CHAPTER XVII.
THE BUDGET.
The Budget, brought forward by Sir Robert on the 13th February, would have been regarded on the whole as the production of a statesman, had it not left the landowners monopoly untouched, and that of the West India planters unmitigated, and continued the income tax, bearing as heavily on precarious earnings as on income derived from realized property, Sir R. Peel had computed the saving, which the reduction on sugar proposed would make to the consumer, to be about 1¼ d. per lb.; and, including the numcrous indirect charges which would also be saved, he estimated an advantage of at least 1½1 . per lb. from the present price. The largest quantity of sugar which had hitherto been consumed in any one year was 207,000 tons, and under the new duties, Sir Robert Peel calculated on & consumption of 250,000 tons, and which he estimated would give revenue as follows:
| 160,000 | Tons | Colonial | Muscovado at | 14s | £2,240,000 | |
| 70,000 | Tons„ | Ditto | Clayed | 16s. | 4d | 1,140,000 |
| 5,000 | tons„ | Free labour | Muscovado | 23s. | 4d. | 116,000 |
| 15,000 | Tons„ | Ditto | Clayed | 28s | 420,000 | |
| —————— | —————— | |||||
| 250,000 | tons„ | Estimated revenue with new duties | 3,916,000 | |||
| The gross revenue last year was | 5,216,000 | |||||
| Showing a lose on new duties of | £1,300,000 | |||||
