Abstract

The English Budget

The article presents information on the presentation of budget before the House of Commons in Great Britain by the Chancellor of the Exchequer last week. Until the demand for enormous sums for the navy and the swelling expense of old-age pensions, disturbed the equilibrium of the budget, the Liberals had both remitted taxes and reduced the public debt. The figures for the current year were not so black as they were expected to be. During the last few weeks of the fiscal year, the revenue picked up surprisingly. At the same time, expenditures were somewhat held down. The net result was a deficit of about $7,500,000 much smaller than had until recently been thought certain. But it is the budget for 1909-10 that causes the difficulty. How to cover the increased expenditures of nearly $80,000,000 was the problem of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.