The Press.
London, England, 1854-09-16 00:00:00

866

aid. of his simple secretary, may play into the
hands of the Austrian Chancery.
It is not surprising that the Continental
Courts should cast contempt on a Cabinet
which, from its constitution, is incapable of
vigorous action. Tb. threats which frOill
time to time have been sung towards then of
" oppressed natiouslitiss" must move their
ridicule while the Liberal party is committed
to the support of Lord ANERDEL/e. Coalibinlt•
Such a Government they will not trust, and
cannot fear. They detect on the part of some
of its members an inclination for mischief, but
they despise its impotence, and are willing to
(protit by the concessions its weakness im-
pels it to make while withholding from it
their confidence, and standing aloof from its
action.

MR. GLADSTONE.
WE stated that during the recess we should
review Mr. GLADSTONE as a Finance Minister,
and discuss his claims, in that character, to

public confidence.
We must premise our review by a few ob-
servations upon the personal, or rather moral,
qualifications which the people of England
expect, and have a right to find, in this impor-

taut public functionary.
Finance is a subject heretofore little studied
and little understood even by those who may
be considered the best educated in this coun-
try. Much as we are all interested in the
lewd° of raising and managing the fifty or
sixty millions which are raised and disbursed
every year, we shall venture to affirm that, until
the session of 1853, when the criticisms of Mr.
DtsuArLf anti Mr. THOMAS BARING may have
drawn attention to the matter, there was no sub-
ject less understood by the public generally,
and even by the educated classes, than, for in-
stance, the arrangements between the Govern-
ment and the Bank for the payment of the
public charges, the practice and nature and
- effects of the system of deficiency bills, the
powers and operations and duties of the Com-
. missioners for the Reduction of the National
Debt, as regards the extinction of debt, and as
regards the investment of the proceeds of
• savings-banks; and yet these are all matters
which affect directly the interests of the tax-
.
paying community. Still less are understood
the mysteries involved in the " Consolidated
Fund Account " and its surplus or deficiency,
in u Consolidated Fund Bills," in Exchequer
Supply Bills, &c. &c. We advert to these con-
eiderations because the public heretofore not
being well informed on such subjeets, it has
- been the established custom or rule to assume
that Chancellors of the Exchequer, quite
irrespective of politics, are men of public
, morality,—that all these mysterious operations
are carefully attended to by the Finance
' Minister as a part of his administrative duties,
and that no tampering would be tolerated in
any of these departments for party or even
political purposes. This we aver was always
' taken as a matter of course by the public.
t Budgets might be contested on grounds of
policy, or by the interests affected ; and Chan-
cellors of the Exchequer have been judged
by a comparison of their estimates with the
• results, in the ordinary and natural course of
1. things ; but no one ever dreamt that a Chan-
- Geller of the Exchequer would aid his budget,
'k to prop it up, by the deliberate miss.p-

or seek to prop it up, oy tue uenueresuu Lulea",
plieation of funds entrusted to the Treasury,
• or the Commissioners of the National Debt,
fdrallbr. id idiktiArt purposes. The state-
,ri • and figures of a Chancellor of the
• ~ stly been taken for granted
: e osurse, possesses better
•
cm than others, and however
:1 • friferpnees drawn by him from
;-V6 .4.ovtray be questioned, there has
A 4
• .. •
• 4;.: °Pourable understanding that
• I.r of the Exchequer will repre-
.