The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-03 00:00:00

The question of Parliamentary reform is " referred
to the country." The question of sanitary improve-
ment is "referred to the country." The ouestions of
education, of taxes on knowledge, of the grant to
Maynootb, of the ballot, nay, of the very stability of
the new Administration, are all of them, in like
manner, " referred to the country." Even the budget
introduced to the consideration of Parliament on
Friday evenin g by the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER,
constitutes a reference of the more prominent difficul-
ties of our system of finance to the judgment of the
country, as is manifest from the circumstance of its
I being purely and simply provisional in its character.
IThe question of our national defences, the question,
perhaps, of all the most earnestly requiring care and
foresight in its solution—is the solitary exception in
this comprehensive and wholesale project of
procrastination. So enormous is the respon-
sibility attached to the measure affecting
the status of the militia in the United
Kingdom, that it led very recently to the destruction
of a Cabinet which had survived six years of violent
and pertinacious opposition. Yet, with an example
like that before them, Lord DERBY and his col:eagues
are hurrying forward a Bill scarcely one jot less crude
in its provisions than the one fatally introduced by
the leader of the late Administration. Remembering
the facts here particularized, we are surely justified
in asserting that the Conservative Government is re-
vealing upon this point very little consistency. Happily
there are those in the House of Commons who,
however mistaken themselves in regard to the best
means of securing the shores of England from inva-
sion, are so resolute in their determination to obstruct
the proposed enactment affecting the militia, as to
refer it also, if possible, in company with many
other matters of importance, to the consideration of
the country immediately after the approaching dis-
solution.

In earnest of this resolve on the part of the inde-
pendent representatives, we find among the notices of
motion in the House of Commons for this evening
no less than seven amendments for the Bill to be
deliberated upon in Committee. Six are for innova-
tions in the measure when it actually shall be sub-
mitted clause by clause to the notice of the House by
the Chairman—these amendments being respectively
announced by the Hon. Members for Lincoln, for
Bury St. Edmunds, for Evesham, for Oldham, for
West Kent, and for Haddingtonshire. Before
any of these suggestions can be made, how-
ever, before even the House can form itself
into a Committee for the consideration of
the Bill before it, another amendment, the first on the
list of those relating to the measure in question, will
be introduced by the Hon. Gentleman the Represen-
tative for the West Riding of Yorkshire. Upon the
decision of Parliament as to this suggestion of Mr.
COBDEN will depend the maintenance or the abandon-
ment of the Bill brought before the Legislature by
her MAJESTY'S Government. From its importance,
therefore, in this respect, we may be allowed to repro-
duce here the amendment in extenso, it being " For re-
turns stating the names, armaments, number of crews
and officers of all her MA JEsTr's.ships then employed on
active service, the stations on which they are em-
ployed, and the length of time each vessel has been
employed on each station respectively, distinguishing
steam-vessels from sailing vessels, and also steam
vessels propelled by screws from those propelled by
paddle wheels, and stating the nominal horse power
of the engines of each vessel; the names of all reserve
or advance ships, with the ports at which they are
now placed, and a statement of the periods which
would be required to send them to sea in a fit state
for active service. And that the consideration of the
Bill in Committee be postponed until after the pro-
duction of such return." There is considerable
ingenuity in the line here adopted by Mr.
COBDEN with a view to set aside the Mi-
litia question, or rather we should say,
the whole of the very difficult and embarrassing
question affecting our national defences, until such
time as the people shall have been directly consulted
in the matter in the process of the general election.
While we consider it to be peculiarly injudicious to
hasten through both Houses a measure concocted with
undue precipitation, we are, at the same time, most
solicitous that there should not be any
lengthened delay in bringing the question
at issue to a definite and comprehensive settlement.
Upon the advisability of effecting some change for
the better organization of the National Defences of
the United Kingdom we are ail of us united. Those
who think otherwise, at least, are so very inconsider-
able a minority, that the country may be said to be
in this matter unanimous. It is incumbent upon the
Legislature and the Government, therefore, that while
they guard themselves from hasty and ineffectual
efforts to secure and increase the defensive capabili-
ties of the empire, they should not, in so doing, delay
indefinitely, or through negligence, the endeavour
to bring the matter, now for some period
discussed, to a satisfactory conclusion. Let us
have the Militia Bill if you please, but let it
be one revealing more deliberate preparation
than either the Militia Bill of Mr. WALPOLE
or the Militia Bill of Lord JOHN RussELe. Let
us have a new system of National Defences by
all means, but let it be one rationally in
accordance with our wants, as well as with our capabi-
lities, as an insular power, a system affecting scarcely
so much the military as the maritime force of the
United Kingdom, securing to us the indubitable ad-
vantages of a Standing Navy, and of more judiciously
organizing the Marine Artillery.

Had the Budget, which on Friday evening elicited
the almost unanimous approbation of the House of
Commons, emanated from Sir CHARES WOOD, or
either his immediate predecessors, it would, most
probably, have been very severely criticised. Its
very favourable reception was, in a great degree,
ascribable to the fact that it was but a " provisional
budget," and that there were existing circumstances
which, if they did not altogether justify, at least
greatly extenuated the adoption of a " standstill
policy." It could not be forgotten that the
Right Honourable Gentleman had to face a hos-
tile majority, who could be arrayed against him
on any feasible excuse, and that the Ministry were to
some extent pledged not to introduce any very im-
portant changes during the present session. The na-
ture of the opposition to which they had been sub-
jected at the very commencement of their career had
tied up their hands against the introduction of any
great fiscal changes, even if the recent accession to
office by the Minister more immediately responsible
for such changes had enabled him to mature a large
and comprehensive scheme for the management of the
national finances. The validity of the excuse was
admitted on every side, and the grace andleloquence
and modesty with which the subject was introduced,
so very different from any that had been perceptible
of late years on similar occasions, completed the
charm and gained for the Right Hon. Gentleman
the brilliant triumph of which he may be justly
proud.

But such excuses cannot he - again admitted if
Mr. Disit.tELl should once more have to address a
financial statement to the House. In proportion
to the indulgence extended to him in the present
• instance, sovvegereelalto will be the expectation for the
fthutautreh.ellwe
system
in a searching investigation
into the entire sgy axartieosnult wmithighat
grandattandenthaawterdhetoofescape chiefly on the ground
its revision,
any premature
.interference with his
this feeling that induced Honourable
t vbieewto
plans. en-
dangered i t by
was
Gentlemen to listen patiently to a proposition for re-
newing the income-tax without change or modifica-
tion for another year—to continue its unjust and
oppressive enactments until the report of the Committee,
so long withheld, hat been published and maturely
considered, and the voice of public opinion has pro-
nounced judgment thereon.
We confess we had hulled that it would have
been otherwise ; that as one cf the Committee,
the Right Honourable Gentleman would have been
sufficiently acquainted with the feelings of its members
on the subject of the equal taxation of every descrip-
tion of income, to have introduced some immediate
alteration, so that although the Bill for the renewal of
the impost might not
be put forward as a perfect
measure, or one that would be permanently adopted,
it might at least be rendered less palpably inequitable
that any of its predecessors. It would be paying a
very bad compliment to the Committee to suppose
that any large proportion of its members could justify
the placing in the same cuss the dividends from tbe