probable revenue of 1854 he ventured to state as follows:
—Customs, £20,175,000; Excise, £14,595,000; stamps,
£7,090,000; taxes, £3,015,000; income-tax, £6,275,000;
post-office, £1,200,000; crown-lands, £250,000; old
stores, £420,000; miscellaneous, £320,000; giving a total
income for the ensuing year, 1854-5, of £53,349,000. The
expenditure he estimated at £56,189,000, under the
following principal heads:—Charge for the public debt,
£27,000,000, showing a saving on this head of £570,000;
army, £6,857,000; navy, £7,488,000; Ordnance,
£3,846,000; commissariat, £645,000; miscellaneous
estimates, £4,775,000; militia, £530,000; packet service,
£792,000. Some provision must be paid for extraordinary
military expenditure connected with the expedition
to the east, though it was extremely difficult to form
any estimate. Taking the force in round numbers at
25,000, he proposed that a sum of £50 a head, or
£1,250,000 in all, should be voted for this purpose.
Comparing the estimated expenditure with the estimated
income, there would thus be a deficiency of £2,840,000
for the ensuing year. But for the extraordinary
circumstances connected with our foreign relations, a
surplus of £1,166,000 might have been anticipated with
confidence; but as matters now stood, the total difference
against the exchequer, resulting from a comparison
of the income and expenditure of 1854 with those of
1853, would be £4,506,000. It would be for the
committee to consider in what manner this deficiency should
be made up. He trusted they would not make up
any portion of it by interfering with any of those
reductions of taxation which had been made of late years.
The relief to the consumer, arising from reductions of
indirect taxes made last year, was £1,474,000; the loss
to the exchequer, which might be retrieved if the
committee consented to retrace their steps, was £1,002,000:
Whatever was done, no one would contest, should be
done with a minimum of disturbance to trade and
industry. There was a strong and just opinion in the
country, that to resort to the money-market for a loan
would be a course not required by our necessities, and
therefore not worthy of our character. The system of
raising war-supplies by loans was in fact one of systematic,
wholesale, and continued deception upon the people.
The proposition he made, therefore, was to increase the
income-tax by one-half, and to levy the whole addition
for and in respect of the first moiety of the year—thus
doubling the income-tax for the half-year. This was
the only measure by which it would be in their power
to raise the whole addition within the year, the levying
of direct taxation being always from six to nine
months in arrear of the period to which the tax applied.
The moiety of the tax would be £3,137,000; or,
inasmuch as the expense of collection diminished
inversely to the increase of the produce, £3,307,000; the
whole produce, therefore, of the augmented tax from
April, 1854, to April, 1855, would be £9,582,000. The
total income for the year 1854-55 might thus be taken
at £56,656,000, and the total expenditure at £56,189,000
giving, after making a provision for the services of the
year equal to the expected demand, a small surplus of
£467,000. He should propose also an alteration in the
law with respect to stamps on bills of exchange, to take
effect on the 5th July next—the adoption of an ad
valorem scale of 3d. on each £25, or 1s. on £100, for
short bills; or 4d on £25, and 1s.on £100, for long
bills. The revenue derived from this source in the year
ending April, 1853, was £565,000, at an average of
1s. 6d. a head. His proposition would be equivalent to
an average rate of 1s. a head, which would give a
revenue of £434,000; but the large amount of capital
that would most probably be thrown into small
undertakings, and the abolition of the present distinction
between home-drawn and foreign-drawn bills, which
formed part of the scheme, would raise the total revenue
from this source to £544,000. It was to be observed that
no part of the additional revenue would be realised
until towards Christmas, whereas the augmented
expenditure would be felt in the next quarter. He asked
the power of making, in case of necessity, a moderate
issue of Exchequer bills, to the amount of £1,750,000.
The authority would be exercised only as found necessary
for the public service, and probably not to the full
extent; but even if it were, the unfunded debt would
only stand at the point at which it stood a twelvemonth
ago. The financial arrangements of last year, with a
view to a commutation of stocks, had been successful
only to a small extent; but the profit on the transactions
which had taken place would be £130,000. He
had thus endeavoured to make a competent provision
for the immediate exigences of the country, as well as
for carrying on the actual operations of war. After
concluding his statement, he mentioned that the
income-tax resolution would be brought forward on
Monday, and moved a resolution for the issue of
£1,750,000 Exchequer bills.—Mr. HUME entirely
approved of raising the supplies necessary for the public
service within the year; and thought it right that the
corporations which had been urging the government
into war should be required to bear their share of the
burdens consequent on the policy they recommended.—
Mr. WILLIAMS, Mr. HANLEY, Mr. GLYN, and Mr. W.
BROWN, made remarks on various points of the scheme.
Mr. DISRAELI acknowledged the duty incumbent on
the house of doing all in their power to support her
Majesty in just and necessary wars, and should, therefore
offer no opposition to the vote proposed. He must
protest against the principle that taxation was to be
the only source from which the supplies were to be
raised, however prolonged the contest, and thought
that direct taxation had now been pushed to its utmost
limits. The present state of the balances in the Exchequer
was unsatisfactory, and might lead to difficulty.
Demands amounting to from £9,000,000 to £10,000,000
would have to be met about the 5th of April, with a
sum of only £3,000,000 in hand. He proceeded to
contend that this was owing to improvident financial
arrangements connected with the conversion of stock
and the reduction of interest on Exchequer bills.—The
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER showed, in opposition
to Mr. Disraeli, that his financial plan of last
year for the conversion of stock, so far as it had been
acted upon, had been profitable to the public, and
referred to the language of Mr. Disraeli himself, who
had argued that the bargain driven with the stock-
holders was too hard a one. The state of the balances
in the Exchequer, taken in connection with other
circumstances of our financial position, was perfectly
satisfactory.

On Tuesday, March 7, Lord PALMERSTON, in answer
to questions put by Mr. T. Duncombe, stated that the
same amount of pardon lately granted to Mr. Smith
O'Brien, had also been extended to the Chartist
Convicts, Frost, Williams, and Jones, convicted of high
treason in 1839. His lordship added that her Majesty's
indulgence would also be extended to Messrs. Martin
and Doherty who had been transported with Mr. Smith
O'Brien.

Mr. LIDDELL moved the appointment of a select
committee to inquire into the Postal Communication
between London and the Cities of Edinburgh and
Glasgow, with a view of ascertaining whether greater
despatch and punctuality can be attained in the
transmission of letters, as well between the termini as the
intermediate places.—Mr. WILSON suggested that the
inquiry should embrace the whole subject of the
conveyance of mails by railways generally.—The amended
motion, in the form suggested by Mr. Wilson was
agreed to.

On Wednesday, March 8, Mr. LOCKE KING moved
the second reading of the bill for regulating the
Succession to Real Estate.—Sir J. PAKINGTON moved, as
an amendment, that the bill be read a second time that
day six months. By attempting to alter the law of
primogeniture, he contended, this measure aimed a
blow at the institutions of the country, which all who
viewed the progress made by the encroachments of
democracy were bound to resist. It was true that it
would only apply to cases of intestacy, but it was easy
to see that this was the commencement of a system
which would ere long be carried to a much greater
extent, and the example of France should be a warning
to us.—Mr. BRIGHT argued in favour of the measure,
as conformable to the dictates of sound morals, and
tending to free the land from the trammels of feudalism
which still clung to it. He wished to see the French
system in its full extent adopted as little as he did the