BLACKWOOD’S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NO. CCCCXV. MAY, 1850. VOL. LXVII. CONTENTS. FREE-TRADE FINANCE, 513 GREECE AGAIN, 526 THE MODERN ARGONAUTS, 539 MY PENINSULAR MEDAL. BY AN OLD PENINSULAR. PART VI., 542 GERMAN POPULAR PROPHECIES, 560 THE HISTORY OF A REGIMENT DURING THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN, 573 THE PENITENT FREE-TRADER, 585 TENOR OF THE TRADE CIRCULARS, 589 ALISON’S POLITICAL ESSAYS, 605 OVID’S SPRING-TIME, 621 DIES BOREALES NO. VII. CHRISTOPHER UNDER CANVASS, 622 LETTER FROM MAJOR-GENERAL SIR WILLIAM NAPIER, 640 EDINBURGH: WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. _To whom all communications (post paid) must be addressed._ SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. BLACKWOOD’S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NO. CCCCXV. MAY, 1850. VOL. LXVII. FREE-TRADE FINANCE. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has brought forward the Budget, and the Financial Measures of Government are before the public. It contains matter worthy of the most serious consideration. It is hard to say whether the admission it contains, or the measures it proposes, are most condemnatory of the system of Class Government which the Reform Bill has imposed on the country. The statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in a few words, is this:—“Last year, I calculated upon a small surplus of L.104,000 for the year ending 5th April 1850, but that surplus has swelled to L.2,250,000, by rise in the produce of the taxes, and reductions of the expenditure. Of this sum L.1,500,000 is to be regarded as the real surplus to be relied upon for the measures of this year.” Assuming this as the surplus to be dealt with, he proposes to apply L.750,000 in reduction of the last contracted part of the debt, and L.750,000 in reduction of taxation; L.400,000 a-year being applied to the reduction of the duty on bricks, and L.350,000 to that of stamps on conveyances. It is thus that he proposes to alleviate the agricultural distress which, he admits, prevails in the country. Three things are especially worthy of observation in this statement.