It must be confessed that the aspect of the Revenue-tables
is rather alarming. The preponderancy is greatly on the side of decrease. On the quarter there is a decrease in the Customs of more than 440,000/. in the Excise 290,0001., Stamps 56,0001., Miscellaneous 323,000/. ; and the total decrease on the quarter is 1,121,000/. The decrease on the year is 2,612,000/. in the Customs ; in the Excise, 388,000/. • Miscellaneous, 127,000/. There is an in- crease on the Stamps of 380,0004 the morbid result of the railway mania. The total decrease on the year is 2,327,0001. That looks bad, and croakers have endeavoured to make much of the adverse appearances. It is to be remembered, however, that Sir Robert Peel's great reductions in the Tariff have not yet had their full trial, whether as respects the effect on general trade or the secondary effect on revenue. We have not yet data to judge of the working of those changes, especially while the trade and revenue of the country labour under further changes actually in suspense. The most hopeful commentary on the Revenue-tables is the Gazette announcement by the Commissioners for the Reduc- tion of the National Debt, that the surplus of revenue over in- come at their disposal is nearly four millions sterling.
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