The Express.
London, England, 1865-04-28 00:00:00

THE BUDGET NIGHT.

A SKETCH.
Any u, who in curt parliamentary phrase
is • stranger, that happened at an early hour
yesterday to pass through St. Stephen's Hai in
the Palace of Westminster, would have seen
the grand corridor under an unusual aspect.
He would have observed the seats on either
aide closely packed with people who bad taker
up their positions there ; the majority beau
boys, supplied with portable refreshments and
cheap literature. If such a person bad penetrated
into the dark, damp vestibule beneath the lobby of
the house, which serves as the regular initial:-
room for aspirants to seats in the Strangers' Gallery,
that place would have been found densely pope.
fated ;—and, in short, there would have been found
in all the purlieus of the bowie those signs which
have of late years been indicative of the day on
which the budget of Mr. Gladstone is to be deli-
vered. The usual expectant crowd had assembled

preparatory to the hour when there wag to
be pronounced—not s declaration of harsh

and crabbed figures ; not a dry balance.
sheet of the income and expenditure of the country;
but a luminous exposition of high finance and po-
litico-econoinic policy, illustrated with all the gram
of oratory, all the force of logical reasoning, and
all the skill of a finished rhetorician. If the ob-
server had entered the House of Commons itself as
. . . .

early as 3 o'clock, he would have seen that even
at that time the attendance of members war nu-

merous, and that the benches were dotted all
over with the cards by which honourable
gentlemen who earn the advantage of Se.
curing rests by their presence at prayers, had
affized over the places which they bad decided to oc-
cupy. In a short time there would have been wit.
messed a breach of parliamentary privilege by the
admission of spectators to the Strangers' and
Speaker's Gallery, and soon after 4 there was
gathered together as whet an assemblage as conk(
be pressed into the somewhat limited space allotted
to the deliberations of the third estate of the realm,
and therewas the usual crowd of peers, and prelate*,
and statesmen, and general public, which invariably
awaits the happiest moment of the year to our
Minister of Finance. During the uninteresting
process of the presentation of petition, and whet
the house had settled down into an attitude of

expectation, the " well-graced actor" of the eve;
ing glided rapidly in • and had almost reached
the Treasury Bench before he was observed, but
then a cheer of welcome broke out from even
side • for whatever difference of opinion there
might be with regard to the policy which Mr.
Gladstone was about to declare, there was unani-
mity in the feeling that he was about to afford se
intellectual treat to everyone who listened to bin.
An illuatration of the proverb that there is
only one step from the sublime to its owe.
site, was afforded in the fact that Mr. Cox,
of Finsbury, having followed bard on the steps
of Mr. Gladstone, was greeted with a mocking
cheer and a burst of laughter as he proceeden to
his place. There was a prevalent expectation that
the house would be officially called upon to ex-
press an opinion with regard to the terrible event
which has occurred in the United States, and
that therefore the opening of the Budget
would be postponed by half an hour ; but
as notice only of a formal motion on the subject
was given, but a few minutes passed before the
Chancellor of the Exchequer rose, and having
presented a report of the revenue and expenditure
of the pent year, made the formal motion that the
house do resolve itself into committee of Ways
and Means. At that moment, unquestionably,
Mr. Gladstone was under the influence of ner-
vousness ; he appeared to be embarrassed with
his hat, rose more than once prematurely, and
before the chairman of committees had Battled him-
self in his place, and his opening sentences were
spoken in a voice almost tremulous. In the very
next paragraph, however, his ordinary qualities
asserted themselves ; and he proceeded in a strain
' singularly calm, and measured, and with less of that
' fervour of expreasion which usually characterises him
in the exordiums of his great speeches. Although
this section of his address was comparatively brief,
it at once struck the listener as felicitous, the com-
parison between the financial situations of the par-
liament which ceased in 1859 end that which is
about to expire appealing st once to the sense of
appropriateness. He did not linger long on this
preliminary dissertation' which was met with
the deepest attention and the utmost still-
ness, all through the audience ; broken sal-
denly at its close by hearty and spontaneous
applause. Assuming a decided business-like
air (the transitions of Mr. Gladstone's manner and
the change in his voice on these occasions, and thin
adaptation to the spirit of the inquiry he is pur-
suing, are worthy of notice), be entered upon a com-
parison of the actual and estimated expenditure of
the past year, showing how favourably from an
economic point of view it hadresulted. Turningtben
from particulars to generals, with some elaboration,
but with most perfect precision and clearness, he
exhibited the progressive growth of the revenue in
this country ; bursting, as it were, through the
burden of additional expenditure which had been
imposed upon it; while he adroitly justified
his policy of expenditure by the assertion
that it was simply the result of the national
feeling and will. With admirable
and without the least tinge of triumph in his
tone, be dwelt on the circumstance that the actual
revenue of the past year had exceeded
his estimate by at least three million%
and by reference to statistics showed that this in-
crease had arisen uniformly in all branches of the
revenue, and from no factitious and abnormal
causes ; but there certainly seemed to be wore
earnestness and a justifiable emphasis in his ex-
pression when he stated that the national debt had
been progressively reduced by a large sum dining
the present parliament—that is, durin4 his
occupancy of the office of Finance Minster:
and he rolled out with a sound as of a trumpet the
gigantic figures and statistics which exhibited the
enormous increase in the trade of the country 111101
1854. The reference which be made to the grati-
fying results of the treaty of commerce on the
expansion of the trade between this country
and France was an obvious prelude to the
warm and earnest tribute which he tatt
this period of his speech to the c
and ability of Mr. Cobden, and it was at this
juncture that he gave free play to his eloquence
and delivered some of those grand sentences, rich
in all the graces of language, which he can
deliver without verging in the least on whet might
be called mere declamation. A pause, not foe
breath, for Mr. Gladstone never needs any snatches
of his rest for his lungs ; and then came the turn-
ing point of the Budget. With all directness sad
perspicuity he stated the figures of comparative
estimate and revenue for the coining financial
year, which left him in the po s ion of the astir
factory surplus of 4,031, The effect was irre-
sistible ; even Mr. Bentinck could not refrain from
joining in the triumphant cheer which rang through
the house, and was renewed again and again ;
and there was a doubt whether even Mr. Diana
did not relax the immobility of countenance and
immoveability of limb which he always preserves
when Mr. Gladstone is, so to speak, " riding on the
whirlwind" of successful finance. Administrative
reformers grew cheerful, and even malcontent pro-
tectionists and protestors against injustice to
agriculture saw dimly. some bops of advan-
tage to their faction. Again Xr.Gladstone" changed
his band," and standing erect and casting
a good-humoured smile round the house, lue7,llt;
ingly stated that be had cove to the "did
question of the disposal of the surplus. More
ca, some laughter, and eager expectation on
every countenance ; everybody leant forward, and
every ear tuned acutely to catch the next dr
liveranoe. But it was not the humour of a prier
taxed rhetorician to gratify on the instant the
curiosity which it was his cue to keep as long as pos-
sible on the alert ; and so with positive playfulnees
of manner and speech be set about talking of a num-
ber of little adjustments of taxation ; and shifting
of petty stamp &Use, and mused ebullitions half of
impatience half ofmirth as he dallied with ironical
earnestness with licenses to special
Itsme.doersmeand
'Dworman, sad Ow abarlimP of