The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-08 00:00:00

ITax, all of which may be taken as fairly repre-
senting the commercial condition of the country.

Now, our object in going thus minutely into this
subject, is to show there are fixed laws to which
all our financial operations must succumb ; and
we do not hesitate to assert, that if the present
rates of interest are continued, the Revenue for the
Ist quarter of 1856, will very little exceed 11,000,0001.,

or the sum received for the corresponding period
of 1854. After expending within the year
64,457,993 K., there was a deficiency of 3,879,7501.
to be made up by an issue of Exchequer Bills to
pay dividends and other charges " payable on the
"quarter ending the 31st of March, 1856;" and this,
after the 16,000,000/Joan had been received and ac-
counted for. The Returns before us give the fiscal
receipts for the year, but only give the disburse-
ments for the quarter ; yet, when we add to the
amount of revenue received under specific heads,
namely., 64,457,9931., the loan of 16,000,0001, it
gives a gross amount of 80,457,993/ leaving us
debtor to the current quarter 3,879,7501. This
being something near our position at present, and
seeing the Exchequer must be largely replenished,
no matter whether we continue the war or return
to peace, it is just possible that the Bank of
England may again advance their rates of interest.
There are few more plausible reasons to be
assigned for such a step in these days when gold,
and not patriotism and loyalty, rules the roast.
But, will Her MAJESTY'S Ministers and the Legis-
lature take no heed of the salutary lesson which
may be learned from the Returns before us ? Will
they always treat with contempt and throw aside
practical illustrations, for theories and crotchets ?
Will they reiterate the assurance given by
Mi.c.kuLav that BENTHAM'S defence of usury has
set that subject at rest for ever, while its effects
are so unmistakeably shown on the face of every
statistic they issue in connection with trade, com-
merce, industry, and Revenue ?

We have shown that during a season of relaxa-
tion in the rates of discount, the Revenue
progressed steadily from 11,000,0001. to 17,000,0001.,
and 'at the moment a panic point was at-
tained the Revenue recoiled again with a rapidity
perfectly astounding, considering the vast addi-
tions made to taxation within the year. If the
war is to be carried on with anything like greater
vigour than it was during the past twelve months,
more money will be required ; and when the
Government do ask for a loan, it will be better for
all parties concerned, if they state at once the
amount they will require to carry them through
the fiscal year. Whatever is wanted for the
defence of the country must be supplied ; and the
public knowing this, will submit to the infliction
without a murmur, and the depression will be
much less than if they are kept in constant antici-
pation of further advances being required. But it
has become a question whether another
10,000,0001. even can be taken from the Money
Market without producing a crisis. If the Bank
of England resort to further restrictions and raise
the rates of interest another one per cent. by the
way of facilitating the operations of the CHANCELLOR
of theExcHEonEa, what then is to become of trade,
and what estimate of Revenue for 1850 will Sir G.
CORNEWALL LEWIS venture to lay before Parlia-
ment ? If current rumour is to be believed, a
terrific exhaustion of the precious metals has
been going on without interruption from the Ist
of January, 1848, up to the present time. We have
not yet heard, on any reliable authority, what we
have really lost, and what has become of the large
quantities of gold which have reached this country
since the date above specified. A little wholesome
agitation may clear up the matter ; but unless
a few millions of bullion can be thrown into the
vaults of the Bank to sustain public confidence,
sonic other scheme must be devised than that of
increasing taxation, and raising loans from a
country with a contracted and diminishing circu-
lation, and usury eating up profits and property.

MACAULAY, after a lapse of ten years, has pro-
duced the third and fourth volumes of his history
of England. History of England did we say? If so

we merely repeated the title given to a long
catalogue of the sources from whence all our former
historians drew the facts which gave tone to their
lucubrations. Every history of Great Britain
was written under the immediate eye of a sovereign
or by the pampered favorites of a Court party ; but
we never had until now the sacredness of this
great work entrusted to a partisan who voluntarily
attached himself to a defunct political faction. It
would be impossible within the limits of an article
such as the present, to quote from Mr. MACAULAY'S
recently published volumes to prove the accuracy
of what we say. It is enough that the public
hold in their hands many thousand copies of his
work, to which they can turn if they doubt the
reasonableness of our strictures. The province
of the historian is to search diligently after truth,
and to eschew every thing like giving a false
colouring to the motives of party, or those of the
individuals he may drag from the depths of by-
gone ages, or the silence of the more recently
closed grave. If the writer attempts to throw the
majesty of self over the character of those whose
conduct he undertakes to record, he should do so
simply as a philosopher, and not attempt to
measure the virtues, or vices, of the earlier stages
of human existence by the purity of the modern
presbytery, or an established church or political
party, whose whole career has been one of
unchequered failure.
As a Whig historian Mr. MACAULAY has been at
particular pains to bring to light every little
anecdote, incident, and perversion of reason,
which have lain dormant for centuries among
the manuscripts, pamphlets, and passing notices
of cotemporaneous writers of higher pretensions,
and more universally recognised worth. The
writer has, therefore, presented to the world, a
picture of the party whose cause he has espoused,
for the most part, in a painful light, and but rarely
records an instance of the triumphs gained by
their opponents' political virtue, or any other
moral means. With him, WiLia,tm was the beau
'Heal of monarchs ; JAMES 11., the naval hero of
England, the most weak and wicked of princes ;
the Irish nation cowards and runaways, and their
leaders, not forgetting SCARSFIELD, the most con-
temptible of beings ! His pictures of the political
and social conditions of England, Ireland, and
Scotland, entitle our Author to the name of Cos-
mopolite, since he paints all with the same brush,
and in the same black and revolting colours. Yet
the political and sectarian animus of the man is
there ; and MACAULAY rises triumphant in
platitudes, and well turned perorations, and what
in others would be disgusting, from him
tickles the literary palate of the age, and
passes into the popular paunch, but without
touching the mind of the reader, by the cool and
reflective wisdom of the historian. Few can
regret, more than ourselves, that at an epoch
such as the present, when men's minds are fixed
on a search after truth, and the attainment of more
solid information of the past whereby they may be
enabled to judge of the policy of the present day,
and to guide them in futurity, we should have