The Budget was introduced on the 5th of April by Mr. Childers, who stated that his estimated revenue and expenditure for the coming year would be £88,480,000 and £85,789,000. This showed a comfortable surplus which he exhausted by taking 1½d. off the Income Tax, by making provisions to meet an expected loss on the introduction of sixpenny telegrams, by reductions on railway passenger duty, and by slight changes in the gun licence and in tax-collection. He also carried, in spite of strenuous opposition, a Bill to reduce the National Debt. By this Bill Mr. Childers created £40,000,000 of Chancery Stock into terminable annuities for twenty years, to follow those expiring in 1885. Then he created £30,000,000 of Savings Bank Stock into shorter annuities. As each fell in, it was to be followed by a longer one, so as to absorb the margin between the actual interest on the Debt and the sum set aside for its permanent service, thus hypothecating the taxes of the future. Mr. Childers promised, by his system, to wipe out £172,000,000 of debt in twenty years. The Corrupt Practices Bill was read a second time on the 4th of June, and it not only restricted expenditure on elections, but inflicted stringent penalties for bribery and intimidation in every form, making candidates responsible for the acts of their agents, prohibiting the use of public-houses as committee-rooms, and the payment of conveyances to bring voters to the poll. The Tories, the Parnellites, and one or two Radicals like Mr. Peter Rylands, fought hard to relax the stringency of the measure. It was obstructed in Committee, but ultimately passed both Houses with no important alterations. The Agricultural Holdings Bill was also strongly opposed. It gave tenants a right to compensation for improvements, which was to be inalienable by contract. The most important amendment, which was moved and carried by Mr. A. J. Balfour, limiting compensation to the actual outlay, represented the spirit in which the Opposition sought to destroy the utility of the Bill. As Mr. Clare Sewell Read (one of the Conservatives who represented the agricultural interests) observed, this amendment enabled the landlord to say to the tenant, “Heads I win; tails you lose. If your improvement succeeds, I get the profit out of it, and you only the outlay; if it does not succeed, you get the loss.” The amendment was struck out on Report, and, though the House of Lords tried to mutilate the Bill, their worst amendments were rejected by the Commons, and the measure passed. The controversy in the House of Lords was remarkable for Lord Salisbury’s failure to hold his Party at the end firm to the policy of resistance. A useful Bill prohibiting payment of wages in public-houses was also passed. Nor was Ireland neglected. The Tramways Act enabled Irish Local Authorities to construct, with the support of Government guarantees, tramways and light railways, and the Government further assented to provisions to promote by State aid