The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-04-30 00:00:00

THE DORSET "CHRONICLE" AGAIN.

Would it be very irreverent to strive to draw the
faintest patella between the Dorset County
Chronicle and the Pope of Rome? Not for a
moment would we hint that our contemporary is in
the habit of sitting upoo seven bills, or of going clad
in scarlet, or of insisting on its great toe being
kissed by idolatrous worshippers. Yet the Chronicle
is, in many instances, very like the Pope of Home.
Both these patriarchs commit the error of mistaking
their proper position, and, in their blindness to their
actual and legitimate attributes, they actually sacri-
fice the influence they might otherwise exert. The
Pope has gone on for so long a time telling the
Catholic-world that he is the " Vicegerent Of
Heaven," that the provinces which his predecessors
acquired by spoliation are the "patrimony of St.
Peter," that the righteous revolt of his subjects
against his hideous miggnvernnient tr-rtq a 'tiation r'
" all law, human and divine," soil t hit those
have helped his people to recover their liberty are
'• sacraligeous robbers" that, we daresay. lie himself
believes the crazy fallaces be utters. But other
people won't believe him, and, while his holiness
I grasps at the shadow of infallibility, he loses the
substance of his pontificate. So with the C'hronide.
It is all very well in its way, but it has so continu-
ally puffed itself es being the leader of popular
opinion, so perpetually assumed iii intellectual,
social, and political supremacy, which the public
I laughingly refuse to grant to it; it has so persistently
I deluded itself that "its brickbats and bludgeons"
were sempiternal, and that the present generation
I was to be awed by its popgun discharges, and guided
by its dictates, that the assumption has at length
palled on the public taste, and its pretensions have
become as absurd as those of the wrinkled old
dowager who, with rouged cheeks and bare
shoulders, imagines that she is the reigning toast
and belle, which, when George 111, was king, the
II
may have been. Only think ! The Chronicle
actually believes that its "speaking out" on the
proceedings of the late Tiverton election has puts
I stop, for all time to come, to riflemen accompanying
parliamentary candidates to the hustings; and that
there is a "rush" made by hon. members, to catch
• glimpse of "the copy" of that paper "supplied to
the library of the House of Commons" to enable
them to see which way the wind blows, and to guide
them in coming to a decision what they are to say
if they speak, and how they must give their vote
on a division! This, to say the least, as cousin
Jonathan would observe, is "coming it rapeAer
strong!"
It is not, however, as Lord Palmerston's scold,
nor as the nurse and guide of Tory members in the
House of Commons, that we have now to speak of
the Chronicle. Our contemporary's first leader, list
week, on "The Financial Crisis," might with pro-
priety be designated "Confusion one confounded."
More unintelligible jargon has seldom found its way
into public print, and if we are to judge of the
Chronicle', knowledge by the style of composition,
we may safely aver that it possesses about as much
ides of the financial position of the country and of
Mr. Cladstone's budget, as a fish does of nut-crack.
ing. "There is no elkyui,ing," says the ('Aroniete,
"that before an iuljonrned debate can occur in the
House of Commons on a motion, the point and prac-
ticability of uhich is imperceptible, there isa political
crisis impending." Now what is there no disguis-
ing, can any. of our readers tell? Is it a substance
animate or inanimate, or simply an abstract idea?
But is it a fact that before an adjourned debate can
occur in the House of Commons there is a political
crisis impending? if so, our legislators are always
iii" hot water" as scarcely a week elapse, during
the Parliamentary sessions but there is an adjourned
debate! Again, what are we to understand by "a
motion, the point and practicability of which is imper-
ceptible! Are point and practicability synonymous?
If so, here is tautology—if not, the is should he are.
Rut it the point and practicability are imperceptible,
how does the Chronuie know that they exist? This

ambiguous sentence is an admirable prelude of what
follow& There is now an adjourned debate on the
motion of going into Committee of IYaysand Means,
and consequently there is now impending a political
crisis which the CArositle has wrought up toe grand
climax, and by beautiful gradations converted into
an earthquake! Yes, the Budget of the Chancellor

of the Exchrquer has produced, or is calculated to
produce, "a pecuniary crash, something like national
bankruptcy, the terror of which shakes to ita foun-
dation the solid fabric of ,the London Exchange."
No wonder members of parliament rush to the
library of the House of Commons to learn such
wondrous news!

There are degrees of anger; there is the torrid,
and there is the frigid state of indignation ; and the
Chronicle is just now in a cold rage because it las
been deceived by the leaders of the Tory party.
" It assuredly surprised us much" says the Chronicle
to find the promised 'Amendment on the Budget'
of Mr. Thomas Baring on Monday night, resolve
itself into nothing but an expression of his own
opinion." We are really very sorry that our clever
ciontemporary should have been disappointed in its
own party in the House, as the London Exchange
was in danger of tumbling down; hut was the
Chronicle so very much diappointed after all!
After stating that it was, it as plainly asserts that it
was not, as the "Baring' are timed politicians, and
it WU not to be expected that 'fiat justifies runt
ccdum' should be the onslaught of the Budget" from
such a quarter. And why not From the very
obvious reason, according to the Chronicle's own
showing, the Barings are "so deeply implicated in
the stability of our finance." This, no doubt, is the
truth, but then, how does this agree with the
" financial crisis" and "national bankruptcy" which
the Chronicle alluded to just before If this mode
of argument is not setting at defiance common sense
and every rule of logic, we know not what is,
Undoubtedly, a better man to pick holes in a budget,
if any can be picked, thau Mr. Thomas Baring, does
not exist. To the best opportunities of knowing
what the great city ;sinking and mercantile houses
think of our fiscal condition and prospects, he unites
great finely:Sl ability and quickness of perception;
but being himself so deeply interested in the stability
of our own finance, and not being alarmed by the
Chronicle's predicted "pecuniary crash," "national
bankruptcy," or even "the terror which shakes to
its foundations the fabric of the London Exchange,',
the member for Huntingdon did not think it worth
white to oppose the motion for going into Committee
on the Budget. On the contrary, he said, "There
is no calamity I should more deeply deplore than to
see a succession of weak govemmenta. I desire a
strong Government; but neither this ministry,
strong as it may be in talent Juld in the majority it
may command in this house, nor any other, can be
strong, unless they possess a strong financial
position." This was honestly, generously, and truly
said, however the words might have grated on the
ears of the Opposition; but the fact is, Mr. Baring
possess the rare qualification uf dealing with more
fairness and honesty towards opponents than is com•
monly to be !wind among the party with whom he
usually votes, and this it is, we suppose, that puts
our contemporary in such a desperate rage. It is ,
quite evident, however, that the head of one of the
greatest mercantile houses in the City of London
does not share in de alarms of tho Chronicle on
"national bankruptcy."
It is not, however, with Mr. Baring only, but
, also with the whole of the Conservative party that
our contemporary is evidently very wroth. If it be
true that "the Chancellor of the Exchequer has led
our finances to the very verge of ruin," then, the
Dorset Chronicle itself being the judge, there is not
Conservative in the House of Commons possessing
a particle of patriotism. We hope the picture our
contemporary draws of the Tories is not true, but
here it is :—" Often as it has fallen to the lot of
conservative statesmen to be called in at the eleventh
hour to replenish the deficit of a Whig Exchequer,
: there is a natural recoil in the present instance from
any desire to relieve Mr. Gladstone of the terrible
responsibility lie has ventured to arnme. If, how-
ever, the Conservative party—by far the largest in-
dividual section of the House—submit to this course,
it will be out of a patriotic wish to avert &stational
calamity." Well, the Conservative party has not
"submitted to this course." The Oppoeitionists
have not sufficient patriotism to prevent their recoil-
ing in their duty t.. t lleir country. Perhaps they
don't 00111iider the Gladstonian Budget so great a
national calamity after all. No matter, the Chronicle
does, and believing that, thunders forth it, oondem-

nation of their conduct. But whrther the recoil I
of Tories to relieve Mr. Gladstone of the "temble
responsibility he has ventured to assume" be, in the
present instance, a natural one, as the Chronicte
avers it is, or an unnatural one, we venture to assert
that neither the Government nor the country nt
large )as any desire to call in their aid. The Govern-
ment is itself perfectly willing to accept the dread
responsibility of the Budget, the country is well
content to entrust it to ministerial care, and Mr
Gladstone would, no doubt, were it necessary, cheer-
fully deliver under his own hand to each and every
Derbyite in the House, a full and free acquittance
of all accountableness in regard to its consequences.
But if our contemporary is angry with the Conser-
vative party for their want of patriotism, it is more
angry still with Mr. Gladstone for having adopted
the usual course of framing a budget—that of includ•
log it wholly in one Bill, "iii order to strip the
House of Lord.s of the right of interposing to save
the paper duty." Knowing, as Mr. Gladstone did,
how the Lords acted last year in regard to the paper
duty, he has done this year what every prudent man
would do in endeavonring to carry out his avn eon•
vict. s. Fur this the Chrunicif &Lys, that he has
acted in a niost insidnous—that is, treacherous, sly,
deceitful, and malignant manner -.simply to gratify
a p;que, but on which side the 'malignity is conspi-
cious, whether on the side of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer or on the side of our contemporary, we
leave our readers to judge. The remarkable leading
article from which we have culled these extracts is
full of contradictions and grammatical innacuracies,
and bears upon it the stamp of having been written
under a state of mental excitement bordering on
derangement. Rags and national ruin are at the
bottom of its lamentations, and it fancies we are
going to the "dogs" because the Chancellor of the
Exchequer proposes to relieve us of the tax on
knowledge. Where is the philanthropist that will
pluck this paper thorn from the side of the Chronicle.
What a pity it is to see a journal of such respects.
bility as to cause a" rash" in the House of Common;
tearing its hair and gna hilig ita teeth at theprospect
of an interference on the paper tax. We, and our
contemporaries suffering from the opt rations of this tax
have been fain to put •good face upon the matter. We
have been content to hope for better days; and so
far as we are concerned the continuance of the paper
duty has not exactly reduced us to the depths of
despair. We can assure our contemporary we never
felt in better spirits; but the mere idea of a doomed
paper duty is ratsbane, assafcetids, nux rontiert to the
Chronicle. Let tea, sugar, tobacco, hair powder,
armorial bearings, game certificates—anything, in
short, be left untaxed, but don't touch the paper
duty. That tax is held sacred by the Lords, and as
our Contemporary always affects greatness, why
should it not be with it also? It is the corner-stone
of monopoly, the only fetter of a free press, an ob-
struction to the arts and sciences, and a clog to indus-
try and genius of the people.