NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MR. CHILDERS made a very interesting and clear Budget statement on Thursday night, the first interest of which was in its striking exposition of the remarkable decline in the tonsumption of alcoholic drinks, of the remarkable growth in the normal expenditure on Army and Navy, and of the rela- tive achievements of the Conservative and Liberal Govern- ments in paying off and contracting Debt. His proposal, which is to involve no immediate burden, for using the £5,000,000 odd of terminable annuities which fall-ix in 1885 for the gradual .extinction,—when spread over twenty years,—of £172,000,000 of Debt, was the most important feature of his speech. He leaves £800,000, also falling-in in 1885, for the re- duction of taxation. Mr. Childers further proposes to take 'off the additional lid. of Income-tax imposed to cover 'the cost of the Egyptian expedition ; he provides the cost of reducing the lowest price of telegraphing to sixpence ; he reduces the duty on silver, and makes arrangements for its abolition, by .extinguishing gradually the stocks that have paid duty on which a drawback would be demanded; he takes off the railway- -passenger duty for all fares under one penny a mile, condition- ing in return for accommodation for this class of passengers ; and he sacrifices a trifle on tobacco for fiscal objects.
