European Intelligence. THE BUDGET.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIV, Issue 1030, 12 May 1857, Page 3

European Intelligence. THE BUDGET.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer on the 13th February made his financial statement, premising "that this was the first occasion on which it was competent to him to make it. He began by calling attention to the revenue and expenditure of the current financial year, 18-56-7. In the statement he made last year, he estimated the revenue of the current year, at £71,740,000 ; its actual amount had been somewhat greater -;namely, £71,885,000. The expenditure for 1856-57. including the loan to Sardinia, of £1,000,000, and the vote of credit of £2.000,000, he had estimated at £82,113,000. showing, therefore, a deficiency of £10.373,000 in the estimated revenue, or deducting the margin of £2,000,. 000, a deficiency of £8,373.000. In, -order to cover this deficiency loans were effected , which with the issue of £1,000,000 of Ex chequer- bills, amounted to £7,499,000 of borrowed money ior the year. The powei of borrowing money granted to the Government had been limited to £4,000,000, but it had been exercised only to the extent of £1,000,000, and no further use would be made of that power. The total receipts from revenue, loans, and exchequer bills in the year 1856-57 amounted to £79,384,000. The actual expenditure would amount to £78,000,000. leaving a balance of £1,384,000. The pre■ent year. Sir C. Lewis proceeded to obsene, was not a year of extraordinary peace expenditure, but a year of extraordinary expenditure ; besides certain extraordinary expenses, there would be a loss upon the malt revenue, owing to the expiration of the war duty and to drawl acks, amounting to about £1,000,000, to be deducted from the revenue of the year in consequence of the peace. He then read statistical statements showing the vast increase in the exports, imports, and shipping of the country, demonstrating the elasticity of its resources, and various calculations affording an estimate of the expenditure caused by the war, the revenue derived from war taxation, and the amount added since the war to our funded and unfunded debt. He next entered upon a consideration of the estimated expenditure for the ensuing year, which he calculated at £65.474,000, viz :— Interest upon debt £28,550,000 Charges upon Consolidated Fund 1 ,770,000 Army estimates (including £400,000 for the Militia) 1 1 ,625.000 Navy Estimates 8,100,000 Packet Service 965,000 Civil Services 7,250.000 Collection of the revenue 4,215,000 Superannuation 475,000 Persian Expedition 265,000 Repayment of debt 2,250,000 He then gave the details of the principal heads of charge for the present year, premising that, although the saving upon the Army and Navy Estimates compared with those of tht last year was already upwards of £17,000,000, the change from a war to a peace standard could not be made instanter — that some time must be allowed for the effect of the transition. After analysing the Estimates, and explaining their details, he stated the amount of the debt created by the war, funded and unfunded, at £11,041,000. Before he proceeded to expound his plan of taxation for the ensuing year, he adverted to the question of direct and indirect taxation, and stated the sums levied upon both species ot imposts, which, he thought, bore in a practical manner upon the subject. The total of our direct taxation amounted to £20,700,000, and that of indirect taxation to £39,850,000 ; ko that the indirect taxation wis nearly double the amount of the direct. Claims \vi>re made, he remaiked, for remission* of indirect taxes. As to the duty on paper, after considering the subject, he did not believe, he -aid, that the total abolition of that duty would afford to purchasers of books or newspapers any appreciable benefit, and he therefore thought the claims for a remission of that duty should be deferred until the public expenditure was less and the revenue greater. With respect to the duty on fire insurances, which fell exclusively upon realised property, belieiing that a reduction of it would not be reproductive, he saw no ground for acceding to the proposition for reducing this duty. He should therefore confine himself to the taxes imposed or revised during the war. As to the duty on spirits, upon which a permanent duty was imposed during the war, yielding about £1,500,000, he believed that the House would agree that spirits were a legitimate object of taxation, subject to the condition that it should not lead to illicit distillation. He did not therefore see any reason for proposing an alteration in the duty on spirits. With re--pect to malt, the cessation of the war duty would occasion a loss of £2,000,000 upon this article. The next tax was that upon incomes. After reciting the history of this tax from the date of its imposition, in 1842, and explaining its present rates, he stated the circumstances under which the words "until the sth of April next aft"r the ratification of a treaty of peace,' 1 which did not appear in the Customs and Excise Acts, came to be inserted in the Income-tax Act, declaring that he never entertained an idea of asking the House on that ground to continue the tax beyond the exigency of the public service. Looking at the demands upon the revenue owing to the transition from war to peace, to the debt and liabilities created during the war, and to the remission of taxation, he proposed to fix the in-come-tax at the original rate of 7d. in the pound, fixed by Sir B. Peel for three years, upon incomes above £150 a year, and at sd. in the pound upon incomes between £ 00 and £150. He proposed to deal in another way with the taxes upon tea and sugar, by adopting a scale of reductions in each case different from that of the existing law, making the abatement slower, and therefore providing for a more gradual diminution of revenue. The total revenue for the ensuing year he estimated at £66,366,000, which would leave a surplus over the expenditure of £891,000, viz : Customs £22,860,000 Excise 17.000.000 Stamps 7,450,000 Land and Assessed Taxes 3,150,000 Income-tax 11,450.000 Post Office 3,000,000 Crown Lands 265,000 Miscellaneous 1,200,000 The total amount of the taxes that -would be reduced this year was £11,971.000. In conclusion, he observed that if the liabilities of the next three years were discharged, and the accruing liabilities were met, the entire debt of £40,000,000 owing to the war Would be •extinguished in 20 years. He moved a resolution for a vote of £2,000,000, to pay off and discharge Ex-chequer-bonds issued in 1854, and payable on the Bth of May, 1857.