S. Magliani, Finance Minister of Italy, on the 25th ult.
produced a regular prosperity Budget. The taxes are yielding so much better, that the revenue of 1881, which was expected to show a surplus of £320,000, showed one of L2,000,000. In 1882, in spite of some heavy new expenditures, and of the gradual reduction in the grist tax, which finally expires in 1884, a surplus is anticipated of 0280,000, which, from the way Italians make up their estimates, will probably be exceeded. This state of affairs has been produced without new ta:.:eo„ and while ex- ternal trade has increased by some 25,000,000 a year. The Treasury Debt has been reduced since 1877 from 288,000,000 to 252,000,000—that of France is 2120,000,000—and the conver- sion of the forced-paper currency will shortly be completed. The only weak point in the statement was the obvious tendency of the Administration to discount any surplus, chiefly in extra- ordinary expenditure on the Army, which between 1880 and 1885 will have amounted to 213,000,000, and the consequent absence of any provision for reducing the heavy Debt.
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