The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-02-19 00:00:00

TIIE DAY'S NEWS.

Sir John Pakington, Mr. Cobden, and Lord John
Russell, are all rowing in the same boat. Such is
the fact. The former gentleman last night, in the
House of Commons, broached his educational
scheme, and both Lord Jtd Russell and Mr.
Cobden had something io say in its favour. In
stating the natuls of the bill he intended to intro-
duce, Sir sTz_plin Pakington said that its passage
would_ lint reverse the declsiun of tha Rouse last
nar. His bill was permissive instead of compul
'tory, and general instead of local. The principles
contained in his bill were—that there should be
religious toleration, that there should be a local
rate for schools, awl that they should he under the
control of the ratepayers The bill has been drawn
• up, tit.:UOI anis C.Sir ;lobo Pakington, by a committee
of eminent and able mer, combining equal numbers
of two parties— the religious arid secular. The
religious party had consented that the rate should
be extended for the benefit of secular schools, and
the secular party on the other hand had agreed
that the rates should extend to all schools coining
up to a certain standard, on condition only that the
money contributed by the ratepayers should not be
applied to doctrinal teaching. The rate would be
granted to any school coining up to the standard, and
there wouht be no compulsion to learn doctrines to
. which the parents ajseted. Mr. Cobden generally
ait-oported the scheme, as also did Lord John
Russell and Mr. Ewart, and leave was given and
the bill brought in. The scheme will meet much
• opposition on the second reading, and it is hardly
. Probable that it will become law in the present
shape. It is too much in advance of the ideas of
the Tory school, and we fear they will oppose it
might and main, notwithstanding that it is brought
into the house by one of their " shining lights."
Mr. Gladstone evidently intends to make an
onslaught on the financial propositions of Sir G.
C. Lewis ; and Mr. Disraeli is also preparing to do
battle against the Budget. The two ex-Chancellors
of the Exchequer seem to have listened to the
scheme submitted by Sir G. C. Lewis, for the
consideration of the house, with much the same
feeling as that evinced by some " spirited game
cock " who has heard the crowing of a favoured
rival, and who longs to respond to it
by a shrill note of defiance. The -right hon. mem•
ber for Bucks, prompt in action as he is abundant
in words, is ready with an amendment, which
nothing but a slight formal obstacle prevented his
moving three evenings since. He said enough,how
' ever, to show that his intention is to take the sense
of the house on the whole financial arrangements
of the Government. If this move should fail, Mr.
Gladstone is determined to still embarrass the
Ministry, for last night he gave notice that to mor
row night, on the motion for going into Committee
of Ways and Means, he should move the following
resolution ;—" That this house will not agree to
any addition to the rates chargeable by the Customs
• Duties Acts of 1555, upon the articles of Tea and
Sugar," so that the Government will have a trying
time of it.
The local and domestic news of the day is
unusually barren of interest; hardly an incident
worth noticing. On Tuesday, a vast multitude of
the unemployed and others interested in the
depressed condition of the labouring population,
assembled in London at the invitation of Mr.
Earnest Jones, who addressed them at considerable
length about his peculiar land scheme.
Turning to foreign news, we have but little to
lay before our readers this morning. The Em
peror's speech has been very well received in
France. The hopes of the free traders have been
revived by the passage which alludes to the foolish
alarm of the protectionist mauutacturers at the
announcement of the Government being about to
undertake a reform of the tariff. The Emperor
re-assures these manufacturers, but ke no means
gives up the idea of reforming the tariff. He only
intimates that he hopes to be able to 'carry it out
with the consent of the people, when the doctrines
of political economy shall be better understood.
The Emperor cannot conceal the pride he
feels at the part which his country has lately
played in the conflict with Russia, and the
tone he assumes leads to the fear that, as an
ally, it will be difficult long to curb an ambition
which belongs to the traditions he reveres, and to
the model which he studiously endeavours to
imitate. M. Kisseleff, the Russian Ambassador,
has arrived in Paris from Nice. It is asserted, with
seine confidence, that the negotiations between
Ferukh Khan and Lord Cowley have not led to any
satisfactory result. The departure of the Persian
ambassador for London is deferred, and doubts are
even expressed in official circles whether he will
visit that city at all, It was understood that he
would have taken to London the material for a new

treaty with him ; but now it appears a delay at
least has occurred in the peaceful march of events.
We have dates from Constantinople to the 9th
of February. They confirm the information already
received, to the c ffect that the Commission for the
delimitation of Bessarabia expected to conclude
their labours lay the end of February. • The Con.
stantinople papers are taken ep with details
concerning the approaching simultaneous marriage
of three daughters of the Sultan, and of an affray
at the Constantinople Exchange, caused by an
attempt of the directing committee to exact an
admission fee. The shar..3 of the Smyrna Aidin
Railway had all been disposed of, mostly among
the great functionaries of the Ottoman empire
themselves.
Prom all accounts, the war between Russia and
the Circassians is about to be resumed. A re-
port from the Russian •Minister of War, which
has just reached us, declares that the truce con-
cluded with Schamyl during the Eastern war
expired in the month of May, 1856, and that
operations against that leader have been begun
along the whole line of the Caucasus.
Our Spanish advises confirm the report of a:
complete rupture between Narvaet and the
Absolutist party. Carlist journals are suppressed,
the Queen has been prevented from going to
Andalusia, where a Carlist movement is said to
he in preparation, and an unexpeted degree of
liberty is left to the movements of the Progressist
party.
Letters just received from Frankfort inform us
that the Legislative Assembly have sanctioned
the proposed literary convention, after an ani-
mated debate.

Yesterday, Bacon and his wife, charged with the
murder of tv:eir two children, were brought up at
the Lambeth Police Court, for further examination,
and, on this occasion on the additional charge of
the wilful murder of Mrs. Bacon, senior, at Stam-
ford, on the 13th of May, 1855. As the examination
was about to proceed, the following telegraphic
message was received, dated Stamford, yesterday
morning :—" Arsenic is found by Dr. Taylor." The
prisoners were again remanded.

THE Palmerston Budget furnishes another
illnstration of the fable of the old man and his
ass. It is impossible to please everybody, espe-
cially when one must suffer in order to benefit
another. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER'S
abandonment of the Malt Duty as a sop to the
national sin of drunkenness, and the refined
political sentimentality of the landed interest,
has called forth a loud expression of disgust from
the Tea Trade. Relieving the drunkard's pot
of 2,000,0001., and reducing the tax on the
household cup of tea from Is. 9d. to Is. 7d ,
instead :of ls. 3d., is dealing most unscrupu-
lously with the country. The reduction of the
duty promised last year was from Is. 9d. to Is.
3d., we are therefore to have a war 4d. on the
poor man's every day necessary of life, in order
to enable a Ministry to take the war 9d. off the
rich man's property ! This is trifling with the
morality and best interests of the community.
The day has gone by for governing Great Britain
by paltry artifices, The people were solemnly
promised a gradual reduction of the Tea duty,
viz., to Is. 3d. on the 6th of April, 1857, and to
Is. on the fiLh of April, 1858. But instead of

this, and after the Tea Trade have made all
their contracts on the faith of the financial state-
ment of last year—a very different plan is pro-
posed, namely, a duty of Is. 7d. for 1857-8 ; for
1858-9, ls. 5d.; for 1859-60, Is. 3d.; and from
that period, ls. By this plan, it will take us
three years and two months to reach the reduc-
tion promised by the PALMERSTON Cabinet on
the 6th of April next !
-We are now suffering all the throes of a
financial crisis. Property has been taxed until

it cannot longer bear it ; Income has been mulcted
until oppression has reached the most deserving
classes of society ; and now labour is to be taxed,
and the poor man's daily comfort is to be kept
from him, rather than lay aside a lavish State
expenditure ! There are no real national trials
except those which date from finance, and they
are not to be overcome by petty juggling. Re-
vising a Budget to suit all parties, in an assem-
bly of classmen and placemen, and leaving the
items of expenditure contained in the estimates
untouched, will not do in these days. There are
such things as sound principles of finance,
and they must be resorted to where large
measures are required. Indirect taxation is a
roundabout way of basing taxation on population;
and surely this is not the foundation on which
the PALNIERSTON Ministry would raise such a
fiscal superstructure as that displayed in their
Budget, with the pauper returns before them,
and thousands of unemployed operatives in the
Metropolis and scattered broadcast over the
whole face of the realm. Industry cannot exist
under the operation of inconsiderate, much less
excessive, taxation. We must look to the
realised profits of the community, and foster
productive labour, until the increased products
of the loom and fertility of the soil swell the
nation's gains to a point which can bear the
strain. Free Trade--unjuggled, honest, perfect
Free Trade—is the only species of State Policy
which will render direct taxation bearable or
possible. Giving away the farmer's malt, and

leaving a war tax of fourpence on the poor man's
tea, is an expedient totally unworthy of great
and enlightened statesmen. The advocates of
temperance, who make no boast of their profound

financial knowledge, would have devised a more
moral, if not a more promising, plan of raising

revenue.

It is ridiculous, however, to suppose that we
are to have huge camps of idle soldiers and
monster fleets fed on malt. Lord DERBY or
Mr. DISRAELI could scarcely have expected such
a thing. The " concession" was one which
ought to have been refused if it was ever
solicited. Let those who will drink malt liquors
pay for them, and the higher the better ;
but to feed crime, the more necessary and less
harmless beverages of the people, ought
not to be heavily taxed, more particularly
as we are told that when labour is fully
employed and wages are good, we are " over-
trading," and that when the productive capi-
tal of the country is fully and remuneratively
employed, we are " over-speculating," and
ought to be restrained within Cockney bounds
by a legislative Bank screw. Where the State
very ingeniously interferes by this instrument
with the prices of all commodities, and will
keep down employment and profits to what a
few hireling journals call " discretion," it