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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 1177: FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.
By Edward Farr
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The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS.

On the 31st of April, the chancellor of the exchequer entered into his financial statement. When he came forward last year, he said, he had anticipated that the expenditure would amount to £49,499,000, and the income to £48,641,000; leaving a deficiency of £858,000. The results of the year had proved less favourable than he had anticipated: the expenditure had amounted only to £49,285,000, but the income had only reached £47,443,000, leaving a deficiency of more than £1,840,000. He calculated that the expenditure for the ensuing year would be £50,731,226, and the income £48,310,000, which would leave a deficiency of £2,421,000 to be provided for. In order to raise the revenue, Mr. Baring proposed to deal with the two articles, timber and sugar. The present duty on colonial timber, he said, amounted to ten shillings a load, and on Baltic timber fifty-five shillings. These duties he proposed to modify, by raising that on colonial to twenty shillings, and reducing that on Baltic to fifty shillings a load, by which he anticipated an increased revenue of £750,000. He next explained that the alteration which he intended to propose in the sugar-duties would still leave a protection of fifty per cent. to colonial sugar. He would leave, he said, the duty on colonial sugar at the present amount of twenty-four shillings per cwt., but that on foreign sugar, amounting to sixty-three shillings, he proposed to reduce to thirty-six shillings per cwt.; from which change he expected an augmentation of revenue of £700,000. There would still, he said, be a deficiency to be provided for. But Lord John Russell had that evening given notice of his intention at an early period to submit the question of the corn-trade to the consideration of the house; and if the propositions of his noble friend were agreed to, he should be under no uneasiness about the deficiency; if not, it would be his duty to make provision by direct taxation. Messrs. Hume, Ward, Villiers, and other members, expressed their satisfaction at the propositions of the chancellor of the exchequer, while Lord Francis Egerton, Viscount Sandon, Sir Robert Peel, and Messrs. Goulburn and Christopher, complained of them, and especially of the announcement of an intended alteration in the corn-laws. The debate on the budget was protracted to a considerable length, and the nature of the discussion will be seen in the following article.