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

THE BUDGET.

The house having resolved itself into Committee of Ways
and Means, Mr. Massey in the chair,
The CHANCELLOR; of the EXCHEQUER rose, amid
some cheering, to make the financial statement for the year.
The right hon. gentleman said :—Mr. Massey—The retro-
spective portion of the statement I have to submit to you is
the most unfavourable—indeed, I may say it is the only un-
favourable statement of account—that it has ever been my
lot to lay before the House of Commons. For that as well as
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I invite their attention somewhat at large to its details.
Whatever we may think of the legislation of last year, we
must all concur in the opinion that it was no ordinary year
in the financial history of this country. It was a year in
which the house gave its sanction to that great instrument,
the treaty of commerce with France—(hear, hear) ; it was
a year in which we received a remission of our hereditary
burdens, through the diminution of the charge on debt,
such as we probably shall never receive again ; it was a
year in which the controversy with respect to Protection,
which so long agitated the country and disorganised this
house, was at length finally wound up, for ii closed without
leaving on the Statute Book of the United Kingdom one
single protective duty of more than nominal amount. (Hear,
hear.) It was also a year of the highest taxation and of the
greatest expenditure that has ever been blown in this
country, unless in the midst of an European war; and,
finally, it was a yeaf marked by a succession of seasons—the
spring, the summer, the autumn, and the winter—the most
unfavourable with which it has pleased Providence to visit
us for the course of about half a century. (Hear, hear.)
The questions, I may further observe, which were debated
in this house during last session were questions of no ordi-
nary moment, from whatever point of view we may look on
them. The issue which they raised was no trifling issue.
In one of the besutiful tragedies of Schiller, Mary,Queen of
Sects, is made to say of herself, " I have been much hated,
but I have also been much beloved ;" and I think I may
with equal truth say that the financial legislation of last
year met, on the whole, with signal support from the great
body of the public opinion of this country, while I do not
mean to contend that it was not, upon the other hand, un-
acceptable to many. But, be that as it may, I feel bound to
admit that although the financial proposals of the Govern-
ment were last Session fully and minutely canvassed, they
were fairly and in no factious spirit discussed within these
walls. In taking a retrospective view of these measures it
will be my duty to lay before the Committee, as far as I am
able, the whole material facts exhibited by the financial
history of the past year ; and while I cannot but doubt
that I must perform that task most imperfectly, yet I need
hardly say that the shortcomings in that respect with
which I may be chargeable will not be owing to any want
of will or effort on my part. I may add that in reeking this
statement I hope to be seconded in my desire to afford the
fullest information to the house, by the kind assistance of
hon. members on both the one side of it and the other.
(Hear, hear.) I shall first, then, submit to your notice the
estimated and the actual expenditure of the past year. The
expenditure which was estimated and provided for in the
regular votes for the year, and entirely apart from the Act
which was passed towards the close of the session for erecting
with borrowed money certain fortifications, was £73,664,000;
and, inasmuch as the Act relating to fortifications was by
common consent treated as a matter entirely distinct from
the ordinary financial arrangements of the year, I will not
farther refer to it, except casually on one or two points,
in the course of my observations to=night. The estimated
expenditure was then, ,as I said, £73,664,000, while the
actual was £72,812,000, thus, as is apt to happen at a time
when great warlike preparations are in progress, following
closer on the estimated expenditure than is usually the case,
but still falling considerably short of it, and showing a dif-
ference of £822,000 in favour of the former. Into the de-
tails of the expenditure for the last year I do not moan to
enter, but this I may say,—that while there was a consider-
able saving on the estimate for the collection of the re-
venue, and a certain amount of saving on other estimates,
there was a considerable overcharge for the navy, resulting
from the settlement of the accounts of former years; so that
the sum of £822,000 which I have mentioned as represent-
ing the balance in our favour as between estimated and
actual expenditure is almost entirely due to the vote of
credit taken for the prosecution of military operations in
China. That vote, which I submitted to the house last
July, amounted to £3,800,000, while the expenditure
amounted only to £3,000,000, a fact which ought to be
sufficient to convince the house that any man laboured
under a delusion who supposed that it was the object of the
Government last Session to invite the sanction of the house
to what they believed W be an inadequate provision for the
military operations in wlsach there was a prospect of our
becoming engaged. I have, I may add, somewhat over-esti-
mated the balance remaining to us on the China vote, for
it is in point of fact somewhat less than £300,000; but,
passing by that point, I shall proceed to the examination of
the revenue of the past financial year—a subject in dealing
with which the committee will, no doubt, follow me with a
greater degree of interest. That subject I will endeavour
to place before you in all the various lights by which, so far
as I am able to form an opinion, I may be able to increase
your means of knowledge with respect to it. I will first
compare the revenue of the last with that of the previous
year; then with the actual expenditure of the year itself;
and, finally, with the Estimates framed at the commence-
ment of the year. The two last of these modes of compari-
son will render the committee assistance in forming an (Ti-
n:ion as to how far the Government exercised a sound judg-
nt in the calculations which they made; but I may
observe that the first mode of dealing with the point—that
is to say, comparing the revenue of the last with that of the
previous year—is one of the greatest interest, regarded as a
;law vi tll9 coulitim vi the covatry, 109