§ * THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN,) Worcestershire, E.I do not know how far I may count upon the sympathy of the Committee in the difficult task which lies before me, but at any rate I would appeal to their indulgence. I shall have need of all their forbearance. I am new to these great responsibilities. I enter upon them at a moment of considerable difficulty, and I am confronted in this House with an unusual number of critics who, if I may use a civic phrase, have passed the chair, and have themselves had personal experience of the office that I now fill. To my right hon. friend the Member for West Bristol I owe my first introduction to national finance, and though, perhaps, he would not be gratified if I attributed to his influence all the opinions which I have formed upon fiscal subjects, at any rate I am glad to acknowledge my obligations to him. Both to him and to the right hon. Member for West Monmouth we owe a large part of the huge revenue that we now raise. I hope I may be permitted to say with what regret I read the announcement recently made by those two right hon. Gentlemen that they would not again seek seats in this House. Sir, we hall miss them from our Budget debates, in which for so long they have borne the leading part; but I may venture to promise that long after they have 544 left us their memory will be kept green in these discussions by the taxes which they have imposed. I said just now that the circumstances of the moment were unusually difficult. When my predecessor made his financial statement last year, he was able to look forward to a great surplus, and to propose considerable remissions of taxation. Unfortunately the financial out-turn of the year has been far less favourable than was then anticipated. The great wave of prosperity which we have enjoyed for many years seems at length to have spent its force, and the cycle of less prosperous years, which experience teaches us to expect after every period of great expansion and prosperity, appears at length to have overtaken us; and it has made its effects felt especially during the latter half of the past year. The season was, I am afraid, a disastrous one for agriculture; it adversely affected the building trades and many other industries; and the cotton industry was depressed by the shortage of the supply of the raw material, while the evil was aggravated by the operations of speculators. Freights were depressed, in part, no doubt, owing to the large increase in tonnage in recent years, and in part owing to the cessation of the heavy demands which during the war, and after the war, the Government were obliged to make upon the mercantile marine of the country; and, as is not unusual under those circumstances, shipbuilding has not had a very flourishing year. Our own depression has been aggravated by the depression in South Africa, and foreign competition has been keener, I suppose, than ever before, so that markets in which we used to regard ourselves as supreme have become increasingly threatened by the enterprise 545 and the successful commercial organisation of other countries. Some of these causes are permanent, some are merely temporary, but all have combined to affect our present prosperity, and have thrown their shadow over the financial aspects of the past year. Though there have been few serious labour disputes, wages have, I am afraid, generally fallen, and the number of the unemployed has increased. On the whole there has been a shrinkage of trade, a lessening of employment, a fall in wages; and all these facts have had their influence upon the revenue of the year.