( 55 )
having been eſtabliſhed for the officers, in lieu of fees, as obſerved in the note in the preceding page, by which the revenue has, beyond all doubt, profited to a much larger amount than the expence incurred: and it may be ſtated, with perfect cer tainty, that the additional charge in the department of Aſſeſſed Taxes has been much more than compenſated by the increaſe of the revenue from the exertions of the new officers.
The charge of managing the whole revenue of the kingdom appears now annually in the accounts laid before parliament, an attention to which will convince any one who has conſidered the ſubject extenſively, that there is not a country in Europe where the taxes are collected at ſo moderate an expence as in this[1]: it may indeed be queſtioned
- ↑ For the œonomical management of the revenue of Great Britain compared with that of other countries, ſee the Fourth Report of the Committee of Finance in 1797, page 36. The fidelity of accompting for the public revenue is not leſs remarkable, than the œconomical mode of collecting it. In a pamphlet publiſhed by the author in 1792, he had the gratification of ſtating, that during many years previouſly to that time, the only defalcation, that had happened in the receipt and remittance of all the revenues of the country, was a few hundred pounds loſt by letter-carriers: and in the period which has elapſed ſince
