Supposing the actual expenditure, under existing railway acts, to have proceeded at the same ratio for the next three years the following would have been the results:—
| Estimated Expenditure. | |
| Year. | |
| 1847 | £64,000,000 |
| 1848 | 70,000,000 |
| 1849 | 47,000,000 |
| 1850 | 10,000,000 |
[18] That this statement is not exaggerated will appear evident from the following returns:—
| 1845. | 1847. | |
| Corn, flour, meal, live animals, &c., imported to October 10, | £4,410,091 | £31,241,766 |
This of itself, coupled with the simultaneous contraction of the currency and fall of the exports, will explain the whole catastrophe.
[19] The following table of the prodigious advance in the importation of two articles alone, tea and sugar, will show how rapidly they have increased in the three last years, at the very time that our exports were diminishing:—
| 1845. | 1846. | 1847. | |
| Sugar, cwt. | 4,413,969 | 4,469,772 | 6,510,693 |
| Tea, lb. | 36,825,461 | 41,432,794 | 44,912,880 |
| 1846 to 1845. | 1847 to 1845. | ||
| Sugar, cwt. | 55.803 incr. | 2,096,724 incr. | £4,193,448 |
| Tea, lb. | 4,607,278 incr. | 8,087,419 incr. | 803,741 |
| £4,997,189 |
[20]—Mr Newdegate's Speech, Morning Post, December 2, 1847.
[21] Parliamentary Paper, 30th July, 1843.
[22] Viz. in round numbers:—