The
depression upon the receipts of the revenue which had commenced with the
year 1826 continued with increased severity during the two first
quarters of the present year. The returning tide began to flow with the
third quarter, and, so far as we can judge from experience, may be
expected to continue through the course of the ensuing year. In the
meantime an alleviation from the burden of the public debt will in the
three years have been effected to the amount of nearly sixteen millions,
and the charge of annual interest will have been reduced upward of one
million. But among the maxims of political economy which the stewards of
the public moneys should never suffer without urgent necessity to be
transcended is that of keeping the expenditures of the year within the
limits of its receipts. The appropriations of the two last years,
including the yearly ten millions of the sinking fund, have each equaled
the promised revenue of the ensuing year. While we foresee with
confidence that the public coffers will be replenished from the receipts
as fast as they will be drained by the expenditures, equal in amount to
those of the current year, it should not be forgotten that they could
ill suffer the exhaustion of larger disbursements.
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