The Press.
London, England, 1853-05-14 00:00:00

THE ituDifi...T "AS A WHOLE."
'rum budget ' as a whole" is a ea rieature and
exaggeration of Nlr. Disraeli's financial pro-
jects and speeches. The late Chancellor of
the Exchequer made a statement of five Ileum'
length, in OM' opinion much too long. and sa-
vouring somewhat of the. Yankee school of
rhetoric, but he lead some excuse in the eie-
cumstance that he had to dissent on certain
distressed and SiWeittl interests—sugar and
shipping, and so on—which he was bound to
review, and in some degree to assist. These
specialities were not the awkward inheritance
of Mr. Gladstone. Shipping one of this
class —had been previously disposed of by
Mr. Cardwell, in H sermon not unworthy of
that Free Kirk called into existence by the
statesmanlike adroitness of the " travelled
Thane," " Athenian. but not Attic." Mr. Glad-
stone had only his own department to develop,
and proved himself et stump orator far exceed-
ing the Brother Jonathon tendencies of his
predecessor.
Mr. Disraeli's position was, that in conse-
quence of the revolutions of our tariff it was
necessary to adapt our fisted to out eonnuercid
system. and that, in this adaptation, relief
from the undue pressure of taxation would be
ultimately found by those iqterests which had
previously been reconciled to thikupflua WPM-
sure by artificial prices. Blight or wrong, Mr.
Disraeli had been preaching this doctrine for
years ; and when he had the opportunity he
tried to practise it. Mr. Gladstone, on the
contrary, had been propagating for an equal
term of tune a doctrine exactly contrary,—
namely, that the interests deprived of 'artificial
prices would find, and had found, an ample
compensation for the loss of their privileges
in the superior cheapness and abundance of
all the articles they consumed and required.
With these views, Mr. Gladstone was quite
justified in opposing the financial propositions
of his predecessor. According to Mr. Glad-
stone and his school, no revision of our taxa-
tion was required ; our financial and our con.
Inertial systems were in harmony ; deficits
ought not to be created to 1w supplied by new
taxes ; and the prudent administration of the
passing hour was all that rats required.
Having turned out Mr. Disraeli on these
principles. Mr. Gladstone out-heroded Herod.
Ile created a deficiency treble the amount of
that contemplated by Mr. Disraeli ; instead of
one new tax. he proposed three ; and instead
of limiting his arrangements to one year, as
he was hound to do, or to two years, as Mr.
Disraeli presumed to do, he tied up the hands
of Parliament fin. seven.
Attt.tupting to mitigate the vast burden of
indirect taxation, which presses on the culti-
vation of the soil in the shape of spirit and
malt duties, Mr. Disraeli would have adroitly
reconciled the commercial classes to this act
of justice and policy, by dealing for the first
time with the Tea duties. 'this was an attempt
from which every Chancellor of the Exchequer
—Mr. Gunflint-ft, Sir It. Peel, Sir C. Wood—
had alike shrunk. We have ourselves con•
siderable doubts as to the expediency of this
measure ; but it must be agreed that, if it were
to lee effected, the measure proposed by Mr.
Disraeli was both bold and prudent. The
late Chancellor of the Exchequer, confident in
Lis
.judgment as to the resources of China, but
deferring wisely to the fears of some as to
sufficient supply, and as to the disturbed
of that country, proposed a term of six years