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

THE BUDGET.

On the motion of the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER the House then went into a Com-
mittee of Ways and Means—Mr. Greene in the Chair.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
rose and said :—Mr. Greene, the motion I shall have
the honour to put into your hand is for a vote of Ex-
, chequer Bills, to be appropriated to the exchange of
other Exchequer Bills, which will come due, in the
ordinary course of business, in about six weeks time ;
and I think it desirable to avail myself of this oppor-
tunity of bringing under the consideration of the'
House the view 'of the financial condition of the
country which the 'House is entitled to expect,
and which it bust be anxious to receive at the
hands of her Majesty's Government. It will
be in the recollection of the House, that
when, in of last year, I made a simi-
lar statement, there was, on the part of some Hon.
Gentlemen, an expression of great surprise as to the
actual state and future prospects of the country. We
were told that the country was still labouring under
the severest distress, and that it was not likely to re-
cover from its state of depression. AVe were also told
that, notwithstanding the imposition of heavy addi•
tional taxation, the year had still closed with a
deficiency of revenue. The explanations given by the
Government were not. satisfactory ; and there were
those who' argued that a similar depression
would be observaMe in the coming year.
On my own part, I was disposed net
to invite rash expectations to future pros-
perity, nor to draw an overgrown statement of
public fear, but I then took the liberty of stating to
the House, that there were indications of improve-
ment which led me to anticipate a revival of in-
dustry, and an extension of commercial enterprise,
and which must of course lead to a considerable im-
provement of the financial condition of the country.
I am happy—and I am sure these Honourable Gen-
my views will be happy
I then entertained, have
also—that
nthawt btohedivffieerweds
whichfrom
been since realised, and that the alarming forebodings
which were indulged in have turned out to be ground-
less. lam anxious, Sir, not to encroach upon the
time of the House, and I therefore will not detain
you by further prefatory observations. I will
proceed at once to state what was the revenue and
expenditure of last year, and then I will go to the
revenue and expenditure of this. It will be neces-
sary, however, before I do so, to call the attention
of the House to the situation in which we
stood when this question was last before
; and more particularly, to explain to the
Hon. Member for Coventry (Mr. Williams) the par- ;
ticular circumstances with respect to the China
opium debt, and the East India - Company , to
which he has just adverted. The balance-sheet, to
paymentswlli m
which he haga
d
the
year, and all moneys
received within. the year. Therefore, on the
one side, 2,000,0001. have been received from the East
India Company and the China opium claim ; and on
the other side, is the expenditure for those two objects.
But the House will be • kind enough to understand
that in the schemes of finance, I exclude those state-
ments from the debtor and creditor side of the account.
And the Hon. Member for Montrose is perfectly
correct in stating that I was then charged with
having done so in order to make the appearance of a
surplus when it was not the fact. The estimate
which I made of the public income during the course
of last year, has undoubtedly been very greatly ex-
ceeded. I stated at that time to the House, that
after the depression we had been sustaining, and the
disappointment of previous expectations with respect to
that income, I had endeavoured to make my statement of
such a character that at all events it should not' err
on the score of being beyond what was likely to be
produced. If there was any error, indeed, it was
quite in the contrary direction. The estimate which
I made. of the amount of revenue from the Customs
for the year to come was 19,000,0001., taking for my
guide the amount that had been produced
by the Customs during the preceding year.
But in the course of the past year the
amount that has been received from the Customs is
21,426,0001., instead of the 19,000,0001. at which I
had estimated it. This arose, in a great degree, from
the following circumstance :—I had not anticipated
that there would be any considerable importation of
corn ; that article, however, has produced 800,0001.
I speak in round numbers, in order to save trouble to
the House. A further sum was produced to the revenue
by a great improvement in the wine duties arising from
the termination of those negotiations which had laid
a sort of paralysis on the trade. The amount derived
from this source was 350f0001. Other items
of the Customs exhibited that a general im-
provement had_ taken place ; the most remarkable
items in this increase arose from the duties on sugar,
amounting to 200,0001.• upon tea, 300,000/.; both satis-
factory indications of the revived power of consumption
in the labouring population of the country. Lastly
there was an augmentation in the duties on cotton
wool, amounting to 200,0001., an indication of in-
creased activity in that department of industry on which
the happiness of so large a portion of the manufactur-
ing population of this country depends. In addi-
tion to these items, which make together a
very large proportion of the excess on the
Customs' revenue, there have been several minor
articles, which have exhibited, generally speaking,
an uniform augmentation, keeping pace with.;
the extension of our commerce and the greater ,
employment of the population.. The estimates .
winch I made with respect to the Excise
have turned out to be nearly as accurate as it is
possible for estimates to be. The estimate I •
made of the Excise , revenue was 13,000,0001.,
and the amount' it has yielded is 12,900,000/. ;
that, therefore, calls for little observation,