30 MARCH 1872, Page 2

The desultory debate which followed the statement was not instructive.

Mr. White explained with his usual lumbering " agility " how much more accurate his own estimates of revenue always are than Mr. Lowe's ; the brewers and their friends wailed over Mr. Lowe's resolve to ignore the claim for the abolition of brewers' licences; the country gentlemen and farmers insisted on the claim of shepherds' dogs to exemption from duty, and of farmers to a less stringent rule regarding the use for private purposes of horses employed in agriculture. Lord John Manners cavilled and Mr. Ward Hunt growled ; Mr. Greene declined to be thankful for the Budget, on the ground that the Government had muddled the Washington Treaty,—which was sulky of Mr. Greene, and not said with his usual facetiousness,—Mr. Vernon Harcourt thought the putting on and taking off the 2d. income-tax was like the campaign in which a celebrated King of France with 20,000 men "marched up the bill and then marched down again,"—and Mr. Muntz said that the estimate for any department was like a machine with a cog-wheel, whenever the estimate was raised, there was always a "catch" to prevent its going down again,—but, on the whole, the House received the statement with remarkable cheerfulnesE, especially concurring in Mr. Scourfield's enthusiastic gratitude for "something ordinary, commonplace, and level to the capacity of every, day mortals."