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LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 5, 1853.

SPIRIT OF TM? PUBLIC JOURNALS.

which we shall be allowed to use, either as to what Mr
Disraeli's serious views may be, or as to the abilities and
the information which he may have derived from nature
and from study, for political life. It would be, just as
reasonable to bid us look in the pages of that strange
novel which the first Emperor Napoleon composed in
early youth, for whatever knowledge and whatever capa-
city he could have possessed at that time, or acquired
and improved afterwards. It would be even more rea-
sonable to tell us that we must consult the wild political
pamphlet, which the same famous man produced and
published while still loyal to the Republic, and which he
ordered to be bought up and burned when he hnd deter-
mined to close the revolution, and to obey the general
desire of the people that he should be their Emperor.
It would be immeasurably more reasonable to go to Mr.
Gladstone's own book on Church and State, written as
a book of politics, not as a novel—written with the feel-
ings of manhood, not with those of boyhood—written to
make opinions, not to give amusement ; and then to
revile and reprobate Mr. Gladstone for the ideas con-
tained in that production, if they were assailable, and
still his,—but much more for having changed or aban-
doned them (if he had), however erroneous. Goethe
got rid, as he said himself, of the " perilous stuff" of his
mind by writing his Werther ; and, indeed, wrote in
that spirit once, in order that he might think in that
spirit no more. But it is loss of time to answer the
howl of personal enmity in the language of dispassionate
reason. The party now in power are remarkable for
cherishing several holy hatreds.
Observe how consistent with themselves are the ob-
jectors to the political existence of Mr. Disraeli. Hav-
ing stigmatised his early literary profusions as things
which it was digraceful to publish, they next tell us that
he ought to have stuck to literature ; that he had ac-
quired in youth a fame which many able authors had
not succeeded in gaining in their old age ; "that the
world was very kind to him," &c. This was the un-
pardonable sin. He entered politics ; for this he is "a
brava"--" a mercenary"—" a prostitute genius." His
friends and supporters, and the great party who have
accepted him into their foremost rank, are " a pirate
crew."

(Prom, the Times.)
Mr. Gladstone's is not the only budget. The Regis-
trar-General makes up his account as regularly as the
Chancellor of the Ei.chequer, and his figures, while
equally interesting, are far more incontrovertible. It is
curious, indeed, to observe how closely in some respects
the two. statements are connected. The prosperity of
the public finances is reflected immediately in the aspect
of the public health and in the condition of public morals.
We remember once to have seen a concordance or table
of comparative statistics, carefully drawn out, and pre-
senting in parallel columns the price of bread and the
number of criminal convictions in the several counties
of England during a series of years, and we believe that
the idea might be most instructively carried out with
•very issue of the Registrar-General's returns. When
taxation is evenly and justly distributed, to the emanci-
pation of industry, the relief of trade, and the encourage-
ment of enterprise ; when class legislation is set aside,
and no party interests are exclusively consulted, to the
prejudice of others, then the country flourishes—mar-
riages and births increase and deaths diminish. Yet
both accounts are liable to unexpected disturbance. A
Chancellor of the Exchequer finds the savings of a twelve-
month consumed by a Kafir war, and now the Regis-
trar-General is compelled to record that the pleasing
results of social prosperity have been seriously neutralised
by the unparalleled character of the weather !
There is really a certain satisfaction in finding this
staple topic of Englishmen exalted at last to the dignity
of a scientific principle. People have been right, after
all, in talking so perpetually about the weather. In this,
as in other cases, instinct was in advance of intellect, and
what was described as
an impression was positively a fact.
There is a plain, discernible connection between the na-
ture of the season and the state of public health—a
connection, indeed, so strong that other„.ktluences
appear to be fairly overpowered by 04 cirem4; atmo-
sphere. The past quarter;Tor instance:Might, according
to all calculations, to have been unusually fortunate,
and in some respects it was so, for the marriages were
greatly in excess of any previous return, and the births
showed little abatement from the established rate of
progress. But, though `these events maintained them-
selves independently of the weather, others could not.
" The increase of families," says Mr. Farr, " implies
that the condition of the great body of the people is
prosperous ; but the prosperity of a nation," he adds,
"is sometimes overpowered by death, and it has hap-
pened that the mortality of the last three months has,
notwithstanding the activity of trade, been unusually
high, through the inclemency of the season, the preva-
lence of epidemics, and perhaps the partial destruction
of the potato crop."
On perusing the catalogue of the phenomena made
accountable for these unfortunate consequences, we
certainly experience a vivid impression of the strange-
ness of the season. The whole " meteorology of the
quarter" was disturbed. We had temperature of ex-
traordinary height in January, and of lowness as re-
markable in February and March ; indeed, even April,
although it does not enter into Mr. Farr's present ac-
count, was scarcely an improvement upon the months
preceding. To these chronic influences were added
`extreme transitions of heat and cold; unusual falls of
snow, hail, fogs, thunderstorms, lightnings, zodiacal
lights, solar and lunar haloes, and auroras." Altogether,
but with especial reference to " the depressed tempe-
rature of February and March," the deaths in the
quarter are reported to exceed by 11,559 those of the
corresponding quarter of 1852, and the " natural increase
of the population," notwithstanding the progress of
marriages and births, is less than it should be by some-
thing like 12,000. This, it must be admitted, is a most
striking exemplification of what the weather can effect.
Of the two other causes to which the Registrar-
General ascribes a portion of these results it is obvious
that one—" the prevalence of epidemics"—is in all pro-
bability nothing but a symptom of the atmospheric in-
fluence itself. The other—the partial failure of the
potato—would operate more independently, but also, as
we imagine, to a less extent. We have once before put
on record the extraordinary importance which is now
attached in sanitary science to the use of the potato as a
common esculent. It appears that no single vegetable
will supply the place of this root in the economy of the
table, and that even wholesome bread is but a defective
substitute. When, therefore, the crop of the year, so
far failed as to raise the price per ton from 70s. in 1852
to 1275. 6d. in 1853, disuse of the potato succeeded ;
and the consequence, as the Registrar-General presumes,
Was a general prevalence of sickness. It is known, in-
deed, that after the first great failure of the crop, some
years ago, an outbreak of scurvy ensued exactly like the
epidemics seen on shipboard after similar privations. If
all these premises are true, it follows that the destruc-
tion of the potato can scarcely be compensated by any
general abundance of work or goodness of wages, and
the crop, therefore, must acquire an extraordinary ira•
portance in the eyes of sanitary economists.
The report reads us the usual homily on the con-
nection between dirt and disease, and inculcates the
standing moral of our obligations in this particular ; in
fact, although the influence of season •as a morbific
agency is less felt, comparatively, in towns than in the
country, the defects of drainage, ventilation, and water-
supply more than counterbalance the difference, and
leave the balance of mortality still against the former in
the proportion of sto 4. The agencies of the atmo-
sphere are discernible in the increase of bronchitis, in-
fluenza, and diseases of the respiratory organs generally ;
whereas it is in the old types of fever, in typhus,
scarlatina, and small-pox, that the errors of human
arrangement make themselves seen. The growing pre-
valence of the small-pox—that half-eradicated scourge of
Britain, is noticed in many of the local reports, which
bear at the same time a general testimony to the un-
doubted efficacy of the vaccine antidote ; but such are
the prejudices of the poor, and so insufficient in many
instances the medical supervision exercised, that the pre-
servative is neglected, and the fatal malady is left to
an epidemical vigour. It will probably be in the recol-
lection of our readers that Lord Lyttelton, the other
day, in introducing a bill upon this subject, showed that
other countries, by the adoption of stringent rules, had
succeeded in almost entirely extirpating the disease which
among ourselves has thus been permitted to revive. That
there is no essential renewal of vitality in the pestilence
itself is plain, for on the continent it has been effectually
kept down ; in England alone it has been allowed to ga-
ther new strength by the neglect of those precautions
which had been proved sufficient to disarm it.
A general survey of the return shows us that the births
for the whole quarter last year were, in exact numbers,
161,598. The annual proportion since 1843 has been 1
in 30, with an average for the winter quarter of 1 in 29,
whereas in the present year the average has been 1 in 28.
The deaths in the same period were 48,241, leaving a
balance, when set against the above aggregate of births,
of 43,357 in favour of the population. This balance, ac-
cording to the usual results, should be above 50,000, but
has been reduced by the excess in the deaths previously
mentioned. The mortality for a period of 10 years has
averaged annually 3.252 per cent., and on the winter
quarters 2.467 per cent., but this quarter the percentage
has risen to 2'620. The actual statistics of the mar-
riages have not yet been quite completed, but they are
known to be highly favourable, and we can only hope
that the general " prosperity of the nation," which Mr.
Farr so thankfully chronicles, may not in his next report
be qualified by the defects of such a season as that from
which we do at length appear to be now emerging.

And is this the English of gentlemen who debate together
Aheir.differences ? Is the language in which political
'controversy ought to be conducted, or even political
censure conveyed I We are concerned for the effects to
which this new and savage vein of discussion is leading ;
and we blush for the brutal ferocity and vindictiveness
which seem to be its sole possible cause. As for Mr.
Disraeli, the right hon. gentleman is marvellously well
able to defend himself. No man has been crushed so
often, and survived. The light of no man's genius has
been "extinguished" so often, and then flamed out
brighter than before. No man has been'' ruined" so
often, and then lived to triumph. This sort of crushing,
of extinction, and of ruin is to be borne ; for somehow
victory is behind. We have noticed it, ere now, in more
cases than that of the right hon. gentleman, whose
calumniators have, by the unmeasured violence of their
abuse, called forth these remarks.

(Prom the Morning Chronicle.)

The trial of strength between parties is concluded,
and, now that the question of the income tax is decided,
the rest of the budget will probably be discussed with
reference to the intrinsic merits of the scheme. The re-
solution on the legacy duties, which stands in the orders
of the House of Commons for this evening, comes next
in order ; and although objections to the extension of
the burden will no doubt be suggested, it may be said
that the principle of the measure has been virtually
affirmed by'tho recent vote. The bill which must carry
out the details of the new arrangement will necessarily
contain provisions of a highly complicated nature ; but
the resolution itself is both short and simple, and it will,
in all probability, encounter little direct opposition. A
new tax is rarely popular ; but, in the present instance,
the Government enjoys the unusual good fortune of
meeting the general feeling, at the same time that it
provides for the maintenance of the revenue. Nor, in-
accurate as the public judgment frequently is on ques-
tions of financial expediency, can it be denied that there
is reasonable ground for the satisfaction with which Mr.
Gladstone's proposal has been received. Taxes on
capital are, indeed, thoroughly vicious in theory, whether
they are imposed annually in the form of a property tax
such as that which Mr. Hume recommends, or at the

uncertain intervals marked out by the casualty of death.
But the Chancellor of the Exchequer found the legacy
duty in existence ; and he could not afford to part with
it when he was relinquishing other sources of revenue
which involved still more serious inconveniences. It is
impossible to reconcile the tax with strict economical
principles ; but it is, fortunately, possible to make it
more just by rendering it more productive. There
are differences of opinion as to the expediency of
an impost on property ; but little argument is neces-
sary to prove that, if it is levied at all, it ought
to apply to all property alike. The popular, belief
that the legacy duty gives a special exemption to
land, neither correctly nor adequately represents the
capricious effect of the existing law. Some of the largest
real properties in the kingdom are technically regarded
as personalty, and are therefore subject to the duty, un-
less they escape the burden by the mode in which they
have been settled, or receive, as regards any surplus
above a million sterling, the unreasonable favour of total
exemption. On the other hand, settled property, in
stock or moneyed income of any description, has hither-
to been wholly unaffected by a tax levied only on per-
sonalty which passed by will or inheritance. Th 6 origi-
nal injustice of the arrangement has, no doubt, in
course of time, been mitigated by that natural process
of adjustment which constantly tends to correct all fiscal
anomalies ; but it has still been left, to a great extent, to
the choice of every owner of property, whether his suc-
cessors should pay the contribution to the public revenue
which the law has established as a general rule. The
proprietor of a landed estate brought himself within the
purview of the tax whenever he directed a sale for the
purpose of distribution among his descendants ; while,
on the other hand, settlements and gifts have been
daily executed with the express object of escaping the
burden.

All taxes are injurious, and most of them are un-
equal ; but there is no characteristic of an impost so ob-
jectionable as an arrangement which leaves the liability
of the taxpayer to his own discretion. It is for finan-
ciers to determine where the burden shall be placed,
and to take care that it shall lie where they have fixed
it. Whenever the legislator offers an alternative be-
tween the payment of the tax and some other course
of proceeding, he interferes with matters with which, in
his fiscal capacity, he has no concern ; and, at the
same time, he misses his immediate object of extracting
money from individuals for the public benefit. The rea-
son for intercepting a portion of a bequest from a legatee
is simple and perfectly intelligible—the State wants
the money, and takes it where it can find it ; but Chan-
cellors of the Exchequer have no motive for promoting
settlements, or for encouraging purchases of freeholds
rather than investments in freehold property or in the
funds. Even the rural financiers who set up turnpike-
gates have the good sense to fix side-bars at the by-lanes,
and to forbid, under penalties, ingenious contrivances
for taking circuitous routes through the fields. In the
present instance, the property corresponds to the travel-
ler's horse or gig, and the appointed turnpike-gate is one
which all must, sooner or later, pass through. The new
system only provides that, while the traveller walks
through the gate, he shall not evade the toll by sending
his taxable vehicle round by the road which previous
legislation had left open.
If it is just that a legatee or next of kin should pay a
percentage on the personalty to which he succeeds by
will or under the Statute of Distributions, the heir at
law can set up no reasonable claim of exemption en
account of his land ; nor is the question substantially
different where a reversioner of a settled estate comes
into possession on the death of the previous holder. To
the State it is, for all fiscal purposes, wholly indifferent
whether a former proprietor thought fit to provide for
the future maintenance of a family, or whether the suc-
cession has been determined by the will of the last pos-
sessor. In either case, there is an ownership ending
with life, and if the frequency of deaths is assumed to be
uniform, the burden on both properties will, on the
average, be equal. The value of vested reversions will
no doubt be affected by the charge to which they will be
liable ; but no new tax can be imposed without an im-
mediate injury to the property from which it is to arise.
The remainder-man will not, however, practically speak-
ing, suffer any greater infliction than that which will fall
on the son or nephew who enjoys a reasonable certainty
of succeeding to a family property.
It is in cases less simple than that of ordinary inheri-
tance that the difficulty of legislation will be felt. As
the various rates of charge on different degrees of con-
sanguinity are, with a slight alteration, to be maintained,
it is evident that the Minister intends as far as possible
to carry out the principle of the legacy duty, by extend-
ing it to all descriptions of property. Hitherto, how-
ever, it has always been easy to ascertain the relation
between the legatee and the testator—not to mention
the still simpler case of intestacy. The circumstance
that particular estates were interposed between the ori-
ginal possessor and the eventual object of his bounty,
offered no perplexity to the revenue officer. The nephew
who succeeded to personalty on the cleath of the uncle's
widow, paid duty as on a bequest from his near relative,
and nob as reversioner to a stranger in blood. It will be
more difficult, though by no means impossible, to deter-
mine, for the purposes of the new law, from whom the
succession is in each instance to be traced.

( From the Morning Herald.)
So it seems the supporters of Mr. Gladstone and of
the Coalition have determined to try, by a grand con-
centric literary attack, to "write down" Mr. Disraeli.
sc 6 bui
nyr
g their n e
They would test by experiment the soundness of a late
poet's saying, " that no man could be written down ex-
cept by himself." No rule, they calculate without its
exception ; much may be done byn a combined onslaught,
muh
y upo n e o l u mil
;
o
o tin my it ev overwhelming
charge
the Times, thge
Morning Chronicle,
as
e
surrounded and outnumbered enemy. With such hopes,
doubtless, and on some such plan, it is that we find the
E d
afdalvlase simultaneously uolfta nineaonuysl
and a host of subordinate skirmishers, under cover of
their weightier metal, and closer battle, suddenly sus-
pending, so far as the late Chancellor of the Exchequer
is concerned, all desultory operations, and directing in
perfect concert, and at one and the same moment,
efforts more strenuous than they had over before put
forth against the credit and the influence, the personal
character, and the political existence of one man. The
worst of it is, for the purpose of the " writers down,"
that the invectives in question are too rabid to win the
concurrence of the great mass of the people, without
being brilliant enough to secure even their reluctant ad-
miration. Great passion, or rather, if we may be par-
doned the word, great impassionment, is, indeed, an in-
fectious thing, when some great and exciting excuse or
provocation is shown, though but at half light. When,
however, we behold a degree of animosity and of foam-
ing resentment exhibited' out of all proportion to any
justification which either those who are thus transported
condescend to allege, or wo are able to imagine, then
we are rather disgusted and repelled than attracted.
What, for instance, can be more pitiably ran-
corous than the grand accusation from which, as
from a spring-head all the charming epithets of
"degraded," "lost," "demoralised," "desperate,"
" catilinarian," ec &c., are drawn ? Our
readers will start when we tell them that it is Mr. Dis-
raeli's friendship with Lord George Bentinck ! All that
is most hateful and debased in the pretended affection of
an intriguing and parasitical knave—all that is most
helpless and contemptible in the drivelling confidence of
a brainless lord—these things, and these only, can be
allowed to have brought two such men into intimacy.
An intercourse arising out of a mutual esteem, regard,
in life—and severed only by that untimely and afflicting
and trust—ripened by the idem velle and the idem nolle
death of the one friend, which the other mourned with
so bitter a grief—deserved a different mention, a differ-
ent commentary. We envy not the mind of him who,
on this subject, has nothing to tell us save that there was
a wretch who (that he might some day clamber into
order
nobleman, and made a sycophant in
political power) looked about for a weak-minded, influ-
entialhimself
to be the ruler of a dupe.
But it seems Mr. Disraeli, when hardly emerged from
boyhood, wrote an amusing novel, and in that work,
produced at that age, we must look for the only proofs

A correspondent of our own, whose letter we published
a few days ago, points out the hardship which would
result from adopting, as the ground of liability to the
impost, the mere transfer of property by the death of
the last possessor. In his own case, an annuity has
been granted by certain legatees, in pursuance of a fa-
mily arrangement, to a stranger in blood who had a
claim on their testator's estate. At the death of the
annuitant, the fund from which it arises will, of course,
revert to the granters ; but it would be evidently unjust
to charge them with a payment of 10 per cent., as if for
an inheritance. In this, as well as in many other cases
which might be suggested, there is no insuperable diffi-
culty in discovering the principle on which the law ought
to be framed ; but great skill and dexterity will be re-
quired to meet all the various and complicated contin-
gencies which will occur in practice.
It will probably be necessary to provide, by penalties,
that communication shall be made to the proper depart-
ment whenever a liability to the tax is incurred ; and it

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