The Press. — London, England, 1855-08-04 00:00:00

- rit6,6 No. 118.—VoL. 111. Ely the management of the finances. The flood gates of expenditure are thrown open, and the savings of nearly forty years of peace are to be dispersed in two years of hostilities. The promised Supplementary Estimates were laid before the House on Thursday night, and in the same sitting the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER made his second financial statement. Sir G. C. LEWIS and Mr. FREDERICK PEEL were both wonderfully successful in demon strafing, by the incontestible force of figures, that their calculations of a few months back were not entitled to the slightest reliance, and that the expenditure at the present time was proceeding at a random rate far beyond their proficiency in the science of unknown quanti ties to estimate. In fact, all attempt to control it by the heads of departments had been given up. It was left, like water, to find its own level. What is wanted, or said or presumed to be wanted, is ordered in a kind of spend thrift manner; and the only rule by which it is possible to obtain a rough approximation of the demands likely to be made on the Exche quer is to sum up the total amount of charge for the last month or two, and assume that it represents an average rate of expenditure. This was the sole principle on which the Sup plementary Estimates of the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER and of Mr. F. PEEL were founded. In February last a vote of 1,200,0001. was taken to cover the estimated .expense of the Commissariat for the service of our Army in the East. It would be curious to ascertain on what data this estimate was founded. We presume that it must have proceeded on some ground of probability, and have left some margin for contingencies. On that head, how ever, we are left without information. We only know that, according to the rate of outlay for the months of May and June, the actual expenditure for the year on account of the Commissariat would be, not 1,200,0001., but 3,768,0001., Or somewhat more than thrice the estimated amount. An additional sum of 2,568,0001. has accordingly been voted. The Naval Estimates for the year were calcu lated at 16,653,0001, but a supplemental esti mate of 2,725,0001. raised the amount to 19,378,0001., and even these figures seem to fall far short of the actual expenditure, as in the four months completed of the financial year the expense has been at the rate of 23,000,0001. yearly, or six millions and a half more than the original estimate. In one item the expenditure has fallen below the calculated amount. The Army is 30,000 men short of the number voted, and the deficiency in the Militia is still greater. No ingenuity can make out charges for the bounty-money and pay of soldiers, if the men be not enrolled. On this head the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER is entitled to the dubious credit of the saving he claims. The expense of the Army and Militia for the last four months has been quite a million below the estimate, so that " there is every reason to "hope" to use Sir G. C. LEWIS'S own words, " that the estimated sum will exceed rather " than fall short of the actual expenditure of "the year." So far as the finances are concerned, then, the Ministerial ground of hope is, that our Army and Militia will never be raised to the strength which the Government represented to be necessary a few months back, and which Parliament cheerfully sanctioned. Our actual LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 1855. "PRESS" OFFICE, Friday Evening, August 3. PARLIAMENT will certainly be prorogued on Saturday, the 11th inst. It will not be prorogued by her Majesty in person. Her Majesty will depart from Osborne to France. Her Majesty will be accompanied by the Lord Chamberlain of the Household, the Marquis of BREDALBANE, and by the Earl of CLARENDON, Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. An important communication has just been made from Germany to the Western Powers, which may lead to startling results. We have reason to believe that the siege of Sebastopol is ab nit to be raised. THE infornagion which we communicated in our last impressien relative to the rumours which were then current of General SIMPSON'S resignation, and the chances of his speedy return home, has been literally confirmed in an official announcement in the Morning Post of Thursday. Our contemporary has, by a somewhat singular coincidence, adopted the senso and substance of the remarks we then made, but he has scarcely given sufficient prominence to the fact which we mentioned—viz., that General SIMPSON has been in communication with the Minister of War on the subject of his being relieved of the arduous duties which now devolve upon. him, and has distinctly intimated that his health is giving way under the excitement, anxiety, and fatigue, of his high position. • The Morning Post is correct in stating that there is no intention of sending out a new Commander-in-Chief in the event of General SiMPSON being compelled to leave the Crimea. The post will be conferred, we believe, upon General MARKHAM, an officer who has served. with great distinction in India, who was ex pressly recalled from that country to take a prominent part in the military conduct of the war, and who has recently arrived in the Crimea. The Economic Age is fast passing away. Mr. GLADSTONE made an effort to arrest its flight, and endeavoured to spare the Exche quer by stinting the war. He thought more for posterity than for the present. His suc cessor has fallen into the other extreme. Public credit will last his time. It would be out of character in a Ministry of shifts and expedients to care for more than the wants of the day. Living from hand to mouth itself, why should it care for any other principle in LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 1855, STkIiPET),.. SIXPENCE. UNSTAMPED..FIVEPENCE. military force is to be kept down, that ti e expense of all subsidiary services may be enormously increased. By all means vote more money for transports, for clothing, for provisions, for stores, for arms, but take care that there are not the soldiers to use them. With our troops short by one-fifth of their oomplement, the expense of the Commissariat is trebled in amount. Let the " hope " of the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER continuo to brighten, and we shall have ready all the material for a fine army, minus only the men. The CHANCELLOR of the Excaigusa, in his financial speech in April, stated that he hid left a margin of four millions for unforeseen expenses. That. margin has already vanished, and he requires four millions additional. The readiest resource is. of course, an issue of Exchequer Bills. Our expenditure for the current year is now estimated at no less a sum : I than ninety millions 1 The loan contracted last April is far from representing the whole addition to our debt. A vote of seven millions to be raised by Ex chequer Bills will increaae the amount to twenty-three millions within the year; and this aggregate is independent of the Turkish loan of five millions, which under any circum stances must be regarded as an addition to our liabilities. The unfunded debt has been doubled since Lord DERBY'S Administration itted office. " 'Fwo years ago," said w p, GLADSTONE on, Thursday, "it Le " 13,000,0001.—with the propo e it " stand at 30,000,0001." Sevente e mill added to our unfunded debt, and sixtec our funded at the commencement of the with heavy increase of taxation, a rate of expenditure continually increasing, and our Army far short of the rtrongth for which esti mates were voted, are circumstances calcu- lated to excite uneasiness, and to suggest doubts of the capacity of an Executive which spends so much and does so little. Though in the excitement of the contest financial considerations may be overlooked, they will in the end press on us with over whelming force. An intelligent pamphlet, which discusses the question whether funds for the expenses of the war should be raised by loans or taxes, brings together some facts which ought never to be lost sight of by the legislator. From 1697, when our debt was only 21,000,0001., each succesive war has added to it an amount far greater than has been paid off in intervals of peace. The last war of twenty years added to our debt 600,000,0001., while the total amount cleared off during thirty-eight years of peace, and of great industrial prosperity, has barely reached 70,000,0001. It is a significant fact that the per tentage of revenue applied to the reduction of debt has been less after every successive war, notwithstanding the ingenious schemes that have been tried to liquidate the war loans. That money borrowed by a State is never repaid is a conclusion forced on us, not only by our own experience, but by that of every nation' which has ever contracted a national debt. The credit of Spain, of Holland, and of France, has sunk beneath It is impossible to dispu Select Committee to constitute a national burdens, " taut (according to " of peace and war accumulations of debt. 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