The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, MA.RCII 5, 1563

many immaterial ways ? This opposition is in
such had taste, and when any particular thing has
been made the subject of angry debate, and the
ground of fierce discussion, even if the point is
yielded at last, the grace of the gift is gone,
and the prevailing sentiment is that of annoyance.
All that can tend to heighten the attraction, and
increase the adornment of the procession ought,
surely, to be welcomed ; but it seems to be ordered
otherwise. The inconvenience that may arise from
I the civic portion having to turn back will be felt
just as much as at present arranged, for the LORD
MAYOR and his followers will have to turn back
and pass beside the rest of the procession. It
seems quite incredible that such arbitrary rules
should be laid down, and such stringent regulations
enforced, when the professed object is to give
a grand national holiday, and make the occasion of
welcoming our future Queen for ever memorable with
those who witness it. Such an opportunity as has
now offered, seldom presents itself to Ministers, and
they seem resolved to throw away every chance of
ingratiating themselves, either because they are in-
different to public opinion, or else consider them-
selves independent of it. They should remember
that wiser and greater men than they are have
counted it among their highest honours
to win the favour of the community at large.
When Queen ANNE asked her Minister what it
would cost her to enclose the three parks, that
statesman impressively replied, it will cost your
Majesty three Crowns. Perhaps our Government
may find one day that their churlishness and un-
graciousness in this affair has cost them too dear.
It is the more inexcusable, because it is evidently
in direct contradiction to the public conouct of
the SOVEREIGN, who has always been dis-
tinguished for her affable demeanour, and taken
the greatest possible care on every occasion of public
rejoicing or processions to let all her subjects have
a chance of seeing her. To please every one is im-
possible, we all know ; but why should the wishes
of so many be studiously disregarded, the entreaties
of others be neglected, and the requests that have
been made in various directions decidedly refused ?
These questions cannot now be answered ; but,
apart from all political considerations, an event that
belongs to history should be met in an appropriate
spirit, and treated in a congenial manner. It is to be
trusted that the general feeling will be that of
satisfaction among the thousands who will flock to
welcome their Prince and Princess ; but the particu-
lar impression in many quarters will be a protest
against those who abused the power entrusted to
them, by setting up false standards of propriety,
and urging the desirableness of most undesirable
speed, and curtailing the show of a procession that
at the utmost length would have been over all too
soon for those who spent so much time and trouble
in seeking to do it honour.

The progress of legislation 'seems to be brought
to a dead lock for a time, and will probably so re-
main until after Easter, when some definite prin
ciple will be propounded to test the pulse of party
strength. At present public faith seems to be
lapped in the Elysium of matrimonial expectancy.
Reform that was so long in the ascendent has been
turned out of favour just as its advocates got into
place. Lord PALMERSTON said bat the other day,
as DE WITT said of old, that the best way to get on
with work was to do one thing at a time,
and he practices that principle almost exclusively
for the benefit of those who may one day return
the favours. He works in a circle of ambiguity,
professing much but performing little for the
public requirements in the way of sound legis-
lation. Hence thd doubt engendered as to his
sincerity in reforming abuses of long standing
and crying out for speedy correction. Half mea-
sures produce little good, and palliatives serve but
to beguile. What is wanted is a thorough honest
investigation, probing to the core. Evasion
serves but to beget suspicion of insincerity in
the cause, and even where the purpose is
straightforward, the mode pursued in carrying it
out still provokes the doubt that there is no heart
in the business. This has been evidenced on more
than one occasion since the commencement of the
present session, and bids fair to continue, party
connivance duly permitting.
Bat we do not accuse the noble lord of personal
feeling in the matter. It is the legacy bequeathed
by his predecessors in the affairs of State; but when
a man of his long experience undertakes to mend
the ways of those who preceded him in office, it
looks questionable how little progress is made
and attention is diverted by an appearance
of show, while little is really done. Let one take
a glance at the past since the present Ministry took
office by storm under the mask of Reform,
and what has been the result of their patriotic
labours. They had not only snatched the cards out
of the hands of others who were dealing a fair
game, but they so shuffled the pack that the very
thing they promised evaporated, as if by legerde-
main, and the public were left in bewilderment at
the duplicity of the trick. They were so alarmed
at the honest progress of their rivals that rather
than let them do a good thing, they would, in
patriotic ardour, perform a much better, and in the
end contrived to strangle the child of their adop-
tion. And that's the way they do these things for
the public good.

But that sort of game cannot be permitted to
go on for ever. Public necessity requires that the
march of improvement should quicken its steps.
Deeds, not words, must be the order of the day.
That much is wanted to be done is admitted by
all parties; and if it will not suit the convenience
of one, another may find its interest in a due per-
formance of the duty, When the public become
impatient of exouses, and have too good reason to
express dissatisfaction, there is some hope for the
conntry ; but not till then.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAM.)

SPAIN.

MADRID, MARcn 4 (Evening).
The opening of tho Cortes will take place on
Monday next.
The question whether the Government will ask
authorisation to continue collecting the taxes, or
will request the Chamber to discuss the budget, is
not yet decided.

PRUSSIA.
THE PRUSSIAN CHAMBERS.

BERLIN, MARCH 4.

In to-day's sitting of the Chamber of Deputies
Her von Sybel moved that the obligation of mili-
tary service should be so regulated that the yearly
levy for the army should amount to 80,000 men,
60,000 of whom should join the infantry, and
20,000 the other arms of the service. As regards
the infantry, Herr von Sybel proposed that one-
third should be drilled and perform active service
for two years and a half, and the remaining two-
thirds for half a year, after which they would be
dismissed to form the military reserve. With re-
spect to the other military bodies, it is proposed
that their term of active service should be two and
a half years.

Herr von Sybel's motion was supported by the
number of members necessary to allow of its being
discussed. It has been referred to the Military
Committee of the House to be reported upon.
The official Staatsanzeiger of to day says :
"We are authorised to declare as a mischievous
invention the statement made by the Parisian corre-
spondent of a Belgian!paper of the 2d inst. in refer-
ence to the origin of the Convention of the 8:11 of
February, between Prussia and Russia, and its pre-
tended modification."
The Staatsanzeiger continues :

" A false light was thrown upon the Convention
by the unfounded assertion of this correspondent

that the initiative of the Convention was due to the
Prussian Ministry ; that they resolved to conclude
it through fear of a revolution in Prussia ; and,
finally, that Russia had proposed a modification of
the Convention, perceiving the impression which it
had produced in England and France."
The same journal also contradicts the assertion
of a Berlin correspondent of the Austrian journal
Der Botschafter, of the 2d inst., according to which
the object of Prussia in concluding the Convention
was to extend her territory to the Vistula and the
line of the Narew.

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.
VILNA, MARCH 3 (Evening).

The Courrier de TVilna of to-day publishes a
notification of the Governor-General Nazimow, who

says therein :

" I address myself principally to the peasants,
reminding
them of the boon of their enfranchise-
ment from serfdom. It is for the peasants to render
powerless the criminal endeavours of the agitators
by arresting the guilty parties and giving them up
to the authorities.'
General Nazimow makes the communes respon-
sible for the maintenance of the public roads and
the safety of the military and civil functionaries.

The French Supplementary Credits.

The following are extracts from the report of
Segris on the supplementary credits of 1862, just
distributed to the members of the Legislative Body

"An important event—the expedition to Mexico—took
place after the vote of the financial law regulating the gene-
ral budget of receipts and expenses of 1862. It is in conse-
quence of that fact that thebill on the supplementary credits
of 1862 was presented to the Chamber on May 5, 1862. The
supplementary credits necessary for the services, both ordi-
nary and extraordinary,comprised in the rectificatory budget,
were fixed by the Chamber at 178,371,382 fr., with the pre-
visions of resources recognised as sufficient to secure the
equilibrium. in the amount of those supplementary
credits, the Ministry of War was comprised for a sum of
43,512,190 f. ; that of the Marine for 67,690,816 f, caused in
part by the extraordinary armaments imposed on them by
the Mexican expedition. The expeditionary corps at that
time only amounted to 5,225 men and 865 horses. A cir-
cumstance quite unforeseen rendered necessary, even before
the rectificatory budget was voted, the opening of fresh
credits to those two Ministries.

The report then briefly recapitulates the circum-
stances connected with the disruption of the alliance
between France, England, and Spain, which event,
the document states, caused the French Government

to decide on going on alone, and led to the presen-
tation of a bill for 15 millions, voted d'urgence on
the 23d June, 1862. But the expenses went on in-
creasing as fresh reinforcements were called for,
and other credits became urgent. The report goes
on to say :
"It is in consequence of that situation that there was
submitted to us a bill whicb opens, on the estimates of 1862,
credits amounting 38,046,452 f., intended to complete tfiose
already opened by the finance law of June 28, 1861, and by
other laws already mentioned. That sum of 38,046,45 f. is
applicable to the wants of five Ministries, and is divided
between them in the following manner :—Ministry of Jus-
tice, 300,000 f. ; Interior, 710,0001. ; Finance, 1:,382,000f, ;
War, 8,020,000 f.; Marine, 17,033,161 f."

After observations of same length on the propriety
of avoiding additional expenses and of meeting
them when by chance they arise by means of trans-
fers, the report says

" The task of the committee would have been terminated,
if it had not been obliged to examine as to what influence
those new supplementary credits will exercise on the aggre-
gate of the Budget of 1862, and on its final settlement. It
results from the documents which have been laid before us
at our request that,taking into account some new supplemen-
tary credits, those opened by laws for 1862 will amount to
the total sum of 234,832,999 fr., and that if, after deducting
probable annulments and credits remaining or to remain free,
the surplus of receipts of the primitive budget, such as they
were regulated by the law of June 28,1861, and all the produce
of the new taxes obtained in the last six months of 1862, be
added up, the probable surplus of expenses will amount to
24,925,909 f. If, by giving a retrospective glance, a judg-
ment is formed of the successive developments of the Bud-
get of 1862, it will be seen that it had been at first settled
with a surplus of receipts of more than 4,000,000 f. , that at
the moment of the vote of the rectificatory budget and of the
special credits of 15,000,000 f, for the Mexican expedition in
June, 1852, the equilibrium appeared to be secured ; that
the same hopes still existed in October last, to end at

length, in presence of new supplementarycredits, comprised

in the bill which is submitted to your examination, in a
deficit of more than 34,000,000 francs, which our floating
debt can assuredly support. To what cause is such
a result to be imputed ? Certainly, your committees
on the Budget have not been wanting in either
patriotism or foresight in properly supplying the different
services ; the new financial regime does not the less
remain a considerable progress on the former one ; it is,
therefore, not less necessary to follow up with perseverance
the task so nobly undertaken by the Minister of Finance to
restore our credit and to inaugurate a system the first word
of which was, No more deficits I Is it not, in fact, manifest
that the Budget of 1862 would have realised all our
hopes, and that it would have been balanced by a consider-
able surplus of receipts, if it had been placed under normal
conditions? It has however found itself in presence of
one of t hose facts of war to which, as regards expenses,
no human foresight can calculate either the limit or
the extent, and which disarrange the best com•.
bined financial systems. It has been necessary to
provide for the requirements of an expedition carried
on at a distance of 2,000 leagues from France; necessities
which have successively developed themselves under the
influence of circumstances assuredly most unexpected, and
the expense of which, chargeable on the budget of 862, do
not amount to less than 83,000,000 fr. Every one can ima-
gine what power our finances will recover on the day, im-
patiently looked for, when France shall hail the return and
the glory of her soldiers, to afterwards devote all her re-
sources and all her force to develop, by works of peace, the
era of prosperity opened for her by the Emperor's Govern-
ment."

The report terminates by declaring that the com•

mittee proposes the adoption of the bill with a re-
duction consented to by the Council of State of a
sum of 60,000 fr. in the credit of the Ministry of
Justice.