The Sun.
London, England, 1837-10-11 00:00:00

of their own—not to wish to prevent such an inquiry
by all the means in their power. They are well aware,
that if the proposed investigation
,be proceeded with
according to the provisions of the established law, the
O'Connellite ascendancy will be reduced to compara-
tively small dimensions, and the Ministerial majority
will be no where.—Morning, Herald.
We publish this day the official statement of the
revenue for the yea! and quarter which terminated yes-
terday, together: with a parallel statement of the re-
ceipts far tine year and quarter ending on the 10th of
Octoletr, 1836. It is a subject of regret, though not
of surprise, that the defalcation which we had to an-
nounce at the conclusion of the last quarter appears, by
the returns nqw before us, to have .very considerably
increased. 'the decrease of revenue for the quarter
just ended considerably exceeds in positive amount
that which we had to announce and deplore in July.
The Customs had then fallen off by the amount of
412,5021. The additional defalcation during the last
quarter is 917,6611. The decline in the Excise was
then 551,9051. It is increased in the quarter just
ended by 156,5621. The stamps, which had then
produced 87,2281. less than in the corresponding
quarter of last year, present a further defalca-
tion of 122,4891. And the taxes, in respect to
which we could then congratulate the country upon
an increase o f 38,259/., appear now to have sympa-
thised with the general tendency to financial decay.
In this branch of the public revenue the defalcation
of the past quarter is 26,7951. Upon the aggregate
revenue we had to announce a decline of 545,355/. in
July last, and to this large sum we have now to make
the lamentable addition of 1,187,762/. Our Minis-
terial Contemporaries have anticipated the official
statement of the deficiency for the quarter just ended,
and attempted to counteract its effect upon the public
mind by the assertion that it appears to be much
greater than it is, in consequence of the income for
the October quarter of last year having been greatly
enhanced by extraordinary payments on account of
tea duties. There is little consolation to be derived
from the explanation to which the Ministerial journals
resort, for the extraordinary payments on account
of tea duties were made principally in the July
quarter of 1836, and not in the October quarter,
and served the purpose of explaining the deficiency
of the quarter which ended on the sth of July last.
But if the extraordinary payments of 1836 are to
do double duty, and to account for the deficiency in
two successive quarters of the present year, as to some
they may, what relation, 'we have still to inquire, can
these duties, which are duties of customs, bear to the
excise, the stamps, and the taxes, under each of which
heads we have now to lament a deficiency amounting
in the whole to above 300,0001., and following up a
previous deficiency under the same heads, of 600,0001.?
Why say so much about tea duties when, in breeches
of the revenue of which these duties form no part,
there is an admitted deficiency in the last half year of
nearly a million of money ? We are not disposed to
urge as a matter of charge against any Administration
those commercial vicissitudes to which temporary fluc-
tuations of the revenue are generally to be ascribed.
We believe that they are to a considerable extent
independent of the action of Government. But if any
thing is calculated to excite a suspicion that the Minis-
ters of the Crown are conscious of having contributed,
whether by blundering or by negligence, to their
production, it is the abortive attempt of their parti-
sans to explain those temporary deficiencies in the
public income which are the index of commercial de-
pression to causes other than the true ones. And,
independently of this cause of suspicion, there are rea-
sons more direct and more solid for imputing the pre-
sant decay of the revenue, and the commercial revul-
sion which it indicates, to the policy or iinpolicv of
Ministers. The commercial crisis under the effects
of which we are now suffering has arisen mainly from
our mercantile connection with America. Great Bri-
tain is the European emporium of American produce,
and the European factory for American demands.
And this is well ; but it would he still better that our
trade with other countries should have risen in a simi-
lar proportion to that with America, so that the con-
sequences of any commercial revulsion in that country
might less sensibly affect us. Now the plain and
obvious tendency of the whole foreign policy of Great
Britain since the Whig Ministers cane into power,
has been to obstruct and diminish the commerce
of Great Britain with the nations of Conti-
nental Europe, and, in the same proportion, to
render her commercial and financial affairs more
susceptible of the influences, whether for good or for
evil, which are wafted across the Atlantic. Our
Ministers have contrived to blot out the two nations
of the Peninsula from the map of the commercial
world. They have paraded and vaunted the libe-
ralism of their foreign policy in a manner to excite the
univeral apprehension of northern and central Europe,
and to stifle those mutual jealousies which might pro-
bably have prevented the completion of a commercial
league among several of the States, that is generally
believed to be detrimental to the interests of British
commerce. They have regarded France as the only
country in Europe worthy of their attention, and the
commercial intercourse of Great Britain and France
remains nevertheless as fettered and as insignificant as
before. They have thus made British and American
commerce identical, and securely provided that there
shall be no commercial crisis in the United States
which shall not extend to Great Britain, and there
exert an influence unbalanced, unmitigated. unimpaired
by any foreign counteraction.—. Morning Port.
The abstract of the state of the Revenue, when
compared with that of the preceding year, exhibits a
deficiency ; yet, considering the great commercial crisis
, through which the country has passed, the result is
much more favourable than could have been reasonably
anticipated. The chief deficiency appears in the
Customs, for which the decrease consequent upon the
reduction in the tea duties, independent of any other
influence, furnishes amply sufficient explanation. In
the Excise also there appears a slight diminution, but
this is rather apparent than real, as from the manner of
its collection the return affords no criterion of its present
condition, which is known to be highly prosperous.
There is an increase in the returns from Taxes
and the Post-office ; and on the whole the state of
the Revenue evinces not only a convalesceet, but a vi-
gorous state of the great social and commercial body.
We have passed through a period of commercial embar-
rassment from which most calamitous consequences
were apprehended, and the nation now emerges from
the ordeal comparatively scatheless. The total de-
crease on the revenue compared with that of the pre-
ceding year is two millions, of which more than one
and a half million is referable to the item of Customs,
diminished by the causes to which we have already
made allusion. The present quarter, representing as
it does the • most unfavourable state of the country, in
its comparatively insignificant decrease from the cor-
responding quarter of last year, far from being a sub-
ject of condolence, is one of exulting congratulation.
The difficulties through which the country has so for-
tunately passed were obviously attributable to causes
operating long previously to the existence, and totally
unconnected with the policy of the present Government
—but fortunate is it for the country that the
crisis of these adverse influences did not occur during
a Tory Administration. Had the want of commercial
confidence been aggravated by a doubt, not to say hos-
tility, towards the political administration, the extent
of the mischief would have been incalculable ; and,
thanks to the power which established the present
Ministry, to the exclusion of the Peel usurpation, that
mischief is now only a subject of speculation, not a
reality. The temporary depression of our revenue
may easily be demonstrated to have arisen from causes
antecedent to the existence of the present Govern-
ment ; but to the confidence which a liberal Ministry
inspired, and the security afforded by their general
policy is the nation mainly indebted for appearing in a
condition of almost undiminished health and vigour,
after a shock from which most serious consequences
were apprehended. Without referring to the good
which we anticipate and have a right to expect, in the
evils which we have escaped may be found abundant
motives for an unflinching resistance to the encroach-
ments of a faction, the end of whose policy is, and
ever has been, an aggravation of the evil and preven-
tion of the good which, in the ordinary course of
events, would have been the national portion.--
Morning Advertiser.