The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-20 00:00:00

consideration of the exigencies with the most perfect and
entire freedom ; but, as a matter of retrospect, he thought
the house could not look back upon the operations in which
it had been engaged—and which, in his opinion, were neither
a failure nor au abortion—without considerable satisfaction at
the course it had very wisely thought proper to pursue.
(Hear, hear.)
Mr. DlSRABLl•thought that nothing was more important
at that period of the year than that the house should be
favoured with the financial statement of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and, under present circumstances, he recognised
additional reasons for their being favoured with such an expo-
sition. He -must say he lamented the circumstances which
prevented the house and the country enjoying the advantage
of the right hon. gentleman's statement. He felt, however,
as he was certainly placed in a position of great difficulty and
responsibility, that he had a right to throw himself on their
consideration ; but while according to him the justice he
demanded, he (Mr. Disraeli) must express his belief that
nothing could be more inconvenient, if they were to be de-
prived of a financial statement by a Minister of the Crown,
than these desultery discussions, which were not brought
forward under circumstances which justified that consideration
which the country required. With regard to the supplies
which they might be called upon to grant, the hon. gentleman
the Secretary for the Treasury concealed nothing from their
notice ; indeed, the hon. member communicated his know-
ledge in a tone which, ho confessed, rather astonished him.
The heu. Secretary for the Treasury said, " I had so many
difficulties to meet." Ego et rex mews was the burden of his
speech. (Laughter.) He did not know whether those who
sat near him were prepared to submit to the despotism of the
Secretary for the Treasury. With his (Mr. Disraeli's) limited
experience of the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, he
was not prepared to say in what part ho would take the speech
of the hon. gentleman, but ho did not think the late Chancel-
lor of the Exchequer would have been so willing to yield to
his surveillance, All the hon. gentleman said might be per-
fectly true and authentic, but he preferredhaving it from the
proper officer at the proper time, when he gave au official ac-
count of the liabilities and resources of the country, and he
declined entering into the subject at present. The question
brought, very properly, under their consideration was one of
a. much more limited character, and so far as he had listened
to the hon. member for Stoke, it had been submitted to them
with temper, and, as he thought, with accuracy. There
could be no doubt that in March last the house was clearly
under the impression that the vote then agreed to, of Exche-
quer-bills, was intended as a temporary provision for the wants
of the year, and was quite distinct from the usual votes of Ex-
chequer-bills which were proposed in committee of supply.
The house and the country generally did believe that the tem-
porary loan of March was to be defrayed out of the ordinary
revenue of the year. In the present year the usual Exche-
quer-bill was brought in, and they found an increase in it of
1,750,0001. The Secretary of the Treasury said it was not an
increase of the permanent bill. No doubt, technically, it
was not so, but it was so compared with the temporary as-
sistance which the right hon. gentleman the member for the
University first submitted. Their condition was this. In
March, 1854, a considerable vote, not much less than two
millions of Exchequer-bills, was taken, upon the distinct
understanding by the House of Commons that it was tem-
porary vote for the temporary aid of the public service,
and that it was to be defrayed out of the accruing revenue
of the year. Was it a matter of wonder that the house
should ask for explanations in respect of so considerable
a sum, or that they should draw what appeared to
him to be the natural and necessary inference from the cir-
cumstance under which the financial system of the late Go-
vernment was established. It was very unfortunate that,
having agreed in March with the house that they should vote
a temporary supply of two millions, to be defrayed out of
the accruing revenues of the year, the Government should
have considered that contract to be permanent, although it
was not so understood by hon. members on either side of the
house. He did not object to a Minister, in the difficult posi-
tion in which the late Chancellor of the Exchequer was placed,
sorrowing 1,750,0001. if ho came forward and asked for that
amount • for, if he had asked for 17,000,0001. he could have
obtainedit. It was not the amount, therefore, or the extra-
, vagant expenditure, that they complained of, but the manner
in which what was called a temporary loan was converted
into a permanent debt.
Sir F. BARING said they were indebted to a noble lord
(Lord Monteagle) for pointing out the way in which this sum
of 1,750,0001. had been introduced into the ordinary Exche-
quer-bills. It was not necessary for him to repeat the state-
ments made in March, that the Exchequer-bills which were
then issued were to be paid off out of the accruing produce
of the revenue. Tho words of the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer himself were —" These will be raised and paid off out
of the current revenue, and you will never hear anything
more of these Exchequer-bills." After that statement, he
did think that it required explanations before they were con-
verted into a permanent debt. The right hon. gentleman
said that he did give such explanations on the Bth of May.
Now, he had read the debate in the other house, he had
read through the speeches of the right hon. gentleman, he
had read through his speech of the Bth May that very morn-
ing, and it was not till he heard the construction which ho
(Mr. Gladstone) put upon his words, that he was able to see
that they were sufficient to convey the meaning that he at-
tached to them. He did not know that his own colleagues
were aware of it—(laughter)—for the defence which they
made was not the defence which he himself put forward. At
the end of the session the Queen's Speench distinctly stated
the same principle—" I fully recognise your wisdom in sacri-
ficing present convenience, and in providing for the immediate
exigencies of the war without an addition being made to the
permanent debt of the country." (Hear,) He would go te
the speech of the right hon. member himself, in which, in
speaking of these Exchequer-bills, ho said, " They constitute
a debt permanent in itself, but the obligations of which are
renewable from year to year." In point of fact, they had
transformed those bills, issued for temporary purposes, into a
permanent debt of the country. (Mr. Gladstone—No, no.)
He used the right hon. gentleman's own words. (hear.)
The Secretary of the Treasury said that'll° had also explained
it, and having said so, of course he must allow that he had,
but it was rather singular that no hon. member appeared to
have heard him, and the ordinary channels for spreading in-
formation through the country had not noticed any such es- •
planation. (Laughter.) He thought it was very important
that, when any change of this kind took place, such
tions should be given to the house that there could. be no
misunderstanding.
Mr. GLADSTONE was.sorry that it was necessary that he
should have to explain what was said on the Bth of Mat May.
-The right hon. gentleman who spoke last said, and said truly,
that he (Mr. Gladstone) contended, on the 6th of March, that
the Exchequer-bills in question would not be renewed, He
complained that he did not, on the Bth of May, state that
they_would be renewed. It would have been impossible and
absurd to give such an explanation, because he did not then
know it. What be said on the Bth of March was, that, ac-
cording to the plan then proposed, they would not be renewed.
What he stated on the Bth of May was, that, after making
full provision for the set vices of the country, it was necessary
to have a further command of cash of about 36 millions, and
iu that further amount he included the 1,750,000/. of Exche-
quer-bills. The right hon. gentleman, he was sorry to say,
said that he did not understand it. (Laughter.)
Mr. LAING did not, by any means agree in the opinion
which the right hon. gentleman the Secretary to the Trea-
sury seemed to imply that the Government, in respect to
savings bank funds, should act as a private banker. The
two positions—that of the Government, and that of e. private
bauker—were utterly dissimilar. Take one instance of this.
The private banker was perfectly justified in making transac-
tions in the funds, upon the strength of the private informa-
tion which reached him, but the Government could not act
upon any private information in their possession without
seriously compromising its position. (Hear,) So that, in fact,
the Government could not conduct any great operations in the
same manner as a private banker could, and, consequently,
the whole comparison failed. He wished to see the savings
bank funds put upon a different footing from that in which
they at present stood, and he believed he was not wrong in
stating that his right hon. friend the late Chancellor of the
Exchequer would not be averse to a change. (Hear, hear,
from Mr. Gladstone.)
Tho subject then dropped.
MEDICAL ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE SICK AND
WOUNDED SOLDIERS IN THE EAST.

On the question that the house do now go into o. comitte•
of supply,

Mr. STAFFORD rose for the purpose of calling attention
to the medical arrangements for the sick and wounded sol-
diers in the East, and in so doing reminded the hon. gentle-
man the Under Secretary at War (Mr. Peel) that he succeeded
to a department which it was believed had inflicted more
horror and suffering on our poor soldiers than could well
be described. The letters from soldiers in our service, the
information in the public journals, and the evidence before
the committee now sitting, all went in confirmation of the
terrible disasters which due want of care and management
had. inflicted on our army. it was expected that a new class of
diseases would break out, and new horrors might be expected,
unless the Government made the necessary preparations. He
took it for granted that the unspeakable horrors of the hospital
at Balaklava had been at least to a great extent remedied, and
that it was not what it was when he saw it— a disgrace to any
civilised country. He hoped the hon. gentleman the" Under
Secretary of War would be now able to give satisfactory in-
formation as to the treatment of the soldiers, and that proper
shelter in the shape of huts had arrived for the sick and
wounded in the Crimea ; also that proper arrangements had
been made for the transport of the sick and wounded from
the camp to the harbour. The question of the transport of
the sick was of the greatest importance, for so cruelly had it
been conducted that were one able to see through the depths
of the Black Sea, he believed Cie way from Balaklava har-
bour to the Bosphorus might be traced by the skeletons of
those who wore thrown overboard the transport vessels. He
also hoped to hear from the hon. gentleman that the Govern-
ment had made, at length, efficient arrangements with re-
spect to the medical staff, and that the orderlies in carp of the
sick were net now perpetually invalids, who brought disease
instead _of vigour to the bedside of the patient. He also
trusted that better means had been provided for the debar-
kation of tho.siek at Scutari, which was most unsatisfactory
at the time he left. On the 6th of November Last ho wrote
from Smyrna to the War-office, calling the serious attention
of the Government to the circumstance that an hospital
should be opened at Smyrna. There were three or four
months in the year during which it was said the climate
there there was not healthy ; but during thecr;:ciastecrn,
the climate
portion c
year, and especially during the wint
was warmer and more suitable for the improvement of those
suffering under pulmonary complaints than the climate of
Constantinople. But having let the cold weather go by, the
Government was now about
.to establish au hospital at
Smyrna that was to sal% during the most unhealthy season
r I warned the Government, if they
11 of the year- (Ilea—
would have an hospital at Smyrna, to take care it was not
overcrowded, and that its internal economy was properly su-
perintended. He trusted the Government would spare no
expense or labour in sending out to the East a proper supply
of wooden huts, which could be used with great advantage in
warm weather, and were more easily purified than stone build-
ings. He hoped the War-office would send out huts for at least
5,000 men. As to the propriety of imitating the French in
bringing home invalids, there could be no doubt but that the
change of climate and scenery, and the spirits which the
prospect of coming home afforded to the sick soldier, would
have an effect on his health that could scarcely be exaggerated.
Provided the transport ships were as they ought to be, and
the whole care and attention of those who had charge of them
wore directed to the supervision and care of the sick and
wounded, most beneficial consequences would result • but
the whole attention of the authorities who had those trans-
ports under their control should be given to promote the com-
fort of their human cargo. Ho had heard many complaints
of the indifference shown by the War-office tooffo
rsofthe
most noble kind which had been made to them—offers ema-
nating from the most disinterested patriotism. And now
there being a civil service office established at Smyrna, it was
of the greatest consequence that the oases should be discri-
minated, and that there should be a man at Balaklava to de-
cide wha% cases should be sent to Smyrna and what to Scutari.
Ho thought the officer to examine the transports, either at
Scutari or Balaklava, would be a most important officer, and
he trusted that in his selection the authorities would take care
that justice was done to the civil surgeons as well as the mili-
tary surgeons. He trusted also something would b 3 done to
improve tho condition of soldiers in casemated barracks.
Mr. PEEL could assure the hon. gentleman it was quite un-
necessary for him to declaim being actuated by any spirit of
hostility, for he had established a good claim to have any of
his remarks on this subject received with attention. He (Mr.
Peel) entirely concurred in the sentiment which the hon. mem-
bor said. had been expressed by Lord Paiunure in another place,