The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-12 00:00:00

COAST DEFENCES.

Mr. BENTINCK wished to ask the right hon. baronet
the First Lord of the Admiralty whether it was the inten-
tion of her Majesty's Government to commission any addi-
tional ships, or to take any other immediate steps to pro-
vide during the continuance of the war for the present de-
fenceless state of the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland ?
Sir J. GRA.HAR would very gladly allay the appre-
hensions which seemed to be entertained by his hon. friend,
and, in reply to his question, begged to inform him that
almost every day the Admiralty Board did commission
some additional ships of war. He had also to announce to
his hon. friend that considerable success had attended the
efforts of the Government to raise, a body of coast volun-
teers, whose especial duty it would be to defend the coasts
of this country, in case invasion were threatened ; an
event which, however, he by no means apprehended. He
did not anticipate that we should see upon our coasts
any foreign vessels of war while the Euxine was strictly
blockaded, and while his gallant friend Sir C. Napier con-
tinued to command the Baltic fleet. (Hear.)
Sir
W. ACBLOALYI T I O
wasN u
oOdFe r
set 10 Ud
RtCollgißveAnToEtiSce that he
would make his motion for the abolition of church rates on
Tuesday, the 23d. of May.
TURKEY AND GREECE.—THE PRESS.
Mr. M. GIBSON—I wish to put a question to the noble
lord the member for the city of London, in reference to a
statement that has appeared in the public journals relating
to certain demands that have been made by the Turkish
Government upon the Government of Greece. I am anxious
to learn from the noble lord whether the English ambassa-
sador has been any party to the demands in question, and
also whether those demands include the request that those
Greek newspapers should bo supproasod which give expres-
sion to any sentiments or opinions adverse to the Govern-
ment of Turkey?
Lord J. 11,M4S.FILL— I cannot answer the questions
which the right hon. -ontletnan has put to me in terms so
precise as 1 could wish? The demands which were made by
the Turkish minister upon the Greek Government were
made by order of the Turkish Government, without any
powers—England,
thoseoewrerusdn_edmauernigicdioasnnsr,d
concert upon the subject with her Majesty's Minister. After
erabt7onn,rathaedeivipmrevseenetraliaviesi whileof the tfho soyr.
Prance. Austria, and Prussia--met,' and
cause to a resolution, which they submitted to the Greek Go-
vernment, and which was to the effect that that Government
ought to return an ana wer to propositions which in themselves
were reasonable. The explanation which the minister at
r
Athens gave with respect to the article about thepress
was to the same effect as that of the Turkish ministerss
ess
namely, that the Greek Government would not in their own
newspapers have articles inserted tending to excite rebel-
lion against Tarkey in the Turkish provinces.
Mr. BE.IGHT said that upon a former occasion the noble
lord had stated that the feeling which existed in Greece '
was not spontaneous. It appeared, however, that in the
lowan Islands Sir H. Ward had been obliged to prorogue
the .seaate, almost immediately after they had mot, in

order to prevent any expression of feeling upon their part
in favour of Greece.

Lord J. RUSSELL said he hoped to be able shortly after
the Easter recess to lay papers in connection with the sub-
ject upon the table of the house.
WITHDRAWAL OF THE PRUSSIAN MINISTER.

Mr. DISRAELI—I wish to ask, with respect to the al-
leged withdrawal of the Prussian Minister from the Court
of St. James's, if the Government can inform the house
whether any communications upon the subject have been
made to her Majesty's Ministers?
Lord J. RUSSELL—I am sorry I cannot give any in-
formation either to the right hon. gentleman or to the
house upon the subject to which his question refers. I
saw my noble friend at the head of the Foreign Depart-
ment to-day, but I had no conversation with him upon the
matter.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY BILL.
This bill passed through committee pro forma.
PAYMENT OF WAGES BILL.

Mr. C. FORSTER moved that the following hon.
members should be appointed to serve upon the select com-
mittee on the above bill :—Mr. Charles Forster, Mr. Henry
Austin Bruce, Mr. Fitzroy, Mr. Cheetham, Ur. Moffatt,
Mr. Craufurd, Mr. Booker, Mr. Peto, Lord Stanley, Mr.
Baird, Mr. Coffin, Sir Henry Halford, Sir Joshua Walms-
ley, Mr. Wickham, and Mr. Gardner.
Sir H. HALFORD proposed that the name of Mr. T.
Duncombe should be substituted for that of Mr. Cheetham.
Mr..FITZROY opposed the amendment.
Mr. HUME was sorry that the bill was about to be
referred at all to the consideration of a select committee.

Mr. BRIGHT said he thought that that great nu
district, South Lancashire, ought to be represented
on that subject, and yet the only one of its members on that
committee was the hon. gentleman (Mr. Cheatham), whose
name it was proposed to remove.
Mr. F. FRENCH wished to see the committee consist
of gentlemen who could not be considered as mere parti-
sans taken from either one side of the house or the
other.

Mr. C. FORSTER said he thought that the committee
had on the whole been fairly nominated. 4
Sir H. HALFORD said he would not persist in his
motion.

The motion of the hon. baronet was accordingly with-
drawn,
_and the committee was constituted as originally
proposed.

- On the motion of Mr. MOFFATT, it was ordered, after
a short discussion, that the committee should have power
to send for persona, papers, and records.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT.
The CHANCELLOR• of the EXCHEQUER (having
laid the balance-sheet for the year upon the table) said,—
Sir, I have to move that that paper, being an account of
the income and expenditure for the year, do lie on the
table. It is my intention to make a statement in some de-
tail with reference to the subjects which I have included
in the notice that appears in my name on the votes—viz.,
to make a statement respecting the revenue for the year
now closed, the condition of the public balances, and the
condition of the unfunded debt; but the right hon. gen-
tleman opposite, the member for Buckinghamshire, has to-
night moved for further information upon a variety of
points connected with these subjects, and I therefore think
that, so far as the matter of argument is concerned—or
matter with respect to which there may be differences of
opinion—I shall do well, so far as lam a party concerned,
in postponing any reference, whether as to the objections
or defences, to topics of that nature. My intention, there-
fore, is to confine myself entirely to statements which may
be called statements upon matters of fact, and my reason
for my making statements of this kind to the house at the
present period is, that in the first place I have not yet had
the opportunity of presenting to the house a complete
account of the income and expenditure of the past year ;
and, in the second place, because it is exceedingly import-
ant, at a moment of alarm and excitability like the present,
that the public should bo in possession of the most au-
thentic information on points on which they naturally
desire to be informed. At the same time, considering the
nature of the discussion which we hava been passing
through during the principal part of the evening that has
elapsed, I shall endeavour to be very brief in the particu-
lars which I shall lay before the House. Those members
who have examined the account of the revenue of the
country published on the 6th of April will not have
failed to observe, or, at least, to infer from that ac-
count that it is a more favourable return than on the
Gth of March I had given the House reason to expect.
The improvement, in fact, on the Gth of April, as com-
pared with my estimate of the Gth March, was no less than
749,0001.; but it must not be supposed that so considerable
a difference is to be accounted for by any substantial change
of circumstances. I spoke to the house at that period of
the necessary uncertainty attending the collection of the
income tax in Ireland, and of the extended income tax in
England, as to the precise period when that amount would
come into the Exchequer, on account of the variety of new
circumstances which the revenue department had to en-
counter. However, that department was enabled to reduce
very greatly the amount of arrears which I then thought it
safe to estimate would be carried over to the present year.
If there is any difference as regards the ultiniete receipt,
it is merely a difference as to the time of the money arriv-
ing at the Exchequer; but the difference between the esti-
mate I submitted on the Gth March with reference to the
income tax and the amount received is 417,0001. (Hear.)
Another portion of the difference to which I have referred
was under the head of Customs' Revenue. The Customs'
revenue has been subject to the action of an exceptional
cause on account of the anticipation of the reduction in the
tea duties. The effect of that reduction was necessarily to
diminish, to a very great extent, the number of entries for
the payment of duty ou account of tea for delivery from
the warehouses during the past quarter, and therefore there
was a great loss on that account. But the operation of that
loss has been recovered, because, parties being anxious to
deliver the tea at a very early hour on the morning of the
6th April, this to a certain extent involved the payment of
duties on the previous day, the sth April, and thus a large
sum of money came into charge on that day, which, pro
perly speaking, belonged to the next quarter. These are
the two main causes, and indeed the only causes, to which I
may refer as accounting for the excess of revenue received
on the sth of April as compared with my estimate of the
6th of March. (Hear.) The house will observe, in examin-
ing the balance-sheet on the table, that the excess of in-
come over expenditure on the year ending the sth of April
last amounted. to 3,524,0001. The excess of income over ex-
penditure for the year ending the sth of April, 1353, was
2,460,0001. The estimate I had made on the 6th of •March
of the excess of income over expenditure was '2,851,0001.,
that of course being increased in consequence, as I have
shown, of the receipt of money between that period and
the sth of April, which I should not have been warranted
by the revenue department in admitting among my calcu-
lations. This gives me the opportunity of observing upon
one among many elements of uncertainty—though they are
all confined within certain limits—that attach to our pre-
sent system of accounts. If the balance of the present year
had been found precisely in the same manner as the bal-
ance of last year—if the same sums had been paid out of
the Exchequer for the purpose of supplying the Paymaster-
General's accounts for supply service, the balance would
have been less by fully 500,0001. In making a comparison,
therefore, between the surplus of the present year and the
surplus of the past year, the h use will do well to estimate
the present surplus at 3,000,0001. instead of 3,524,0001. It
may be asked why was there this difference ? Why, under
the same system, have we not received the same payments
as during the last year for the same period ? The reason
is this, that, under authority vested in the Treasury by the
House of Commons, a certain amount of Exchequer-bills—
half-a-million-- was about to be issued at that period, and
under a fiction of law—for I really cannot call it anything
but a fiction—in which the manipulation, if I may so call
it, of these-operations is conducted, there is no choice as to
the mode of bringing the Exchequer-bills to account, and
you cannot realise the proceeds in the Exchequer, which,
so far as I am able to judge, might be done by a more ra-
tional mode of procedure, but they are issued to the Pay-
master-General for supply service, thus passing by the
Exchequer altogether. If, therefore, this half-million,
which stood to the credit of the Paymaster-General on
the sth of April, had stood in lieu of an equivalent
sum which would have been issued to his credit from
the Exchequer, and, if these Exchequer-bills had not
been issued at the particular period I have referred to,
this amount would have been fairly included in our
surplus. For the reason, I have stated, however, half-a-
million ought to be deducted from the whole surplus ; and
therefore the actual surplus of income over expenditure
for the year may fairly and safely be stated at 3,000,0.01.
(Hear, hear.) I think the house will be of opinion that
this is a very satisfactory result, so far as we have seen,
with respect to the indications which it affords as to the
state of the trade and industry of the country and the con-
dition of the people, though that trade and industry must
necessarily have undergone some contraction, or, at any
rate, some retardation in its increase in consequence of
political events and the obstruction of trade both in the
Baltic and in the Levant. (Hear, hear.) It is a more
satisfactory result still, when it is borne in mind that the
sums which I anticipated I should receive within the year
from the increase of taxes proposed during that year have
been less than we anticipated. Last year you remitted, in
round numbers, 2,600,0001. of taxes, and you laid on taxes
which ultimately were to produce a large annual amount;
but, while 2,600,0001. had been given in relief, the addi-
tional taxes laid on during the last year had only brought
into the Exchequer by the sth of April the sum of about
700,0001. The whole remissions have been in operation,
and the substituted taxes have come very partially into
play, and therefore, speaking in round numbers, while you
remitted 2,000,0001. of taxes more than you laid on, you
have a surplus of 3,000,0001. in your income. (Hear, ear.)
That is all I think it necessary to state with respect to the
revenue of the past year. I now come to another question,
with respect to which it is desirable the house should be
informed, and that is, the state of the public balances.
And here I shall most sedulously avoid reference, in the
way of defence or discussion, to the mode in which the
state of the public balances has been brought about,
my only object at the present moment being to pro-
vide the house with trustworthy, real, and accurate
information. On the sth of April, 1853, the ba-
lance in the Exchequer was returned at 7,859,000/. ;
on the sth of April, 1854, the balance was returned
at 2,778,0001., showing a decrease of 5,081,0001.,
or, in round numbers; something over 5,000,000/-
Then it is right that you should perceive how that redue-
tion of balance has been, brought about. How public
funds have been applied during the year over and above
the Ordinary methods of expenditure, under the following
heads and to the following extent :-8,018,0001. of funded
debt has been paid off; 716,000/. have been paid away in
advances under the head which is known as that of public
works, over and above the ordinary expenditure under that
head ; and this amount of 716,0001. does not indicate or be-
long to any extension of the scheme of public works, but it
has arisen under the. Metropolitan Advances Act of last
session, being a mere transfer of money, and having nothing
to do with any public works that have been performed.
(Hear, hear.) Besides that the unfunded debt was reduced
between the months of April, 1853, and April, 1854, by
1,718,0001., so that the reduction of debt and the payments
we have made under these three items amount altogether
to 10,482,000.. (Hear, hear.) I have shown that of thia
10,482,000/. about 5,000,0001. is represented in the decrease
of balances in the Exchequer ; but, besides that, the.; o was
a sum of 1,274,0001. of stock createdcin the name of the
Commissioners for the reduction of the National Debt in
respect to Exchequer bills which they had purchased and
cancelled; and there was likewise an amount of about
420,0001. of altogether new debt in the name of Exchequer-
bonds. Putting together, therefore, the diminution in the
balances, the new funded debt created in the name of the
National Debt Commissioners and the Exchequer-bonds,
we come to a sum of 6,775,000/. against the 10,482,0301. of,
which I have already spoken. The remainder, 3,707,0001,,
is °lli43' accounted for by the surplus, revenue. Tho ba.
lance in the Et chequer, as it appears in the balsnoe-shoot, !