The Revenue has come in well for the half-year ending
September 30th, the total increase over the corresponding half of the previous year being £3,495,000, or E660,000 more than Sir Michael Hicks-Beach's estimate. This is most satis- factory, not only because we are about to spend much money, but because the next half-year can hardly be expected to be equally prolific. War checks all forms of business, makes all men except contractors more thrifty, and compels the people to pay more for what they eat. The Boers have no fleet with which to attack commerce, but the demand for transport raises freights, while the taxes, even if no heavier, are more strictly levied. It is, however, from the inclination to diminish expenditure that the chief reductions in receipt arise, an inclination sometimes betrayed in the oddest ways. Who do our readers think feel the pinch of bad times or war times first ? We are told on good authority that it is the hatters, men postponing the usual purchases of unnecessary hats. After them come the jobmasters, and next the carriage. builders. The totally useless traders such as jewellers, whose businesses really depend on their customers' surplus money, are scarcely affected at all.
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