Mr. Gladstone generally approved of the means proposed by Mr.
Hunt for the raising of the taxes, but criticized the increased expenditure sharply ; and indeed Mr. Childers, in his excellent little speech, showed that, quite apart from the Abyssinian expe- dition, there must have been a deficit. Mr. Childers said that last year,—the first-fruits of Mr. Disraeli's regime,—there was a deficit of 13,0001., and that this year, even excluding the charges for Abyssinia, there is a deficit of 148,500/. He ascribed this partly to the carelessness of the Government in not keeping down the expenditure within fixed limits. In 1864-5 the Liberal Government had kept the actual issue within the estimated amount by no less than 370,0001. In 1865-6 they had kept it within the estimated amount by 92,0001. But in 1866-7 the present Government had exceeded the estimated amount by 669,000/., and in 1867-8 by 537,0001.
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