alternatives, he admitted that they were not equivalents
in an arithmetical sense; but other things were to be
considered. The question of confidence and security
entered into price; but who could estimate their value
in figures? Who could put into figures the value of a
twenty or forty years' guarantee? Who could put
into figures the value of transfers, which would pass
from hand to hand, without change or limitation of
place, with the power of deposit? He agreed with Sir
Fitzroy, that it was not desirable to increase the national
debt; and he went so far with him—though he was
not so sanguine-—as to wholesale and permanent
reductions in the value of money—as to think that it
was desirable to introduce into the system of the debt a
stock bearing a rate of interest which, in case the value
of money should be subject to favourable alteration,
would form a basis for extensive reductions; and therein
consisted the importance of a 2½ per cent, stock. He
did not disregard the objection to an increase in the
National Debt, but he considered it worth while to
make a slight sacrifice for the attainment of a great
object of national policy. If it were a question of
amount, he would have no objection to make it £20,000
instead of £30,000. And he also gave them their choice
between abandoning the idea of a Two-and-a-Half per
Cent. Stock altogether and the adoption of another
proposition—to devote to the purpose of reducing the
debt the annual saving which they would make by a
Two-and-a-Half per Cent. Stock. He thought this plan
would obviate the objection as to increasing the capital of
the debt.—After remarks from Mr. T. Baring, Mr.
Williams, Mr. Laing, Mr. J. A. Smith, and Mr. Hume,
Mr. DISRAELI opposed the ministerial scheme. He said
that in all plans of the kind calculations should be based
upon their complete realisation; and that if the plan of the
government was carried out to the extent of the guarantee
of forty years, there would be no greater reduction on the
interest which we pay on a capital of five hundred
millions, than £600,000 a year. Comparing this with
previous operations upon the national debt, from the
time of Sir Robert Walpole downwards, he found that
those previous operations, acting upon a smaller amount
of capital, had been productive of a greater saving to the
country; and this without a guarantee in some cases, in
others with a much smaller one, and under
circumstances of far less public prosperity than at present. He
therefore asked what was the excuse for taking so
unprofitable and improvident a step? The great object
seemed to be to create a Two-and-a-Half per Cent. Stock,
which could be created at any time by simply paying for
it. There was nothing original in dealing with the
public debt; the object was to deal with it at the best
time and in the best manner; and he considered the
present plan as ingenious but premature. The ingenuity
was moreover thrown away, for the public could not be
persuaded to take a lower rate of interest than was
warranted by the state of the market, and the public
creditor was much too wary an animal to fall into any
pit, however well prepared. The real point was, what
were the prospects as to the state of interest in this
country? For his part he saw in the increasing
discoveries of the precious metals signs of great and
important changes; and he could not help remembering
that the most successful of our Chancellors of the
Exchequer, even before the important discoveries in
question, never proposed a longer guarantee than twenty
years. The fact was, there was no peremptory or urgent
reason for the change, and they were asked to increase
the national debt as a financial caprice. The alterations
which had been made in the scheme, both on that
evening and previously, were a sufficient indication that
it had not been deliberated and matured; and he asked
the Chancellor of the Exchequer not to press his
proposition and compel him to vote for the amendment of Sir
Fitzroy Kelly.—Mr. Goulburn supported the measure,
and Sir J. Pakington opposed it. On a division Sir F.
Kelly's amendment was negatived by 234 to 176.

On Monday, April 25, Mr. T. DUNCOMBE asked Lord
Palmerston whether he was not in error in stating, on
a previous occasion, that 500 lb. of Gunpowder had
been Found at Rotherhithe.—Lord PALMERSTON said that
he had been misinformed on the subject.

Lord D. STUART read a Letter from M. Kossuth,
denying that he was in any way implicated in the recent
proceedings at Rotherhithe, for the simple reason that he
had no warlike stores of any description in this country.

The discussion of the Budget commenced in a
committee of Ways and Means. On the first resolution
granting a tax upon incomes till April 1860, Sir E. B.
LYTTON moved, in lieu of the resolution, that the
continuance of the Income Tax for seven years, and its
extension to classes hitherto exempted from its operation,
without any mitigation of the inequalities of the
assessment, are alike unjust and impolitic. He admitted
that there was much in the Budget worthy of the high
reputation of Mr. Gladstone, and of the approbation of
the country; but he insisted that the prolongation of
the tax for seven years was unnecessary, and that, if it
were otherwise, the tax ought not to be continued
without those reforms which were called for by the
general sense of the country. Among other objections
to the scheme of the tax, he alleged the manner in
which it had been laid generally upon Ireland, in
exchange for a debt due from certain classes; while the
landed interest in England, without enjoying any special
relief, were to be burdened with a new tax of £2,000,000
a-year; and that, believing that the remissions of
taxation would not be reproductive, there was no
guarantee that the Income Tax would cease in 1860.
A long and desultory debate ensued, embracing, not
only the Income Tax but the other articles of the
Budget. It was adjourned till Thursday.

PROGRESS OF BUSINESS,

House of Lords.—April 5th.—Bail in Error Bill passed.—
Land Improvement Loan (Ireland) Bill read a second time.

7th.—Address to her Majesty on the birth of a Prince.

11th.—Canterbury Election, Address for Commission of
Inquiry.

I2th.—Compulsory Vaccination Bill in Committee.

14th.—Ditto as amended.

15th.—Ditto repeated.

18th.—Maynooth, Lord Winchelsea's motion negatived, and
Lord Aberdeen's amendment carried.

21st.—Hull Election, Address for Commission agreed to.

22nd.—Canada Clergy Reserves Bill read a second time.

25th.—Clergy Reserves Bill in committee.—Amendment by
Lord Derby negatived.

House of Commons.—April 4th.—Ministerial Statement on
National Education.—Pilotage Bill read a third time.

5th.—Mr. W. Patten's resignation as Chairman of Committees.
—Corrupt Elections Commission for Hull.—Railways, Mr.
Brown's motion withdrawn.—Wine Duties, Mr. Oliveira's
motion withdrawn.

6th.—Ecclesiastical Law Reform, Solicitor General's statement.
—Assaults on Women Bill considered in committee.

7th.—Address to Her Majesty on the birth of a Prince.—
National Education Bill read a first time.—Mr. Moore's motion
for Remission of Irish Debts, negatived.

8th.—Chancellor of the Exchequer's Resolutions on the
National Debt.

11th.—Clergy Reserves Bill read a third time and passed.—
National Debt—Resolutions agreed to and Bills ordered.

12th.—Duty on Carriages, Sir De Lacy Evans' motion withdrawn.
—Public Income, Mr. Williams' motion withdrawn.—
Kilmainham Hospital, Mr. Butt's motion carried.—Elections,
New Writs for Huddersfield and Athlone.

13th.—Judges Exchequer Bill read a second time.—County
Rates Bill in committee.

14th.—Mr. Milner Gibson's Resolution against the Advertisement
Duty carried.

15th.—Jewish Disabilities Bill read a third time and passed.

18th.—The Budget, Mr. Gladstone's statement.—South Sea
Annuities Commutation Bill read a second time.

19th.—Admiralty Patronage, Sir B. Hall's motion for
committee agreed to.—Maldon Election, Address for Commission
agreed to.

20th.—Judges Exclusion Bill committee'd.

21st.—Customs Reform, Mr. Wilson's statement.—South
Sea Commutation Bill committee'd pro forma.—Postage Bill,
ditto.

22nd.—Hackney Carriages Bill read a first time.—South Sea
Commutation Bill conmittee'd and amended.

25th.—Committee of Ways and Means—Amendment by Sir
Bulwer Lytton against the Income Tax discussed and debate
adjourned.

At the annual Convention of Royal Burghs, held at
Edinburgh, an address to her Majesty was unanimously
voted, praying that the management of the legislative
business connected with Scotland should be entrusted
to a Secretary or Under-Secretary for Scotland, as was