Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

6 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

(From the Times.)

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

(From the Times.) The return of the quarter's revenue is a melancholy illustration of Swift's remark, that in the arithme- tic of the Customs two and two do not always make four; they sometimes make only one." The great financial measure of the last Session, which was to cover the additional charge for Canada, and the de- ficit of the Post-office, was a further duty of 5 per cent. upon all articles before paying duty in the de- partments of the Customs and Excise. The result is now before the country, and it is material to show, in figures, what it should have been, had that measure been based in a sound calculation of consequences, and what it is. In the quarter ending October 1839, the total clear receipt was in round numbers:— Customs X5,780,000 Excise 4,120,000 Making a total of 9,900,000 5 per cent on this would be 495,000 Requiring, in order to equal the Revenue of October, 1839, a total of £ 10.395.000 Taking-now the actual produce of the revenue for these two departments in the quarter ending October, 1840, the account stands thus Customs X5,660,000 Excise 3,916,000 Total X9,576,000 and the deficiency therefore, keeping up the compa- rison between the two October quarters, and giving the benefit of the additional five per cent. to the last, is about 820,000/. on the quarter; and there occurs an actual deficiency, leaving that additional five per cent. entirely out of the question, of 324,0001. in the two departments of the Customs and Excise. The other items in the present account are comparatively of little importance. What the Chancellor of the Exchequer is to obtain from the new survey, and ad- dition to the assessed taxes, will not appear until the returns for the January quarter are made. In the Stamps there has been a trifling improvement, quite unimportant either way. The Post-office does not look well, but some progress at least seems to be making, and we are not disposed to deal rigidly with a mea- sure which was only faulty in being commenced too early, and which is conferring and will confer an im- mense benefit on all classes of the community. At the present rate of production, the Post-office will still yield a revenue to the country of about half a million annually. With this deficiency, however, added to the others already described, and taking the Ministerial estimates of the year as the basis of the account, the quarterly return, compared with the cor- responding period of 1839, may fairlv be said to pre- sent a falling off of not less than one million one hun- dred thousand pounds This is a serious state of things for a country threatened with war; and the more so, as the Treasury journals, in fearful anticipa- tion of what the nation may say of them and of their masters, have evinced a disposition to misrepresent and to conceal which is peculiarly reprehensible in the present situation of public affairs. We are treat- ed, for example, with some unintelligible nonsense about "bills" received in payment for revenue and not yet carried to account and disadvantages arising from the last quarter having ended on a Sunday, which prevented the excise collectors from commenc- ing their "rounds" till a week later, and causing a loss, therefore, of seven days to the quarter's col- lections as if these things had never happened be- fore, and as if they did not always find their level, taking one quarter with another The fact, too, is carefully kept out of sight, that Parliament did in July last make an addition of five per cent. to the old Customs and Excise Duties. We readily agree, and have often expressed the opinion as well as ob- served the practice, that party feeling should never- enter into a discussion on the state of the national resources; but what respect can be entertained for men who cannot present a fair and honest account, and who do all in their power to garble and distort it when presented to the public view P They shut out the sympathy and regard of all true patriots, who must feel the inutility of any attempt to help those dealers in false pretences and deceit out of their difficulties. We purposely abstain from any analysis of the yearly account now presented. A new state of things with respect to taxation has arisen since this period of last year, and until it has spread itself over the whole four quarters, the comparison can serve no purpose but that of misleading. It may be left as an additional aid in that line to the misleading Treasury Journals. A further consideration, of the very high- est general importance, arises out of the result thus communicated, of the experiment of an increase in the duties of Customs and Excise. It is a truth ad- mitted in all sound reasonings on the subject, that there is a point in taxation on articles of consump- tion which cannot be passed without lessening instead of adding to the total product, and if this shall prove to be the case with the measure of last Session, then will the Treasury be placed in the predicament of having thrown impediments in the way of commerce, without adding a shilling, and even with actual loss, to the revenue of the country. Undoubtedly this is a conclusion not to be adopted on the trial of one quarter only but if it should be found, on the as- sembling of Parliament, that there is no chance for the better, then must some other form of taxation without delay be resorted to. Does any one doubt, notwithstanding all these circumstances, if the mis- fortune of a war should befal this country, that her resources to meet it are ample, abundant? Let him reflect on what England has done since this century began, and that she is now far richer and more power- ful than then. We only want better and wiser heads to develope and to guide those resources.

(From the Sun.)

ARRIVALS.

[No title]

Advertising

(From the John Bull.)