SOME APPREHENSIONS.
Amidst these depressing conditions apprehensions with regard to the forthcoming Budget are not unnaturally accentuated. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has deemed it well on more than one occasion in the last few Weeks to utter warnings with regard to the position, and has thrown out dark hints not only of the poor prospect of any relief from existing taxation, but of the shortage of revenue which may have to be made up by fresh imposts. Naturally enough, the mere prospect of such an increase is regarded as lessening the prospects of a trade revival, while Sir Josiah Stamp has shown very clearly how any further rise in the price of coal, as the result of the provisions of the Coal Bill, must act injuriously upon industry and upon the railway industry in particular. For some time past too there have been plain indications that anxiety with regard to the situation here, supplemented by the fact that many dollar securities in the United States are standing at attractive levels, is stimulating the drift of capital to the United States, the effect pf which has been reflected in unfavourable movements in the American exchange.
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