The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-01 00:00:00

The Revenue Returns for the year and quarter
are once more before us. They present no very
remarkable features, and all that can be said is,
that they are about what might have been ex-

petted.

There is an increase on the quarter of £1,125,496,
but it must be borne in mind that the comparison
is made with the most disastrous period which the
nation has witnessed for many years, when trade
and commerce were completely paralysed, and no
money was paid that could possibly be avoided,
the minimum ...rate of discount at the Bank of Eng:
land being 10 per cent. The decrease on the year,'
however, is no less than £4,103,347. Far more than
that has, however, been lost by the Income
Tax on which the diminution on the year has been
.no less than £7,546,809, a result by no
means astonishing when we consider the reductions
that have taken:place in the duty, in consequence
of Mr. DISRAELI having kept faith with the na-
tion in reducing it to sd. in the pound, and it may
be remembered that each penny of the tax was
estimated to produce £1,000,000 sterling to the
•
revenue.

There is an increase in the Customs on tho
Quarter of £619,169 when compared with 1857,
but a decrease of £20,000 if the comparison be
made with 1856 ; on the Year the increase as com-
pared with 1857 is £1,627,648, but £518,000
only as compared with 1856. These increases are
owing also in part to a reduction of balances in the
hands of collectors ; the net increase arises prin-
cipally upon Sugar, Tea,. Corn, and Tobacco.
The increase in the Excise on the Quarter. is
£235,000, and £494,000 on the Year, arising
chiefly from the Malt Duty, The results, when
compared with 1856, are less favourable, there
being a decrease on the year 1858, as compared
with 1856, of £lOB,OOO. As the increase of duty
on Irish Spirits was estimated to yield an increased
revenue of half a million, the result in this respect
is not satisfactory.
We fear that the failure of the duties on spirits
to produce the' estimated additional revenue may,
in a great degree, be attributed to the increase
of illicit distillation which invariably attends high
duties, where a sufficient premium is offered to the
unfair trader to engage in the demoralising traffic.
The Revenue from Stamps is more encouraging ;
the Quarter shows an increase of £268,000 bqyond
the same quarter of 1857, and of £191,000
beyond 1856; the increase on the year 1858
as compared with 1857 is £727,120 and about
the same sum as compared with 1856 ; the augmen-
tation arises from an improvement in the receipts
from the Succession Duty and other heads of
Revenue, and, from the new tax on Bankers'

Cheques.
In taxes there is a slight improvement. This
does not go far to indicate any great prosperity.
As an enlarged population must have a greater
number of dwelling houses ! The increase on the
quarter is £22,000, and on the year £54,013—
small but satisfactory results.
As we have stated, the loss on the Income-tax
for the .year is £7,546,809, but on the quarter
it is only £261,307. This proves that the smaller
amount is more cheerfully and promptly liquidated.
The Post-office exhibits an increase of £50,000 on
the .Quarter, and of £83,000 on the Year, due
mainly to the progressive increase of the busi-
ness of . that department. The Crown lands
show a trifling improvement on both year and
quarter. Much more might, however, be, and
doubtless, will be, effected. There is also an in-
erase on miscellaneous both on the quarter and the
year.

On the former of £192,264 and on the latter of
' £453,895. This is, however, but casual revenue,
the mere waifs and extra that come into the
clutches of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
On the whole, as we have stated, the result is
as well as could be expected, and seems
to indicate a good time coming, when the
country is recovered from, the paralysing effects of
the undue caution now exercised respecting honest
ind solvent traders.

There passed through the General Post-office
this morning (Jan. 1) not far short of 2,000 pack-
ages enveloped in folding-papers, upon each of
which was imprinted, in staring characters,
" WRONGS WHICH CRY FOR REPRESS."
Some hundreds of them were directed to Members
of Parliament. •

subjects, or of our own colonies and dependencies,

We have, accordingly, a large allotment of such
investments tendered for our acceptance, respecting
which it would be well if small capitalists exercised
the caution which they are disposed-4 exhiNt on
every domestic matter.

Such commercial delinquency was prac-
tically unknown in the olden time. Men en-
tered into speculations, and occasionally failed ;
but there was not the wholesale manufac-
ture of fictitious paper, nor the gigantic stakes
played for, that have been witnessed in later
days. Then discount vibrated between 4 and Oper
cent., and the main point required was, that the
" merchant adventurer"—a designation that beto-
kened:a certain amount of risk—should make himself
thoroughly acquainted with the state of the pro-
duce market, and the fair prospect of improvement
or depreciation in the particular article in which
he was about to speculate. Another element occa-
sionally entered into the calculation.• He might
have to estimate the probable price of gold ; but as
the balance of trade was generally in favour of
Great Britain, and there were no rapid fluctuations
in the value of the precious metals, no great per-
turbations were occasioned to compel men to re-
sort to criminal means to bolster up their affairs, or
to incur the danger of penal servitude, in order to
carry on a few months longer; those few months
being capable, however, of changing the bankrupt
speculator into a wealthy and respectable merchant:
It is the Act of 1844 which has occasioned all the
mischief. The fluctuations in the value of money
e., in the rate of discount) have led to com-
mercial fraud. They proceeded directly from that
unjust and impolitic law. Before its enact-
ment the changes were of comparatively trivial
amount and inconsiderable importance, but
since its fatal operation we have seen discount
varying from 2} to 10 per cent. at head-quarters,
and in almost a duplicate ratio out of Thread-
needle-street. The soundest calculations were
thereby defeated. There might be famine in the
land, our brothers and sisters starving, and yet
orders for flour should be countermanded. Cheap-
ness was of no importance when the merchant
could not obtain credit to pay for that which he
desired to import, or the purchaser for what he
wished to consume. The former might recklessly
dash onward on the principle that, if he succeeded
he would realise enormous profits, sufficient to extri-
cate him from other embarrassments ; but, if other-
wise, the consequences of his failure would be
scarcely more disastrous. The speculation might
prove the plank to the shipwrecked sailor, that
would bear him from the sinking ship, and although
some might have strength of mind to resist the
temptation, many would yield.
Such are some of the results of the Bank Charter
Act, which, should it remain unmodified, will be
the cause of the decline and fall of British prosperity
and British honour.