17 OCTOBER 1846, Page 1

Although the revenue accounts for the year and quarter do

not exhibit a very large nett increase, the aspect of the tables indi- cates a healthy state of the revenue and a prosperous state of the country.

To begin with the quarter. There is an increase in all the principal branches of revenue except one. The increase on the Customs is 462,0001.; on the Excise, 227,000/.; Taxes, 8,6001.; Property-tax, 148,0001. The exception is the decrease on Stamps, 5,800/. but it will be remembered that the corresponding quarter of 184g, which furnishes the comparison was that which wit- nessed the highest fervour of railway speculation ; so that a much larger decrease might have been anticipated in this soberer time, without its being taken to indicate any real falling-off in the sub- stantial revenue. The total decrease in the quarter's account (339,060/4 is made up in Miscellaneous and Repayments of Ad- vances, items of no significancy. The quarter presents a nett increase of 539,0001.

We pass to the accounts for the year. Here also there is an increase on all the principal items except one : the Excise shows an advance of 188,0001.; Stamps, 22,000/.' Taxes, 10,0001.; Property-tax, 205,0001.; Post-office, 114,0001. The exception, indeed, is more considerable than that on the quarterly account ; there is a decrease in the Customs of 500,000/. The virtual de- crease is even greater; for the account includes about half a mil- lion of revenue received for corn-fluty. The account for the year, in fact, shows that the revenue is still feeling the effect of Sir Robert Peel's changes in the tariff; but that effect appears to have been more sensible at the early part of the year than it is now, as we see by the large increase on the quarter;. so that no wide inference of an adverse kind can be drawn from this exception to the generally productive aspect of the accounts. The table for the year presents a considerable deficiency in some of the minor items ; on the whole reducing the nett increase to 88,000/.

The surplus of income over the charge on the Consolidated Fund, in the October quarter of 1845, was 4,816,0001.; in the present quarter it is 5,762,000/.