Star.
London, England, 1818-06-09 00:00:00

INCOME AND EXPEMDITURE.

The Select Committee on Finance, have made an
additional Report to the House of Commons, em-
bracing the subject of the Income and Expenditure
of the Country.
From their statements it appears, that in Great
IBritain the total permanent revenue for the year 1817
fell short of the estimate by £1,984,546, which being
more thin compensated by a receipt of £2,261,951
of arrears of Property Tax, and of £68,580 of other
unappropriated War Duties, making, together,
£2,330,531, there was upon the whole an Excess
beyond the Estimate of £345,985 ; while in Ireland
there was a deficit of £585,889, from which the
above excess being deducted, the difference between
the Estimate and the actual produce of the Revenub
in the United Kingdom is exhibited by the remainder,
being only £239,904 upon a sum of £51,905,000.

It alsiy appears, that in the year ended the sth
April, 1818, a considerable increase took place in the
Revenue, inasmuch as the difference between the re-
ceipt and the estimate in Great Britain is in that pe-
riod reduced to £1,245,550.
In Ireland, the revenue likewise experienced some
improvement in this period—the amount being only
£529,131 below the estimate.

The general increase of the Revenue, however, ap-
pears more particularly shewn by a comparative
statement which the Committee proceed to make, be-
tween the income of the quarto+ which closed on the
sth April, 1818, with the corresponding quarter of
1817. In stating this contrast, the Committee very
properly exclude the Property Tax and other War
Duties, in order to shew the real improvement of
those Duties only which constitute the permanent
Revenue. The result of this comparison is a balance
in favour of the quarter ended the 6th April, 1818, far
Great Britain, of £739,009, And for Ireland, of £.56,760;
making upon the whole an increase of L'795,769, but
which would have been considerably greater, if the
produce of the Sugar Dnfei had been divided in the
same proportion in the present as in the last year
between the two quarters ending the sth of January
and sth of April. In consequence of the expected
rise in the average price of Sugar to that point at
which it becomes chargeable with an additional duty
of Ss. per cwt. a great quantity then in bond was
taken out for home consumption immediately before
the close of the quarter ending sth January last,
from which period the additional duty, as had been
foreseen by the Merchants, became payable. By this
anticipated payment of the duties, the produce of the
January quarter was greatly swelled, and a corre-
sponding deficit occasioned in the produce of the
succeeding quarter.
The Committee observe, that they would not be
disposed to lay much stress upon the melioration of
the Revenue in a single quarter, or to build upon
that circumstance alone a very sanguine hope of a
permanent amendment, if it were not manifestly the
consequence of an extensive and important change
in the general condition of the Country.
In corroboration of this view, the Committee enter
into a variety of observations on the component parts
of the Accounts laid before them—particularly the
Customs and Excise—the tenor of which affords more
satisfactory evidence of a growing improvement than
is to be found even in their total amounts.

From the Income of the Country, the Committee
next proceed to the head of Expenditure.
The total disbursements of the year 1817, amcun-
ted to £68,096,245, of which there was applied to
the redemption of debt, the sum of 1:15,159,589,
leaving an expenditure of £5'2,956,906, which being
contrasted with the actual income, amounting, with
the produce of the Old Stores and the Lottery, to
£52,302,210, there appears to have been a difference
between the expenditure and the receipts within the
year, of £654,696. •

.In the statement of the current year, we observe
an excess in the probable expenditure beyond the esti-
mate formed by the Committee last year, amount-
ing to £2,872,606; but if we exclude the sum of
£15,392,467, which stands appropriated to the reduc-
tion of the National Debt, it does appear that the
real expenditure, estimated at £52,697,011, will
agree very nearly with the income, which is compu-
ted at £52,505,364.
The Committee, agreeably to the instructions of
the House, have added a general view of the proba-
ble expenditure for the year 1819. Supposing no
extraordinary charges to occur, they calculate that
the whole expenditure will amount to £66,068,000,
including £14,981,000 for the Redemption of Debt;
so that contrasting the actual charge of next year,
exclusive of this sum for the redemption of debt with
the income for next year, which is estimated at
£52,500,000, there will be a balance in the country's i
favour of £1,415,000.

It is further to be obverted, that any improvement

of the Revenue on the one hand, and every diminu-
tion of expense that may be made in future years on
the other, will/ have the effect of creating a surplus
annually, applicable to the diminution of the Public
Debt ; an object to which, the Committee justly ob-
serve, the wisdom of Parliament, and the exertions

of Parliament, cannot be too stedfastly directed.
The Committee conclude by repeating an antici-
pation which they ventured last year, that the reduc-
tion of the Interest on the Four and Five per Cents.
must, under a continuance of the present favourable
prospects and with the growing abundance of capita]
in the country, contribute at no distant period in a
very material degree to the reduction of that load of
debt, but for thich the revenue of the country would
be more than equal to all the charges upon it.