On the face of it, the Revenue account just published
looks uglier than it has done for some time past ; but it is not really so bad as it seems. The table for the year, indeed, has an aspect fair enough : there is an increase on all the items but one—on the Customs, 36,886/.; Excise, 109,3971.; and the decrease is the insignificant one of 20,000/. in Crown-lands. It is in the quarterly table that the blemish is ; for though we have even here an increase in Stamps of 132,0431., besides an increase also in Taxes and Property-tax, there is a sweeping decrease of 369,687/. in Customs, and of 149,908/. in Excise. That is not only a great arithmetical set-off against the Stamps increase, but—whereas that very augmentation means mischief, for it probably indicates the unhealthy extent of railway speculation—. the Customs and Excise are usually taken as the critical items in judging of national prosperity, and their decay should mean adver- sity. The Ministerial Standard, however, accounts for the falling- off fairly enough, by the repeal of duties in March last ; which are computed to have equalled, in the Customs, on sugar, cotton, coals, and minor articles, 2,418,0001.; in the Excise, on auctions and glass, 890,0001.; besides 100,000/. paid as a return of duty upon glass : in all, just 3,500,000/. on the year. The proportional de- crease on the first quarter after the reductions, therefore, might be 875,000/. from that cause alone ; whereas it is only 789,8471. ; an on the year there is still the increase of 847,1781.
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