The Press.
London, England, 1854-04-29 00:00:00

NEWSPAPERS.

Britannia
Examiner
John Bull
Leader
PRESS
[From May 7th to Decembei
Slat—Eight Months.]
Spectator

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Issued.

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LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 29, Mt

THE motives which influenced the CHANCELLOR
of the EXCHEQUER, in his proposal for the issue
of a new description of Exchequer Bonds, lie
on the surface. An exhausted Treasury forces
him at last to acknowledge that necessity for
a loan which he has long and strenuously
denied. The Bank, notwithstanding hint and
menace, declines to depart from rules of safe
trading at his bidding. He finds that De-
ficiency Bills are not the adequate resource
which he once imagined them for meeting
war expenditure, and that the just measure of
his need taken at the beginning of the session
(then rashly impugned by him) has been most
accurately confirmed by facts.
He is now compelled to raise, in some shape
or other, those millions which, in pursuance of
his abortive attempt at conversion, he has just
finished disbursing. The amount of stock he
has paid off at par could not now, probably,
be replaced by a new loan at a higher rate
than 85. To raise six millions sterling be
would have to create upwards of seven mil-
lions of stock, and the loss to the public
would, in consequence, amount to more
than one million of pounds sterling. The
calculation is easily made. No on 3 can
mistake what it is to pay off money one week
at par, and to borrow it the next at 15 per
cent. discount.
Mr. GLADSTONE may well shrink from coming
before the public with the plain statement of
facts which the proposal for a new loan would
require. The proof of his incapacity
.would be
too glaring to render it possible for him longer
to remain at the head of the Exchequer. To
avoid so mortifying
an exposure, he haste el
-
course to an expedient which be hopes il
mystify the public. But it is a common effect
of cunning that it heightens those v.ery diffi-
culties which it hopes, by
.its artifices, to
escape. All those stock -jobbing contrivances
by which, in the autumn, Mr. GLADSTONE

endeavoured to mask his failure only made its
ultimate exposure the more signal ; and, in
the present case, it is not unlikely that his
efforts to bolster up his damaged reputation
will only involve him in deeper confusion.
The time is not favourable for those financial
experiments which Mr. GLADSTONE delights in.
His theories may be excellent, but unluckily
there is always a hitch in their working. The
description of security he now offers is as
novel as the last pattern "just out" in a
draper's window. As it is quite untried, no
test exists by which its value can be estimated.
As yet we cannot learn that it is regarded with
much favour. It is neither well adapted for
the permanent investment nor for the tem-
porary use of money. All its conditions depart
as widely as possible from established pre-
cedent. Thus : interest is to be allowed on
instalments not paid. From the nature of
the project no conjecture can be formed
beforehand of its success. We do not
suppose that Mr. GLADSTONE will willingly
incur the risk of another failure by fixing
his reserved terms above the rate at which
tenders are likely to be offered, but he is
groping in the dark, and may easily miss
his way. There is a general impression
that his bonds will not be taken at par, unless
they should happen to find favour with the
actuaries of insurance-offices. His miscarriages
have not only raised a prejudice against him,
but have itnpaired public credit. That trust
which until lately was reposed in the accurate
calculations and sagacity of whoever might be
at the head of our finances exists no longer.
With the prestige of success has departed the
confidence which so largely contributed to it
Supposing him, however, to be completely
successful in the present instance, he will
have managed by his ingenious scheming to
exchange so many millions of stock bearing
three per cent. interest to so many millions
bearing three and a half per cent. In
other words, ho will succeed in adding
30,0001. per annum to the interest of the public
debt. Such an achievement, though it shows
his ardour in the cause of experimental finance,
will not elevate him in the rank of practical
statesmanship.
As the loan is to be a temporary one, he can
think but lightly of the contest in which we
are engaged. He proceeds on the assumption
that the war is to be a mere brush, and its
expense a bagatelle. With a total disregard of
what our financial state may be four years
hence, he decides that two millions of bonds
shall then be paid off, and the same amount
in each of the two years following. With this
experience of his sanguine temperament, we
only wonder that he does not proceed further,
and provide that the whole National Debt
shall be extinguished at certain fixed periods.
A Treasury mandate might be as effectual for
one purpose as the other. •

In its littleness the scheme is in exact
accordance with the whole policy of Govern-
ment. It ignores the fact that we are engaged
in a mighty struggle, which will probably be
of long duration, and will assuredly press
heavily on our resources, and call for enormous
expenditure. While our antagonist is preparing
for a desperate and prolonged contest, our
CHANCELLLOR of the EXCHEQCER thinks it
sufficient to see his way for a few weeks
before him, and makes provision for the cost
of a European war as he would for the ex-
pense of an encampment at Chobham.

Tax temper of the public mind at this moment
is peculiar. The silence of expectation is just
yielding to the mutterings of discontent.
Men are beginning to openly wonder how it is
that after months of preparation for war we
still hear nothing of actual hostilities,
and that our Euxine fleet in particular has
remained idle, though opportunities of
attack did not seem wanting to a vigilant
commander. There has been a disposition in
some quarters to blame Admiral DUNDAs for
this inaction. We are sure the reproach is
unjust. We are perfectly satisfied that ho has
acted throughout in strict obedience to his
orders, and that the Government alone is to
blame for that delay which has proved so ser-
viceable to Russia. It could not be the
Admiral's fault that he was detained at Con-
stantinople for want of coals, though it might
very well be the fault of that particular officer
of the Admiralty in whose place it was to see
that the supply was amply sufficient for the
requirements of the fleet.

The insinuations against this distinguished
commander would, indeed, be unworthy no-
tice if they did not indicate the dissatisfac-
tion with which the country is beginning to
regard the conduct of the war. The Minis-
ters can be no strangers to this feeling, and
we believe there are some among them so un-
scrupulous as to be anxious to shift from
themselves the responsibility of their acts,
and to care little on whose head the storm of
popular rage may break, so that they escape
its effects.

While the country is impatiently expecting
some decisive results from the declaration of
war, each department of Administration, obe-
dient to its presiding influence, exercises its
ingenuity in devising hindrances to a real
and vigorous prosecution of hostilities. At
the moment for action it is discovered that
in each there is something wanting. Our
troops are delayed for want of transports, and
reach a foreign shore at last wanting common
necessaries ; and our naval commanders,
when bent on some dashing exploit, look
into their instructions and find they want
power to act. It is oven doubtful whether the
prizes which have been taken will be con-
strued under the Ministerial orders to be
prizes at all, and whether they will not be
set free with abundant apologies for the
" mistake" committed in their capture.

We are, in fact, talking as if we were at war,
and acting as if we were at peace. Instead of
a sea•fight, we have an exchange of com-
mercial civilities. The recent orders in
Council must in some way or other have been
concerted with the Russian Court, as sub-
stantially the same regulations to extend the
time for the free passage of ships on one side
and the other, and to carry on trade between
the two countries in neutral bottoms, were
published almost simultaneously in London
and St. Petersburg. We profess to bo
anxious to engage the German States in an
alliance against our foe, yet we make it directly
their interest to preserve neutrality by throw-
ing the whole trade with Russia, which we allow
to remain open, in their hands.