THE BUDGET.
The budget was brought forward by the chancellor of the exchequer on the 14th of August. He calculated the income of the country for the ensuing year, ending in July, 1836, at £45,500,000, and the expenditure at £44,715,000, leaving a surplus of £835,000. He regretted, however, to add that this surplus, calculated on the ordinary expenditure of the country, would be found to crumble away before the further statement which it was his duty to make. The interest due to the slave-owners, he said, was to be provided for from the 1st of August, 1834. The maximum of the charge to which the country might be liable from that time was £730,000; and supposing that the whole balance of the loan were to be paid up within three months on discount, and that the permanent interest on the whole amount of the stock were at once incurred, this would subject us to a further charge of £250.935, making the total charge for the present year, on account of the West Indian loan, nearly £1000. Against this, as a set off, there was a surplus of £885,000; but the probability was that the amount instead of being £1,000,000 would not exceed a sum between £600,000 and £700,000, so that the actual surplus which might be expected would be from £150,000 to £200,000. The chancellor of the exchequer said, in continuation, that though the country was in a prosperous condition, he could not under existing circumstances be expected to make any great reduction in taxation. There were two or three taxes, however, which he thought might be reduced, and he proposed to reduce the duty on licences, which would cause a loss to the revenue of about £40,000; and on flint-glass, on which there might be a loss of about £70,000. He also proposed to relieve Ireland from the stamp-duty on awards, the loss on which would not exceed £500 a year. The resolutions of the chancellor of the exchequer were agreed to without a division.