The Press. — London, England, 1857-03-28 00:00:00

MARCH 28, 1857. ships with any details, nor will 1 advert to any charges except those of the miscellaneous estimates. But your lordships will allow me to say that, for my part, it has always appeared to me that the first duty of the Government of this country is to place it in a state of perfect security against invasion from foreign nations. To a Government which will devote itself to bring to perfection the naval and military establishments I will at all times give my most cordial support, nor could T ever become the friend of any Government whatever which neglected that whiph appears to me to be its first duty. But, con• sistently with the performance of that duty there is another—to carry the most strict and most searching economy into the details of the establishments, to give the greatest possible efficiency at the smallest possible charge, and more especially to be economical in those parts of the expenditure which have no con nection with naval and military purposes. (Hear, hear.) Let us see how that is effected. I have looked through the estimates, which, in a recent re turn, have been placed in a form to give a compre hensive view of the expenditure from 18;)8 to 1856, and I find these results !—Without going back to 1838, which would really alarm people too much by showing the extent to which we have become ex travagant, I compare the expenditure under the miscellaneous estimates of the three years ending 1856 with the three years ending 1853, The very first item is public buildings and palaces. For the three years ending 1856 the average is 161,799/. For the three years ending 1853 it is 115,5141. But I find in this year a large increase. The estimate for 1857 is 196,6691. The increase in the average of the three years ending 1850 over the three years ending 1853 is 46,2851. The further increase in this year is 34,8701. The total increase since 1853 is 81,1551. I then go to an item of the same de scription—Royal parks and pleasure-gardens. It was first voted in 1851, the expense having been previously paid out of the land revenues. The first vote in 1851 was 41,8291. The vote proposed for 1857 is 114,601/. In these two items alone, which have nothing whatever to do with naval and military establishments, the increase since 1853 in the one ease, since 1851 in the other, is more than 140,0001. There then comes a charge which I think must be capable of explanation, for it is perfectly monstrous. The expense of printing and stationery in the three years ending 1853 was 216,498/. In the three years ending 1856 it was 410,900/. The vote for 1857 is 450,8751. So that the increase on the average of three years ending 1853 is 234,377/. There then comes a charge which a great many persons consider never can be too great, especially the noble earl the President of the Council, who is at the head of the education of the country. But I really must call the attention of the house, and I wish to call the attention of the public, to the alarming annual in crease in this charge for education, which I shall show by reading the amount of the vote in successive years 1851, 284,000/. ; in 1852, 324,0001.; in 1853, 442,000/. ; in 1854,456,000/. ; in 1855, 612,0001.; in 1856, 079,0001.; in 1857, 754,0001. So that the increase in that charge since 1851 is 474,0001., and it is a charge which threatens to engulf every year a larger portion of the revenue. Observe, as regards the morals of the people, how utterly useless it ap- THE PRESS. pears to be. While we lay out this enormous sum in making the people good, observe how greatly in creasing, at the same time, is the expense of looking after those who are bad. (Hear, hear.) Convicts cost in 1848 477,531/. (I go to that year, because it is the first of the present form of vote.) In 1850 they cost 900,3441., being an in crease of 428,0001. I cannot give the vote for this year, because it is not passed, and there is no esti mate. Taking the three years ending in 1856, and comparing them with the three years ending 1853, there is an increase under that head alone of 152,0001. Let us just go back to the year 1838. Education cost 80,0001., convicts cost 41M131. ; making together 393,2131. In the year 1856 educa tion cost 754,000/., in the year 1850 convicts cost 006,3741.; being together 1,660,374/. There is an increase in education and convicts over the first year in the account of 1,267,161/. There is a class of votes which is called " special and temporary ob jects;" and really under that head I think what ap- pears is more remarkable than under any other. The account begins in 1838, and between that year and 1850 there are 120 different heads of charge, not less than sixty of which are new within the last three years. (Hear, hear.) The average of that class of votes for the three years ending 1840 was 213,3001., for the three years ending 1853 270,2201,, and for the three years ending 1850 681,900/. The increase in the last three years is 404,7461., and, as compared with the three years ending 1840, the increase is 408,060/. Putting all the votes together, and com paring 1857 with the average of the three years ending 1853, observe the increase. Public buildings and palaces, 81,1551.; Royal parks and gardens, 59,5481.; printing and stationery, :234,3771.; education, 401,7661.; science and art, 55,8691.; con victs, 152,1041.; special and temporary objects, 404,7461.—altogether 1,392,5451. have been added to the public charges in three years, under the heads to which I have drawn your lordships' attention. I say that no Government—no State—can go on with this extravagance. It is perfectly impossible. (Cheers.) I know that complaints during the pro gress of the war were made of the extravagance with which it was carried on, and we were promised infor mation and inquiry when the war was ended. No information has been given upon the subject, and the house of Commons, which ought to have inquired, has not done so. (Hear, hear.) Having gone through those points, I must ask your lordships, and I should willingjy ask any gentle man who appeared upon the hustings, what Lord Palmerston's principles are. What I find is this : Daring the time Lord Palmerston has been a mem ber of Parliament, before he became Prime Minister, there have been thirteen Governments, and he was a member of ten of them. He has been a member of ten out of thirteen, and of two the most extreme it is possible to conceive. He was a member of the Government of the late Lord Grey, and he was a member of the Government of Mr. Perceval, and I never heard that he came to the smallest difference with either of his chiefs. (Laughter.) Therefore, I do not know what the principles of Lord Palmers ton are. I think nothing is more probable than that he is a most agreeable and facile colleague. No 323 one can doubt that he is an excellent man of busi ness, and his extraordinary experience in public offices must be of the greatest value to the public service. (Cheers.) It is evident that he has no ferocious rigidity of opinion on any point, and that he makes no particular difficulty as to the conduct of the Government. He left the Duke of Welling ton's Government not on account of any difficulty, but because others left it. He assigned no other reason. Other reasons may have been found afterwards, but at the time he left there was no other reason. But, although there can hardly be a better recommendation for a colleague than to have this facility, this accom modating feeling, in respect to the various measures which come under the consideration of the Cabinet and Parliament, it seems to me the public have some thing else to look to. (Hear, hear.) What the public have to look to is a fixedness of opinion on public subjects, and, above all, a determination to stand by it. (Hear, hear.) I know not what may be Lord Palmerston's opinions on the subject of Reform. I see what his opinions are now by the vote which, unfortunately for his Government, he has lately given. (Hear, hear.) But being opposed to further reform, believing that the lower we descend in search of a constituency, the more inferior will be the representative we find, and being satisfied that the public should look to the House of Commons for the direction of opinion, and not else where, I am against any further alteration in the re presentation ; and having no security that Lord Pal merston will adhere to that principle, I would in finitely rather see the Government in the hands of an uncompromising, sound old Whig like Lord Grey, who said he would not be the shadow of a Minister, than in the hands of a gentleman who goes in one direction one day and another another day, and on whose support it is perfectly impossible to calculate. (Cheers.) I will not detain your lordships further, but I must say I view this war with China with the greatest apprehension. I do not enter into it with the same feelings with which I have entered into other wars. The injustice connected with it weighs down my mind. (Hear, hear.) When engaged in the late war we were more thou once desired to ac knowledge our sins, to beg pardon for our offences, and to ask the blessings of Heaven on our endea vours to maintain the interests of the country in a just and necessary war. And it was a necessary war. (Hear, hear.) We could not help it. However much we disliked it, we were obliged to enter upon it. We were justified then in hoping we might obtain the blessing of Providence. But how can we ask Provi dence for its blessings in this war? We may, according to the best experience we have, do all we possibly can to alleviate the sufferings of our troops. We may, by improved councils, do much more than seems at present intended, to place our army in sufficient strength to achieve success; but can we expect that success will attend our endeavours from the con viction that we are working for a good purpose, and that our cause is a just one? It seems to me that in China money has been the only object kept in view. What the present object of the Government may be no one knows. (Hear, hear.) We hear of fighting for English interests, but what I want to know is what is the specific object of our army going to Canton ? (Hear, hear.) We are endeavouring to force Dr.