Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/94

 86]

ENGLISH HISTOEY.

[APRIL

Treating the items of his final balance-sheet, the Chancellor of the Exchequer arrived at a revenue of 111,157,000Z., as against an expenditure of 1 10,927, 000Z., which left a small margin of 230,0002. for contingencies.

This result may be more easily appreciated by means of the annexed statement : —

PINAL BALANCE SHEET, 1899-1900.

Expenditure.

Revenue.

£

£

National Debt -

28,000,000

Customs -

21,770,000

Other Consolidated Fund

Excise -

29,850,000

Services -

1,608,000

Estate, etc, Duties -

11,150,000

Payments to Local Taxation Accounts- -

Stamps ....

8,050,000

1,147,000

Land Tax -

800,000

Army

20,617,000

House Duty

1,650,000

Navy

Civil Services -

26,595,000

Property and Income Tax -

18,800,000

22,180,000

Post Office -

13,200,000

Customs and Inland Re- venue ....

2,813,000

Telegraph Service Crown Lands -

8,300,000 450,000

Post Office -

8,558,000

Interest on Suez Canal

Telegraph Service Packet Service -

8,688,000

Shares -

787,000

781,000

Miscellaneous ...

1,850,000

110,927,000

Surplus of Revenue over Expenditure -

Total

280,000 111,157,000

Total

111,157,000

The reception of the Budget — even by the Conservatives — was anything but cordial ; and by those disposed to look upon it leniently it was accepted rather as an expedient than as a statesmanlike attempt to deal with the financial situation. Sir Henry Fowler (Wolverhampton, E.) held that the reduction of the sinking fund in a time of unexampled prosperity was wholly without justification. Mr. Courtney (Bodmin, Cornwall) took a similar view, and at the same time deprecated the increase of the wine duties, which would be regarded abroad as an act of hostility towards wine-growing countries, amongst which our Australian colonies, of which the imperialist party professed so much care, would be seriously injured by the strength test which it was proposed to apply. Such a proposal, Mr. Courtney thought, was a bad introduction to the Hague Conference. Sir Wm. Harcourt's (Monmouthshire, W.) appearance in the House for the first time this session was warmly greeted from both sides of the House ; but as his speech advanced it was mainly from the Conservatives and forward Radicals that he gathered applause. In a vigorous speech he denounced the Budget as an admission to the world that we were too weak and cowardly to face our responsibilities. He considered the pro- posals in every sense most disastrous. They were a fatal blow to the standard of national integrity which we had hitherto main- tained through good and evil report. Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli alike when the country was threatened with war — as