Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-02-16 00:00:00

THE ARMY ESTIMATES.

Although the excess in the Army Estimates had been
made known through the speech of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, it was not until yesterday morning that
the details were issued.

The net increase for 1869-61, is £1,982,978. The
land forces in numbers are 143,362, being an increase
of 6,456.

The total sum required for the effective services for
the year 1860-61, is £12,707,625, being a net increase of
£2,539,202. The items of increase are as follows :
Laiid forces, pay and allowances, £775,162 ; land forces,
miscellaneous charges, £13i,423 ; departments of the
Secretary-for-War and the General Commanding-in-
Chief, £10,630 ; manufacturing establishments, &c.,
£14,965.; wages, £194,843; provisions, &e., £184,293;
warlike stores, £1,020,763 ; fortifications, £169,783 ;
educational and scientific branches, £5,340. The five
following items exhibit reductions, viz. :—Embodied
militia, a reduction of £260,000; Volunteer Corps,
£20,000; clothing and necessaries, £108,000; civil
buildings, £29,457; and barracks, £125,825.

The only items in the non-effective services whi ch
show an increase are—rewards for military service, £2O,
and superannuation allowances, £2,934. In the re-
maining items there are reductions amounting to
£15,836, the principal saving being £13,345 in the pay
of reduced and retired officers.
The total amount to be voted for the effective and non-
effective services for the year will be £14,842,275.

THE SHIPPING AND TIIE FRENCH

TREATY.

The following is the. letter of Mr. Horsfall to Mr. C.
Robertson, President of the Liverpool Chamber of Com-
merce, which was referred to at the meeting of that
body on Monday. Mr. Horsfall shows a most com-
mendable vigilance in his regard for that great staple
interest of the town which he so ably represents ; and
his letter may well give us confidence both in his
discretion and his watchfulness, as our representative in
Parliament :

" 6, Clifford-street, Bond-street, London,
February 11, 1860.
"My dear Sir,—l have no doubt you would read with
great pleasure Mr. Gladstone's able and powerful speech
of last night, embodying, as it does, so many of the
views which have been long held by the Chamber of
Commerce.

" Remembering the arrangement that you had kindly
promised to convene an early meeting of the chamber,
and put Mr. Ewart and myself in possession of its views,
I refrained from expressing any opinion last night, except
upon one point, which I do not see reported. It had
reference to the treaty, and not to the financial statement.
It appears from the treaty that the shipowners have
been entirely lost sight of. Never was there, in my
opinion, such an opportunity of negotiating with France
on the subject ; and yet it is considered that, so far from
any benefit being stipulated for on behalf of the ship-
owners, the 3rd article of the treaty makes the present
position of things even more binding than before. May

I request the favour of your bringing that clause under
the notice of the chamber. It was with special reference
to this subject, as I stated, that I urged the postpone-
,ment of the budget for another week. My honourable
colleague did not think it necessary, and was sure the
' whole scheme would satisfy his constituents. Ile may
be" right—and I am not finding fault with his opinion—
but it is so at variance with the views which I have
understood the Chamber of Commerce and the Ship-
owners' Association to hold with respect to the treaty.
that I shall be glad to hear from you on the subject. It
is not too late to Make' an effort, at least, to get the
treaty amended, should the chamber think proper, either
alone or in conjunction with the shipowners, to do so.
"This becomes the more important, because, on re-
ferring to the Correspondence which I have desired Mr.
Baines to send you, you will find on page 3 the follow-
ing remark—' The two governments will be free, for
example, to extend to all other countries the concessions
they.eugage to make to one another; and this extension
will, on the part of Enland, probably be effected by a
simultaneous act.'—Beheve me, my dear sir, yours very
sincerely, 'THOMAS B. lIORSFALL."

OPPRESSIONS OF THE INCOME-TAX OX THE
MIDDLE CLASSES.

,If England owes much to the commerce of her
people, for the high position she now occupies among
the nations of the earth,—for her wealth, her greatness,
her high civilisation, her progress in science •and art,
and in everything that can make a nation glorious,—she
owes it, in the main, to the influence of the middle
classes of her people. No other classes have contri-
buted so much to place her in the proud position she
has attained as a commercial country. They are classes,
therefore, which certainly deserve the consideration
of Parliament, in any alterations of our financial
and fiscal system, such as those which are proposed
in the Budget of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
And yet do these alterations threaten to oppress them
to a most unfair and injurious extent, in several respects,
but more particularly through the operation of the in-
creased Income-tax. The following remarks on this
subject we find in the Standard of yesterday, and we
heartily commend them to an attentive perusal :
"It is with a feelinrof honest indignation we observe
the attempt of the Palmerston Ministry to undermine and
destroy one great prop which upholds the middle classes
—viz., their power of accumulation. The argument to
the income-tax is not merely a fiscal scheme, it is a studied
endeavour to crush our middle orders. Either Minis-
ters are blind to the palpable results of their own policy,
or their intention is to impair the power which stands be-
tween the great families and the workmen. We ask whether
the intermediate classes can afford to pay the heavy
impost of tenpence in the pound on their incomes ? If
they cannot, the effect must evidently be to drive them
into debt and difficulties, or into a mean saving unsuited
to their position. We are speaking here of men with
incomes ranging from £2OO a-year to £l,ooo—the lower
rank of the middle classes and the commencement of the
upper. These are the men who are expected to live in
houses of their own renting, and to pay the usual house-
holders' rates and taxes. They must dress well. They are
supposed to be married men with families to provide for.
If they arc provident and kind they have their
life assurance policy to look to, and sonic seasonable
and customary gifts of charity. All this will make
the £2OO a-year men very closely driven to pay their
.way and make both ends meet. Their wives and
daughters must be of the right stamp—good house-
keepers, and good teachers, and good needlewomen, or
the esteblishment will fall to sixes and sevens, get out
of gear, and finally disappear in the Insolvent Debtors'
Court or emigration. It is out of the question to
suppose that such a man can afford Gladstone's income-
tax. But let us hurry at once to the other extreme—
the paterfamilias with a thousand a year. This revenue
requires to be supported. It is English usage to let the
position sustain the income as well as the income the
position. A shabby fellow, who keeps only one servant,
slaves his wife and daughters to death, has no style,
gives no parties, subscribes nothing, encourages nothing,
goes nowhere, and lives the life of the dog in the
manger, is soon cut. He loses caste ; and, ten to one,
but he oses his post too, or, at least, his chances of pro-
motion. Such a person is exceptional and rare in our
middle-class family life. When the real calls of his rank
and income are met; when he has discharged all his
obligations as well as his debts and liabilities honour-
ably (and how often will poor relations have to be con-
sidered ?), what margin will there be left for the oppres-
sive tenpence in the pound ? There may be some ;
perhaps there ought to be. But if he cannot
liberally afford to pay the impost, how can men
of a similar class do so with not half his income ? We
have viewed the two hundred, the five hundred, or the
thousand a year here as fixed incomes—an exceptional
contingency among persons of this rank. Their revenue
is for the most part their labour. They either toil as
clerks, or as clergymen, or as doctors, or as lawyers, or
as literati, or as small merchants. All depends on
their capability. If they cannot do their work, they
cannot delegate it, and so they lose their gains
with their pains. This is their condition. Should
no thought for the future occupy any part of
the incomes of these men, even beyond the indis-
pensable one of life assurance ? Have they not a day
of feebleness, old age, or sickness of their own to
provide for ? Even this tenpence in the pound well
invested might in time provide a little fund sufficient
to tide them over their hours of 'incapacity or loss of
situation; or it might, still more blessed, be enough
to enable them to live their last few years with much
of their former respectability. Can these men of
precarious incomes—one year more and one year less—
and at all times dependent on circumstances beyond
their control—can they afford Gladstone's levy? No ;
certainly not. It is almost inhuman to ask it. It is
driving them out of the position which sustains them
as a middle class, and thus sensibly impairing the• great-
ness of the nation. To say that the recipient of under
£l5O a year can afford the 7d. in the pound is still
further to extend the Gradgrind principle. He cannot
afford it and be honest, or he cannot afford it and main-
tain his humble independence.

A WIFE'S PROTECTION WITHDRAWN.

A NOVEL CASE.

At the Bow-street Police-court, yesterday (Wednes-
day), Lucy Flick appeared to a summons to show cause
why an order, which she had obtained to protect her
property and earnings against her husband, Edward
George Flick, and his creditors, should not be dis-
charged.
The proceedings excited considerable interest, both
on account of the novelty of the case, and also because
the magistrates at some other courts have declared that
they had no power to discharge a protection order.
Edward G. Flick, the complainant, deposed—This day
12 months, Valentine's day, 1859, I was arrested for
debt, and taken to Whitecross-street. A day or two
prior to that date I was living with my wife. I was
in prison about nine months, being remanded for eight
months from the date of the vesting order. Here is my
certificate. .

Mr. Jardine (after referring to the certificate)--I see
the vesting order was dated the 28th February. Then
you were discharged on the 28th February ?
Witness.—l think it was in November. I had not
deserted, my poor wife prior to my arrest. I was keep-
ing out of the way for about two months before, not to
desert her, but to avoid being taken. There was only
one judgment against me,_ and I thought I could settle
that, and so avoid going through the court.
In cross-examination by the defendant's solicitor,
complainant denied that he had ever ill-used his wife, or
introduced women of bad character to the house. Was
on one occasion brought to this court for an assault, on
the charge of a man whom he had found secreted in his
house one night when he came home earlier than he was
expected. Had gone home at intervals, chiefly on Sun-
day, during the two months that he was out of the way.
Mr. Jardine said this was wholly irrelevant. Any ill
usuage, or infidelity would not justify this order, which
had been granted solely on the ground of desertion.
The complainant had sworn that he had not deserted his
wife, and unless the defendant could show that he had
the order must be discharged.
Mr. O'Brien (clerk to the court) here read the infor-
mation sworn by the wife when she applied for the pro-
tection order on the 28th October, in which she deposed
that her husband had deserted her in November, 1858.
The wife being now sworn, repeated that statement,
and was about to go into charges of ill-treatment, &c.,
but was stopped by the court.
Mr. Jardine.—Why did you not tell me your husband
was-in prison ?
Defendant.—Because I thought he was out. I had
been told so.

Complainant.—You knew better. You had been
there to see me the Sunday before.
John Potter, formerly journeyman to the plaintiff,
was examined to prove that his master was away from
home for some time previous to his arrest. As to the
cause of his master's absence, he prevaricated so much
as to expoSe himself to the magistrate's censure.
Mr. Jardine said the wife had made what he wou!cl
call a mistake as to her husband having wilfully
deserted her. Still he must observe that she concealed
the fact, of which she was well aware, that he had
been in prison nearly the whole of the .time of tLe
alleged desertion. Yet she came to this court and
told him (the magistrate) that her husband had &-
sorted her for nearly a year. She thus obtained the
order on the very day when her husband was to come
out of prison, as if she expected him home, and wanted
to be prepared with the order to resist him. At all
events he was now here, and swore that he never meant
to desert her, and indeed, as soon as he recovered his
liberty, he went home to claim his wife and goods.
Under these circumstances the order must now be
discharged.

COURT AND OFFICIAL INTELLIGENCF.

Yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon her Majesty, accom-
panied by his Royal Highness the Prince Consort, left
Buckingham Palace for St. James's Palace, where a
levee took place.
On Sunday her Majesty and the Prince Consort, the
Princess Alice, Princesses Helena and Louisa, Prince
Arthur, the ladies and gentlemen of the Court, and
the domestic household, attended divine service in the
Private Chapel, Buckingham Palace : the Hon. and
Very Rev. the Dean of "Windsor officiated. The Prince
Consort called on the Prince of Orange at Fenton's
Hotel, and the Prince of Orange visited her Majesty at
. Buckingham Palace in the afternoon.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cambridge
and the Princess Mary visited her
.Majesty the Quern
on Monday, at Buckingham Palace.
The Queen's dinner party on Monday evening included
her Royal Highness the Princess Alice, the Portuguese
Minister (Count de Lavradio), Viscount and Viscountess
Sydney; Lord George Lennox, the Hon. Mrs. Biddulph,
Lieut. General Sir George Wetherell, and the Dean of
Windsor. The band of the Grenadier Guards attended
and played during dinner.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer and Mrs. Gladstone
returned to town on Monday, from Stoke.
The-Bull Hotel, Cambridge, has been engaged for the
Prince of Wales, who, it is expected, will take up his
residence at Cambridge, at the commencement of the
ensuing Easter term.
Her Royal Highness the Princess of Leiningen arrived
at Buckingham Palace, from Frogmore, on Tuesday
morning, on a visit to the Queen. _ _ _

„.
The Princess Alice and the Princess of Leiningen,
attended by Colonel the lion. A. Liddell, visited 'West-
minster Abbey and the New Palace of 'Westminster on
Tuesday afternoon. Their Royal Highnesses honoured
the performances at the Olympic Theatre with their
presence in the evening. In attendance were Lady Ca-
roline Barrington, lion. Lucy Kerr, Colonel the lion.
A. Liddell, and Lord Charles Fitzroy.
The Countess of Desart had succeeded Lady Churchill
as the Lady in 'Waiting to her Majesty.