The Press. — London, England, 1857-02-21 00:00:00

182 TO CORRESPONDENTS. WE have not overlooked the strange articles which have lately appeared hi the „Record newspaper; but they seem to us muzli t ,, 0 contemptible for serious notice. We are only sorry to see any member of the press, however " low " in character, descend to scurrility, which has long been banished from the columns of journals pretending to respectability. Tvgo4 LONDON,SATURDAY,FEI3RUARY 21, 1857 POSTSCRIPT. THE PERSIAN NEGOTIATIONS AT PARIS. The Times Paris correspondent (second edition), alluding to the various reports of a rupturo between Ferouk Khan and Lord Cowley, writes : The Orientals, as many know to their ocst, are never very expeditious in their diplomacy, and I doubt much whether Ferouk Khan is an exception. The basis of the pending negotiations may be modified by the last news from Teheran ; but, notwithstanding the delay, it is hoped that an arrangement is still within the limits of proba bility. Notwithstanding the doubts I have just expressed, I give you the following paragraph frost the tiovernment evening paper:— Several journals have announced that the Anglo-Persian difference is iu a fair course of arrangement. Wc believe we may announce, according to our private information, that the principal difficulties are at present arranged, and that an under standing has been come to on both aides on the conditions on which peace is to be re-established. We expect in a few days to know the terms of this definitive arrangement, to the conclusion of which the stay of Farouk Khan at Paris has not been foreign. The Paris correspondent of the Morning Post (second edition) says:— There is every reason to suppose Russia has already offered assistance to China. It is also declared that a new secret treaty was signed between Russia and Persia within the lust eight weeks. It is known from despatches that have reached Paris considerable forces have been despatched lately towards the Chinese and Persian frontiers. The Russian authorities have quitted Bolgrad, and surrendered the town to the commissioner sent from Jassy by the Moldavian Government. M. Reason, lieutenant•colonel of the staff and French commis sioner for fixing the boundary of the Principalities, charged with tracing the Upper Yalpuck, has written that his labours were so advanced that Komrat might be handed over to the Russian authorities on the 15th February. Mr. C. S. Whitmore, of the Oxford Circuit, has been appointed Judge of the Southwark County Court, in the room of Mr. George Clive, now M.P. for Hereford, who resigned his judgeship before ad dressing the electors of that city. AN ImPazsstox is abroad that the Government proposes to forego the additional war income tax of ninepence in the pound for the ensuing year. No such thing. The Government intends that the next half year's income tax revenue shall be collected according to the present scale. Instead of aban. cloning nine millions of income tax, which might have been raised in the forthcoming year, it only gives up four millions and a half; and it makes good the deficiency by additional duties upon tea and sugar, as well as by additions to the income tax for two years that are to follow. The public, therefore, labour under great delusion if' they suppose that the budget of the Chancellor of the Exchequer involves any remission of those burdens which weigh so hea vily upon the shoulders of the public. The resolu tion which Mr. Disraeli intends to move may not, possibly, be rightly understood by the country. The principal scheme of Sir G. Lewis clearly involves a deficiency of revenue over expenditure in the two years that follow the present, and it thereby creates the necessity for further additions to the national debt or for special and unprecedented votes of supply. The leader of the Opposition will, under such cir cumstances, move the house to affirm the principle that the income and expenditure of the country must be so adjusted that, in future they should he the same. His meaning is, as far as we can understand him, that the national balance-sheet shall be kept perfectly square, that what comes in and what comes out shall he equal, and that our huge national debt, or curse, shall no longer be permitted to expand.— Morning Star. Ma. SERGEANT CHINNET.T. was sworn in one of the Barons of the Exchequer, in the room of the late Sir J. Alderson, on Saturday, at the Privy Council Office, before the Lord Chancellor. THE MURDERER MANsELL, now under respite from execution for the assassination of his sergeant in camp, will it is feared escape punishment upon a point, of law. The Crown is said to have improperly challenged one of the jurors without cause. The argument will be heard at the Queen's Bench at the conclusion of the present term. THE PRESS. LAST NIGHT'S DEBATE. HOUSE OF I,OIII)S.—FIITDAY. Their lordships sat only for a short time, and trans acted no business of importance. HOUSE OF COMMONS,FnmAy. CHINA. Mr. LABOUCHERF., correcting his previous state ment, said that, as he was now informed, certain instructions had been despatched, through the Horse Guards, to the British Commissioner at Hong Kong, with reference to the questions which had since ripened into hostile proceedings at Canton. NEW WRIT FOR LEICESTERSHIRE. On the motion of Sir W. JOLLIFFE, a new writ was ordered to issue for the northern division of Leicester shire, in the room of the Marquis of Granby, who had become Duke of Rutland. DEBATE ON THE BUDGET. On the motion for going into committee of ways and means, Mr. DISRAELI rose to move the amendment of which he had given notice. Financial questions, he observed, were among the gravest which challenged discussion in the house. On this point he expressed his approval of the reduction in the income tax which the Government had announced. He thought that the war ninepence could not have been justly retained, and regretted that the popular uncertainty and agitation on the subject had been permitted to continue so long. Abundant opportunities had been afforded, before Parliament met, to promulgate the Ministerial intentions with respect to this impost. Confessing that a debate on prospective finance was exceptional, the right honourable member urged that the budget itself contained a large infusion of the prospective element. Against the financial arrangements of the Government he had two great objections : first, that they would plunge the country into serious embarrassments; and, secondly, that their consequences would render the promised abolition of the income tax in 1800, not merely difficult, but impossible. Mr. Disraeli then entered into a series of calculations, and analysed the statements of the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his late speech, which brought him to the conclu sion that the equilibrium between income and outlay for the ensuing financial year was accomplished by aid of the residue of war income tax; that the balance-sheet of 1858 9 would exhibit a deficiency as compared with the expenditure of about five millions sterling, and that for 1859-60 at least as much. At the date when the income tax should expire, there fore, the Exchequer would actually exhibit an accu mulated deficit of ten millions. This result, he said, pointed, among other conclusions, to the permanent infliction of that impost, with all its accompaniments of suffering, injustice, and agitation. Since the first promulgation of the budget, a supplemental state. ment had been made by the Finance Minister holding forth a promise that the expenditure of future years alter 1857-8 would be reduced to the model of 1853. Expressing some doubt whether that promise would be kept, he inquired why, if so large a retrenchment were practicable, it was not effected at once ? In dis. cussing this question, Mr. Disraeli repudiated all supposition that he was shaping his course in view of any parliamentary combination. The result of the Ministerial system, he argued, was to retain, and threaten to perpetuate, a heavy weight of direct taxa tion in its most odious form, namely, an income tax, together with that most impolitic of indirect taxes, the Customs' duty on tea. If the estimates of 1853, which he contended had proved sufficiently liberal, were now adopted, the income tax could be cut down to 5d., the tea duty reduced, and an ample surplus still in the Exchequer upon the year's reve nue. He wished for wise and not wild reduction, but saw no reason why they should not revert to the expenditure of 1853, according to the proposition which he remarked the Finance Minister lied himself intimated in that revised edition of his budget pub lished on Monday last. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER observed that the criticisms of Mr. Disraeli had scarcely touched the financial arrangements for the ensuing year. These, he said, were necessarily almost the exclusive care of a finance minister. The income of the future was to some extent uncertain, and the expenditure must be adapted to existing circumstances when the time came. It was, he submitted, a confusion of terms to apply the word deficiency to the hypothetical results of prospective financial arrangements. Fc.r his own part, be declined to form a budget for more than one year at a time; but, proceeding to examine the probabilities of revenue and expenditure during the period that would elapse before 1800, contended that a fair prospect existed of a satisfactory equi librium. Many charges for the army and navy might, he believed, be further reduced after the ex; iration of the ensuing financial year. Several millions of debt also stood for payment in the next three years,—a process that could be distributed over a longer interval, if Parliament found it expedient to give present relief to the finances. Believing that S ATURDAY, no cause could be shown to apprehend a future deficiency, he remarked that none of the propositions contained in his budget had tended in that direction. With regard to the amendment now proposed, he ob jected to take any pledge binding Parliament to a particular course of dealing with a particular im post, considering that enough bad been done when measures were carefully taken to render the extinc tion of the income tax at the proposed date neither impossible nor difficult. Mr. GLADSTONE commented upon the inconsis tency of the Government in sanctioning a budget so entirely different in principle to those which he had himself proposed when belonging to the same Ad• ministration, and also with their assent. The pre sent scheme of finance altogether contravened the system which the Legislature had been so laboriously and successfully engaged in constructing for fifteen years. The income tax had been introduced and continued with a special object of removing heavy burdens. This had been the former association of the impost. But now, while the income tax was retained, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had spe. cifically declared his approbation of the three taxes which he was chiefly requested to abolish, namely, the duties on paper, insurances, and wine. Mr. Gladstone proceeded to criticise the Finance Minis ter's computations, declaring that his statements were utterly delusive, that the pretended remissions of taxes were enormously exaggerated, that new imposts of most oppressive character were imposed, and a fictitious surplus in the accounts of the ensuing year obtained by using up a large residue of war taxation, leaving the necessities of subsequent years to a great extent unproviiled for. He then advertod to the settlement of 1853, explaining the financial prospects on which it was based, and inquiring what new conditions of permanent character had since supervened to justify Parliament in repudiating the pledges then given to the country. The Ministerial Budget, he then argued, contained four cardinal faults. First, it was based upon an excessive expenditure. This opinion ho intimated his intention to embody in an amendment upon the first motion for com mittee of supply. War it seemed had infused a spirit of extravagance. For twelve years, between 1842 and 1853, the public expenditure had remained almost stationary ; but in the four last years it had swollen by seven millions. He accepted Mr. Disraeli's resolution, viewing it as an honest declara tion against incurring the risk of a deficiency. That discreditable contingency was, he feared, impending, if the financial scheme of the Government were adopted ; and lie entered into a multitude of calcula tions respecting future income and outlay to justify his apprehensions on that score. His computations led to the inference that unless the house now inter fered, compelling Ministers to revise their arrange ments, there would be no possibility of sparing the income tax in 1860. Another objection to the budget upon which the right hon. member enlarged at considerable length was that it presented for the first time during a period cf fifteen years, and as a peace budget, a proposal to increase indirect taxa tion, and reverse the policy of free trade. Against that proposal he should protest at every opportunity, and res►st it by every means in his power. Mr. Gladstone concluded by repeating his determination to give a full and approving support to the resolution brought forward by Mr. Disraeli. Mr. Wir.sos replied at length to the arguments of Mr. Gladstone, and combatted his conclusions. The alleged deficit, be contended, was established upon the assumption that the expenditure of the present year would be permanent. This was not the case. Present financial arrangements were still entangled with the exceptional influence of the war. The revenue and outlay of the ensuing twelve months had been adjusted upon that understanding, the largest amount of taxation having been reduced which could prudently be spared, but no more. Hereafter there would be further retrenchments and new adjust ments, but there was no just ground to apprehend a deficiency. Mr. LAING intended to support the resolution with the view of effecting the same end which was accom plished by similar means in 1848—namely, a revision of the budget. On the motion of Mr. J. MACGEEGOR the debate was then adjourned. REFORMATORY SCHOOLS. This bill was read a second time, on the motion of Sir G. GREY, after a short conversation. The house adjourned shortly alter midnight. ptlant. MR. MARTLEY, Q.C., the eminent barrister, is ap pointed Chief Commissioner of the Encumbered Estates Court, at a salary of 3,000/. a year. THE POPE has appointed the Rev. Mr. McEvilly, tc the Roman Catholic Bishopric of Galway, thus ignoring the right of the parish priests to elect a successor to the see.