20 APRIL 1889, Page 2

The features of most general interest in the review of

the year were these :—Mr. G-oschen finds that the returning prosperity of the country does not show itself in a greater proportional consumption of food, while the alcoholic revenue is still falling off. It shows itself rather in the more rapid multiplication of business transactions, and consequently in the larger yield of the Stamp-duties ; in the success of the new duty on sparkling wines (especially on the more expensive brands) ; and in the large number of new Companies started, 1,743 having been registered in London alone, with a nominal capital of 2132,000,000. Mr. Goschen said that he had been tempted to wish that he had imposed a somewhat larger tax on joint-stock Companies' capital.