The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TITESDAN EVENING, APRIL 16, 1861.

' we had a year of which I may say all the circumstances
were favourable to the revenue. So favourable were they,
indeed, that on the 10th of February, 1860, I, preceeding
on the estimates framed in the public departments, told the
House of Commons I anticipated more than a balance of
revenue and expenditure afer provision for a certain amount
on account of the war with China. When, however, the
31st of March came there was a balance in our favour—to
nominally a greater extent—but in reality to the extent of
£1,200,000. In 1860-61, on the contrary, we hal a
year in which the supply of the fruits of the • earth
was stinted, and which may be looked upon as one of
the severest within the memory of any living man.
The revenue of 1859-60 was £71,089,000, and the revenue of
1860-61 was £70,283,000. There is an apparent decrease of
£806,000; but I hope the committee will not think I am
trifling with their understandings when I point out to them
that one of these years was materially shorter than the
other. (A laugh.) The revenue of this country is in the
gross about £200,000 a-day for every paying day in theyear,
but that part of it which depends strictly upon operations
from day to day may be stated at £lOO,OOO a day. The year
1860-61 was, for every practical purpose, shorter by three
days than 1859-60. It was shorterin this way :-1859-60
was a leap year, which accounts for ene day, and 1860-61
was in the predicament—most happy with reference to our
other interests, but n't favourable to the interests of the
revenue—of both commencing and ending with a Sunday.
(A laugh.) By means of this extra Sunday there eyas a
loss of a clear day's pay; and the third day is accounted
for by the circumstance that in the course of the year
1860-61 there fell two Good Fridays. (A laugh.) After say-
ing, however, that two Good Fridays fell to our lot in the
course of 1860-61, I may mention to the committee that in
the present year, 1861-62, there is no Good Friday at all.
(A laugh.) The deduction of three days, representing re-
venue to the amount of £300,000, shows a real diminution
in the revenue of 1860-61 as compared with 1859.60 of
£506,000, or, in round numbers, £500,000; and that, upon
the whole, is a fair comparison. I have endeavoured to
examine with all the care in my power, and what I find is
this :—V7O remitted taxes last year to the extent of
£2,900,000, ;or, in round numbers, £3,000,000; but what
with the incense tax, the additional spirit duty, and the
minor charges we imposed taxes as nearly as possible to the '
same amount. So far, therefore, the balance was not dis-
turbed. There was one other point, however, which might
have disturbed it. It was this—in both years we made some
draughts upon temporary resources. In 1859.60 we had
£856,000 from the retrenchment of the malt credit, and we
had likewise the sum of £250,000 in the shape of the repay-
ment of a debt from Spain, making together £1,106,000. In
1860-61 we expected to make a larger demand upon tem-
porary resources. 'We were to have £300,000 from the hop
duty; but that sum entirely disappeared, partly by • the
failure of the crop, and partly by the necessity of postpon-
ing the payment upon the reduced crop. We were to have
£1,100,000 on account of the malt duty; but that sum,
owing to the disastrous circumstances of the harvest,
shrank into £778,000. We got £250,000 from Spain, a
payment equal in amount to that made in the previous
year; so that, as compared with £1,106,000 of temporary
resources in 1859-60, we had £1,028,000 in 1860-61.; It
is, consequently, fair and just to say that the absolute
revenue of the country, after making every reasonable de-
duction, diminished under the circumstances of the last
year by about £500,000. (Hear, hear.) I must confess,
when I consider that the bad season of last year certainly
did not represent a loss to the revenue upon the whole of
less than from £2,000,060 to £3,000,000, that I cannot but
regard with satisfaction the fact that the country exhibits a
real deficiency in the yield of its taxes to an extent not ex-
ceeding, but rather falling short of £500,000. (Hear, hear.)
Let me now compare the revenue with the expenditure of the
country. The expenditure of 1860-61 was £72,842,000, and
the revenue, as I have said, was £70,283,000, showing upon
the face of the figures a deficiency of £2,559,000. But this
account likewise requires verification. In the first place, a
sum of £288,000, or, in round numbers, £300,000, out of
the £2,559,000 belongs in every substantial respect to the
account of 1859-60. There was a payment made by the
State on account of drawback to the holders of certain stocks
of wine. It was estimated and allowed for by.me in the
accounts of 1860-61 at £350,000, and was so taken by the
house at the time when the financial statement for that year
was laid before it. Of course that money went into the
balances of the country as part of the surplus revenue, and
it was merely owing to a legal technicality that we were
obliged to charge it in 1860-61. It is a legitimate deduction,
having nothing to do with the real deficiency of 1860-61.
The deficiency is thus reduced to £2,271,000, or, in round
numbers, £2,250,000. It will be recollected that last Session
we dismissed the subject of provision for expenditure with
a deficiency; but, in July, when we had before us the esti-
mate of the charge for the war with China, the Government
proposed, and the house agreed, I think, without opposi-
tion, that a portion of that charge should be defrayed
from taxes, and a portion should be taken from the balances
in the Exchequer, which were well able to bear it.
£1,416,000 was the sum in the original estimates of expen-
diture for which we made no provision ; in other words,
that was the amount which we were to take from the
balances in • the Exchequer. If we deduct that sum of
£1,416,000 from £2,271,000, representing the actual defi-
ciency, it follows that the real deficiency over and above
what was anticipated in 1860-61, and what was sanctioned
by Parliament, is £855,000 ; and certainly in a year
of charges so heavy,- and of - receipia--so- -unusually
stinted with reference to the power and resources of the
country, I do not think that is an unsatisfactory result.
(Hear, hear.) I come now to that which has more to do
with the question of the judgment that the House of Com-
mons may be disposed to pass upon the Government—l
mean the comparison between the revenue of the year and
the estimates of that revenue which were laid before the
house last session. I shall not refer to various and, happily,
contradictory complaints that were made from different
quarters—some alleging that the estimates of the revenue
had been outrageously swollen through the partial senti-
ments of the Government, and others asserting, with equal
confidence, and, I have no doubt, equal sincerity, that an
improper reserve had been exercised in the preparation of
the Estimates, in order to mislead the house. The revenue
as estimated was £72,248,000—the actual revenue
£70,283,000, the difference £1,965,000, or, in round num-
bers, £2,000,000. Let me ask the particular attention of the
Committee to the constituent elements of this sum of
£2,000,000, becouse they are material as throwing light not
only or mainly upon the conduct of the Government, or
even the wisdom of the proceedings of Parliament in a par-
tieular session, but upon a number of questions of permanent
interest and importance in connexion with the welfare of
the country. To bring clearly before the mind of the Com-
mittee the manner in which the difference of £2,000,000 has
arisen, I shall first deal with all branches of revenue in the
gross which are of the least importance—all branches,
namely, except the two great branches of Customs and
Excise. Stamps, taxes, income .tax, the Post-office, Crown
lands, and miscellaneous rireipts were estimated to yield
£27,457,000. They actually produced £27,542,000, showing
an excess of £85,000. (Hear, hear.) Some heads were
£50,000 above the estimate, others were Vio,ooo below it ;
but we may overlook these details, satisfied with the fact
that the whole of these branches of revenue yielded as
nearly as may be what they were estimated to produce.
A word in passing on the subject of the minor duties, not
because they form a vital or important part of this question,
but because there is some misapprehension with respect to
them. 'When they were originally proposed to Parliament
in February they were expected to yield about £900,000;
but in the course of the session an important change was
made in them with a view to the relief of the trading com-
munity, upon whom several of them immediately fell; and
the consequence was that the ultimate estimate of the yield
of these duties, after taking credit for a number of small
adjustments, was about £590,000. One of the duties—that
upon chicory—remained in abeyance during the greater part
of the year- in consequence of the largeness of the stocks
which had been imported into this country, and which,
having been imported free of duty, were naturally enough
exhausted before the duty-paying stocks were brought into
the market. It should likewise be borne in mind that the
Act for the granting of wine licences was passed only last
year, and although I must say it was passed with as much
expedition as was consistent with the consideration that so
important a subject demanded and received at the hands of
the house, yet it was Rot posiible to get it into full opera-
tion until the end of the summer and travelling season, so
that up to the close of the financial year it has had only a
vary partial effect. In other respects I don't know that the
produce of these minor duties was materally different from
the final form of the financial estimate. I come now to the
revenue of the Customs and Excise. And first of all I must
warn the committee that the revenue of the Caftoms as it
stands in the figures that hon. gentlemen have seen in the
public journals is too favourably represented. The Customs
were estimated to yield £23,430,000. They actually yielded
£23,305,000; that is, there was an apparent deficit of
£135,000 ; but although that difference is a decrease, yet
substantially it may be said to represent equality. If, on the
one hand, we allow for the shortness of the year, and on the
other for the effect that happened through the diminished
payments into the Excise, you may say that the revenue of
Customs yielded as near as possible what it was estimated
to yield. But then it is material to observe that in all
cases of this kind the revenue of the Customs profited un-
unduly at the cost of the Excise. When we have a bad year
the meaning is we have bad seasons ; when we have bad
seasons the meaning is that the produce of the earth is less
abundant than usual. If the produce of the earth is less
abundant than usual, more must be imported from abroad,
and though little of it comparatively is subject to duty, and
none of it to a high duty, yet, of course, that virtually tends
to remove certain dutiable articles from the region of the
Excise, and bring to the credit of the Customs whatever tax
may thereby have been received. Sir, that is particularly re-
markable in the present case, so far as regards the great in-
stance of corn. We call, and not unjustly, our duty on
corn a nominal duty, and yet the yield of that nominal duty
in the year just expired was £866,000. Sir, the amount of
that duty I regard with the greatest dissatisfaction. Every
pound we receivefrom corn over and above the regular duty
upon it reminds us that the harvest has so far fallen short
of what is necessary to supply the average wants of the
country. It tells a melancholy tale in the first instance of
that deficient yield of our own soil, and in the second place
it tells of £2 or £3 withdrawn and withheld from the
revenue in the shape of a narrowed consumption of the corn-
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