The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-04-05 00:00:00

SATURDKY, APRIL 5, 1879.
THE NATIONAL FINANCES.

WHATEVER may be the interest over the de-
bates upon foreign affairs, or in this or that
particular Ministerial measure which may be
before Parliament, there can be no question
.of the interest which surrounds the annual
exposition of the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer respecting the condition of the
national finances. The reason therefore is
not far to seek. The adjustments of tax-
ation proposesl in the Budget affect all classes
of the community. The fluctuations of a
direct impostlikethe income-tax are watched
with anxiety in times of complications over
foreign affairs such as those through which
we have lately passed. It is the attribute
of a direct tax to go straight to the pocket,
while the indirect impost vanishes in a host
of ways which are quite nnappreciable to
those who pay it. At breakfast, at dinner,
and at tea the invisible form of the tax-
gatherer may be detected. He may be
pictured in imagination in the thin blue
cloud of tobacco smoke which floats away
in so many thousands every day upon the air;
you may see him in your mental vision as
you hold up to the light the purple glass of
port which has been recommended to you
by your considerate physician for the restor-
ation of your health. Go where you will
you cannot escape him.
LNor is this to be surprised at when the
people look for one moment at the astonish-
ing growth of the national expenditure with-
in the short limits of a generation. It is im-
possible to fasten the responsibility for this
upon ally particular party in the state; for
the outlay, under administrations of various
political complexions, has increased much
after the fashion of the giant snowball. Many
of us are old enough to remembei the Pre-
miership of Sir Robert Peel. Judged by
time it is not so long ago but what those
who are even now entering upon middle life
cannot recall some of its incidents. It is
less than a generation since, in July 1846,
Sir Robert Peel left office. His Govern-
ment, to say nothing of the repeal of the
Corn Laws, will always be famous for its
financial achievements. In 1842 he revived
the income-tax at the rate of 7d in the
pound, limiting its continuance to three
years, for the purpose of making a series of
splendid onslaughts on the excise, and of
freeing the arms of industry from the shack-
les by which they were fettered. There was
a good deal of grumbling about it at the
time ; but hundreds of excisable articles were
liberated from duty;. trade was developed,
and the nation gradually saw that the policy
of the Prime Minister was the correct one.
On the 14th February. 1845 jnst a little
over 34 years ago Sir Robert Peel made
his annual financial statement. He calcu-
lated the revenue for the ensuing year at
£53,100,000; in the financial year ending
on Monday last it had been• estimated at
£83,230,000! We were then four millions
sterling to the good; we are now three mil-
lions to the bad, taking the estimates as
they were presented to Parliament. In
other words, the national revenue -is now
thirty millions, and the expenditure thirty-
seven millions annually in excess of what
they were at no more distant period than
1845.

_ _
Facts like these deserve every consider-
ation at the hands of our statesmen. It is
a startling reflection that every year we have
added more than a million sterling to our
liabilities. Every twelve months that has
rolled over our heads has seen this serious
addition made to the expenses of the machin-
ery of oar state. Through war and through
peace, through evil and through good report,
through the rule of Whig and of Tory, of
Conservative, of Liberal, and of 'Coalition
Ministries, has this tremendous augmentation
of evpenditure gone on. It is impossible to
charge it upon any political party. There
was a war with Russia under Lord Aber-
deen; war with China and Persiaunder Lord
Paltnerston • wars with Afghanistan and
Zululand under Lord Beaconsfield; the three
Premiers representing respectively Coalition
Liberal, and Co,,servative. The pot, cannot,
therefore, with any show of consistency call
the kettle black. At the same time it is a
matter worthy the consideration of the people
where this growth of the national expendi-
ture is to stop. A generation ago it was
not 60 millions a year; it is now working on
to 90. Will there be anything like an em-
phatic protestation when our ;:outlay reaches
the respectable figure of a hundred millions
annually? For the equanimity with which
the heavy load of taxation is borne, we have
to thank in a great degree the astuteness of
successive Chancellors of the Exchequer.
Mr. Cobden once declared of an eminent
Minister of Finance that he had found the
nation bearing its burden much as though a
carter had laden his ass upon the neck, the
legs, and the tail. By adjusting the load in
a business-like way, and placing the whole
of it upon the animal's back, it was carried
cheerfully and without reflection, being felt
in no appreciable degree. But if the ass
were allowed to become tired and hungry,
there would be no doubt of his feeling the
weight cast upon him. So it will be with
the British public. By-and -bye when it be-
comes weary of its load, and commercially
hungry through the depression of trade, it
will insist in a way which cannot be mistaken,
upon the work of the State being adminis-
tered upon a system very different from that
of the daughter of the horse-leech----" Give
Give !"