NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Budget is fixed for Monday night, and the public interest in it is for once so keen that the speculation as to its details is almost endless. The secret has been very care- fully kept,—though there was a fierce rush on Thursday to -clear cigars out of bond,—and the only general consensus seems to be that the Death-duties will be rearranged on some principle of graduation, that the Tea-duty will be taken off in spite of Miss Ellis's evidence quoted elsewhere, and that the -difference will be made up in some way by taxes on luxuries. iff this is correct, the Income-tax will not be touched, and the Navy expenditure will be provided for by some plan which will not increase taxation. The popularity of a Budget of that kind among the poorer voters will depend wholly upon their opinion as to the remission of the Tea-duty. They may -care about it, but, as we have before observed, they did not care about the much more important remission of the sugar-duty, and when they have got it, will not vote for those who gave it, looking as they do always forward. It must be noted, however, that all rumours are rumours merely, that the Budget for some reason has demanded an unusual expenditure -of time, and that Sir William Harcourt, when fencing with Parliamentary questions, has raised an impression that he has something to propose more contentious than any of the vamours we have named. We are rather struck by the fact that, as regards the great question of all, the partial exemption of relatives from Death-duties, nobody except ourselves has said one word.
