and tobacco also show an increase. Corn has yielded
less by about £50,000, the present high prices having
failed, thus far, to attract foreign supplies. Tea has
yielded less by about £100,000. In the quarter's Customs
there is an increase to the amount of £602,952. Of
this about half-a-million arises from the increased duty
on spirits laid on last session. There is also an increase
of about £150,000 on malt, against a decrease of £70,000
on hops. Under the head of Stamps there is an increase
of £79,439. This arises from the Legacy and Succession
Duty, which will for many years become annually more
productive; from newspaper stamps, consequent on the
reduction of the tax on supplements and the general
interest felt in the war; and, to some extent, from bill
stamps. In the Taxes there is the decrease of £114,055,
arising from the recent reduction of the rates of duty,
made at a time when there was but small expectation of
war. The most important head in the return is the
Property tax. Here the increase on the quarter is
£483,232, arising partly from the double duty—to some
small extent already paid in—and partly from the
collection of arrears. On the whole of the three
quarters since the beginning of the financial year the
double duty has as yet produced no more than £700,000;
and the extension of the duty to Ireland and to incomes
of £100l. a-year, together, half-a-million. Part of the
increase, too, is owing, it is stated, to improved assessments
and earlier payments. In the quarter's receipts
from the Post-office there is an accidental decrease to
the extent of £51,766, owing to the comparison being
made with a period in which the receipts were swollen
by the release of certain balances under improved
financial arrangements in the Post-office. To some such
cause is referred the decrease of £144,004 in the
miscellaneous items.

A great meeting was held at Leeds on the 17th inst.,
assembled in order that Mr. Cobden might Address his
Constituents on the Subject of the War. Mr. Carbutt,
the chairman, stated the circumstances which led to the
meeting. Mr. Cobden had first communicated to him
his desire to address a meeting at Leeds on the aspect of
the war. Mr. Carbutt called together Mr. Cobden's
supporters, and they unanimously agreed that it was
not desirable to commence an agitation which might
lead to consequences all might deplore. Mr. Baines
added to this explanation the fact, that, as Mr. Cobden had
determined to come, it was felt that if he were listened
to in silence, his opinions would go forth, not only with
the weight of his name, but also with the weight of the
authority of the West Riding of Yorkshire. They
looked upon the war as a just one, dictated by sound
policy; and resolved to take such steps as would prevent
the public from supposing that they agree with Mr.
Cobden's opinions. Before calling on Mr. Cobden,
Mr. Carbutt said the meeting must admire his honesty
and manliness in coming before them; and he trusted
they would listen to him patiently and respectfully.
Mr. Cobden then addressed the meeting at great length,
repeating and enforcing his well-known views respecting
the impolicy, and expressing his hopes that the present
negotiations may lead to peace. He concluded by
saying that, seeing there was a prospect of peace, he
thought the meeting should not commit themselves by
passing any resolutions whatever. The following
resolution, however, was moved and seconded by Mr.
Marshall and Mr. Baines:—"That, in the opinion of
this meeting, the war in which England and France are
now engaged with Russia is a great contest forced upon
them by the outrageous aggression of the latter power
upon the Turkish empire, and is intended to create a
spirit of aggrandisement on the part of the Czar which
threatens the independence of other nations, and this
meeting is of opinion that the war ought to be prosecuted
with the utmost vigour until safe and honourable
terms of peace can be obtained." Mr. Lowett, and Mr.
Priestman from Bradford, moved and seconded the
following amendment:—"That this meeting, without
giving any opinion on the origin or conduct of the war,
earnestly desires that the present negotiations for peace
may be carried to a successful issue, and the further
evils of a protracted contest spared to this country, to
Europe, and to the world." This amendment was
received with loud cries of dissent, and, being put, was
negatived by an overwhelming majority. The original
motion was then carried with very few dissentients.

At a public meeting at Tynemouth, Mr. W. S.
Lindsay, the eminent ship-owner and member for that
borough, made some important observations on the
Defects of our Naval Administration. "He had read
with deep interest the accounts in the public press; he
had admired the bravery and indomitable courage of
our troops; and although he had also seen with much
regret painful statements of their privations and
sufferings, yet he scarcely thought things were quite so
bad as reported. In the sister service, the navy,
however, there was great need of better organisation.
This he knew, with regard to the management of
matters connnected with the transport service, France
was greatly in advance of us. We had men of the first
ability at the Admiralty—we could hardly find a
more able man than Sir James Graham; but when he
told them that the same system was now in operation
which was pursued a hundred years ago, they would
not be surprised at the difficulty and confusion which
prevailed. The form of the charter-party was verbatim
the same as in the days of the Dutch war and Lord
Camperdown; whereas the French adopted a similar
form like that used in the merchant service,—being in
this respect, therefore, a great step in advance of us.
These were facts the recital of which might give offence
to some, but he thought it his duty to the country to
state them thus publicly. Then again, France had a
responsible head to whom all might appeal. If a
merchant had occasion to send a message by telegraph
to the Minister of War, requesting to know, for instance,
what goods were to be shipped in a certain vessel, there
was an answer by the same rapid medium by four
o'clock in the afternoon. But if you wrote to the
Admiralty—much nearer—the probability was you
would not get an answer in a week, and sometimes five
weeks elapsed before an answer was returned. This
was not the fault of the men, but the system. There
was no responsible head—responsible to the House of
Commons, and through it to the country. Messages
were sent from the Admiralty to the War Office, from
the Ministry of War to the Ordnance, from the Ordnance
to Deptford, and then came back to the source from
which they had originally proceeded. A change,
therefore, must be made in this respect before they
could reasonably hope matters would improve. He
should wish it to be clearly understood that his
complaint was solely against the customs and old-
fashioned systems to which they still rigidly adhered at
the Admiralty. While that system was persisted in, it
was impossible for the business to be conducted with
promptitude and economy. There are too many heads
—irresponsible heads—and far too great a machinery of
useless forms. With such men as Captain Milne, (of
whose unwearied exertions and of whose practical
knowledge he could not speak in terms too high) and a
simple system—a system similar to that which is
adopted in great mercantile establishments—we would
not have heard of the fearful sufferings to which our
troops had been subjected, through want of covering,
food, and clothing. They had excellent men as
subordinates, but the staff must be increased. At
Deptford they had the same staff as during peace, which
rendered it impossible for the men to get through the
work; and he ventured to say that if £10,000 had been
disbursed in clerks at the commencement of the war,
some hundreds of thousands would have been saved to
the country."

NARRATIVE OF LAW AND CRIME.

SOME painful revelations respecting the Life of the
Poor were made in the course of a coroner's inquest
held at Clay Cross, Derbyshire, on the body of
Christopher Coggin, an old army pensioner, 85 years of
age. It was stated that the deceased, his wife, daughter,
and five illegitimate children of the latter, had lived for
the last five years in a brick-yard. For four years of
this period they were in a hut made of sods, which the
owner of the brick-field had given them leave to erect.
It had only one room, no window, a chimney, and