneous" there is an improvement of

130,237/. on the year, but a falling off of 10,6531.
on the quarter. Under the head of Imprest and
Other Moneys the decrease is on the year 49,441/.1
while the increase on the quarter is 13,6661. The
Repayments of Aclvances shows greater punctuality on
the part of public debtors, the increase on the year
being 345,9851., an improvement of more than 60 per
cent. The increase on the quarter is 68,7871. It
will thus be seen that our assertions as to the gratify-

ing character of the financial returns have been fully
sustained, and that the greatest encouragement is
afforded to more rapid progress in the eligible path on
which we have entered.

Another " Commissioner" has given us his report

on Ireland. We have had the report of a costly Go.

vernment Commission; we have had the letters o:

newspaper commissioners; and even of able German
Berichter also ; this year Mr. JOHN BRIGHT, Member
of the British House of Commons and of the Society
of Friends, has given us the results of his voluntary
mission to the land of perplexity ;—the statesman's
puzzle and the philanthropist's lamentation. Await-
ing the meeting of Parliament, Mr. DISRAELI shuts
himself up in his country mansion, to study problems
of finance ; my Lord of DERBY gives becoming per-
sonal attendance to her MAJESTY, and JOHN BRIGHT,
M.P., spends his time in verifying for himself what
he has heard and read of Ireland. Well, a better, an
honester commissioner we could not have had. Half
the public, or more, who are interested in Ireland,
would have gladly chosen him. A man of
his well-known energy, business habits, im-
partiality, and powers both of observation
and of telling so well what he observes
(and all these exercised to increased advantage, by
the peculiar non-antagonism of his sect to the con-
tending sects of the country), is just the man whose
report we should be glad to listen to. He might be
able to tell us little new ; indeed, that were scarcely
possible. He might be able to propound no addi-
tional remedies which the factions in Ireland or in
England would allow to be adopted. Yet we feel the
more assured in believing what a witness so diverse
from preceding ones tells us, and that the remedies he
points to, if only by implication, are amongst the most
likely to succeed.

Mr. BRIGHT is entertained by a large and highly
respectable meeting at Belfast, the emporium of Irish
manufacturing industry ; and, like all other Irish
visitors, he can dwell in terms of the highest eulogy
on the busy town itself, and the well cultivated dis-
trict on each side of it; and, like all others, he sees
that " the great bulk of Ireland is in a condition
which offers a mournful contrast" to that of Belfast,
the personal appearance of the inhabitants being al-
most unworthy of human beings, and their hovels, as
in the time of the Devon Commission, " a scandal to
find human beings living in." He finds throughout
the country an almost total absence of any stimulus
to industry, a monotonous squalid idleness.
Yet Mr. BRIGHT has ample evidence that these
ragged idlers are not willingly idle; he meets with
men who returned from harvest in England, and
walked home across Ireland, and who rejoiced in
having earned from 41. to Si. each. He learned from
Mr. DARGAN, the great Irish railway contractor,
who systematically employed the men living in the
districts where his works were situated, " that the
people of Ireland want only the discipline of steady
industry, and they will give as good a return in labour
for the wages paid them as any people in the world."
The experience of the Board of I,Vorks was the same,
that " Irish workmen unable at first to earn more than
3d. or 4d. a day, at piece work, were soon able to
earn two shillings a day or more. We have all wit-
nessed the industry of Irishmen in England—we
may not have adequately realised to ourselves the
fact that they can be as industrious at home, when
the inducement is regular and adequate. But why
then are such a people found in such a state ? Why
are they clothed in rags and perishing on potatoes,

when there is abundance of land to be cultivated, and

an ample market for their produce close at hand ?
Mr. BRIGHT answers, that, chiefly he seems to think,
on account of repeated confiscations in times past,
the land is not in the posaession of the people. We
understand him as meaning that it i 3 deeply mort-
gaged; for the land of England is but little of it in
the possession of the middle classes. Mr. BRIGHT,
indeed, substantiates his view by the fact that so
many of the estates through which he passed were
either in the Encumbered Estates Court or soon to
be there. Mr. BRIGHT anticipates more good to
Ireland from the appointment of this court than from
any modern enactment, and certainly not
without reason. The Bishop of OXFORD
told the English landed magnates, in his
speech on the corn-laws, that many of them had the
name only of landlords,
estates to their real
every where observed thpar
a nto
proprietors
rhoieeutregousrhtseat
,t;
andtaon
ds surrender re n
cleard e re
estate
thaetier
landlords were half cultivated and esof
unimproved.t thhea t h e
nominalßhaudt
in Ireland incumbrance is the 1
the exception. The larger partovfe nthoe
sluaffindcieins
tpos-
sessed, or farmed by those who ha
in-
terest in its improvement, by landlords who care not
to make a fence, haag a gate, build a house and farm-
.

_
ing premises, much less to attempt efficient drainage,
or indeed any drainage at all. This must have
been hitherto one main cause why Ireland allows us
to bring over from the Mississippi the grain with
which she could so largely supply us.
Mr. BRIGHT appears to be not disinclined to sup-
port a Tenant Right Bill, one which should give the
outgoing tenant a claim for improvements. Now we
must confess that it would be only in consideration of
the pupil•state of Irish farming at present, that we
could support such a Bill. Possibly for such a state
something artificial may be needed, and possibly such
a Bill might be
however, thatthe proper remedy. We think,
such compensations are properly sub-
jects of argreement between landlord and tenant only.
The law ought of course to protect the agreement,
but not to prescribe of
what kind it shall be. Four-
teen or twenty-one year l
dies for tenant-right demand
to show that with short leases
right there must be endless
Four-
eases are the proper rerae-
s- It appears to us easy
dispauntdeslegasaltiosewd
hteanta ntim-
provements were really needed, and landlords might
Real landlords and
be most grieYously Annoyed.