The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-16 00:00:00

THE FINANCE 'ACCOUNTS.

The accounts for the financial year which ended
on the 31st of March last have been presented to
Parliament. They state that the gross income of
the year was £71,089,668, and the expenditure
(including £4,438,548 for charges of collection),
£69,502,289, showing an excess of income over ex-
penditure of £1,587,379, which includes £256,385
received from the Spanish Government in part of
the £496,385 due to the British Government for
arms and stores supplied during the civil war in
Spain 1831-1838, bat does not include £673,402
advances for drainage and local public works re-
paid. By Customs and Excise duties we raised
£44,821,901, th• bulk of it in these items:—
From spirits, wine, malt, and hops £21,083,000
„ tea and sugar..
„ tobacco and snuff

£38,046,467
The remainder includes some items not of the de-
scription popularly understood from the term
" Excise duties ;" there is £586,112 for taxes upon
travelling and game certificates. Then follow
three great classes of income partaking of the cha-
racter of direct taxation :
Stamps
Land and assessed taxes
Property and income tax

£20,871,704
The rest of the income is made up of Post-office revs
nue, Crown lands, and miscellaneous receipts. In
the table of stamp duties received we ought to learn
what the succession duty produced, but are balked
by finding it lumped with the old legacy duty ; the
entry is "Legacies and Successions, £2,104,670,"
which is no very favourable return. Bills of exchange
produced £505,233 ; receipts and draughts no more
than £387,874. Newspapers and supplements
brought in £141,557. Among the assessed taxes
dogs helped us to £193,644; even hair-
powder to £1,192 ; armorial bearings to £55,377.
In the Post-office accounts a deduction is made
of no less than £20,954 for letters returned, re-
fused, mis-sent, and re-directed, and over-charges.
Among the miscellaneous receipts " conscience-
money" produced £16,488, showing to what evasions
the income-tax must tempt people—a temptation
which is seriously increased with the increase of
the tax. Tho balances in the hands of the col-
lectors of the revenue sewn large—considerably
above half a million even at the close of the
financial year. We turn now-to the expenditure.
The interest of the debt took £28,638,725; the
army and navy nearly as much—£26,739,102,
which includes but £858,057 for China. Then
comes the Civil List, £403,260, but this includes
pensions amounting to £18,260, which we believe
are the literary pensions. The annuities to the
Royal family, £143,788, include the whole charge
of £50,000 a-year to the King of the Belgians, but
among the miscellaneous receipts we have already
passed a repayment of £38,000 to the Exchequer,
the balance being applied in pensions to the ser-
vants of the late Princess Charlotte. The political
pensions follow, among which are payments of
£2,000 a-year to Mr. Disraeli, Sir G. Grey, and Lord
Glenelg, on retirement from the Cabinet. There
are five pensions of £5,000 a-year to ex-Lord Chan
cellors, and six of £3,500 to English ex-judges and
an ex-Vice-Chancellor. There is a very long list
of compensations charged upon the Consolidated
Fund, some of them remarkable for the length of
time they have been paid, for among the benefi-
ciaries are the doorkeeper and housemaid of the
Irish House of Lords ; other cases are conspicuous
for the amount charged, for there is a round sum of
£130,000 a-year for officers of the late Ecclesiasti-
cal and Prerogative Courts. The Earl of Ellen-
borough takes £7,700 a-year, as having once been
Chief Clerk of the Court of Queen's Bench ; the
Rev. T. Thurlow has £4,028 annually for being
deprived of the office of keeper of hanaper, and Lord
Avonmore £4,200 as retired principal registrar of
the Irish Court of Chancery. The Church has got
very little hold upon the Consolidated Fund ;
the clergy in the West Indies have £20,300 a year
from it, and the Scotch clergy £17,040, while in
Ireland Maynooth has its £26,300 a year, the
Queen's Colleges only £21,000, but they get a fur-
ther annual vote among the Estimates, from which
theological bitterness has excluded Maynooth.
The Russian-Dutch loan and the Greek loan take
front us £130,000 a-year. The home secret-service
money is £lO,OOO a-year ; the foreign—£32,ooo—
voted among the estimates. We have confined
ourselves to the charges paid out of the Consoli-
dated Fund without any annual vote, because,
though they are under £2,000,000, and the annual
votes of the estimates are about four times as much,
the former are little known, while the latter have
been fully stated by us very recently.