§ Financially we seemed to be on the crest of the wave, and it would have been rash in me to anticipate that we should rise even higher; and yet we have done so. [Cheers.] In spite of political circumstances in the United States, which for a time paralysed trade, in spite of unrest in South Africa, distress in India, anxieties in the East of Europe, the revival of trade which began in the summer of 1895 has been well maintained. [Cheers.] The total value of our foreign trade in the year 1895 was 702½ millions; the total value of our foreign trade in 1896 was 738 millions, an increase of 5 per cent.—to some extent in prices, but mainly in volume. I think I may say that our home trade is not less flourishing. The returns of the earnings of the railway companies, the smaller list of failures, the increased return of our Bankers' Clearing-house, especially in the provinces, labour statistics showing better employment in the skilled labour market, and last, but by no means least, the ray of hope given to the most depressed agricultural districts by a good wheat crop and higher prices for it-—all, I think, tend to prove the increased prosperity of the country— [cheers]—and of that prosperity the revenue has been the best, as it is the 1251 keenest, barometer. ["Hear, hoar!"] I do not like, however, to talk too much about prosperity, because I know from last Tuesday's Debate that some of my friends are not believers in it. [Laughter.] But this I do know—that during the past year our people have smoked and drunk more—[laughter]—have earned more money and paid more income tax, have written more letters, have bought and sold more property, and last, but not least, have paid more death duties—[laughter]—and therefore I hope I may be allowed, at any rate, to make this deduction, that the country is not going to the bad. ["Hoar, hear!"]