386 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



ended the 5th April 1818, viz. 1,837,479/., the receipt in the last 

 quarter amounted only to 308,180/, Had the same proportion pre- 

 vailed in both cases, the amount would have been, in the latter, 

 886,012/., exceeding the actual payment on account of this duty by 

 577,832/., and consequently augmenting in the same degree, the 

 excess as above stated of 795,769/. of the total receipts of the quarter 

 ended the 5th April 1818, beyond those of the 5th April 1817. 



Your Committee would not, indeed, be disposed to lay much 

 stress upon the melioration of the revenue in a single quarter, or to 

 build, upon that circumstance alone, a very sanguine hope of per- 

 manent amendment, sufficient to carry the public income to the full 

 extent of their estimate, if it were not manifestly the consequence of 

 an extensive and important change in the general condition of the 

 country, such as your Committee anticipated, when they presented 

 their fourth Report to the House. The nature of this change in the 

 internal state of the kingdom, or rather of this return from a sudden 

 and violent change in a contrary direction, is too well known and 

 felt by the House and the country to render it necessary to dwell 

 upon it ; they therefore confine themselves to some observations 

 arising out of the accounts before them, which when examined in 

 their component parts afford more satisfactory evidence of improve- 

 ment than even in their total amounts. 



In the first place, it is deserving of remark, that of the several 

 branches of the public income, which are distinguished in the fore- 

 going comparative statements, there are only two, either in the year 

 ended the 5th January, or in that which terminated on the 5th 

 April, that have proved deficient below the average upon which the 

 estimate of the Committee was founded. These are, the Excise, and 

 the Post Office; while, on the other hand, the Customs, the Assessed 

 Taxes, the Stamps, and the Miscellaneous Receipts, have all ex- 

 ceeded the average in both periods ; for, although it appears that the 

 Customs in Ireland did not, in either case, quite reach the estimate 

 for that country, yet, when added to the produce of the same revenue 

 in Great Britain, the whole will be seen to have exceeded the 

 amount of the estimate of the customs for Great Britain and Ireland 

 taken together. It may further be observed, that if the excise 

 be excluded from these comparative accounts, the remaining 



Years ended, branches of the revenue, col- 

 /; ~~ : \ lectively, will be found, not- 



S.Tan. 1818. • 5 Apr. 1818. -^i ^ "^j- ^i j ^^ I- e 



. withstandmg the deialcation ot 



Total Revenue > *" ^' ^^^ Post Office, to have ex- 



exciudiDg Excise J 27,477,985 - 27,680,877 ccedcd the Estimate, in the 



•C5 



tii\ Eeumate of the I year ended the 5th January 



la ' S"?""?*' "-(• 26,669,479 - 26,66g.479 1818, by 808,504/., and in the 



fis ^ eluding Excise,. 3 __ ' j J iU ctt. A t,-."! 



£.808,5M - 1,011,398 Y^ar ended the 5th April 



■- 1818, by 1,011,398/. If, there- 



fore there is a reasonable ground for presuming that tiie excise will 

 be again as productive as it has been on the average of former years 



f as 



