The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-31 00:00:00

The Customs will show an increase of

about £650,000
The Excise 360,000
Stamps
Taxes 40,000

The Income-tax will, of course, show a large
decrease, owing to the repeal of the war 9d. The
Post-office shows a small apparent decrease, which
is a mere postponement of revenue to the next
year. The net decrease on the quarter will be
about 2,500,0001. instead of 4,000,0001. as,
from the reduction of Taxes, might fairly have
been expected.
The account of the year, although it will be a
million and &half better than was contemplated at
the time the Budget was introduced, will still
exhibit a total decrease of 4,500,0001. as compared
with the preceding year. The Income Tax alone
would account for the whole of this decrease, but
the Customs and Excise both show a decrease,
owing to the reduction of the duties on Tea,
Coffee, and Sugar, and the repeal of the
War Duty on Malt. The decrease in the

Customs Revenue will amount to about
200,0001., and in the Excise to about 300,0001.,
but these are counterbalanced by an increase on
" Miscellaneous" which may be considered to be
altogether accidental, owing to the sale of old
warlike stores.

These decreases, however, are very much less
than might have been expected from the opera-
tion of reduced taxation.

The Times is already pointing out to a pro-
bable deficiency iu the revenue. It speaks of the
" old jog trot days of habitual surplus and chronic
deficiency." We confess that we cannot altoge-
ther reconcile these expressions. In our simplicity
we should have supposed that " chronic defi-
ciency " was the very antithesis of "habitual
surplus," however, we must submit to be en-
lightened on such points, and bow to the ukases
of the mighty potentate of Printing-House-
Square. Now, we are toll, and we fear
with truth, that there will be a large deficiency
to be provided for, if not during the present year,
at all events in 1859 ; and a ponderous rod has
already been steeped in brine for the benefit of
that naughty boy that will transgress the beaten
track pursued by Sir CH&ELES WOOD and
Sir GEORGE CORNEWALL LEWIS. It says,—
" In a few days it will devolve on Mr. DISRAELI
to tell us how we stand in this respect. The public
have lately seen how money is spent, rather than
how it is got, and have also passed through a corn-
menial panic of a sort to inspire distrust in all
financial statements, and they are gloomy on the
subject. We shall have a deficiency, it is whis-
pered about,--a very large deficiency, with in-
creasing expenditure and falling revenue. How
is the gap to be filled up ! How is the fatal
tendency to be arrested T This is the question of
the day, and all eyes are turned to the new
Chancellor of the Exchequer."
Now, surely, Mr. DISRAELI is not rlsponsible
for the probable deficiency. It is the natural
consequence of the budget of his predecessor, as
we ourselves explained at the time when the last
financial scheme was promulgated. The com-
mercial crisis sprung from the act of 1844
—opposed in the Select Committee by Mr.
DISILAZLI, but of which Sir G. C. LEWIS
was the enthusiastic supporter. He has also to
find the ways and means for paying off the Ex-
chequer Bonds created by Mr. GLADSTONE to meet
the consequences of his abortion.
These alone amount to 2,000,0007., while Sir
G. C.1...ZW1.5 adds what Mr, MoNTAGrE TIGG would
term the xidieuloualy email
for sinking fund, on the waritem of 1,500,0001.
loans. Mr. DISRAELI
had nothing to do with these matters ; put
to is to be constituted ~whiPplng boyut
to bear the castigations merited by Lis prede-

cegsors.
The Times sums up these difficulties in the
\
following terms :
"But there does arise a very grave question,
which it is rather remarkable Mr. Disraeli should
have to encounter—what is to be done for the
next year ? In April, 1859, we are threatened
with a deficiency. We have now taken final leave
of the War Income-tax, it has all been collected,
and it has done its work, so it only enters into the
question as indicating the comparison between

this and the next year. But putting it out of the ;
question, and supposing ourselves clear of that war,
there is still the prospect of a difference between
revenue and expenditure next year to the
amount of six millions. The further reduction
of twopence. in the pound in the Income-tax
will tell on the next year to half its amount,
—that is, one million. Next May two millions
more bonds will fall due. The Sinking Fund un-
der the War Loan Acts will absorb, it is stated, a
million and a half ; and as much more is set down
t o the augmented estimates for the Army and
Navy. Withoqt, then, looking forward to the
great year 1860, which has lately been so promi-
nent in financial discussions as the year when a
large amount of terminable annuities will come to
an end, we may ask with interest, if not anxiety,
what is to be done for next year ?"
It confesses that the task is an arduous one and
" has claims on our candour and indulgence."
Let these claims be recognised. Let the new
budget be strictly criticised, but let it get fair
play. We may easily conceive what a mesa
Sir GEORGE C. LEWIS would make of it.
But the present Financial Minister is made
of very different stuff, and we look forward
with hope to his solution of the problem.
For the present we can go on. The returns
to be published this evening will be
better than could have been anticipated,
considering the reductions in the war imposts.
But for next year ample preparatiou must be
made, and Mr. DISRAELI is not the man to shrink
from or evade the duty.

The Government of India Bill is the lapis
offensionia on the part of the new Cabinet—the
stumbling block in the way of the thick-and-thin
adherents of the late Administration. Lord
DERBY has falsified all their predictions, and
dared to be far more liberal than his predecessor.
He has accepted the responsibility resulting from
the decision of the House of Commons, and fairly
and boldly grappled with it, and that without any
attempt at postponement or procrastination. His
bill was clearly explained before the Easter recess,
and every Member of either House of Parliament,
every public journalist, and, indeed, every man
who pleases to investigate its provisions, will have
full opportunity of considering all its varied details
before the actual discussion thereof. This was a
heavy blow, and great discouragement to
the malcontents—to those who, in the ex-
pectation of a protracted tenure of office,
vainly supposed that they could set public
opinion at defiance, and treat the independent
representatives of independent constituencies with
contumelious indifference or insolent disdain. Had
there been any application for delay, a general
howl would have been set up. It would have
been asserted that the Derbyites desired to main-
tain " the double Government" with all its ad-
mitted evils, and there would have been no hope
either for India or for Great Britain save in their
eviction from office. It would have been a good cry,
and bitter, indeed, was the disappointment at
the loss of so sound a grievance.
But Ministers perceived the trap. They knew
that after the hostile vote of the House of Com-
mons the Board of Directors had lost their pres-
tige, and that whatever doubts might be enter-
tained as to the propriety of legislation
previous to the suppression of the rebel-
lion, and the complete re-establishment of
British supremacy in India, none could remain
after the virtual condemnation of the quondam
rulers of the Anglo-Indian empire. They there-
fore decided promptly and boldly en going on,
and produced a measure far superior in every
respect to that of their predecessors. This was
blow number two, or, to use the language of the
P.U., a "stock dolloger," to the gaping expee-
tants. Accordingly the tactics have been
changed. The bill recognises the principle of repre-
sentation, and therefore it must be bad. -Those
who were loudest in railing against Government
patronage, and the power that would be conferred
on Ministers of tampering with the fidelity of
Members of Parliament, bythe enormous tempta-
tions which they could hold out, are now equally f
or perhaps more vociferous in their complaints
against that which renders a job impossible.
Why should any qualification be required on the
part of the Members of Council ? The choice of
the Crown is circumscribed. The best men may
be excluded. There can be no possibility of nepc-

tism. Aristocratic waiters on providence cannot
show ten years' actual service, or fifteen
years' residence in India. There is no pre-
text under which they may derive profic, and
as a matter of course they are discontented. If
there were even a future prospect, they might bear
the loss of the present chance ; but the door has
been permanently closed against them. There is
a gulf which can never be passed on any condi-
tions with which they can comply.
Then the anode in which the representation is
fixed is no loss intolorable. The constituencies
are too numerous. There must be too much can-
vassing of the proprietors of East India Company's
or railway stock, or those who by actual residence
or service in the country might acquire the franchise.
Why, that is the very thing that wiil ensure the
purity of election. It will not be worth a can-
didate's while to exercise undue influence over a
single voter, or family of voters. The best men
wiil be selected, those who have earned, by
their services, a high reputation that will carry
weight with parties to whom they are individually
unknown. This is one of the chief grounds on
which professing Liberals call for the rejection of
the Ministerial bill, although, if brought forward
by their Whig prokves, it would be enthusiastically
applauded, and a strong claim for national grati-
tude put forward on behalf of the disinterested
authors of a proposition so constitutional and so
liberal.

The right of representation by London, Liverpool,
Manchester, Glasgow, and Belfast are also cavilled
at. Wby should they be selected in preference to
other places ? The answer is simple. The greatest
amount of commerce with India is transacted in
these places, and therefore they have the greatest
interest in its good Government, and in every
subject by which the welfare and prosperity of its
inhabitants can be promoted, so that they may be
made good customers, and the trade stimulated. This
is a sound reason, an admirable argument on
behalf of the chosen districts. But, after all, the
great object is to get rid of the bugbear of
Government patronage, to get any unobjection-
able body who can dispense " the loaves and
fishes," without placing undue power in the
hands of Government. The selection certainly
might have been made far more favourably for
the Derbyites. It cannot be said that London,
Manchester, and Glasgow are disposed to send
Conservative representatives to Parliament. Nor
will they do so, without good reasons, to the
Council.

LATEST NEWS.

VIENNA, MARCH 30.
The general meeting of the shareholders in the
Austrian Credit Mobilier took place yesterday.
The profits realised during the year 1857 do
not allow of the declaration of any dividend be-
yond the interest of 5 per cent. already paid. A
bonus of 225 millions of florins is oarried to the
reserved fund.

The Bourse has been moderately firm in most
stocks, but weak in the Credit Mobilier. Its
shares were at 244 at closing. The Northern
Railway of Austria was quoted at 1681.