The Press.
London, England, 1858-04-24 00:00:00

THE BUDGET.

Ws were both amused and somewhat asto-
nished, last week, to perceive that our
suggestions, made with some hesite.tion,
as to one or two courses which might
be taken in order to adjust the Pub-
lic Finances, were assumed, in more quar-
ters than one, to be nothing less than inti-
mations of the plans already resolved upon by
the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER ! But surely
no one could have read with any attention our
remarks on that subject, without perceiving
that we wholly avoided laying any kind of
claim to peculiar information. In fact, if
there be any one matter in the whole circle
of politics on which it is evidently right and
expedient that no previous intimation shall be
given, it is with reference to the financial
plans of the Government for the coming year.
And for this reason we had wholly abstained
from all inquiries. On many subjects, as
our readers know, we have the means of ob-
taining, and do obtain, early and accurate in-
formation; but as to the details of a forth-
coming " Budget," wo neither expected nor
sought for any. The tenor of our article
of last week was that of friendly suggestions,
from without; we gave not the slightest hint
that we were uttering any prediction from
within. Hence, when we said,—" The Ex-
" chequer Bonds of Mr. GLADSTONE, and
" the payments out of the Sinking Fund
"on account of the war loans, fall due
"in the same years, and present for 1858,
1859, and 1860 a heavy accumulation of
" redemption. Now, surely it would be a
" perfectly legitimate operation to postpone
" the Sinking Fund for three years, so that it
" shall nut be operative till the revenue gets
" the advantage of the termination of the Long
" Annuities, and to raise by loan a sum suffi-
" eient to pay off the Exchequer Bonds, and
" provide for the extraordinary expenditure
" occasioned by the late exceptional events "
we made merely such a remark as any man in
Lombard-street might have made ; reasoning
upon facts which were universally known.
The course which the CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
cel:puma has taken falls in with the first of the
above suggestions, but diverges from the second
by resolving to renew the Exchequer Bands,
instead of raising a small loan to pay them off
In so doing he has shown a cautious foresight.
Doubtless, at the idea of a loan of 3,000,0001.
or 4,000,0001. there would have been many vir-
tuous exclamations of horror among the Whig
Aftanciers who sit behind Lord PALMERSTON.
These gentlemen would have been quite scan
dalized at a creation of three percent. stock
in time of peace! And it may be the wiser
mune to avoid giving them any opportunity

THE PRESS, APRIL 24

of professing such alarm. Yet there is no
very substantial difference between the two
)w arranged, the
bills "—an opera-
lard-street. If a
ns, but expeets
Australian mait
bill for 10,0013/i
months, and then I
In like man*
these Excheicittir
• it has not the
•ve it by 1800 or
shall be really

paid.
And had a small loan been made, the result
would have been substantially the same. Paying
off the Bonds, and providing the Sinking Fund
for the war loan, the Treasury would have
soon been in possession of a surplus income.
And this surplus income always goes into the
hands of the Commissioners for the Reduction
of the National Debt, who, with it, buy up and
extinguish three-per-cent. stock. So that by
1862 the CHANCELLOR or the EXCHEQUER might
have been enabled to say, " In 1858 we created
four millions of three•per-cent. stock. But in
1859 and 1860 and 1861 the Commissioners for
the Redemption of the National Debt have
purchased about the same amount of Reduced
Three per Cents. ; so that the Permanent or
Funded Debt is, as nearly as possible, of the
same amount in 1862 that it was in 1838. The
addition to the Debt made by the loan of 1858
has been balanced by the purchases of the
Sinking-Fund Commissioners."
The whole affair, therefore, as we have said,
comes to the same point,—whether we pay off
the Exchequer Bonds by creating three-per-
cent. stock; or renew the Bonds, and pay
them off, finally, in 1800 and 1801. It is merely
a ouestion of whether we shall reaoh
Petll-
mall by going down St. James's-street or by
going down the Haymarket. But doubtless
Mr. DISRAELI has taken that course which lays
him the least open to attack.
That he has acted with judgment and dis-
cretion is not our opinion merely; it is the ver•
diet even of the Whig and Liberal press. Thus
the Times, in its City article of Wednesday,
says, " The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
" essayed no high flights of Finance, and the
" result has been that the Budget has given
" general satisfaction." The Morning Post
uses nearly the same words ; and the Globe
says, " The arrangements proposed are so
" easy of fulfilment and so unobjectionable in
" their character that little opposition is likely
"to be aroused." As these journals are all
strongly in opposition to the present Govern-
ment, their praise may be received without
suspicion.

THE NATIONAL EXPENDITURE.
MR. DISRAELI has had the good fortune to
satisfy everybody—the Parlianaeat, the Press,
and the Public. It is not often that a Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, whether he be embar-
rassed with a surplus or a deficiency, finds
himself in such a position ; but the Govern-
ment has shown in their dealings with the re-
quirements and with the resources of the
country a wise economy and a careful consi-
deration, which is evidently winning for them
confidence awl support. The deficiency of
the year has been supplied with even less
pressure than we anticipated. The diminu-
tion in the estimates—a diminution perfectly
safe and justifiable—and the steady progress
of the revenue, bring down the anticipated de-
ficit to dimensions somewhat less formidable
and somewhat more manageable than those
which first loomed upon us, and have enabled
the Chancellor to make the two ends meet,
and at the same time to keep faith with the
nation in the matter of the income tax with no
greater aid than the imposition of two indirect
taxes, whose incidence will not be felt by
either the trader or the consumer. The coun-
try positively gains by this arrangement, in a
year of deficit, a considerable reduction of taxa-
tion—a reduction of 200,0001. in the current
year, and of upwards of a million in the
year 1859-60.

858.

(on of debt Mr. DISRAELI
Icipated,
we trust,
. financial
tportance. We
hoped, see the
devices as the
' with a
basis than
ms of the
So far
1., ,e rising
revenue and falling taxation. There is, never-
theless, in the midst of this satisfactory con-
dition a good deal that suggests matter for
grave reflection. We would invite every states-
man, every member of Parliament, every tax-
payer, who is exulting in the elasticity of our
resources and the progress of our revenue, to
direct his attention for a moment to a pro-
gress that is going on in even a greater ratio--
to the progress of our Expenditure.

Mr. GLADSTONE says—Cut it down ! He says
well, and we heartily endorse what he says.
But who is to do it, and how is it to be done ?
The progressive increase in expenditure has
been the work, not of Governments nor of
Finance Ministers, but of Parliament and of
the public pushing them on, generally against
their judgment, and often in spite of their
warnings The expenditure of the country
consists of the charge in respect of the
National Debt, of the cost of the Army and
Navy, and of the requirements on account of
the Miscellaneous Services. The first varies
but little. The second fluctuates largely; and
it is to this that economists generally look
when they make an attempt to pare down the
national expenses. In doing so they commit
often a great mistake, and do sometimes
serious mischief. Military and Naval Expen-
diture is not entirely within our control. The
occasion for it is not always created by acts of
our own, and its relative magnitude at this or
that period is determined as often by the policy
of other nations as by any conduct of our own.
We cannot, therefore, fix a positive scale at which
it shall be maintained from year to year ; and
although it is right and needful that it should
be made the subject of unceasing vigilant
supervision, it would be unwise financially,
and impolitic nationally, to stint or starve
these establishments.

The Miscellaneous Expenditure, however,
stands in a very different position, and con-
cerns matters over which we have perfect and
absolute control ; and it is to this item, there-
fore, that we wish to direct especial attention.
One would have thought that, forced as w•e
have been to double, and more than double,
within the last ten years, our outlay upon our
armies and navies, and the departments con-
nected with them, the estimates for the mis-
cellaneous services would naturally have been
subjected to a severe economy and to the most
frugal treatment. One would expect to had
that we had denied ourselves a good many
national luxuries; that we had expended less
on public works, bought fewer pictures, and
economised as much as possible our outlay
upon matters connected with science and art,
and even with State education. That would
have been the wise and prudent course. We
have taken actually just the opposite one, and
our Miscellaneous Expenditure in time of war,
no less than in time of peace, has been ad-
vancing at a ratio which excites in us, we con-
fess, serious apprehension. Ten years ago
we expended on Public Works 483,9761.; last
year we expended on the same item 918.894/.
Ten years ago we were at peace; last year we
had a war expenditure. Ten years ago we
spent upon Law and Justice 1,000,0001., and
upon Education, Science, and Art 397,000/.;
last year we spent under the first head
2,600,0001, anti under the second 990,000!.
Surely it is time that we should pause, and at
all events look this expenditure in the face ;
at all events try whether it cannot be devised
that the laws of the country may be carried
into effect, and the means of education placed
within the reach of the people, without placing
so heavy a burden on account of them upon
national income raised by taxation. Let us
postpone the purchase of pictures, the forma-
tion of parks, and the building of streets and
palaces till re-established peace and tranquillity
enable us to reduce our military establish•

courses. As mutters arc now
country merely." milts its bil
Lion well underatodd in Lomba
114
Merchant lacks pr hint meat]
plenty of mot]} by 4 next A
he will Say to t. e hci 4er of his
" I intik renew it
to fok three mot
shall prepirbd
,bet it."
the Treasury st,tll ii6w the
Bonds ; saying, tfill though i
money now, it expeets to ha,
1!•361, and that then the Bonds

has dealt nearly in the manner we anti
and he has, moreover, enunciated and, i
established in dkek,ikith it sound f
principlet of th 4 highest important
shall net& again, it is to. be hoped,
couitity hkmpered pithtit eh devices
Exeq ' T Bondak,Litor eifibarrassed
Sin*lpg und, whie had $o better ba
posabili Vis and wan anticipation
periiitta ihaiute ;if a status quo.
everything is satisfactory. We hav(

meats, and give us in hand a surplus of in
come over expenditure. All this is quite pos-
sible—possible without risk of checking the
progress of the nation in comfort, in educa-
tion, or in science and art—if Parliament will
only
apply itself to the work with steady atten-
tion and with sober common sense. We in-
vite them earnestly to undertake the task.