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sion being the settlement of the Reform bill, and the management of Ireland, matters of trade and finance did not occupy any prominent place in the deliberations of parliament. It was not till the 27th of July that the chancellor of the Exchequer made the usual financial statement. In the quarter of the year ending on 5th January, there had been a deficiency of 700,000l., making the revenue of that quarter fall short of the esti mate by no less than 1,200,000l. for ministers had calculated on a surplus of 500,0007. On the 17th of October of the preceding year, earl Grey, in answer to a remark of the duke of Wellington, that he was convinced ministers were wrong in anticipating they would have half a million of excess, said, "After making every allowance for the effect of our alterations in the coal tax, we have arrived at the conclusion, on the maturest consideration, that our

493,000l. Three quarters of the year have elapsed, and we have their income and expenditure as a guide. We know what that income and expenditure are, and the amount which the service of the whole year will require. Therefore we are warranted to offer more than a probable conjecture of the excess of the income of the current quarter above its expenditure, and that surplus, I confidently pronounce, will not, on the lowest calculation, fall short of 493,000l. I might safely take credit for a higher surplus." Notwithstanding all this confidence, the quarter, not only did not show an excess of income to the amount of 493,000l. but an excess of expenditure to the amount of 700,000l. When the matter was noticed in the House of Commons, (February 6) lord Althorpe frankly admitted the facts, and that he and his colleagues had been greatly mistaken in their anticipations.

He had forgotten that the beer duties had expired, which struck off at once 350,000l. He had anticipated an increase of 450,000l. in the revenue arising on spirits in one year, instead of which there had been a falling off to the extent of 100,000l. A bill, too, had unexpectedly been received from Canada, on account of the Rideau Canal. He added that the peculiar political state of the country during the last quarter of the year had caused a general suspension of trade and stagnation of business, which naturally led to a consider able falling off in the revenue.

On the 27th of July, the chancellor of the Exchequer brought forward the budget.

The revenue in the year 1830, ending April, 1831,was 50,056,6167. the expenditure of that year to the same period was 47,142,9437. leaving a surplus of 2,913,6731. The expenditure of 1831, ending in 1832, was within 19,6647. of that of 1830; that was to say, it was 47,123,2791. This equality did not proceed from an equality of votes in the two years; but in the latter year (1830, ending in 1831) there arose from the reduction of the 4 per cents, a saving of 777,4431. This saving was nearly balanced by an increase in the expenditure, under parliamentary grants; these being for the army, 225,130l. and for the navy, 380,2521. There was, in that year, an apparent increase in the miscellaneous expenditure, of 743,490, from which were to be deducted certain charges, formerly on the Consolidated Fund, amounting to 322,7117., leaving the increase on this head, 420,779l. This would make a total increase of 1,026,1617. But from this sum there was to be deducted the

decrease on the ordnance expenditure, 140,9647., and the amount received from unclaimed dividends, 127,400l., making together, 268,3647.; which, deducted from 1,026,1617., left a balance of 757,7971.; showing a diminution, in the expenditure of 1831, of 19,6491. Thus had the income of 1831 been equal to that of 1830, there would have been a surplus of 2,933,319l. But great reductions having been made in taxation in 1830 and 1831, the revenue of the latter year necessarily fell off to a considerable amount. The revenue of 1830 was 50,056,6167.; that of 1831 was 46,424,440.; showing a deficiency of 3,632,176l. This decrease took place principally in the Customs and Excise, the decrease in the Customs being 1,024,0521., and in the Excise 2,341,360l. making together, 3,365,4127. There was also a decrease in the stamp duties of 110,2927.; and in the taxes arising from deferred collection, owing to the abolition of receivers-general, of 149,0627. There was also a deficiency of 113,030l. in the miscellaneous revenue, from several large payments having been made into the Exchequer in the previous year, on account of surplus of 4 per cent. duties, and of the hereditary revenue of Scotland. These sums together made 372,3847., which, added to the 3,365,412., made altogether 3,737,7961. From this sum was to be deducted an increase in the post office of 64,1947.; and 41,4261. unclaimed dividends, making 105,620l. Upon the whole, there was a decrease of income in 1831, as compared with 1830, of 3,682,1767.; from which, if the surplus, which would have accrued if the income had been equal to the expenditure in that year (that

was 2,933,3197.) were deducted, there would be an excess of expenditure in 1831, over the income, amounting to 698,8571. Thus the state of the revenue in the commencement of 1832, was, that, instead of having a surplus of 2,913,673l., as in the commencement of 1831, yet the expenditure of 1831 being 19,6467. below that of 1830, there was a falling off to the amount he had already shown; and the real excess of expenditure over income in 1831 was the sum of 698,8571. The result would have been very different, had not the revenue suffered so much from the very large reduction of taxation which took place in 1830. Some of these had been made by the right hon. gentlemen who preceded him in office, and some he (lord Althorpe) had made. The loss to the Customs by these reductions were-on coals and slate, 900,000l.; on barilla, 35,000l.; on sugar and molasses, 300,000l.; making 1,235,000l.; which-along with the deficiency of corn duties, 250,000l.,-made altogether a deficiency in the Customs duties of 1,485,000l. The loss to the Excise was on beer 2,350,000l.; leather, 200,000l.; cider, 50,000l.; printed calicoes, 675,000l.; candles, 20,000l.; making together 3,295,000l. Thus, the whole reduction of taxation in 18 1831 amounted to 4,780,000l. From this let there be deducted the loss on Customs and Excise of 3,365,4127. and there would be a balance of 1,414,588/.; a clear proof that the resources of the country had increased by nearly a million and a half in the consumption of articles not affected by taxation. He owned that he had been too sanguine in the calculation he had made of increased consumption from reduced

taxation. But it was satisfactory to observe that, notwithstanding the great reduction of taxation, the deficiency in the revenue had been so small. The revenue of 1830 was 50,056,616l.; deduct taxes repealed (as in 1831) 4,780,000l., and it would leave only 45,276,616; showing a deficiency, as compared with the revenue of 1831, of 1,147,8241. If to this assumed deficiency of 1830 (on the supposition that the same amount of taxes had been repealed in that year as in 1831, and that the repeal had come into operation in the year) were added the deficiencies in stamps, taxes, and miscellaneous imposts, making 372,3891., less by the increase in the post-office and unclaimed dividends, 165,6207.,—the additional deficiency would thus be 266,7641. which, added to the amount he had already stated of 1,147,8247., would show an actual improvement in the revenue of 1831 of 1,414,5881. He felt it right to state that the deficiency at the end of the year was increased in the April quarter. The reason was, that a large part of the supplies which had been voted were spent in that quarter, and the estimates for the year then coming on had not, at that time, been reduced. The deficiency in April, 1832,amounted to 1,240,4137. His Majesty's ministers finding this deficiency, endeavoured to meet it, not by an increase of taxation, which they did not think the country could at the present moment afford, but, as far as they could, by a reduction of expendi ture. They had lowered the estimates by more than 2,000,000l., and had reduced official salaries and appointments, to the utmost of their present power. They had followed an administration which,

he was quite ready to admit, had acted with great vigour in making official reductions. In the three years of the duke of Wellingtou's administration, the reductions of salaries and offices amounted in 1828 to 188,9417., in 1829 to 42,019, and in 1830 to 109,1291., making a total diminution in those three years of 340,0891. Their successors in the first year of their being in office, reduced to the amount of 234,3531.; and the reductions since made, including those already fully effected and those which were in progress but not yet completed, were not less than 100,000l., thus

making reductions to the amount of 334,3531. in less than two years. The noble lord now entered into a statement of the gradual decrease of the surplus, which in April, 1831, amounted to 2,913,673., through each quarter from that time to the quarter ending the 5th instant, when the deficiency, as compared with the year ending the 5th of July, 1831,amounted to 2,661,8487. He then proceeded to the estimates for the year ending April, 1833. The estimate of the expenditure from April, 1832, to April, 1833, was as follows:

From this statement it would appear that the expenditure for the year ending April, 1833, would be 2,162,0511. less than that for the year ending in April, 1832. He next gave a comparative estimate of the income as it was in April, 1832, and as he calculated it for 1833. The Customs duties for the year ending in April, 1832, amounted to 16,275,2437. He expected to add to this by the with drawal of the linen bounties, and by improvement in the duties on several articles of consumption. VOL. LXXIV.

47,858,427 45,696,376 45,696,376

2,162,051

He calculated also on an increase in the tobacco duties; as there had been a gradual increase in the consumption of that article for some years. In 1830, the duty was 2,850,0281. ; in 1831, 2,913,5487; in 1832, 2,995,8371. He, therefore, was justified in calculating for the remaining threequarters an increase of 35,000l. on this article. He estimated the increase on the wine duties at 35,000l., though in this he was not so sanguine. The increase in the duty on wines last year had

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not been so productive as had been anticipated, and this he attributed to the fact that the notice of the proposed increase of the duties had been given so long before the tax was imposed, that many persons had laid in a large stock before the tax came into operation. The increase which he expected from these and other additions to the Customs would make the whole duty 16,700,000l. in round numbers; but from this sum a considerable reduction was to be made. In the first place there might be expected a diminution on the whole sum of 500,000l. received in the last year from the corn duties; as the promising state of the harvest made it highly probable that no importation of foreign corn would be necessary in the next year. He calculated a farther diminution of the Customs duties of 100,000l. in the three quarters which were to run; and in addition to this, he looked to a further diminution of 80,000l. by the alterations which were to be made in the sugar duties. The whole of these reductions, when subtracted from the sum of 16,700,000l., would make the produce of the customs in the year ending April, 1833, 15,870,000l. The excise to the 5th of April, 1832, amounted to 16,516,6321. Os. 10d.; and he expected an increase on the malt and hops duty to the amount of 156,000l. There would be a saving on certain draw backs to the amount of 165,000l. He also looked forward to an increase on the duties on spirits and some other articles to the amount of 160,000l. The reason why he calculated on an increase in the spirits' duty was, because the amount of revenue derived from that source had not been lessened by the additional duty laid on in

1830; on the contrary, an increase had taken place in the amount. The stock on hand, he believed, was extremely small, and the manufacturers were likely to extend their operations. In the different duties on hawkers' licences, starch, tea, and vinegar, there was a considerable increase. Taking, then, the Customs to the 5th of April, 1833, at 15,870,000l. ; the Excise, deducting the duty on candles, at 16,850,000l.; Stamps 7,000,000l.; Assessed Taxes at 5,000,000l.; Post Office, at 1,500,000l.; and Miscellaneous, at 250,000l.;-these items formed a total of 46,470,000l. Deduct from that 45,696,3761. as the amount of expenditure, and it left a surplus, for the year ending in April, 1833, of 773,6241. There was, however, to be set against that, the deficiency of 1832, amounting to 1,240,4137. Take from that sum the surplus of 778,624l., for 1833, and it would leave a deficiency, on the two years, of 466,7891. He was not at all sanguine when he calculated that there would be a surplus of about 770,000l. on the year ensuing. He was, however, perfectly aware that that surplus was to a certain extent imputable to deferred payments of the last year coming in; but, on the other hand, it should be observed that part of the payments of the present year might in like manner fall into the subsequent year.

Mr. Goulburn contended, that there would, according to the noble lord's statement, be a deficiency at the end of the current year, on account of 1832, although in this year there was a surplus. individual had a limited income, and in one year, got so much into debt, that he could not pay off that debt in the ensuing year, would

If an