The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-01 00:00:00

THE WEATHER.-Strx 077162, MARCH 31, 1861.

THEEMOOTED., IN THE SHADE.
51—highest since noon yesterday.
40—lowest this morning and during the night.
40—this day at noon.

BAnomETER-29.66.
WIND -.- South - Westerly--light; with rain in the
morning ; fine at noon.

Arna 1

THERMOIKETER, IN THE SHADE.
53—highest since noon yesterday.
35—lowest this morning and during the night.
46—this day at noon.

BARomxTER-29.76.

WiND—Easterly—light and variable ; with light, but
continuous, rain. A bad Easter Monday for the Volun-
teers--Wimbledon to wit, and Brighton to boot.

• • 7"i' I
•
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THE SUN.
LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 1, 1861.

The R,lvenue Returns now published are unhap-
pily in a very great measure what we have so
long been expecting and dreading. Not that we
have been prophets of disaster. Simply, we repeat—
these earliest results of Mr. GLADSTONE'S enormous
experiments of last year turn out to be in a very
great measure precisely what we have been dread-
ing and expecting. None would have avowed more
gladly than we should have done, supposing the
" Tables" to have been turned—not one would
have acknowledged more gladly or more eagerly
than we should have done the erroneous nature of
our anticipations. The single regret we have at
this moment arises exclusively out of the unaffected
pang with which we recognise the complete
justifications of those unwelcome and un-
willing expectations of ours as to the
not simply probable, or problematic, but as we
conceived last year, and as this year the event has
actually proved the certain and inevitable conse-
quences of Mr. GLADSTONE'S daring exploits, or
rather, as we have said, and as they were
literally, experiments as a Financier. Without
further generalisations of regret, however, in the
way of preliminary comment upon these in many
parts really afflicting returns, let us turn to a
more careful and analytical examination of
the tables themselves—these tables for the past
year, and especially for the past quarter—
examining them Under the microscopic lens of
the wonderful little official " MEMORANDUM" by
which they are accompanied.
This most unusual, if not absolutely un-
exampled " MEMORANDUM"--a memorandum sent
forth from the Treasury together with the Revenue
returns themselves—tells the tale of the year and
of the quarter pretty plainly by the mere fact of its
most unlooked for apparition. The returns when
looked into, as usual, do certainly appear to require
something quite out of the common in the way of
explanation. And here—in this Memorandum
Extraordinary—is precisely this something quite
out of the common in the way of explana-
tion. The memorandum coming to us from
the Treasury, not marked down " Private
and Confidential," we presume at once, with-
out affecting any great exercise of sagacity or
accumen, cannot be intended to convey to
us any very recondite or esoteric information,
any facts or figures confided to us sub rosa, for after
use according to our own discretion. Nevertheless,
if not whispering information to us sub rosa, the
memorandum we are here referring to ismanifestly
designed to impart a sort of agreeable couleur de
rose effect to those otherwise lugubrious facts and
figures jotted down in the Revenue Returns both
for the year and for the quarter—facts and figures
that when they are viewed in their natural grim-
ness [not looking at them through this couleur de
rose memorandum] certainly do lour upon us only
too plainly and legibly in the doleful black-on
white.

As usual, there are three abstracts in these re-
turns from the Treasury. There is 1., the abstract
of the gross produce of the revenue of the United
Kingdom in the four quarters of 1860-1861 as com-

pared with the corresponding quarters of 1859.

1860, supplementing this abstract upon those con

trasting quarters—by a comparison of the totals

upon each of those financial twelvemonths. There is

11., the abstract defining the increase and the de-
crease within the quarter and within the year

ending March 31, 1861, as compared with the cor.
res Ponding periods of the preceding year, i e., of the
Preceding financial twelvemonth. Finally, there
the abstract explanatory of the nature and
amouut of the Revenue and other receipts of this
last qukirter, ending yesterday, showing also the
application of this same revenue and the charge of
the Conso.lidated Fund for the said quarter; not
forgetting either in regard to that charge duly
returned n terns. of surplus or deficiency.
Glancing
down the second division of the Re-
venue Tablet ;--the abstract especially referred to
curious Memorandum accompanying
by the very'
the returns,- —we note in the first place
a falling
off in the rei venue for the year ending yesterday
of a sum nc far short of a round million!
ter ending yesterday Hive
Upon the crlar
decrease, howevir,
formidable
is a far mo re