The gloomy characteristics of the Revenue-tables are soon told. On
the year there is a decrease under every head, with the single exception of "China-money "; the whole decrease being 2,587,000/. On the quarter, there is an ostensible :increase of 182,000/. in Excise and a small increase under Crown lands and Miscellaneous; also one not worth noting ex,cert for exactness, on i..iprest-monies: on all the other brancliewthere is a decrease, amounting in round numbers to 327,0001. in the aggregate.
Various considerations are advanced to mitigate the effect of this adverse account;but not with much succesa. For example, the decrease under Stamps is partly explained by the-transfer of carriage-duties to the Excise ; but that only detracts proportionately from the favourable aspect of the Excise account. Sugar, which would otherwise have paid duty, it is said, was kept back to come in under lower duties after the 5th of July ; which shows to what a wide extent Ministerial indecision may cause inconvenience and loss. The best explanation is the convulsed state of the Continent, which has crippled many of our usual customers : but that is an explanation more obvious than consolatory, since we do not see what prospect there can be of a speedy pacification on the Continent, with its revival of trade. Some sharp-sighted persons, indeed, see trade already reviving. No doubt, stocks are lower, and raw material is cheaper ; but the demand still is for buyers : where are they? Perhaps the best augury is the influx of money into this country—the property of.those who fear for the safety of their means abroad. That may be construed to point at the trade which this country might enjoy if it should become the workshop of Europe in a time of general war. But in order to render such a chance thoroughly available, we ought to have at the head of affairs a Ministry combining decision with discretion, activity with reserve, so as to control the relations of the country for her greatest benefit—not a Ministry such as raises needless squabbles with third-rate powers, and exhibits its most obvious influence on the revenue by a defalcation in Sugar-duties. , One deficiency in the table is truly described as being more apparent than real : for the second time since the change, the Post-office figures on the side of decrease. But that department has just had to pay a claim preferred against it by the Great Western Railway Company, for some time litigated, and now decided in favour of the company: the payment on that head explains the apparent decrease in the annual account—there has been no falling-off in the number of letters.
