The Press. — London, England, 1856-07-26 00:00:00

71 :'3 . 6.98 • the Goderieli after the death of MI:. ' CANNING. Our present Prime Minister is the " Goderieh "of the situation. Lord DERBY, Mr. DISRAELI, and the Cousarvotives menace him on one side, and he should resolve to " plunge ahead," hloycl*ms tole accepted at a real Reformer wilibe disputed )4 Lord Joint Resszta, and Lord anat. Need rye recal the situation of Lord GieDERIOH between the Dukt of WELLINGTON and Sir Moatnv ftiaL, and the Whigs headed by the late Lord GREY? A statesman of vast moral power, of majestic dignity of character, might in such a situation rule England with grand effect, if his force and genius enabled him to tower over his contem poraries. But Lord PALMERSTON never towered over any party, and was passed in the race for honours by most of the contemporaries who • started along with him. Even Lord Mat- SIiSOURNE, not a first-class statesman, passed 4 , itim in the race. So did PEEL, and BROUGHAM, Juand Lord Jour; Russou. l Nor could Lord fliktusEawrom ever have got his present position •. , but for the intemperate precipitation of Lord Seas Rossaxt's conduct. Chance, not merit., nor the weight of his following, made him a Premier. It is that this autumn can pass • , 11way without the country intimating its dissa mtisfaction with a mongrel Ministry that neither represents parties nor produces measures. There is no confidence in. the Cabinet, and great subjects of foreign policy aro rising. The Italian question, the relation of Austria to the.other Powers in Europe, the complexity of Spanish affairs, and the possible policy of the Emperor of the FRENCH with regard to the Peninsula i demand more moral calmness in 'their treatment than such a statesman as Lord '' ,l Pamaziurtei4 can give them. Our official .0 9SYstetn also requires judicious amendment riefibeted in hII sincerity, and with reasonable loprOmptitude; and it is vain to look for such ' , 'Pesults while Lord PALMERSTON gives the tone II in the Ministry. . 4 . l ' ' ' And whatik'and has been through life, the tone of Lord PALMERSTON ? He has never 'llispired iiiiher than being a clever man of the world. lie has flied all parties by turns. He has been nearly always in place. He has been a Tory iu Tory times, a Liberal ia Liberal times, and A hbilow neutral in a period of compromise. As Leader of the House of Commons he is jocose, bantering, and undig ipilied, and sometimes is downright coar s e. "In his function of uttering the general il'qpinions of the House, and in his demeanour -Ito members generally, he contrasts most un with his predecessors in his part ; "rind a change of - Premiers would contribute as much to the dignity of the House of Commons • as to the advantage of the country. .W HZ GOVERNMENT AND THE CIVIL bi 0 . ,,, •,,, ILIJ • SERVICE. lit tg ~.,1 p i ll pOilie"nilet have long since ceased to . 2 .,p4iNct administrative energy from Lord payI,44IIAMTON ' S Government. In the presence meiotic& frequent proofs of weakness, and such , 'Ofildttlifold examplet t Otitiespacity, it were vain v- io'4le to stippOie upon any subject of ui ill . w gqevity or of cliffigulty is Cabinet 11,111 avow ii:gityudiatinct principle or adopt any definite imilicyi.! But; in spite of all that had occurred— '', It did-knees had been continuous and qui ( L T, , . b ypdermigAa4;heen uniform—we certaiply i si wevestetoundod at the course it has pursued title regard to the Civil servants of the Crown. ~ o.Anything.more incomprehensible, more insen sate, or inure unjust than its mode of dealing ldwitli the important and urgent, question, con boneated with the interests of that largo class, it .1. weiald be impossible to iinagiiiew The metro -ippelitan press, of all shades of opinion, and of .utevery political eonneetion, , denounced the It pmeasure submitted by the CMARCELLOR of the i 1 Br en EWE a with unsparing reprobation. From . the House of Commons it has met with a similar reception, and MLR withdrawn amid the derisive cheers of that assembly. si , But., although the odious Bill has been thus 1 , arrested in its course, and has shared the fate „, of all Lord PALMERSTON'S other attempts at legislation; it may be worth while, as the TeilEi IP R. RS S. 8 übjeet is once more left unsettled, to examine its history and to discuss its provisions. Such lan inquiry, in eed, eq.nnot be unprofitable or inopportune, nasal* as it will serve to clepaonstrate t, e gtiving incompetency of 'le pipes Governmegt,, and to show that • griettoces of which the Civil servants _ . • be r- . tin if tho plain are eve 4 to . . removed, and IMk ft(' uit a . f! recognition of their claims to be conceded y the Legislature, the reins of power must e transferred to other hands. Now, we pray the attention of our readers to the remarkable f* is of the case. It was the fortunate result of the exertions of the friends of the Civil Service, of the investiga tions they instituted and the evidence they produced, that their cause attracted public attention and enlisted public sympathy. It ceased to be a question that the system by which an annual deduction was made from the salary of every member of the Civil Service who was appointed since 1829, as a provision fund for his retirement, was oppressive and arbitrary. There was no escape, indeed, from the cogent testimony to that effect which was accumulated. The data, collected from authentic sources and subjected to the scrutiny of a Government auditor, proved beyond a shadow of doubt that, even if such a charge for such a purpose was, in the abstract, legitimate, the amount levied was decidedly and manifestly excessive. It was clear that the tax was out of all proportion to the contingencies it was intended to meet, and that it had created an enormous and con• stantly increasing surplus, which was not — and could not be—applied to its original purposes And the conclusion from such premises was obvious. The superannuation deductions could only be regarded as a gross imposition—a cruel exaction, for which there was no excuse and no justification. The CHANCELLOR of the EXOHEQUEn, accordingly, unable to resist an appeal so fortified and so confirmed, introduced at an early period of the session a Bill, the important feature of which was, that it admitted five per cent. was an undue contribution to the Superannuation Fund, and proposed to reduce it by one half. But this measure, as might have been expected, was not considered a just or a satisfactory settlement. The Civil servants contended, and a large and influen tial body in the House believed, that any such fund was vicious in principle and unfair in practice. It was argued that the State was bound, without any assistance, to provide for the old age of men worn out in her service— that it was an actual duty, a positive obliga tion. An adequate retiring allowance was claimed, therefore, not as a favour, but as a right, and the select committee to which Sir G. C. LEWIS'S Bill was referred, made a report to that effect. So far, then, the cause of the Civil servants had triumphed. It was a great victory won after a protracted struggle, achieved in the face of many difficulties, and in spite of much opposition. But what does the sapient CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER now? Why, he endorses the strange decision of the committee—strange, we say, in connec tion with its coincident condemnation of superannuation deductions—and brings in a measure, which abolishes these indeed, but substitutes in their place a revision of all the salaries of the Civil servants, or; in other words, a diminution to the extent Of five 'per cent. I And this is Sir G. C. Letvts's ideit of justice l He begins by allowing the burden to be excessive, though just. He proceeds to admit that it is altogether unjust, and he ter minates his sagacious labours by reimposing the full tax under another name ! This acute statesman is of opinion, foi Booth, that the real way of settling the question, of removing all cause of bitterness and all ground of remon strance, is to take away with one hand what he has given with the other. This is the tender mercy of the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER! The Civil servants have been robbed by the State for twenty-seven years-..the fraud is admitted, the spoliation shall cease. And those who since that period have contributed to the Superannuation Fund with uncertain advantage to themselves, and certain loss to their families, are to be compensated and con soled, after full inquiry and mature delibera tion, by a five per cent. reduction of their dala- . gAtifttsir, ries ! And now.. the • dexterous financier attempts to avert from himself the indignation his measure has aroused by stating, in with. drawi•lff it, that be wtts only the organ of the committee, and not a• free agent. • 1141 is a sintdat position for a etatesmati to'ddc apy Thai is the way whiok Ministerial duties are Tieglocted, an 4 Minirial responsibilities evaded! That is * *Ode in Which public aff44B app now 4440, that every me asure is t,her defeat . or withdrawn, and often both ; ox it is referred to a select committee, of whose views the Minister is afterwards not ashamed to avow himself the mere . mouth piece APPEALS FRONt WITH the papers of the late Lord METCALFE before us, showing the insecurity of the tenure by which, in his opinion, we Al t retient . hold M India—with M. FERRIER'S late y-Published book on our table, in whialvhe tells us how Russia builds her hopes of ultimate success there, not so much on the power ot bar attack ing force as on the extreme disaffkikidireilst ing within our empire —with the factmommu• nicated by the last India mail that one native potentate has already prepared embassies to the most powerful of the continente.l sove reigns and to the President of the United States—with a knowledge that the d,eternaina tion is daily extending among natives no longer to acquiesce with patient submission in the wrongs to which they have, iu many instances, been notoriously .subjected—with all these things present tb ear view, Ms, we confess, with the dedpest ahltiety that Welectn template the continued want la alliroOer tribunal of appeal for oast% Itfrafta The present state of things I& I N[ 'fides degree anomalotte—it is to the hig t itittient perilona—and the longer coritirtusneentlit is simply impossible. It has beeothe than ever impossible since the adoption' the alteration in the standing order4` . of"the House of Commons, for thi s p r ohibit s the in troduction of hills in future conveying • a charge on the revenues of India, unless when introduced by a message from • , the. .Grestn. Against the wisdom of that order itt itself we have nothing to allege; indeed, we have over and over again repeated that the. proper tribunal for adjudicating o n suc h colity was not the Legislature. B u t we h ave as fre quently remarked that a tribunal of appeal in some shape from the injustice or alleged in• justice of the Company was a sine vini non ; and it is a duty imperative on Parliament to see that such a tribunal be established. Indeed, it is only by doing this that the object professedly had in view in making the altera tion can be attained—of applying the same rule to cases from India as exists in regard to cases that arise in England. In England, for instance, the rule prohibit ing bills being introduced, conveyino c' charges on the revenue without p e r m is s i on from the Crown, is based on a very sound and .good principle. For, as there are doiniir of law here to decide upon every pistsible Claim' of right, such bills could any hadizi-iispilat! of moneys sought to be ohlainkhuilit Mali* of favour, and favour should obviouslyilbining spontaneously from the Crown. 'Bat in respect to cases frOm IndisiAthin holds riot good. The claimants in those .easee are men not: asking for favour, but. sueink for a veobvery I of' their rights. Their claim* are:fetal* iiiiti tntioh of their own property,tieAsed wrongitirlY , as they allege, and only -a part of the' Boj al revenue, in the name why ati th& ukd bfßeo roaWs estates would be ti them; iflaVbi trarily confiscated by the Ortiwit. itserinkitiow. In England we know that no tittoltitrbitinvy confiscation could take place. The Minister could . Ftat I hjire + mgsiff4to that grants of Crown Igo no matter how ancient, were against pu OHO., lieflie on any estates that were su derived in 'like bast inOtemee, sending .49wn. la battalion, of fitnaft.ls with cavalry and ortillm i to,p&foNe 44,4ANc tions if the possessor . eined likely to prove refractory. Nce cotfit of likrnsi6rt granted ou tho Post-oadoo 'Or excise, in the