The Revenue Returns for the quarter ending September 30th are
not encouraging. The curious shrinking in Excise returns, which has never yet been fully explained, still goes on, and the revenue from that source is less by 2310,000 than it was in the same quarter of last year. It is hoped that the decrease is due to the spread of temperance; but it may also be due to a decrease in the means of waste. There is also a decline in Customs of 2528,000, but this is mainly to be ascribed to the immense clearances of tea in the previous quarter, owing to the wide- spread belief that the tea-duties would be reduced. The worst sign is the reduction of 270,000 in the Post-Office receipts, for this can be ascribed only to a widely diffused decrease of business. We are evidently entering on a cycle of lean years, for the Treasury at all events, and must give up all hope of remissions for some time to come. There is no danger, of course, for a sugar-duty would speedily replenish the Treasury ; but the next Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he is to avoid retrograde steps, will be required to display some originality. There will not be any large reductions in regular expenditure until taxation presses much more heavily than it does at present.
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