The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-02-25 00:00:00

THE DAY'S NEWS.

The motion of censure on the budget of Sir
Cornewall Lewis was negatived, as we intimated
in yesterday's impression, by a majority of 80.
This was quite unexpected in political circles,
especially by the West End Clubs of London,
where, it is said, preparations had been coin
inenced for a general election, as it was well
known that, in the event of Mr. Disraeli's
motion being affirmed, Lord Palmerston would
kr‘peal to the country before throwing up the
reigns of power. Lord John Russell returned
to his " first love" and came to the rescue of the
almost defeated Ministry. Without his aid all the
efforts of Mr. Hayter and the Treasury whip would
have been of little avail. The speeches
delivered during the debato showed how
completely the various parties in the House were
divided among themselves. Tories voted with
Whigs, Radicals with Tories, and Peelites against
Peelites. The division list, which we publish this
morning, discloses these facts, and many a member
will be called strictly to account by his consti-
tuency for his vote of Monday night. In the
House of Lords last night, the Earl of Derby's
motion on the Chinese affair, and especially the
attack upon Canton, was discussed. Lord Derby
asked the House on the score of equity,
justice, and humanity to look upon the mat-
ter without prejudice. He severely com-
mented upon the British Admiral's conduct
in the affair. Lord Clarendon justified the
measures of revenge taken against Canton,
Loyd Lyndhurst was of opinion that Sir John
BoWring s humanity gave way to his ambition.
The Duke of Argyle defended the government,
and the debate was adjourned.
In the House of Commons last night,
Lord John Russell gave notice that he should
move in the Committee of Ways and Means
that the duty ou tea be fixed at Is. 4d. per lb.,
and Mr. Headlam said he should move on an
early day that the income tax should not be
continued for more than another year, and that
it should be left to Parliament then to consider
whether it should be continued for a
longer time. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
intimated that government intend shortly to bring
in bills respecting Joint Stock Banks and Savings
B inks. Sir Joshua. Walwsley moved for a select
Committee to consider and report upon the most
practical means for extending the suffrage. Lord
Palmerston opposed the motion, and a division
showed 73 votes for, and 190 against—being a
majority of 117 for the government. On the
motion of Mr. Bentinek, a se!ect committee was
agreed to, to enquire into the causes of accidents
on railways. A conversation on the subject of
another expedition in search of Sir John Franklin,
shows that the government do not intend to mike
another search in the Arctic regions.

The intelligence from the continent this morning
is not of much moment. From Paris we learn
that the negotiations between Lord Cowley and
Feroukh Khan, in which there has been a hitch,
has been again resumed. Mr. Ousley, first inter-
preter to the East India Company, has arrived in
Paris, to facilitate the exchange of opinion between
the two diplomatists. This is one version of
the affair. Another is that the Persian difficulty
is terminated. The Nord says that one of
the conditions is that England is to have a Consul
in every Persian town where there may be a Russian
Consul. This statement, however, requires con-
firmation, although a Paris correspondent states
that the Persian Envoy had declared that he was in
a position to sign the bases of peace. With respect
to the Persian news there are only rumours to
the effect that Russia had landed more troops and
munitions south of the Caspian, intended for
Teheran, and that the Shah and the Czar were
contemplating the formation of a railway from
a port on the Caspian to the Persian capital.

Rumour also speaks of another limo of rail from
Tiflis to Teheran. f

The Levant mail also brings news telegraphed
from Trieste:that the Greek Senate had rejected
the scheme of supervision of the finances of the
Kingdom by a commission of the Protecting
Powers.
The official Milan Gazette declares that Austria
will insist on • her opposition to the union of
Moldavia and Wallachia.

Later news from Constantinople has been
received. Admiral Lyons had officially announced
his impending departure, and two of his ships had
already left for Malta. The hatti-htimayoun—the
charter of the Christians in Turkey—had been at
length ptit in force, with what success remains to
be seen. The death of Rishad Pasha, the Sultan's
Foreign Minister, leaves a vacancy in that elavated
post.
Our Russian advises state that the Master of
the Interior, with a courage new to a Russian states-
men, has addressed to the Emperor, in his annual
report, an unveiled description of the abuses which
have crept into -the Russian administration. The
Emperor has just replied, and has thanked his
minister for his sincerity. In the Imperial decree
it is said—" Had the abases that you now make
known to be, been pointed out in the same way to
my illustrious predecessor, they would not now
exist. My sincere wish is the welfare of my country,
and all those who, like you, Sir Minister, will assist
me in promoting it, may be tissured of my thank-
fulness. The abuses you point out are very nu-
merous; but, with the help of God, I will destroy
them. It is my duty, and I will fulfil it."
From Spain we learn that M. Pidal, Foreign
Minister, had issued a diplomatic circular note
explaining the origin of the dispute with Mexico,
and describing the intention of the Spanish
Goverment. An imposing force will be despatched
by the latter to protect the lives and fortunes of
the Spanish cAonists who are unable to quit the
Mexican territory. If necessary, the most
energetic measures will subsequently be employed,
to obtain suitable redress from the Mexican
Government.

Private letters from China by way of Paris contain
several interesting items, They announce that on
the 3d inst., the Mandarin Syh, Governor of Shang-
hai, died suddenly. The news is said to have pro-
duced great fermentation among the lower classes
of the population, who accused the Europeans of
his death. For two days serious disturbances were
apprehended, but owing to the presence of the
French and English ships, and the energy of the
commandant of the Tartar troops, who co operated
with them, tranquillity was maintained. According
to the latest accounts the town was tranquil.
Private accounts from the Danube state that up
to the 14th inst. the English squadron had not
evacuated the Black Sea, though it was expected
that orders would soon be received to that effect.
It has been stated in Paris that the commander
of the steam corvette Duchayla, which has just
returned from Naples to Toulon, has made a return
to the Minister of Marine, in which he states that
Naples was tranquil at his departure, and that the
reports in the papers relative to the great agitation
among the people were unfounded.

The home news of the day is soon told. The
inquest on the body of one who was killed by the
colliery explosion, has been adjourned. Prince
Albert is to visit Manchester on the sth of May,
when the Manchester Art Exhibition will be
opened. Yesterday, one of the men who•committed
a gaiotte robbers', and severely maltreated Mr.
Saxby, at Rock Ferry, was committed for trial
by the Birkenhead magistrates. A full report of a
very singular case, which came before the County
Court Judge, yesterday, will repay perusal.
The screw steamer, Kangaroo, Captain J. M.
Jeffry, which arrived on Monday morning, after a
quick passage from the Delaware, sails to-day for
New York, with about 220 passengers, and a small
cargo, and will in all probability carry out to New
York the news of her own arrival, as she has been
only about 48 hours in port after discharging
a full cargo, and loading her outward cargo and
coals. Letters by this steamer must be specially
addressed and prepaid. The Etna sailed from
Southampton yesterday afternoon for Alexandria,
in connection with the new line of Australian
mail steamers.

I TILE House of Commons have decided, by a
majority of eighty-, that seventy or eighty mil-
lions of the public money are to be voted away
annually, before the people are to be allowed to
know from what source a wantonly lavish expen-
diture is to come. This, we believe to be as un-
constitutional as it is unreasonable, Disburse-
ments, which might be met by income raised
from one system of taxation, without any very
great inconvenience to the country, would prove
positively ruinous under another. The revenue
of 1842, which would be considered little short
of beggary in these Parliamentary times, was
raised with very great difficulty, owing to the
financial policy then in vogue. " Protection"
tightened the financial strings to such a pitch,
that there was no room for hope, much less job-
bery. And if we are to return to the fiscal
policy of that year, and ask for 66,000,0001. of
indirect revenue, less a seven-penny income tax,
what is to become of trade ? Are we to return to
the 45,000,0001. of exports, and the 65.,000,000/.
imports of that period ? Are we again to encoun-
ter the dangers which attend a general want of
employment and stagnant trade ? Our financial
crotchets of 1842 had so pauperised the State,
that it was with difficulty we raised an income of
55,000,0001., and it was with fear and trembling
that the then CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
ventured to ask for 52,500,0001. to defray the
expenses of Government.
Where was money—taxation to come from ?
Industry was crushed by the Bank screw, raw
material could find no vent, and our products
had no outlet ! This was our position under
the Protectionist or indirect taxation system, and
yet we have a Free Trade—a " Liberal"—Cabi-
net, announcing to the world that we are to
return to that same system in 1860 (!) simply
that they may be enabled to retain place and
power. The proposition came from Mr. Drs-
RAELI, and the PALMERSTON Ministry adopted it
without one word of remonstrance. " We will
" continue our prodigal war expenditure, but we
" will knock off the war 9d. at once, and you
" shall hear no more of direct taxation after
1360, if you will be quiet," was the meaning
of the language employed by the Cabinet. The
Opposition placed no faith in these assurances,
and Mr. DISRAELI pushed forward his resolution,
brought the Legislature to a division, and now
we have the PALMERSTON Administration's
pledges guaranteed by a majority of eighty in a
house of 492 members ! This was a division,
ba it observed, in which both sides were voting
to secure the abolition of direct taxation in every
form. The Government were seeking to convince
the " Protectionists" that they were sincere, and
Mr. DISRAELI was labouring to get the enemy
to nail their colours to the mast.
The juggle was a clever one, and we cannot
help smiling at the very adroit way in which
Free Traders, particularly Mr. MILNER GIBSON
and his Manchester friends, were trapped into

voting for a prompt explosion of indirect taxa-
tion, and a speedy return to prohibitive tariffs.
In 1861 we shall be left minus ',150,000/. in-
come tax, and if this sum be added to the total of
the estimated revenue to be derived from customs
and excise duties, it will swell the indirect taxes
levied on the people to 46,850,0001., while the
imposts affecting property, such as the land,
and assessed taxes, and stamps, would not exceed
10,850,000/. This mode of distributing the
financial burdens in 1860 is what the House of
Commons has unanimously adopted, and we are
deeply indebted to those over-anxious placemen
who have introduced the prospective element into
important matters of finance. NVe give a culprit
condemned to the gibbet time"to prepare for his
doom, and why should we refuse a little mercy
to a Parliamentary constituency who must soon
be called on to decide whether we are to be left
without a vestige of direct taxation or Free
Trade by Mr. DTSRAELI'S tact, or whether we
are to lose a property tax in lobo and return to
low duties on the ever present parents of
crime, and high tariffs on those commodities
which give employment and food to a nation, in
order to enable a government to go to the
electoral poll with the voice of a deluded public
on their side.

Which of these great schemes is to succeed is
the practical, question the late discussions on
the Budget have brought before the country.
An equitable readjustment of indirect taxation
has never once been mooted by either of the
expert belligerents. Because 16d. in the pound
on the incomes derived from precarious pursuits
was preposterously high, and proportionably
trifling on realised and immovable property,
direct taxation is, to be abandoned altogether.
Parliament will not draw, on the advent of a
general election, what might be thought invidious
comparisons ; but the commercial and industrial
classes should ask themselves if this is the way
in which the national weal should be jeopardised
for party or place. Playing with Mr. DISRAELI
is one thing, but trifling with the country, where
great principles and the future progress of the
people are concerned, is unpardonable in states-
men. Those who have watched the whole of
the financial sparring of the present session, must
feel the utmost disgust at the total want of high-
minded and manly feeling which has marked the
proceedings of both sides of the Commons, The
Government supporters and Mr. DISRAELI'S
followers cannot be so benighted as not to have
known that they were both voting for the same
thing, though they thought proper to range
themselves on opposite sides of the Senate, and
that they were not representing, in their gro-
tesque antics, the straightforward and sober
convictions of the public out of doors. If they
were, we can only give them credit for being
more sincere than competent.