no THE YEAR'S BALANCE-SHEET

that it can get. Another £25 millions was provided
by miscellaneous revenue, and this windfall again
must be largely due to operations connected with the
war. Finally, the £15! millions by which the income
tax exceeded the estimate must again be largely due
to inflation and extravagance on the part of the
Government, which, by manufacturing money, and
then spending it recklessly, puts big profits and big
incomes into the hands of those who have stocks of
goods to sell or who are in a position to produce
them.

If, therefore, the satisfaction with which we regard
the big total of the Government's revenue receipts
has to be considerably modified in the cold light of
close observation, the enormous increase on the
expenditure side gives us very little comfort and
calls for the most determined and continued criticism
if our reckless Government is to be made to turn over
a new leaf. In the early days of the war there was
much excuse for wasting money. We had to im-
provise a great Army, and a great organisation for
equipping it; there was no time then to look too
closely into the way the money was being spent, but
this excuse is long obsolete. It is not possible to
waste money without also wasting the energy and
working power of the nation; on this energy and
working power the staying power of the country
depends in its struggle to avert the greatest disaster
that can be imagined for civilisation, that is, the
victory of the German military power. Seeing that
for many months past we have no longer- been
obliged to finance Russia, and to provide Russia