than they consumed; in other words, upon which they could increase national wealth instead of diminishing it. And if it be admitted that Great Britain has colonial possessions, in which a thousand times the amount of the redundant part of our labouring classes could be placed without difficulty, it seems to be an irresistible inference, that the principle of removing that part of the able-bodied pauper population, for whose services there is no present or expected demand at home, and who may themselves be not only prepared but anxious to emigrate, should be maturely analysed and considered, and that the degree of certainty of actual or virtual repayment of the expence incurred in such removal, should be accurately ascertained, and this for the purpose of finally disposing of a novel and comprehensive, and most grave question of national policy;-namely, whether emigration on an extended scale ought not to form part of the political system of a mothercountry, where (as in England and Scotland, but more especially in Ireland) population is found to press most inconveniently upon the means of subsistence. We shall consider this most important subject at length on some early occasion. ART. XII.-1. Speech of the Right Hon. F. J. Robinson, Chancellor of the Exchequer, on the Financial Situation of the Country, delivered in a Committee of Ways and Means, on Monday, the 13th of March, 1826. 2. Financial Accounts of the Year 1825. Printed for the House of Commons. WE E have long been desirous of laying before our readers such a simple practical statement of the finances, revenue, and expenditure of the country, as might familiarise the public with a subject of the highest importance, which appears accidentally to be involved in more mystery than ought to belong to it. For the purpose of executing this object, we insert No. IV. of the Financial Accounts, printed and laid on the Table of the House of Commons for the Year 1825:' FINANCE FINANCE ACCOUNTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM, No. An Account of the Total Income of the Revenue of Great Britain and Repayments, Allowances, Discounts, Drawbacks, and Bounties of Expenditure of the United Kingdom, exclusive of the Sums applied HEADS OF REVENUE. ORDINARY REVENUES. Balances and Bills outstanding on 5th Jan. 1825. Customs Stamps One Shilling and Sixpenny Duty on Pensions and Pensions Hackney Coaches, and Hawkers and Pedlars Small Branches of the King's Hereditary Revenue Surplus Fees of Regulated Public Offices Poundage Fees, Pells' Fees, Casualties, Treasury Deduct Balances and Bills outstanding on 5th Total Ordinary Revenues OTHER RESOURCES. Money brought from the Civil List, on account of Money received from the East India Company, on By the Commissioners for the Issue of Exchequer By the Trustees of Naval and Military Pensions . Imprest and other Monies paid into the Exchequer IV. FOR THE YEAR 1825, ENDED 5TH JANUARY, 1826. Ireland, in the Year ended 5th January, 1826, after deducting the the nature of Drawbacks; together with an Account of the Public to the Reduction of the National Debt, within the same Period. EXPENDITURE. PAYMENTS OUT OF THE INCOME IN ITS PROGRESS TO THE EXCHEQUER. Charges of Collection Other Payments 90 Officers' Courts of Justice 98,642 0 4 91 Expenses of the Mint 14,748 15 10 92 Bounties 2,956 13 8 At the end of this Article will be found a linear scale, with an explanation of the principles of its construction, which we have framed for the purpose of illustrating the subject with greater accuracy and facility.* It will be perceived that we have, in some degree, varied the classification of the items included in the quotation from the Financial Accounts; but we are prepared to show that, in making that variation, we are justified by adequate considerations. This scale presents, in its centre column, No. 1. the total expenditure of the country, including both the national debt, which is not under the control of government, and for which the government are not more responsible than parliament and the nation at large; and the current expenditure of the country, including the maintenance of all its establishments, which is strictly under the control of the government, and for the amount of which they are strictly responsible. We have not complicated this subject with any consideration of the capital of the debt; we have considered it with reference to the permanent and temporary annuities which the country is called upon to discharge, and which may be considered as the practical representation of that capital. In this view the centre column represents a total expenditure of 60,154,135l. The remaining columns on the right furnish the various separate items of that total. The column No. 2. represents the whole of the national debt, with the different characters of its constituent parts, marginally noted, as so many various increments in its composition. It will be seen, therefore, that this column presents an amount of 39,801,0317., a sum which it is necessary to discharge annually out of the payments received from taxation, and for which, as already observed, the government is not responsible. The analysis of this sum, as exhibited in the scale, gives 27,230,790l.† as the amount of the national unredeemed funded debt of a permanent nature, including, as an inseparable part of it, the charge of management. Secondly, if the eye be carried up, it will be seen that, including the sinking-fund of 5,486,475l., the debt (that is, the annual expenditure made necessary by the debt) is raised to $2,717,2657. Thirdly, including part of the half-pay annuities sold to the Bank, which will require detailed and separate explanation, it is raised to 33,303,005 l. Fourthly, including the unfunded debt, it is raised to 34,132,5031. Fifthly, including the naval and military *See Appendix A., p. 307. It will be perceived, that in the Finance Accounts, the interest and management of the public debt amount to twenty-eight millions, whereas in our linear scale they are calculated only at twenty-seven millions. The reason is, that, in the Finance Accounts, the sum of twenty-eight millions comprehends the interest of the unfunded debt, which, in the scale, is represented in a separate item, half-pay half-pay and pensions, it is raised to 39,435,003. Sixthly, including the pensions charged by act of parliament on the Consolidated Fund, it is raised to the sum of 39,801,0317. of annual payment. The column No. 3. represents the total current expenditure of the year, (including naval, military, and civil establishments,) for which the government are strictly responsible. This, it will be observed, amounts only to 16,369,8287., and is less than the sum of taxes actually remitted in 1816. The columns No. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, include the various increments of the column No. 3, according to the classification which we think ourselves justified in making. On the left of the central column, at the bottom of the scale, will be found, above the numbers 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, the relative linear proportion of that sort of reductions which may be expected to be moved in the ensuing session; and we hope that what is there exhibited will bring home to the distinct conviction of every person in this country, possessing the simplest elements of education, the true state of the case with reference to our public debt, and our expenditure-and enable every person to judge of the extent of personal advantage which he, as an individual member of the community, is likely to derive from the reduction of those items of establishment, the existence of which, he is assured by many writers of the present day, is the sole and exclusive cause of the poverty and misfortune to which he finds himself exposed. To hint, for one moment, that it is not the sacred duty of government and parliament to make all possible reductions compatible with the well-being of the state, would be to advance, not only an absurd, but a wicked proposition-yet not more absurd, nor more wicked, than are the propositions advanced by many writers, that this or that specific reduction would make a sensible difference in the condition and comforts of the labouring classes of the community; and it is not immaterial to observe, that the class of writers in question, who attempt to delude the people by telling them that the cause of all their calamities is the existence of sinecure places and pensions, or the circumstance of some government office having half-a-dozen superfluous clerks, are the most peremptory and dogmatical in maintaining that no conceivable advantage could be gained to any party, by any reduction of the interest of the national debt. We would fain hope that the fallacy and absurdity of such propositions may be so effectually demonstrated by an examination of this linear scale as to relieve the people from the influence of that jugglery which has been so adroitly practised upon them. Undou tedly, nothing can be more intrinsically absurd than what is |