The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-12-19 00:00:00

FINANCES.

With reference to financial affairs, he referred them to
the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, from which it
appeared that the amount of revenue during the last fiscal
year, from all sources, was $73,549,705, and the public
expenditure, exclusive of payments on account of the
public debt, amounted to $51,018,249. During the same
period the payments made in, redemption of the public
debt, including interest and premium, amounted to
$24,336,380. To the sum total of the receipts of that
year was to be added a balance remaining in the treasury
at the commencement thereof, amounting to $21,942,892,
and at the close of the year a corresponding balance,
amounting to $21,137,967 of receipts above expenditure,
also remained in the treasury. Although, in the opinion
of the Secretary of the Treasury, the receipts of the cur-
rent fiscal year were not likely to equal in amount those
of the last, yet they would undoubtedly exceed the amount
of expenditure by at least fifteen millions of dollars. He
should, therefore, continue to direct that the surplus reve-
nue be applied, so far as it can be judiciously and econo-
mically done, to the reduction of the public debt, the
amount of which, at the commencement of the last fiscal
year, was. $67,344:028, of which there had been paid on
the 20th day of November, 1854, the sum of $22,365,172,,
leaving a balance of outstanding public debt of only
$44,975,456, redeemable at different periods within four-
teen years. There were also remnants of other govern-
ment stock, most of which were already due, and on which
the interest had ceased, but which had not yet been pre-
sented for payment, amounting to $233,179. This state-
ment exhibited the fact, that the annual income of the
government greatly exceeded the amount of its public
debt, which latter remained unpaid only because the time
of payment had not yet matured, and it could not be dis-
charged at once, except at the option of public creditors,
who preferred to retain the securities of the United States ;
and the other fact, not less striking, that the annual
revenue from all sources exceeded, by many millions of
dollars, the amount needed for a prudent and economical
administration of the government.

He, renewed his reco—mrnendation for a reduction of the
duties on imports, and trusted that little difficulty would
be encountered in settling the details of a measure to that
effect. He recommended, in consequence of the treasury
having been defrauded to the extent of $198,000 by
officers making false entries, that a law should be passed
.requiring that records and papers of a public character
should be left by retiring-officers of the Government for
the use of their successors, and that a provision declaring
it felony on their part to make false entries in the books or
return false accounts should be added. The President
recommended an increase to the military force in the
.country inhabited by the.lndians, the atrocities of whom
had recently shoaled the public mind of the country. He
then suggested some alterations with regard to the pay
and arrangement of their military forces. Referring to
the disasters which had occurred at sea, he said it might
be doubted whether all those calamitous events were

wholly attributable to the necessary and inevitable dan-
gers of the sea. And he advised that the same law should
be applied to masters and mariners, in case of insubordina-
tion, cowardice, or other misconduct, producing injury or
death to passengers on the high seas, as are applied to
conductors, &c., of trains on railways. The remainder of
the speech referred principally to matters connected with
the Post-office, and the sale of public lands, and concluded
tation to the citizens to eschew intermeddling
tonal policy, &c. of other Governments, to

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