The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-30 00:00:00

Actual In-
- .fe come and
L Estimate
. .......... stim
"` Expendi- for the year
;
~ w- . -- - for the year
ending tura for the, ending
, .
April 5, • ending April 5,
48'14. April, 1845.
1.44.
--.3r----
INCOME.. X. igi X.. 1 X.
Customs 19,000,000 21,426,632 21,500,000
Excise
Stamps
Taxes 4,200,000 4,192,473 4,200,000
Property .Tax
Post Office 600,000 628,000 600,000
Crown Lands 130,000 147,000 130,000
. Miscellaneous
China Money
Bank Balances — 37,112
Total Income 50,150,000 52,835,124 51,790,000
ExtirsprrunE.
Debt
Consolidated Fund
.31,535,725 31,485,048 30,097,110
Army 6,619,788 6,118,656 6,616,868
Navy 6,382,990 6,286,057 6,250,128
Ordnance
Miscellaneous
China arrears — 400,000
Three-and-a-Half per •
Cent. Dissentients — 200,000
South Sea Company — 239,000
17,851,920 17,184,233 18,546,060
Total Expenditure
Surplus
Debt paid off — 2,749,000
Real surplus for year ending sth
April, 1844 1,416,000

Deduct postponed payment of 3 per ct. dividend

Estimated Surplus for the year ending Aprils,

845

769,900

2,376,930

FROM VIII MORNING PAPERS OP TXIS DAT.
TIMES.—Dr. Johnson says that the more human misery
is inquired into, the more may it be traced to petty dis-
comforts. Last night's Budget proceeds on this principle.
As far as it goes it is a clearance of small but vexatious
items—the weeds of taxation. We don't begin very grand.
Like the charity children in the front of a procession, the
least come first. The nation is to sacrifice 45,000/. to equalize

the duties on tint and bottle-glass. The insignificant sum
of 25,0001. releases vinegar from taxation, and is a great
relief to many branches of manufacture. At the expense of
100,000/. a great reduction is to be effected in the duty on
marine insurances—a good beginning,_ which a prudent Go-
__

vernment will be sure to follo-w up,-for what can be worse
than a tax on prudence—a penalty on virtue ? Then came
good news for little boys and girls, who have a right to come
in for a bit of this wonderful surplus. With 900,000/. the
tax on currants is to be reduced from 225. to 15s. per cwt.

The great falling off in the importation of currants was
really one of the most pathetic symptoms of the recent dis-
tress. As far as the poor are concerned, the golden apples of
the Hesperides are not a greater fiction than the roast-beef
and plum-pudding of England. The duty on foreign coffee
is to be reduced from Bd. to 6d. a-pound. This great
boon to the poor will cost only 50,0001. Then
follows a significant hint at the consequences of
taxation. The duty on the spurious substitute, chicory, is to
be raised. The next item is important, and will raise a qualm
or two, unnecessarily we think, in the hearts of our agricultu-
ral friends. The duty on raw wool, producing 100,0001., is to
be abolished. This puts the finishing stroke to a long burden
on British manufactures, and adds fresh obsoleteness to such
historical curiosities as the act compelling burial in woollen.
The whole of these reductions amount to about 387,0001.
Considering that the Minister was much in the situation of a
woman with a large, hungry, and ill-clad family, going to
market with ten shillings in her pocket, he has not done
amiss. We now see the instructive force of the promised
issue of half-farthings by our thrifty Premier. To these
changes must be added a reduction of the differential duty on
foreign sugar, in favour of States not tainted with slavery.
The additional duty in their case is to be only 10s. The
effect on the revenue, we suppose, cannot be easily calculated,
as it is not stated. And now for the income-tax. It is to
be considered next year. Perhaps the increasing surplus, and
perhaps the general improvement in trade, may then allow
us to define its somewhat indefinable duration. But to hope
for its early removal, we must have the faith of the sports-
man, who always went out as soon as he saw a patch of blue
sky large enough to make a pair of—what shall we say ?
gaiters, we suppose it was.
POST.—The Chancellor of the Exchequer laid before the
House of Commons, last evening, his annual statement of
the actual receipts and disbursements of the past. and the
anticipated revenue and expenditure of the current years.
He commenced his financial exposition by avowing that
his estimated income of the year just ended had been greatly
exceeded by the actual income. Mr Goulburn next made
the avowal that his calculations of the expenditure of the
last year had far exceeded the actual disbursements. The
charge for the debt on the consolidated fund had fallen short
of his estimate by 50,0001. The expense for the anny had
not been so great by 500,000/. as he had anticipated ; and
the navy had required less by 650,0001. than he had calcu-
lated. Taking together the increase of revenue received
over his last year's estimate, and the decrease of expenditure
below his last year's computation, the Charicellor of the
Exchequer announced that, instead of 700,000/. sur-
plus which he predicted twelve months ago, the actual
surplus of receipts over disbursements, for the year
ending the sth of April, was 4,160,0001. From this
gross surplus on the past year, 2,749,000/., the de-
ficiency of last. year, being deducted, the net surplus
available was 1,400,000/. So far for the year just ended.
Having stated the results of the last, and his anticipations of
the present year, Mr. Goulburn considered the reductions of
duties which he would recommend. As the experiment of
the Tariff had not been fairly tried, and as the surplus could
not be regarded as a permanent one, he left the question of
the property-tax for deliberation next year, when it must
come under the deliberation of Parliament. The present
surplus in hand he proposed to apply to the augmentation of
the balances of the Exchequer, so as to render the Govern-
ment more independent of the Bank, and to conduct their
business on a surer basis. This he thought better than a
present remission of taxation. At the conclusion of his
statement, Mr. Goulburn announced that it was his intention,
when moving the sugar duties, to propose, that from and
after November next the sugar produced in foreign countries,
which did not raise the produce by means of slave labour,
should be admitted into this country at a differential duty of
10s.; that is, at a duty of 345. per cent., our colonial sugar
paying a duty of 245. Our treaty with the Brazils, by
which they were placed on the same footing as the most
favoured nations, expiring in November, is the reason why
November was fixed on by Mr. Goulburn for this change.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer concluded his statement
by congratulating himself and the count
aspect which our finances presented this year ofh:vtmh etha le
pre-
aspect
ones. Exchequer made last
HERALD.—The Chancellor of the f to the
night his financial statement, and laiighoju- gr
gh,anio3dmougbt, the
country that statement must be;
agreeable communication is not enhanced
by: the pleasure of
surprise. The losses slid difficulties to which the country
was exposed during the later years of the Whig Administra-
tion, made us all jealous observers of
ourfinancial condition,
and most are, in consequence, as well apprised of the actual
state of the revenue as the Chancellor of the Exchequer him-
self. As far, therefore, as the financial and commercial pros-
perity of the country is concerned, Mr. Goulburncould tell
little last night which claimed attention by its novelty. The
net revenue
(olfvelasomtitytehaer
laelsnsoerunfitgedlyranehs)d, he said, to upwards of
52
exceeding
htihseesti-
mate of 50,100,000/. by 2,700,000/.
ex-
penditure of the country by, as we understood the report reportof
the Right lion. Gentleman's speech, 4,100,0001., and thus
enabling him to make good at once the whole deficiency of
the preceding year, 2,700,0001., with a handsome surplus of
1,400,0001. still remaining. The great excess of the revenue be-
yond his estimate the Right Hon. Gentleman accounted for by
the unexpected productiveness of many taxes—corn,
800,000/. ; wine, 350,0001. ; foreign wool, 200,000/. ;
tea, 300,000/. ; sugar, 200,000/., &c. The Chancellor
of the Exchequer next explained his purpose and
his expectations for the present year—rating the public ex-
penditure of the country at 48,606,000/., the probable income
at about 51,800,000/., which leaves a balance of more than
three millions sterling in appearance, 2,400,000/. in fact.
This is, we believe, a pretty fair outline of Mr. Goulburn's
financial statement, and it is gratifying on both sides; gra-
tifying, first, in the proof it affords that the Government is
happily in a condition to exercise a choice in dealing with
the finances of the country--gratifying next, in the assurance
that we have escaped from that most ruinous of all systems,
whether to an individual or to nations, the " hand to mouth"
system ; and that her Majesty's Ministers have fairly resolved
to think a little of the future—a degree of providence of
which their predecessors for many years have certainly set
them no example. From the slight sketch that we have
offered, it will be seen that the present prosperity is made the
means of future saving, not by dismissing gallant soldiers