Mr. Goschen was entertained on Wednesday at the Mansion House,
and made a speech remarkable for its cheerfulness and humour. After declaring that a primary duty—that of pre- serving civilisation, which rested upon law—now fell upon the Executive Government, he passed on to the business of his own department. Being among friends, he would tell them a secret, —his Budget would be a humdrum one. He felt the necessity for many reforms ; he acknowledged that trade was beginning to revive ; but the effect of the revival upon the Treasury would be but slow. He had endless suggestions before him, and he himself, he hinted, ardently desired a reform in the condition of the currency, and in the incidence of agricultural taxation ; but everything must wait. The views taken were a little too rose-coloured ; and while he hoped for all prosperity, and still believed that the qualities of the Anglo-Saxon race would enable them to sustain competition, his first duty was to rests:int:the tendency towards. crushing expenditure. In a fine peroration, the Chancellor of the Exchequer wished prosperity to allciasses, and bursting contributions from them all such as would make it his happy fate to be able to make a remission all round.
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