THE BUDGET, ETC.
On the 30th of June the chancellor of the exchequer made his yearly financial statement. After adverting to the embarrassments which had beset the commerce of the country since the close of the preceding session, he proceeded to state the actual income and expenditure of the country, as compared with the estimate he had formed of its probable amount in the course of the last session. He had calculated, he said, that the customs would produce £20,540,000; the actual receipt was £21,445,000; the excise he had taken at £14,150,000; the actual income was, £14,439,000: the stamps he had calculated at £7,000,000; the receipts were £7,100,000: the assessed taxes he estimated at £3,575,000; they produced £3,681,000: the post-office revenue he had reckoned at £1,450,000; it amounted to £1,618,000. On the whole the income, which on the data then before him he had calculated at £46,980,000, produced £48,453,000. Mr. Rice then proceeded to state the expenditure, with reference to which he had fortunately, he said, rather under than over-estimated the probable income for the present year, as otherwise government would have become embarrassed. He had taken the interest on the funded debt at £28,528,000; the actual payment was £28,537,000: other charges upon the consolidated fund, exclusive of the West India slave-compensation, he took at £2,092,000; the actual charge was £2,183,000. With respect to the army, navy, ordnance, and miscellaneous estimates of the year, he had taken them at £14,585, but that estimate was taken before all the supplies of the year were voted: the sum actually required was £14,652,000. The estimated expenditure for the whole year, exclusive of the West India slave-compensation fund, was £45,205,000; the actual expenditure was £45,372,000. With respect to the West India loan, Mr. Rice said that he had reckoned we might be called upon to pay annually a sum of £1,111,000; but the call had on that score amounted to £1,448,342. The chancellor of the exchequer next proceeded to make several statements illustrative of the financial and commercial state of the country. He dwelt especially on the excess of the amount of tea duty in the last year over that received in former years, and observed that it was apparent that without any change of duty, the consumption of that article was increasing. Mr. Rice took the estimates for the year as follows:—the army, navy, ordnance, and miscellaneous, £14,895,000; and the charges upon the consolidated fund, and the interest upon the funded and unfunded debt which it was necessary to provide for the current year, £30,890,000. Thus the total expenditure for the current year was calculated at £45,786,000; but that was exclusive of the West India compensation, the amount of which would be £845,000. With respect to the probable amount of the income, Mr. Rice calculated it might amount in the whole to £47,240,000, which would leave a surplus of £1,454,000. When the interest of the West Indian loan, however, was deducted, the surplus would be diminished to £608,585; and that sum would be reduced by the payment necessary to be made to meet various deficiencies of former years; in fact, all the net surplus upon which they could calculate was £384,673. In conclusion, Mr. Rice made some observations on the increased interest now payable on the unfunded debt of the country, and on the general prospects of the nation. On the latter subject, he observed, that he had before him the means of showing that within the last two or three weeks the elements of improvement had been developing themselves in various parts, and that many of the most depressed branches of trade and manufactures were rapidly reviving. As a natural consequence of this the receipts of the revenue were improving, and the condition of the country was such as to inspire him with confidence. A reduction of taxation, he said, would materially assist that revival. He inferred this from the experiment he had made of lowering the duty on various articles of consumption, especially in the instances of glass and paper. The trade in these articles was now rapidly increasing; but with the present small balance of income on hand, it was impossible for him to propose any speculative reduction of taxation. A conversation followed this statement of the chancellor of the exchequer, and several members proposed various economical nostrums for the benefit of the country, but none of them met with the approbation of the house.