Mr. Ward Hunt took the occasion of going into Committee
on Ways and Means to criticise the Budget and the Finance of Mr. Gladstone's Government in general. Mr. Childers had already, in a remarkable speech at Pontefract during the recess, showed that amidst the great political triumphs of the Government the care they had taken of the public purse had been somewhat overlooked, and the opportunity of reply to Mr. Hunt enabled him to recapitulate and analyse the figures with good effect. We 'quite agree with Mr. Childers's view that the proper method of comparing the expenditure at any two selected. dates is to take the gross expenditure at the two dates, to deduct from it at each date those sums which coma in aid of the public expenditure, and which are not in the nature of taxes, and then to compare the results. At present Post Office and Telegraphs alone figure to the amount of /5,000,000 on both sides of the account. During the last five years, as Mr. Childers observed, £9,000,000 of taxes have been remitted.. There has been a saving at the Admiralty of £1,500,000 a year, at the War Office of 12,300,000 a year, on the Tory estimates ; yet Army and Navy are undeniably more efficient than they were when they cost nearly four millions more. Mr. Childers's case- was complete, and Mr. Ward Hunt will hardly venture on a comparison of Tory and Liberal finance for another year or two.
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