Mr. Henry Fowler, M.P. for Wolverhampton, in a letter to
Thursday's Times on Sir Stafford Northcote's paper on Con- servative and Liberal finance, sums up the truth of the case very briefly thus :—" There .has been a decrease in the Military and Naval expenditure. The Conservative average was £30,298,000, the Liberal average (including the £4,000,000 for the Egyptian Expedition) has been £28,614,000. The net result of the three years' contrast is, therefore—increase on Civil Charges, £1,880,000; increase on Debt Charge, £1,034,000; total, £2,914,000. Decrease on Army and Navy, £1,684,000 ; net increase, 21,230,000." Of the Civil Charges' increase, Education, of course, accounts for a great deal. Of the Debt Charge, a good deal is accounted for as due to the Charges incurred by Conservatives and only paid off by Liberals, so that the increase is in a great degree, and the decrease to a still greater degree, to the credit of the Liberals.
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