RATIONING OF DEPARTMENTS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1
think your readers may be interested in the following extracts from a letter of advice given more than one hundred years ago by the then Lord Carrington to a son-in-law who had mismanaged his affairs (see Correspondence of Lady Williams Wynn):— . A more certain cure for extravagance would be the desiring Mr. R— to frame a plan of division of the Income Sir W---- should spend in the year. into as mans different portions as there are heads of expense. . . . You have had great experience at home how useful these divisions are at the end of the year to see whether the sum allotted to each head has been exceeded, and therefore in what way
it may be retrenched. The larger a person's Income is, the more such division is wanted. In the largest expense of all, viz., the National, it is religiously adhered to. . . . The principle to begin upon is to know the clear Income, after deducting Land and Income Tax, interest paid, &c., and then to regulate the expenditure accordingly. . ."
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