s year was made on the 24th
of April, when Mr. Goulburn had the satisfaction of showing that the
receipts exceeded the expenditure. There had been an increase of amount
in all the estimates: in the customs, the excise, the stamps, the taxes,
the post-office, and the property-tax. The estimate of the total revenue
was L50,150,000; the sum received L52,835,134, showing an increase of
about L2,700,000. The expenditure also was less than the estimate
by L650,000; and the total result was that, instead of the estimated
surplus of L700,000, the gross surplus amounted to L4,165,000. From
this, however, there was the deficiency of last year to be taken,
namely, L2,749,000; and when this was discharged there was a net surplus
of L1,400,000 over the expenditure of the year ending April, 1844. The
total estimate of the revenue for the year following was L51,790,000,
and the expenditure L49,643,170, whereby an apparent surplus of
L3,146,000, or, making a deduction for a portion of the debt to be
discharged next year, L2,376,000. Mr. Goulburn proceeded to say that
this balance having been anticipated, he had been pressed from all
quarters to reduce various taxes. He would gladly have done so, but the
source of the surplus was not permanent: it was mainly the income-tax
which was to be considered next year, in order to determine whether
it should be prolonged, as had originally been proposed, for two years
beyond the first. If other taxes were now hastily reduced before
the operation of the tariff could be known, the house might have no
alternative next year but to continue this tax. It was under these
circumstances that he resisted large reductions; but he thought there
were some articles upon which remission might be afforded, with a fair
prospect of making up revenue by an increased consumption, and with a
probability of increasing the consumption of other articles. The items
which he proposed to select for such remission were glass, vinegar,
currants, coffee, marine insurance, and wool, upon the aggregate of
which the amount of duty to be remitted would be L387,000 per annum.
Later in the session he intended to take the sugar duties into
consideration; when he should recommend that England should admit, at a
differential duty of ten shillings per cwt., the sugar of those
states which do not cultivate that commodity by slave-labour. After
considerable discussion, in which several members recommended the
reduction or abolition of ot