The tally in course of time failed to satisfy the payers of money to Exchequer account, and a written quittance became necessary. This also in its turn grew obsolete in form and language, but was in like manner preserved in all its antique unintelligibility until the Act of 1834.
Such was the “tally” system of olden time, and, undoubtedly, it in some way is involved in the origination of what is known as the “tally shop” system of to-day.
Formerly, in the Exchequer business, the collectors and receivers charged with the receipt of public moneys from the taxpayers were required to find sureties for their honesty. These security bonds were valid only for a year, and, therefore, annually renewed, to the great profit of the law and other officers of the Crown. When each collector had duly settled his account, and paid-in all the proper moneys into the Exchequer, for any year, he received back his bond, signifying a discharge from all further liability, and this was called getting his quietus. The practice and the term are now disused, but they evidently constituted the point of Hamlet’s allusion:—
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin.
What becomes of the Public Revenue.
Of the seventy millions of the Revenue more than one-third is disposed of by the interest of the National Debt, a charge not liable to any important variation. It was less by 89,412l. in 1862 than in the year before. But the difference is very slight on such a sum as 26,142,606l. The armed force of the country is the next great channel of expenditure. The Army in 1862 absorbed 15,570,869l., an increase of 399,000l. over its cost in the previous year. The Navy required 12,598,042l. in the same period, or 733,626l. less than in 1861. Together they account for more than 28,000,000l. of the public expenditure. The naval and military operations in China figure in both years of this return. In 1861 they drew from the Exchequer 3,043,896l.; and in 1862 a further sum of 1,230,000l. The votes or money for fortifications rose suddenly from 50,000l. in 1861 to 970,000l. in 1862. There are small variations, both of reduction and increase, dispersed through an immense number of items, but when the gross sum they absorb is reckoned up, the difference between one year and another is scarcely worth noting.
Queen Anne’s Bounty.
The origin of this revenue, which is considered to effect little compared with what might be accomplished under improved management, is as follows. We know that in olden times the Romish Pontiff had the “tenths” of the net annual income of good livings, as well as first-fruits. When the Pope and Henry VIII. quarrelled, and the Papal supremacy was subverted, not only was the supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs transferred from the Pope of Rome to England’s supreme ruler, but also the tenths and first-fruits likewise. At length Queen Anne came to the throne, when (with the consent of her Parliament) she nobly refused to receive what the Church should enjoy, and placed the income under the direction of a Board called “the Governors of Queen Anne’s Bounty.” Their revenue for the improvement of poor livings is considerable, but it might be largely increased. The Pope would have had the real present value, and not that of centuries since; yet, strange to say, while some old benefices have been freed from payment no new rich livings have since been included, and all the old ones are rated according to the absurd scale of assessment made in the time of Henry VIII. To illustrate this the writer compiled the following, some time since:—
Benefice. | Diocese. | Value in King’s Books. | Value in Clergy List. |
| 1. Stanhope 2. Whitchurch 3. Halsall 4. Croston 5. Edgmond 6. Houghton-le-Spring 7. Bingham | Durham Lichfield Chester Manchester Lichfield Durham Lincoln | £67 6 8 8 17 0 24 11 5 31 11 0 46 8 0 124 0 0 44 7 0 ————— £347 1 1 | £4848 0 0 1458 0 0 3500 0 0 1050 0 0 2600 0 0 1600 0 0 1503 0 0 —————— £16,559 0 0 |