The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY ENTNING., JANUARY 6, 1863.

I craft. "This is too true ; competition renders men
careless of consequences, and the British sailor
is proverbially reckless. It is to the insurance
companies that we must look for a remedy of the
evil. They have suffered severely by the wanton
destruction of ships by fire, but in these cases the
safety of the crews has been cared for, and if,
by their own negligence, the offices lose money,
they alone suffer. But for one ship thus wantonly
destroyed fifty are lost by defective ground tackle.
We do not call upon public companies to do an act
of humanity for humanity's sake ;
individuals
may have feelings, but public bodies have none,
gore is a case in
except for their own interest.
which humanity and profit combine to put money
into their pockets, and to give them credit for a good
action with the world. Let a combination be
formed by the various companies, with Lloyds at
their head, to refuse to grant an insurance to any
vessel that
is not provided with proved cable and
nc
and before the payment of any policy on the
lo
fa, vessel, let it be shown that she sailed with
asound
and proved ground tackle, This is a simple
remedy for the evil, and would result in preserving
more lives than all the efforts of that grand insti-
tution—the National Life Boat Society. Har-
bours of refuge are a great protection to
vessels in bad weather on an exposed coast. But
to our coasting trade good holding gear is far
better. The master of a coaster knows his where-
abouts by a kind of instinct. No matter how thick
and dirty the weather may be, his experience and
his lead show him pretty well where he is, and he
knows where to bring up if he can depend on his
ground tackle. There was an instance not long
ago of this fact. A vessel, unable to weather a
headland on our eastern coast during a heavy gale,
brought up in a most exposed position. The life-
boat, thinking her in danger, put off to her
assistance ; but on reaching the vessel and in-
quiring whether she did not require assistance,
the Master replied, " Oh, no, I have two good
anchors down, and plenty of cable; I'll ride it out
where I am ;" and ride it out he did in perfect
safety. Let any one who doubts the correctness of
these remarks take the trouble to examine the ac-
counts of wreck and disaster after each gale that
takes place, and he will find that in nine cases out
of ten the vessel lost has been a small one, and that
in nine cut of ten of these cases the loss has been
caused by the dragging of anchors or breaking of
cables.

We have some hope that one of the great battles
of the session, now rapidly approaching, may be
the battle of what we may term—efficient economy.
It is always a difficult battle for the Opposition,
partly because there is a general disposition to
trust any Government, responsible as it is for the
Itime being for the safety of the nation, and partly
because those who are out of office have not the
requisite latest financial information at command.
There is also a party difficulty on the side of an
Opposition, when there is a prospect of its advent to
power, possibly, at an early date. The incoming
Chancellor of the Exchequer does not like to hold
out promises, failure to fulfil which would of course
be damaging. And the incoming heads of de-
partments do not like debarzing themselves from
the advantage of an ample expenditure. Look-
ing at the thing in a purely party light, the
question will al ways be, shall we strengthen our-
selves most by offering the country diminished
taxation, or by the well-known influence of a
free governmental expenditure. We are always,
of course, to suppose Oppositions to bA composed
of patriots—still we also know them to be men ;
and it is but natural that the man should con-
vince the patriot that economy, or expenditure,
as the case may be, is best for the nation, if it
is best for his party.
Still, the nation's hope of reduction of expendi-
ture must generally lie with the Opposition. When
the country feels, as it unquestionably has long
felt, that SEVENTY MILLIONS and more per annum
is far too large an expenditure for a time of
peace, unless the Opposition will respond to that
feeling, nothing will move the party in power.
There probably never was a Minister less sensible
of the pressure on the country of a heavy expendi-
ture than Lord PALMERSTON. His own easy
nature, combined with his very easy circumstances,
render him peculiarly unsusceptible to the suffer-
ings of those to whom a few pounds a year more or
less of taxation, mean the enjoyment or the loss of
some luxury just above the category of a necessity ;
to the sufferings also of thousands, to whom his
heavy war taxes make their humble incomes, in
regard to a livelihood itself, very much like CINDE-
RELLA'S slipper—the few pounds, perhaps, of in-
come-tax, not more than Lord PALMERSTON would
give as a Christmas-box to an old servant, compel
the clerk, the clergyman, the struggling professional
man, and the small trader, to leave, at Christmas,
some little tradesman's bill unpaid. Lord PALMER-
STON is anything but an unfeeling man, but he
has no eye for sufferings of this kind ; sufferings
which occasionally almost amount to agony, when
the tax for our vast army and navy is demanded
from a man who feels, above all things, its com-

pelling him to leave unpaid his doctor's or his

shoemaker's bill. His heart is set on being Prime
Minister of the strongest nation in Europe ; what
he pays towards that object is a perfect bagatelle
to him; he cannot comprehend that it is not the
same to all. " What! can you grudge a five or a
ten pound note, or double that, for our national
armaments ?" is his feeling. We question whether
he can understand the groan with which that five
or twenty pounds is paid by thousands.

Perhaps the leader of the Opposition in the
Lords is liable to much the same danger in this
respect as the Premier; but its leader and several
of its best members in the Commons are not. Mr.
DISRAELI is by mental temperament, and by his
study of all classes, better aware of what a taxation
of seventy millions means in the case of the thou-
sands it distresses, but who Cannot from their
position proclaim their distress. While the mathe-
maticians and hard calculators all denied that there
ought to be any difference of rate in the income
tax, he first declared it to be not only equitable but
We imagine, too, that it was his
practicable.
perception of the muel pressure of that tax
on smaller incomes which induced him to
suggest just the sum—five millions—as a
reduction, which Mr. GLADSTONE had said would
enable them to dispense with the Income-tax alto-
gether. Mr. GLADSTONE has always been under-
stood to wish for such a reduction himself; but, as
a matter of fact, he has not been master of the situa-
tion. He laid himself open to taunts from the
Opposition, and met them, " in a Parliamentary
sense," by accepting his joint responsibility for our
huge expenditure. Mr. DISRAELI has, however,
shown the great boldness of proffering reduction
in words which will never be forgotten, and almost
committing the next Tory Ministry to some sub-
stantial relief of the people.
We hope his former Ministerial colleagues will
be wise enough, on this point, to follow his lead.
We observe that one who is rather prone to aot the
rebel sometimes against his leader, Lord GEORGE
MANNERS, now that he is appealing to a Tory
county constituency, is disposed to accept his po-
licy, That healthful process, " a bath in a popular
election," has cleared his vision and braced his

nerves. He says to the electors of Cambridgeshire
in his address, " Our expenditure has become ex-
cessive, and if I should, by your favour, re-enter
the House of Commons, I shall be ready to insist
upon a more econoinical administration of our
finances, as I am convinced that our expenditure
may be largely diminished without at all impairing
the real efficiency of any branch of the public ser•
vice." We trust this declaration may be taken as
indicating not the views of Lord GEORGE MANNERS
only—that it appeals to what he understands to be
the feeling of the Conservative electors and their
landlords in Cambridgeshire, we may be quite cer-
tain. But we hope it also shows that Conservative
Members of Parliament are beginning to under-
stand that efficient economy will be the question of
next session. Their ex-Chancellor of the Exche-
quer foresaw it last year; some of the Tories kicked
at it then, to the great joy of Lord PALMERSTON,
We hope they are coming to a better mind : if so,
between the two parties the country will get it.
Everything is now favourable to economy. The
revenue has, indeed, proved elastic ; still, for the
three quarters already gone by, it has fallen short of
Mr. GLADSTONE'S estimate by a million and a quar-
ter. The state of Lancashire demands that not a
sovereign of the nation's money should be wasted,
and in aid of naval and military reduction the state
of the Continent is every way favourable. All
countries are finding out that the " bloated arma-
ments" into which the French EMPEROR
frightened them are an unendurable bur-
den. The Prussian Parliament seems dis-
posed even to force its Sovereign to a
revolution, if he will persist in maintaining a vast
army. Austria herself is compelled by her new
Parliament to revise her military expenditure, and
is not unwilling to do it. And the cause of all this
European war expenditure in peace—the restless
EMPEROR of the restless glory-loving French—is ex-
ercising his troops and spending millions, no longer
in threatening European peace, but in attempting
to give peace to distracted Mexico. For our part,
we do not know that we should be sorry to see him
gratify his subjects by appropriating a handsome
slice of Mexico as the payment of his expedition.
The more extended the possessions of France, the
more vulnerable and less quarrelsome she will pro-
bably become. What, however, will certainly in-
duce her to keep the peace at home is, a costly dis-
tant war on her hands, and, despite the high finan-
cial abilities of M. FOUL)), another heavy deficit.
If in such a state of things our rulers will persist in
a war expenditure, we should like to know when
we are to return to a peace expenditure. It ought
to be in EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THREE.

The speech of the Earl of HARDWICKE on Satur-
day last, in the Town-hall of Cambridge, is one of
the ablest descriptions of the state of affairs in
Lancashire that has yet been laid before the public.
Clear and concise in its language and temperate in
its expression, it sums up the whole case with
a force and simplicity whose logic is unanswer-
able. Evidently well versed in every branch of
his subject, the noble earl brought forward statistics
enough to satisfy the most determined follower of
Mr. GLADSTONE. Some of these were startlingly
put, as when he alluded to a district, containing
2,000,000 inhabitants, whose applicants for paro-
chial relief had risen in the short space of four-
teen months from 43,000 to upwards of a quarter
of a million. In September, 1861, the weekly
amount dispensed from the parochial funds was
£2,250. In November, 1862, it was £17,681.
Such facts speak for themselves, even without
Lord HARDWICK E'S striking comment that we
were called upon for charity alone, putting
policy out of the question, to support an army equal
to that of the Northern States, and a body of men
equal in number to twice the army of the United
Kingdom. After observing that these facts were
such that the greatest exertions were requisite to
meet the calamity, ho proceeded to consider the
causes of the disaster, and remarked that it came upon
us in a form that rendered it more acceptable
to the mind of charity, than if it had arisen from
overtrading or over-manufacturing, as some had
foretold. But even in that case the unemployed
labourer who is certainly not responsible for
the imprudence or love of speculation of his
master, would have still had a claim on our
aid. Remembering that he was addressing
an agricultural county, Lord HARDWICKE
entered into some explanation of the difference with
regard to the population of a manufacturing dis-
trict where owing to the immense masses collected
in particular spots for a specific purpose, the raising
of the rates is totally inadequate to meet a sudden
emergency like the present. Without following the
noble earl through his observations on the vexed
questions of the amount of the rates and the assist-
ance given by the millowners, we may pass to the
concluding portion of his speech, is which he
refers to the genQral aspect of this great calamity in
terms which will find a grateful echo in the breast
of every Englishman. Turning from the painful
details of the wide-spread suffering, to the noble
qualities it has brought to light among us, the
speaker said :

" A great calamity has fallen upon a district and upon
an honest and hard-working people. But 1 believe in my
conscience that, by God's blessing, we shall come out of

this difficulty with infinitely greater power, so far as regards
any argument which we may hold towards the rest of man-
kind, in relation to the position of this country in the
eyes of foreign nations, and above all with regard to our
dependence upon one single State for the supply of that
material which is well known to be one of the staple manu•
factures of this country, employing as it does so large a
body of men. We are supposed by many persons to be
dependent upon the United States for our peace and happi-
ness for our security and our wealth ; but we have shown
them, and we shall be able to show them for the future,
that this country has a power which they never supposed it
to possess; and that with its love of order, its obedience to
the law, its great charity, and its powerful resources, there
are no circumstances that can bring upon us that depres-
sion which I will not say they desire to see,;but which they
felt confident would be caused, if the supply of cotton
should be deficient."

In reference to the old real or supposed anta-
gonism between the manufacturing and the work-
ing classes, he went on to say :
" I have stated that our present distress is likely to relieve
us from future anxiety, and enable us to rely upon other
parts of the world besides the United States for our re-
sew. ces. I believe I may also congratulate you on its
bringing about another most important feature in the
happiness of this country. I mean the knitting together
of all classes. In times gone by we, as purely agri-
cultural people, have suffered much from the tone and
expression of feeling in the manufacturing districts. It is
a very pleasant thing to be able to show them that we en-
tertain no ill-feeling towards them, and that we consider
what has been said as so much idle wind that has
passed by. We are ready to show them that under their
circumstances of trial we enter deeply into their affliction,
and are ready to aid them in throwing off the tremendous
scourge which has overtaken them, It is important to
laboure that throughout
no p
l platform
otrhn
showcountry th et
here operativeexists
anad hvteine
of charity which
gentlemen, who address themselves to the passions of the
people for the purpose of setting man against man, have
yet shown. We are prong to the operative class that
there exists nothing but love and affection towards them in
the bosoms of their superiors, or the classes that are placed
above them. I think this is a very important feature, and
one from which we may draw very great comfort. I may
add that the subscriptions have reached £1,300,000, and I
will express my belief that the worst is over, and my hope
that this great calamity, NO Alarmiug i itself and which

the opinion of some statesmen was calculated to bring about
such serious consequence=, has been parried by the energy
and the charity of the people of this country, coupled with
the honest forbearance and patience of the operative class."

Such reflections lighten a part of the bur3en, and
prove that the cordial sympathy and fellowship
which binds all classes of Englishmen together, is
stronger than that bitter antagonism between
the members of a kindred race which has
brought all this suffering to our doors. In
after years, when we may hope Americans will look
hack with shame and regret to the fierce and mer-
ciless civil war which crippled their resources,
wasted their population, and ravaged their fair and
prosperous country, it is with no unstable hope
that we trust that Englishmen may turn with gra-
titude to that Providence which brought them
safely through such a trial, and taught them in the
noble patience on the one hand, and the ready
sympathy on the other, how "sweet are the uses
of adversity."