The Press.
London, England, 1854-08-26 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

bardment really began, and then, for the first '
time, " an intelligent foreigner" might have
doubted whether Lord ABERDEEN was still at
the head of a British Cabinet. The French
plied their guns with a happy combination of
military enthusiasm and engineering science.
Their chasseurs used their deadly weapons
with terrible precision of aim, and the
beleaguered Russians felt that neither the
excessive intricacies of the navigation, nor
the natural strength of their position, could
save them from inevitable defeat. Surrender
was a mere question of time. Within nine
days narrow channels had been carefully
buoyed and sounded, an expedition landed,
a camp formed, heavy artillery dragged up
from the ships-of-war (an operation in which
NAPIER has more experience than any living
man), and, after a strategic survey, the final
assault triumphantly made at an extremely
small loss to the attacking party.
But it may be said that Bomarsund is not
Cronstadt, and that the ease of taking the
first is no argument against the invincibility
of the last. Without here discussing the
practicability of carrying Cronstadt, we desire
to fix attention on the fact of the success
gained by landing an armed force at Bomar-
sund. If at au earlier period our present
Cabinet had resolved on the combination of a
military with a naval force in the Baltic,
events would have advanced more rapidly,
and the public would have been saved from
many doubts and much heartburning. But,
in the meanwhile, let us all join in awarding
the meed of merit to the French and English
combatants engaged in this triumphant ex-
ploit. Long may such brilliant feats continue
to distinguish their exertions, worthy of the
ancestral glories of the two great nations
under whose combined standards they have
signalised at once their personal valour and
matchless military skill I

MR. GLADSTONE'S FINANCE.
THE session is now over, and for six months
the casuistry and misrepresentations of Mr.
GLADSTONE will not be called forth to gloss
over his financial failures. It is true they
have been exposed in the House of Commons
from time to time, and the exposure, under
any other circumstances, would have necessi-
tated the retirement of the Minister; but Par
liament was too full of the war to care even
for financial failures. In the City, and among
those whose practical business is finance, the
character of the Right Honourable Gentleman
as Chancellor of the Exchequer is rightly ap-
preciated. By no one was it more truly
described than by a gentleman whose autho-
rity cannot be questioned, whose practical ex-
perience in the operations of finance exceeds
that of any other person of the present day,
and whose political opinions place him among
the moderate Conservatives. It cannot, there-
fore, be asserted that we select an incompe
tent or a hostile judge. Mr. THOMAS BARING,
on the 22nd of May last, after describing the
transactions of Mr. GLADSTONE, thus expressed•
himself :

Financial mistakes were national misfortunes ; financial
failures were national calamities, and a series of failures
were fraught with danger to the credit of this country.
Under the guidance of a careful, a judicious, a prudent, an
experienced hand, national credit could defy, uncrushed
and uninjured, the heaviest assaults that could be made
against it. But, if beneath the touch of a meddling,
fidgetting, irritating pressure, it might sink into impo-
tence, and close itself against its employment for purposes
of national utility.
These are the terms in which Mr. THOMAS
BARING characterises Mr. GLADSTONE and his
transactions as Chancellor of the Exchequer,
and the force and truth of the description are
acknowledged by those who, like Mr. BARING,
are conversant with the principles and opera-
tions of finance. Under no other circum-
stances than those of the last session would
the country have tolerated such repeated and
egregious blunders ; but the novelty of the
position in which the present generation
in this great empire are now placed,
the
the grounds of its necessity and justice,

795

the excitement which it has occasioned,
the apprehension that its inchoate operations
might be disturbed by a change of Ministry,
induced the public and Parliament to prefer,
at the moment, any alternative to such a
change. No one was more alive to this than
Mr. GIADSTONK himself. He knew full well
that the Cabinet could not do without him.
Forming, as he does, the connecting link be-
tween the Conservative and Liberal sections,
he was virtually its most influential member.
He knew, also, that, on general public grounds,
however open his measures were to attack, it
would not be thought expedient to overthrow
the Government by a condemnatory vote, and
therefore he had recourse to effrontery and
mistatement. He challenged the Opposition
to bring his measures to the test of a vote, and
his financial mistakes were only excelled by
the audaeity with which he denied them. It
shall be our business, during the recess, from
time to time to review his operations; and, as
we proceed, we shall ask our readers to put it
to themselves, as a portion of the public, aro
the finances of this empire in safe hands? %, e
shall consider his South-Sea Stock transac-
tions, his Exchequer-Bill transactions, his
savings-banks transactions, his dealings with
the balances in the Exchequer, the principles
of his several budgets, and the representations
under which he induced Parliament to assent
to them, and, lastly, his transactions and
legislation as regards charges on the Consoli-
dated Fund.

THE GREYTOWN IMBROGLIO.
THZ startling affair at Greytown is painfully
symptomatic of the troubled future that, in
the opinion of many deep observers, lowers
over the Southern States of the American de-
mocracy. It was always anticipated by JEF-
FERSON that slavery would prove a source of
excessive trouble to the statesmen of the Re•
public, and its progress only confirms that
eminent stateman's sagacious apprehension.
It is easy enough to say that " untoward
events," like that of the destruction of Grey-
town, may be modified by diplomacy ; but, with
our experience of the disastrous consequences
resulting from the indecisive and disinge-
nuous foreign policy of our present Cabinet,
we have little confidence that our Foreign-
office can extinguish the fierce and irregular
passions that are generated by the anomalous
construction of society in several parts of
the American Union. Can diplomacy accom-
plish, forsooth, what American statesmanship
at Washington finds itself unequal to de-
termine ?
The relations subsisting between Spain and
the United States are certainly of a most dan-
gerous character. " Provisional measures"
are all that aro at present discussed by the
American Senate, and the settlement of the
whole Cuban question seems left to the provi-
dence of events. That the future is a gloomy
one, is visible in the words of the President of
the United States, who affirmed not long since
that the proximity of Cuba, "its relation to
" commercial and other interests" of the States,
and the " series of unfriendly acts infringing
" commercial rights," cannot long peacefully
exist. To an uninitiated eye such language
might read like the conventional cant of the
American President's prolix messages ; but
when we know the subtlety of chose allusions
to the " peculiar institution " of slavery, And
when we remember that one of the un-
friendly acts" adverted to. is the Gove:norof
Cuba having enrolled negroes in hi, militia,
we can discern serious grounds fir a cams
belli of no ordinary character.
Aimstance that
It is a most extraordinary cir
democrats of the
a Spanish governor of t Indian island
We.
should be assailed by th.
United States for his kberahtY to the coloured
populal very democrats were
the parti, the present Emperor
of A. let towards Hungary,
a fact remembered in con-
nectio) If Prince SCHWARTZEN-
BERG, between the educa-
tional dais aid the American
laws •Tes. We have never

i

elation ! Yet these I
parties who lectared
LUSTRIA in his eowlit4
A which will Ion( be
;ion with the rert of
3, on the di rence
Austi
a ,g teaching
11 ianiist sitliuti sof
slay
•

794

tion be broken up. Its divided councils de-
prive the country of the advantage of a direct
and united Cabinet, at a time when firmness
and vigour are imperatitely deu4t/ded. It is
vain for Lord ABERDEEN to suppqie that b
a few smooth words heead dispel the distru
excited by his past eitteet. The slave an
tool of Russia for forty yekrs, cad we "suppose
that the Czar find in him iibw an active
and determined dOPoneiii?
The country sighs for loftier aims and purer
principles in public) life. It is tired of the
selfish vacillation of little minds, and de-
Mends that statesmen shall be honest, if they
cannot be great. The system of compromise,
by which the highest interests of the natioh are
sacrificed to its basest ends, cannot, we imagine,
last much longer. We can now estimate at
their true value the purity of NEWCASTLE *and
GLADSTONE, the disinterestedness of Lord
JOHN RUSSELL and the GREYS, and the pa-
triotism of Sir W. MOLESWORTR and Sir B.
HALL. There can be few men so credulous
as to believe that these personages are united
in office solely from their regard for the public
service.
In the general confusion of politics, the
Conservative party alone has preserved its
character. It has steadily fulfilled its duties
to the Crown and country, and has shown
admirable capacity for government, without
manifesting eagerness for place. Whatever
changes may occur in the political world must
tend to strengthen it in numbers and in
fluence. Among the members of any great
party a wide range must be allowed for in-
dividual opinion, but it would be great weak-
ness in any man to suffer such differences to
prevent him from affording his cordial support
to that party which he believes in his con-
science to be best fitted to assure the safety,
and advance the prosperity, of the country.

IXAVE WE A PROTESTANT
CONSTITUTION?"
Rama accounts from the United States
describe the anti-Papal feeling there to be
steadily on the increase. It seems that when
Popery was seen pursuing its old practices
in the Far West the national spirit of the
Americans took alarm. Of Anglo-Saxon an-
cestry in the main part, with a pure religion
and popular institutions, the Americans have
not received Romish aggression with the
frigid indifference professed by Lord ABER-
DEEN and the Duke of NEWCASTLE. They
have shown very plainly that against all the
craft of the Vatican they are prepared to main-
tain the Constitution founded by WASHINGTON.
So strong an anti-Romish spirit has burst up
through the States that the more intelligent of
the Romanists in America have uttered warn-
ing notes to the zealots of their creed to
desist from their jesuitical designs and ultra-
montane conspiracies.
When American nationality is thus found
so antagonistic to Romanism, we are justified
in regarding with jealousy our own present
relations with the Papacy. Upon this subject
Mr. DISRAELI recently stated some facts de-
serving particular attention, and by an eloquent
address (that will be found elsewhere) we per-
ceive that the " Protestant Working Men's
Association " of Liverpool have enthusiast'
tally echoed the sentiments of the Right Hon.
Gentleman the Member for Bucks. In the
course of the last discussion on Maynooth Mr.
DISRAELI reminded the House of Commons how
its time was encroached upon by polemical de-
bates, and, after enumerating the variety of
forms in which the Roman Catholic contro-
versy is intruded on the Legislature, asked
the significant question, " Have we a Pro-
" testant Constitution or not ? " That is a
political query which the country must solve
before long, though certain Ministerial friends
of the Court of Rome will practise all their
wiles to stifle a discussion in which they anti-
cipate defeat.
If we were to accept the present Govern-
ment as an authority on that most important
question we conld not answer the query of
Mr. DISRAELI in the affirmative. Replying to
Mr. SpooNtn on the subject of Maynooth, the

THE PRESS.

CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER intimated that
the people of Ireland should be " consulted"
tt
on the subject. oes Mr. GLADSTONE wish to
treat our natio lelfeltt as a "mere Irish"
questio 9 Is i i
' CcakEtution of England td
be aiiiitt aor efflifirided by the voices of till
feprese ives tit thtt priests, and ought ii 6
kccount 18 be taltd di iof e feelings of the people
6T Englagiff and. 4 theit,t4turch ? We cannot,
gen if fk wished; OM! tftese questions forcert
upon us by the confinilditslfaggressive course
of the Papal power. They must be decided
one way or the. othei. They are far too im-
portant to be treated as indifferent, for, as
Mr. DISRAELI observed, " our Protestant Con-
" stitution is the guarantee for the civil and
" religious liberties of the country;" and the
most marked features in the Romanist de-
bates is the implied denial by the Peelite
casuists that we have a Protestant Constitu-
tion in any intelligible sense. They would at
best admit it verbally and deny it practically,
and employ their logic of evasion to escape
from the recognition of the constitutional
Protestantism of the land. Fore that the
Constitution of England is legally and morally,
de facto and de jure, Protestant no Englishman
can doubt. It is proclaimed in the Act of
Settlement, and the monarchs of England
attest Heaven to the fact in the august cere-
mony of their coronation. By virtue of Pro-
testantism the House of Brunswick is seated
on the throne. Our Church is an " estab-
lished " one, and munificently endowed, to
prevent its ecclesiastics from catering to the
erratic fancies of the crowd. The oaths taken
by our legislators register the sentiment of
the framers of our Constitution on the "idola-
trous " character of Romanism. The places
and guarded privileges assigned to our clergy
in our social organisation demonstrate that
the Constitution of England is at once anti
Papal and anti-Infidel. Protestants, not from
indifference, but choice, we have established
the clerical order to preach salvation iu the
name and through the blood of CHRIST. The
nation protests against a jarring anarchy of
sects as well as against what Mr. MACAULAY
has called " the gorgeous and fascinating
" superstition of Popery." Our Constitution
rejects a theocracy, abjures infidelity, and
asserts with solemnity the revelation of the
Bible.
And to these great truths the people of
England are the witnesses. Their public
spirit, their free assemblies, the frank speech
of their journals, their public ctoms, and
their private manners, proclaimus that the
nationality of England is inspired by purer
religious sanctions than can be imparted by
the servile creed of Rome. The Anglo-Saxon
races abhor priestly shackles, and march in
the front of civilisation professors of Protes
tantism and pioneers of progress. In both
hemispheres men of English blood who speak
the English tongue, differing in many things,
are profoundly sympathetic in spurning an
Italian religion, and in scorning to be the sub-
jects of the Vatican. England will not recant
its religious faith ; and, when its religion is
practically ignored by the Romanists and their
Tractarian allies, it is time, in the words of
Mr. DISRAELI, that the matter should be placed
beyond dispute, and "that Government
" should declare by legislation what are the
" attributes and being of the Protestant Con-
- " stitution."
'ti- I

THE INDIAN DEFICIT.
WHEN the business of the session was virtually
over,—when many of the leading members had
quitted town,—and it was extremely difficult to
collect a "house," Sir CHARLES WOOD brought
forward his Indian Budget, exhibiting a defi-
ciency on the year of nearly a million sterling.
But this is not all. The deficit, according to
his account, must go on increasing. He tells
us that the expenditure must be largely aug-
mented instead of being diminished, while
taxation has already been carried to that point
which leaves no possible hope of any addition to
the public revenue. In short, he admits that
India under his government is bankrupt, and
likely to continue so, and, as far as his words

SATURDAY,

apply to his own administration, and India's
prospects under it, we are prepared to accord
him implicit credence.
His only lettenlittb ltiOti ate feeling on the
art of , tB6 public that vust naturally be
eateltby flitch a Otate of things consisted in
mpiikg u the deficit of itto last year with
ome tdith Iphis oh the tik years preceding,
•
jd tliiiii s ng an tiiemi6. But it would be
ust id feiefitable t 8 stag an average of the
masa% msed in difiVient sessions of Parlia-
ment by different Ministries as to strike an
Indian revenue average of this kind. It would
not be more absurd to take to measures passed
by Lord DERBY'S Government in 1852 to qualify
the Ministerial failures of the session just
over, than it is to appeal to Mr. HERRIia4
Indian surplus as a justification for the deficit
of Sir CHARLES WOOD.
Indeed, if there ever was a year in which a
large Indian surplus might have been fairly
looked for, the year which Sir CHARLES WOOD'S
Budget embraces was the one, for in it took
place the reduction of the Five per Cents. to
Four per Cents., which must have brought
into the Treasury nearly a million sterling.
There were the revenues from Burmah, which
the friends of annexation there tell us come to
about two hundred and seventy thousand
pounds more ; there are the temporarily-
sequestered districts belonging to the Nizam,
amounting to another four hundred thousand;
there are the revenues of the lapsed State of
Nagpore, which must be nearly as much ;
there is the country taken from Meer Au
NERIAD, a hundred thousand; the Jhansi ter-
ritory, some fifty thousand ; there are innu-
merable Jagheredas' estates, which must in
the interim have been sequestered or lapsed;
and there is, besides, Lord DALHOUSIE'S own
pet Punjaub, which we were told was to prove
a second California, and give us an available
surplus annually of more than half a million
sterling. Yet, with all these enormous con-
quests, confiscations, and windfalls—notwith-
standing all the boastings of the Ministerial
journals at the commencement of the session
—in spite of all the vast mass of wisdom
brought to bear on Indian affairs in the person
of the Marquis of DALHOUSIE, aided by the
superhuman talent for finance exhibited by
Sir CHARLES Woon—we have a deficit in India
of nearly a million sterling—a deficit wbieh,
under the present Administration, Sir CRARLES
WOOD himself admits to be incapable of dimi-
nution ; indeed, he most distinctly prepares
us for its continuous increase.
If this be a matter which the English public
deem but slightly to concern them, they never
were more mistaken. Our existence as a first-
rate Power depends on our retaining India;
and the inevitable deduction from that fact is,
that if the Indian revenues become inadequate
to the carrying on the public service there, as
they are now declared to be, England will
itself be in the end compelled to make good
the deficiency. Those who remember what
took place at the time of the imposition of the
income tax will bear in mind that the then
deficit in India was urged as one of the argu-
ments for its necessity by Sir ROBERT PEEL.
In the same way, if this new deficit is allowed
to continue. the deficiency will, in some way
or other, have to be made good by the people
of England. Indeed, we have reason to know
that the idea, if not officially developed, has
beeu for some time under consideration, of
doing this in a very insidious but in a very
effectual manner, by retransferring the charge
of a large number of the Queen's troops now in
India to the Crown.
That with so rich, so fertile, so magnifi-
cent a dependency as India to deal with
there can be any real necessity for such a
deficit existing is a position too absurdly
self-evident to make any refutation of it on
our parts necessary. With proper manage-
ment, India, in the hands of an enterprising
and commercial nation like England, might at
no distant period become the richest country
in the world. But, before it can be so, the
government of it must be transferred to other
hands, the administration of it must be con-
ducted on other principles than those which
prevail at present. Its rulers must be pre-
pared to deal with it in a manner consistent
with common equity and common sense. They
must give up all idea of " mysterious