The accounts of the Public Debt were as follows:-Great Britain.-On the 31st March, 1861, the unredeemed capital was 743,167,1821. 10s. 8d., and the charge, including interest and annuities, 24,223,993l. 188. 0ąd. The debt created or transferred from Ireland between 31st March, 1861, and 31st March, 1862, 1,929,330l. 68. 9d. stock, with 312,684l. 78. 41d. charge, making a total for Great Britain of 745,096,512l. 17s. 5d. stock, and 24,536,6787. 58. 5d. charge. During the year there was also reduce or transferred to Ireland, 1,852,6021. 9s. 10d. stock, and 119,481l. 38. 6ąd. charge, leaving a balance due to the public creditor on March 31, 1862, of 743,243,910l. 78. 7d., with a charge of 24,202,366l. 13s. 114d., with a charge for management of 214,830l. 78. 11d.: total, 24,417,1977. 1s. 10 d. Inland. The unredeemed capital on the 31st March, 1861, was 41,952,4267. 16s. 11d., charge 1,267,399l. 18s. 34d. During the year the debt was increased by 950,1217. 168. 6d. stock, and 28,890l. 178. 2d. charge, making a total of 4,902,5481. 138. 5d. stock, and 1,296,290l. 158. 5d. charge. During the same year the debt was reduced by 1,894,120l. 168. 6d. stock, and 56,8231. 12s. 4d. charge, leaving a balance due to the public creditor on 31st March, 1862, of 41,008,4281. 18. 11d. stock, and 1,239,467. 38. 1d. charge. Summary debt 31st March, 1862, 784,252,3381. 98. 6d. stock, and 25,656,664l. 58. charge, showing a decrease of 867,270. 188. 1d. from the 31st March, 1861. The total amount of the national debt on the 31st March, 1862, was as follows: : £2,958,451 10 7 418,300 0 5 ... ... ... per cent. ... ... ... Annual Interest of Unredeemed Debt ... ... ... ... ... ... £23,528,149 9 0 585,740 0 0 Annuities per 18 Vict. c. 18, and 23 & 24 Vict. c. 109, expire April Granted up to March 31, 1862 ... Deduct, Expired and Unclaimed up to March 31, 1862 £1,750,715 15 0 190,605 0 0 76,892 12 0 £24,381,387 1 0 Brought forward Payable at the National Debt Office : Life Annuities, per 48 Geo. 3, c. 142, 10 Geo. 4, c. 24, 3 Will. 4, c. 14, ... Tontine and other Life Annuities, per various Acts, English England Ireland £3,134,526 17 0 6 Isle of Guernsey, Jersey, Isle of Man ... Management Total Annual Charge, exclusive of 119,2391, 6s. 64d. on Capitals standing in the Names of the Commissioners, on account of Donations and Bequests, and of Unclaimed Stock and Dividends Vessels. 3,410 2,298 896 10,866 ... £25,656,664 5 6 The unfunded debt consisted of 12,917,900l. exchequer bills, carrying 387,537., interest and 3,600,000l. exchequer bonds, carrying 122,500l. interest. The exchequer bonds were made payable in 1862, 1863, 1864, and 1865. ... £24,381,387 10 Trade and Navigation.-The official value of imports into the United Kingdom in 1861 was 171,212,5497. The official value of exports of British produce 289,355,1861., and of foreign and colonial 50,158,162l.: total 339,513,3481. During the year 1861 there were built and registered in the British Empire 1,840 vessels, 439,498 tons, and on the 31st December, 1861, there belonged to the British Empire the following number of ships and tonnage: 25,407,094 1 6 11,982 8 9 22,757 6 4 Tons. 3,862,384 247,680 71,335 1,064,763 £25,441,833 17 7 214,830 7 11 Men. 173,200 32,039 13,960 5,625 74.566 38,904 5,871,589 299,190 In the same year there were entered inwards 29.907 vessels, 7,721.035 tons, British and Irish vessels, and 25,356 vessels, 5,458,554 tons, foreign, and cleared outwards 29,357 vessels, 7,699,497 tons, British and Irish, and 26,699 vessels, 5,716,655 tons, foreign. PUBLIC EXPENDITURE. Returns relating to Public Expenditure, not including the Farpense of Fortifications. (Mr. Peel.) 30th May, 1862. (294.) The expenditure for 1860-1 was 72,792,0591.; add excess of expenditure for revenue departments (voted in 1861-2), 17,984l.: total, 72,810,043. Deduct drawback on wine, charged in account of expenditure instead of being deducted from revenue, 288,2187.: 72,521,8257. The expenditure for 1861-2 was 71,116,415l.; deduct votes for excesses of former years, viz.-Army (1859-60), 206,6297.; Russian War (1857-8), 53.431. revenue departments (1860-1), 17,9847.; 70,838,4417. The estimated public expenditure for 1862-3 was 70,000,000l.; deduct amount included in the army estimates, for the first time, on account of sums repayable out of the revenues of India, 730,000l.; also, on account of increased number of cadets at Sandhurst College, to be balanced by a corresponding payment to the exchequer for contributions to be received from students, 12,700l. ; amount advanced out of the customs' revenue in 1861-2, for excess of differential dues paid beyond the vote for the year, to be paid to revenue out of a vote to be taken in the miscellaneous civil estimates for 1862-3, 66,3047.; additional provision included, for the first time, the esti mated expenditure for 1862-3, per Act 24 Vict. c. 3, for payment to the Bank of England of the gross charge for the management of the Public Debt, balanced by a corresponding amount to be paid by the Bank to the credit of the revenue, 190,7037.: 69,000,2937. The amount expended on fortifications, under the Act 23 & 24 Vict. c. 109, in the financial years 1860-1 and 1861-2, and amount of annuity created in respect thereof. In 1860-1, 50,000l. expended, 3,1907. annuity created; in 1861-2, 970,000l. expended; 61,559. annuity created; total, 1,020,000l. expended, 64,749. annuity created. DUCHY OF CORNWALL. Report to Her Majesty the Queen from the Council of H.R.II. the Prince of Wales. WE, the undersigned, being the councillors of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in and about the affairs of his Duchy of Cornwall, named in your Majesty's letters patent, beg leave, upon the occasion of his Royal Highness attaining his majority, when the powers delegated to us expire, very humbly to submit for your Majesty's gracious consideration the following report, setting forth the main features of the system of management adopted by our predecessors in office and ourselves subsequently to the accession of your Majesty, and the results that have been produced. The system of management which had previously prevailed in the administration of the affairs of the Duchy of Cornwall became, upon your Majesty's accession, the subject of anxious inquiry, and your Majesty was graciously pleased, on the 17th of September, 1838, to issue a commission under the great seal, addressed to the Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and several high officers of your Majesty's Government, and others, confiding to them the management of the duchy possessions; and they were moreover directed to inquire into the mode of former management, with the view of considering whether, consistently with the interests of the duchy, and having due regard to the just rights of the several officers employed therein, the expenditure in its several branches might not admit of retrenchment and reduction. With the view of giving effect to your Majesty's directions in this latter respect, five of the special commissioners named in the above commission, consisting of the late Lord de l'Isle and Dudley, then surveyor-general of the duchy, the Lord Portman, the late Sir Henry Wheatley, then receivergeneral of the duchy, the late Sir George Harrison, then the auditor of the duchy, and the late Mr. Alexander Milne, then one of the commissioners of the land revenues of the crown, were, at a meeting held on the 6th of February, 1839, nominated as a committee to consider and report their opinion to the special commissioners as to the future management of the property, having reference to the income and the expenditure incurred. At a meeting of the special commissioners, held on the 23rd of April in the same year, a report from the Lord Portinan, one of the members of the committee, was submitted and discussed. This report appears to have been the foundation of the changes which subsequently took place in the administration of the affairs of the duchy; but the commissioners having declined to adopt the suggestions made in it, your Majesty was graciously pleased, on the seventh of May in the same year, to issue a warrant under your royal sign manual, and countersigned by three of the Lords Commssioners of your Majesty's Treasury, authorizing the late Lord de l'Isle and Dudley, the Lord Portman, the Earl of Lonsdale, then Viscount Lowther, the Lord Cranworth, then Sir Robert Monsey Rolfe, your Majesty's solicitor-general, and Mr. Alexander Milne, being also five of the special commissioners named in 1838, "to institute an examination and inquiry into the system of managing, leasing, or otherwise disposing of the possessions of the duchy, and to report to your Majesty thereon, with a view to remedy any inconveniences or abuses which might be found to exist therein; to the reduction of any unnecessary charges or expenses incident thereto; and to the establishment of such new rules or regulations as might be productive of benefit to the duchy, and to the tenants thereof, as well as to the security of the revenues of the duchy." The commissioners thus authorized had the honour, in the month of July, 1839, of submitting to your Majesty their report, which, in all main points, was identical with the Lord Portman's report, and from which it appearedThat under former management customs had been abandoned, courts had been lost, fees and heriots had not been duly received, boundaries had become matters of doubt, and the adverse claims of cutting timber and fuel and of pasturage, had been permitted to grow into habits if not into rights; that the property, previously to your Majesty's accession, had usually been granted on leases for lives or in reversion, and that the greater portions of the rents having been commuted by fines, the income then realized afforded no just criterion for estimating the true and fair annual value of the duchy; that the ministerial officers of the duchy, with the exception of the Lord Warden, derived a considerable portion of their emoluments from fees; that the property was then managed by an executive board, acting under the advice and direction of the special commissioners appointed by your Majesty's commission of the 17th September, 1838; that the officers who formed the executive board were- the lord warden, the receiver-general, the auditor, the surveyor-general, and the attorney-general—all of whom were members of the special commission; that the annual income of the duchy derived from rents was at that time 62117. 188. 2d., with a prospective increase of 6012l. 2s. 6d. secured by leases which had been then granted, but which were not in full operation, making the prospective annual rental (exclusive of other sources of revenue) 12,224.; that the income of the duchy had been theretofore derived principally from fines received on the renewal of leases, which, in the six years from Michaelmas 1823 to Michaelmas 1829, had amounted to 70,794, showing an average of 11,7997. a year, and in the following six years to 112,364., showing an average of 18,7271.; the average gross annual income, including fines, being, during the former period 36,2877., and during the latter 42,2621.; that the expenditure from 1823 to 1829 averaged 10,265l. a year, and for the next six years 14,884l., being for the former period about 30 per cent. the gross income, and for the latter more than 35 (in the report on stated 37) per cent., and that this was exclusive of the fees received by the officers of the establishment; that the salaries and emoluments received by the officers on the establishment in London averaged during the former period 66944., and during the latter 96617. The commissioners state their opinion to be-That the constitution of the office, as it then existed, and the system of management pursued, was not adapted for maintaining an efficient control over the receipts and expenditure, or for promoting the general improvement of the estates; that the practice which had previously prevailed of granting leases on lives and in reversion, was on every account objectionable; and that the manner of ascertaining the value of the property, and the care taken of it by the lessees, was imperfect. They then proceeded to offer various suggestions for the future administration and management of the duchy possessions. These were principally as follows:-First, certain alterations in the appointment and functions of the ministerial officers of the duchy; secondly, the appointment under the surveyor-general of local agents who would permanently reside upon and superintend the management of the property, and would collect the revenues arising within their respective districts; thirdly, the discontinuance of grants for lives or otherwise than for terms of years certain; fourthly, the granting of leases for terms certain upon the surrender of existing grants for lives, with an adequate allowance for the value of the existing interests, where the parties were willing to concur in such an arragement; fifthly, the abandonment of the previous practice of taking fines upon granting of leases, except to a very limited extent; and sixthly, the immediate abolition of all fees and perquisites received by officers of the duchy. The commissioners also recommend that, with a view to consolidation, and in order to effect a further diminution in the expenses of management, a bill should be submitted to Parliament empowering the officers of the duchy to sell or exchange detached property, and to make any other alterations in the management which could only be adopted under the authority of the legislature. the Subsequently to this report the management of the duchy possessions was confided by your Majesty, under letters patent dated in August 1840, to the commissioners of the land revenues of the Crown under the superintendence and control of the council or special commissioners, and subject to certain rules which were prescribed by your Majesty for regulating the future dealings with the property, including the important restrictions recommended in the above report, that grants for lives or otherwise than for terms of years certain should be discontinued, and that the former practice of taking fines upon the granting of leases should be abandoned, a small and limited portion of the income only being allowed to be so commuted. It may be convenient here to state that from 1783 to June 26th, 1830, when the late Prince of Wales (King George IV.) was in possession of the duchy, the fines taken upon the renewal of leases, &c., amounted to about 370,000l.; and from the latter period to June 20th, 1837, when King William IV. was in possession of the duchy, these fines amounted to 171,343. 108. Both these amounts passed to the privy purse of the Duke of Cornwall, or of the Sovereign, and tended materially to diminish the income derivable from the property. The rules under which the council have acted appear to have established the income of the estates upon a sound system, and at the same time have enabled your Majesty, by the |