LONDON.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3051, 6 April 1881, Page 3

LONDON.

April 4. A bulletin issued this evening reports that the Earl of Beaconsfield has passed a quieter day, but the fever from which he has been suffering has increased, and his case i 9 still deemed critical. In the House of Commons this evening the Rh»ht Hon. W. E. Gladstone, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, made his Budget statement ia Committee of Ways and Means. He showed that the revenue for tbe past financial year amounted to £84,062,500, and the expenditure to £83.125.000. He estimates the revenue for the financial year just entered upon at £86 000,000, and the expenditure at £84,687,500. He announced that the financial proposals of the Government included the reduction of the duty on foreign beers, the conversion jof the national debt resulting in a reduction of the amount of the same by £60,000,000 in twenty-five years, the gradual abolition ot the plate duty, the adjustment of the surety on foreign spirits, and the adjustment of the legacy and probate duties. The result of these changes would be to still leave a surplus of £300,000, but a reduction of one panny in the income tax (from 6d to 5d in the £) would be proposed, and the surplus would thus be converted into a deficit of £275,000. Intelligence has been received that conflicts have occurred on the Tunisian frontier over the disputed right of an Knglish subject, MjL_osep---<evyf to an estate at Sufida. The matter has already caused a diplomatic.difficulty between the Fnglish and French Governments, and it is feared that fresh complications may arise. Telegrams from France announce that active military preparations are being made by the Government of that country, The French press discuss the difficulty in excited terms.