The public is a little surprised to find that this
Government is- just as "stingy "- as the one which preceded it. It has sanctioned. an Arctic Expedition indeed, and has winked at a job or two, but it has not raised everybody's salaries, and has snubbed' the Post-office Oliver Twists with more than Bumble's energy. The- Chancellor of the Exchequer, however, has solved the mystery. It is all the House of Commons. Speaking on Saturday at the Institute of Civil Engineers, he said that some scientific gentle- men had recently advised him that England might do wonders in the way of naval architecture, but that the difficult- of getting- the House of Commons to consent to any new expenditure- was insuperable. If ever he had to ask the House for a new tax, he ahead have to appeal to the engineers before him either to under the difficulty or throw a bridge over it. That in intended evidently as a hint to people other than naval architects, and the House, being impersonal, makes a capital Jorkins. An Sir Stafford is clearly ;not going to propose a new tax, and as on Tuesday he told a deputation which wanted the Railway. Passenger- Duty repealed that he should be unable to make large remissions, we may, we suppose, expect a very modest budget. Nobody, except possibly Income-tax payers under 1250 a year, will get anything very nice.
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