360 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



Admiral Markham, believing it to be the inten- 

 tion of Admiral Tryon to ease the helm of the 

 " Victoria " and circle round the second division, 

 ordered the helm of the " Camperdown " put over 

 to begin the turn of 16 points ordered by the 

 admiral. The " Camperdown " was a little be- 

 hind the " Victoria " in the evolution, and made 

 a bad turn. Her rarn struck the " Victoria " at 

 an angle of about 80 degrees on the starboard 

 bow, about 20 feet forward of the turret, and 

 crashed through nearly to her center line. The 

 doomed ship was headed for shore, but within 

 twenty minutes she gave a great lurch to star- 

 board and went down, bow foremost, turning 

 over as she sank. The court-martial, which was 

 convened at Malta to investigate the disaster, 

 exonerated Capt. Bourke, of the " Victoria," and 

 Rear-Admiral Markham, and thereby by impli- 

 cation placed the responsibility for the disaster 

 upon the admiral of the fleet. The evidence 

 taken shows that the evolution was dangerous. 



The court-martial accompanied its acquittal 

 of Rear-Admiral Markham with an expression 

 of regret that he had not disobeyed an order the 

 carrying out of which seemed certain to result 

 disastrously. 



The "Victoria" was an armored steel battle 

 ship of the first class, her armor belt, varying in 

 thickness from 16 to 18 inches, extending over 

 only 162 feet of her total length of 840 feet. 

 She had a breadth of 70 feet, and drew 26 feet 

 7 inches of water, her displacement being 10,- 

 400 tons, and her indicated horse power 12,000. 

 She carried 2 111-ton guns in a single turret, and 

 had also 1 29-ton and 12 5-ton guns, 12 quick- 

 firing 6-poundcrs, 9 3-pounders, several machine 

 guns, and 8 torpedo tubes ; she also had a pow- 

 erful ram, and her speed was 17'2 knots. With 

 her were lost Vice-Admiral Tryon and more than 

 430 officers and men. 



Finances. The Government revenue for the 

 year ending March 31, 1892, exclusive of extra 

 army and navy receipts and India's contribution 

 for military charges, amounted to 90,994,786, 

 which was 564,786 in excess of the budget esti- 

 mate ; and the total expenditure was 89,927,- 

 773, being 996,263 less than the estimate. The 

 revenue is derived mainly from taxation, includ- 

 ing customs, excise, and stamp duties, the in- 

 come, property, and land taxes, and the house 

 duty. The customs receipts amounted to 19,- 

 828,309, of which 9,948,809 were from tobacco, 

 3,418,162 from tea, 2,335,174 from rum, 

 1,423,836 from brandy, 668.921 from other 

 spirits, 1,291,052 from wine, 177,206 from cof- 

 fee, 175,225 from raisins, 113,994 from currants, 

 and 275,957 from other articles. The excise 

 receipts were 25,717,425, of which 15,693.631 

 were from spirits, 9,457,749 from beer, 232,- 

 669 from licenses, 324,984 from railways, and 

 8,392 from other sources. The receipts from 

 stamps, exclusive of fee stamps, were 13,730,- 

 183, of which 2,811,187 were for probate duty, 

 2,828,162 for legacy duty, 1,304,080 for es- 

 tate duty on personalty, 98,640, for estate 

 duty on realty, 1,200,347 for succession duty, 

 160,831 for company capital duty: for stamps 

 on deeds, 2,370,678; on receipts, 1,136,303; 

 on bills of exchange. 712,830 ; on patent medi- 

 cines, 240,062; on licenses, etc., 163,772; and 

 on marine-insurance policies, 152,542 ; other 



stamp duties, 550,749. The income and prop- 

 erty tax amounted to 13,853,016, the house 

 duty to 1,442,848, and the land tax to 1,038,- 

 337, making the total receipts from taxation 75,- 

 610,118. The receipts from the post-office were 

 10,138,290 ; from the telegraph service, 2,484,- 

 098; from Crown lands, 526,340; from fee 

 stamps, 828,830; from the civil departments, 

 942,373 ; from the revenue departments, 120,- 

 462 ; from the Bank of England, 168,878 ; from 

 post-office savings banks, 65,663 : interest on 

 Suez Canal shares, 222,111 ; receipts from other 

 sources, 276,369 ; making the totul for the year 

 91,428,532, of which 90,994,785 had been ac- 

 tually paid into the exchequer up to March 31. 



The expenditure for the year on account of 

 the consolidated-fund charges was 29,009,498, 

 of which 25,000,000 were for charges on the 

 debt, 200,000 for Suez Canal bonds, 1,428,571 

 for the naval defense fund, 409,592 for the 

 civil list, 347,329 for annuities and pensions, 

 509,129 for judicial salaries, 84,172 for other 

 salaries and allowances, 325,000 for construct- 

 ing barracks, 400,000 for gold coinage, and 

 305,705 for various other purposes. The debt 

 charges itemized comprised 15,893,049 interest 

 on the funded and 820,292 on the unfunded 

 debt ; 6,557,637 for terminable annuities, 187,- 

 233 for management of the debt, and 1,541,789 

 for the new sinking fund. The expenditures for 

 the army and navy were respectively 17,259,- 

 000 and 14,150,000 ; for the civiil services, 17,- 

 500,709 ; for collecting the customs and inland 

 revenue, 2,691,948 ; for the post-office, 6,126,- 

 481 ; for the telegraph service, 2,489,000 ; and for 

 the packet service, 701,136, making a total for 

 the supply service of 60,918,274. 



The budget for 1892-'93 estimates the rev- 

 enue at 90,453,000 ; and the expenditure at 

 90.253,000; but some of the estimates have 

 been increased by supplementary votes. 



One half of the probate duty, the additional 

 beer and spirit duty, and a large proportion of 

 the license money collected by the .Government, 

 are required by recent acts of Parliament to be 

 paid over to local authorities for the relief of 

 local taxation. For the year ending March 31, 

 1892, the amounts so applied were : From addi- 

 tional beer and spirit duties, 1,394,751 ; from 

 licenses, 3,391,627; from probate duty, 2,811,- 

 187; making a total of 7,597,565; of which 

 England and Wales received 6,426.860; Scot- 

 land, 795,712; and Ireland, 359,260. The 

 balance in the exchequer on March 31, 1892, was 

 6,255,169. The amount raised for local expen- 

 diture in 1890 was 69,317.683. The total for 

 England and Wales was 57,360,957; for Scot- 

 land, 7.573,504; for Ireland, 4,383,222. The 

 expenditures for the year were : In England and 

 Wales. 55,375,027 ; " in Scotland, 7,403,657 ; 

 in Ireland, 4.403,512; total for the United 

 Kingdom, 67,182,196, against 66,253,476 for 

 the previous year. The expenditure for poor re- 

 lief was 10,406,638 ; for police and sanitary and 

 other public works, 32,837,568 ; and for schools, 

 7.100,911. 



The funded debt amounted on March 31. 1892, 

 to 577,944,665, the unfunded debt to 35,312,- 

 994, and the estimated amount of the terminable 

 annuities was 64,421,912, making the total 

 national debt 677,679,571. The Russian-Dutch 



