The Express.
London, England, 1861-01-16 00:00:00

111 UTA% X lA.

tall IMMO, TIT PSI ?F(.i—AND THE CARE. Mown.
teat. Parrs. Jraa lowa. WI. sad Newham 11.111 e t.
Mr. Lute. Uri. W. rno:for4.—A.4 A N1L...A.4; TUL
SAA. Near. aod .amythours.

ETON WATIN AT LONDON BOWL
Ti) hAT —Denim Si Uzi .... A. "Ili
2t-siciim—Slorstai sa 47.

LONDOV, WEDNESDAY, ✓AN. 16.

nary additional Members of the House of
Commons have subscribed the appeal to Lord
PALMERNToPI in favour of • reduction of ex-
penditure which appeared in our columns last
week. For our part, we see no reason why
it should not be signed by one-half of that
Assembly ; and if closely pressed, we really know
not why it should not he endorsed by the other
half. Those who are at heart most in favour of
high estimates could not do better than make this
waive offering to frugality; and those who differ
from one another on every conceivable detail of
reduction may nevertheless concur in taking this
one step together. Put plainly, the case amounts to
this, that Seventy-two Millions in tune of peace is
more than anybody likes to have levied in the
shape of taxation, and more than anybody cares
to defend in the lump as indispensable. It is
something to bring people to say so este flute,
and in a clear and audible voice, on the eve
of the legislative session ; and as furnishing
an •xceptiorable text from which to preach re-
mission and retrenchment, the address to the
Paten is very well in its way. But after all,
everything must depend on the wisdom and force
of the preacher. Moving discourses we may
have, and no lack, from all manner of gifted and
giftless tongues, whereof no visible fruit whatever
will in all likelihood come. The nett result of
national economy sought to be achieved must de- '
penal in the main on the judgment and skill of the
Minister whose business it will be to turn the pre-
valent feeling to account; to take the general
profession of repentance for what it is worth, and
no more ; to test its sincerity by practical proofs
as far as it will bear, and no farther. Any Mill.
take on this head would be sure to provoke re-
newed relaxation of the national purse-strings, and
to postpone etti..ctive economy till what might
prove • less convenient season. It is in the amp
.I's.a that the genius of the financier is awns,
as much as that of the painter. Anybody
can make a suggestion, or present an ob-
ject or point of view worthy of study.
He who is entrusted with the task of combining
and harmonising all must be left • generous dis-
cretion as to what he will put prominently for-
ward, what he will but lightly touch, and what he
will omit altogether. If when it is finished his
desik,ni does not satisfy us, we may reject it and
call in another pencil to our aid ; but we repeat
that in • question of comprehensive financial re-
form it is the CHANICZLLOR of the EXCHEyt:ER to
whom the duty belongs of summing up, and leaving
the issue to the jury by whose verdict we are to
abide.

Meanwhile two methods of proceeding are advo-
cated with a view of bringing public opinion to
bear upon the cogitative faculty of our Finance
Minister and his colleagues. According to one
theory, " More is to be done by choking up the
" fountains than by buffeting against the full
" stream of extravagance : " and the mean-
ing of this admonition, so far as it is explained by
its authors, is, that we should look to
administrative reform of the Admiralty and War-
°lice rather than to any curtailment, or limitation of
votes in Committee of Ways and Means. The
alternative doctrine goes deeper into the matter,
and, rejecting the potion that the bronze mouths
of the official fountains in Pall-mall and White-
hall are the real sources whence the prodigal torrent
tows, they urge the necessity of drying up a por-
tion of the stream, if its wasteful tide be really
thought too large. It is certainly not easy to con-
trovert the force of this line of argument. So
long as the Treasury has seventy-two millions to
spend, spent they are tolerably certain to be.

ardminiairative reforms are excellent well in their
way ; and we would not be understood as mutter-
ing a word in deprecation or in depreciation of
them. But after classes B, C, and D of per-
manent or supernumerary clerks have been

cut down to the rates uamed in Trea-
sury Minutes as adeiinate for the pay-
ment of those who come within the categories
of 0, l, and Q respectively, and after parti-
tions shall have been broken through and extra
staircases cut off at the expense of so many thou-
sand pounds, for the sake of economising thirty
shillings a week to a half-employed messenger—
and when hot-water pipes have been put up on im-
proved principles, to save ordinary tires, and steel
pe:Ls have been contracted for by the million, to
avoid the scandalous waste of quills—we greatly
fear that we shall find it impossible to congratu-
late anybody upon the immediate advantage of the
change, save the fortunate contractors who may
have been favoured by the departments with the
execution of the business. Bescms, to the rescuet
fat not a spider's web escape. We despise not
the day of small things, and shall duly note and
acknowledge every sinecure sofa and unthrifty Tur-
key rug that is bundled out and sold for what it
will bring to the second-band furniture shop. But
when all has been said and done, we have a
painful misgiving that onr Seventy-Two enemies
in the shape of millions sterling of taxes will not
look appreciably less than they do now. There are
1nd....1 branches of the Civil Service that might be
rut down to looms purpose, as well as the Vi'ar-
die e and Admiralty. But so long as the question
..f Ways and Means is postponed to that of Supply,
awl so long as the comforts and pleasures of those
trio, ...pee, popular burthens are stinted or lavish
Jere ru proportion to the total amount of money
~s,•h year, we cannot help feeling a dismal
~ •oi mon MO Or, VorVercing o::e.s .Kill provide
1.., I' •• h •^y or ratiwr :'at they w. 2.11

make 1.1 provi7e fir theta. The more
taxes laid on, the better fee them and
the worse for t.s. Change and chop it,
refit and remodel it, combine and divi.ie it, how-
, ever you will, this is about the upshot of the whole
matter. If the House of Commons, or, as we like
,to speak inoderately, if one-half of the House of
IComnions were practically and directly responsible
to th.• people, through the medium of independent
cout!ituencies, for the votes they give in Commit-
tee of Ways and Means, there would soon cease to
be too much voted in Committee of Supply ; for
the best of all possible reasons, that there would
not be anything to throw away. And this is one
reason, perhaps—we might say it is the one great
reason—why so large a proportion of both Houses
object to Electoral Reform. They understand
perfectly that it means Economical Reform, the
thing of all others most abhorrent to luxurious
and listless sensibilities.

If the people at large are content, therefore,
with Seventy-Two millions of taxes (besides the
coin of collection) in time of peace, or if, being
discontented therewith, they only want to be
indulged in a good general grumble, they will
leave the matter where the appeal to Lord PAL-
welter ex leaves it. The friends of frugality
threaten the PREMIER with their displeasure
if he does not prepare to retrench ; but as
they do not condescend to particulars, the gallant
and gay Lothario of legislation will probably make
them a very handsome reply, in which he will say
that he " entirely agrees with them, and that all
" they have said shall have the best consideration
" of her Martsrv's Government with • view to
" curtail all superfluities of expenditure, and re-
" lieve the industry of the country—in a certain
" sense." Just so ; and when a deputation shall
have received this highly characteristic and emi-
nently patriotic answer, and the same shall have
been sent for publication to all the newspapers,
we shall discover that we are uncommonly near the
point at which we began. Then will oome the
practical question, what is to be done, and how to
do it ? At present we are about the preface :
very respectful, proper, tantalisingly vague, and
philosophically general. Only let it be borne in
mind that as fair words proverbially furnish no
condiment to food which is hard to digest, so
general admonitions to economies do not produce
the remission of taxes.