The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-07 00:00:00

TIIE REVENUE.

It is not unimportant to call the attention of the
public to the following facts connected with the close
of the financial year. The sums are stated in round
numbers, in order to make the statement, as it ought
to be, ppular and intelligible.
It is unnecessary to state that the Excise Revenue
is that on which it is most important to dwell, as
giving the surest indications of the actual condition
of the people. After the important remission of
taxes made in the last Session, the decrease on the
quarter in the Excise Revenue of Great Britain does
not exceed 51,0001.; and in Ireland the Excise Re-
venue has, from augmented consumption, increased
the very considerable sum of 70,0001. But to com-
plete this calculation, it becomes expedient to add to
the receipts of the last quarter the sum that would
have been paid in, had not the repeal of the duties
on beer, leather, and cider taken place; and if the
consumption during the quarter on those articles had
continued unchecked, the results would have been as

follows :
Beer £307,000
Leather
Cider 3,500
Actual surplus

Total surplus on quarter, if the
taxes on beer, cider, and lea-
ther had not been repealed £450,500
It is important, with a view to the actual condi•
tion of the people, to consider on what branches of
Revenue the increases of the year appear. They are
as follows, and their importance is obvious :
Bricks
Candles
Malt
Paper...
Printed Goods •• • 90,000
Soap
Spirits
Starch
Tea
The principal heads of decrease are given in round
numbers, as follows :
Auctions
Glass B,OOO
Hops 48,000
Now it is observable that the duty on auctions
generally increases in periods of distress, when com-
pulsory sales are resorted to, and when the ordinary
modes of sales are more difficult ; and that the fall-
ing off on the duty on hops is the effect solely of is
short crop.
With respect to the Customs Revenue, the pay-
ments for the two last years appear us follows :
For 1829 £16,346,761
1830 16,027,339

Excess in the former year £319,422
But it may, perhaps, be considered that this ex-
cess may be accounted for by the duties on corn.
Such is not the case. The receipts under this head
arc as follow :
Corn duties in 1829 £913,686
-------1830 790,877

Deficiency in 1830 £122,810

The deficiency estimated to arise
in the Excise from the repeal of
taxes was no less I sum than 1,190,000
The actual deficiency is ...... ... 660,000

The receipts of the year will
therefore exceed the calcula-
tion £330,000
It is impossible to consider these accounts without
being impressed with R conviction that the great re-
sources of the country are unimpaired. This con-
victio❑ ought not, however, to induce the Govern-
ment to suspend its exertions in the great work of
economy and Reform, or to prevent the people for
one instant to cease the loudest and most urgent call
on Parliament and on the Administration. But it is
an answer, and a triumphant one, to those timid
minds who consider that all is lost where any thing
is in danger; and who, after years of folly, are now
disposed to consider exertion and common sense to
be unavailing, and therefore unnecessary.—Times.

An ancestor of Sir WALTEit SCOTT jOilled
the Pretender, and with his brother was engaged in that
unfortunate adventure which ended in a skirmish and
captivity at Preston, in 1715. It was the fashion of those
times for all persons of the rank of gentlemen to wear
scarlet waistcoats. A ball had struck one of the brothers,
and carried a part of this dress into his body ; it was also
the practice to strip the cap'ives. Thus wounded, and
nearly naked, having only a shirt on and an old sack
about him, the ancestor of the great poet was sitting along
with his brother and a hundred and fifty unfortunate gen-
tlemen in a granary at Preston. The wounded man fell
sick, as the story goes, and vomited the scarlet which the
ball had forced into the wound. L—d, WATTLE!"
cried his brother, " if you have got a wardrobe in your
warne, I wish ye would bring me a pair of brooks, for 1
have meikle need of them." The wound healed : I know
not whether he was one of those fortunate men who escaped
to the Continent. —New Monthly Magazine.