In the first place, it affords another illustration, if another was needed, of the present deplorable subjection of Government to the pressure from without, which has so often and painfully been exhibited since the new system of government began. It is well known that, during the three disastrous years that preceded the present one, debt to a large amount was contracted. To mention two items only: eight millions were borrowed in 1847 to relieve the Irish famine; L.2,000,000 in the succeeding year, to carry on the current expenses of the year; and in 1841 the deficiency had been such, that no less than L.5,000,000 was borrowed to meet the ordinary expenses of the year. One would suppose, that when a surplus arose in the year 1849, the natural course would have been to have applied it, in the first instance, to extinguish, so far as it would go, the additional debt so recently contracted. Has this been done? Not at all. Only L.750,000 out of a real surplus said to amount to L.1,500,000, is to be applied in this way; and L.750,000 is to be devoted to reduction of taxes. L.10,000,000 is borrowed during two years of distress; L.750,000 only has been devoted to its reduction, in a year, we are told, of unparalleled commercial prosperity. In the next place, to what object is the L.750,000 a-year of surplus available to reduced taxation, discovered for the first time after three years of deficit, to be applied? Is it to be devoted to remission of taxes pressing upon the agricultural interest, whom the measures pursued for behoof of towns have reduced to such a state of depression? Not at all. It is to be applied to reduction of the duty on _stamps and bricks_. The first may be admitted to be desirable, because, as so large part of the landed property in the kingdom will soon, to all appearance, change hands, it is an object to render the transfer as little costly as possible. But of what use is the reduction of the duty on bricks to the suffering cultivators? That it is a boon to the master-builders in towns, may be conceded; though it may well be doubted whether it will ever cause a reduction of price to the purchasers from them. But what the better will the farmers and ploughmen, the landlords and yeomen, be of the change? Additional houses are not wanted _in the country_; on the contrary, there will in all probability not be inmates for those that already are there, from the certain and experienced effect of Free-trade in diminishing the demand for rural labour. It is in the towns and villages that the building is going on; because Free-trade policy is daily more and more forcing the rural inhabitants into the towns in quest of employment or relief. In London, 200 miles of new streets, and 66,000 houses, are said to have been constructed, or to be in course of construction, during the last two years. Is there any increase of houses in the rural districts? Herein, then, lies the injustice of the present