The Express.
London, England, 1861-04-29 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 29.

Ir rumour is to be believed, there is to be a '
division on the initiatory state of the Budget after I
all. Having made the mistake of entering into a I
iesultory discussion on financial policy, which from 4
its nature was only calculated to dissipate en- 1
thusiaam and dispel whatever belief of earnest- 1
DIN existed in the Conservative ranks, the leaders I
of that worst handled of parties are, it is said, '
about to make the second mistake of risking a
general engagement after they had suffered their
troops to gat disheartened and disorganized. The
fear of being thought afraid is a bad counsellor at
all times ; but in the present instance it seems to
have betrayed those who listened to it into a
double blunder. Mr. DISRAILI and his colleagues
that were and wish to be, shrunk from the suspicion
of being thought afraid to grapple with the financial
exigencies of the year, after Mr. GLAIMITOX eft
proposal to deal with them ; and now we are told
by many, and we believe truly, that they have
been taunted and treated by their irrational and
incapable followers into resolving to convert what
they meant only to be a general talk into a de-
cisive action, the issue of which they cannot hope
to be other than a decisive defeat. For some
days, it is said, they have been;tryinito beguile •
certain malcontent Whig into offering himself se
leader of the forlorn hope ; and if the conscious-
ness of already occupying a forlorn position on his
own side is calculated to induce • man to take
desperate service on the other, there may be •
certain metaphysical consistency in the transition.
Ito bag as the overt act, however, is uncommitted,
we are willing to hope that a course so suicidal
may not be actually taken. With or without
a fraternal henchman, the defection of any second-
rate politician whose ambition may be greater
than his ability to secure the object of his desires,
must be an act of fatuous folly. It can make no
difference worth speaking of in the general com-
parison of party strength ; bat it must tend to
postpone indefinitely the attainment of those
egotistical hopes which have treacherously prompted
it. As a mere matter of personal calculation it is
bad to be finally off with the old love before you
are safe of being on with the new ; and • man
who has been at the pains to prove that he is to
spare, and not wanted on his own side, runs a
great chance of being need, and let down by the
other. Be this ea it may, there will, we are certain,
be few deserters found when the issue is taken.
Whether the division be to-night or on Thursday
night, as some assert to be more likely, there will
be little of what is called cross-voting. Not • few
Tories, indeed, will probably be absent, and two or
three cis-clerolit Liberals may not be at their posts;
but in the main there will be one clearly and
broadly defined issue between the parties, the
great question being whether some rein or none
should be imposed on a profuse and excessive
public expenditure.

For to this, after all, it must come. Is there a
surplus or is there not 1 Mr. Batumi began the
debate by alleging that the surplus, if any, was
illusory and evanescent, and that we should want
all the money our present rate of taxation could
supply in the course of the next twelve months.
The premises cautiously laid down by the Member
for Huntingdon have been argued upon by every
successive speaker on the reactionary and spend-
thrift side ; while few, we are sorry to ray, of the
defenders of the Budget have with sufficient pluck
and plainness claimed for it its one great merit—
that of making a beginning in the direction
of economy. Mr. GLADttrum s says that be
is weary and conscience-stricken at the pub-
bc extravagance for which he is asked to
provide ; that in the sixth year of profound pesos
he cannot reconcile it to himself to refuse two
small reductions of taxation, the one in the Excise,

the other in the Income-tax ; and that if ho un-
dertakes to provide Seventy Millions for the
current year, Gevernment must contrive to do
with it, as he will be no party to taking more
money than that out of the people's pockets. The
advocates of extravagance deny all this. They
don't want to be limited or fettered in the outlay
of any department. Government by patronage—
that is, government by corruption—is the good old
way of Tory rule. That was the system in vogue
during the glorious days of universal taxation and
profligate borrowing, when Geosee 111. was King.
That was the system by which Reform was stifled
during the lifetime of whole generations of men,
and by which we, their descendants, have come
to be saddled irredeemably with Twenty-seven
Millions a year. Mr. Otaroriers knows, by ex-
perience, that if he provides Seventy-one or
Seventy-two Millions in Ways and Means for
1861, not a farthing of it will be forthcoming in
1862. Two years ago, when we had no Volun-
teer army in existence, we were told that it would
be unsafe to reduce the cost of national defence
below a certain point ; yet now, when we have
from eighty to a hundred thousand men disci-
plined, equipped, and reliable for service at twenty-
fonr Lours' notice, we are told that in point of
gross national expenditure it cannot make six-
pence difference, and that if we don't spend quite
as much helicetorth on militia and troops of the
line at home. we can all the better afford to
oleander millions on experimental works of
fortification and other jobs. The most
costly mechanism of nile is the best in
the eyes of Terrain ; the most frugal method of