OUR HOME LETTER.

Evening Star, Issue 3862, 10 July 1875, Page 3

OUR HOME LETTER.

( Concluded)

Putting aside the one or two incidents of thrilling and melancholy interest, that I have already touched upon, the past has been rather an uneventful month. The Prince of Wales has just been installed with great ceremony, as Grand Master of the Freemasons. A bettor idea will, however, be obtained of the proceedings by a glance at aa illustrated papjr than I can convey by mere writing. The circumstance has naturally occasioned a good deal of speculation as to what Freemasonry Jreally is : but, as the initiated won’t te'.l, and as the uninitiated don’t know, outsiders are not much the wiser. It can hardly escape remark, however, that whilst Freemasons professedly constitute a secret society, they should be rather given to public display. The 1 iberation Society has recently he’d its annual meeting, and, to judge from the speeches, would app?ar to bo well satisfied with its position and prospects. The president remarked that every agitation went through three phase?. First the “ pooh pooh ’ stage, when everybody ridiculed it, and affected to treat it with contempt; secondly, there was the “bow-wow” stage,

when its advocates were represented as revolutionists, dangerous agitators, &c ; lastly, there was the stage when everyone who had opposed the movement joined, with its promoters, and pretended to have desired and wished for its success from the very first. Their movement, he said, had long passed the “pooh pooh” stage ; no one could now affect to ignore the question, and the efforts of their opponents proved how seriously they apprehended the success of the agitation. Sir Stafford Northcote’s Budget has been rather severely criticised. Its salient feature was to provide a fixed sum of twentyeight millions annually to meet the interest aud sinking fund of the debt. Ai the excess over the sum required for interest would be available to pay off the principal, the interest itself would gradually diminish, leaving a larger and larger sum every year available for repayment of capital. By this means Sir Stafford hoped, in the course of thirty years, to effect afgreduction of L200,< 00,000 —a consummation most devoutly to be wished. Two serious objections have, however, been raised against the scheme. One is the impossibility of controlling future government?. The plan may be excellent, but there are no means of compelling future Chancellors of the Exchequer to pursue it, and in case revenue were to Ml off, or expenditure to decrease, it would immediately become a question for consideration whether most expedient to increase taxation or ease the pressure by ceasing for a time to pay off the principal The other objection, which is rather strongly insisted upon, is that Sir Stafford Northcote, the propounder cf the ide j, virtually abstains from acting on it himself. The nominal surplus is said to be more than counterbalanced by loacs incurred for fortifications, &c,, so that, in reality, instead of applying any “surplus” to paying off debt, there is really a deficit. People here, I should remark, are not sufficiently enlightened t> p; rceive the utility of a sinking fund unless the debt is actually being reduced.