The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-07 00:00:00

ebritnina

- -
LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 7, 1851.

THE QUARTER'S REVENUE.

The Revenue Returns for the year and quarter end-
ing the sth inst. will be found in another part of this
days' impression. Although there will be found a
diminution in the receipts of the year and quarter
when compared with the corresponding periods of the
preceding year, we have every reason to congratulate
ourselves on the additional evidence afforded of the
almost miraculous elasticity of the national resources.
We have made very considerable reductions of taxa-
tion, and yet the Exchequer sustains little if
any loss. The duty on bricks, amounting in round
terms to no less than half a million sterling
per annum, is abolished, and yet there is an improve-
ment in the Excise. A modification of the Stamp
duties is introduced which it was calculated would
cost the country more than 300,0001. per annum ;
we have also had the progressive changes in the
sugar and timber duties, and yet, notwithstanding
these important remissions, the decrease on the year
amounts only to 210,7391., and on the quarter to
95,3541.; of which 60,9371. is on the extraordinary
branches of the revenue,• so that practically
the loss on the ordinary items is but
34,4171., no very formidable diminution, even if there
had been no fiscal changes brought into operation
during the interval, but truly satisfactory, if all the
circumstances of the case be taken into consideration,
more especially when we remember that the quarter
ending the sth of July, 1850, was one of extraordinary
and almost unparalleled prosperity, showing an im-
provement on the preceding year and quarter of
1,215,8671. on the former, and of 561,5041. on the
latter. The present returns must, therefore, be ex-
ceediagly favourable to bear comparison with
such rivals. There is one item, and one
only, in the national balance-sheet calculated
to cast a partial gloom over the genial sunshine. The
property and income-tax is steadily decreasing, but
of that more anon.

We shall now look to the particular features in the
present return. In the Customs there is a reduction
on the year and quarter of 25,1221. and 15,490/. re-
spectively. We must not, however, forget that " the
corn of the tropics" is now admitted at lower import
duties than at the corresponding period last year,
and that the anticipated reduction on the timber
duties has also had some effect. The improvement
on the quarter ending sth July, 1850, was 204,9321.
beyond that of 1849, so that in place of a decrease of
15,4901., we may regard it as an increase of 189,4421.
on the Midsummer quarter of 1849, and that despite
the reductions to which we have already alluded.
The Excise—the index to the prosperity of, and
amount of comforts enjoyed by, the labouring popu-
lation of the country—more than maintains the
favourable position it had assumed. It shows
in the clearest light the real value of
free trade and untaxed food to the work-
ing classes, and affords unanswerable evidence
of the accuracy of the assertion that the revenue
would not suffer by almost any reductions that could
be effected. We have heard of a young American
tradesman who determined to apply his entire profits
for a certain period in advertising, but who found
that he was unable to do so, the profits increasing so
rapidly that he could not find the opportunity of ex-
pending the whole fund. Something similar may be
seen in the Excise returns, the greater the reduction
the larger the improvement. Under this head the
increase on the year is 122,273/., and on the quar-
ter 94,585/. ; or, if we compare it with 1849, on the
year, of 1,022,6961., and on the quarter of 299,208/. ;
and this notwithstanding the abolition of the duty on
bricks, averaging more than 500,0001. per annum.
In the Stamps there has been a decrease of
285,2501. on the year, and of 65,2751. on the quarter.
This, however, is more than accounted for by the
change in the law, which it was calculated would
have occasioned a loss to the revenue of 300,0001. per
annum. There had also been an increase on the
preceding year of 222,0911., so that the actual loss on
the year compared with 1849 is but 63,1591., against
which we are to set the above-mentioned reduction of
duty.

On the Taxes the decrease on the year is 28,8491.,
of which by far the larger proportion, or 28,0501. is on
the quarter. The assessed taxes, generally
speaking, exhibit but little alteration. Houses
cannot be taken down on account of any
temporary embarrassments, nor are horses, car-
riages, servants, dogs, &c., relinquished ex-
cept on permanent grounds. The quarterly reduction
may, therefore, partly be accounted for by the in-
crease of 18,5511. exhibited the quarter of last year,
and partly by the fact that the collectors have been
taking their pleasure at the Crystal Palace, and are
not quite so pressing in their attentions as they usually
have been at this period.

The Property and Income-tax is, as we have al-
ready stated, the only drawback to the general pros-
perity. The decresse on the year is 106,4181., or a
falling off in the profits of the middle classes, of
merchants, manufacturers, traders, and professional and
literary men of more than three millions and a half of
pounds sterling. These are the persons whose re-
ceipts fluctuate. The fundholder gets his dividend
to the day, or, if he sells out, some-other person takes
his place and finds the property -tax duly deducted. The
landowner makes it a subject of one of his most
touching Jeremiads, that no allowance is made for
the destruction of the corn monopily ; he still pays
the same,
lros bs is The only persons A fflcied are those of the
-middle clasges receiving 150/.and upwards, and their
impost to return
of tbheery, truly deplorableifthey do not oppose craft to open
and feel themselves justified by the iniquity
less than their actual receipts.
We trust that the
d
recently appointed Com-
mittee of investigation may aev'
t k these facts
into their consideration,
and
equitable sytem than that now in force, Ise
so amore
that the
people might not discover not merelail.
but a ju.tification of dishonesty in the
y lcuoanrdtuctoflation, the
a p
State itself. The diminution on the
r 49 is even
more remarkable, it being no less than

4--!?
tYa
%
oio-ar nIE •
'
' .43, Ar
cr •
moN
A.. •