The Express.
London, England, 1849-03-14 00:00:00

MOH
.WAT.EI., AT LONDON SILIDOIR

TR. is-Zi.7l;ul-i:Zi1;47.71.733r.g.. pest S.
—llonalae. Simla. pest I; MU:mom 7 sta. poi S.

LONDONWEDNESDAY,MAR.I4

ENOUGH has been said of the manner is wh ch the
protectionist scheme of financial ebange. has been
brought forth. It is time to 'A what is its real
drift? Mr. DisataLi's merits es a rheto-
rician are great and unquestioned; but on subjects of
fiscal nieces and teem, plain, unromantic, straight.
forward pt-ople are apt to ask whether the advocate
e -mid not as easily speak just as well on the opposite
side of the question? Mr. DISRAELI is own all hands
valued and listimed to as an advocate. He may pos.
sibly have persuaded himself that the s'de he under-
takes to plead ter is as good a cause as any other.
But still it is notorious that nobody ever asks what
Mr. DISRAELI thinks upon any question. It is only,
what will he say?—that being all, in fact, which is of
the least importance in the esteem either of friends or
foes. _ _ _

And so the question—now that the orator's fire-
works have all died oat—remains to be asked and
answered—what was it all for? The entertainment
was very amusing and brilliant ; but 'who gave it,
and what did it mean ? Not for nothing does a man
like Lord STANLEY, the recognised head of
the tory party, plot and propound in this
fashion. What would that hardy and headetrceg
chief of aristocracy be at? Whither would he direct
egricultaral diecontent when he had tantalised its
credulity, stimulated its jealousy, and worked its
premien into fury ? Lord STANLEY is no longer a
young man, though we believe that he is likely to die
a rash one. Lord STANLEY is not an inexperienced
man, it maey and early opportunities of knowledge
always conferred experience. Lord STANLEY ma
hardly be called a disappointed man, though
he has be!onged to both eider, and by both in turn
been made to feel that his alienation was regarded
rather as a relief than a loss, end that his alliance
was deemed only hes dangerous than his hostility.
Upon the whole, it is impossible to review his past
career, and contemplate his actutl position as undies
puted head of the class whose passions and whom
prejudices he impersonates so strikingly, without the
reeling teat an• h a man cannot bo suspected lightly
of throwing such a position away. Yet throw it
away he must, if in public he hoists a conspicuous
standard, and entrusts it to his beat man to earls
only for the purpose of seeing it flaunt gaily for an
hour, and then be trodden in the deist.
The plan, as pictured forth by the eminent paths.
mentery artist, if taken in its literal simplicity, hum
little air of practicability about it, that one is driven
to the alternative of looking rather beyond what hu
been spoken in its behalf, and to inquire what ulti-
mate purpose it may be put forward to forerun. The
transfer of six millions of local rates and charges to
the consolidated fund, would, all the world
knows, benefit the owners, not the occupiers
'of land—the landlords, not the farmers ; foe
all these rates and charges are deduc eine in the
main from rent, and where they are lightened the
amount paid in rent is just so much augmented.
Neverhelt ss it may be admitted that there are some
cases of sebeisting contracts where such a transference
of fiscal pressure would operate as a direct relief; and
doubtless every artifice of popular delusion would be
put in requisition for the purpose of persuading the
entire body of the farmers of England that they would
all be benefited equally by thn change. Then comes
the question,—how is room to be made for
the transferred load on the consolidated fund?—
With grave assurance Mr. DIbRAELI says—the sum
which would be wanted by the general exchequer in
order to meet this new demand might be raised
.112
various ways :—the simplest would be by an p-
crew, or as he graphically termed it, an apans"
of the income tax. The irony of this seems to have
been somewhat overdone. His backers did not laugh
as the orator perhaps reckoned on their doing; and
his expectant opponents taking it for onion, simply
cried—pooh, pooh ! Everybody seemed to feel that
such an impossible crotchet did not merit deliberate
attention, and some have probably with too contemp-
tuous and indolent disdain resolved to inquire no
further.
It seems to us as though it were intended by the
obvious impracticability of such an expedient to drive
men to the cone mplation of other and less unattain-
able methods of accomplishing the grand &foga.
And these, from the nature of them, are too few and
manifest to admit of any doubt. Add six millions a
year t. the permanent burtbcos of the country
for the purpose or on the pretence of relieving
particular class of the community therefrom, asd the

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