The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1882-05-02 00:00:00

Food &until exprpoo.!

DORCHESTER, MAY 2ad, IBM
THE BUDGET.

If financial statements were characterized by any par-
lionise title, the on. this year deserves to be ogled the
Temperance Budget. In endeavouring to account for
fallthroff to the Excise duties, Mr. Gladstone felt
boned to acknowledge that the drinking habits of the
people are undergoing • remarkable change. The
upper dames led the way to moderation, the middle
Messes followed, and now it Is then that even the
lowest are being influenced by the examples est them,
This Ia • bed thing for the Revenue; but it speaks
well for the improving morals of the people. Notwith-
standing the inoresee of population, the revenue from
the drink traffic generally has fallen from £31,000,000 in
1874 to 08,000,000, and regarded from an Exhequer
point of view the face would have • very unpromising
significance. There Is, however, another side to the
question, and we may be quite run that if the
very Si Dorado of taxation—wine, beer, and spirits
—becomes exhausted, there will be even • greater
potentiality in the improved oondition of the people.
It was an easy warm of profit, at the IMMO time the
result warn to some extent discreditable and was like
• pang of conscience. No Chancellor of the Exchequer
seed regret—laud of all Mr. Gladstone—that in
future elasticity must be looked for 111 other quarters
than in articles the immoderate use of which has for
generations mat sapped the morals and injuied the
health of the people. We hope it may be
said that the golden days of such dude I
are over. Temperance principles are taking
deep root in the land, and the example which
extremists set at, influencing in • large degree even the
habits of those who believe in the u.s of intoxicants.
Ism Mae and spirits are drunk than tosmerly, and,
What is equally important, people are not ashamed to
me them lees freely. We do sot think • friend shabby
now if be retrains from putting out his wine whenever
we visit him. A medical man does not prescribe wins
now even foe the stomach's sake, or in oats to keep
Ids patient well awed towards him, and we do not.
Ilk, oar forefathers, speed half our spare tins In the
pabilebouss. The substitution of cam and cocoa
Inverts for the inn is a movement which his already
hew Weeded with sucems. There is every reason for
thlaking It will grow, and that in the course of another
generalist half the present alehouses will have been
enpplaated. Suture Chanoollors of the Exchequer
will have to look out for new fields of taxation. Will
they and them in tea mad ooffes ? The lather—strange
Ss say--has yielded nothing as yet, in spite of the
spread of cam taverns ; but the consumption of tee
to. 'assessed saktiently to oonfirm the moral improve-
ment suggested by the decline of the duties on alooholic
Make. Mr. Gladstone still has hopes of • revenue
hos saes, cer, rather, what is now sold in its name,
melons "mixtures* having hitherto escaped. It is
early, perhaps, to predict what the substitute will be
kw the declining duties above referred to. Obviously
lea and ease will not supply the deficiency. What
are termed the mesmerise of life must not be taxed.
Hissaciers will, therefore, have to fall back upon the
Income Tax, which for several yore past has been
Ming its exceptional or temporary character, though
the Inaideeee ca/is for modification. For reasons of
compeedoo, a large motion of society are at present
exempt from the charge; but their days of immunity
are numbered. We very much mistake the tendency
at the time if all who vote will not eventually be called
upon to bear their share of this important burden.