The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-19 00:00:00

July; and, if so, whether he had taken any and what steps
isiovegiaa.ta-that regiment?
Mr. CARDWELL said that a military and a civil in-
quiry had been instituted in reference to the subject, but
the reports .4(l_not yet been received._
LONDON C 0-111? ORATIQN TtEPTSRI3I7.I3 114 L :

.
In reply fo Sir J. SirEtt.Ev and another hen. member,
Sir C. LEWlS'said that he proposed to move the se.cond
reading of this bill on :Friday night. • - He would postpone
the fiirther progress, o: the Highways Bill.
THE BUDGET. • •

The house having resolved itself into a committee of
Ways and Means, Mr. MASSEY in the chair, .
The. CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, rose and
said,--I presume, Sir, that it will be for the convenience of
~ the committee that I should follow the usual practice of
making known to it, befere I proceed to discuss any plans or
proposals of the Government, the results of the finance of
the last year. This need not occupy any great length of
time. I will state to the committee the estimates of income
as they were proposed by the right hon. gentleman the mem-
ber for Buckinghamshire when he held the office of Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, during the year 1858; the actual
receipt of revenue which took place when those estimates
came to be tested by the result, and likewise the experience
of the year as it stands. The right hon. gentleman esti mated
the Customs' revenue at £23,400,000. It produced
£24,117,000. He estimated the Excise at £18,600,000. It
produced
only £17,902,000. He took the Stamps at
£7,850,000. They produced £8,005,000. The
_Land and
Assessed Taxes were estimated at £3,200,000. They pre-
duced £3,162,000. The Income-tax, which the right hon.
gentleman estimated at £6,100,000, exceeded that sum by
more than half a million, and produced £6,683,587. The
lost-office revenue correspondedprecisely with the estimate
of the right hon. gentleman, which was £3,200,000. The
Crown Lands, which he took at £270,000, produced
£280,041, and the Miscellaneous revenuesovhich he esti-
mated at £1,300,000, amounted to £2,125,944. (Hear, hear.)
The Miscellaneous revenues, it will be in the recollection
of the Committee, are very difficult to estimate with preci-
sion, particularly a a period shortly after the close of a
great war, when extensive changes are in progress in the
manufacturing establishments of the country, which lead to
the disposal of old stores and the substitution of new ones
upon a scale that is sometimes impossible to calculate be-
forehand. The general result on the total of the revenue
of the year was, I think, satisfactory. The right hon. gen-
tleman estimated the entire revenue. at £63,920,000; its
precise amount was £65,477,284. (Hear, hear.) With re-
spect to expenditure, I do not know that I need trouble
the Committee by referring to the original estimates of the
right hon. gentleman, because they were subjected to cer-
tain modifications in the course of the session, as supple-
mettiry estimates, adding to the charges for the year, were
brought forward. But I shall state to the Committee the
expenditure as it actually took place. The charge of the
debt took £28,527,484; the Consolidated Fund charge was
£1,940,655; the charge for the army was £12,612,291; the
charge for the navy, £9,215,487; the Civil services amounted
to £7,169,473; the collection of the revenue, or the expen-
diture on account of the revenue departments, was
£4,515,969. There were, besides, two votes retrospective
in their character, one of them for operations in China,
£391,943 ; and the other some remaining expenses of the
Russian war, £390,580. The total result was to give an ex-
penditure of £64,663,882, against a revenue of £65,477,284 ;
so that there was in round numbers a surplus of about
£BOO,OOO upon the balance between the income and expen-
diture for the year. (Cheers.) The Committee will pro-
bably wish to know what has been the fate, so far as it can
be ascertained, of the special proposals that were made by
the right hon. gentleman during the last year for the pur-
pose of increasing the revenue of the country. At the
same time they should bear in mind that our experience has
been too short to enable us to pronounce conclusively upon
the degree of success that has attended those proposals, But
as far as we are aware the facts are as follow :---the Id.
stamp upon draughts or checks was estimated to produce
£300,000, and the augmentation of duty upon Irish spirits,
which was proposed by theright hon. gentleman in such a
manner as to produce a complete equalisation between the
spirit duties of the three kingdoms, was estimated to yield
£500,000. Neither of these duties has, however, as yet
produced the sum which was expected from them. We have
no means of knowing precisely what has been the product
of the stamp duty upon draughts or checks, because it is
kept in a single account with the stamp duty upon re-
ceipts, and the only measure that can be applied to that
portion of the revenue which is due to the stamp duty
upon checks is by comparing it with the whole increase
that has taken place in the aggregate produce of the .two
duties. The duty upon receipts had been a cons
gently increasing duty up to the year 1858, and therefore,
if in 1859 wo credit the penny duty upon stamps with the
whole increase that• has taken place since 1858, that is, upon
the whole, perhaps, the fairest mode of reckoning that can
be adopted. The aggregate duty upon receipt stamps and
draught stamps in the year which ended on the 31st of
March last was £418,000. The duty from receipt stamps
alone, with the addition of the draught stamps which were
formerly required in all cases where draughts passed beyond
a distance of 15 miles, in the year 1857-8 yielded £281,000;
so that the probable produce of the dUty upon checks was
no more than £137,000. But, then, it is to be borne in mind,
in the first place, that the duty was in operation for little
more than a period of 10 months instead of 12 ; and, in the

second place, that many persons - were already provided
with stamped cheques for the purpose of transmission over
the country, a circumstance that would naturally retard the
influx of revenue from the new duty until new stocks of
cheques required to be provided. It is very hard to say
what that duty is likely to produce, but, upon the whole,
I think it would be sanguine, with the information which
we now possess, imperfect although it be, to repeat an esti-
mate so high as £300,000. I should think that £200,000, or
something lower, is in all likelihood the sum which the duty
upon draughts or cheques will add to our revenue. I may
state here that a question has been raised whether it would
not be convenient to abolish a partial exemption which is
found to exist under the present law. I do not lmow whether
it was part of the original intention of the rigb t hon. gentle •
man, but under the law, as it stands it has been found that
the drawer of a cheque is entitled himself to receive across
the counter the proceeds of the cheque without payment of
duty. The general opinion, I think, seems to be that that
exemption is not strongly founded either in reason or in con •
venience ; and I also believe that the opinion of the bankers
of London, considering it with reference to the facility of
operations, is that their trade would be decidedly in favour
of its removal. (Hear, hear.) It is not an important
financial operation, but probably as a matter of fiscal im-
provement, I may think it my duty to make a proposal to
the house for removing that exemptioh. (Hear, hear.)
With respect to the question of Irish-spirits, it is one of
greater interest, and at the same time the change has been
attended with a less degree of success ; but it ought always
to be recollected, in the first place, that all duties of that
description require some considerable interval before their
operation can be correctly appreciated, •and, in the second
place, that the measure of equalisation proposed by the
right hon. gentleman was in itself a fiscal reform of very
considerable importance, as establishing one duty between
Ireland, Scotland, and England, independently of its pecu-
niary results. (Hear, hear.) However, the pecuniary re-
sult stands thus :—Upon Irish spirits in 1858-59 as com-
pared with 1857-8 we had an increase in actual money of
only £85,000, which is but a.very small proportion of what
had been expected to proceed from that source. But, then,
the duty did not take effect from the first day of the financialte
year. It took effect on the 17th of April, and between h
dl setliovferAedpnfrle,
about a fortnight, no fewer 1,129,000 gallons of spirits, or
mwhheenndthihe yierealrebnertnh,euanghd tthhee
pl7etrhiedthwereee wehierey
ethdedicotiennsai dumpi4ion
upono f tw
thatoquantity of spirits, months. (Alaugh.)lif w,
whichetak i
ethes
fairly due to the accounts of the year, inasmuch as the
period between the let and 15th of April formed part of the
financial year, it would add £103,000 to the £85,000 which
I have mentioned, giving a total of £lBB,OOO as the produce
of the new scale of duty for the year. As far as we can judge
from the produce.in the peribd which has elapsed since the
Ist of April last, there is a prospect of the duty being con-
siderably more productive ; but at the same time it is hardly
possible to judge of the result of changes of this kind upon
articles of consumption. Where many interests mix with
and traverse to a certain extent the proceedings of Parlia-
ment, and where likewise the effects of your operations depend
in some measure upon seasons and the prices of raw ma-
terial, it is not possible to form a conclusive judg-
ment upon the Pecuniary results of any change in the law
until a year or two have elapsed. (Hear, hear.) Such, then,
is the state of the case with regard to the revenue and ex-
penditure of the year which closed on 31st of March
last, and with respect to the measures proposed in the ses-
sion of 1858 for the purpose of providing a surplus of
revenue over expenditure. I come now to a more grave and
serious part of the task which is imposed upon me. I have
to lay before the committee in the first instance an estimate
of the revenue and expenditure for the year which is now
current. The committee is already generally aware, from
the estimates that have been laid before it, that the expendi-
ture will be unusually large, and that, consequently, in-
creased efforts must be made to meet it. To begin with the
estimates of revenue, the Customs are taken to yield for the
year which commenced on the Ist of April last, and which
will close on the 31st of March next, a sum of £23,850,000 ;
the Excise, £18,530,000 ; the Land and Assessed Taxes,
£2,200,000; Stamps, £8,100,000; Income-tax, 5
Lands,
£5,600,000 ; Post-office, £3,250,000 ;
be as well to state that in the last-mienio
o definite arrange-
ments£2Bo,ooo ; and Miscellaneous Receipts, Lln,edsC3rgiOteoom.
tlhtermeaiye
included a sum: with respect to which no
000,
hiuscihnetshseiyumliaeyu
or less probable that the Nrw-hi;lchpiatyisotuutoreof
have been made—a scuoobmutanoicnfil
Indian revenue, in order to
erect buildings for the transactionede
all-strect. Although to some
of the premises in Le.
has no disturbing effect upon
aoo
of their
site
thoeni r
of revenue and expenditure which I
the general balance
if the Council of India does not
shall present, because,
the Treasury to that extent for the ground
reimburse
extent uncertain, this item
which it would acquire, the Treasury will not incur the
outlay for it. The total of the items which I have given
to the committee is £64,340,000; and 'it may, perhaps,
be interesting to the committee to cOmpore this total with
the estimate of last year, in which the 'right hon. gentle-
man the member for Bucks proceeded upon the same basis
of taxes, with the exception of those which he himself pro •