The Express.
London, England, 1864-04-08 00:00:00

itself to the " great liberal pert' of the faints..
We have left ourselves room to allude very Oho-
rily to Mr. GLineroxs's onitoesio•
the Fire Insurance duty. ke proposal
to reduce it from Ss. to la. Bd. on " stook in
" trade" only ;leaving the duty on the insurance
of " property" as it is. Dividing the objects of
insurance into property and stook in trade, he
favours the latter ; on what principle of public
fairness and advantage, however, we confess we
are unable, at the first glance, to understand ;
for it may be contended that a poor man's house
and furniture are better entitled to consideration
in such a case than stock in trade, which, if fire
insurance is to be taxed at all, may fairly be
counted among the other liabilities of liminess.
But this question, like the income tax, is a large
one; and Mr. Girutrroirs has not yet said his my
about it,

THE DMLY PRESS AND THE BUDGET.

(From the Tina.)

If Mr. Gladstone has put off malt for the pre-
sent, it is not for want of consideration and rematch. He
has made a calculation which would not have eocaned to
everybody, but which is conclusive as to the justice of this
claim. He dads that on the average etch Irishman pays as
mach duty for his whisky as the Englishmaa far his beer,
while each Scotaliman pays half as much spin. So, if the
Englishman is to have his beer cheapened, the Irish and
Scotch have an equal right to cheaper whisky. This is to
make it • answer's question, and to show the English
consumer that be has no right to more favour than
the Irishman or the Sootchman. But whoever now
takes up the arenas's= of malt must be prepared to
prove the redaction of this duty a greeter been to the seri.
enituriat than • penny in the pound off the Meanie tax,
and • greater boon to the million than the redaction of the
sugar duty. Sager, as Hr. Gladstone says, is next to wheat
lin importance. It a a amenity, being one of the three els.
menta which chemists tell us ate required to sustain life.
Ire consumption happens to be the best test of prosperity,
for it is the luxury of all classes and all ages, sad the arst
craving of those who have something tempers from the flint
nearside' of life. If the guanine is to he carried into the
domestic parliaments of the nation, where women zed
children have • voice, the advocate el malt will stand
but small chance by the aide of the present
budget. As to the income tax, that we conclude
to be settled. It is always assumed to be tem-
porary, and its continuums is • standing eneoarager
meat to lavish expenditure. The remission of the
duty ore fire Mamma is • partial concession to the
House of Gammon. itself, which sera only quarrel with it
foe sot being mote eompreksasive. If, indeed, the me•w
should matinee to increase at its present rate of twelve
hundred thousand • year, if the two worlds should return
to peace, sod industry spin people her hives and put her
machinery in full motion, it is herd to say what tax we may
not live to see reduced or abolished altogether. Let the
agriccdtatiets themselves obtain, by • wise and pacific
bearing, the redaction of expenditure which shall entitle
them to what they call agricultural relief. When we have
I lin war loomiog in the future it will be time to double the
consumption of malt liquor.
(From the Morning Post.)

A financial statement, which shows an exams of upwards
of 2,500,000/. of revenue over expenditure on the ensuing
year, and which promises a reduction of taxation to the
extent of upwards of 2,225,000/., is certain to be received
with universal satisfaction. And such is the statement
which the Chancellor of the Exchequer made to the House
of Commons last evening. It is a peace budget, became
we are at peace with all the world, and are justified in
squaring our accounts on the assumption that we will re-
main so. Around us we see the strongest evi.
depose of the daily growing prosperity of the *sentry,
and find that literally the more we prune the sources of our
revenues the more prolific they become. Under sock Mr-
oumstanon, and with such experience, we are surely
justified in pursuing the course on which we have entered.
The political horizon in clouded, it is true ; but that is no
reason why we should demean ourselves as if the storm had
actually broken forth. Sufficient for the day is the evil
thereof. Erects might occur which would compel Mr.
Gladstone to recast his budget ; but it is with existing facts,
and not with possible contingencies, that a government
must deal. We have made our preparations, and, even
if the wont should happen, we shall Dot be taken by sur-
prise. With a solitary, and not unimportant, exception
never was the national trade more prosperous, and never
were the national resources more fruittal than they are at
the present time.
(From the Moneing Advertiser.)

As a whole, the budget for the financial year 1861-5 will
give great and general sstisfactioe. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer ban displayed great judgment in hi selection of
taxes for reduction, and SOMA to have reads • jodicions
distribution of his surplus. An regards the amount of the
&minutiae of the burden of taxation on the respective sub-
jects selected, of course we shall have a terrific bowl from
the "agricultural interest," because no reduction is to be
made on the duties on malt ; but Mr. Gladstone will not be
much diecont.erted by that. He knows that " interest "
are no friends of his, and that their hostility can hardly be
increased either by anything he does or leaves undone.
Bat, while commending the budget as • whole, it is not
without one vulnerable point. Kr. Gladstone has made a
greet mistake in confining his redaction of the duty on tire
insurances to stock-in-trade and the implements and uten-
sils used in workshops and other operative establishments.
It ought to have been extended to insurances on houses,
and the furniture and effects in them. The dissatisfaction
last night expressed in the house at this part of Mr. Glad-
stone's will soon be seen to have been the expression of
public feeling generally.
(From the Meriting Herald.)

The budget is certainly nuatnlatious, and it may be
called in some sense satisfactory. Mr. Gladstooe's speech,
indeed, afforded abnodant ground for criticism, if anyone
had chosen to follow him through the mass ci inekvaat
matter be thought proper to introduce, and to retort upon
him the taunts which be took occasion to launch against these
who had doubted the wisdom of the French treaty or objected
to the repeal of the paper duty. But no one cares to enter
into controversies of this kind, which can lead to no practical
conclusion ; and Mr. Gladstone is allowed to expatiate with.
out limit on the excellence of his own principles, and the
proof of their wisdom afforded by the figures of his annual
statement, .tio one is malicious enough to grudge him hie
yearly self-glorileation where it is not made, as os some
former occasions, the prelude to confessions of debt and
deficits, and to proposals opening an endless vista of
financial confusion. This time an to Pa'Elli lees brilliant
and isomewbat more laboured than usual was followed
by • balance-sheet of which no one cared to complain.
The estimates have been framed according to the prin-
ciples on which Mr. Disraeli two years ago insisted ; and if
the consequent surplus has not been applied altogether as
we could wish, yet it has been employed to much better
purpose than we might have expected from Mr. Gladstone.
To do justice to the landed interest, to employ our balances
in redressing practical grievances, rather than is establish-
ing theoretical symmetry, and to offer some possible scheme
for the abolition of the lemma tax, is more than we could
ask from a liberal ministry ; one day or other we may have
a Chancellor of the Exchequer from whom we shall not
need to salt them.

THE EARL OP DERBY •ND 2111 CHANCIILLOI OF
THE EXCHEQUER'S EUDGET.—Tbs Earl of Derby wee among
the peers present in the House of Commons last evening
during the speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The
distinguished oomervative statesmaa paid great attention to
the speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and on
leaving the house characterised it as one of Mr. Gladstone's
happiest efforts.
Da. LIVINGSTONE.—HerMajeSty'S steamer Rapid
bee arrived at Table Bay from the eastern coast of Africa.
ribe brought the welcome intelligence that Dr. Livioptone
was alive mid well. On the sth January the Rapid arrived
at the Louba mouth of the Zambezi, expecting to fled
Livingstone and his party, to take them on to the Cape. On
communicatiog with the Portuguese station house those
they found there was a letter addressed to the senior travel
officer from Bishop Tozer. It was dated "Murchison
December 21," end stated that Dr. Livingstone bad come
back from his expedition up eoustry, and arrived at the
foot of the Murchison Falls in November, and they intended
to oome down the river as soon se the water rose sufficiently
to get the Pioneer down. Dr. Livingstone, the Bishop, and
party were well in health. The mission party also intended
to leave the country, as it appeared an uoinsitable field, and
would return to England by the Cape. The Bishop and one
of his clergymen, however, were to go and visit the Governor
of Ifosarnigque. There were no letters for the Cape. The
Rapid brought down 187 prize negroes taken from a slaver.
(:ra/wrris Torn Journal.