The Duke of:Devonshire on Wednesday made a speech to the
citizens of Buxton, to whom he has helped to give a park, upon the effect of the new Budget on great estates. It would, ha said, compel his successor to revise all the relations between. himself and Buxton and other places. At present he devoted from 30 to 70 per cent. of the money received from his estates to "objects not personal," the maintenance of farm- houses, cottages, and roads, the education of the people, and the keeping up of the great historical houses entrusted to his -care. It was only the remaining money which he could spend, and of that money his successor would have to pay from six to twelve years' purchase to meet the exactions of this Budget, '" the inexorable necessities of democratic finance." Under those circumstances, the present method of expending the Devonshire income could not be continued, and Chatsworth in particular mat be shut up. He did not wish to argue that either he or Chatsworth were necessities, but only to show how the Death. linty, equalised and graduated, would affect both. We have steadily defended the Budget as a pretty fair one; but there Scan be no doubt that this is its weak place ; that there is a -difference between a property retained for dignity's sake, and producing much less than nothing, and a property capable of immediate sale. Two rapid successions, not to close relatives, would impair the value even of the Devonshire estates, till all improvement would be necessarily suspended for years. The only remedy is insurance, and insurance cannot be commenced by a man of sixty-one,
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