The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-02-05 00:00:00

TFIE NORTHERN

without comment. There was singular want of 1
artistic skill in the abrupt transition from the
foreign policy to the income tax. The con-
necting links 'v. re not clearly made out, and
the two resolutions with which the harangue
concluded— for the immediate reduction of the
war 9d., and the final cessation of the tax in P3OO
--seemed to hang by no other thread to the root of
the oration than what was supplied by a general
desire to bid for popularity at the expense of his
opponents."
The Paris papers are strangely silent upon the
subject of the recent decision of the Court of
Cessation upon the circulation of the electoral
bulletins. The Government has gently hinted that
it wants no further discussion upon this subject at
present. The Sitele has no comment upon the de.
cision, nor has the Debats—tho latter journal, how•
ever, hints at it obliquely in the praises it bestows
upon the parliamentary system of England. The De-
bats, for some weeks, has quite thrown off its anti-
English tendencies, and seems to take delight in the
policy of the British Government and the rule of
the British Empire. To day it calls attention to
the facilities which exist in England, for public
speaking, every class of the community, from the
highest to the lowest, Being able to Make known
its grievances, and to censure the acts of the
governing powers. The Debats seems to
look forward to the assembling of Parlia-
ment as to a pleaSurable and important
event in which it is personally concerned. A lover
of Constitutional, freedom and Parliamentary de-
bates, it turns with fondness to the English
house of Commons, an to a temple where the
holiest rites are performed. It is quite easy to
-understand thisfolillg:and the Debats answers a
double purp..=3se in expressing it. It keeps before
the to of its readers the advantages of consti,
tutional discussion, and hints to the Government
the path it ought to follow, the example it ought
to imitate. But for a touch of old fogeyism,
occasionally seen upon its articles and in its senti-
ments, the Debats would he the best paper in Paris.
It may, as it is, fairly claitn to be the best
edited. The decision of the Court of Cessation
has given great joy to one section of the com-
munity, and that by no meant an insignificent
section—the Royalists of both parties. Their
policy is to abstain in every way from mixing in
the matters of the present Government: They
have received instructions not to vote, and are
determined to fulfil them. It is deplorable that
the syetem of abstention shoull find so much
favour, but it will not always be thus.

Our local parliament had another grand field
day" yesterday, upon which occasion the Pike
advocates were prepared to carry everything before
them ; but, fortunately, they " reckoned without
their host," for the glaring absurdities of all the
sophisms addueed, were soon bloWn to the winds,
by the honest hearted opponents of the vile
mixture. The force of public opinion, in the
shape of the numerously and influentially signed
memorial created an impression that even its most
staunch supporters began to quail, and added force
to the arguments of those who had the health of
the town in their keeping. For other details of
home news, we refer cur readers to our columns ;
wherein will be found chronicled, all the leading
events at home and abroad.

WE have a bold foreshadowing of the policy
of the anti-Free Trade party, in Lord DERBY
and Mr. DISRAELI'S strictures on the Queen's
Speech. An immediate abolition of the War
Ninepence, and the Repeal of the whole Income
Tax in 1860, is to be the starting point of the
Opposition. There is, we repeat, great boldness
in this brief programme. It is to throw us back
within a miraculously short space of time, on the
old system of raising revenue from raw material,
and taxes on labour. The property classes can
scarcely desire to witness any such injustice, and
the Opposition can have no faith in the triumph
of the doctrine they preach. The utmost the
rnoct determined Financial Reformer salsa, i 3 the
prompt abandonment of the War Ninepence—
an equitable adjustment of Direct Taxation—
and that the Income Tax shall commence with
incomes above 1501. per annum. There are
some enthusiasts who demand more ; but the
country would be perfectly satisfied with the
above changes, for a time, at all events, or until
one of our periodical financial panics, originating
in the money market, shall render the public as
uneasy under their new fiscal burdens as they are
at this moment. We may venture, therefore, to
predict a signal failure for the Opposition in their
financial tactics.

If they can lead us, by a short and safe path,
back to the average expenditure of the ten years
ending with 1853, and cut down the outgoings
of the State to the time-honoured 51,000,0001.
of those economical times, they will certainly be
the men for Liverpool and the pets of Manches-
ter. Lord DERBY will then have made a Pro-
tectionist of Mr. BRIGHT, and Mr. DISRAELI will
have won the affections of Mr. GEORGE WILSON
and Mr. MILNER GIBSON. The honourable
member for Buckinghamshire bid high for the
hearts of all sane men, when he warned the
House against the folly of maintaining a large
military establishment in a time of peaee, and
the danger of placing its control in the hands of
one man. A course, so obviously impolitic and
un-English, could not fail to elicit cheers from
an assembly, who were not prepared to hear that
we may have CROMWELLS and ROMANOFFS
amongst us. The thunder contained in the idea
came upon them like the first shock of an
earthquake; still there was really nothing in the
explosion of Mr. DISRAELI'S vehemence beyond
what will occur in certain stages of leguminous
action. The direful lemma was not followed by
the announcement of any Constitutional and
patriotic device, whereby an Empire was to be
saved from the CJESARS We want something
more than pandering to political lust and place-
hunting licentiousness, to justify a reversal of a
large measure of economic philosophy. Besotted
selfishness, ignorance of first principles and time
—the Medidor of all errors—have long been con-
spiring to deprive industry of the means of bear-
ing its necessarily heavy share of the State's
burdens.

The word " means," as we interpret it, em-
bodies a far wider circle of considerations, and a
far more dangerous and unjust code of laws than
our taxation statutes heaped together. Her
Majesty's directing Parliament to consider the
expediency of renewing the Bank of England's
Charter, "for a short period,"—be the renewal
of that act limited to a month or week,—is a much
more alarming circumstance, and ought to be
viewed with greater consternation than a Minis-
terial announcement informing us that the In-
come and Property Tax was to be continued just
as it is for an indefinite number of years. The
income and property clases can calculate their
losses by direct taxation ; but how are they to
which
estimate the idustice and suffering to