The Press.
London, England, 1853-05-07 00:00:00

the faith of this assurance the meeting acted,
and the forty votes of the Irish Brigade went
as one man in the division against Mr. Disraeli.
Some of them have since received the substan-
tial rewards of office. Those who stipulated
only for terms for their country have not been
quite so well treated.
In the middle of December the pledge was
given. In the middle of April the newly-
installed Chancelhar •Ithe Exchequer proposes
his financial scheme, and one of its nest pro-
. mutant characteristics is the extension of the
income tax to Ireland. The official who gave
the authokity is taxed with this apparent breach
of.luith, did his justification was that he had
pledged himself for Sir Charles Wood and the
‘Vhign, but that he would not bind Mr. Glad-
stone and the followers of Sir Robert Peel.
All these facts have been, and are still, openly
and freely talked of among members of the
House of Commons : the names of those who
conveyed the assurance, and of the official who
authorised it, are perfectly well known, and the
whole transaction has been plainly stated in
the public journals.
We may get a glimpse in this revelation of
the artifices by which Mr. Disraeli was defeated.
We have not, indeed, ascertained the negotia-
tions by which other sections of the 4. unholy
alliance ' were induced to gather to the standard
of .4 coalition ;" but, when we know the means
by which one quota ot' the anomalous bevy was
• obtained, we may perhaps form a guess of those
which were employed towards the rest. This
much, at least, the existence of this negotiation
1.1 melusively establishes—that the vote upon
Mr. Disraeli's budget was not the result of as
Mere unconcerted agreement of Opillinn be-
tween different sections of the Opposition, but
was the issue of a deliberate and well-planned
movement ; while those opposing sections in-
. sited upon terms of mutual arningement.
terms having reference, not to the immediate
. matter before the house, but terms controlling
the contracting parties after they had seized
on the power which it was the objeet of the
conspiracy to clutch.
Let us for a moment glance at the treatment
maw experienced by those to whom this pro-
mise was given. The pledge is said to have
-been given in the name and by the authority
.aat' Sir Charles Wood. The income tax for Ire-
• land is proposed by Mr. Gladstone. The
• honesty of the excuse is about up ron a pa with
the morality of the pledge. Those who did
. not scruple to eater into meeret engagements
to effect a factious object have felt but little
difficulty, when the object want achieved, in
disregarding them. Sir Charles Wood is a
member of the Cabinet by which the Irish in-
come tax is proposed. t"ir Charles Va'ood has
spoken and will vote in favour of that tax. It'
it be true that the right hen. gentleman au-
thorised a confidential emissary to obtain the
aid of the Irish members to the displacement
of the late Ministry, by a. pledge that an Irish
income tax should not be the consequence of
the change, we can hardly think he shelters
himself from the consequences because he is
.at the India Board instead of the Exchequer.
This shifting of places does nut alter the laws
of good faith ; and the plea that the President
of the India Board is not bound by the pro-
mise of the expectant Chancellor seems little
better than a device to escape detection by a
Yew clumsy aliens.
It is certainly an illustration of the inge-
nious use to which the strange contrariety of
the composition of the Cabinet may be put.
it can supply to exalt each minister an ex
case for the contempt of every obligation of
principle or of party. The fable of Protons
is realised to the very life. Seize upon
Birdied like Sir William Molesworth. and.

when you think you have caught him in the
• meshes of some former pledge, you suddenly
Lind him changed to the form of an antiquated
Tory, in the person of Lord Aberdeen. Bind
Sir Charles A'saod by the promise as to the
income tax, and the image of Mr. Gladstone
Odes sleekly from your grasp. Attempt to
cateli * Protestant champion iu the semblance
of Lord John Russell. and you are amazed at
the transmutation into a Pope's liegenum in
the lineaments of Mr. Keogh. Proteus had
not so many changes in reserve. The tossings
of the kaleidoscope scarcely supply eombillit-