Mr. Childers addressed his constituents at Pontefract on Mon- day,
confining his speech mainly to finance. He confirms the statements in our issue of August 15, estimating the increase of expenditure under the Tory Administration at 3,190,000/. a year. For this we have only the converted Snider and the recruits attracted by 2d. a day extra,—both of them necessaries, no doubt, but necessaries which might have been paid for out of savings effected in other departments. That the extravagance is all the fault of Tories as Tories is not pretended. Any weak government in England is sure to be plundered, and a govern- ment by a minority is always weak ; but this liability to plunder is greatly increased when the Premier is a man who cares nothing about finance, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer a Minister who does not overawe his colleagues. A strong government, with Mr. Gladstone at its head, would be the beat financial engine ever devised.
