The Press. — London, England, 1857-01-31 00:00:00

98 ever the Liberals were in power. A Whig Cabinet dissevered from Woburn Abbey is in itself " a great fact " likely to be remembered in our future politics, in case the RUSSELLS should succumb to destiny, and accept what must be to them a positive humiliation. It is certainly extremely difficult to calculate the future course of Lord JOHN RUSSELL. We are justified in assuming that ho is desirous of regaining his lost ground, and there have been frequent intimations from malcontent Liberals that they would like to see him rein state himself in his lost Parliamentary leader ship. It seems doubtful whether he has yet decided on a fixed policy for the achievement of that purpose. The activity of his career, and the exigency of his position, forbid us to believe that the Noble Member for London will remain contented with the obscurity to which the underlings of the present Ministry have so contemptuously consigned him. Two facts have personally damaged Lord JOHN RUSSELL more than all his frequent alterna tions between official laugour and tribunitian vehemence. 1. He lost ground in public esti mation by consenting to hold the leadership of the House of Commons after the policy of his Durham Letter had been contemp tuously repudiated by his own colleagues, and after Lord ABERDEEN had superciliously disavowed the views on Protestantism enun ciated by Lord :JOHN RUSSELL in his place as " nominal" leader under the " Coalition." There were various circumstances which gave additional poignancy to the Noble Lord's humiliation upon that occasion. It was a wretched spectacle to see the once potent debater, who had so often conducted his followers to triumph, browbeaten by the smallest of the subordinates of the Cabinet in which he served. And who were those sub ordinates that, with the help of Lord ABER• DEEN, inflicted such indignity on the political chief of the Russell Whigs, and the successor of Fox and GREY? They Were JOHN SADLEIR, Mr. MONSELL, and Mr. KEOGH ! Those three " underlings" of the Coalition Cabinet resigned, and Lord ABERDEEN preferred that Lord JOHN RUSSELL should be disparaged, rather than that the Saileir connection should be discon tented ; yet Lord JOHN RUSSELL continued to sit in the seat, but not in the station, of the Leader of the House of Commons. He acqui esced himself in the hard lot of holding office without power, and affecting to have privi leges which he did not possess. To do him justice, there were times when he was ob viously abashed by his position. We cannot wonder at such a man, with his personal his tory, and the memories of his Protestant lineage, writhing at rebuffs which were admi nistered to him by his own colleagues, and which were, of course, duly chronicled and appropriately noted by the representatives of the great Powers of Europe. In spite of hostile principles, Lord JOHN RUSSELL had been always regarded with respect by Conservatives in Parliament. If dreaded as rash, the Noble Lord had been looked upon as mainly anal bold. He was sup posed to have been a public man conforming to those habits of self-assertion which are almost instinctive in the Anglo Saxon nature. But general feelings of respect soon gave way in presence of the spectacle of the Leader of the Whigs pushed aside from his position. In vain Lord JOHN RUSSELL pretended to be at his ease. He went about delivering small lectures on great subjects, and he enjoyed a public dinner at Bristol, while he allowed the Duke of NEWCASTLE to take care of the war. But that autumn of ls;')-r must have been one of the most miserable seasons of his public life, while he was trying to grasp at the influ ence which was rapidly passing away from Lim. The next and most serious cause which damaged the Noble Lord was his extraordinary conduct subsequent to his •' qxplosion " of the Coalition. The present Cabinet being formed. the personal pretensions of Lord JOHN RT:ssett were " a difficulty " He consented to obviate it by becoming Secretary for the Colonies and Plenipotentiary to the Congress at Vienna. For a time all seemed well ; but the country ieovered that to boll office Noble Lord's THE PRESS. part in the negoti►►tions had been peremptorily repudiated, and after the French Plenipo tentiary, M. DROUYN DE Dun's, with whom Lord Join.; had acted, had resigned. This amaze ment deepened into disgust when it was fur ther discovered that the Noble Member for London had concealed the part which he had really acted. Such damaging revelations are rarely made during the life of a statesman, though " Historical Memoirs" sometimes com memorate the duplicity of defunct double dealers. _ These two humiliatina chaptors in Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S later life have unquestionably compromised the Bedford Whigs. The " Gren ville Papers" record how the first Marquis of LANSDOWNE was ruined in political estimation by conduct similar to the behaviour of Lord JOHN RUSSELL—a Peace Negotiator behind the scenes, and a War Declaimer in the Senate. But the question is, whether Lord JOHN RrssELL thinks himself that he is in any wise injured ? He is singularly sanguine, and he still thirsts for power. He has the wealth and powerful connexion of the house of Bedford at his back, and he is stimulated by glittering exaggerations of his future historical fame. By what means may such a man endeavour to regain his lost influence There are certain conjunctures still upon the cards on which so reckless and so adventure some a leader might calculate. The Liberal party is badly off for chiefs. The Premier is the oldest Prime Minister that Parliament ever saw, and he cannot inagurate a new policy. Lord CLAREsnox is feeble in health, and is a professional statesman, without great Whig connexions. Lord GRANVILLE is certainly not fitted for a leader. Even the Stafford-house Whigs would not choose the Duke of ARGYLL., who is beginning to subside. In " rising men," the Liberals are not fortunate just at present. It is in these circumstances that a man with Lord Jolts RUSSELL'S name, talents, experience, and audacity might be again endured as a conditional chief. He may find himself suddenly invested with a quasi au thority, and still play a noisy part in political histrionics with the clacqueurs of faction applauding his tributes to Mr. HAMPDEN, his thrilling allusions to Lord SomEßs, his little annecdotcs of Mr HORNER, his condescending compliments to the Barons of Runnymede, and his highly courteous deference towards his own past career ! To suppose, therefore, that " it is all up" with Lord JOHN RUSSELL Wallld be a premature conclusion. It was said of Lord CHATU.uI that he often abated his energy ; " but that even " then, like the spinning of a cannon ball, he was " alive with fatal and unapproachable activity;" and Lord JOHN RUSSELL, though not recently emitting inflammatory sparks, is still like a half consumed fusee, and may make his power for more " explosions" widely felt. The smothered vanities and disappointed hopes of several members of the Liberal party present him weapons which so dexterous a tactician could skilfully employ. He certainly contemplates being again at the head of the Liberal party ; and we think that it would be extremely rash for Conservatives to overlook the possible dangers which may result from some coup of Lord JOHN RUSSELL in his anxiety to recover popularity and power. Even his vacillation between violence and languor makes it hazardous to overlook such an adversary. Under the Melbourne Ministry he talked of " Finality ;" under Lord ABER DEEN he proposed a " Reform Bill," which sought to invest Ministers with power, and which inverted all the principles of political arithmetic. In Iy-&o, when Sir ROBERT PEEL resigned (previous to Corn-law Repeal), Lord JOHN RUSSELL could not form a Cabinet. because Earl GREY would not trust Foreign Affairs to Lord PALMERSTON ; and yet a few months later the Noble Member for London did what he had previously thou , ht impracti cable. In 1 4 50 Lord Jous RcssEt.t. stood by Lord PALMERSTON as being " not the Minister " of Austria, or France," &c., &c. ; and in two years after he scandalised Lord PALMERSTON for contempt of his sovereign. Lord Jonx RUSSELL must be perfectly con scious that if he allows the coining session to piss away without an attempt to recover his influence and to redeem his pledges on the SATURDAY, subject of Reform his political career will be at an end. Let us, therefore, he prepared to encounter some new attempt of Lord JOHN RUSSELL to invest himself with influence. He will, possibly, again try to raise popular ex citement by a new " Reform Bill," and the Liberals may be willing to put him forward again as their chief. Whatever be the issue, it is indispensable for the Conservatives to keep a vigilant eye upon his movements. His activity always betokens stormy weather in the public atmosphere. A naval ancestor of L,w,l BreoN was called by mariners " Foul %veatherJack ;" and the soubriquet is more poli tically applicable to the Noble Member for London than his quondam designation of " Finality John." was astonished when it disc Lord JOHN RUSSELL continued t under Lord PALMERSTON, after the THE INCOME TAX. TN the last article of the number of the Quar terly Review just published, the whole question of the Income Tax is most logically and eloquently stated. That question, as summed up by the reviewer, may be thus briefly ex pressed :—ls the Income Tax to finally and completely expire in 1800, according to the bargain made in 1853, and according to the provisions of the Act then passed, or is the promise made to the country to be broken ? The public voice, so far as can be judged from the meetings which have taken place all over the country, has decided not only against the present excessive rate of the Income Tax, but against its inequality. It will not be suffered to exist in its present form. It must be altogether removed, or it must be remodelled. We have no desire to conceal the fact that there is a party in tha country—though we believe it to be insigr ifieant—which prefers, in theory at least, the principle of direct to indirect taxation. But this party is most decidedly opposed to an equal assessment of all classes of income, and holds that the main burden of taxation shall fall on realised property. If the Income Tax is to be remodelled according to any scheme which has been put forward, or according to any scheme which can be imagined, it must lose that character of equal and universal assessment which so peculiarly fits it to be a great resource in periods of national exigency. In proportion as the Income Tax is constituted a portion of our ordinary revenue,and squared and adapted to notions of abstract equity, it must be less available than it is in times of war or other periods of financial pressure. We see that a revenue of sixteen millions may be raised from this source when required ; and this large revenue, if held as a reserve, must greatly strengthen our political and financial condition, and enable Ls to contemplate with equanimity any possible contingencies to which, as a nation, we may be exposed. Between the total extinction of the Income Tax and its readjustment according to theo retical ideas of the different values of income from different sources, we think the country ought not to hesitate. However the tax might be altered, it would still be inquisitorial, it would still be demoralising, it would still be vexatious, and it would still be unequal. The principle of assessing different kinds of income at different rates would not be free from danger. If it be decided that an income of 5001. a ) ear from trade or professional exertion ought not to be assessed at the same rate as an income of 5001. a year from property, because the possessor of the former is compa ratively a poorer man, may not the same rel.- soiling lead to a proportionably higher assess ment of higher classes of income? One financial fact stated in the Quarterly Review must not be overlooked. If the Income Tax, in compliance with the Act of 1853, is reduced to fivepence iu the pound from the sth of April next, the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQCER would still have one half-year's pro duce at least of the sixteenpenny rate to receive, which would yield him eight millions for the service of the next half year, instead of the re duced rate of two millions and a half. This extra sum of four and a half millions would allow