388 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



before the Cojiimittee, are very satisfactory, inasmuch as they not 

 only afford no indication of any general decline in that branch of 

 the public income, but on the contrary, exhibit, in the latest period, 

 an appearance of improvement upon nearly all the articles compos- 

 ing it, which forms a remarkable contrast to the result of the ac- 

 counts of this branch (and that of the customs) when your Com- 

 mittee were last engaged in the investigation of this subject ; upon 

 which they had to observe, that the deficiency in the year 1816, 

 below former years, " did not appear to have arisen upon a few only 

 " of the articles subject to duty (which might have been influenced 

 " by particular causes) but in a greater or less degree upon almost 

 " the whole of those which constituted the excise revenue." At the 

 present time, on the contrary, the increase is as general as the de- 

 ialcatioa was at that period ; and as the only material articles now 

 remaining deficient are depressed, as above adverted to, by a parti- 

 cular and merely temporary cause, your Committee trust they will 

 not be thought too sanguine when they anticipate the speedy return 

 of this branch of the public income to its usual rate of productiveness- 



In the examination of these accounts, your Committee have seen 

 with satisfaction, that the duties upon some articles (particularly 

 tea, tobacco, and spirits) which from their nature, and the very high 

 amount of those duties, your Committee conceived to be peculiarly 

 exposed to the practices of the fraudulent trader, have, nevertheless, 

 been productive in the same proportion as the revenue in general, 

 and appear to be improving in common with the duties derived from 

 other objects of consumption. Your Committee are not prepared by 

 any farther infbrmation than they possessed last year (beyond the 

 inference to be drawn from the facts above-mentioned) to state an 

 opinion as to the ultimate practicability of maintaining those duties 

 at their present high rates ; and they have thought it the less neces- 

 sary to pursue their inquiries into this question, because they un- 

 derstand, that the general system and management of the revenue 

 of customs, and of the import branch of the excise, to which it 

 principally belongs, is now undergoing a special investigation by a 

 commission appointed by the lords of the Treasury for the purpose. 



Having thus stated to the House how far the public accounts up 

 to the latest periods, have tended to verify the estimate of public in- 

 come framed last year by your Committee, and having explained 

 the grounds upon which their opinion of the general accuracy of that 

 estimate, and the probability of its being fully realized, is strength- 

 ened and confirmed ; they now propose to compare the actual ex- 

 penditure of the year 1817, and the probable expenditure of the 

 year 1818, with the expenditure assumed for those two years in 

 their fourth Report, and the actual and estimated income of each of 

 them respectively. 



EXPENDITURE 



