REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.

223

The subjoined table gives an abstract of total alterations of taxes from 1855 to 1869 : —

Repealed or

Actual

Reduced

Imposed

Diminution

&

£

£

Customs .....

12,092,010

2.836,484

9,255,526

Excise .....

4,441,000

4,153,000

288,000

Property and Income-tax .

20,315,000

10,300,000

10,015,000

Other Taxes ....

1,411,983

—

1,411,983

Stamps (including Succession

Duty)

Total ....

2,350,000

411,200

1,938,800

40,609,993

17,700,684

22,909,309

The most important of direct taxes, that upon incomes, under- went fourteen alterations from the time it was established in its present form, in 1842, till the year 1870. On its introduction, the income-tax was fixed at Id. in the potmd, which rate was maintained until 1854, when it was doubled in consequence of the war with Russia, and in 1855 it was further raised to 16d. The war being ended, the rate was reduced again to Id. in 1857. In 1858 it was reduced to 5c?., in 1859 raised to 9d., in 1860 to 10c?., in 1861 reduced to 9c?., in 1863 to 7c?., in 1864 to 6d., in 1865 to 4c?., in 1867 raised to 5c?., in 1868 to 6c?., in 1869 reduced to 5c?., and, finally, in 1870, it was once more reduced to Ad., or the 60th part of a pound sterling.

The total amount annually raised by local taxation to provide for expenditure connected with the relief of the poor, county and borough police, roads and bridges, drainage and lighting of towns, &c, is estimated —

£ For England and Wales, in the year 1870, at . . 20,500,000

„ Scotland „ „ . 2,000,000

,, Ireland „ „ . 2,500,000

Making a total for the United Kingdom of . £25,000,000

The total here given is in the proportion of 16s. per head of the population of the United Kingdom.

If the sums raised for public and local purposes be added together, the total taxation of the United Kingdom in the year ended 31st March, 1870, amounted to about 100,500,000/., or 31. 5s. per head of the population.

The largest branch of national expenditure, amounting to more than the total revenue from local taxation in the United Kingdom, is the interest on the National Debt. The debt, offspring of a

series of deficits, produced by extraordinary expenditure for the