362 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



for by the Government, the peace preservation 

 act, was brought in on the 2d of March, and 

 passed the Lower House under the urgency 

 rules on the llth, after stormy debates. It 

 empowered the Lord Lieutenant to prohibit 

 the carrying of arms in any proclaimed district 

 except by persons having special licenses ; also 

 to prohibit and regulate the importation and 

 sale of arms in Ireland. Searches for arms 

 could be made between sunrise and sunset 

 under warrants naming the house and suspect- 

 ed person. Summary convictions and impris- 

 onment for not longer than three months were 

 provided for in the act, which was to remain 

 in force five years. 



As soon as the coercion acts were disposed 

 of, Parliament turned its attention to some 

 pressing appropriation bills. Mr. Gladstone 

 moved that supply should be declared urgent 

 business. This proposition excited no little 

 surprise. It was warmly resisted by Sir Staf- 

 ford Northcote, and failed to receive the requi- 

 site majority of three to one. 



The first supply bill was a measure of finan- 

 cial relief for India. The revelation that the 

 earlier estimates of the Afghan war expendi- 

 tures were far below the actual cost was an 

 unpleasant surprise to the British tax-payers. 

 The Marquis of Hartington's successive state- 

 ments were each one larger than the preceding, 

 until the sum grew to 16,000,000, exclusive 

 of the cost of the frontier railways. To relieve 

 the Indian Government of the excessive bur- 

 den thus imposed, Gladstone proposed to for- 

 give the advance of 2,000,000, voted as a loan 

 by the last Parliament, and to contribute 3,- 

 000,000 more in six annual installments. Glad- 

 stone's plan was adopted without opposition, 

 and the sum of 500,000, being the first in- 

 stallment, was voted. The Government, in the 

 beginning of the session, had announced their 

 intention of withdrawing the British troops 

 from Afghanistan, as soon as the intestine 

 struggle was ended, and a government capable 

 of ruling the country established. Lord Bea- 

 consfield raised his protest against the aban- 

 donment of the conquered territory. When 

 the way was clear, Mr. Stanhope and Lord 

 Lytton brought forward, in Parliament, reso- 

 lutions censuring the Government for the im- 

 pending evacuation of Candahar, while at the 

 same time a popular agitation was attempted. 

 The Earl of Lytton's resolution was carried by 

 the strong Conservative majority in the Upper 

 House, but Mr. Stanhope's was rejected by a 

 vote of 336 to 216. On March 22d Mr. Glad- 

 stone stated the conditions of peace agreed to 

 with the Transvaal Boers. Supplementary es- 

 timates on account of the Transvaal war were 

 agreed to, and other appropriations made. 



On the 4th of April the Premier made his 

 financial statement. The principal change an- 

 nounced in taxation for the ensuing year was 

 the reduction of the income-tax to its old 

 rate. To offset the deficit thus created, small 

 additions and readjustments were made in 



other taxes. The tax on foreign spirits and 

 rurn was adjusted so as to yield an estimated 

 increase, which, with changes in the probate 

 and legacy duties, converted the deficit into 

 an estimated surplus of some 300,000. The 

 income-tax, which was fivepence in the pound, 

 had been increased the year before to sixpence, 

 for the specific object of enabling the Govern- 

 ment to carry out its plan of converting the 

 malt-tax into a tax on beer. This reform has 

 not proved an unalloyed benefit to British 

 farmers, since, owing to new methods of brew- 

 ing, it allows foreign maize and rice to compete 

 with home-grown barley; but this fact was 

 presented in the light of a liberation of trade. 

 An awkward miscalculation had also to be 

 confessed, as the drawbacks paid had amounted 

 to 1,312,000, instead of the estimated 950,- 

 000. Referring to what are called the " death 

 duties," he called attention to the various in- 

 equalities and needed reforms, such as requiring 

 property in mortmain to contribute to the tax, 

 equalizing the duties on personal property, 

 settled and unsettled, and more nearly equal- 

 izing the duties on real-estate inheritances, 

 which vary from one to ten per cent, according 

 to the degree of relationship. The changes in 

 the legacy and probate duties, by which he 

 eked out about 400,000 of estimated revenue, 

 are supposed to be an earnest of more sweeping 

 measures, looking eventually to the abolition 

 of entails, and the subjection of all property 

 held in mortmain to taxation. 



With reference to paying off the debt, Mr. 

 Gladstone made an appeal for more vigorous 

 efforts. He presented a statistical compari- 

 son, by which he made it appear that the bur- 

 den was gradually growing more severe. Tak- 

 ing three periods of time, commencing with 

 1842, he showed that, while from 1842 to 

 1858 population had increased i per cent per 

 annum, the revenue If per cent, and the ex- 

 penditure 2| per cent, from 1857 to 1873 the 

 augmentations were 1 per cent, 3 per cent, 

 and 1| per cent, respectively, and from 1874 

 to 1877 1 per cent, 1 per cent, and 3J. But 

 in the last two years, reaching down to March, 

 1880, while the population had increased by 

 1 per cent, the revenue had actually gone 

 back ^ per cent, and the expenditure had in- 

 creased by 2| per cent. In further illustration 

 of this movement, he mentioned that the penny 

 in the income-tax, which in 1842 produced 

 772,000, in 1858 810,000, and in 1878 1,- 

 990,000, in this last year, for the first time in 

 the history of the tax, had actually gone back 

 and stood only at 1,943,000. 



The Prime Minister suggested one measure, 

 which was afterward inaugurated, though in 

 advance of the time of action, by an act of 

 Parliament. In 1885 a large amount of short 

 annuities expire. That period has long been 

 wistfully regarded by Chancellors of the Ex- 

 chequer as one when the duties of the office 

 will be lightened. Mr. Gladstone said that he 

 should consider it an illegitimate use of the lib- 



