“duce of the Taxes of the years 1793, 4, 5, 6, is 3,372,9591.— They were calculated, in the different Budgets, to produce 4,387,000l.;-the deficiency, therefore, amounts to 1,014,0411, "For the Service of the year 1797, provision was made by Taxes "for the receipt of 3,318,0col.-There has been actually received 760,0441. The deficiency therefore amounts to 2,557,9561. "Deficiency of the old Revenue £.943,659 The Taxes of the years 1793-4-5-6, come next under consideration. They are stated at 3,372,959l. The amount is correct; but the purpose to be answered by throwing them together, is evident. The Taxes of the three first years had been proved by the Report of the Committee on Finance, to have answered their object and this was a fact to be kept out of sight. If each year had been separately examined, it would have been found that 40 or 50,000l. more has been received from the Taxes of 1793, and 90, or 100,000l. more from the Taxes of 1794, in the four last Quarters, than in the four Quarters ending the 5th of January, 1797; and that notwithstanding that part of them which arises from British Spirits, was affected even in the latter period by the stoppages of the Distillery, they have nearly reached the estimate of the Committee, and considerably exceed the charge of the debt created in those two years. The Taxes in 1795 have indeed, in the four last Quarters, fallen about 180,000l, below their produce at the Exchequer Exchequer in 1796; but the large instalments upon the duty on Wine which were paid in the former period, fully account for the deficiency. On the whole, the Taxes of the three years even now exceed the charge. When the effect of the Distillery has been felt for four complete quarters, they must considerably exceed it, without taking into the account what may be expected from the duties on Wine, whenever the importation of that article recovers from its present depression. The Taxes of 1796 produced in the second period above 490,000l. more than in the first. There are, however, many reasons why the receipt of these Taxes at the Exchequer cannot even now be considered as a test of their future amount. The gross Assessment for one year, on the Duties subject to that mode of collection, deducting the charges of management, was 412,7741. The actual receipt in the last four Quarters was only 278,570l. It is evident that a better judgment of the probable future produce of these Taxes can be formed from the former Statement than from the latter. The Duty on Hats appears to be rapidly increasing. The causes which have retarded the produce of the Duty on Legacies are sufficiently explained by the Report o the Committee, and by the evidence on which it was founded; and there is no ground whatever to argue from the delay, the ultimate deficiency of this resource. The Tax on Wine alone can, with any fairness, be stated as materially unproductive, notwithstanding the sum' of 449,000l. has been received on that account in the last four Quarters, a part of which arises from instalments paid on bonded duties. The consideration of the present failure of the duty on this article (which has affected the old Revenue of the year to a very considerable amount) would lead too far for this discussion; but thus much is evident, that no rational opinion can be formed as to its future produce from the actual receipt, without a detailed investigation of the importation, of the consumption, and of the various causes which must have contributed to create the present deficiency. The reduced state of the stock both of Wine-merchants and private persons, gives, however, no small reason to believe that the four ensuing Quarters will lead to a more favourable conclusion; and at all events, the two remaining instalments which will fall due within that period, must be sufficient to keep up the receipt of the ensuing year to its present amount. Adding the charges of the Debt created in 1796, being 1,851,cool. to those of the years 93-4-5, being 2,252,000!. the total will be 4,103,000l. The produce of the Taxes imposed in those four years, without making any of the allowances above stated, was 3,371,000l.; with such allowances, taken at the most moderate calculation, it is obvious that it must very considerably exceed that sum. This mode of comparison, however disadvantageous with respect to Taxes, which, having been recently imposed, cannot yet be supposed to have reached their full amount, is at least intelligible, and the two objects to be compared can be stated with reasonable accuracy. But the Writer of the Paragraph, in order to swell the apparent deficiency, has compared the produce of these Taxes with a calculation supposed to have been formed in the different Budgets, to the amount of 4387,000l. Upon what authority this supposed calculation is founded, he has omitted to state; nor has he mentioned how far the probable produce of any Tax was affected by modifications and exemptions in the course of each Bill, or what Taxes were abandoned without providing any substitute; such as, for instance, the Tax on Collateral Succession to Real Property, at the close of the Session of 1796, which accounts, to the extent of 120,000l. for the inadequate provision of that year. Whether the Statement of those Estimates be accurate or not, it does not affect the real situation of the Country, which depends upon a comparison of its charges and its means: it would only prove that mistakes have been made in calculations upon a subject where exactness never was attained, nor ought to be expected; or perhaps only that calculations, however well founded, have not yet been verified. The effect of such errors (undoubtedly no slight effect), is to diminish the surplus of the Consolidated Fund applicable to the service of the current year, and therefore to increase the burden of the succeeding year; but the real sufficiency of the Revenue ultimately to meet those accumulated charges, can only be judged of, by examining its Total amount after such a lapse of time as may give the Taxes imposed for that purpose a fair trial. This observation might be sufficient of itself to expose the fallacy of the next statement. This candid and accurate Financier has thought proper to compare, with the charges of the debt created in 1797, the sum which had been received prior to the 10th of October in the same year. The Acts by which some of the Duties were imposed, passed on the 28th of December; on very few indeed, if any, can the fair produce of three Quarters yet yet have reached the Exchequer; on some perhaps the produce of two Quarters; on others, not more than one. Two Tax-Bills were passed on the 6th and 22d of June; the remainder not till the 19th of July. They consisted almost entirely of Duties upon Stamps, which are always slow in their progress to the Exchequer, and of Taxes raised by Assessment, no one payment upon which could possibly be included within the period to which the Account is made up. It would be but a small advance in this system of comparison, to take the day on which a Loan is made, and before a single Tax is proposed, to call the Revenue deficient by the whole amount of the interest. To conclude the three items of this singular Account may be thus classed: The first, is the result of a comparison, which, even if it were accurate, would be totally inapplicable; but in forming which, the two objects compared are stated with gross inaccuracy.-Error-the whole. The second, is a comparison, not between actual charge and the average of a settled Revenue, but between an unauthorized estimate and a produce evidently inperfect. -Error-at least 300,cool.; the remainder unascertainable. The third, is a comparison between a fixed charge, which begins at once at its highest rate, and a Revenue, the receipt of which must begin at the lowest rate, the progress of which to the highest must be gradual, and often slow; and this comparison is taken at a time when no man can have fair grounds to conjecture what may be the period of that progress on the amount which it may reach. Such is the Statement, so inaccurate in its details, and so unfounded in its conclusions, which is circulated with unusual |