The Press.
London, England, 1855-08-04 00:00:00

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rit6,6

No. 118.—VoL. 111.

Ely

the management of the finances. The flood
gates of expenditure are thrown open, and the
savings of nearly forty years of peace are to be
dispersed in two years of hostilities.

The promised Supplementary Estimates
were laid before the House on Thursday
night, and in the same sitting the CHANCELLOR
of the EXCHEQUER made his second financial
statement. Sir G. C. LEWIS and Mr. FREDERICK
PEEL were both wonderfully successful in demon
strafing, by the incontestible force of figures,
that their calculations of a few months back
were not entitled to the slightest reliance, and
that the expenditure at the present time was
proceeding at a random rate far beyond their
proficiency in the science of unknown quanti-
ties to estimate. In fact, all attempt to control
it by the heads of departments had been given
up. It was left, like water, to find its own
level. What is wanted, or said or presumed
to be wanted, is ordered in a kind of spend-
thrift manner; and the only rule by which it
is possible to obtain a rough approximation of
the demands likely to be made on the Exche-
quer is to sum up the total amount of charge
for the last month or two, and assume that it
represents an average rate of expenditure.
This was the sole principle on which the Sup
plementary Estimates of the CHANCELLOR of
the EXCHEQUER and of Mr. F. PEEL were
founded.
In February last a vote of 1,200,0001. was
taken to cover the estimated .expense of the
Commissariat for the service of our Army in
the East. It would be curious to ascertain
on what data this estimate was founded. We
presume that it must have proceeded on some
ground of probability, and have left some
margin for contingencies. On that head, how-
ever, we are left without information. We
only know that, according to the rate of outlay
for the months of May and June, the actual
expenditure for the year on account of the
Commissariat would be, not 1,200,0001., but
3,768,0001., Or somewhat more than thrice the
estimated amount. An additional sum of
2,568,0001. has accordingly been voted.
The Naval Estimates for the year were calcu-
lated at 16,653,0001, but a supplemental esti-
mate of 2,725,0001. raised the amount to
19,378,0001., and even these figures seem to
fall far short of the actual expenditure, as in
the four months completed of the financial
year the expense has been at the rate of
23,000,0001. yearly, or six millions and a half
more than the original estimate.
In one item the expenditure has fallen
below the calculated amount. The Army is
30,000 men short of the number voted, and
the deficiency in the Militia is still greater.
No ingenuity can make out charges for the
bounty-money and pay of soldiers, if the men
be not enrolled. On this head the CHANCELLOR
of the EXCHEQUER is entitled to the dubious
credit of the saving he claims. The expense
of the Army and Militia for the last four
months has been quite a million below the
estimate, so that " there is every reason to
"hope" to use Sir G. C. LEWIS'S own words,
" that the estimated sum will exceed rather
" than fall short of the actual expenditure of
"the year."
So far as the finances are concerned, then,
the Ministerial ground of hope is, that our
Army and Militia will never be raised to the
strength which the Government represented
to be necessary a few months back, and which
Parliament cheerfully sanctioned. Our actual

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 1855.

"PRESS" OFFICE,
Friday Evening, August 3.

PARLIAMENT will certainly be prorogued on
Saturday, the 11th inst. It will not be
prorogued by her Majesty in person.
Her Majesty will depart from Osborne to
France. Her Majesty will be accompanied
by the Lord Chamberlain of the Household,
the Marquis of BREDALBANE, and by the
Earl of CLARENDON, Principal Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs.

An important communication has just
been made from Germany to the Western
Powers, which may lead to startling results.
We have reason to believe that the siege
of Sebastopol is ab nit to be raised.

THE infornagion which we communicated in
our last impressien relative to the rumours
which were then current of General SIMPSON'S
resignation, and the chances of his speedy
return home, has been literally confirmed in
an official announcement in the Morning Post
of Thursday.
Our contemporary has, by a somewhat singular
coincidence, adopted the senso and substance
of the remarks we then made, but he has scarcely
given sufficient prominence to the fact which
we mentioned—viz., that General SIMPSON
has been in communication with the Minister
of War on the subject of his being relieved of
the arduous duties which now devolve upon.
him, and has distinctly intimated that his
health is giving way under the excitement,
anxiety, and fatigue, of his high position.
• The Morning Post is correct in stating that
there is no intention of sending out a new
Commander-in-Chief in the event of General

SiMPSON being compelled to leave the Crimea.
The post will be conferred, we believe, upon
General MARKHAM, an officer who has served.
with great distinction in India, who was ex-
pressly recalled from that country to take a
prominent part in the military conduct of the
war, and who has recently arrived in the
Crimea.

The Economic Age is fast passing away.
Mr. GLADSTONE made an effort to arrest its
flight, and endeavoured to spare the Exche-
quer by stinting the war. He thought more
for posterity than for the present. His suc-
cessor has fallen into the other extreme.
Public credit will last his time. It would be
out of character in a Ministry of shifts and
expedients to care for more than the wants of
the day. Living from hand to mouth itself,
why should it care for any other principle in

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 1855, STkIiPET),.. SIXPENCE.
UNSTAMPED..FIVEPENCE.

military force is to be kept down, that ti e
expense of all subsidiary services may be
enormously increased. By all means vote
more money for transports, for clothing, for
provisions, for stores, for arms, but take care
that there are not the soldiers to use them.
With our troops short by one-fifth of their
oomplement, the expense of the Commissariat
is trebled in amount. Let the " hope " of the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER continuo to
brighten, and we shall have ready all the
material for a fine army, minus only the men.
The CHANCELLOR of the Excaigusa, in his
financial speech in April, stated that he hid
left a margin of four millions for unforeseen
expenses. That. margin has already vanished,
and he requires four millions additional. The
readiest resource is. of course, an issue of
Exchequer Bills. Our expenditure for the
current year is now estimated at no less a sum :I
than ninety millions 1

The loan contracted last April is far from
representing the whole addition to our debt.
A vote of seven millions to be raised by Ex-
chequer Bills will increaae the amount to
twenty-three millions within the year; and this
aggregate is independent of the Turkish loan
of five millions, which under any circum-
stances must be regarded as an addition to
our liabilities. The unfunded debt has been
doubled since Lord DERBY'S Administration

itted office. " 'Fwo years ago," said
wp,
GLADSTONE on, Thursday, "it Le
" 13,000,0001.—with the propo e it
" stand at 30,000,0001." Seventee mill
added to our unfunded debt, and sixtec
our funded at the commencement of the

with heavy increase of taxation, a rate of
expenditure continually increasing, and our
Army far short of the rtrongth for which esti-
mates were voted, are circumstances calcu-

lated to excite uneasiness, and to suggest
doubts of the capacity of an Executive which
spends so much and does so little.
Though in the excitement of the contest
financial considerations may be overlooked,
they will in the end press on us with over-
whelming force. An intelligent pamphlet,
which discusses the question whether funds
for the expenses of the war should be raised
by loans or taxes, brings together some facts
which ought never to be lost sight of by the
legislator. From 1697, when our debt was
only 21,000,0001., each succesive war has
added to it an amount far greater than has
been paid off in intervals of peace. The last
war of twenty years added to our debt
600,000,0001., while the total amount cleared
off during thirty-eight years of peace, and of
great industrial prosperity, has barely
reached 70,000,0001. It is a significant fact
that the per tentage of revenue applied to the
reduction of debt has been less after every
successive war, notwithstanding the ingenious
schemes that have been tried to liquidate

the war loans.
That money borrowed by a State is never
repaid is a conclusion forced on us, not only by
our own experience, but by that of every nation'
which has ever contracted a national debt.
The credit of Spain, of Holland, and of France,
has sunk beneath It
is impossible to dispu
Select Committee
to constitute a
national burdens,
" taut (according to
" of peace and war

accumulations of debt. It
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