The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-15 00:00:00

TREASURY.

The statements made in my last annual Message respect-
ing the anticipated receipts and expenditures of the 'Trea-
sury have been substantially verified.
It appears from the report of the Secretary of the Trea-
sury that the receipts during the last fiscal year ending
Juno 30, 1855, from all sources, were 364,003,930; and,.
that the public expenditure for the same period, exclusive
of payments on account of the public' debt, amounted to
356,365,393. During the same period the payments made
in redemption of the public debt, including interest and
premium, amounted to $9,844,528.
The balance in the Treasury at the beginning of the pre-
sent fiscal year, July 1, L 855, was $18,931,976; the rece'pts
for the first quarter, and the estimated receipts for the re-
maining three quarters, amount, together, to $67,918,731;
thus affording in all, as the available resources of the cur-

rent fiscal year, the sum of $86,856,710.
If to the actual expenditure of the first quarter of the
current fiscal year be added the probable expenditures for
the remaining three quarters, as estimated by the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, the sum total will be $71,226,846,
thereby leaving an estimated balance in the Treasury on
July 1, 1856, of $15,623,873 41.
In the above estimated expenditure of the present fiscal
year are included $3,000,000 to meet the last instalment of
the $10,000,000 provided for in the late treaty with Mexico,
and $7,750,000 appropriated on account of the debt due to
Texas, which two sums makes an aggregate amount of
$10,750,000, and reduce the expenditures, actual or esti-
mated, for ordinary objects of the year, to the sum of
$60,476,000.

The amount of the public debt at the commencement of
the present fiscal year was $10,583,631, and, deduction
being made of subsequent payments, the whole public debt
of the Federal Government remaining at this time is lass
than $10,000,000.

The remnant of certain other Government stock,
amounting to $213,000, referred to in my last Message as
outstanding, has since been paid.
I am fully persuaded that it would be difficult to devise
a system superior to that by which the fiscal business of
the Government is now conducted. Notwithstanding the
great number of public agents of collection and disburse-
ment, it is believed that the checks and guards provided,
including the iequirentent of monthly returns, render it
scarcely possible for any considerable fraud on the part of
those agents, or neglect involving hazard of serious public
loss, to escape detection. I renew, however, the recom-
mendation, heretofore made by me, of the enactment of a
law declaring it felony ou the part of public officers to insert
false entries in their books of record or account, or to make
false returns, and also requiring them on the termination of
their service to deliver to their successors all books, records,
and other objects of a public nature in their custody.
Derived as our public revenue is, in chief part, from
duties on imports, its magnitude affords gratifying evi-
dence of the prosperity, not only of our commerce,. but of
the other great interests upon which that depends.
The principle that all moneys not required for the cur-
rent
enemies of the Government should remain for active
employment in the hands of the people, and the conspicu-
ous fact that the annual revenue from all sources exceeds
by many millions of dollars the- amount needed for a pru-
dent and economical administration of public affairs can-
not fail to suggest the propriety of an early revision and
reduction of the tariff of duties on imports. It is now so
generally conceded that the purpose of revenue alone can
justify the imposition of duties on imports, that in re-ad-
jueting the impost tables and schedules, which unquestion-
ably require essential modifications, a departure from the
principles of the present tariff is not anticipated.