The Press. — London, England, 1855-04-28 00:00:00

Arial, 28, 1855. Vrotabings xn Varlinnunt. THE BUDGET. On Monday the Chancellor of the Exchequer's financial propositions underwent a further sifting. Mr. GOULBURN began by objecting to the proposition which devotes at the conclusion of peace a million annually to the redemption of the debt. We were thus throwing not only the interest of the debt upon posterity, but its redemption. There was no proba bility that Parliament would fulfil its engagement. It had once adopted a resolution ordering that 5,000,0001. should be set apart yearly as a sinking find. This in a few years was reduced to 3,000,0001., bat neither the one nor the other was actually put in practice. He objected to the creation of un redeemable stock, for such the Three per Cent. Consols were practically. It would, he thought, have been a wiser course if the loan had been raised in the Three per Cent. Annuities, capable of redemp tion in 1874. Mr. T. BARING was astonished at the opposition to a clause which simply declared that we should re pay our debts when we had the means of so doing. Because we had not done so hitherto was no reason that the house should refuse a resolution declaratory of its honest intentions. Although it was urged that future Governments would find it impossible to carry out the resolution, he yet hoped that we should find a Government strong enough to resist the pressure for excessive reduction. It would be necessary for the public credit to maintain at all times a surplus revenue, and to apply that surplus to the extinction of debt contracted in a period of emergency. As for contracting the loan on the annuities redeemable in 1874, the Government of that day would have quite enough to do with the 250,000,0001. which would then be staring it in the face. As for borrowing the money on terminable annuities, it was practically impossible, except on ruinous terms, in the present sate of English society. Mr. GLADSTONE fully concurred in the last asser• tion. He, too, believed a surplus revenue necessary to the credit of the country. But the question was whether a clause binding the house to the repayment of the loan would assist in maintaining that surplus. What was the use of Parliament enacting a clause for the purpose of declaring what it had no power to give effect to 7 This clause purported to be a con tract and pledge, but a future Parliament might, many years banes, question the right of the present Parliament to abridge the discretion of that future Parliament, by not merely asserting the principle that a su plus revenue should be maintained appli cable to the extinction of the debt, but by specifying the particular amount and form of investment, with respect to which the future Parliament would be a better judge than the present,. The present Parlia ment would do well iu attending to its own duties, without attempting to teach theirs to future Puha- Air. LArNG objected to the loan being raised on the Three per Cent. Consols. This had the effect of reducing the price of those securities, and thereby diminishing the property of the country. If the loan had been raised in the Three-and-a-Half, there would have been some prospect hereafter of reducing the interest. At the commencement of a new series of loan the experiment of creating terminable stock should have been tried. The great moneyed cor• poration might have been asked at what price they would grant such a loan. It was the system adopted by the French with success in loans for their railways. Mr. JAMES M‘GREGOR said that the circumstances were not parallel. The large profits on French rail ways enabled them to pay off their mortgages with comparative ease. Mr. HANKEY Said that the same principle of alledging the house to the repayment of loans had been adopted by Mr. Gladstone himself, who had borrowed money upon Treasury Bonds, and asked the house to agree to a certain amount of taxation to enable him to redeem them. Mr. CARDWELL said the case did not apply, for here there was a special contract entered into with the lenders for• the redemption of the loan. The CHANCELLOR of the ExcnicenEri said that it was of course admitted that the present could not bind future Parliaments; but the clause, it adoptedi will have this effect, that it creates a permanent charge on the Consolidated Fund, and it becomes the duty of the existing Government to make provi sion fur that sum out of the ways and means of the year—and it will be the duty of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, so long as this act remains unrepealed, to estimate for 1,000,000/. in his annual budget for the purpose of repaying the loan now contracted. As the Government found it impossible to borrow the money in terminable annul ies, they had done all in their power to provide for the extinction of the debt. He trusted that thus a real and not an illusory sinking fund would be es tablished, and regretted the failure of those attempted THE PRESS. to be established in former times. The objection that permanent annuities was not redeemable was unfounded. Government could at any time go into the market and purchase any amount of those annuities. If an open loan had been proposed, besides other disadvantages, it would have created a ran upon the savings -banks, and Government would have had to repay with one hand what it borrowed with the other. . After some farther discussion, turning entirely upon technical points, the various clauses were agreed to. VIENNA NEGOTIATIONS. Mr. BRIGHT having demanded on Monday if the Vienna negotiations were at an end, and if the house could be Informed precisely what was the difference between the terms offered by the allies, and any counter propositions that may have been offered by the Russian Government, Lord PALMERSTON stated that at the conference on the preceeding Thursday, at which were present the English, French, Austrian, Turkish, and Russian plenipotentiaries, the plenipotentiaries of England, France, Austria, and Turkey proposed to the repre sentative of Russia, as a mode of making the prepon derance of Russia cease in the Black Sea,—which, in principle, had been admitted and accepted by Russia —either that the amount of the Russian naval force in the Black Sea should henceforth be limited by treaty, or that the Black Sea should be declared en tirely neutral ground, and all ships-of war of all countries be excluded from it, so that henceforth it should be a sea for commerce only. The Russian plenipotentiary required forty-eight hours to take that proposal into consideration. Those forty-eight hours elapsed on Saturday, and on Saturday another conference was held, at which the Russian plenipo tentiary absolutely refused to accept either of the ' alternatives proposed, those alternatives being pressed by the four other plenipotentiaries unanimously. Thereupon the conference adjourned sine die. In reply to a further question, Lord Palmerston stated that no counter proposition had been offered by Russia. The subject was resumed in the other house on Tuesday by the Earl of MALMESBURY, who said that though he much regretted that the hope of peace was at an end, that regret was diminished when he looked at the terms which were proposed to Russia. One of these was that the number of Russian ships in the Black Sea was to be limited, but this was a condition which it would be hereafter impossible to enforce. Russia would be certain to violate it, and we should not make the violation of it a easus belli, any more than we did the violation by Russia of the former regulation respecting the navigation of the Danube. By the terms of the second point, Prussia was to be one of the protectors of the Danubian pro vinces. Now, the animus exhibited by Prussia through out the negotiations had shown that her vote would be always against us, and he wished to know, therefore, if she was to be included in the protectorate. The Earl of CLARENDON, in reply, gave a somewhat more detailed account of the circumstances which led to a break up of the conference. When the third point came under discussion, the representatives of the allied powers, in order to prove that they had no wish to humiliate Russia, but, on the contrary, desired to consult her dignity, proposed to the Rus sian representatives themselves to take the initiative as to the means by which they would give effect to the principle of that proposition. The Russian ple nipotentiaries acknowledged the courtesy of the pro ceeding, but asked for time to refer to their Govern ment. That time was given, but in the meanwhile, and for obvious reasons, we declined to go on with the discussion of the fourth point. The answer from St. Petersburg arrived, and it was that the Rassian Government had no proposition to make. The allied representatives on the following day brought forward their proposals, and the Russian plenipotentiaries asked forty-eight hours to consider them. That time was also given, and on Saturday they absolutely re jected the proposals, both as to limitation in and ex clusion from the Black Sea. Whether that rejection of the proposals by the Russian plenipotentiaries was justified by argument he was unable to say, because this meeting took place only on Saturday, and their information came simply by the telegraph. With regard to Prussia, her conduct had excluded her from the conference, and would, therefore, have excluded her from all arrangement which might have been made. The Earl of HARDWICKE made some inquiries as to the probable conduct of Austria. Lord CLARENDON could only say that Austria had, up to the close of the conference, held the same lan guage as England and France, and he had no reason to believe that she would depart from the treaty of the 2nd December. THE SEBASTOPOL COMMITTEE. On Monday the election of a member in the room of Mr. J. Ball was proceeded with. Mr. Roebuck had given notice that he would move the appoint ment of Mr. De Were, but now announced that the committee had agreed that there was no noesesity 393 for increasing their number. Against this Mr. Ben tinek protested, and moved the appointment of Capt. Gladstone. Lord Palmerston declared his perfect indifference on the subject. Mr. Disraeli explained the part he had taken in the formation of the com mittee. He had recommended Sir J. Pakington and Mr. Layard, who were appointed, and Admiral Walcott and Colonel Lindsay. He thought the house perfectly free to choose, and advocated the appoint ment of a naval member. After some discussion, in which Sir G. Grey declared that the Ministry had nothing to conceal, and were only anxious for fair ness, Mr. Roebuck declared that he should not divide the house; and Lord Palmerston repeating his declaration of indifference, Captain Stirling was nominated amidst cheers from the Opposition. TELEGRAPH TO BALAKLAVA. On Thursday Mr. LAYARD, stating that the tele graph from Balaklava was now terminated, asked if the Government had received any intelligence by it t Lord PALMERSTON said that two messages had been received—one yesterday, the other to-day—but they only referred to the opening of the telegraph, and embraced no news. Sir C. Woon, who received distinctly both mes sages, stated that one came from Sir E. Lyons, and the other from our consul at Bucharest, stating that he had no news to communicate. In answer to a further question from Mr. ROEBUCK, Sir C. WOOD said that the telegraph was not yet com pletely finished, but that news could be now received in a few hours. Mr. ROEBUCK said that, considering how interested the public were on the subject, the noble lord might perhaps think it proper to malce inquiries at Bala klava, and let us knuw how things were going on. Lord PALMERBToN said that it was his intention to request the commander•in-chief to forward a com munication from day to day. RELIGIOUS TESTS. - Mr. HEYWOOD on Thursday moved that the house resolve itself into a committee, to consider such clauses of the Act of Uniformity of DM as impose religious tests, limiting the advantages of academical, or grammar, or free-school education, and so much of any regulations of national institutions, either in England or Ireland, as impose religious tests as conditions or qualifications for any advantages con nected with education, in the English or Irish uni versities or public schools. At present every public schoolmaster was required to sign his conformity to the Church of England, and in most public schools the master was necessarily 4 graduate either of Oxford or Cambridge. He believed that institution which selected the best men of the day from all parts of the country would be best fitted to advance the interests of the people. The result of the law as it stood was, that every public school, as it stood, was a Church of England institution. Lord PALMERSTON said that the bill embraced two questions, one as to tests from schoolmasters and tutors in private families, all which were required by the Act of Uniformity, though they had long ceased to be enforced. The other referred to the universities, and would disturb the settlement made last year with the University of Oxford. To this he could on no account give his consent. He agreed in the first clause to this extent, that he would not oppose the house going into committee on the sub. ject, being prepared to concur in the sweeping away of obsolete enactments. Mr. OtAntrrortz spoke strongly on the inexpediency of raising this question year atter year, and unsettling the ancient institutions of the country. These matters should be treated cautiously, and step by step. He should most strenuously oppose any inter ference with the Oxford act of last year, and urged Mr. Heywood to amend his motion at once. After Lord J. MANNERS had declared that to open public schools to Dissenters would be to subvert the entire trusts of their endowment, Mr. Hrvwoon proposed to limit that part of his motion to the University of Dublin. Against this Mr. WHITESIDIR protested, saying that the University of Dublin was the most liberal of all. Mr. HEYWOOD then proposed to confine his motion to the first clause, and after wards to withdraw the motion with the view of in troducing another, but the house refused its con sent to the withdrawal, and negatived the motion at once. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY BILL. The Loin) CfrANCELLOR on Tuesday, on the motion for going into committee on this bill, explained its provisions with some detail. Adverting with high praise to the many spontaneous efforts for improve ment made by the university, he observed that all that was wanted was the proper power to enable the university to carry out its own views. For this pur pose the bill, in the first place, created a board of commissioners—six in number—the Earl of Bur. lington, Lord Monteagle, the Bibhop of Chester, Mr. Baron Alderson, Professor Sedgwick, and Mr. John Lefevre. The bill then provided for an alteration in the election of the cepa. The new plan was founded, with some inodigoation, on the recommendation of