The Press. — London, England, 1858-04-24 00:00:00

386 admits that this does not very clearly or de• cidedly belong to either side. He sags : " I have never regarded this as a very easy or very simple question. I have never thought that every opponent of Jewish einancipation should be set down as a bigot, Ot• that every friend of religious liberty must. neAssarily be an advocate of that measure. I editiit frankit that there is much to be said on both sides; and the arguments fbir . ittlagainitthe chant& at one time appeared to me 'so nicely balanced that I am not ashamed to confess it was with some difficulty I made lip my mind that, on the whole, the preponderance inclined favour of the removal of these disabilities." It is not, then, that the House of Lordd is clearly wrong in the position it takes up. nor is it, as in 1829, that a great peril must be braved, if we remain where we are. 1t is simply that the House of Commons continues to send up " Oaths Bills," and that it is un pleasant and difficult to stand up against this pressure. Therefore, the Upper House is to give way to the Lower, because the Lower House is pertinacious! But, should this course ever be taken, and should the House of Lords thus proclaim its own weakness, we should be glad to know what can in future stand between the House of Commons and ABSOLUTE POWER ! THE BUDGET. Ws were both amused and somewhat asto nished, last week, to perceive that our suggestions, made with some hesite.tion, as to one or two courses which might be taken in order to adjust the Pub lic Finances, were assumed, in more quar ters than one, to be nothing less than inti mations of the plans already resolved upon by the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER ! But surely no one could have read with any attention our remarks on that subject, without perceiving that we wholly avoided laying any kind of claim to peculiar information. In fact, if there be any one matter in the whole circle of politics on which it is evidently right and expedient that no previous intimation shall be given, it is with reference to the financial plans of the Government for the coming year. And for this reason we had wholly abstained from all inquiries. On many subjects, as our readers know, we have the means of ob taining, and do obtain, early and accurate in formation; but as to the details of a forth coming " Budget," wo neither expected nor sought for any. The tenor of our article of last week was that of friendly suggestions, from without; we gave not the slightest hint that we were uttering any prediction from within. Hence, when we said,—" The Ex " chequer Bonds of Mr. GLADSTONE, and " the payments out of the Sinking Fund "on account of the war loans, fall due "in the same years, and present for 1858, 1859, and 1860 a heavy accumulation of " redemption. Now, surely it would be a " perfectly legitimate operation to postpone " the Sinking Fund for three years, so that it " shall nut be operative till the revenue gets " the advantage of the termination of the Long " Annuities, and to raise by loan a sum suffi " eient to pay off the Exchequer Bonds, and " provide for the extraordinary expenditure " occasioned by the late exceptional events " we made merely such a remark as any man in Lombard-street might have made ; reasoning upon facts which were universally known. The course which the CHANCELLOR of the Ex cel:puma has taken falls in with the first of the above suggestions, but diverges from the second by resolving to renew the Exchequer Bands, instead of raising a small loan to pay them off In so doing he has shown a cautious foresight. Doubtless, at the idea of a loan of 3,000,0001. or 4,000,0001. there would have been many vir tuous exclamations of horror among the Whig Aftanciers who sit behind Lord PALMERSTON. These gentlemen would have been quite scan dalized at a creation of three percent. stock in time of peace! And it may be the wiser mune to avoid giving them any opportunity THE PRESS, APRIL 24 of professing such alarm. Yet there is no very substantial difference between the two )w arranged, the bills "—an opera lard-street. If a ns, but expeets Australian mait bill for 10,0013/i months, and then I In like man* these Excheicittir • it has not the •ve it by 1800 or shall be really paid. And had a small loan been made, the result would have been substantially the same. Paying off the Bonds, and providing the Sinking Fund for the war loan, the Treasury would have soon been in possession of a surplus income. And this surplus income always goes into the hands of the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, who, with it, buy up and extinguish three-per-cent. stock. So that by 1862 the CHANCELLOR or the EXCHEQUER might have been enabled to say, " In 1858 we created four millions of three•per-cent. stock. But in 1859 and 1860 and 1861 the Commissioners for the Redemption of the National Debt have purchased about the same amount of Reduced Three per Cents. ; so that the Permanent or Funded Debt is, as nearly as possible, of the same amount in 1862 that it was in 1838. The addition to the Debt made by the loan of 1858 has been balanced by the purchases of the Sinking-Fund Commissioners." The whole affair, therefore, as we have said, comes to the same point,—whether we pay off the Exchequer Bonds by creating three-per cent. stock; or renew the Bonds, and pay them off, finally, in 1800 and 1801. It is merely a ouestion of whether we shall reaoh Petll mall by going down St. James's-street or by going down the Haymarket. But doubtless Mr. DISRAELI has taken that course which lays him the least open to attack. That he has acted with judgment and dis cretion is not our opinion merely; it is the ver• diet even of the Whig and Liberal press. Thus the Times, in its City article of Wednesday, says, " The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER " essayed no high flights of Finance, and the " result has been that the Budget has given " general satisfaction." The Morning Post uses nearly the same words ; and the Globe says, " The arrangements proposed are so " easy of fulfilment and so unobjectionable in " their character that little opposition is likely "to be aroused." As these journals are all strongly in opposition to the present Govern ment, their praise may be received without suspicion. THE NATIONAL EXPENDITURE. MR. DISRAELI has had the good fortune to satisfy everybody—the Parlianaeat, the Press, and the Public. It is not often that a Chan cellor of the Exchequer, whether he be embar rassed with a surplus or a deficiency, finds himself in such a position ; but the Govern ment has shown in their dealings with the re quirements and with the resources of the country a wise economy and a careful consi deration, which is evidently winning for them confidence awl support. The deficiency of the year has been supplied with even less pressure than we anticipated. The diminu tion in the estimates—a diminution perfectly safe and justifiable—and the steady progress of the revenue, bring down the anticipated de ficit to dimensions somewhat less formidable and somewhat more manageable than those which first loomed upon us, and have enabled the Chancellor to make the two ends meet, and at the same time to keep faith with the nation in the matter of the income tax with no greater aid than the imposition of two indirect taxes, whose incidence will not be felt by either the trader or the consumer. The coun try positively gains by this arrangement, in a year of deficit, a considerable reduction of taxa tion—a reduction of 200,0001. in the current year, and of upwards of a million in the year 1859-60. 858. (on of debt Mr. DISRAELI Icipated, we trust, . financial tportance. W e hoped, see the devices as the ' with a basis than ms of the So far 1., , e rising revenue and falling taxation. There is, never theless, in the midst of this satisfactory con dition a good deal that suggests matter for grave reflection. We would invite every states man, every member of Parliament, every tax payer, who is exulting in the elasticity of our resources and the progress of our revenue, to direct his attention for a moment to a pro gress that is going on in even a greater ratio-- to the progress of our Expenditure. Mr. GLADSTONE says—Cut it down ! He says well, and we heartily endorse what he says. But who is to do it, and how is it to be done ? The progressive increase in expenditure has been the work, not of Governments nor of Finance Ministers, but of Parliament and of the public pushing them on, generally against their judgment, and often in spite of their warnings The expenditure of the country consists of the charge in respect of the National Debt, of the cost of the Army and Navy, and of the requirements on account of the Miscellaneous Services. The first varies but little. The second fluctuates largely; and it is to this that economists generally look when they make an attempt to pare down the national expenses. In doing so they commit often a great mistake, and do sometimes serious mischief. Military and Naval Expen diture is not entirely within our control. The occasion for it is not always created by acts of our own, and its relative magnitude at this or that period is determined as often by the policy of other nations as by any conduct of our own. We cannot, therefore, fix a positive scale at which it shall be maintained from year to year ; and although it is right and needful that it should be made the subject of unceasing vigilant supervision, it would be unwise financially, and impolitic nationally, to stint or starve these establishments. The Miscellaneous Expenditure, however, stands in a very different position, and con cerns matters over which we have perfect and absolute control ; and it is to this item, there fore, that we wish to direct especial attention. One would have thought that, forced as w•e have been to double, and more than double, within the last ten years, our outlay upon our armies and navies, and the departments con nected with them, the estimates for the mis cellaneous services would naturally have been subjected to a severe economy and to the most frugal treatment. One would expect to had that we had denied ourselves a good many national luxuries; that we had expended less on public works, bought fewer pictures, and economised as much as possible our outlay upon matters connected with science and art, and even with State education. That would have been the wise and prudent course. We have taken actually just the opposite one, and our Miscellaneous Expenditure in time of war, no less than in time of peace, has been ad vancing at a ratio which excites in us, we con fess, serious apprehension. Ten years ago we expended on Public Works 483,9761.; last year we expended on the same item 918.894/. Ten years ago we were at peace; last year we had a war expenditure. Ten years ago we spent upon Law and Justice 1,000,0001., and upon Education, Science, and Art 397,000/.; last year we spent under the first head 2,600,0001, anti under the second 990,000!. Surely it is time that we should pause, and at all events look this expenditure in the face ; at all events try whether it cannot be devised that the laws of the country may be carried into effect, and the means of education placed within the reach of the people, without placing so heavy a burden on account of them upon national income raised by taxation. Let us postpone the purchase of pictures, the forma tion of parks, and the building of streets and palaces till re-established peace and tranquillity enable us to reduce our military establish• courses. As mutters arc now country merely . " milts its bil Lion well underatodd in Lomba 1 14 Merchant lacks pr hint meat] plenty of mot]} by 4 next A he will Say to t . e hci 4er of his " I intik renew it to fok three mot shall prepirbd ,bet it." the Treasury st , tll ii6w the Bonds ; saying, tfill though i money now, it expeets to ha , 1!•361, and that then the Bonds has dealt nearly in the manner we anti and he has, moreover, enunciated and, i established in dkek,ikith it so un d f principlet of th 4 highest important shall net& again, it is to . be hoped, couitity hkmpered pith tit eh devices Exeq ' T Bondak, L itor eifibarrassed Sin*lpg und, whie had $o better ba posabili Vis and w a n anticipation periiitta ihaiute ;if a status quo. everything is satisfactory. We hav(