BUDGELL

budgell, eustace (1686-1737), english man of letters, the son of dr gilbert budgell, was born on the 19th of august 1686 at st thomas, near exeter. he matriculated in 1705 at trinity college, oxford, and afterwards joined the inner temple, london; but instead of studying law he devoted his whole attention to literature. addison, who was first cousin to his mother, befriended him, and, on being appointed secretary to lord wharton, lord-lieutenant of ireland in 1710, took budgell with him as one of the clerks of his office. budgell took part with steele and addison in writing the _tatler_. he was also a contributor to the _spectator_ and the _guardian_,--his papers being marked with an x in the former, and with an asterisk in the latter. he was subsequently made under-secretary to addison, chief secretary to the lords justices of ireland, and deputy-clerk of the council, and became a member of the irish parliament. in 1717, when addison became principal secretary of state in england, he procured for budgell the place of accountant and comptroller-general of the revenue in ireland. but the next year, the duke of bolton being appointed lord-lieutenant, budgell wrote a lampoon against e. webster, his secretary. this led to his being removed from his post of accountant-general, upon which he returned to england, and, contrary to the advice of addison, published his case in a pamphlet. in the year 1720 he lost £20,000 by the south sea scheme, and afterwards spent £5000 more in unsuccessful attempts to get into parliament. he began to write pamphlets against the ministry, and published many papers in the _craftsman_. in 1733 he started a weekly periodical called the _bee_, which he continued for more than a hundred numbers. by the will of matthew tindal, the deist, who died in 1733, a legacy of 2000 guineas was left to budgell; but the bequest (which had, it was alleged, been inserted in the will by budgell himself) was successfully disputed by tindal's nephew and nearest heir, nicholas tindal, who translated and wrote a _continuation_ of the _history of england_ of paul de rapin-thoyras. hence pope's lines-- "let budgell charge low grub street on his quill, and write whate'er he pleased--except his will."[1] budgell is said to have sold the second volume of tindal's _christianity as old as the creation_ to bishop gibson, by whom it was destroyed. the scandal caused by these transactions ruined him. on the 4th of may 1737, after filling his pockets with stones, he took a boat at somerset-stairs, and while the boat was passing under the bridge threw himself into the river. on his desk was found a slip of paper with the words--"what cato did, and addison approved, cannot be wrong." besides the works mentioned above, he wrote a translation (1714) of the _characters_ of theophrastus. he never married, but left a natural daughter, anne eustace, who became an actress at drury lane. see cibber's _lives of the poets_, vol. v. [1] _epistle to dr arbuthnot_, lines 378-379. budget (originally from a gallic word meaning sack, latinized as _bulga_, leather wallet or bag, thence in o. fr. _bougette_, from which the eng. form is derived), the name applied to an account of the ways and means by which the income and expenditure for a definite period are to be balanced, generally by a finance minister for his state, or by analogy for smaller bodies.[1] the term first came into use in england about 1760. in the united kingdom the chancellor of the exchequer, usually in april, lays before the house of commons a statement of the actual results of revenue and expenditure in the past finance year (now ending march 31), showing how far his estimates have been realized, and what surplus or deficit there has been in the income as compared with the expenditure. this is accompanied by another statement in which the chancellor gives an estimate of what the produce of the revenue may be in the year just entered upon, supposing the taxes and duties to remain as they were in the past year, and also an estimate of what the expenditure will be in the current year. if the estimated revenue, after allowing for normal increase of the principal sources of income, be less than the estimated expenditure, this is deemed a case for the imposition of some new, or the increase of some existing, tax or taxes. on the other hand, if the estimated revenue shows a large surplus over the estimated expenditure, there is room for remitting or reducing some tax or taxes, and the extent of this relief is generally limited to the amount of surplus realized in the previous year. the chancellor of the exchequer has to take parliament into confidence on his estimates, both as regards revenue and expenditure; and these estimates are prepared by the various departments of the administration. they are divided into two parts, the consolidated fund services and the supply services, the first comprising the civil list, debt charge, pensions and courts of justice, while the "supply" includes the remaining expenditure of the country, as the army, the navy, the civil service and revenue departments, the post-office and telegraph services. the consolidated fund services are an annual charge, fixed by statute, and alterable only by statute, but the supply services may be gone through in detail, item by item, by the house of commons, which forms itself into a committee of supply for the purpose. these items can be criticized, and reduced (but not increased) by amendments proposed by private members. the committee of ways and means (also a committee of the whole house) votes the supplies when granted and originates all taxes. the resolutions of these committees are reported to the house, and when the taxation and expenditure obtain the assent of parliament, the results as thus adjusted become the final budget estimate for the year, and are passed as the finance act. this system of annual review and adjustment of the public finances obtains not only in the british colonies, but in british india. the indian budget, giving the results of income and expenditure in the year ending 31st of december, and the prospective estimates, is laid before the imperial parliament in the course of the ensuing session. the budget, though modified by different forms, has also long been practised in france, the united states, and other constitutional countries, and has in some cases been adopted by autocratic powers. russia began the publication of annual budgets in 1866; egypt has followed the example; so also has turkey, by an imperial decree of 1875. all countries agree in taking a yearly period, but the actual date of commencement varies considerably. the german and danish financial year, like that of the united kingdom, begins on the 1st of april; in france, belgium and austria, it begins on the 1st of january; in italy, spain, the united states and canada, on the 1st of july. [v.04 p.0696] previously to 1832, however, the english financial year ran from the 1st of january to the 31st of december. it may be mentioned that disraeli introduced a budget (on which he was defeated) in the autumn of 1852; and in 1860, owing to the ratification of the commercial treaty with france, the budget was introduced on the 10th of february. in 1859, through a change of administration, the budget was not introduced until the 18th of july, while in 1880 there were two budgets, one introduced in march under disraeli's administration, and the other in june, under gladstone's administration. national budgets are to be discriminated (1) as budgets passing under parliamentary scrutiny and debate from year to year, and (2) budgets emitted on executive authority. in most constitutional countries the procedure is somewhat of a mean between the extremes of the united kingdom and the united states. in the united kingdom the budget is placed by the executive before the whole house, without any previous examination except by the cabinet, and it is scrutinized by the house sitting as a committee; in the majority of countries, however, the budget undergoes a preliminary examination by a specially selected committee, which has the power to make drastic changes in the proposals of the executive. in the united states, on the other hand, the budget practically emanates from congress, for there is no connexion between the executive and the legislative departments. the estimates prepared by the various executive departments are submitted to the house of representatives by the secretary of the treasury. with these estimates two separate committees deal. the committee on ways and means deals with taxation, and the committee on appropriations with expenditure. the latter committee is divided into various sub-committees, each of which brings in an appropriation bill for the department or subject with which it is charged. there are also, in all the greater countries, local and municipal taxations and expenditures of only less account than the national. in federal governments such as the united states, the german empire, or the argentine republic, the budgets of the several states of the federation have to be consulted, as well as the federal budgets, for a knowledge of the finances. authorities.--stourm, _le budget, son histoire et son mecanisme_ (1889), which gives a comparative study of the budgets of different countries, is the best book upon the subject. see also siedler, _budget und budgetrecht_(1885); sendel, _uber budgetrecht_(1890); besson, _le controle des budgets en france et a l'etranger_ (1899); bastable, _public finance_ (3rd ed., 1903); eugene e. agger, _the budget in american commonwealths_ (new york, 1907). [1] it was a name applied also to a leather-covered case or small coffer. cotgrave translates _bougette_ "a little coffer or trunk ... covered with leather." it became a common word for a despatch box in which official papers were kept. the chancellor of the exchequer thus was said to "open his budget" when he made his annual statement.