The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-19 00:00:00

FRENCH AND ENGLISH FINANCE.

The success which has attended all the financial ope
rations of the French Goveinment is so complete, and
presents such a contrast to the confusion and loss which
have marked the monetary dabblings of our own Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, that we trust Mr. Gladstone will
have the perception to apprehend the phenomena which
he cannot avoid seeing, and will have the good senee to
take a leaf out of a book which contains so much that is
useful and practical. We do not ask him to read a re.
cantation of a past policy. Parliament and the country,
we are sure, will give him credit for the best intentions
and motives—although, unfortunately, they have placed
bins so constantly in the worst positions ;—they will
spare him the disagreeable task, and magnanimously re-
frain from reminding bins of the pavement for which in-
tentions are destined to be used, on condition that he,
on his side, will refrain from experimentalising, lay his
ambition on the shelf, and forego the gratification of
playing the peat of a great financial innovator. We
assure him, with the most friendly feeling, that the part
will not get a run upon the public stage just now ;
and, if he persists in trying it, his force of the "Bud-
get " will inevitably be damned. He will not very
likely take the advice which we have tendered hito,
and may pooh-pooh the arguments which we have ad-
vanced in some 1 ite articles, wit's a view of showing
firstly, that we have a large and inicloubted claim to p:ace
upon the shoulders of posterity a considerable share of
the burden inevitably to be borne by somebody, in con-
sequence of the great enterprise which this country has
undertaken ; and secondly, that none of the classes of
the community upon wheal taxation can be directed are
at this moment capable, without great detriment to the
continued development of the resources of the kingdom,
of bearing any further abstraction from their means than
that to which they are already liable ; that the landed
interest cannot bear any enhancement of the cost of pro.
duction, without the infliction of serious suffering upon
the working classes ; and that the mercantile and ma-
nufacturing cannot stand any additional tithing of pro-
fits, without materially endangering their command of
not only foreign but domestic markets. Mr. Gladstone
may pooh-pooh these arguments. He may put them aside
as views derived from a long entertainment of a policy
abrogated by a great national movement, and he may re-
fer with a satisfaction not unreasonable to the admiration
with which a great portion of the country received the
able and well-arranged speech in which, on his accession
to office, he exposed his financial notions, and to the ease
with which, in the formal shape of legislative enactments,
hA peeved them through the House' of floaemoiee_ In
short, though we do not in the least pretend to any in•
formation with regard to his intentions, we shall not be
in the least surprised to find that immoveable faith in
himself, and in the ascendancy of the Peelite star, in-
duce Mr. Gladstone to produce to Parliament in 1855 a
continued adherence to the financial ideas of 1853 and
1854.

Now, as although in the event of its appearing neces-
sary for the due conduct of public affairs, after the dis-
cussion which must necessarily take place en the meet-
ing of Parliament, that there should be a change of Ad-
ministration, we would by no means advise the country
to shrink from the prospect of any temporary inconve-
nience which might be occasioned by it ; yet, as we have
no desire to see such an event forced by gratuitous blun-
dering, we would strongly recommend Mr. Gladstone,
before he presumes upon the successes of the past afford-
ing a safe criterion of the prospects of the future, to con-
sider the vast difference between that past, the actual
present, and that probable future which the lapse of
no more than two or three months will make a pre-
sent. In the period which has intervened between the
acceptation of Mr. Gladstone's financial notions
and the present time, a very wide and remarkable
difference has been created, both in the commercial
circumstances and position of this country, and in
the feeling and opinions of her people. When those
notions were propounded and found favour, our produc-
ing classes were driving a large and increasing business,
and our consumers were buying at low rates. We had
large custom abroad—moderate cost of living—and good
wages at home ; and we believed that, with the income
tax and abolition of Customs duties, we had bought a
commercial and fiscal system, by the aid of which our
Chancellors of the Exchequer would be able to regulate
prices, and secure for the public that El Dorado of poli-
tical economists—the cheapest markets to buy in, and
the dearest to sell in. These are not the circumstances
which characterise the beginning of the year 1855. The
trade that looked so large, and promised such further
increase, has collapsed into something less than its real
proportions ; profits are small and hardly earned, while
cheap markets have vanished altogether. There is no
such thing as a cheap market for the English consumer
in the civilised world, whether it be for the articles
which he must have to keep body and soul together,
or for those accidents and contingencies of life which
social progress has converted from luxuries into neces-
saries. Feelings and opinions have undergone no less
a change than circumstances. People see the folly of
having accepted a financial scheme, the success of
which was absolutely dependent upon events over which
its author could have no control, and upon the condition
and prospects not only of this kingdom, but of all the
countries with which it is connected remaining undis-
turbed by war or other accidents during the seven years
required to work it out. The people are aware, too,
that although we have given tree ports and free naviga-
tion, we have failed in obtaining free trade. They have
gauged at considerable loss the consuming power of tho
United St-Les, and of our growing colonies, and our
commercial men are now aware that there is no longer
any prospect of either this Government, or of the system
upon which it has taken its stand, opening any new
channels of trade. Above all, the masses of the people
have become awake to the great fact, that the true
policy of a nation is to produce as much as possible of
the requirements of her population within her own
boundaries, and with this conviction we cannot doubt
that we will demand of the Government that all classes
shall be enabled to produce, at the least possible cost,
and under the least possible pressure. We would
strongly urge the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his
colleagues well to weigh these changes in circumstances
and in opinion before they determine upon the financial
measures of 1855.—Ifoming Post.

PROBABLE INTINTIONS OF RUSSIA.

(From the Constitutionnel.)
On the one hand, the Czar demands the opening of
conferences, which, however, cannot commence until
after the nomination and arrival of an Ottoman envoy ;
on the other, he concentrates several armies on the
Austrian frontiers, and Cossacks have already returned.
to the Turkish territory. Are we to believe in the diplo-
matist who solicits peace, or in the general who recom--
mences war ? There is, however, no doubt as to the <Alen-
sire return attempted by the Russian troops. The news has
arrived from so many agents, placed on different points,
that any hesitation on the subject would be a denial of evi-
dence. Now, we ask, is it seriously possible to place faith
in the pacific assurances of a power which has itself
taken care to warn Europe against the sincerity of its
eventual concessions, and which, by menacing anew the
Ottoman territory, whilst the preliminaries of a peace
which it solicits are pending, has very nearly provoked
an extension and aggravation of the war, by forcing the
Austrian troops stationed in the principalities to take
part in it ? In virtue of the treaty of the 14th June last
with the Porte, Austria having caused her troops to
occupy the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, has
undertaken to defend their frontiers against any return
of the Russian forces. Russia, then, by returning anew
to the Turkish territory, would herself create the even-
tuality which must render Austria a belligerent power.
It is evident that it would be puerile to pretend to make
a subtle distinction as regards the new aggression of
the Russians by saying, that to re-enter the Debrudscha
is not to invade the principalities. The into grity
of the Ottoman Empire is the primitive object of all
the treaties between the Porte and its allies, and to in-
vade the Turkish territory, properly so called, is not a
less grave fact than to invade the princigalities. Com-
mon sense says so, and all the allies of the Porte, with-
out exception, think so. On the other, supposing the
movement of Russian troops not to place in question
the political loyalty of Austria it would evidently do so
with its military prudence. If the Russian armies
which are stationed on the Pruth were, after having
crossed the Lower Danube' to advance and menace
Bulgaria, it would evidently be impossible for the Aus-
trian troops to remain inactive in the midst of such me-
nacing positions, and to allow themselves to ho
surrounded without firing a shot. If the security
of the Ottoman empire were not at stake, the safety
of the Austrian army would be emperilled, and if
General Coronini were hot so resolved as he is to
defend the Sultan, ho would be obliged to defend
himself. This, we may be sure, will be infallibly
true if the movement of the Russians, which had
been in turns announced, denied, and confirmed, be
anything else than an inconsiderable affair of advanced
posts. It could not have suited either the Porte, or
France, or England to have left the line of the Danube
and that of the Balkans without troops, in order to be
more free in the Crimea, if those lines were not seri-
ously protected by the co-operation of the Austrian
forces stationed in the Principalities. No one, then,
will bo surprised to learn that, whilst this opinion was
formed at London and Constantinople, it was at the
same time and spontaneously formed at Vienna. The
aggressive movement of the Russians was everywhere
judged at the same time in the same way ; and if it be
renewed, if it becomes anything else than an insult of no
consequence, it will bo promptly and energetically re-
pressed by the Austrian troops. Here, then, we have a
new complication excited by Russia at the very moment
at which she accepts the bases of pacification, and de-
mands the opening of conferences for re-establish iug
European accord.

LICENSED VICTUALLERS' AlSTLEflf.—Yesterday even-
ing the usual annual ball in aid of the endowment fund
of this institution was held at the London Tavern,
Bishopsgate-street. The large room was most tastefully
decorated and brilliantly illuminated especially for the
occasion, and no precaution was neglected by the COTR-
mittee that could possibly add in any way to the éclat
with which this popular ball usually passes off. The re-
freshment arrangements were conducted on a far more
liberal scale than usual, and nothing was wanting that
could in any way conduce to the comfort of the visitor;
notwithstanding the extremely unfavourable state of the
weather, we seldom witnessed assembled in these rooms
a larger or more respectable and at the same time a gayer
company. The dancing commenced at an early hour is
the evening, and was continued with as much spirit am,
the crowded state of the room would admit, until an ad.
♦anced hour this morning. Adams's quadrille band waif
in attendance, and played, during the evening, all the
best and most fashionable dance music of the 11118012.‘
Frampton o:officiated as waster iillo ceromoniu
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