The Revenue returns for the third quarter of the year
are ex- tremely satisfactory. They show that the total receipts into the Treasury in the three months just ended have been 228.632,334, which is an increase of 2864,000 over the corresponding period of last year. Daring the three quarters, taken together, the Exchequer has had paid into it £78,340,468—an increase of nearly a million—and but for some sudden accident the end of the financial year should close with a total Revenue of over £116,000,000,—or £30,000,000 more than the nation raised fifteen years ago. Owing, however, to the increased expenditure and the reduction in taxation, it is not likely that the realised surplus will be more than a million and a quarter. The most interesting features of the returns are the facts that the Death. duties, in spite of the concessions, continue to yield more and more Revenue; and that the Income-tax also, in spite of the help to the smaller taxpayers, goes up steadily. The boon granted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer last year to the payers of Income-tax ought to have coat £100,000; in reality it has only cost 210.000, showing that the Income-tax is really yielding more than previously. At present each penny of the Income-tax yields two and a half millions sterling ; twelve years ago it only yielded two millions. In other words, the Income-fax at Sd. used to bring in £16,000,000; it now yields £18000,000. And yet we are supposed to be going to our material ruin owing to the policy of Free-trade. Taken as a whole, the Revenue figures are most satisfactory, and show our enormous financial strength. Coupled with a Navy powerful enough to command the sea, that financial strength is of great importance. Without sea-power to back it, it is, however, but an invitation to the plunderer.
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