BUDGELL, Eustace (1685-1736), a literary man of some eminence in lιis time, the son of Dr Gilbert Budgell, was born at St Thomas, near Exeter. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, from which he removed to the Inner Temple, London; but instead of studying law, he devoted his whole attention to literature. He was befriended by Addison, who was first cousin to his mother, and who, on being appointed secretary to Lord Wharton, lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1710, took Budgell with him as one of the clerks of his office. Budgell, who had read the classics and the best English, French, and Italian authors, took part with Steele and Addison in writing the Toiler. He was also a contributor to the Spectator and the Guardian,— his papers being marked with an X in the former, and with an asterisk in the latter. He was subsequently made under-secretary to Addison, chief secretary to the lords justices of Ireland, and deputy-clerk of the council, and was afterwards chosen a member of the Irish parliament. In 1717, when Addison became principal secretary of state in England, he procured for Budgell the place of accountant and comptroller-general of the revenue in Ireland. But the next year, the duke of Bolton being appointed lord-lieutenant, Budgell wrote a lampoon against Mr Webster, his secretary, in which the duke himself was not spared. This led to his removed from his post of accountant-general, upon which he returned to England, and, contrary to the advice of Addison, published his case in a pamphlet. In the year 1720 he lost <£20,000 by the South Sea scheme, and afterwards spent £5000 more in unsuccessful attempts to get into parliament. This completed his ruin. He at length employed himself in writing pamphlets against the ministry, and published many papers in the ...

BUDGET (lit. a bag or small sack), the name applied to an account of the ways and means by which a minister of finance purposes to defray the expenditure of the state. In the United Kingdom the chancellor of the exchequer, usually in April, lays before the House of Commons a statement of the actual results of revenue and expenditure in the past finance year ending March 31, showing how far his estimates have been realized, and what surplus or deficit there has been in the income as compared with the expenditure. This is accompanied by another statement in which the chancellor gives an estimate of what the produce of the revenue may be in the year just entered upon, supposing the taxes and duties to remain as they were-in the past year, and also an estimate of what the expenditure will be in the current year. If the estimated revenue, after allowing for normal increase of the principal sources of income, be less than the estimated expenditure, this is deemed a case for the imposition of some new, or the increase of some existing, tax or taxes. On the other hand, if the estimated revenue shows a large surplus over the estimated expenditure, there is room for remitting or reducing some tax or taxes, and the extent of this relief is generally limited to the amount of surplus realized in the previous year. The chancellor of the exchequer has to take parliament into confidence on his estimates, both as regards revenue and expenditure; and when the taxation and expenditure obtain the assent of parliament, the results as thus adjusted become the final budget estimate for the year. This system of annual review and adjustment of the public finances obtains not only in the British colonies, but is carried out, with remarkable despatch for so great an empire, in British India. The ...