The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-22 00:00:00

Although no one contests- the brilliant oratorical
powers of Mr. Gladstone, or the administrative abilities
of Sir James Graham, we do not hesitate to express
our conviction that the present Ministry may be
strengthened rather than weakened by their with-
drawal from office. Whatever the talents of this coterie
may have been, such was the ambiguity of their lan-
guage, the obscurity of their motives, and the incon-
sistency of their actions, that they detracted from
the Parliamentary strength and popularity of the
Government more than they contributed to it by
their services. They, perhaps unfortunately for them-
selves filled all the offices more immediately connected
with the business of the war, and they have consequently
borne the larger portion of responsibilty and resent-
ment. Such a coalition was possible under the cautious
direction of Lord Aberdeen, but it could not survive his
fall. Lord Palinerston's Cabinet may gain considerably
in force and union, and in the confidence of the Liberal
party, by the separation of these members, provided the
head of the Government is resolved 'to supply their
places with the ablest practical men he can find in the
House of Commons. We cannot, however, take leave
of this episode in the history of parties without observ-
ing that it appears likely to terminate the separate poli-
tical career of that section of politicians who are coms
monly described as the followers of Sir Robert Peel. In-
dividually, they cannot fail to play hereafter a consider.
able part in public affairs, for they are men of indisputable
eloquence and ability; but they must themselves be sa-
tisfied by the experience of the last few weeks that their
influence as a separate party is at an end, 'and that it
cannot be renewed without injury to the public service
and to themselves. They will gradually be absorbed in
one or the other of the two great political parties which
permanently divide this country, and their utility will be
increased by a nearer connexion with the lower benches of
of the House of Commons and the masses of their fellow-
countrymen. We may here add, however, that Mr. Card-
well and Lord Canning have not yet followed Mr. Glad-
stone's example; we hope they will avoid so grave an error;
and, as neither of these Ministers was a member of Lord
A berdeen's Cabinet, or connected in any way with the
war administration, they are entirely free to act in the
present emergency upon their own sense of duty to the
country ; nor have they any pretence, beyond a sense of
personal friendship, for quitting the Government at a
moment of great difficulty.
Whatever Lord Palmerston and his remaining col-
leagues may have thought of this strange desertion, we
apprehend that it has in no degree weakened their de-
termination to carry on the government with all the
vigour of which they are capable. They doubtless feel
that it would be an indelible disgrace upon themselves
to shrink from the task, arduous as it is, which the So-
vereign confided to them after the failure of Lord Derby
I and Lord John Russell ; and they will avoid as long as
possible the renewal of those scenes of abortive effort
which have so long held in suspense all the powers of
the empire. By this singular but not unpropitious turn
of fortune, Lord Palmerston has at his disposal three of
the principal offices in the Government, and is enabled
to repair some of the omissions which were so conspicu-
ous upon his accession to oflace. It can no longer be al,
leged with any appearance of plausibility that he is not
the master of his own Cabinet, and not free to select his
colleagues and his instrunrE.htb: The times we live
in demand a Itadileg Minister and a more direct
authority both in ilouncil and in Parliament and much
of the sullen excitement which broods ever the country
wood be removed if we'could aistoseer a clearer course
of action for the Govertittent, and a more definite ob•
ject for the hopes a'nd efforts of the nation. The icr
portance assumed by Parliamentary aettinittees of in-
quiry, and the invasion of the tinctioni of 'executive
government by the Hoeg+) of Commons, are Mere
cations of the popular determination to enPi.tly at all
hazards that energy to the aoverthhtlit which the Mi-
nisters have not adequately displayed, and that assembly,
which is so turbeleiit hnd hostile under a Minister 'Tim-
is always creving its forbearance, would bedtime the
vigorous and faithful support of a leader who boldly and
in plain sincerity appealed to its and to the country's
patriotism. We know not by what subtleties of reasoitin4
Mr. Gladstone may have satisfied himself and Convinced
his friends that it was consistent itith public duty to aban-
don the poet he had accepted only ten days before, and,
possibly, in the memorable epitaph he pronounced over
confident
itthhereecnuelhianrefnodraceettowihilishoewn fate. But we are
the, late Administration some expressions thitht he* be
condemned by the
instinctive honesty and good sense of the English
et
nwt will
hbeenthite
hmasoerheadkiesapoeeffeaitt:
applied
in;tion,
rallyt raonudn tdia at
the e Parliament
or ivi ae
rmniemn
wavering adherents and its dubious all;-
..es.

This de— (17"Lrt the Times of this day.)
re,- -y ought to be one of no small anxiety to this
..entry. It was appointed for a collision between the
House of Commons and a new a ofertiment, the former
baying pronounced with Unprecedented force in favour
of an inquiry before a tribunal of its own members, and
the latter, from the day of its birth, having endeavoured
to dispense with that inquiry; or to take it into its own
gentler hands. As one Government bad fallen rather
than acquiesce in a scrutiny which it alleged to be not
only offensive to its own dignity and inconvenient to the
public service, but even contrary to the spirit of the cow,
stitution, so there wits every 'prosileet that in
Government would foildar the alinpie. this seemed
1 all the More inevitable, inasmuch as the new Govern-
silent wits, as Mr. Disraeli has described it, the "identi-
cal successor" of the last, consisting of 'itettili fil.6 Warn;
members,—tbat is,, of the very Men wbo conceived them-
selves censured and. &Imaged by the proposed inquiry,
and whO bad therefore once already gone out upon it. It
iiitta about as singular a knot of affairs as even the 'tar-
nite phases of British politics could produce, and, if we
may be excused a metaphor at such a crisis, one felt,
only as late as Tuesday morning, in the situation of
travellers in a mountain pass, who see the rocks closing
around them, and cannot for the life of them understand
where is the opening through which they are to proceed.
We don't pretend to say that the mode of extrication
that has occurred is one to give unmixed satisfaction.
Under the circumstances, however, we are convinced
that any is better than none, and we, for our part, are
prepared torcongratulate the country on the result. The
three principal " Peelite" members of the Cabinet, Sir
James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Sidney Herbert
held out against the committee of inquiry, on the ground,
as we are informed, that it was not only a censure on '
themselves, but also that it would impede the public ser-
vice at a time when freedom of action and confidence
were especially required. On Tuesday, as we were then
made aware, they had placed their resignation in the
hands of Lord Palmerston ; but at a Cabinet Council
held yesterday to give them an opportunity of withdraw-
ing it they declined to do so, and are no longer members
of the Administration. Rumour has filled the vacancies.
Sir Charles Wood is, it is said, to succeed Sir James
Graham at the Admiralty, where he was once Secretary ;
Mr. Cardwell is to succeed Mr. Gladstone, and Mr.
Baines to take Sir George Grey's place at the Home-
office, while Sir George Grey replaces his cousin at the
India Boart!. Minor changes will of course fuhow.
Meanwhile Lord
communication
we believe, has already'
been in comnnication with Mr, Roebuck, and they have

agreed on a committee of a somewhat different cast from
that of which notice was given for to-night.
We really cannot see what else was to be dOne. Par-
liaments may be very troublesome, and public inquiries
very inconvenient ; Czars and Emperors may be able to
manage very much better, and it is possible that the
proposed committee is a stretch of the constitution ; but
we must take things as they are. We cannot do without
the House of Commons. Lord Palmerston, in the course
of an unusually long and varied political career; has had
occasion to feel the power, not to say the caprice, of the
House of Commons, as'mach as any man living, and he
is well aware that it would be simply an act of suicide
to persist in saying "Nay," when the house has so em-
phatieally said " Yea." The house has said what it
wants, and he is there to do what it wants, and, if he
refuses, it will undoubtedly find others to do its work:
We-may all rest assured there will be a Committee of
Inquiry, and the only question about the matter is its
constitution, and, consequently, the temper with which
it will proceed to its business. The members to be pro-
posed this evening, with the concurrence of Government
and Mr. Roebuck, are, we believe, already settled ; and
we trust it will be found that due security is taken, on
the one hand, for a free, full, and searching inquiry ; on
the other, that it shall be conducted as much as possible
without inconvenience to the public service, or betrayal
of secrets, if' any there are, to the enemy. If the in-
quiry be directed, in the first instance, to the physical
condition of our-forces in Pit East, we 'cannot see who
is to be taken from his duty, what department is to be
hindered, or what hint of importance need be given to
the fee, by an inquiry into the operations and mutual
relations of the Commissariat, the Naval and Land
Transport Services, the Medical Department, and their
connexion with the higher &Ai:finer-its of the Exchequer,
the Ministry of War, and the Admiralty. What a tale,
for example, has already come out in the history of the
green coffee berries, and how little has the public ser-
vice been interrupted or an enemy served by the dis-
closure ? Why should not the rest of the investigation
be conducted in the same manner ? No doubt, it ean,
if people will only go the right way to work.
The fact is that there is nothing about which people
are so ignorant as the manner of doing business in our
public departments—whose duty it is to do certain
things ; who gives the order ; who executes it ; whose
consent or co-operation is necessary ; who is answerable
for the delay, if any ; what limitations there are to such
an officer's authority or resources. For example, when
complaints came from the Crimea that the poor soldiers
could do nothing with their green coffee berries, the
Lords, Commissioners of the Treasury appear to have
been " moved" by somebody or other to stir in the
matter, and they made a minute ordering that their
Secretary write to the Secretary of the Admiralty re-
questing him to " move" the Lords Commissioners of
the Admiralty to direct that early steps might be taken
•for providing and shipping 225,0001 b. of roasted coffee.
It took, however, six weeks of moving, countermoving,
requesting, writing, directing, expediting, hastening,
sealing, signing, providing, and shipping, before one
single pound of roasted coffee was actually put on board
a ship. When that ship sailed, whether it called any-
where, where it stopped, what became of its cargo at
last, are further questions that may very likely
lead to the same results. But all the people con-
cerned in this affair are not only anxious to do
their duty, not only men with bowels of compassion
for their fellow-subjects, but they are the very people
who in private society will complain the most of the in-
terminable hindrances and inextricable perplexities -of
the public service. No doubt Mr. Gladstone would
take care not to lose five minutes, if he could help it, in
succouring our brave soldiers in the Crimea. No doubt
often as he has had to talk by the hour about coffee and
sugar, he never felt so much their importance as when it
became his duty to get off a supply to the Crimea as soon
as could be. No doubt, Sir James Graham, even from a
bed of sickness, would rise to despatch the needful
stimulant to our perishing defenders. No doubt, Sir
Charles Trevelyan has the same humane sympathies as
his chief.. No doubt, every official concerned in this
matter is only too ready to comp.ain of the delay, some=
where above or below him, or in some other department
he knows not where. Surely ths is a case for inquiry,
with a sieve to a thorough departmental reform. The
only thing it earl be compared to is that distressing,
though strangely grotesque nialtdyj called St, Vitus's
Dance. The poor sufteret daniicit &limy a piece of
bread to his mouth without flourishing it iff all imagi-
nable directions, up and down, sideways, zigzag, Cir-
cuitous, till it describes a journey of many yards, and
takes half a minute and no small expenditure of
muscular energy to do what is usually an unconscious
and almost instantaneous act. The poor creature
tries to go out of a room, but cannOt do so without
performing all sorts of eccentric and highly Uha
necessary evolutions before the door, visiting both
doorposts again and again, and finally leaving
the door open, and his errand incomplete, of perhaps
tumbling down on the threshold. Nobody who had it
child in this melancholy case won't hesitate to send for
the doctor and inquire into the nature and proper treat-
ment of the malady. That is what the House of Com-
mons Is doing with respect to this political St. Vitus's
Dance, which\infests every department of the public sere
vice, and makes us all look more life madmen of idiots
than sane, and—as we flatter corselves—particularly
sensible people.

(Front the Morning Post of this day.)
We arejanabled to state that Mr. Gladstone, Sir James
Graham, and Mr. Sidney Herbert aie no longer members
of the Palmerston Administratioa It is no doubt
deeply to be regretted that men of so much ability; and
of such power to serve the public, should feel it necessary
to withdraw their services at such amoment. It is for-
tunate that we have a Minister wits zeal and strength
enough to supply their places at mce—that their re-
tirement involves no crisis—and tlat their spirit and
principle will still move in support the Government.
The fact is, that these members of the old Adminis-
tration could not separate themselves from its mis-
deeds. They considered themselves to have been
too much identified with the pzst conduct of the
n, therefore, on
war to sit in office while that corduct was discussed
ciPnairlmederstionnt'os. wise accession to the desire of
almost unanimously expressed to have
past physical condition
of our army before Sebastopol. That committee, as
originally by Mr. Roebuck) was absurd and
proposed
ineffective. It has been amended, and the following
taLohrocerodmilinmonitistee of inquiry into the
names now constitute the body :—Mr, Roebuck, Ma
brunimond, Sir Sohn Pakington, Mr. Layard, Mr. E.
taiee, sen., Sir G. C. Lewis, Mr. John Ball, Mr. Bram-
ston, General Peel. Colonel Lindsay, and Lord Sey-
mour, ,
, These are ifiti *Ames oi men who make the
Elook as good a thing as a Blue Book can be Made. The
oblslnyroin:Pnonstiset. ibis too .orxei
s ht
iisen
t whicha.tino , :
t
house will feel that it has in them strong and able
court of inquiry—thnt it vO.ll have from thema verdict
o;.+. whkh reliance can be placed. The concession was
it
to dinpinwehudlte which
haavirt wasbe o4‘ raea
edlaCtaB. the country is satisfied with the
n'ew hfe—the new vigour—the new measures of the ex-
isting Government. It
or feels the practical strength of
the plans proposed by Ld Palmerston and Lord Pan-
mure. It disgustssittnd il6otti 0,4 Oi4 adid hallueina
tionSgin'' war,ixe visions of Lord Elleaborotiah, who
seems to view no country but as a battle-field-4o
look upon no inch of ground but With reference to
its capabilities for infantry—to think
of
lid
oun.
except with regaru the
to-possibility of forcingtry -a. it
ruse a gigantic campaign /gal,ns, aaussia—to regard
India, not as a hardly-won possession, held in peace
solely by our military superiority, but as
s:and at any junc-
maintained and
tariabuuticakryerofmtbeais.
oaunrdtarobol abler,
aanndd the aug rn enta-
kct .upent'.tirhye, Lordi'me aedaPYn astnool fnsuwiiral jerP' sibyßyailtwl afhonirnyht ht mt
Amendment inend ent of the
the bringing '
lion of our army than would be into reality
itbi
ne tgt eorf,
• t dreams into whim Lord Ellenborough
s
the most brilliant Asure yf
o Sr
etrhvei cree ci ua
wandered on this question.
The present is a time at which, above all things, is
wanted a strong head to a Cabinet—a strong hand in
the Ministry of War. These-are the points which most
require force, attention, and sagacity. The posts aa.
cated by the retiring members of the Cabinet are not of
a nature to need the highest administrative power, nor
are they of a kind which it is dificult to Supply from
those members among whom Lord Palmerston can apply
without fear of failure. He will have no difficulty in
filling these places with perfectly good and able men,
None of them, fortunately, are n the condition of the
army, Neither our finances, neri our navy, nor our
'C Tolooial Department, have hear dly his last
vacated,
and Mr. Sidney
especiany is only nominally
Herbert postpones his trial in a higher place than that
On the past Conduct
which he had formerly filled.,ll
of Mr, Gladstone, as the
ancelior of the tache•
dlier, We have more than once had occasion to ex-
press the strongest disapproval• lie was not, in our
t ANA
'Opinion-, the bhatcelyr hn . v 'go had not the " .• •
'e ~ea truth, wuicu is Mainly noeueu
by that officer in time of war. He was fond of experi-
ment, and his mind had a turn for dangerous indulgence
in theories and crotchets. With all his ability, he was,
in our opinion, not happily placed in the Government,
and his absence will prove no great less. For Sir Same%
Graham the same cannot be said. He undoubtedly
filled, as well as it could be filled, the important office
which he held, and we most deeply regret that, in addi-
tion to his administrative ability he should not have
possessed enough of generosity, of patriotism, to have
faced the appointment of a committee which it was idle
to resist—that he should not have felt strong and secure
enough in the 'excellent working of his department to
say, " Here are my deeds, judge them who will."
This is not a view which these gentlemen have had
the confidence in themselves or the courage to take.
They feel a sting in the committee of inquiry, and on
that they withdraw themselves from the work that the
country has for them. They have not the manliness to
face the jury, and they fly from it, leaving to their col-
leagues and to their successors the more honourable task
of freeing the country from the gloom and uneasiness
into which it has fallen. One point is at least gained
by this retirement, ill-judged as we deem it. The last
look of the old Ministry —the condemned Ministry—
disappars with Messrs. Gladstone and Sidrhy Herbert.
With the appointment of their successors we shall wel-
come a new, and, we believe, a strong Adminiffation.

The Right Hon. MILNER Giesosr, who explained that
that society had met, according to its usual custom, in
order to give the public an account of its stewardship.
The opponents of all taxes on knowledge began by setting
four different objects before .411emselves, viz.—the repeal
of the duty on foreign hooks, the repeal of the excise
duty on paper, the abolition of the newspaper stamp,
together with the security system, and all restrictions
upon the press, excepting those imposed by the law of
libel, and the abolition of the impost en advertisements.
They had already succeeded in achieving the last of
these objects, and thereby conferred considerable advan-
tage upon the public, but the full benefit of that remis-
sion could not be secured until the whole of the complex
and obnoxious system with which the tax on advertise-
ments had once been interwoven had been thoroughly
swept away. Whatever encouragement that agitation
had received from other quarters, it had certainly ob-
tained none from the established newspaper press of the
country. In fact, the press had offered it the cold
shoulder, although its aim wa3 exclusively the public
good, and not any desire to assail existing interests.
The association, however, he was happy tcesay, was ra-
pidly approaching its hour of triumph. A bill had been
brougikt in by Mr. Gladstone—whom he must
.describe,
if report spoke truly, 45 the "lite" Chancellcr oT the
Exchequer—to abolish the compulsory stamp Gn news-
papers, and entitle all printed matter up to the weight of
4 ounces to be transmitted by post at the charge cf Id, ,
The measure would also- abrogate the security system,
and all those odious gagging statutes passed in the dark
days of a Castlereagh Administration, and known by the
name of the " Six Acts." These propositions might be
considered to be the leading features of the measure, but
there were also clauses in the bill which were evidently
introduced out of regard to what might be called the
vested interests of the established press. (Hear, hear.)
It had been contended that the right of retransmission
without an additional charge was- a privilege highly
valued by the, established press. The bill offered, in
consequence of that claim, to the established press, that
if they chose to print a portion of their impression upon
stamped paper, that portion of the impression shall be
transmitted and retransmitted without any adetitional
charge for a period of seven days. (Hear, hear.) As
it was considered that there were some large papers—he
believed there was one in that metropolis well known
to them all— (hear, hear)—which exceeded four ounces
in weight, there was a clause that papers of a certain
size of superficial square inches, even though they ex-
ceed the weight of four ounces, should have the privi-
laze ofretransmission during seven days— (oh, oh)—with-
out any additional charge. (Oh.) That latter provision
was to be in operation for a period of ten years. (Hear,
hear.) He was extremely surprised that there should
be any opposition from any quarter to the plan as pro-
posed on the ground of interest, but he should not be
surprised at there being opposition to it on the ground
of principle. For one, he should have preferred a simple
measure, repealing the stamp and the security laws, and
establishing a postage charge for printed matter, to be
paid at each transmission; but the plan proposed was
most favourable to the established papers, because they
were left all they now enjoy practically, namely, trans-
mission and retransmission for a period of seven days,
at the cost of their stamping only a portion of their im-
pression, whereas they now enjoy that privilege of re-
transmission at the cost of stamping their whole im-
pression. (Hear, hear.) The plan was undoubtedly a
great !soon to the public, in the way of removing ob-
stacles to the diffusion of knowledge, and, instead of
being an injury, it conferred an obvious and great ad-
vantage upon the established papers. (Hear.) They
could only explain any opposition to the measure on the
ground that there was a fear of the competition of the
cheap penny newspapers. (Hear.) That association
wished to see daily newspapers brought within the reach
of the humblest classes of the community, and not con-
fined to the affluent ; and they believed that the repeal
of the stamp duty would have the effect of insuring the
cheap and expeditious diffUsion of intelligence of all
piissifig, events, as well as of extending the influence of
the best ladled engaged in journalism among the great
mass of the people, sind thereby mitigating the evils
arising from the want of a Comprehensive system of
national education, which the dissensiove unhappily ex-.
isting among different sects of religionists tondered im-
poasible In this country. There was no knowledge so
useful add gO necessary as a knowledge of the events of
' the day, and of tfie reasons alleged for the legislation of
the day, and it was impossible that this knowledge could
reaeli the masses except through the medium of a cheap
prase. If there was a compromise in the Government
bill, it contained a gteaf deal of good, and Mr. Gladstone
deserved great credit for having grappled with the ques-
tion, and he was sure that he bed yielded on this ques-
tion from conviction; and not in deferenee to what was
called clamour. (Hear.) •It was his duty to submit
terms d pdade to their old friends at the Board of Inland
Revenue. (Laughter.) They would let bygones be by-
gones ; their warfare was at all end and he could not
help saying that any odium that might have attached to
the officers of that boaid was entirely ovng to the bad
system they had to carry out. He believed thog!a officers
had simply endeavoured to do their duty, He knew, tad;
that the Attorney-General would not have liked to figure
before his fellow-countrymen In the character of the pro-
secutor of the press; and as endeavouring to prevent cir-
culation of news, particularly at a time when enrs.tmy was
perishing in the Crimea, rind thousands of th'e pourer
classes were filled with anxiety fof the fate of their fele:,
tives Who were with the army. That Was not the posi-
tion which a Liberal would like to fill. (Hear, hear.)
He hoped they would Hot be called insatiable people,
but he could not help saying that he, and those who
acted with hint, Viptild riot be satisfied until the paper
duty was repealed. Thtiii was the natural result of the
repeal of the newspaper stamp duty; and he had great
hopes they would succeed before long in removing the
paper duty. It night be said that a time of *lir was
not the time to remove taxes ; but he contended that a
time of gredt mtpenditure was exactly the time when
they should endeavour to faise the revenue in the least
Uppressive manner. 14ow; they insisted that the
same tirdount of revenue might be Mind in a much
less objeCtichiahle Mecie than' by the paper duty, and
they were, therefore, justified in calling on the
Government to repeal it. (gee, Ile was
bound at the same time to say that, howeveF intatiable
they alight appear, that society ought not to be conteni
' te feet up'ett its oars until the Government were induced
td stirferider thei remaining instalments of their demand,
arid yield *ha': viere bin the natural and necessary corol-
laries of the just coneassions they had already made.
(Cheers.)
Tl4e firnaticial, report of the society hatin4 been read
bYp tr nalcificf ilia first resolution, whieb
le!
tr refnetw4A ;
yrr
was as follows :

• .
"That the paper duty is a tax on knowicage
,that,,by
hindering the use of new raw materials, it limits thle sup--
ply and enhances the price of paper, and thus restricts the'
field for the employment of capital and labour ; and that
the increased expenditure of tho country imperatively de-
mands that a less injurious mode of raising money be re-
sated to than an excise duty on so important a manu-
facture!' .

It was denied that the duty on paper was a tax on
knowledge. But it clearly was, inasmuch as it was a tax
upon the materials used in the dissemination of know-
ledge. It might just as well be said that the tat on pig"
iren was not a tax on the iron manufacture, or a tax on
calico not a tax on calico-printing. (Hear.) True the
Government did not taxa schoolmaster or an author as
such, but if it taxed the tools with which one worked, or
hampered the other in his attempt to put his works
before the public, they clearly imposed a burthen upon
them as much as they did upon any other classes of pro-
ducers whose industry they checked by fiscal regulations.
It was said again that the paper duty was not really any
tax on knowledge because of its small amount, but let
them recollect how large fortunes were made up of very
small items. It might be very true that the amount of
the tax which fell on a primer, for instance, might be
very small ; but when the publisher came to sell thou-
sands of primers, the tax being taken off would leave
such a sum in his pocket as would enable him to employ
a better man to write his primers, and he would thus
be able to produce a better article, and one more suit-
able to the instruction and the education of the people.
(Hear, hear.) But he denied altogether that when they
came to add the several profits which had to be paid on
the duty to the several parties through whose hands it
passed before it reached the consumer, it would be found
that the tax was anything but a trivial matter. Besides
that, they must take into consideration the hindrances
which this tax placed in the way of industry, It pre-
tun most advantageous methods of employing
"4 isunroYed processes by
capital, and the introduction _2
4.41 t lessen e...
lesse e..
which the cost of production _ ...“on, and
Mr. A. PELLATT, M.P., seconded the rese..—;
eipressed big dOnVidtinn, after 25 years experience of
the practical wdking of i i
he dieted Jaws, that it was the
greatest Cut-se that Could possibly befall the manufac,
turer to be subjected to the galling and vexatious bond-
age of the Inland Revenue Board. He also adduced
statistics of the eipttniaien Whleb, h. 64 produced pruced in
the glass manufacture of this country since b wff"
tion from fiscal burdens, and predicted that a similar
impetus would be given to the consumption of popsy Of
all kinds by its emancipation from excise restrictions.
The resolution was then carried unanimously.
Mr. CoEDEN, M,P., next addressed the meeting. He
.said he little thought, when he saw Mr. Gladstone only
48 hours before, proposing the measure which they had
all so much at heart, that the right hon. gentleman,
would so soon have ceased to hold office in the Govern. -
ment. He regretted Mr. Gladstone's retirement, be
cause he had the highest respect for his general a; Reel -1
s
as•for his financial abilities but he did not believe tha,
what had occurred would
endanger the safety of the bill I,l'
becauie the right hon.. gentleman was a statesman whoa
(,riv.icting they (mid reach, and, whether in offma c r
c-,' i it, they would doubtless have the Flp;i)) rt o
11 commanding eloquence and ability to insure its passin
's.
These sudden and kaleidoscopic changes in the Gov"' r g