The Express.
London, England, 1853-04-27 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING APRIL 27, 18.53

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27.

Tue success of the Government in the House of
Lords on the Canada Clergy Reserves Bill must
strengthen the Coalition in their battle of the Budget
in the Commons. To see the Earl of DERBY beaten
in the Peers is to be sure that Lord JOHN RUSSELL
will be stronger in the other House. It the Ex-Prime
Minister finds himself, on a purely Church question,
left in the lurch of a minority, we may be satisfied
the political rats who, under a more prosperous flag,
would be Derbyite to the echo, will be just as prompt
to forsake a leader who, to a bad cause, adds
superfluous intolerance, want of judgment, and
ill-luck. A glance at the division list
shows, indeed, how weak the Tories are, oven
in their own chosen ground—the House of Lords.
No lees than seven dukes voted personally with the
Earl of ABERDEEN in his wise attempt to ive the
Canadians free disposal of their own church lands,
whilst two others gave him their support by pairing
against the Earl of DERBY. And not only do we see
how large a majority of the highest peers back the Ca-
alitionCabinet, but, looking more closely to the list, we
detect also how great the number of the more
wealthy "hereditary legislators" who give their aid
to the present Ministry. Many vet be surprised, and
still more will regret, to see the Archbishop of CAN-
TERBURY on the side of intolerance, backed, of
coarse, by the Bishops of EXETER and LONDON, and
b_y the smaller episcopal satellites of TUAM, BANGOR,
CARLISLE, ST. ASAPH, LLANDAFF, ROCHESTER, and
Wl:mueslis& Eight Bishop, however, took the
tolerant, Ministerial view,—Bishop WILBERFORCE
being amongst them. After this we may very
safely expect to see the long-vexed question of jus-
tice to Canada in church matters set at rest; and in
this sense the Ministerial victory of Monday night is
an unmixed good. Any countervailing influence
that may arise by rendering the Coalition Cabinet
too confident in the Commons may be met
by a proper position being assumed by Re-
formers. To this end it should again and
again be repeated, that unless the Reformers
who usually vote with Mr. lIUME vote in a body
for the Budget, the Opposition would at once upset
Coalition and Budget together. This vital support so
needful for the very existence of the Ministry, can
only be given on the faith of Ministerial projects
being worthy of assistance. Without this belief
Reformers could not vote with Lord -lons RUSSELL,
and without Radical support no temporary suc-
cesses in the Upper House—however many dukes
and wealthy peers might grace the follow-
ing of the Earl of ABERDEEN—couId keep the Pre-
mier in
.place. No new-born confidence, then, should
inflate Mr. GLADSTONE with unnecessary hauteur
or depress Reformers in their own esee3y giving
good measures Mr. GLADSTONE commands the votes
of every Liberal—by offering bad ones he invitee
their opposition. The Budget cannot become law
without the support of the ultra party, and that
party oast only lend support on a belief in
the portion that may have good within it.
Legacy tax establishment and soap tax repeal
deserve, and will secure, the votes needful for Minis-
terial strength, but whilst this is accorded, Reformers
are quite competent to enter their clear protest
against the doctrine that income-tax reformation is
impossible. The allegation of Mr. GLADSTONE that
this impost cannot possibly be cured of its evil fea-
tures, is one not to be endorsed, nor will
many be ready to sanction a too long en-
actment of the unreformed Income Tax under
the shallow doctrine that we shall be able to dis-
pense with the impost altogether in 1860. A reformed
and equitably adjusted Property Tax is a very legiti-
mate source whence to look for an important portion
of our permanent revenue, and in a country where
there is a market price for every commodity,—for
every sort and kind of property in which men can
deal,—to say with Mr. GLADSTONE that it is
impossible to ascertain the property-value of any
man's income, is simply an absurd and in-
dolent excuse for postponing an act of jus-
tice which the nation will eventually insist upon.
At present it may be at once the interest and duty of
Relormen to vote for The Budget on amount of the
good features it contains, but they may do
so with the verbal protest that they hold
themselves at liberty, on the very first available
opportunity, to assist in giving equitable pre...
sure • only to a Tax that in principle is
wise and that in practice might be permanent
if it were but made just. Mr. GLADSTONE'S
financial scheme, with all its faults, is more broad in
its soope,—more manlyin its expositioc,—more honest
and honourable in its attempts—than that of his pre-
decessor. No comparison ean be fairly instituted
between the uprightness of the one and the jugglery
of the other. But with all this we are bound to say
that every fair means should hereafter be taken to
correct the errors into which Mr. GLADSTONE has
fallen, by demonstrating the possibility, and leading
public opinion to demand, a thorough Income Tax
Reform.

THE answer given last night in the House of Com-
mons by Lord Joint RUSSELL to a question regard-
ing the course which Oovernment intend to take
relative to the affairs of India will be read with dis-
appointment and surprise by all who feel sincerely
interested in the future fate of that gigantic depen-
dency. The Ministerial leader announces, we pre-
sume after due deliberation, that the Cabinet, having
made up their mind, is resolved to legislate perms-
Featly on the form of government to be henceforth
imposed on the tributary nations of India during
the present session. In other words, they think it
eat only jut and reasonable to form a positive judg-
ment upon a half-hoard case, but they think it
&Kent sad propos to endeavour to urge the
Legislature to give effect to that arbitrary
and imperious sentence where 120,000,000
of our unrepresented fellow-subjects are concerned.
Not a single witness has yet been examined by the
Committee appointed to inquire into the grievances
and wrongs of a conquered continent, who either
does not hold office under its present mis-rulers or
has held office under them. Company's servants and
servants of the Crown, military officers, and tax col-
lectors have indeed been examined, and, even from
their inevitably partial and one-sided testimony,
manifold and vaned admissions are derivable as to
the nature and tendency of the despotism under
which Southern Asia pines. What would the indig-
nation of our people be if the other aide were heard,
and the whole truth made known? The native go-
vernments of the East have one by one been over-
thrown by British arms, and numberless communi-
ties of the East have become the subjects of
the British Crown. Whatever their humiliation
may have been, it was always the boast of those
who compassed and accomplished their subjugation
that the change in their condition would be instru-
mental in imparting to them all the blessings of
Christianity and of civilisation. But the hope of the
one ban proved as delusive as the promise of the
other. The spectacle of judicial injustice, of fiscal
rapacity, and of supreme selfishness, levity, and neg-
ligence in the Christian rulers, has been little calcu-
lated to wean a shrewd and discerning people from
the faith of their forefathers, or to make prose-

1 lytes by example to the conqueror's erect:. Be
the cause, however, what it mar, we know tha:
the light of the Gospel has not beiu diffused eve.' a
single province of British India; that the worst st.'-
perstitions of its people are sustained by the immoral
land hypocritical system which has hithert 3 prevailed;
and that sceptical Hinduos whom education has
raised above the debasing belief of their own
people, are accustomed to ask in bitter sar-
-1 casm how they can be expected to believe
, their English rulers sincere in their profession' of
veneration for Christianity. As fur civilisation,
cough has inadvertently escaped from the lips of
offiffial witnesses to cause the most incredulous to
doubt whether, under the combined sway of Leaden-
hall-street and Cannon-row, the very elements of
civilisation are not fast crumbling to decay. The
highways of ancient commerce are every year be-
coming more and more obliterated. Works of irri-
gation, the noble monuments of native industry and
skill, are described as being in ruins. Land is let by
compulsion instead of competition, and rack-rents
for revenue levied by means of threats and violence.
Industry withers, and population decays; but there
is an ever-increasing amount of patronage and prize
money; and increasing deficits in the Exchequer are
annually met by a still increasing debt.
All these things the public of this country ear-
nestly, though temperately, desire to have inquired
into, before any step is taken for remoulding or re-
modelling the future government of Hindostan, and
all these things Parliament plainly intended should
be fully and completely investigated by a select
committee of its own members, before it should be
called upon to pronounce any opinion upon a scheme
of Indian administrative reform. The unpurchased
will of the public, and the voice of its unpurchased
organs, point out this obvious and necessary prelimi-
nary to all or any permanent legislation on the sub-
ject; and Parliament—which, to do it justice, has an
intense consciousness of the profound ignorance in
which it lies regarding the wrongs to be re-
medied, and the evils to be redressed—mo-
destly and wisely desires that the other side
of the case should be heard thoroughly and
completely, and that when heard there should be
time given to digest and deliberate such evidence,
before it is called upon to give its verdict upon the
great question at issue.
But Sir CHARLES WOOD appears to care fur none
of these things. He is taking a ruining leap at
the difficulty, and, according to his private backers,
means to clear it in his usual style. Thin is probably
in his opinion the proof of thoroughbred statesman•
ship. Vulgar, plodding, plebeian intellects require
to learn slowly and painfully before they can vesture
to lecture or to legislate. But in Heaven's inscru-
table providence this country and its councils sel-
dom lack aristocratic advisers, who, at short notice
are always ready to jump into the saddle, and go at
any question, however deep, broad, or high, with the
same recklessness as to consequences as fool-hardy
youths display in a steeplechase. Sir C. WOOD was not
two months in office when he informed the committee
of inquiry that he had made up his mind what he
would do with India. The committee might, if it
pleased, sit during the rest of the session and take
evidence, but, for his part, he had heard quite enough
—he had seen the whole thing at a glance—ho did not
want to have the affairs and feelings of his 120,000,000
fellow-subjects discussed and debated by. the stupid
British public, or considered and weighed by a
dull British Parliament, for the next year to come
—he wanted no more information, he was full, and
he would listen to no more advice—ho was President
of the Board of Control, and, for whatever he did in
that capacity, he was ready to be held responsible.
But this preposterous tone of assumption did
not answer the purpose for which it was
intended. The committee asked whether that
purpose was practically to supersede and insult
them; whereupon Sir CHARLES WOOD was fain to
make an ample apology, and to assure them that
they had somewhat misunderstood his meaning.
Then the House of Commons waxed wroth, and a
heavy shower of questions began to fall on the Trea-
sury bench ; to save his unhappy colleague from
which the Ministerial Leader was forced to unfurl
his personal parapluie. Finally, the public out of
doors began to give signs of a discontent which has
only been hitherto allayed by repeated assurances of
a semi-official kind, that little after all was to be
done this year. But what are the public to think
now ? What, indeed, can they think after Lord
J. RussELL's answer, but that forbearance has been
as usual thrown away on Sir CHARLES WOOD, and
that nothing but the peremptory veto of public
opinion, expressed in terms ungracious and unac-
ceptable, can prevent the obstinacy and conceit of
this most luckless Minister from misleading Parlia-
ment into premature, blind, and unjust legislation