The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The inevitable truths of finance are at
length beginning to dawn upon the American mind.
For three years past the acute and intelligent
people of the States have been deluding themselves
into a belief that by some fortunate privilege they
could escape the operation of inexorable laws ; that
they conld spend without paying, and borrow
without feeling the debt. In these fond impres-
sions they were confirmed by the official declara-
tions of their own statesmesi and they have accepted
accordingly the first effects of an inflated currency
as evidence of abundant wealth, Without so much
as a misgiving that any day of reckoning was at
hand. Mr. Chase found money enough on conve-
nient terms for the exigencies of the war,
and it was an article of the popular creed that
when the war was over the public debt could
be easily liquidated by the illimitable resources of a
young, growl ig, and gigantic nation. These views,
however, are now dissolving, and in their place
some ugly prospects are gradually assuming shape
and import. The other day, as we informed our
readers, proposals were actually made in the Mouse
of Representatives for doubling, at a single stroke,
the taxes now paid by the population of the Federal
States, and we have now a letter written by Mr.
Thurlow Weed—a name of weight in the Northern
States—for the instruction of his countrymen, in
which the magnitude of the accumulating difficulty is
unreservedly acknowledged. Of the remedy which
Mr. Weed suggests we shall presently speak,but we
must, at any rate, allow him the merit of looking the
affairs of the nation boldly in the face. Mr, Weed com-
putes that by the time the war is finished and the
Union restored a debt of £600,000,000 will remain to
be supported by the people of the States. What may
be the case at so very indefinite a period it is rather
hard to conjecture, but we know that Mr. anise him-
self owned to an actual debt of £220,000,000 as long
ago as Midsummer last, and the intelligence re-
cently brought reveals no improvement in the
prospects of the Federals. However, we may very
safely presume that the Americans will find them-
selves with a debt of tremendous magnitude to be
endured or discharged ; and the question is whe-
ther this obligation is to be left to chance, or
lightened as far as practicable by timely provision.
At present the national liabilities are rolling up at
a prodigious rate. The debt itself increases by about
£150,000,000 a year, and besides this enormous ad-
dition of principal, there are heavy demands accru-
ing on the score of interest. Mr. Chase has admitted
that the cost on this head will amount in a fe w
months to a yearly charge of £17,000,000,
and this calculation makes the very best of
the case. It• is beyond doubt, however,
that from £15,000,000 to £20,000,000 will aeon
be added to the outgoings of the Federal Govern-
ment for interest on borrowed money alone,
and if a system like this is to go on, what can we
expect to be the end of it ? The House of Repre-
sentatives appeared to think that it must not ge on,
but that the country, instead of raising an ordinary
revenue of £45,000,000 to meet an expenditure of
£190,000,000, should raise twice that sum. This
was to diminish the necessity of borrowing, and re-
tard in some degree the rapid accumulation of debt.
Mr. Weed omits that particular consideration, and
addresses himself to the methods of liquidating the
debt, whatever it may ultimately be. His scheme
we may, perhaps, briefly characterise, in terms
now current, as a proposal for " divorcing the
labourer from the soil," or, at least, for pro-
moting that species of separation in the case of
labourers to be hereafter attracted from the Old
World to the New. He proposes that the vast
public lands of the United States should, instead
of being alienated on the present terms as bounties
on immigration, be preserved as the base of public
credit and the fountain of public revenue. Under
tne approaching circumstances of the country
these possessions will be too valuable to the State
to be squandered in the shape of cheap farms. They
must be kept in hand, and applied as they improve
in productiveness and worth to the imperious neces-
sities of a Government overwhelmed with debt.
This proposition deserves notice, not only for its
recognition of the tremendous problem to be one
day solved, but for its unhesitating sacrifice of
that very law which has been reasonably repre-
sented as the great attraction of the United States
in the eyes of labouring classes at home. The
" Homestead Law," says Mr. Thurlow Weed,
should be absolutely repealed; so that the loss of an
extraordinary and unique advantage would be to
America-one of the first and earliest consequences
of its civil war. It is not impossible that the emi-
grant of five years hence may find himself under an
arbitrary Government; it, is eel tain that he will find
heavy taxes, and if, besides these unexpected cur-
tailments of republican privileges, he loses also the
prospect of becoming at once the proprietor of land
on terms within everybody's reach he will have lost
most of the present inducements to prefer the New
World to the Old. But the American press has not
been slow to discern that Mr. Weed's project would
probably effect little good. The calculations are
that the utmost amount of revenue derivable from
the public lands thus treated would not suffice to
pay more than one-thirtieth part of the aggregate
interest due on the estimated debt ; so that while
immigration might be discouraged, and one source
of American prosperity impaired, the counterpoise
of gain would be insignificant in proportion. We
can imagine that this reckoning may take too
little account of the enhanced value which these
lands may acquire—a result which mast occur
sooner or later in America as in every other coun-
try. Still, as this consequence itself depends upon
the peopling of the country, and that process would
be retarded by the adoption of the policy in ques-
tion, it would seem a wiser course to let the more
liberal land system continue, and reap national
riches, nat from hoarded territory, but from the
fruits of that territory in the hands of industrious
owners. The men of the Old World have been the
making of the New, and this, at any rate, is not a
conjuncture when America can dispense with tiie
importation.. The only sound conclusion on this great
question of finance is one which we at length find
advocated in the Federal press. The war should be
prosecuted to a termination, whatever that end
may be, and the people in the meantime must con-
sent to be taxed. It is dawning upon the Americans
at last that while they have been astounding
Europe, as they believed, by the immensity of their
" resources" and the unexampled magnitude of
their war, they have simply plunged into treat abyss
of Old World embarrassment from which it was
their proudest boast to be free. They now discern
the fact that since the year 1861 they have unheed-
ingly incurred a national debt which will probably
equal in its charges the national debt of England.
It they say that they are capable of sustaining this
dEbt, they say no more than the truth. No doubt the
thirty millions of America can pay taxes as well as
the thirty millions of England, and without greater
suffering. But then they must convince themselves
of the fact that England and America stand for the
future on just the same footing. The mistake they
have hitherto made is in supposing that America
could do as England has done, and yet remain as
America was. They must adopt our system of
Budgets as well as our system of public Stacks,
and we can tell them that at present they have
made but very little way iu the realisation of the
truth. Their scheme for raising £70,000,000 on
foreign and domestic luxuries will never answer.
Luxuries will never bear so excessive a burden, or
yield so exorbitant a contribution. The burden
must be more universally distributed, and less
reliance must be placed on indirect taxation, and
especially on protective tariffs. A revenue of
£90,000,000 is not to be raised without an
income-tax, and an income-tax levied for the
first time on a people said to be the richest
in the world ought to produce considerably more
than one fifteenth part of the whole income re-
quired. In short, there is no Royal road to ease
and comfort in the matter of taxation. The imposes
necessary for producing a large revenue cannot be
shufled on to the shoulders of the rich, or juggled
into the duties on foreign goods—least of all into
those on foreign " luxuries." All classes and all
sources must bear their fair share in just proportion.
Of course, the Americans can accept these condi-
tions if they please. If they mean, indeed, to pay
t ea
Lord
their way according to their new lights, they must
needs do so, nor is it for us to say that they will
suffer in anything but pride and privilege by the
adoption of the process. As we can endure the bur
den and yet be prosperous, so may they at least as
easily ; but to do so they must unlearn the ideas
they have hitherto entertained, and teach them
submissionsh eyl v
taxes,e s a s ween d
of he aaa vxl ee l
classes
d oe nn el y, t
alikehf
na tr
ndi at
obh
et cantdh
eh yh theoanrldy hp, e n pd
t
thoughl
in
equitable exactions of necesity.
HERALD.—
charges
Mr. Ferrand's list of against
the Whig Admiralty officials is a long one, but we
take leave to say it has not been disproved. And,
notwithstanding the outrageous insolence h
letncik
enof d
Clarence's Pager's reply
theraesioplynlsilastthat
ta enif silhitm,
we
aerfeprrroecdeeptdouinbbglys
on more c
opinion,
recent
judging
Mr. Ferrand, will decide in favour of the pursuer.
When Mr. Ferrand complained last year in the
House of Commons of the tyranny of the Whig
Admiralty, which prevented a free exercise of the
franchise by the dockyard employees, Sir C. Wood
made the following
First Lord the announcement :—" When I was
patronage of the dockyards was
given over to the superintendents, and since then
the Board of Admiralty have had nothing to do with
promotion in the employment of the yards." But
to confute this dogmatism of Sir C. Wood Mr. Fer-
rand referred to other and higher authorities. The
late comptroller of the navy, Sir Baldwin Walker,
stated before the Dockyard Commission of 1860
that " The papers on the subject of promotions are

•....,.

forwarded to the Admire'tar,
and are genera 3110
to me for report; aernetimes they co
direct to me. I submit my re o: to the board, and
that is generally dealt with by
the Secrete. rnil
to the Admiralty; he has these
promotiont
Sir Baldwin Walker subsequently for Jot hiigg ms!
and with a candour wholly foreign to NVhrisi
explained that of later years—" I have
ge,..nera
gone into the question with the Duke of Sotrte'rs"
with reference to promotions. This originated las 4
difference between the Secretary and myself. The)
duke from that period has gone into the questiotu
himself. But as carious are these contradictioter
they are only the preface to other revelations. Tat
1859, when Med Ferrand first contested Devonporta
he states that grievous complaints were made to hirre
to the effect that for !nany months previously vv.
cancies had occurred in he dockyard which were
not filled up. At that time air J. Pakington was
First Lord of the Admiralty. On hearing such
complaints Mr. Ferrand made inquiries at the
Admiralty ; but though he applied i,',ree or four
times nothing was to be elicited. Howaver, thlg
truth came out at last, and it was discover ad
only that vacancies did exist, but that a list of
those vacancies was to be had at the Whig coi'lP'
troller's office, though, in the spirit of his order;
he had studiously forborne to inform the Board
of Admiralty of the fact. Unfortunately this
discovery came too late, for soon after Lard
Derby's Ministry being thrown out, the Duke of
Somerset succeeded Sir J. Pakington, and then
within a few days every one of those vacancies was
filled up so as to strengthen the Whig Government.
Mr. Ferrand, however, stated his belief that these
7acancies consisted of no less than some 30 or 40
permanent appointments, and that, though filled uP
in ten day after the Dake of Somerset became First;
Lord of the Admiralty, they had been purposely
kept open for some ten months or so by Sir Baldwin
to appoint his own creatures. But Oaf's° extraordia
Walkerwith the view of waiting for opportunitY
nary disclosures do not end here. NiThilst Sir 13.;
Walker admitted " there was some little' delay
my part in transmitting some of the names," Sir
Pasley, at that time the admiral superintend 911 t °„
the dockyard, stated " delay began in one
(1858) and ended in another (1859), but there srl'
not a year's interval." But Sir B. Walker's owl/-
statements exhibit a still greater incongruity.
was not enough, first of all, to deny the report 0'
any vacancies, and then produce the list. Sir D.
Walker at different times furnished wholly dif'
ferent reasons for keeping open these vacancies:
At one time, before the commissioners, he alleged
the many vessels building by contract, though Mr'
Ferrand asserts that no vessels were built by CO'l
tract either in 1858 or 1859. At another time, Of
a letter to the electors of Devonport, in August o',
1860, when Mr. Ferrand contested the borough 0:
Devonport twice in one month, Sir B. Walker gs"
as his excuse for not filling up the vacancies rts
ferred to, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer /Or
made a mistake in his calculations, that there he,
been no money allowed for the salaries of the officer;
in question, but that now there was some, and 0,1,
offices had all been filled up. Again whilst Sir P'
Walker affected to blame the returns of the super;
intendent, Sir T. Pasley expressly affirmed lit
" the delay was at head-quarters • it was 5003),
where between Somerset House and Admiraltlf
that is, it was at the Comptroller's office. Finallo
whilst Sir B. Walker pretended that " the vacslY
cancies not being filled up is not detrimental to th:
public service, because the moment there On/
vacancy the officers of the yard have the power
putting a person to act," Sir T. Pasley said, "
was a long interval when some of the suborP;
nate offices in the roppery were not filled 01),,`
No wonder that such contradictions somewhat it,
wildered the royal commissioners, or that they e;
sired Sir B. Walker to appear before them ag6ic
and explain his conflicting statements. But th..
was not to be. A Dow ex machine appeared in t,bit
person of the Duke of Somerset, who shipped off
Baldwin to the Pacific, far away from the triboo
of royal commissioners. The upshot, however, Wt,
a temporary success for the Whigs. It was don,
less the lucky occupants of those vacancies wilie;
in 1860, turned the day against Mr. Ferrand; 9,0
6
might be those vacancies unfilled which turned '0
issue against him in 1859. Well, we have no dodo'
Sir B. Walker is a most honourable and gelliibt,
officer, but when it is asserted, as it was last ply e
that he was quite incapable of conferring an s'o
pointment for political reasons, we hardly k0.,,L1e
whether to wonder more at the audacity or,
simplicity of those members who made such a stn
went. And when Mr. Ferrand is assailed for "0111, „;
dering" an absent man, the noble lord and his '''-p#
iciouosf
maculate predecessor, Mr. Bernal Osborne, Cfr's
circumstances Sir B.Wiilkeeu'
taunt him with his cowardice, should call to 031,°h.
verythe
dabsence,
which alined is,tei"
spirited off to his command. Corruption is ;ea
enough in all conscience, but hypocrisy is weli"
and when we notice the indignation of honours,' s
gentlemen who sit on the Ministerial side of the
house at the bare idea of any imputation of the towA iii
exercise of patronage for political purposes, we e° et
Mr. Ferrand's answer, and call up the nallie by
"Augustus Stafford." As to the language used „e,
Lord Clarence Paget last night, it is of, a pee t~
allowing for the peculiarities of the individual, lelop
the conduct of the Ministry during the session• ai
more than one occasion the Premier himself b
replied to the leader of the Conservatives in ter'',
such as have been seldom addressed by a Prind,lll
Minister to the chief of the party in opposite"
But that we pardon in consideration of the petulsPi"
incidental to age and the vexations of a positioo 9
which the noble lord can hardly lend himself.,
is rather too much when a Secretary of the AOl, •
ralty introduces into the House of Commons t
" rowdyism" of a United States Congress, 6,114
secure behind the barrier which modern feeling Po
raised, indulges in language which twenty 31°00
ago he would have been compelled to make good
a very different field.

COUNTRY MARKETS.


MANCHESTER—THURSDAY.
A slender attendance at our market, and English 01341 d
met with a slow consumptive demand, At barely the vo4
rency of this day week. Foreign wheat wag neglectecly,,,
2d per cental lower. Flour met with a dull s.ale, at IV
the turn in favour of buyers. Oats and oatmeal wereg,
and unchanged in price. Indian corn was rather chef
Beans at former rates.

BURTON-ON-TRENT—THURSDAY. 44!
Old white wheat..4ss to 47s I Old red wheat, 4OO to
NEW do. ..43a to 465 I New do. 390 to
Malting barley....34s to 38s I Oath 22s too►
Grinding d0.....28s to 318 I Beans 346 to

BIRAiINGHAAI

'HURSDAY.
This morning there was a large supply of English WJ
but there was only a moderate attendance of the "0,4
and the prices of this day sennight receded 6d to leB+'
qr. Barley, oats, and beans at late prices, and limitedo
—English wheat was sold at 40s to 46s for white, 011,000.
to 40s per 36 stone for red, Barley, new malting, "
40s per qr ; grinding, 24s to 28s Oats, old, 225 t 0
per 30 stone ' • Irish, 18s to 245. Beans, 38s to 420 P
Peas, 36s to 42s per 36 stone.

BRISTOL—THrRsDAY.
There was a short supply of wheat to-day, and sales 1040
slow at is per qr under previous quotations. in fo,e,
,
a heavy trade, and declined is per qr. Malting barleld
materially changed, but foreign grinding sorts in re'
and 6d dearer. Oats in retail.

EDINBURGH GRAIN—FEB. 24. If
To-clay there was a large supply of wheat, which 133 d ,rBll
slow sale, at barely last week's prices. Barley met 9,
sale, at former rates. Beans and oats sold slowiff
rather cheaper.
Wheat on the top Os 6d down ..average Os 2dol
A -,,,,
Barley on the top Os 6d up..... average is 1d.11,f,
Oats on the top 2s Od up.... average Os ocl t',
Beans on the top 4s Od up average Os 9d 9."
Avei age Prices.
.0d
Wheat . . 37s 4d I Oats. ... 30
Barley ....29s 4d Beans

Total Supply and Sales.
Wheat .1399 qrs Sold 910 qrs
8ar1ey........1127 qrs Sold 526 qrs
Oats
Beans 420 qrs Sold 280 qrs oi
Flour sells as follows :—Whites, 40s Al ; extras, 384
superfine, 36s Od ; fine, 342 Od.