It is, we suppose, clear from Sir Stafford Northcote's hints,
that we may expect a very quiet Budget this year, but the method by which our contemporaries satisfy themselves of that is, to say the least, very summary. The Revenue returns show that the Exchequer has received only about half a million more than Sir Stafford estimated, and might not have received that but for the plentiful harvest. That is bad news for the National Debt Com- missioners, who would have had the surplus money, but how does it affect the next Budget ? The Chancellor is not precluded by his small surplus from raising the spirit duty, or the income- fax, or the tobacco duty, or from reducing the minimum sum the payment of which requires a receipt-stamp, or from a radical alteration in the arrangement of the succession duties. That he will do any of these things may be and is improbable on Other grounds, but cannot be proved by any analysis of the Revenue returns. A man might as well calculate his future income from his present bank balance. All the elaborate figures published prove only this,—that Sir Stafford Northcote, iu his last estimate of revenue and expenditure, sailed very close to the wind, and ceased to an objectionable degree to strive for the reduction of the National Debt.
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