The returns of the revenue present little chance of meeting
our increased war expense without additional taxes or loans. The noti- fication from the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, which generally appears at the same time as the revenue- accounts, affords a fuller insight into the real state of the nation's finances than can be obtained from the elaborate tables of figures. From that brief document we learn, that the actual expenditure of the United Kingdom for the year ended the 10th of last October exceeded the income by the sum of 1,560,640/. 10s. 84d. With a balance so precisely cast up against the country, the Commissioners gravely give notice that they shall apply no sum for the reduction of the National Debt. The office of these Commissioners, were it not for the quarterly duty of issuing such notices, would now be a complete sinecure. The National Debt must, we apprehend, experience an increase, to meet the demands of the increasing war expenditure, which the diminishing yearly revenue cannot supply.
