The Express.
London, England, 1853-02-21 00:00:00

LONDON, MOND.4 Y, FEBRUARY 21.

ON the 7th of December last Mr. GLADSTONE.
our present Chancellor of the Exchequer, may be
said to have commenced a series of attacks upon
the charlataniNm of Mr. Disti.exti, which ended—
with the assistance of the press and the Liberal
Members of the House —in '
the utter discomfiture
and prostration of the Protectionist Mini.try. On,
that day Mr. GLAI.%fONE called the attention of the
House to a matter," to use his own words, "of.
gnat importance as to the order, the regularity,
and the form of their proceeding in regard to the
financial priposals of her MAJESTY'S Government."
Objecting to :be course proposed by Mr. DIsitALLI
with respect to the liudg.r, Mr. GLADSTONE gave
the House the grounds of his objection as follows :
They were going, lie understocd, to make provision for
the fioancial year commencing bth of April, 1A13; and
when they came to consider the necessary provisions for
that year, the hest circumstance that would strike the mind
was, that on the sth of April, the income tax, from which
one-tenth of the whole revenue was dawn, would have
ceased legalls to cant. Ile winald put it strongly, then, to
the house and the government that the first duty of the
house in regard to that provision of the year in question,
was to consider what COMM they should pursue in reference
to the income tax. Should they have the income as on
the sth of April ur not ?
On the 11th of December he used the same sort of
weapon against his financial opponent.
I presume t., .ay to the right hon. gentleman that he
would be wr. rAr if fir called u•ton us to deal with the minor
articles of the hu.:get, if he called open us to settle the
question of the house t ix, and especially if he called upon
as to remit duties, until he has called upon this how* for a
recognition of the income tax. •
The sth of April is now more than two months nearer
than when Mr. GLansrom: made these virtuous re-

. -
mosstrances against the introduction of a reckless
system into the department of public finance. The
political wheel has since that time made a complete
revolution, and the hon. gentleman is standing in the
shoes of his predecessor. Mr. GLADSTONE u DOW
asking the House to grant immense sums, to be
devoted to the public service next year. Has he
settled the question of the income-tai? Has he
done what he indignantly asserted that his prede-
cessor was bound to du' If it was wrong in Mr.
DISRAELI to talk of remitting duties before settling
the question of the incon:c-tax, it can scarcely be
lees improper for Mr. GLAD-TONE to talk of spending
many roi hung, while the acme question remains un-
settled. Nevertheless this is the case. The CUAN-
CELLOR of the Excite:rat:no. who talked so loudly
in opposition on this subject, now holds his tongue,
and this in spite of the anxiety evinced by the na-
tioo, and despite the exertions of Mr. Ht *E on Friday
night to have the question put on a proper footing.
Fur if there is any subject on which the
nation has made up its mind, it is on the
Income Tax. Every one knows that it is unjust,
and that it violates the hest principles of taxation,—
that a man who is possessed. of a property of 30,0001.
should contribute towarea the public ue
a sum only equal to that which is contri-
buted by a man with 13,0001. And yet this,
sin is constantly perpetrated by means of the In-1
come Tax, which deals with income derived from
land of I,ot 01. per annum in the same manner as
with a professional income of the same amount.
Everybody is convinced of the injustice of levying
One hundred and fifty sevenoenees from an annuitant
of 1501. per annum, and leaving the annuitant of
1481. scot free; thus reducing the income of the
former below that of the latter. These and a hun-
dred other instances by which all principles of equity
are violated in the case of the Income Tax
are recognised even by the Tories. Protectionists
even can see as tar as this. Fosicrer has learned as
much as this in the grammar of finance, and the
courageous CUOWLER applauds his Tory CHANCEL-
Loa of the Excueucea for endeavouring to remedy
the evil. Ever since the imposition of the tax by
Sir ROBERT PEEL, these inequalities have been the
eubject of denunciation in orations, articles in the
public prints, in pamphlets, and in heavy treatises no
political economy. The very last Budget proposed to
the House proceeded upon the principle of remedy-
ing the injustice of the operation of the present
tax. Are we then, it must be asked, to
suffer this mass of anomalies for a year
longer? A year is too long a period to be spared
for delay in the correction of an obvious evil. In
the present day the world lives faster than it has
ever lived before. A year suffices now to establish
colonies, to build large cities, to flood nations with
newly-discovered riches. A year has been enough
for the establishment of an Empire on the Continent
of Europe. Another year may witness its dissolution.
While all the world is going at such a rapid pace,
why are Chancellors of the Exchequer to be
allowed to deep? "No doubt," said Mr. GLAD-
STONE in Lis telling speech in reply to
Mr. DISRAELI'S expiring efforts, " No doubt the In-
come Tax is crowded with injustice." All England
echoes these words: shall we, then, be condemned
to suffer from the injustice another year? To whom
are we to look for a remedl for them but from a
Chancellor of the Exchequer who has just ousted
his predecessor on the ground (amongst others) that
the latter did not deal with these injustices in a
proper spirit? The debate upon the financial prin-
ciples of the late Budget was one of the
keenest on record. The contest, both in and
out of the House, was of such a nature as to
throw light me every portion of the subject. Is not
this knowledge to be made ass of to remedy at least
motes of the more glaring features of the obnoxious tax?
The nation at present is content with a little grom-
bling, but it pays, nevertheless. It takes some time in
England to collect the rays of national indignation
into a focus ; but when this is dope the effect is in-
stantaneous. What would be Mr. GIADIRONI'II
feelings were be to wake some fine morning, and
find the public and the Tories had combined to relieve
him of place for refusing to act on his own assertion,
and reform an impost " crowded with injustice."
There is no doubt that any attempt to postpone the
remedy of a glaring injustice will be prejudicial to the
prospects of the Ministry. In all quarters there was
an evident desire that the members of the Cabinet
should meet with indulgence. It has been felt that
we have the elements of a strong Government, but
they cannot remain strong if they are unjust. It has
been felt also that the times are such as to require a
Government enjoying the entire confidence of the
people. But how can this confidence be maintained
in the face of any refusal to deal with a tax which
more than any other is unpopular with the nation—
which has been condemned by the Ministry itself ?
The objeetioa which has been made against a
part at the Ministry will be extended to all.
It has been said, namely, that this portion
of the Ministry, although possessing great
festive abilities, have no legislative capacities—that
they are excellent men of business, but that they are
not men of large and extensive views. It will be
urged in support of this allegation that they have
shirked the first great fiscal question that came in
their way. The Ministry will be weakened before it
has bad time to exert any of those asperities for
good which all the world gives it credit for pos-
sessing.
Mr. Gunners is admired by a large number
of political friends for the completeness of his
knowledge on most subjects with which he meddles.
He is said to have a wonderful perception of the
two sides of every subject which he takes up. He
never decides, we are told, without subtle investiga-
tions into all the pros and ryas of a question. Thies
are very admirable qualities: but it is just possible
that they may impede him in the work ot legislation.
If he waits for an Income Tax theoretically perfect,
we shall be burdened with the present tax as long
es he continues at the Exchequer. Let him as-
sure himself that the theory of taxation is not a
matter to be perfected in the solitude of a study.
The incidence ot a tax is to be learned from actual
observation. The small tradesman can occasionally
give as much information on such a subject as the
most brilliant financier. Let Mr. GLADSTONE make
use of the information of practical men ; let him

read over the minutes of evidence given before the
Committee of the Rouse ; and let bim glean facts
from the real world in business quarters. A fort-
night passed in this mumr might enable bins to
give us a Property Tea freed from most of the ob-
jectionable features of the present, and would pro.
serve to the Ministry much of that popularity which
they will otherwise assuredly lose.

IT is now becoming obvious that all chance of bring-
ing to exposure and punishment those who were
engaged at the last general election in the business
of systematic bribery and corruption is for the most
part at an end. A few cases like Canterbury and
Bridgenorth arc likely to be tried, and hypocritical
homilies will no doubt be written and spoken en the
remarkable instances of electoral depravity furnished
by the inquiries, which cannot well be avoided, into
the proceedings which took place at Derby, Liver-
pool, and elsewhere. But it is well understood, on
all sides, that so long as the matter is one of remark-
able instances there is little real danger to the system
or the craft. If the public, indeed, were once made
thoroughly aware of the prevalence and intensity of
the evil, election jobbing, as a lucrative trade, could
hardly long continue to exist. The trade, like most
others, consists of two parts, the wholesale dealers in
the metropolis, and the small retailers in the
country. The representation of the people is the
commodity in which these contrabandists deal, and it
happens, unfortunately, that so many of those to
whom has been entrusted the duty of acting in the
capacity of a preventive service, are themselves so
deeply committed by complicity in malpractices, that
they are u willing to see a case for inquiry silently
fall to the ground as the wretched knaves who have
disbursed or received the money, or the greater
rogues who have, as it is termed, " negotiated the
affair."
Every day since Parliament has met wo hear of
additional election petitions having been withdrawn.
The notoriety of the facts, incapable of being proved
in manyof these eases, renders it wholly impossible for
any man ofcomm on intelligence or ordinary information
to look his neighbour steadily in the face and say
that he does not understand the reason why. Every-
body who wants to know, knows well enough why
case after case has thus been hushed up. They have
been " settled out of court," as the phrase is with
reference to ordinary suits at law between private
individuals ; and after a little while any one who
is curious about the way io which the thing
has been done is pretty certain to be
told that the parties found they would merely have
put each other to ruinous expense; that neither
would have been able to secure the scat in dispute;
and that the end of the contest before a committee
would probably have been the discomfiture of both
by the disfranchisement of the borough. Upon the
whole, therefore, they deemed it better to come to
terms, settle the costs already incurred, have an un-
derstanding se to who should stand and who should
not next time, and, as the agents are wont to add,
" prevent a great deal of what would bo very un-
pleasant to all concerned." Such is the every-
day working,—the acknowledged and undeniable
working,—of the present scandalous system for the
trial of election petitions. A system which, as a
general remedy for a general and growing dimmer,'
deserves no better name than that of an organised
hypocrisy.
- Mr. LOCKE KING has given notice, we perceive, of
a motion for a select committee to inquire into the
causes which had led in each particular instance to
the withdrawal of petitions against members returned
at the late elec.ion whose scats have been impeached
on the ground of bribery or treating. There can, of
course, be no objection to such a committee. It is a
kind of drag-net in which here and there an unwary
delinquent mg be caught. We wish the hon. mem-
ber for East Surrey good speed, and it will
be hard if he toils during the whole session,
and at the end of it shall have taken
nothing. But it were worse than an empty compli-
ment to Mr. Kiso's good intentions, to affect to
believe for a single moment that by any such con-
trivance he will ever succeed in detecting or dragging
to justice the chief criminals or the majority of
them. He might just as well empanel a jury of
poachers to make a general inquisition as to why so
many cases of poaching, in all of which the infor-
mations had been duly taken, had never been
brought to trial, the principal witnesses in each case
being some of the poachers themselves. We hero
too vivid and keen a remembrance of the failure
of a similar experiment some years ago. In
1842 Mr. ROEBUCK moved for • select com-
mittee for the same purpose, and combated
all the objections which were then sought to be
thrown in his way with the singular courage and elo-
quence by which he was distinguished. He got his
committee at last, and they devoted much time sod
persevering toil to the ascertainment of facts and the
moral inculpation of all manner of upper and under
servants of corruption. Any one who is curious
in the antiquities of political scoundrelism may find
much amusing reading in the evident* taken before
Mr. ROEBUCK'S committee. But what did it end
in ? Or what practical good did it do? Un-
happily none at all. This was not Mr. Rounices
fault. He did his best; but his host was
baffled. And so will Mr. Bum's, unless some
very different means be found for making the
inquiry than we are aware of, or can indeed
conceive, for be it remembered that such a pro-
needing is nothing more or lees than an attempt to dis-
cover and put upon record, the particular circum-
stances of a vast variety of crimes, the principal pperpe-
tratorsof which are no longer liable to be arraigned
before any legal tribunal The petitions are with-
drawn. In each instance there is an end to the cam.
Plaintiffs and defendants have shaken hands, and
hostile agents have dined together and had a long
laugh over the "capital dodge." Evidence may be
produced before Mr. Lao's committee that a man
in a brown wig, who gave his =UM as PSTIZa
JoNes visited a particular borough, two
days before the last election, and dispersed therein
for certain suspicious purposes several hundred
pounds; and a Bank credit may be proved in an-
other case to have been used by Mr. BLINKING Fan-
ner, the well known electioneering agent in a certain
western borough, for no less a sum than one thou-
sand pounds. But trial or. punishment, example or
prevention, restitution or justice, there can be none
by man! of such an inquiry. Its aim is confessedly
not specific, with reference either to places or per.
sons, but general and preparatory with a view, we
to future legislation. In this sense we cheer-
fall its timeliness and value, although we
con ere that we are of those who consider the ease
already made out amply and clearly ; and that we as-
cribe the painful and perilous indifference of Parlia-
ment on the subject to something very different from
want of information, or want of power, to deal
with it

So long as the trial of election petitions is treated
as a cause of civil action between two irresponsible
individual s, the whole proceeding will always. be
liable to be conducted as a mere wager of pecuniary
battle, in which the longest purse is almost sure to
win, or to be cut short by a fraudulent compact
between the parties. If bribery means any.
thing criminal, it means an offence, not
against another man who bribes, but against
society and the State. If it does not de-
serve to be prosecuted and punished as
lan outrage upon public decency, and an attempt to
injure the public safety, it were better to abandon
the idea altogether of suppressing or preventing it.
Whenever Parliament shall be compelled by public
opinion to surrender its favourite crime to the hands
of public justice, and whenever bribery at elections
shall be made summarily indictable, Lie any other
misdemeanor, before the ordinary tribunals, some
hope may be entertained that an efficient check may
be put upon the spread of the system ; but not till
then. As it now stands, there is practically no re-
straint whatever of a penal kind upon indiscriminate
and wholesale corruption ; and there never can be
until the civil rights of opposing candidates to a seat
in the House of Commons are adjudicated upon dis-
tinctly and separately from criminal proceedings
against those who offer or bestow bribes. Let the
House of Commons retain its jurisdiction with re-
gard to the former ; but let them surrender the
Latter, which they are utterly unfit and unworthy
to exercise.

THE LAW TO Pasvayr CREELTT To ANIMALS.
—On Saturday was printed Mr. T. Doneembe's bill is the
House of Commons, to give the right of appeal is all eases
on conviction of cruelty to animals. At pretest the right
is only given to penalties exceeding V., which is declared
by the bill to bee "great injustice."

ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE
THE EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA.

We bare received the following particulars of the
attempt to assassinate the Emperor of Austria:
" His Majesty was walking on foot on the ram-
parts of the town, when a man rushed upon him in
a moment and struck him with a poinard. The
blow was happily warded off by an aide-de-amp—
the Count O'Donnell. His Majesty was wounded
but very slightly, below the oeciput.
"His Majesty returned on foot to his palace, where
the inhabitants of every class went in crowds, to tes-
tily their devotion and indignation.
" The assassin, who is an Hungarian, 21 years of
age, was struck down by a blow of the aid-de-camp's
sword, and was arrested immediately.
" Another 1110101_1/e, dated the 1916, announces that
the health of his Majesty is very satisfactory."

FRANCE.

PARIB, SUNDAY Ersignio.

The King of Wurtemberg his returned a reply
through his Minister at Paris to the notification of
the Emperor's marriage. The Austrian minister has
presented letters from the Emperor, notifying the
decease of the Archduke Regnier Joseph. The
Emperor goes into mourning for nine days. The
Papal Nuncio has presented letters from his 101 -
Deal.

----
The vice-admirals, admirals, and captains at this
moment in Paris have been summoned this day to
receive a communication from the Minister of

Rumours have been in circulation for the last few
days of the probability of an alliance by treaty. be-
tween France, England, and two or three m►nor
States, with a view to counterbalance the power of
the north of Europe, and this day these rumours
were still more rife. That many people are very
desirous of a friendly understanding between the
two governments there is no difficulty in believing,
but between a regular treaty and friendly relations
based on reciprocal interest there is a great diffe-
rence.

According to orders from the Minister of Marine,
the artillery and the marines assembled at Toulon,
Brest, Rochebourg, Cherbourg, and Cette, to take
the oath of fidelity to the Emperor. At the in-
stance of the officers in command, this ceremony
took place simultaneoaly on board all vessels belong-
ing to the Imperial navy.

PARIS, SATURDAT EVeNING.
The anticipated decree traneerring the direction of
the Beaux Arts from the Ministry of the Interior to
the Ministry of State appears in the Monitevir this
morning. The transfer appears upon the face of the
decree to include every branch of the department,
without exception; but, according to an explanation
in a government journal, given below, the Minister
of the Interior will vet retain the management
of certain parts of this department. The
imperial archives are also to be removed to the
ministry of state. The preamble of the decree con-
firms the view I took yesterday, that the principal
object of the measure was to place the fine arts more
immediately under the patronising care of the Em-
peror. It states that the management of the im-
perial &chives naturally belongs to the Minister of
State, who is the intermediate agent of the govern-
ment in its relations with the great political bodies.
That it is important in the interest of the fine arts
that the measures taken for their encouragement
shoald be subject to one uniform direction. That, be-
sides, the Emperor wishes to give a special proof of his
solicitude for the fine arts by placing them as much
u possible within the sphere of his immediate action.
The decree, using the powers lately conferred upon
the Emperor, of transferring credits voted by the
Corps Legislatif, from one ministry to another, di-
nets that all the credits in the budget of the Minister
of the Interior for the fine arts and the archives shall
be transferred to the ministry of state. The late
edition of the Petrie this evening says that the su-
perintendence of the theatres of Pails, with the ex-
ception of the opera, and also of the publie monu-
ments, will remain with the Minister of the Interior.

General Getman has arrived in Pans from Rome.
The Press* says of Lord John Russell's despatch to
Sir Henry Bulwer, relative to the affair of the
Madiai:

Official policy has rarely pat forth such generous words,
and we believe that this despatch will remain a monument
of honour to the English people and the nineteenth century.
♦ nation which makes such a use of the ascendancy it has
acquired in the world, well &serves to be called a groat
nation.

At the Swale to-day people talked of several great
undertakings said to be on the lapis under the
auspices of the Societe Mobiliere. It was said that
the most influential of the companies competing for
the transatlantic packets bad come to an understand-
ing with the society, and that the other companies
would join the combination. It was also reported
that the society would be authorised by government
to farm the canals, and to manage several other
portant enterprises. The "fusion" lines were badly
supported, the delays in bringing the negotiations to
a conclusion creating uneasiness in the holders of
shares.

One of the few eminent legitimist converts to the
empire, the Marquis de Paatoret, wu nominated to
the rank of a grand officer of the Legion of Honour
by Charles X , just before the revolution of 1830
broke out, but in consequence of that event the
appointment wu never registered. The Emperor
has just ordered the nomination to be duly recorded
as from 1830.

An order has lbeen sent to Cherbourg to fit out
the screw-steamer Duroe, of 120-horse power. She
is to proceed to Tahiti, to form part of the eguadron
on that station.

A telegraphic despatch from Toulon announces
the sailing of the experimental squadron from that
poet for a ten days' craze.
The following is the composition of the ecclesiasti-
cal household of the Emperor: The Bishop of Nancy,
first chaplain ; the Abbe Timarche, cure of Ham
(with a title of bishop isporaus), second chaplain ;
M. Dolan., rand near to the chaplain ; M. Mullors,
first chapelows • Vercini, second ditto ; M. Liabeuf,
third ditto; and Lanes, fourth ditto.
Prince Pierre Bonaparte arrived at Marseilles on
the loth, and embarked on the following day on
board the packet for Corsica.

PARIS, ?anus Evan's°.
The event of to-day is the decree raising the pay
of all the sub-officers in the army, including the
irie, by ten centimes a day from the lit of spnnllarnmexet.
-They who are satisfied with the peaceable declare-
time
nounced reduction of the army evidence of a settled
intention to alter the hitherto military character of
his frovernment, will probably not be alarmed at the
addition of a penny a day to the slender emoluments
of the sub-officer. The ordinary soldier's pay in
France, as in all other countries, is proverbially
so small, that sympathy is naturally enlisted
in favour of any augmentation, and the civilian
to whose mind a penny a day is scarcely an assign-
able quantity, will cheerfully though doubtingly
hope that the sub-officer may find in it moms notable
addition to his comforts. Nevertheless, in a military
point of view, the decree of this morning is highly
important, and the principle upon which it is based
'still more so. Large standinl armies are at the best
so ruinous to a state that all civilised nations are
forced b 3 necessity to limit the soldier's pay to an
amount barely sufficient to provide him with coarse
food, rough lodging, and serviceable clothing. The I
love of adventure, the prospect of glory, and thehope
of promotion, is, in the eyes of a few, sufficient com-
pensation for the want of the pecuniary advantages
they might flud in another career; but to the
many, the certainty of daily bread brings their scanty
pay to a level with the larger occasional gains of the
labourer and artisan. A soldier has no pecuniary
cares. He cannot, if he would, get into debt, so as
to diminish his daily use of the necessaries of
life. The principal part of his pay is laid
out for him to the best advantage in the purchase of
everything essential to his condition. In the French
army the soldier born of poor parents lives better
than he would do at home. Strictly speaking, he
has no occasion for pocket money, and whatever little
he may have is a luxury. The non-commissioned
officer, with no other wants than the private, has, of
course, a slight proportionate increase of pay. The
ten additional centimes per day is, therefore, a
bonus of a most attractive kind. It will bury infinite
I quantities of tobacco, and, in many parts of France,
a good bottle of wine per day. The term " lOUS I
'Amer" does not, like the English word " non-com-