This large sum of £28,000,000, being in discharge of a national obligation, solemnly confirmed by acts of the legislature, and being moreover in the nature of an equivalent paid for money had and received, may be considered as practically out of the control of Parliament. The only wholesome control over this expenditure which the representatives of the people can exercise, is by adopting such measures, in the way of diminution of the rate of interest, or of commutation of the perpetual into terminable annuities, as shall alleviate its present pressure, or provide for its ultimate extinction. The total expenditure for the year 1851 having been £49,506,610, and the charge for the interest of the debt having been £28,017,127, it follows that the expenditure properly under the control of Parliament was £21,489,483, which is considerably less than half of the total expenditure. This sum of £21,489,483 is, considered as the subject of parliamentary control, divided into two portions. One portion, which amounted last year to £2,587,679, consists of fixed charges made upon the Consolidated Fund by various acts of Parliament passed in former years. The first of these is the Civil List, fixed by agreement with the crown, and ratified by act of Parliament. This item consists of £385,000, out of which sum are defrayed the expenses of her majesty's household and privy purse, the salaries and retired allowances of the officers of the household, the royal bounty, alms, &c. This sum, together with £12,730 paid as civil list pensions to persons who have rendered personal services to the crown, or performed public duties, or who have been distinguished by their useful discoveries in science, and their attainments in literature and the arts, made up the sum of £397,730. The grants of civil list pensions are limited by act of Parliament to £1,200 a year. The next item is "Annuities and Pensions for Civil, Naval, Military, and Judical Services, &c., charged by various acts of Parliament on the Consolidated Fund," amounting to £378,341. The annuities under this head are very various; but they are principally compensations for public services, or for loss of office. The next two items, "Salaries and Allowances," and "Diplomatic Salaries and Pensions," consist of the salaries of certain officers (such as the speaker and officers of the House of Commons, the Commissioners of Audit, the Controller-General of the Exchequer, &c.) which are fixed by act of Parliament, and also the salaries and expenses of the diplomatic service, which are limited, by the same authority, to a sum not exceeding £180,000 per annum. The next item is entitled "Courts of Justice," and it includes the salaries of the Judges of the Superior Courts of England and Ireland; those of Scotland being a separate charge upon the customs revenue. Its amount is £1,090,227. The larger part of this sum is, however, in fact paid for the expenses of the constabulary in Ireland, and of the metropolitan police courts and police in England; the former of these charges amounts to about £580,000; the latter to about £130,000; making altogether £710,000. The item of "Miscellaneous Charges on the Consolidated Fund" consists principally of the payments of interest on the Russian-Dutch, and Greek loans, which together form about £138,000. Besides these, there are certain expenses connected with the slave trade, allowances for the improvement of harbors, &c., amounting altogether to £295,056. These several fixed charges on the Consolidated Fund have been made by a great variety of acts of Parliament, passed during a long series of years on the most multifarious grounds. That which has been done by the authority of Parliament can be undone by the same power; and therefore, in strictness, any one of the acts in question may be revised. Many of them, however, are in the nature of compacts with individuals; and as to the majority of them (such as those fixing the salaries of judges,) the policy of determining the payment by something more certain than an annual vote of Parliament is universally recog nized. Practically, therefore, the attention of Parliament is only given at certain intervals to these fixed charges; and thus the sum which comes annually under the close and ordinary review of the House of Commons, consists of the remaining portion of the sum of £21,489,483, to which we above adverted. EXPENDITURE Funded debt Interest and management of permanent debt... £28,829,749 30 Total charge of funded debt, exclusive of £11,867 3,784,664 92 78. 8d., the interest on donations and bequests. 27,614,413 12 2 Unfunded debt Interest on exchequer bills... 402,713 13 6 28,017,127 58 397,730 0 0 378,341 13 7 273,526 26 152,798 77 1,090,227 5 6 295,056 3 0 2,587,679 12 2 6,485,498 1 10 5,849,916 16 5 2,238,442 8 0 4,004,831 19 3 300,000 0 0 18,878,689 56 Unclaimed dividends (less than received)... Excess of income over expenditure..... £49,483,496 3 4 23,114 8 3 49,506,610 11 7 2,726,396 4 10 £52,233,006 16 5 In order to understand the present financial condition of the country, it will be necessary to examine the principal items of this annual account; and, in so doing, we will observe the constitutional maxim which, by placing the Committee of Supply before the Committee of Ways and Means, gives expenditure the precedence of income; on the ground that the nation has no fixed income, and that its wants must be determined before the amount of taxation can be fixed. A private person regulates his expenses by his income, whereas a nation regulates its income by its expenses. Following then this order, we may remark that the charge for the funded and unfunded debt in the year 1851 was £28,017,127. This sum has undergone some variation during the last twenty years, as will be seen by the following comparison, showing the total charge of funded and unfunded debt. 1830. 1840. 1851. It appears, therefore, that the charge of the debt was above a million sterling less in 1851 than in 1830. It is, however, to be observed that about £30,000,000 of fresh debt has been created since 1830; namely, the slave compensation loan of £20,000,000 in 1835-6, the Irish distress loan of £8,000,000 in 1847, and the deficiency loan of £2,000,000 in 1848. This reduction of the charge has therefore been effected, consistently with the additional loans, and also with the increased operation of the conversion of perpetual into terminable annuities; a process which relieves posterity at the expense of a small present sacrifice.* The charge for perpetual annuities in 1830 and the present time is as follows: January 5, 1830 £25,328,000; January 5, 1852 £23,594,000; decrease £1,734,000. Whereas the comparative amounts for the terminable annuities stand thus: January 5, 1830 £2,681,000; January 4, 1852 £3,816,000; increase £1,134,000. This large sum of £28,000,000, being in discharge of a national obligation, solemnly confirmed by acts of the legislature, and being moreover in the nature of an equivalent paid for money had and received, may be considered as practically out of the control of Parliament. The only wholesome control over this expenditure which the representatives of the people can exercise, is by adopting such measures, in the way of diminution of the rate of interest, or of commutation of the perpetual into terminable annuities, as shall alleviate its present pressure, or provide for its ultimate extinction. The total expenditure for the year 1851 having been £49,506,610, and the charge for the interest of the debt having been £28,017,127, it follows that the expenditure properly under the control of Parliament was £21,489,483, which is considerably less than half of the total expenditure. This sum of £21,489,483 is, considered as the subject of parliamentary control, divided into two portions. One portion, which amounted last year to £2,587,679, consists of fixed charges made upon the Consolidated Fund by various acts of Parliament passed in former years. The first of these is the Civil List, fixed by agreement with the crown, and ratified by act of Parliament. This item consists of £385,000, out of which sum are defrayed the expenses of her majesty's household and privy purse, the salaries and retired allowances of the officers of the household, the royal bounty, alms, &c. This sum, together with £12,730 paid as civil list pensions to persons who have rendered personal services to the crown, or performed public duties, or who have been distinguished by their useful discoveries in science, and their attainments in literature and the arts, made up the sum of £397,730. The grants of civil list pensions are limited by act of Parliament to £1,200 a year. The next item is "Annuities and Pensions for Civil, Naval, Military, and Judical Services, &c., charged by various acts of Parliament on the Consolidated Fund," amounting to £378,341. The annuities under this head are very various; but they are principally compensations for public services, or for loss of office. The next two items, "Salaries and Allowances," and "Diplomatic Salaries and Pensions," consist of the salaries of certain officers (such as the speaker and officers of the House of Commons, the Commissioners of Audit, the Controller-General of the Exchequer, &c.) which are fixed by act of Parliament, and also the salaries and expenses of the diplomatic service, which are limited, by the same authority, to a sum not exceeding £180,000 per annum. The next item is entitled "Courts of Justice," and it includes the salaries of the Judges of the Superior Courts of England and Ireland; those of Scotland being a separate charge upon the customs revenue. Its amount is £1,090,227. The larger part of this sum is, however, in fact paid for the expenses of the constabulary in Ireland, and of the metropolitan police courts and police in England; the former of these charges amounts to about £580,000; the latter to about £130,000; making altogether £710,000. 66 The item of " Miscellaneous Charges on the Consolidated Fund" consists principally of the payments of interest on the Russian-Dutch, and Greek loans, which together form about £138,000. Besides these, there are certain expenses connected with the slave trade, allowances for the improvement of harbors, &c., amounting altogether to £295,056. These several fixed charges on the Consolidated Fund have been made by a great variety of acts of Parliament, passed during a long series of years on the most multifarious grounds. That which has been done by the authority of Parliament can be undone by the same power; and therefore, in strictness, any one of the acts in question may be revised. Many of them, however, are in the nature of compacts with individuals; and as to the majority of them (such as those fixing the salaries of judges,) the policy of determining the payment by something more certain than an annual vote of Parliament is universally recog nized. Practically, therefore, the attention of Parliament is only given at certain intervals to these fixed charges; and thus the sum which comes annually under the close and ordinary review of the House of Commons, consists of the remaining portion of the sum of £21,489,483, to which we above adverted. A COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF THE NUMBER OF LETTERS DELIVERED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM IN THE WEEKS ENDED 20TH DECEMBER, 1840, 19TH DECEMBER, 1841, 25TH DECEMBER, 1842, AND 21ST DECEMBER, 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846, 1847, 1848, 1849, 1850, AND 1851. Weeks ended Dec. 20, 1840 .... Dec. 19, 1841 .... .... .... Dec. 21, 1848 .... Dec. 21, 1851 .... Gross Total London, Total inland, London England Country foreign & district and Total Total United offices. ship. post. Wales. Ireland. Scotland. Kingdom. 1.782.579 491,264 405,153 2,678,996 381,306 375,024 3,435,326 2.062,129 554.990 458,459 3,075,578 425,681 437,496 3,939,755 2 205,521 576,367 496,360 3,278.248 446534 435,407 4,160,189 2,869,404 622,673 519,889 3,511,966 487,844 468,868 4,468,678 2,557,038 663.445 542,129 3,762,612 536,914 670,549 4,970,075 3,047,358 739,909 633,296 4,420,563 601,279 585,536 5,607,378 3.202.815 792,723 664,936 4,660,472 656,140 609,113 5,925,725 3,447,879 879,923 696,694 5,023,996 683,531 660,484 6,368,011 3,560,507 909,749 661,539 5,181,795 702,972 661,828 6,496,595 3,652,748 859.831 712,943 5,225,522 700,285 677,722 6,603,529 3,768,091 890,346 802,745 5,461,182 704,614 696,262 6,862,058 3,928,346 981,923 764,308 5,674,577 730,925 721,492 7,126,994 The other branches of receipt are not of sufficient importance to require a separate notice. There is, however, one other important point to be noticed, namely, that the several heads of revenue yielded in 1851 a sum which considerably exceeded the expenditure during the same time. Income Excess of income over expenditure.... £52.233,006 49,506,610 £2,726,396 Having thus explained the state of our national income and expenditure, we proceed to describe the state of our foreign trade, so far as it can be represen ted in figures; and with this view, we will insert some particulars respecting articles of general consumption. In 1842, the customs duty chargeable on British plantation sugar was at the rate of 25s. 24d. per cwt., while sugar of foreign production was effectually excluded from use in this country by means of the prohibitory duty with which it was burdened. Under these circumstances the entire consumption of this article within the United Kingdom, added to molasses when reduced to its equiva lent in crystalized sugar, was 4,068,331 cwt. The duty upon British plantation sugar has, by progressive reductions, been now brought down to 10s. per cwt.; while foreign sugar, although still burdened with a protective duty of 4s. per cwt., (to disappear in 1854,) finds its way, in large and increasing quantities, into use; so that the whole quantity of sugar, and of its equivalent in the form of molasses, which paid consumption duties in 1851, reached 6,884,189 ewt., showing an increase, in nine years, of 2,815,858 cwt., or more than 69 per cent. These figures, striking as they are, do not display the whole value to the community of the change in our fiscal policy as applied to this article so generally desired. There is a proportion of our population who are in circumstances which have always enabled them to consume in their families as much sugar as they desire, whatever may be its price, and to whom it is a matter of very small importance in their yearly expenditure whether they pay sixpence or a shilling for every pound they buy. This proportion, it has been assumed with proba bility, comprehends one-fourth of our numbers; and it has been computed, after careful inquiries, that these persons consume in the year 40 lbs. of sugar per head. If, then, we allow this consumption to the one-fourth of our families, we shall find that there was left in 1842, for the consumption per head of the remaining three-fourths, to whom price is an object, no more than 9 lbs. in the course of the year. In 1850, when, as we have seen, the whole consumption of sugar was 6,884,189 cwt., if we still allow 40 lbs. as the individual consump tion of the easy classes, we shall find that the remaining three-fourths have been able to buy and to use 23 lbs. per head during the year. There are few tests of the general prosperity of a country, which are ordinarily more conclusive than that afforded by its timber trade. It is only when its various interests are in a state of buoyancy that building is extensively carried on. In 1845 and 1846 this remark would not have so well applied, because of the great demand for wood which was then caused by the extensive construction of railways; but this source of consumption has now probably subsided to its ordinary level; and if we find that timber is extensively demanded in the absence of that or any other unusual application of it, we may feel confident that such demand can only arise from the generally prosperous condition of the peo ple, which leads them to seek for greater comfort in their dwellings than necessarily contented them in more ordinary times. In 1843 the quantity used of timber and deals, expressed in loads of 50 cubic feet, was 1,317,645 loads; in 1844 it was 1,485,357 loads; in 1845 and 1846, the years of railway exaggeration, we used 1,957,814 and 2,024,939 loads. The quantities since have been, in loads 1847. 1,895,151 1848. 1,806,448 1849. 1,667,515 1850. 1,731,967 1851. 2,037,077 It thus appears that the quantity used in the year which has just closed, exceeds that of the year of greatest railway construction, and is, in fact, the largest ever experienced in this kingdom. Messrs. Churchill and Sim, extensive and well-informed wood brokers, remark upon this fact, in their yearly circular addressed to their customers, in these words:: "The year 1851 will be remarkably prominent in the records of the wood trade, when it is seen that the largest known amount of importation has been supported by consumption in an equal degree; not only manifest by an extension of the trade in London, but including in the same very pleasing result the trade of the United Kingdom." It might have been imagined that through the progressive reductions in the rates of duty upon foreign wood, from 55s. to 7s. 6d. per load, the demand for such would have been so great as to have displaced in part the importations from our own colonies: while on the other hand, it would have raised the cost in foreign countries so as to deprive the consumer in this kingdom of a proportion, at least, of the advantage intended for him by Parliament in reducing the duty. Neither of these consequences has been realized. It is remarked, in the circular already quoted "After the opening of the navigation laws, and the recent reduction of the discriminating import duty, it was not easy to foresee the operation of these almost simultaneous changes, and doubt hung over the future. Whether the wood of the North of Europe would displace the colonial or a large portion of the present supply! Whether our consumption, which had remained at a reduced average since 1847, would now increase? And, if so, as the supply had diminished in rather a larger ratio than the consumption, whether supplies could be increased without a rise in price sufficient of itself to check consumption? Cheapness has solved all doubt and dispelled the cloud of uncertainty; the North of Europe has yielded such abundance, that the English consumer gains in a broad sense more than the difference of reduced duty and cheaper transit; British America continues to have her large export in wood, still retaining the better half of Great Britain's wood trade; while home interests have prospered through all these changes in obtaining the unrestricted supply of cheap woods." Similar inquiries made in respect of other articles of consumption would lead us to the like result; but it cannot be necessary thus to pursue the subject, since it must be evident that there cannot be one law which governs the circumstances of the sugar and timber trades, and another law which affects differently the circumstances of other trades which are necessarily placed in the same conditions. The following figures, showing the quantities imported for consumption of various articles used by all classes of the community in the years 1842, 1850, |