The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

SATURDAY REVIEW.—At last, somewhat pared
and clipped, the Budget has been accepted by the
House of Commons. It issues from that ordeal sub-
stantially the same as when it was introduced, but
stripped of all the philosophic ornaments with which
Mr. Gladstone's symmetrical mind had decked it,
Mr. Gladstone's feelings are probably much in the
condition of those with which an old maid, who has
only just caught the train, and has secured her
seat with difficulty after a desperate verbal engage-
ment with the guard, watches the fragments of her
abandoned packages as they lie scattered upon the
receding platform. The triumph of having caught
the train at all enables her to contemplate without
emotion crushed bonnet-boxes, dropped books, and
sandwiches dispersed far and wide among the por-
ters. If she is philosophical, she reflects that it
was almost a moral impossibility that she should
succeed in getting so many loose packages into the
train. In spite of their obvious disavantages, how-
ever, old maids always affect them ; and so do
symmetrical Chancellors of the Exchequer. Mr.
Gladstone has never brought in a budget without
piling upon the top of it a heap of these financial
odds and ends. He hardly ever succeeds in carry-
ing the bundle through without the loss of one or two
of them,though his mist, aps have seldom been so nu-
merous and important as in the present year. Last
year he only dropped the brewing tax that was to be
exacted from the butlers of private gentlemen. The
melancholy catalogue of this year—income tax on
charities, legacy duty on Irish charities, licenses on
clubs, and duties on carriers—is a much more seri-
ous affair. There would be some consolation in this
wholesale slaughter if it were possible to hope that
the race of these financial mosquitoes was extermi-
nated at last. But the productiveness of Mr. Glad-
stone, like that of the country over which he rules,
is inexhaustible. No one who has watched his
career can doubt that next year will see him with a
fresh list of minute but ingenious projects, carefully
calculated to keep the taxpayer in a condition of
salutary irritation, without giving him the solace of
reflecting that he is appreciably adding to the re-
venue. It is unquestionably this inveterate passion
for microscopic symmetery which neutralises the
influence that Mr. Gladstone's great power sought to
exercise. It is singularly uncongenial to the nation
with which he has to do. Englishmen cannot be
accused in these days of an " ignorant impatience
of taxation." They bear their enormous burden with
great good humour, and more often force a Minister
to increase it than to lighten it. The position of
Chancellor of the Exchequer does not of itself,
therefore, involve any special unpopularity. They
know that he must take his pound of flesh, and they
contentedly bare their breasts for the operation.
What they object to is, that he should be perpetu-
ally taking additional snips in order to cut it square.
Inartistic though it may seem, they prefer that the
edges of the inevitable wound sihnovueltderbaetelefttausnteevfeonr.
tßmi:
But
tnis
ha
fehr
ooi
cannotn himself sfieiilnifsaanowcweiraanarldemis
eradicate
anrytgde
e.thisrty eat! me efathat
fromtes;
popular.
THE WEEKLY REGISTER.—On the Emperor
Napoleon has devolved the task of making a great
experiment in Government, and he is accomplish..
ing it with equal firmness and adroitness. No
truth of .political philosophy is more clear than
that you cannot fit a constitution on to a people
as a tailor might a suit of clothes. If it
it is to be stable, it rr ust develop gradually
from the genius of the people like the
other growths of nature. France herself has had
a bitter experience of constitution-mongering. On
the whole, the essentials for the stability of a people
are, a Government corresponding with its tastes
and tempers, and material prosperity. There is no
constitution in the world that is so thoroughly
moreisiptlhs roofugthle lyda in
and whose roots at
the same time stray deeper down into the past,
whence they derive no little sap and nourishment
Yet we doubt whether even it would stand the test
of national misfortune and general poverty. The
Emperor Napoleon is, we think, shrewdly acting on
these principles. He is putting into the French
soil the elemental principles of constiutional liberty
that have blossomed and brought forth fruit in this
country ; and he has set himself the task of watch-
ing and guarding their development, according to
the genius of his people. It was essential for this
that he should begin with absolitism. We cannot,
in fairness, deny this. The executive must have a
strength that should take away all hope of resist.
ance. 'l' his was the most difficult part of his task;
because it involved what appears on the surface a
glaring inconsistency. But he has succeeded so
far, and he has resisted the temptation that has
overthrown so many absolute monarchs. He seems
to be using his power as the nursing shelter for the
growth of constitutionalism. He has developed,
with wonderful success, the material resources of
the country. He has raised France to her proper
place in the Councils of Europe, and he is consoli-
dating what was left of public sentiment, of law,
and of freedom. Of course, his difficulty is the suc-
cession. The trial that destroyed the Caesars awaits
his dynasty. But the circumstances are far more
favourable. Rome had not been thrice plunged
into the misfortunes and excesses of revolution.
Neither had Rome had the advantage of Chris-
tian civilisation. If he can contrive to open the
paths of material prosperity to Frenchmen and to
make them on the whole contented with their ex-
isting Government, his heir
may succeed to his
throne.

EXAMINER--Of all systems for the ascertain-
mentthe worst when these
of title to property, public registry is the best,
when clearly kept and punctually posted up, but
o
The latter was the
state in which the office at Dublin was found upon
niostobfuvlifiouliseldy.
recent official inquiry, and a person applying for
conditionsf al all sys
systems
ares m it
permission to search its records, in order to know
whether he was safe in buying or lending his money
on a particular landed estate, instead of being able
to satisfy himself as to who was entitled to sell, or
how much there was over and above incumbrances to
buy, was told by some drowsy sexagenarian or some
scatter brained fop that be could not possibly have
the information he sought for weeks or months to
come. For years the delays in the Registry- office
in Ireland have been continually complained of, but
like many other things on the other side of the
channel demanding practical remedies, they had
been allowed to go from bad to worse, without any
attempt being made at legislative intervention. At
length a bill was framed and introduced by Go-
vernffient, proposing. to turn the old palace of indo-
lence into an undersized official workshop, and for
this purpose to clear out useless hands and make
new appointments. Whereupon three-score vested
interests took the alarm, and such active agencies
were set in motion to baffle the measure and to re-
prieve the condemned men, that when the bill came
to be discussed in the House of Commons hardly an
Irish membsr, whether Orange or
Green, was found
to !support it. Had Lord Palmerston's Secretary for
Ireland been acquainted with the country with
whose concerns lie is officially identified, or capable