The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-06 00:00:00

THE REVENUE.

(From the Times.)
The quarterly returns of the revenue entirely
bear out the pleasing admissions which the force of
truth and a few months of office extracted from the
late Chancellor of the Exchequer. All things con-
sidered, there never, within our recollection, was
a more prosperous statement. We must still say,
" all things considered," for in various branches of
the revenue the comparison of periods continue to
be affected by recent reductions. Beginning with
the comparison of the quarter just ended with the
corresponding quarter of the previous year, we are
encountered with a decrease in the Customs to the
extent of 18,1281., owing to the reductions in the
duties upon sugar and to the diminished importa-
tion of corn. In the Excise of the year there is
also a decrease of 13,3241., to be referred possibly
to the high price of barley. In stamps—always
held to be indicative, if not of prosperity, at
least of business--7the quarter shows an increase
to the amount of 187,5441. In the assessed
taxes, also, there is an increase of 233,9511. The
property tax, on the fluctuations of which so many
theories have been raised, exhibits .an increase
to the amount of 100,2621., for the causes of
which we must necessarily look back some years.
The Post-office declares an increase of 26,0001.,
and the Crown Lands of 40,0001. Altogether, the
increase in the ordinary revenue of the quarter is
557,7591. ; and, though it admits of peculiar ex-
planation in several items, is hardly consistent with
any other supposition than that of great prosperity.
When repayment of advances and other extra-
ordinary items are included in the account,
the quarter's increase becomes no less than
702,776/.

The comparison of the two years 1851 and 1852
gives a result of an equally agreeable character.
In Customs, for the reason already referred to in
the comparison of the quarters, there is a decrease
of 65,6871., which, in a branch of the revenue
yielding last year 18,695,3821., is a very trifling
matter. The Excise of the year shows an
increase of 263,3111. ; and the Stamps an in-
crease of 356,712/. The Taxes are largely
affected by the substitution of the House for
the Window Tax, and the result is a decrease
of 186,199/. The Property Tax yielded 204,7141.
more in 1852 than in 1851, though we are
not about to insist on that increase as a proof
of contemporaneous Brosperity. For the other
items it is sufficient to refer to the table ; but the
result is, that the ordinary revenue of the year just
ended exceeded that of the previous year by
750,5721., and when extraordinary items aro in-
cluded, the increase becomes 978,9261., in which it
is impossible not to recognise a great improvement
on the condition of the people. Nor can it be for-
gotten that, when at the close of the year 1851,
we had to record a thriving revenue for the Cus-
toms and the Excise, it was obvious to reply—and
it was, indeed, replied—that the Great Exhibition
had much to do with both these items, having
induced a large consumption of both exciseable
and dutiable articles, and having been the direct
means of an extensive foreign importation. Not-
withstanding what was then supposed to be a forced
and preternatural state of the revenue, it now ap-
pears that the year 1852 has yielded very nearly as
much as the previous year under the head of Cus-
toms, and a quarter of a million more in the item
of Excise.

We must say that the natural inference from
such a statement is, that national burdens may
still be extensively though gradually reduced, and
even additional expenditure undertaken for the
defence of the country, without the disagreeable
process of laying on any new tax, or increasing
the area or intensity of an old one. At all events,
that is the lesson the people will draw from this
statement, and it would be scarcely possible to
drive them out of it. Taxation is not a theory,
but a fact, and, though the people may like radical
reform in some things, they will not easily endure
a radical reform othe taxation which begins by
aggravating the load now clogging the industry
and talent of some important classes. Henceforth,
unless matters change much for the worse, "impo-
sition" of taxes will be almost unknown, and reduc-
tion, more or less, be the only thing spoken of.
After the fate of the last Budget, he must be a bold
.man who will prepare another of an equally original
character. As evidence of the national prosperity,
the statement before us comes with peculiar felicity
just at this moment, when a score of constituencies
are re-electing their Free-trade representatives with
almost entire unanimity. Never did an Adminis-
tration walk into office and run the gauntlet of a
new election with more entire success—not one
member having yet lost his seat. The prosperity
of this island under free (rade is such as to compel
the assent of those who denied it as long as they
could, and even now persuade others to do so. The
times that are coming no man can tell. Undoubt-
edly there are elements of future difficulty and even
danger in our position ; but with all things becom-
ing more abundant, with the means of communica-
tion from any one part of the world to any other in-
creasing year by year, and, perhaps more than all,
with the metallic circulation, the base of all others,
becoming yearly augmented, we cannot refrain from
hoping, and even anticipating, the best for the con-
dition of the people, and for all the branches of
the Imperial revenue.