A letter in Thursday's Times, signed "Surplus," estimates the actual
annual growth of the Revenue as about £2,500,000 at the present moment. If so, Sir Stafford Northcote has been very moderate indeed in his estimates, for while his last year's revenue reached the sum of £74,921,873, his estimated revenue for next year is only £75,685,000; in other words, he estimates for only 1764,127 advance on the revenue of last year, while "Surplus "promises him an advance of between three and four times as much. It must be remarked, however, that " Surplus " draws his rule from years in a great number of which heavy taxes were repealed, and in which, therefore, a much greater recovery of revenue was to be expected than can be fairly looked for in a year when no taxes are repealed, like the present. There can be little doubt that Sir Stafford Northcote's estimates of revenue for next year are very sober, but if the increase of the revenue is double what Sir Stafford Northcote expects, instead of quadruple, we shall be well satisfied. Undoubtedly the wave of prosperity is not flowing now at all as it was flowing two or three years ago.
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