The Press.
London, England, 1854-05-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

contracted upon the most advantageous conditions.
The circumstances under which the proposed Exche-
quer Bonds were to be issued fell, as he contended,
far short of that point. He then defended the great
capitalist class of the country, who were, he said,
neither so formidable nor so useless as Mr. Glad-
stone represented them to be. In conclusion he
warned the Government not to weaken public credit
by the repeated trial of such abortive experiments,
reminding them that a financial failure was a national
misfortune.
Mr. WirsoN embarked upon a multiplicity of details
in order to justify the conduct of the Finance Minis-
ter. Mr. Baring's speech, he declared, was full of fal-
lacious statements, to which he proceeded to offer
counter•statements on his own authority. Passing
on to the immediate question, he argued that the
choice now before them lay between paying for the
war expenses out of revenue, or raising it by loan.
Arguing in favour of the former alternative, he ad
verted to the lesson derived from the experience of
Mr. Pitt, contending that, if the taxes easily levied
towards the close of the last war had been raised
from the beginning, no addition would have been
necessary to the national debt during the whole
period from 1793 to 1815, when, in fact., more than
six hundred millions of debt were incurred. He
then examined the special characteristics of the pro-
posed Exchequer Bonds, and pointed out many ad-
vantages and conveniences which, as he alleged, they
possessed as the medium for obtaining supplies of
ready money. Urging many considerations in favour
of these new securities, Mr. Wilson earnestly warned
the Legislature against two great errors—enhancing
the permanent debt, or tampering with the currency.
Mr. MALINS exposed and denounced the financial
blunders of the Minister, enumerating the enormous
losses and damages which they had inflicted upon
the public. The proposition now offered to the com-
mittee, and which was at last admitted to be a loan,
comprised a sum of six millions, borrowed at four
per cent., in order to replace a paid-off three per
cent loan, thus involving a sacrifice of 60,0001. a
year revenue, with a prospective loss of perhaps
600,0001. when the time came for paying them off at

Par.
Mr. LAING contended that the amendment was
introduced merely as a peg whereon to hang an im-
peachment of Mr. Gladstone's policy. He could not
assent to any such vote cf want of confidence. He
then encouraged the house in anticipating success to
the new Exchequer Bonds, by setting forth the
example of the railway companies. Seventy millions
sterling were now under loan to those companies
upon similar securities, the money being always
obtained upon them with the utmost ease and on
most advantageous terms. The hon. member pro
ceeded to give a resume of the monetary history of
the past twelve months, defending the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, whose experiments, he said, were
judiciously designed, if not always successful.
Mr. CAIRNS controverted the assumption that the
cost of the war should be defrayed out of current
revenue. The individuals composing the tax-paying
body were constantly changing, and it was unfair to
throw upon one set, namely, the taxpayers of the
present year, the whole burden of a contest from
which another set were to enjoy the benefit. The
injustice of calling on the present contributors to
pay the whole charge would be doubled by the
method in which it wag to be paid, namely, the un-
just and impolitic income tax.
Mr. MAC GitEmin considered that the Chancellor of

the Exchequer had been unjustly and unreasonably
attacked.

Mr. T. HANKEY believed that the proposed plan for
raising money was business •like and expedient, and
hoped that the committee would not, by accepting the
amendment, cripple the hands of the Government in
carrying it out.
Mr. DISRAELI could not treat the question before
them as merely one of detail. It grew out of the
general principles on which the present Chancellor
of the Exchequer had managed the public finances.
Those principles he considered to have been
erroneous from the beginning, and enumerated in
detail the succession in which error had followed
error throughout the whole course of the year
1853 :

" The first was the reduction of interest on Exchequer
Bills, the effect of which was now at length understood in
the withdrawal of the balances in the Exchequer. The
second great mistake committed by the right hon. gentle-
man was the celebrated scheme of conversion of 1853,
which was founded upon fallacious and contradictory cal-
enlations. The first was an improper tampering with the
unfunded—the second with the funded debt. When they
were at that time discussing their financial measures, lion.
gentlemen on the Opposition side were ignorant of a very
important element in their consideration, for they were
not then aware, as they were now, that at that very time
the right hon. gentleman knew that a war with Russia was
impending. Even in their ignorance of this impending
war, they had warned the Chancellor of the Exchequer of
the errors of the course he was pursuing; but had the
house known, as the Government did, that there was more
than the chance of war impending, they would hardly have
agreed to the ,propositions he had made. A third great

SATURDAY,

t.
error, and the greatest which a statesman could commii.,
was, that with the knowledge of an impending war he had
proposed a peace budget—a budget which not only repealed
taxes, but which was founded upon the further repeal of
other taxes. The right hon.
gentleman,
whichknowing
itu
oe by %h t e
h the
wasftwo in
gd
h only
country was on the eve of war, had, nevertheless, proposed
therenewal
ionfattea a income
conigievetime,
taxn
with conditions
do
by a continuance of peace. A peace budget at such a time
could only be considered as a very great blunder. It was
the opinion of the late Government that there should have
difference
been a difference in the mode of assessment to the income
tax ; and he had heard nothing to convince him that any
details could
the of
assessmentsreilder it impossible
a
pto make a
d permanent
between
income. A fourth error committed by Mr. Gladstone was
the reduction of the rate of interest, which caused him to
withdraw 8,000,0001. of the balances in the Exchequer ; and
he committed yet a fifth error by tampering with the fum
of the savings banks, which amounted to a species of
gambling in them. A sixth great error was committed in
August, 16.53, in not having tilled his Exchequer when the
opportunity presented itself for doing so."
Out of these blunders, Mr. Disraeli argued, our pre-
sent difficulties had sprung. Passing on to the
finance questions of the current year, he remarked
upon the conflicting statements made in successive
budgets, which he characterised as being to a great
extent inaccurate and deceptive. Fallacious estimates
were given of the costs of war, and delusive announce-
ments hazarded regarding the aids that would be re-
quired to meet the growing charges upon the revenue.
At last a succession of mismanagement had culmi-
nated in the necessity for a loan of six millions ; and
this loan in its turn was so mismanaged that the
Chancellor of the Exchequer had offered four per
cent. for the money, and yet could not get it. He had
shown himself incompetent to deal with the bulls
and bears, and had been forced to appeal to the stags
of the Stock Exchange. And now came a last shift
for raising a loan in masquerade :
" Nobody objected to her Majesty's Ministers asking for
6,000,0001. or 12,000,0001. if they thought that the interest
and honour of the country required them ; but that of which
we complain is that the Minister of Finance, who had
been called upon to investigate great questions that affected
the country—who must have necessarily and naturally have
placed himself in connection with his colleagues at the
head of the various departments—bad made estimates on
the sth of March which, during the interval of the boll.
days, were found to be erroneous to the amount of 6,000,0004,
sterling. (Cheers.) We now have the consequences of
these continuous and systematic errors in the administra-
tion of our finance—namely, an attempt by the Govern•
ment to raise a loan—for such I must still style it until I
am better informed of the object and proceedings of her
Majesty's Treasury. This attempt was accompanied by
some of the most remarkable circumstances that have ac•
companied financial transactions of this kind made by an
English Minister—the Chancellor of the Exchequer of
England at a time of unrivalled prosperity, at a time of un•
exampled wealth—the country engaged in war, with all their
feelings enlisted on behalf of their Sovereign and those
who wielded authoritywith respect to this important event--
suddenly appears in the market to borrow 6,004)pool. at
four per cent., and is absolutely unable to raise the funds
which he requires. (Hear. hear.) What the Emperor
of Russia must have thought of the business it is impossi-
ble for me to ascertain, but I certainly think he would put it
down as a countervailing incident to the bombardment of
Odessa. (` Hear,' and laughter.) It is a mystery to men
of business as to how the right hon. gentleman could have
managed so as to have brought his enterprise to such a
ruinous conclusion. In that wild desert the city of London
inhabited by—l will not say savage beasts, though there
are some balls among them and the rest are bears—in the
city the Chancellor of the Exchequer is supposed to hare
some knowledge of these animals, but the right hon. gentle•
man would not content himself with bulls and bears, but
aimed at higher prey, and it was sought to bring down the
antlered monarch of the forest and all the stags of London
to contribute to maintain the credit of the Exchequer.
(` Hear, hear,' and a laugh.) The right hon. gentleman
was under the necessity of striking out 200,000 or 3u0,000
of the subscriptions on which no instalment was paid.
This mismanagement of the finance, though slight, was the
occasion of a great deal of public scandal, and does no good
to the public credit. I speak not from hearsay, for, through
unknown contributors, I have documents in my possescoa
—letters from three persons, most obscure, penniless
varlets, all subscribing 5,000/. of Exchequer Bonds.
(Laughter.) It is a striking thing that these fellows with•
out a roof not only subscribe for 115,0001. of the Exchequer,
for 5,0001. of each of the series, but they received an official
answer. What was the reply to them ? That the co that.
went would grant their request? Much more than tta
The reply was not only granting the request, but begging
,r
as a particular favour to the Government, that they would
take the whole of the subscription for the series A, ant
that by doing so they should enjoy all the advantages
.ti!.
privileges which they might obtain from series
( d laugh.) The Chancellor of the Exchequer, with tt!sif
array of phrases which he has at command, may pre a
that this scheme equals the Loyalty Loan of Mr. Pitt, w_ hom
he so much admires, but I think that all aoqunit.ted with
the subject must have felt annoyed that the Iressury_oofr
England should be placed in so ridiculous a posinco.L
cir-
to
not only could the right hon. gentleman not raise b ,000,tam•
at four per cent., but he absolutely gave occasion mr.
cumstances which make the public functionaries
temptible in the eyes of the country. WhoWo
tdd
have supposed, when we listened to the right
hon.
gentleman as he touched upon these matters
an indignant spirit of self•defence, that he_.,n.,11
been in correspondence with all the stags of L°11"""
.