The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-06 00:00:00

NI JANUARY 6, 1849.

THE QUARTER'S REVENUE.

FROM TRH MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIMES.-.-As the revenue of this country is the only
one in this cart of the world which is not rapidly sink-
ing, or scarcely propped up by the most extraordinary
and oppressive expedients, we presume it is lawful to
congratulate our readers upon the statement for the
quarter just ended. It still exhibits that steady im-
provement which is the most natural and therefore most
healthful symptom that could bo desired. The practised
explorer of this table will at once recognise the figures
on which its main gist and interest depend—the compa-
rison of the two quarters ending respectively January 5,
1848, and the same day, 1849. The several items of in-
crease on the ordinary revenue amount to 593,0051.,
the items of decrease to 150,3901., the balance being an
increase of 412,6151. on the quarter just ended. On
taking into account the increase of " China Money,"
" imprest and other money," and " repayment of ad-
vances," this improvement on the quarter becomes
686,827/.; but it is unnecessary to observe that these
extraordinary and accidental items, though they augment
the existing resources of the Exchequer, have no bear-
ing on the question of prosperity, for which this return
is usually consulted. As we have observed, on previous
occasions, the financial year beginning with April, 1847,
was too exceptional in its circumstances to be a proper
subject of comparison. It is fairer to go back a whole
year. On referring, then, to the qurrter ended Jan. 5,
1847, we find the present quarter falls short of it by
only 483,047/. We say only, because here again we
have to deal with an extraordinary year, 1846—a year
of excessive speculation and expenditure, between two
famines, but scarcely affected by their financial results.
To go into the several items, we come first to the
Customs. Here is an increase on the quarter to the
amount of 570,5331., and going further back to the
quarter ending January 5, 1847, an increase of
167,6741. It must, however, bo remembered that
in the quarter just ended there has been a
revenue on the import of corn, of which wo have
now seen the last. We can only hope, and we do hope,
that the general improvement of the Customs will next
year supply this deficiency. In the item of Excise the
quarter exhibits an increase of 6,279/. We believe there
would have been a decrease but for a change of account,
which has transferred to this department certain por-
tions of revenue hitherto collected by the Board of
Stamps and Taxes.. There has been an increase, it is
said, on the malt, paper, and soap duties, all of them
articles of necessity; a decrease in bricks, hops, and
spirits. A decrease on the consumption of spirits will
be deplored less than on the other articles on the list.
Bricks are, more or less, a speculative expenditure, and
hops are beyond the reach of financial calculation.
The Excise, therefore, notwithstanding a virtual de-
cline, indicates increasing prosperity and comfort. The
downward course of speculation, and the change of
accounts we have already referred to, have pre-
pared the public for a decrease of 92,237/. on the
Stamps. The " Taxes," as usual are very stationary.
In the property-tax there is a decrease upon the
quarter, which suggests some gloomy reflections. We
observed the same fact last October. The quarterly de-
crease was then 25,755/. It is now 38,1331.—a sum
which represents several millions of annual income em-
barrassed or altogether extinguished. In the other
items there is no change worthy of notice, unless it be
necessary to observe that the Post• office and the Crown
lands are very little more productive than they were a
year ago. The ordinary revenue of the whole year 1848
exhibits an increase of 875,705/., the most observable
items being an increase of 914,062/. in the Customs of
the year, of 1,101,394/. in the Excise, and a decrease of
848,698/. in the Stamps. Those candid and intelligent
critics who wish to occupy their readers with the least
favourable view of the table before us will probably fix
on the yearly comparison, as if it were the most
interesting and important. A moment's consideration,
however, will detect that the first three quar-
quarters of last year are now a matter
of history, and
have been sufficiently wept and bewailed in their own
proper time. To bring them up now is thrice to kill the
slain. The only inference that can properly be drawn
from a less favourable yearly comparison, in the face of
a more favourable quarterly comparison, is that wo are
decidedly and palpably improving. It is so in fact. We
have been gradually improving the whole year. The
total ordinary revenue for the year ending January 6,
1848, was 47,616,8781; for the year ending yesterday,
48,492,5831. Some extraordinary items swell the in-
crease to 1,533,9571. The monthly returns of the Board
of Trade are so largely abstracted and discussed in our
City intelligence that we need say but little in
this place. The tide which, after the long summer's
ebb, turned in our favour last October is now flowing
fast and full. For the month ending the sth
of December, there was an increase of ,exports,
compared with the corresponding month of the previous
year, to the value of 132,5481.; and there can be no
doubt from the reports daily arriving from the manufac-
turing districts that the month just ended will be found
to exhibit a still more decided result. The increase of
exports, as we noticed last month, has been chiefly in
cotton manufacture, and we beg most respectfully to call
the attention of a contemporary to the circumstance of
which ho last month confessed himself unaware, that the
greater part of the increase had been in the more ad-
vanced description of manufacture, as distinct from
cotton yarn. The next considerable increase is in
woollen manufactures, that on woollen yarn being com-
paratively slight. Tho chief decrease has been on iron,
steel, and machinery; betraying the miserable condition
of continental trade and manufactures. The increase in
the monthly imports balances that on the exports with
unusual closeness—a fact which indicates the safe and
cautious footing of our commerce at this moment, and
which seems to augur that our returning prosperity is
destined to a long and vigorous growth.
HERALD.—We give, in another part of our paper,
the usual Account of the Revenue, for the quarter, and
for the year, ending on the sth of January, 1849, com-
pared with those ended January 5, 18411. At the same
time, while we print the document just as we received
it, we are obliged to conclude, that, either we are exces-
sively dull of perception, or there is a blunder of a
million in one or two of the columns. The revenue
from the Excise is stated to have amounted, in the year
ended January 5, 1848, to 11,730,746/. In the year
just concluded, it is stated to have amounted to
12,832,140/. ; and this is set down as an increase of
101,394/. To us it would have appeared to be, an in-
crease of 1,101,3941. In like manner, in the total, the
income of tho year is said to bo 49,931,623/. In the
year ended January 5, 1848, it is stated to have been
48,397,5661. And then the increase for the year is called
533,9571. But if the above totals arc correctly given,
the real increase must have been 1,533,957/. The general
result seems to us to be—

An increase on the year of £1,533,957
An increase on the quarter of ... 686,827
Much of this increase is found under the head of CU3-
torns, which head shows an advance of half a million in
the Michaelmas quarter, ani another half million in the
quarter just ended. How much of this is to be attri-
buted to the corn duties now about to expire we cannot
at this moment determine. The departments of Stamps,
Post-office, and Property-tax, by their continued decline,
both on the year and on the quarter, show how much
the late depression of trade has preyed on the sinews of
our internal commerce; and also, that the point of
actual prosperity has not yet been reached. Another
point of the case is also unsatisfactory. The surplus of
the Consolidated Fund, on the sth of January, IS4B, was
882,5481. On the sth of January, 1849, it was only
560,543/. We begin 1849, then, with a smaller balance
at the banker's than we had in January, 1848, by no less
than 322,0051. We may probably return to the subject
in our next paper, when the error of a million above ad-
verted to shall have been cleared up.
CIIRONICLE.—AII thinking people, in the present
condition of the country, which varies, in our own de-
spite, with the fluctuating state of the Continent, will
look with anxiety to the Quarterly Returns of the Re-
venue, that uuerring criterion of our temporary decline
or prosperity. We publish to-day the official abstract
of the Nat Revenue in the years and quarters ending
sth January, 1848, and sth January, 1849, from which
the comparative increase or decrease will appear. The
most important of the general results are these:—There
is an increase of the entire revenue for the whole year
of 533,957/., but considerably more than the whole
amount of this increment consists of China money, and
other extraordinary receipts. In the total ordinary re-
venue there is a decrease for the year to a small amount,
namely, 124,2951. As usual, some branches of the re-
venue have increased, whilst others have decreased.
The increase (for the year) is, in the Customs,
914,0621,; in tEe Excise, 101,394/.; and under the head of
Crown lands, 4,0001. The decrease is, in the stamps,
848,698; in the taxes, 19,857/.; in the property-tax,
103,4361.; in the Post-office, 88,000/.; and " miscellane-
ous," 83,7601. In comparing the quarters ending
January 5, 1848, and January 5, 1849, we find that
the increase and decrease were respectively in the same
items, with the exceptions of " taxes" and " miscellane-
ous," which have slightly increased during the last
quarter, and of " Crown lands," which show a decrease.
The decrease for the last quarter, as compared with the
quarter ending January 5, 1848, is—Stamps, 82,257/.;
Property-tax, 38,1331.; Post-office, 10,0001.; Crown
Lands, 10,000/. The increase is—Customs, 570,533/. ;
Excise, 6,2791.; Taxes, 6,2301.; Miscellaneous, 9,9631.
Deferring, for the present, all detailed comment on
the financial and commercial significance of these
deeply interesting statistics, we may, at least, regard
them as affording, on the whole, encouraging evidence
of the stability of our resources, and the elasticity of our
industrial energies. While it would obviously be unwise
to view, with anything like elation, the financial results
of a year during which the total ordinary revenue of the
country has actually declined, we cannot but congratu-
late the public on those symptoms of revival which ap •
pear in the comparison of the last quarter with the cor-
responding period of the previous year; and wegladly
of
recognise the superior importance and authenticitythe
this portion of the year's experience, as au
fact,
an
index
that a
immediate future. It is certainly a cheering
year whose commercial records disclose a decreaseicitiei ourd so
i
exports during seven consecutive months, has ni
inconsiderable an injury on our aggregate
eratteomridniantaioryn,rseo-
venue, and has witnessed, towardsim
marked a tendency to gradual improvement. It is sa-
tisfactory, likewise, to observe, from the Trade Returns
which appear simultaneously
.with the present Revenue
Abstract (though the very trivial amount of increase on
the Excise, for the last quarter, amewhat qualifies the

[PRICE SD.

value of the fact), that a considerable proportion of the
recent improvement in the Customs revenue has accrued
on those commodities of which an increased consumption
is usually indicative of the general well-being of
the people,
ADVERTISER.—We have much pleasure in calling
attention to the tabular retarns of the quarter's revenue,
ending last night, which we publish in another part of
our paper. They are much more favourable than the
most sanguine could have been led to expect—much
more favourable than even the semi-official article which
appeared in a Sunday paper, represented them as likely
to be. That journal only prepared us for an increase of
500,0001. on the Customs: the increase is 570,5331. We
have also an increase on the Excise, small, indeed, being
only 6,279 L, but still any increase under such a head is
gratifying, especially when we were prepared for a de-
crease. The only other items on which there is an
augmentation are—Chinese money, which produces
84,2841.; imprest ,and other moneys, 93,2811.; and re-
payment of advances, 66,647 L The total increase,
therefore, on the quarter is 837,2171.; but from this
has to be deducted a decrease of 150,3901., of which
92,257/. is under the head of Stamps, 39,133/. under
that of Property-tax, 10,0001. in the Post-office
department, and 10,000/. under the head of Crown
Lands. Deducting, then, this 150,3901. decrease from
the 837,217/. increase, we have a net augmentation on
the quarter's revenue, as compared with the correspond-
ing quarter of last year, of no less than 686,827/.,—a
sum, considering the circumstances through which the
country has had to pass, far exceeding anything which
could have been anticipated. What adds to the value of
this augmentation is, that nearly the whole of the
amount is derived from the Customs and Excise, the
two departments of the public service which have
always been regarded as affording the best criterion of
the social condition of the masses. The increase on the
year is 533,9571, so that it will be seen it is only on the
latter part of the year that we can be said to have fairly
entered on that long-protracted course of commercial
and financial prosperity on which, we trust, we may now
confidently calculate.