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through the mouth of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

It is admitted that we have been " living beyond our income," aiming perhaps—not wickedly but too gener- ously—at a higher standard of living than our earnings would support, pleading , (with all spendthrifts, selfish and generous alike) that meanness is of all vices the most abhorrent to God and man. It has been a fairly happy time for some of us, at any rate more carelessly happy than any country, as we see now, was justified in expecting after four and a half years of continuous destruction of wealth by War. Our . correspondent in Paris contrasts to-day the thrift of the Frenchman during these years. We have taken it more -easily in our con- tempt for " meanness," and now he is comforted (less than Lazarus), and we are tormented. - *

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