The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-01 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 1,185'7.

accepted the commands of the Papal body-
guard in Ireland.
We fear, after the sort of system almost
established in Ireland, that their recent con-
version about " spiritual intimidation " will
be of little use. When the steed has been
stolen it is no time to think of locking the
stable-door ; and we observe that in the por-
tion of " Itaikee's sirs," just published,
there is a con-- recorded with the Du hi

Memoirs,
..versittion r
of WELLINGTON, in the year 1813, when his
Grace said, " Our task in Ireland is more
' difficult on accouht of ten years of misrule
" there ; and since then the Whigs have been
continuing their " misrule," and fostering, by
their tacit approval and open connivance, the
organised system of " spiritual intimidation
against which they now raise a cry, which
they will forget by the time of the next Ge-
neral Election.

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE CIVIL
SERVICE.
THE course pursued by her Majesty's Govern-
ment with regard to the Bill for the Abolition
of the Superannuation Tax, introduced by
Lord NAAS, is as dishonest as it is inconsis-
tent. It is dishonest because, in opposing the
measure, Mr. WILSON and his financial chief,
the CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER, have
attempted, with sinister astuteness, to perplex
and mislead the House by false data and in-
accurate calculations. Iu this kind of work,
indeed, the Hun. Member for Devonport finds
his most congenial arena of action ; and if he
had not long since been known as a perfect
master of the culinary art, a veritable Soyer
in statistics, his essay upon this occasion
would have been sufficient to entitle him to
that remarkable distinct ion. In cooking esti-
mates and in dressing accounts, however, Mr.
WitsoN and his promising disciple should
remember that human credulity has its
bounds and Parliamentary gullibility its limits;
and that, consequently, when they have passed
the frontier of that too extensive territory,
they cease to be the deceivers and become
themselves the dupes.
But the course pursued by the Government
in this matter was also inconsistent, inasmuch
RS the CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER himself,
as was pointed out by Mr. DISRAELI, admitted
the injustice of this obnoxious impost, and
made two abortive attempts to reconstruct
and readjust it.
The House of Commons by its vote on
Wednesday night has ratified our view of the
speeches of Mr. WILSON and Sir G. C. ',Elvis,
and administered to Lord PALMERSTON'S
Cabinet a rebuke as decisive as it is richly
merited. The issue, indeed, raised for decision
by Lord NAAS'S Bill was so plain and intelligi-
ble that Mr. Witsos's ingenuity in the mysti-
fication of evidence and the perversion of
facts was impotent to beguile the judgment
of his auditory. How did the matter stand ?
A Royal Commission, appointed for the special
purpose of investigating the question, and
moreover, be it noted, appointed on the ex-
press ground that the Ministry was not satis-
fied to act upon the opinion of the Select
Committee, which had previously been con-
sulted—a Royal Commission, we say, thus
instituted, after elaborate research and pro-
tracted inquiry, reported in favour of the re-
moval of the superannuation tax, unaccom-
panied by any qualiiyinglproviso or stipulation
whatever. And yet it is said that the proposal of
Lord NAAs is not comprehensive—that it leaves
the question where it-found it—that it is simply
a rash and indiscriminate addition to the sala-
ries of the Civil servants of the Crown ! Now,
we should like very much to know what can be a
more comprehensive mode of dealing with a
grievance than redressing it? or how, if an
evil is admitted to exist, anything can be
more wise or rational than its prompt and
effective arrest? Here is a charge upon the
industry of a certain portion of the Civil
Service, which by universal assent is pro-
nounced inequitable and impolitic. It is,
therefore, in the interest of national honour
that its withdrawal is to be demanded ; and
the only rashness of which the Legislature
can be guilty in accomplishing it, is the rash-
ness of receding from a false position—the

rashness of doing justice, regardless of the
hazard, and contemptuous of the sacrifice. In
making a surrender of that to which it has no
moral title, the country is neither reckless nor
prodigal. It is perfectly true that releasing
the Civil servants from the abatement on
account of superannuation is benefiting them
to the extent of that abatement. But, then,
it is to be remembered that the superannua-
tion tax was imposed for a specific definite
purpose; that purpose was to provide a fund
to bear the burden of pensions. There is no
pretence or justification whatsoever for Mr.
GLADSTONE'S casuistical discovery that this
charge was intended as an indirect agent for
the reduction of salaries. It is obvious that
such a view of its design is untenable; for if
the burden were devised with this aim, it
would have been general and not partial in its
operation. It cannot be seriously contended
that the Act of 1834 was introduced to
diminish the incomes of only 16,000 out of
49,000 members of the Civil Service. And
this is a complete answer to the argument,
used in the course of the debate, that if this
concession be granted to the 16,000, the other
33,000 will besiege the House to do something
also for them; for the only hardship they
have suffered is the hardship of being free
from a deduction whilst their fellow-workmen
were subject to it, and an appeal on that
ground Mr. GLADSTONE knows well would re-
ceive but one answer.

It is to be observed, also, that the principle
of allowing retiring pensions gratuitously—
that is, without levying contributions in aid of
it—is neither novel nor untried ; for, to say
nothing of the usages of other nations, in this
country we have at this moment 33,000 out of
a corps of 49,000 who have a title to pensions,
and pay nothing for it. When it is argued
that the superannuation tax is a stimulus to
the zeal, and an incentive to the energy of the
Civil Service, let it be observed that if it be
capable of furnishing that salutary impulse,
its area should in all reason be extended ; but
no one in his senses will say that there is not
as much ability and as much industry in the
29,000 who are exempt from as in the 16,000
who are subject to this goad.
We are aware, however, that to look for
broad views and high sentiments from that
school of economists to which Mr. Wttsog
belongs is a vain, a desperate expectation.
He is not only not a statesman, but he is a
hard and impassible politician, saturated with
the spirit of redtapism, and wedded to the
doctrines of routine. This, however, we could
forgive, if he were not so audacious in
his statements and so disingenuous in his
reasoning. When he argues, for example,
that because the retiring allowance is propor-
tionate to the salary, and that salary may
reach 1,2001. or 1.5001. a year, the superannua-
tion tax is a boon to the Civil Service, he
must have imagined his audience were very
ignorant and unsuspicious. In the first
place, he must be quite aware that the main
cause of complaint against the present system
is, that the deduction is compulsory and
general, as regards the 16,000, and the re-
ceipt of the pension is problematical and ex-
ceptional ; that whilst there is a certainty of
temporary loss, there is no security of ulti-
mate benefit. It is not the amount of the pen-
sion which is appealed against, but the fact
that not one man in ten who is subject to the
abatement ever enjoys the pension, and is
thus, with his family, robbed of the whole sum
he has contributed ! In the second place, the
salary of 1,2001. or 1,5001. a year of which Mr.
WILSON speaks, intending to persuade the un-
informed that it is quite a common income in
the service, is so very rarely given, and when
given is so seldom bestowed upon the
labourers of a department, and so generally to
partisans of the Government, that not one in
fifty has the remotest idea of realising it, or
would refuse twenty shillings for his rever-
sionary chance of it!
The Ministerial organs contend, further,
that this tax is defensible as being in the
nature of an insurance. That statement is
ludicrously absurd, for whereas 16,000 pay the
premium, not one in seven receive a policy, so
that in the majority of cases not a sixpence Is
secured, though the abatement may extend
over a period of thirty or forty years.

We may have again to recur to this impor-
tant subject, for it is impossible to do it
justice in the cursory form of a single article ;
but we are quite content to rest the case of
the Civil Service upon the able, unanswered,
and unanswerable speech of the Noble Lord
the Member for Cockermouth, whose intelli-
gent exertions in so good a cause will, we are
sure, be amply recompensed by their success.