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Rh of the next year (1866) this surplus was reduced to $184,000, and in January, 1867, there was but an imaginary surplus of $24,000 made up in part by a stock of $60,000 in unavailable coins (bronze cents and mils) which no creditor could have been compelled to accept. The Colony was therefore practically insolvent. Moreover, the expenditure had for some time gone on increasing in proportion as the revenues continued to diminish. In the year 1865, during the interregnum of Mr. Mercer, the expenditure exceeded the revenue by $94,361, and in 1866, when Sir Richard had just stepped in, by $167,877. But now a change came. Sir Richard at once reduced the expenditure from $936,954 in the previous year (1866) to $730,916, though not without leaving for a while the Military Contribution in arrear. At the same time (1867) the revenue was permanently raised, by means of Sir Richard's Stamp Ordinance, which came into operation at the close of the year (October 9, 1867). Therewith the finances of the Colony began to right themselves slowly, though at this very time the commercial depression, which had made itself felt in 1866, had been much aggravated and the tradal interests of the Colony were passing through a crisis such as had never before occurred in the history of the Colony. The expenditure of the year 1867 was kept within the limits of the revenue to the extent of $128,584 and next year (1868) to the extent of $142,794, though in the latter year all the arrears of the Military Contribution were paid off. The revenue of the year 1868 amounted to the astounding sum of $1,134,105 and yielded, as the expenditure stood at $991,811, a surplus of $140,000. Instead of rejoicing over this result, the mercantile community, engulfed at the time in a slough of despond, expressed great dissatisfaction at the heaviness of the taxation and pointed with groans to the yield of the Stamp Ordinance which had taken $101,000 out of the pockets of the- merchants in that one year. The revenue of 1869 shewed an apparent decrease of £43,811 as compared with 1868, but in reality there was some increase, as credit was erroneously taken in 1868 for £55,660 gambling