The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-06 00:00:00

money, which amounts to 455,0211. This sum had
been detained at the Cape in transilu, in order to
provide for the extraordinary expenditure of the
Kafir war, but which has now been carried to the
general account. As, however, there is a decrease of
119,8371. in the other extraordinary sources of
revenue, namely, of 29,4071. on the Imprest and other
monies ; and of 90,43(1. on the repayment of advances
—there is an increase in the ordinary sources of
revenue on the quarter of 67,3911., and on the ex-
traordinary of 335,8371. ; making, altogether, as we
have already stated, 402,5751.
The Customs show a decrease both on the year and
quarter. On the former of 836,3451., and en the
latter of 55,0231. This may be accounted for by the
exertions that have been made to bring gold into the
country in place of merchandise, by which the
revenue would have been benefited and employment
afforded to the people. In the Excise there is a de-
ficiency on the year of 467,1751. ; but we rejoice to
say that on the quarter there is an improvement of
no less than 349,7361. This is the more gratifying
when it is borne in mind that the Excise returns may
be regarded as the barometer of national prosperity,
indicating the degree of comfort enjoyed by the great
body of the people, the hardworking and industrious
classes. A portion of the improvement may, how-
ever, be accounted for by a difference in the manner
of taking the accounts, by which certain credits
which formerly were noticed under the head of
" Stamps" are now inserted in the Excise. This
change will also partly explain the deficiency in
the Stamp department, which amounts to
198,614/. on the quarter, and 301,8961. on the year ;
the lower amount of mercantile securities that have
been in circulation accounting for the residue. The
Taxes show an increase of 90,4131. on the year, and
13,010/. on the quarter; while the Income-tax pre-
sents a small deficiency of 5,2121. on the year, but an
increase on the quarter of 8,5681. The efficiency and
value of the improvements introduced by RowLAND
HILL in the Post-office are still further exemplified
by an increase of 46,0001. on the year, and 2,0001. on
the quarter.:,,ln the other items of Crown Lands and
Miscellaneous there are fallings off both on the year
and the quarter, showing in the former a decrease of
51,000/. in the year, and 16,0001. in the quarter ; and
in the latter of 169,5211. in the year, and 36,286/. in
the quarter.
The total income for the year amounts to
48,800,141/., for the quarter to 11,065,3241. The
total charge is 7,427,0381., leaving a surplus income
for the quarter of 3,638,2861.: to this is to he added
the balance of 882,5481. remaining in the Exchequer
on the sth January last, which amounts in the whole
to 4,520,8341., applicable to the national expenditure
within the quarter. The amount issued for supply
services within that period, however, was no less than
e,956,232/..; a sum of 1,435,398/. must therefore be
provided by the issue of Exchequer-bills.
The above statement will surely satisfy every
reasonable man of the absolute necessity for the most
rigid economy so far as it is consistent with the na-
tional honour and the national safety, and the pro-
priety of instituting a searching inquiry into the
public income and the public expenditure.

Banquets appear to be the favourite demonstrations
of a people devoted to the cause of constitutional
liberty. Every one remembers that it was the prohi-
bition of a banquet which induced ODILON BARROT
to lay the impeachment of Ministers before the Pre-
sident of the Chamber of Deputies, and which ulti-
mately caused the Parisians to advance from the

summit of the barricades to the parapet of the
Tuileries. Two banquets were given yesterday
evening in our own metropolis, and at those festivi-
ties two glorious principles were maintained by the
eloquence of the orators best qualified to become
their Advocates and Apostles. The one was the

annual meeting of the Free-trade Club ; the other
was a dinner given by the Directors of the East
India Company in celebration of the military

victories and the civil achievements of llEsay

,
Viscount HARDING E. The latter was not only
a commemorative but a congratulatory de-
monst r:.tion, it was a magnificent token of
welcome to an illustrious Captain and Administrator
on the occasion of his return homewards from the con-
quest of 100,000 Seikhs, from the capture of 250 pieces
of cannon, from the establishment of a permanent
and honourable peace, and from the government of
that colossal empire, which contains a frontier of 12,000
miles, and a population of 100,000,000 of the human
family. Upon an occasion like this, so unprecedented
in colonial history, it was but fitting that all differ-
ences of political opinion should be forgotten, that
the feuds of Parliament should be overlooked, that
Whig and Tory, that Conservative and Liberal, that
Free-trader and Protectionist, that the most distin-
guished representatives of the Ministry and the Legis-
lature, of the Admiralty and the Horse Guards, of
the mercantile and the ecclesiastical professions,
should assemble together without any distinction

whatever, to :offer their felicitations to a successful
warrior, and their eulogiums to a patriotic statesman.
If any one of the successors of the immortal CLiva de-
served this homage, it was certainly the Pacificator
of the Punjaub ; if any one of the followers of
WARREN HASTINGS, it was assuredly the chief nego-
tiator of the treaties of Lahore; if any of the

lieutenants of WELLINGTON, it was unquestionably
the victor of Sobraon and Ferozeshah. Hence there
were last night congregated together in the ban-
quetting chamber in Leadenhall-street men in the
most exalted position and men of the most dissimilar
genius in England—all actuated by one coincident
sentiment, a sentiment of admiration for the brave
soldier who had consolidated our dominion in the
Asiatic continent by a campaign of sixty days, and
who in struggling against the extraordinary difficul-
ties of his position in the winter of 1845-1846 had
waived for a time his dignity as Governor-General of
India, and had volunteered his services in the subor-
dinate rank of a Lieutenant-General, for the purpose
()f seconding the Commander-in-Chief of the British
forces in Hindostan in the crisis of an astounding and
perilous catastrophe. The magnanimity evinced on I
that occasion by the predecessor of the Earl of Dm,-
' nof h-iots:n must have been amply repaid by the plaudits
conscience,
by the approbation of his own
by the approval of his SOVEREIGN, by the
thanks of the assembled Parliament, by the pane-
gyrics of the most renownedtioui personages in the army
banquet and the Legislature, and,hngluasett, nof ot
yesterday
the least, by the splendid
evening in the palace of the merchant-tetrarchs of
rn o Hindostan.ng
A
the most important speeches delivered be-
fpo rie rectors,the august
were
thoseguestsof
of the
Chairman,
heEastlnd
ua
somaypasniy.
GEORGE TUCKER, Esq., of Lord HAED ING
of the newly-appointed Archbishop of CALEhainanus Re lyf
of his Grace the Duke of WELLINGTON,
Prime Minister, Sir ROBERT PEEL, and of
Honourable THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULe Right
only as affording those distinguished men the aT.If
oppor-
tunity of addressing themselves to the great question
of the morality of our sway over the Oriental
millions the incident was admirable. Whilel
pronouncing in the simplest language, his ac-
knowledgments for the brilliant reception awarded
to him on returning to the land of his na-
tivity, the Conqueror of the Punjaub exulted (and
was not his exultation allowable ?) in his having been
the instrument by which England had organized
tranquillity at Lahore by a treaty which would have
been sufficiently fortunate if only in the single cir-
cumstance that it enabled our diplomatists to re-
monstrate against the rites of infanticide and suttee.
" Only two years ago," observed Lord HARDINGE,
"a native state, with a population of twenty millions,
voluntarily
auda renounced these horrid practices." That
of itself would be an ample compensation for our
disasters,tvveglorious e consequencendato
f
r
ic-
en
ns, w however, uwhichv
the one pronounced on the ex-Governor- General of India,
which must have sounded pleasantest to his
soldier's heart was the pithy and emphatic encomium
Lo s
the
of the veteran WEL
IN oltdamyus
whstheanv,e brought
vividly vividly to his remembrance
more than a subaltern, he learnt the lessons of mili-
tary wisdom from thex c
example of that remarkable
General. A long while ha
memo-
rable age of battles ; lIAnDs elapsed since that memo-
ifnr
years
and
reputation •
hINGE himself has ripened
from the administration of thee has but just returned
elLpire, and h:.‘ fro-Ith 'affairs of a gigantic
the assurance that at the" I"
of
his
aged
loader
the
goyermzent
of
aiudospenod, of his appointment to
he was fully sensible