The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-17 00:00:00

£5,850,000. I have no means of stating to the committee
what has been the total charge of the war of 1857, because,
although there were certain votes, not amounting to large
sums, taken as votes of credit, yet the main portions of the
expenditure were probably borne upon the estimates under
the ordinary heads of charge ; and I have no means now of
separating them from what was due to the general service
of the country. With respect to the mode of provision that
has been adopted by the Government, and proposed to the
house, in respect to the portion of the charge that was made
known to the house, and within the knowledge of the Go-
vernment in February, it is as follows :—x8513,060, as T
have stated, were charged upon the finances of 1859-60.
Happily the provision made by the house in last July for
the expenditure of that year was so liberal, that the whole
of that £850,000 has been paid from the proceeds of the
taxes, and not out of temporary resources. It pleased the
house, towards the close of last session, to supply us with
temporary means, in addition to the taxes that were then
voted, by taking up one of the terms of the malt credit.
The proceeds of that operation were somewhere about
£300,000 or a million, But the revenue of the year was so
productive, that even if that malt credit had not been
granted we should have been able to pay the additioal
charge included in the item on account of China, and still
have had a surplus. As it was, notwithstanding the consi-
derable addition made at so late a date to the charge of the
year, by taking £850,000 for the malt credit, the surplus of
income over expenditure ou the 31st March amounted to no
less than £1,587,000. Therefore it may be justly said as re-
gards that sum of £850,000, that full provision was made
for it out of the taxes of the country ; and the temporary
resource which enabled us to draw an alleviation from the
malt credit, together with £250,000 which came in as a
casual and unexpected payment from Spain, and applicable
to the charges of last year, both contributed to swell that
surplus of £1,250,000, and were, therefore, made applicable
to the reduction of the debt. With respect to the £1,700,000
which the Government proposed to charge upon the finance
of the present year in February last the case stood dif-
ferently. I cannot say that we proposed to provide for more
than about £500,000 of that sum out of the taxes of the
country. For if, on the one hand, we deduct that charge
from the anticipated expenditure of the country as it then,
stood, and if, on the other, we deduct from the anticivated
revenue of the country, the proceeds of the malt and hop
credits and the further payment from the Spanish Govern-
ment, the case stands thus—that each of those two sums
very nearly balances the other, the charge for China being
£1,700,000, and the amount of the malt and hop credit, with. •
the Spanish payment, being about £1,650,000. It follows,
therefore, that the provision made by means of taxation to
meet the expenditure on account of China, according to ',;he
plans of the Government as explained in February last,
was very little more than the surplus of revenue: over ex-
penditure which was then stated upon the estimate, or in
round numbers about half a million of Money. So stands
the case as to the provision made for that portion of the
charge for the China expedition with regard to which the
house was invited to take it into its consideration in Fe-
bruary last. I now come to the question how we are to
make provision for the remaining portion of the charge,
The remaining portion of the charge is £3,3oo,ooo—the vote,
authorised last week being £3,800,000, but £500,000 of that
sum having been included in the financial statement of
February, and in the provision that was then made. I
have therefore to go back to the period of February, as
the basis of calculation of the means by which this suns
is to be provided ; and I think there is no reason why
I should depart from the estimates either of revenue
or expenditure that were then made. As respects the re-
venue of the country, estimating it by its proceeds up to
the close of June, I think that, considering its circumstances,
the condition of that revenue is eminently satisfactory. It
is ve:y difficialt—and indeed it would be hazardous—to form
an anticipation of the year's revenue from the revenue of the
quarter, and especially in a year when very considerable
changes, reductions, and commutations, so to call them, of
taxes have been made. But the result of it, I think, entirely
comes up to, and even exceeds the expectations of Govern-
ment. Still I should not recommend the committee, and I
should not think it consistent with the rules of prudence, to
improve upon the estimates of revenue which I ventured to
submit in February. Because there is, in the first place, a.
tendency to partial stagnation in some descriptions of in-
dustry, connected either with the actual condition of the
times or with the temper in which men's minds are dis-
posed to view them ; and there is likewise the important ele-
ment of a harvest that must certainly be late, and may too
probably be defective; which, though they might not act
very seriously upon the anticipated amount of the general
income, yet I think would render it unsafe for us to make
those additions to the estimates of February last which
under more favourable circumstances I should not at all
have hesitated or scrupled to recommend. Then, starting;
from the estimated revenue of February last, I have now to
state to the committee the manner in which the Government
propose to provide for the charge which has just been voted
by the committee of supply. The total of that charge is
£3,800,000, taking the votes as they stand and have been
sanctioned. I first deduct from that amount the sum of
£500,000, which as I have already stated was included in
the provision of Febi y Tan, and I then come to the Ties-
tiers how far the7small surplus, which was then estimated
as likely to arise upon the revenue of the year above the
expenditure, remains still available. That surplus, as wee
to be expected in a course of long and detailed financial dis-
cussions, almost of necessity involving a variety of changes
more or less important, while the measures of the year were
passing through this house, has undergone some vicissitude.
It is not however altogether disposed of. I could not under-
take to enter into very minute details with regard to the
estimates of minor taxes, in respect to which great exacti-
tude and groat confidence in each particular are totally im-
practicable, and where the best that can be hoped is, after
using every care and attention, that the general result may
not be far wide of the mark. Proceeding upon that prin-
ciple, I would say that we stand thus with respect to the
surplus that I estimated in February last. It then stood at
the sum of £464,000. But in the estimate for the collection
of the revenue which was then furnished to me, and which
did not take into eonsideratien the practical effect of some
of the financial measures of the year, particularly of the in-
crease of the income tax, there was an error not immaterial.
That estimate of the expense of the collection of the re-
venue was too low by above £200,000. The committee will
also remember that an important item in the general re-
sults of the revenue was made up of a variety of
new charges that were about to be imposed. In the dis-
cussion of those new charges, with a view of mitigating
their pressure upon the commercial community, who were
called upon to submit to a number of minor taxes, almost
all of which fell directly upon the profits of trade—with a
view to make those charges as little onerous as possible
various modifications were introduced, which led upon the
whole to a loss, as compared with the estimate I made in
February, of abont£lBo,ooo a-year. Taking together those
two items on the adverse side of the account, they require
us to deduct from the surplus of £464,000 about £400,000.
But on the other side of the account, whereas it was first
proposed that the abolition of the paper duty should take
place from the Ist of July, it was found more convenient,
for several reasons, that it should be postponed to the
15th of August ; and the effect of that postponement
was to relieve the Excheqxer by the sum of about
£200,000. Therefore the total lose upon the surplus
estimated in February is about £200,000, after balancing
those various items that I have now mentioned; and there
remains in fact a sum of about a quarter of a million, or
more-1264,000—which is available in part to meet the
charge of the Chinese war. I come then to the proceeds of
the paper duty—assuming that it should be the pleasure of
the house that it be retained throughoLt the financial year.
(Hear, hear, from the Opposition.) And if that be so, of
course it will make an addition not immaterial to our re-
sources. (Opposition cheers.) The loss estimated to arise
upon the remission of the paper duty as proposed in Feb-
ruary last would have been a million. The loss which would
have arisen in consequence of abandoning that duty, accord-
ing to the terms of the bill which passed through this house,
would have been £BOO,OOO. I cannot say how much of that
will be recovered in consequence of the rejection of the bill.
I doubt whether the whole of it will be recovered ; but I
think it very possible that £600,000, or perhaps £700,000,
will be recovered. That is upon the presumption that the
duty remains payable to the close of the financial year.
And, therefore, if it is the pleasure of the House of Com-
mons that that duty shoed continue to be levied through-
out the financial year, a sum of £700,000 in addition to what
I have previously named may be taken as available in part
to meet the charges of the Chinese war. These three item:
—£500,000 for the malt credits, £250,000 for the Spanish
payments, payments, and £700,000 in respect of the paper duty—give
a total of £1,464,000, and deducting that ismer e
of
total which the house has authorised inbeeemm-tte
Provided for, to
sup-
ply, £3,800,000, the sum _remaining
i606n4,00f( theb e i
n gar ecommittee,ad y
wishaicahuml
ohfavle2,n3o3w6,otooo in.
Thevite atuhme attention
remains to be provided
provided for, the sum of £2,336,000
,ren together will, I believe,.
for ; and those two sums taken
out
so
financial t4htheBBo utoomot a lyhae
alawrsr already di;
beenepreviouslyhyanltdaki:n s providedumo for
bgeavfeounto
t
—L2,664,000
he statement made in February,
dthetocoe
mornireistpteeond
the taxes_
and the plan of provision then proposed, would not have
taken from the taxes of the year, but would have been
been
£1,186
chargeable upon these extraordinary resources w'nich the
Government invited the house to call in aid lender the
peculiar circumstances of the times. We proposli to apply
the same principle of a divided method of provision to the
sum that we still require, which we used in regard to the sum
with which we have already dealt—that is to say, to ask the
0 tef accordinge ees p sumec ttiovofte
committee to give authority for raising that sum in part by
taxation and in part from sources other than taxation. In
go doing we follow the rule which is commonly applicable
to war expenditure. It is the opinion of her Majesty's Go-
vernment that that is the rule which ought justly to be ap-
plied to a case like that of China. First 'of all, because the
scale of the expenditure is such--especially when it comes
to a mode of charge rapidly growing under other header;
that the country can hardly be expected to provide the,
whole from the proceeds of the year's taxes. (Hear.)l
may, perhaps, say that there it, another _
ecial peas°ll,
which is certainly applicable to the case, al
the minds
mulund's'of
r meanc
to be assigned to it may be very different in
this :that we
different members of the committee. .
have already an outstanding elute-CI?, a fury of debt du in hard
hs T demand
cash from China to ourselves, and that