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

7 / 4 WIN ~¢ (.) - .:b t 1)rtll LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1857. STAMPED ... SIXPENCE. UNSTAMPE . D I VEP ..FENCE. was trifling. Mr. LOCKE K7NG brought for ward his annual motion for an extension of the county franchise. Lord PALMERSTON contemptuously opposed the motion, and was deserted by the Liberal party en masse. Twenty-one placemen and ten unpaid attaches alone saved the Premier from the fate of Actaeon. Somo incidents of the brief discussion were not less humiliating to the Premier or less instructive to the public. Lord JOHN RUSSELL for the first time this session pro nounced the word " Reform." He saw no immediate prospect, he said, of a large and comprehensive measure being introduced, and would therefore vote for the motion of Mr. LOCKE KING as safe and practical. Sir JAMES GRAHAM seized an opportunity to testify his admiration of Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S reforming abilities and career. One hundred and seventy nine Liberals voted with these chiefs against their recognised leaders, the Premier and his Ministerial staff. We do not pretend to know what this ten dency to approximation on the part of Lord JOHN RUSSELL and Sir JAMES GRAHAM may por tend further than this—that it marks the ap proaching fall of Lord PALMERSTON'S Ad ministration. The Liberal party pretending anxiety for Reform can never support a Prime Minister avowedly hostile to it when the question takes a practical shape. We were never of those who believed that Reform would long be permitted to slumber. It is too powerful a lever of popular commotion for that. The Administration of Lord PALMERSTON is tottering. It was never more than provisional, and every day's experience shows it to be totally unfit to conduct the public business in the new epoch which the restoration of peace has inaugurated. With its fall there must be a reconstruction of parties. Politicians will have to choose a side, and the vessel of the State will have to obey the guidance of either a Liberal or Conservative helm. The contingency is not distant; whateverhypocrites may feign or placetnen may whisper, it is near at hand. A Premier, Tory by sentiment and Liberal by connection, was possible only when the public mind was turned wholly from domestic to foreign politics. The first fort night of the present session has shown that his Cabinet is totally incompetent to conduct the business of legislation imperatively de manded by public necessities. How can a Government pretend to conduct the affairs of empire, which, in a representative assembly of 658 members, cannot, on a question of political principle, command forty votes? Such a Government must be useless : it can accomplish nothing; it can exist only as a negation. A crisis is at hand which must materially influence our political fortunes. The Con servatives must be prepared to meet it with firm front and united mind. Indecision now may be more fatal to them than at any previous period of their existence as a party. It will show them not without influence indeed, but without spirit to exert it, and will stimulate the introduction of a new Reform Bill to sweep away a political connection which has lost its use as a controlling power in the State, able and willing to assume the responsibilities of Government when the necessity for a change of system and of men has tuisen. No. 199.—V0L.V. `Virtss. LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1857. TAB House of Commons is in a state of great confusion. The majority on the Ministerial side is breaking up. As when the ice of a great river is yielding to the influence of thaw, sounds fall on the ear, indicating that the disruption of the whole body is at hand. The Liberal party cannot conceal its rest lessness at the leadership of Lord PALMERS TON. A feeling of personal humiliation is experienced by its members at their submis sion to a Minister with whom they have no sentiment in common. While it was supposed that he was devotedto Continental Liberalism, and sincerely playing the part of bottleholder to oppressed nationalities against their Go vernments, his aversion to Reform at home, and his defects as an administrator, were leniently regarded. His alliance with Austria has rudely dispelled the dream of his Liberal adherents, that he was, as the Premier of England, to burst forth the champion of Italian regeneration. With the discovery of the cheat, their allegiance has loosened. Worse remains behind. In a well-known passage of BURKE'S " Re flections " he speaks of the lustre which men who have risen to power by turbulence or intrigue have shed on their country by their talents. Commanding station is a powerful varnish which brings to light the latent qualities of character. As Premier, Lord PALMERSTON has had full opportunity for the display of those tendencies which during his long official life were kept in subordination. The result has been to give exaggerated and offensive prominence to all his most objection able peculiarities. His friends are now com pelled to acknowledge that he is more insolent and false than his foes once represented him to be. Never did any man full so low in rising so high. It is a new thing for England to have a Premier whose word cannot be trusted. Dearly has Lord PALMERSTON bought the "cheers and laughter " which hailed his denial of Mr. DISRAELI'S assertion respecting the secret treaty. His denial lasted to the hour when detection was certain. It is now known that the admission was extorted from his lips by the near prospect of incontrovertible proof being brought to convict him of what, by the most lenient construction, must be termed his extraordinary error. The " invention " and the " romance " which tauntingly fell from his tongue were found to apply only to the fiction which he had attempted to impose on the House us truth. It is not wondorful that his detection should already have changed his position in the House. There is one offence which not even partisanship can overlook. On Thursday evening the discontent of the Liberals took a palpable shape. The occasion LATEST EDITION. THE BUDGET. AT the commencement of a great debate, which will probably be attended by impor tant consequences, some moments may be not unprofitably spent in considering what is the real question at issue, and what are the general circumstances of our financial con dition. Previous to the Russian war in 1854, the administration of our national finances, under successive Governments, had been on de whole very careful and prudent. The year 1833 marked an epoch when our expenditure reached its lowest point. Twenty years of peace had made the country confident ; thei was no apprehension of war, and our annul services suffered from neglect. From that date a reaction slowly commenced ; the differ ence with France in 1840, and the assistance rendered to the Porte against Egypt, roused the public to a perception of danger. Year by year the army and navy estimates were in creased, till, for the year 1853-4, when a rupture with Russia seemed probable, they attained greater proportions than they hod done since the settlement of Europe in 1815, and in point of expense rose to about half as much again as they had been twenty years previously, in 1833. This increase had, how ever, only taken place concurrently with a considerable development of national wealth. It was therefore natural, and though a feeling of dissatisfaction had grown up against it, as we see by reference to the journals of tl,e House of Commons, that feeling never pei - waded any huge portion of the public. With the d•ar there came unlimited and most extravagant expenditure. The experi ment of conducting mighty hostilities econo mically was tried and failed. The national pursestrings were opened wide ; and it is not surprising that when the total expenditure rose to something near double its ordinary amount, that grants for civil purposes should have escaped with less scrutiny than they would have done in more peaceful times. The first year after the war was regarded as a year of war expenditure; the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER'S Budget was not disputed, and he both retained the war taxes and raised what loans ho considered necessary to meet the extraordinary expenses of the year. With the commencement of the financial year 1837-8 a new leaf has to he turned over in the national ledger. We may return to the ordinary income and expenditure that pre vailed previous to the war, save only as respects the increased charges necessitated by the ear, or we may decide on a totally different scale of establishments, and a totally different scheme of finance. In the year 1853 a financial scheme—in the nature of a Compact or Settlement—was pro pounde,d, intended to provide in its general features for the next seven years, or at least to be binding for the seven years as regarded reduction and repeal of eert.;., - tion. That seher present House consideration w Commons accep of Mr. GLADSTON the people of House of Commons. repeal of certain items of taxa- eme was ff by the of Ccm 4 y , after due vas by ti - prejcil:,l4,nnte fled In rdieelnitle, :Worg Coap England , . VOA . \'`. _. • ions. • ••; b.. d • G OMNI i a - •Nros•o w twl s/VlN't