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A FINANCIAL RE1'ROSPECT, 1861-1901 31 I
lection. The nearest approach to comparisons of that
kind was made by Mr. StansfeId, who described the
ex~enditure of 70 million £ as equal to a tax of 6s. in
the £. on the income tax income of the country, and
who said that this, at £1 per week per family, would
be equal to the maintenance of seven million persons
of the working classes for a year. Six shillings per £
on the income tax at £2,400,000 per penny, the present
rate of yield, would giver an expenditure of no less
than 173 million £. which approaches the figure of the
present time, while the proportion of the working classes
that could be maintained for that sum, owing to the
increased income of the class. now far more on the
average than £1 per week per family, would be di-
minished and not increased. Such comparisons. how-
ever. are hardly to be encouraged. as the expenditure
for Government is necessarily the first charge upon the
resources of every community, and if it has to be met,
no help is given i.n its proper administration by showing
that, as with Mrs. Caudle's £5, something else could
be done with the money.

Analysis 0/ Increased Expenditure and Revenue.
Analysing the expenditure in detail, we may notice
the following points:
I. The annual charge for the debt (Table II.) appears
to have considerably diminished. The figure is 26.3
million £ in the budget of 1861, and in the estimate
for 1902 it is 21,6 million £. This is subject to the ob-
servation, of course, that the annual charge in 1861 in-
cluded a considerable sum for the reduction of debt,
while the annual charge at the present time does not,
but there is clearly no question that the annual charge,
apart from repayment of debt, has rather diminished.
The capital has diminished, there has been some re-
duction of interest by conversion, and there will shortly
be a further reduction of interest of the same kind to