t HE- 

 POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



AUGUST, 1890. 



COMMON SENSE APPLIED TO THE TARIFF 



QUESTION. 



By EDWARD ATKINSON. 

 I. 



ACCORDING to the English, theory and practice of represent- 

 ative government, from which our own methods have been 

 derived (subject, however, to some variations of doubtful expe- 

 diency), it is the function of a Minister of Finance, named in this 

 country Secretary of the Treasury, to prepare a budget or esti- 

 mate of income and expenditures. At each session of the British 

 Parliament specific expenditures are recommended, and specific 

 sources of revenue are set off, which have been carefully com 

 puted, so that it may be hoped or expected that revenue and 

 expenditure will balance. 



Any one conversant with the financial history of Great Brit- 

 ain will long since have ceased to wonder at the accuracy of these 

 estimates. If a probable surplus in revenue is expected from 

 existing taxation, the Chancellor of the Exchequer frames such 

 measures of relief from taxation as may be assumed to yield the 

 greatest benefit to the tax-payers. If, on the other hand, any 

 extraordinary expenses are to be provided for in the ensuing 

 year, then specific additions to taxation are recommended in order 

 to provide the necessary ways and means. Under these condi- 

 tions the opening speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer when 

 he presents the budget, so called, becomes the subject of most 

 careful public attention. The reputation of leaders in Pari* ment 

 is established or is lost by their ability to deal with financial 

 questions. Ministries stand or fall according to the ability of the 

 leader of the party to satisfy the public of his sound judgment in 

 dealing with the matter of public taxation. Thus, while the 

 reputation of the leaders of the House of Commons on either side 



vol. xxxvii. — 32 



