Sir Stafford Northcote is beginning to present his little bills.
On Thursday night he moved a vote of credit for 21,500,000, as a first demand for the Zulu war, and proposed to raise the money by Exchequer bonds. He expected, he added, that the revenue of the year would fall short of the estimate by about a million, and that the expenditure for 1878-79 would exceed the revenue by £3,000,000, exclusive of the vote of credit and the supplementary vote. The Unfunded Debt had been increased till it amounted to £24,661,000, of which £14,458,000 is in Exchequer bonds, £4,497,000 in Exchequer bills, and £5,770,000' in Treasury bills. Of the Exchequer bonds, £11,708,000 is in the hands of the Commissioners of the National Debt, who will not present their account inconveniently, but still the total must one day be provided for by an addition to the National Debt. Moreover, as Mr. Childers showed, there is a deficit standing over from the previous year, so that the total sum to be provided in excess of revenue will be at least five and, a half millions, while there is a worse year coming. Altogether, the depressed in- dustries will be very lucky if they escape for twopence extra on the income-tax, and a perceptible increase in some duty,—say, tea, or a renewal of the old shilling duty on corn. And for all this, and the six millions previously voted, there is nothing to show, except a discontented South Bulgaria, a South Africa at war, and an Army which cannot send out 8,000 men, urgently required, without endless fuss, exertion, and volunteering. And. this is spirited and fax-seeing policy !
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