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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 14

[introduction]

As usual the official compte rendu of Income and Expenditure for the past financial year is a mystification; and, also as usual, it was not presented until it could be of no use in regulating the expenditure of the current year, even if it were as clear and intelligible as it ought to be—i.e., until Parliament had voted the great bulk of the money demanded by the Government. In this and the succeeding pages an attempt is made to simplify the account somewhat, for the benefit of the taxpayer.

According to the Cash Account, pages 8 to 11, the total ordinary income for 1885-6 was £89,581,301 2s. 2d., making, with a balance of £4,993,206 14s. 8d., in the Exchequer on April 1, 1885, a total of £94,574,507 16s. 10d.—raised by "Other Exchequer Receipts" (which included £25,613,000 "raised by Creation of Debt ")to £133.931,806 19s. 3d. On the other hand the total Expenditure is stated, p. 9, as £92,223,843 14s. 10d.,—raised by "Other Exchequer Issues" to £128,305,863 1s. 3d., and leaving a balance of £5,625,943 18s. 0d. in the Exchequer on March 31, 1886.

In the following attempt to form a Balance Sheet the items of Receipt, &c., are taken as they stand at page 14 of the Accounts; those of Expenditure from the pages specified, which are scattered up and down in ways best calculated to puzzle the inquirer.