The Revenue Returns of the six months ending October 1st
are exceedingly bad. The Customs show a decline of £438,000, and the Excise Duties of 2593,000, both items testifying to the in- creasing poverty of the people. It used to be said these items would show an increase, whatever the remissions of taxation, but the financiers who said it had never lived under a long spell of Tory Government, which, if it does not cause, at least always synchronises with the falling prosperity of the nation. The Laud Tax and House Duty have also declined, and though there has been an increase in Stamps and Income-tax, the former is accidental, and the latter the result of a higher rate of impost. It is useless to predict the Budget, as we have as yet no idea of the expenditure, but the Chancellor of the Exchequer will have need of his smoothest tones, when he delivers the speech intended to conceal his plans for postponing a settle- ment for one more year. The Times thinks he may be unhappy about the matter. Not a whit. He might have been three years ago, but now it will be some compensation to Sir Stafford Northcote to think what a burden Liberal financiers will have to clear away. These men are perfectly safe in spend- ing. The Treasury will get on during their time, and their heirs will have to pay for all. Mortgages in England last longer than a life.
