The Press.
London, England, 1854-12-02 00:00:00

1132


MR. GLADSTONE.
Soon after the termination of the session, we pro-
mised that during the recess we would review Mr.
GLADsTONE's severer operations as the Finance
Minister of this great country, and we stated that as
we proceeded we should ask each of our readers to
put to himself, as a portion of the public, this plain
question : " Are the finances of this empire in safe
hands ?"
The absorbing interest of the war, rendered
doubtful in the issue of its first campaign in no
small degree, as we have shown, by the obstinacy
and incapacity of Mr. GLADSTONE, and the thrilling
incidents of chivalrous deeds and of private sorrows
with which it has been fraught, have prevented us
as yet, from dealing with all the topics which we had
marked out for comment. The near approach of
another session, and another financial operation,
compels us to select for observation this week the
most appropriate of the remaining topics. We Rhall
therefore, comment now upon the principle of Mr.
GLADSTONE'S first Budget, and the representations
under which he induced Parliament to assent to it.
On the 18th of April, 1853, he proposed his first
Budget. Atter the celebrated gladiatorial display of
the 16th December, 1852, in which Mr. GLADSTONE
obtained his triumph over Mr. DISRAELI, this
Budget was looked for with no ordinary interest, and
there can be no doubt that to Mr. GLADSTONE'S fame,
as well as to his personal feelings, it was of para-
mount importance that this Budget should be favour-
ably received by a majority of the House.
We need scarcely remind our readers that, while
he extended the duration of the property and income
ta±, without altering its admitted hardship and in-
justice, the principle of his Budget was to mark it as
a temporary tax. He repeated this in his financial
statement, and with emphatic earnestness calling it
" the corner stone of his whole financial plan." And,
in order to reconcile Parliament and the country to
this unpopular tax in its most unpopular shape, he
proposed large remissions of indirect taxation
soap duties, 1,100,0001.; stamps, taxes, custom duties,
including tea and various articles of consumption,
amounting on the whole to no less a sum than
5,384,0001. ; while he added to the taxes upon land
by the imposition of a succession duty, which he cal-
culated would ultimately bring in a revenue of
2,000,0001. a year.
It is not our present purpose to discuss the policy
of these financial propositions—our object is to point
cut the principle of the Budget; and we repeat, in
Mr. GLADSTONE'S own words, that by the remission
of indirect taxation he hoped to bring about such a
state of things as would admit of the property and
income tax being parted with at the period, and in
the manner, proposed by him, as a part, or rather as
the cornek-stone, of his plan.
Upon this representation Parliament was induced
to accede to the measure, and Mr. GLADSTONE sue
ceeded in his first Budget.
Our charge against him is this :—That he proposed
this Budget, and induced Parliament to sanction it,
under false pretences. It was essentially a peace
budget--remitting indirect taxation to the extent of
five millions, and promising emphatically that the
property and income tax should be abolished wholly
in seven years.
Let us see, then, how this charge is to be sus-
tained. The country and Parliament were deluded,
we assert, by the specious promises of the CHAN-
CELLOR of the ExCHEQUER. Peace and plenty were
the happy harbingers of his Budget, and the gates
of the Temple of Janus were sure to remain closed
during the dynasty of ABERDEEN and GLADSToNt.
Such were the anticipations of the public. They
were my warranted, not only by the language of
Mr. GLADSTONE'S speech, but by the nature and cha-
racter of his Budget.
But let us intrude into the sanctuary of the CHAN-
--;ER, and what shall we find
leading f Lord
pains

'eLeTS-
ked the

though
ionths

Budget
attained,
important
iut Mr.
the Ca-
the 1811

cilium& of the EXCHEQUER, and what shall we
him studying there, as a leading member of I
ABERDEEN'S Ministry ? We have taken some
to go over the correspondence from St. Pei
burgh and Constantinople, which had reached
Cabinet before the day on which the financial s
went was made. This correspondence, it is I
observed, and the events to which it refers, the
known to the Cabinet, Were then, and for me
after, totally unknown to the public ; the Bt
was carried, and Mr. GLADSTONE'S object atta
long before the first blue book on this imp°
subject was presented to Parliament. But
GLADSTONE had before him, as a member of th
blunt, previous to his financial statement of the
April, DV, the letter of Vice-Consul CUNNINOB
the Earl of CLARENDON, dated at Galatz,