392 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



and how a British fleet should manoeuvre to 

 force a hostile fleet of such a kind into action or 

 back to port. The result of the experiment was 

 that Sir George Tryon, who commanded the pur- 

 suing squadron, was unable in a ten days' cruise 

 to come within sight of the ships of Sir Michael 

 Culme-Seymour. The estimated expenditure on 

 the mivy for the year ending March 31, 1891, is 

 13,786,600, an increase of 191,000 over the vote 

 for 1889-'90. The naval authorities have adopted 

 a new torpedo, much more powerful than the 

 Whitehead. The Brennan is a fish torpedo, like 

 the Whitehead, but is altogether different in its 

 motive power. It belongs to the controllable 

 class, being propelled and steered by a stationary 

 engine unwinding two reels of fine steel wire in 

 the body of the fish, which communicate their 

 motion to the screws. The speed of either of the 

 drums reeling in the wire on shore can be varied 

 at pleasure, and the movements of a sensitive 

 rudder are determined by the variations of their 

 velocity, enabling the operator to steer the tor- 

 pedo in any direction. This torpedo has been 

 adopted for coast and harbor defense, but it 

 can not be used with advantage on board a ship. 

 The first-class protected cruiser " Blenheim," 

 launched on July 5, 1890, is 375 feet long and 35 

 feet broad, with a displacement of 9,000 tons, 

 engines of 20,000 indicated horse-power, and an 

 average speed of 18| knots. With a cellular steel 

 hull, she is protected by 1,190 tons of deck armor, 

 and is armed with two 22-ton and ten 6-inch 

 breech-loading guns, besides machine guns and 

 torpedo-firing apparatus. The torpedo cruiser 

 "Serpent," of 1,1 70 tons displacement, launched 

 in 1887, carrying six 6-inch breech-loading guns, 

 with rapid firing and machine guns and White- 

 head torpedoes, was foundered off the coast of 

 Spain on Nov. 10, 1890, not six months after 

 being put in commission, carrying down 273 per- 

 sons. She was one of a class of eight third-class 

 unprotected cruisers, ordered when Lord North- 

 brook was First Lord of the Admiralty, on the 

 recommendation of Admiral Sir Astley Cooper 

 Key, and designed to combine lightness with 

 speed and endurance. These vessels have been 

 condemned by experts as too heavily armed and 

 engined for their frail hulls and liable to excess- 

 ive strains in a heavy sea with head winds. 



Finance. For the year ending March 31, 

 1889, the revenue of the Government was 88,- 

 472,812, exceeding the budget estimates by 1,- 

 645,812. The expenditure amounted to 87.- 

 683,830, which was 659,769 more than the esti- 

 mates. There was a deficit in 1885 of 1,049,773 

 and one of 2,642,543 in 1886 ; in 1887 the ac- 

 counts showed a surplus of 776,006, those of 

 1888 one of 2,378,600, and for 1889 the surplus 

 was 788,982. The total receipts paid into the 

 Exchequer in 1889-'90 were 89,304,316. The 

 amount collected was really greater by about 

 4,600,000 than in the previous year, but the 

 imperial revenue was reduced to a greater extent 

 than in 1889 by the transfer of a part of the 

 produce of the stamps and excise to the county 

 councils, nearly 5,200.000 having been so trans- 

 ferred, against 1,400,000 in the previous year. 

 The revenue from stamps show an improvement 

 of 480,000, notwithstanding the transfer of 

 800,000 to the local-taxation account, which 

 was precisely the sum expected for the first year 



from the new estate duty of 1 per cent, on estates 

 of over 10,000. There was an increase of 374,- 

 000 in the customs revenue, and the excise re- 

 ceipts exceeded the estimates by 1,290,000, one 

 fourth of which was due to the additional tax on 

 beer. The land tax, the house duty, the property 

 and income tax, the post-office, and the telegraphs 

 all yielded more than the estimates. Although 

 expenditure exceeded the estimates by 116,000, 

 there was a surplus of 3,221,000. Through the 

 conversion of 3-per-cent. consols and the expira- 

 tion of annuities the national debt was reduced 

 during the year by 8,295.000. In three years 

 23,323,000 of the debt have been wiped out. 

 On the basis of existing taxation and expenditure 

 Mr. Goschen calculated on a revenue of 90,406,- 

 000 for 1890-'91, and a total expenditure of 

 86,857,000, giving an excess of revenue of 3, 

 549,000. Of this he applied 300,000 to building 

 barracks, 100,000 to the equipment of volun- 

 teers, 80,000 to the reduction of postage to 

 India and the colonies to 2%d., and smaller sums 

 to lowering the stamp duties and abolishing the 

 duties on gold and silver plate, opening the Eng- 

 lish market to Indian silver workers, who have 

 already a considerable trade in Paris. In order 

 to partly satisfy the democratic agitators for a 

 " free breakfast table " he sacrificed 1,500,000 of 

 revenue by lowering the duty on tea from &d. to 

 4d. a pound. In return for a remission of the 

 Greek duties on British products the duty on 

 dried currants is reduced from 7s. to 2s. a hun- 

 dred. The house tax on houses between 20 and 

 60 in annual value is placed at lower rates. 

 Brewers and licensed venders were not treated 

 with indulgence, the beer tax of 3d. a barrel im- 

 posed in the preceding year being retained and 

 the proceeds handed over to the local authorities, 

 while an additional duty of 6d. a gallon is levied 

 on domestic and imported spirits. No new 

 licenses will be permitted, and 350,000 of this 

 new grant to the local authorities is to be used in 

 purchasing the licenses of existing public houses. 

 The remissions of taxation and new charges on 

 the revenue reduce the estimated surplus to 

 233,000. The addition increases the total grant 

 in aid of local taxation to 3,640,000. 



The Parliamentary Session. The fifth ses- 

 sion of the Twelfth Parliament of Queen Victoria 

 was opened by royal commission on Feb. 11, 

 1890. The Queen's speech began with a refer- 

 ence to Major Serpa Pinto's operations on the 

 Shire, stating that an armed force under a Port- 

 uguese officer had been dispatched into territory 

 where there were British settlements and native 

 tribes under British protection, and that a col- 

 lision attended with bloodshed had taken place 

 and acts committed that were inconsistent with 

 due respect to the British flag, but that the Port- 

 uguese Government had promised to withdraw 

 the forces. The approaching slave-trade con- 

 ference at Brussels was spoken of with approval 

 and with the hope that the great cause for which 

 it was convened would be advanced by the re- 

 sults of the deliberations. Mention was made of 

 the commercial convention with Egypt, the pro- 

 visional fiscal arrangement with Bulgaria, the 

 convention with German) and the United States 

 with respect to the government of Samoa, and 

 the treaty for amending the law of extradition 

 between Great Britain and the United States, 



