The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-06 00:00:00

THE BUDGET.

(From the Times.)
To-night we are to realise one of the first "hor-
rors" of war. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is
to tell us in his Budget how we are to pay for it.
There is, indeed, no absolute necessity for doing or
saying anything about the expense yet, and an
ordinary nation would maintain a grave silence on
that part of the subject for many a month to come.
The increase in the Estimates, though large in these
days of retrenchment, does not exceed the three
millions of annual surplus ; and, as the Chancellor
of the Exchequer calculates he is saving a million
a-quarter on the old Estimates, he starts well for
a war—better, probably, than any Minister of Fi.
nance ever started before. But as the war, now
imminent rather than impending, goes on, expenses '
will increase. We shall have to arm, to feed, to
clothe, and to convoy our Eastern allies ; to make
fortifications, and raise the whole cost of the war
from a Turkish to an English standard. It is true
that, even with a whole continent intervening, we
shall be able to make war more economically than
the Russians, who have to march their troops thou-
sands of miles by bad roads, through an ill provided
country. It is true, also, that in the power of
steam we possess an immense advantage over our
fathers, who brought the last European war to so
glorious though so costly a conclusion. It was just
about the close of that war when the appearance of
something like a coal barge, with a steam engine on
board, moving a pair of paddle-wheels, excited the
curiosity and the contempt of old sailors on the
Thames. Besides a surplus, and steam, and a stock ef
national enthusiasm which will I ast ratherlonger than
Mr. Cobden expects, we have also such an accumu
ration of shipping and material of every descrip-
tion as no nation ever had before, or is ever likely
to have 'again. Thus prepared we could wage a
war with Russia for the next six months so tre-
mendous as to shake her huge bulk from sea to sea,
without paying one shilling more than has already
been included in the annual estimates. But, strike
as we may, and astonished as Russia may be at the
blows she will undoubtedly receive, we have no
right to expect- that six months or twelve months
will bring the war to a conclusion ; so we must
reckon on its further continuance and increased
expenses, and consider how they are to be met.
When Europe sees that we are prepared to be as
lavish, if necessary, as in the last great war, that
alone will have the force of powerful armaments
and brilliant successes, inasmuch as the world will
see, that even should we suffer defeat after defeat,
and exhibit ever sa much mismanagement, we must
win at last from unlimited resources and sheer de-
termination.

Should the war be protracted from year to year,
and, as some prophets of ill have predicted and
others have desired, involve all Europe in the
quarrel—stir up the discontented " nationalities"
—fan the embers of revolution—and finally sweep
over as wide a range, and endure for as long
a period as the last war—we shall then un-
doubtedly have to retrace our steps through
the whole course of financial remission. We should
have to raise the succession-tax as a perma-
nent resource, and, possibly, also restore some
of the import duties to their former oppressive
amount. Indeed, there is no saying where we
should stop. But; without any attempt or desire
to conceal the full danger, we may honestly say
that there is no real reason against an early and
happy termination of the war. If England and
France put forth their best, and Austria and
Prussia only observe their neutrality, there can be
no doubt, humanly speaking, that Russia will
suffer such loss and dishonour as must bring her to
reason. Driven back across the Pruth, shut up in
all her ports, with her great dockyards, her
arsenals, and most probably all her navy destroyed,
and her commerce entirely suspended, she must
soon feel the utter folly of her own first appeal to
the ultima ratio, in the invasion of the Principali-
ties. But such a war must not be done by halves.
We must take care, and we can very easily take
care, that not a yard of Russian bunting shall be
seen in any part of the globe, and the Czar shall
become as unknown and fabulous a personage as
the Llama of Thibet or his old neighbour Prester
John. In this there can be no real difficulty, see-
ing that Russia, huge as she is, cannot molest the
world without passing through the two narrowest
apertures in the whole range of the Ocean,—the
Bosphorus and the Sound. Providence, which has
made such great inequalities, and which has accu-
mulated on one semi-barbaric throne so many con-
ditions of power, has counterbalanced them in this
instance with a fundamental weakness that no
wealth, no territory, no population can over-
come. This weakness is fatal. It • has ever
been found that empire was impossible
without the command of the sea. In
ancient days, to have the Mediterranean was to
govern the world ; to be excluded from it was to be
nothing. Much more is it so now. We have only
to make this known and felt in Russia, and we shall
soon create a public opinion in that country that
will fight with our fleets and do the work of an in-
vasion. To do that well and at once, whatever the
cost, will be the best economy in the end, and we
crust that the Ilouse of Commons will this evening
show that it is prepared to enable Government to
pursue such a course.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
The Chancellor of the Exchequer will make his
financial statement this evening under very differ-
ent circumstances from those which attended the
Budget of 1853. A year ago, it was not necessary
to increase the public revenue, nor even to main-
tain the existing amount of taxation. The Finance
Minister had only to compare the ciaims of different
classes for relief, and, while reducing taxation, to
adjust the public burdens in the most equitable
manner. Mr. Gladstone accomplished his difficult
task to the satisfaction of the country ; and, with
a foresight which will now be more fully appre-
ciated, lie took measures to secure, not only a
stable, but a growing revenue. To-night, how-
ever, it will be his less welcome duty to devise
the means for engaging in a war, of which it is
at present impossible to foresee either the extent or
the duration. The House of Commons has already
granted, with unstinted liberality, the supplies
which have been asked ; and, according to the
well-founded constutional practice, the provision
of Ways and Means is considered after Parliament
has sanctioned the requisite expenditure. The
Government is immediately responsible for the
prudent choice of financial expedients, rather than
for the outlay for which it is necessary, according
to the votes of the House, to provide.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer will derive but
little aid, on the present occasion, from the practice
of his predecessors during the last European war.
It is generally admitted that far too large a portion
of the expense incurred in that struggle was thrown
on the shoulders of posterity. The annual charge
of the additional debt created between 1793 and
1815 amounted to 23 millions—a larger sum than
the entire expenditure of the country, inclusive of
th• interest on the' debt, during the first or second
year of the war. Even iu 1798, the revenue
amounted only to 20 millions, while the expendi-
ture exceeded 50. It was not until 1799 that the
Income-tax was imposed; and it raised the revenue,
in the following year, to 29 millions—a sum which
would have defrayed the total outlay of the year
1794, when the 'public income had only reached
17 millions. In 1815, the amount raised by taxa-
tion reached the enormous sum of 72 millions,
of which no less than 42 millions were absorbed
by the charge of the debt. It was only in
the thirteenth year of the war that the total
expenditure of the country began to exceed the
amount which was eventually raised within a single
year. A capital of 800 millions, added to the debt
in two and twenty years, represents the price at
which exemption from immediate sacrifices was
purchased by the nation.
Mr. Pitt was fully aware of the inconveniences
of that funding system which he earned to so great
a height. In 1798, in proposing to the House of
Commons a large increase of taxation, he contras-
ted the comparative advantages of providing for
the public expenditure by loans, or out of the
annual revenue. " Raise the present sums," he
said, " by taxation in two years, and you and your
posterity are completely exonerated from it ; but
if, on the other hand, you fund its amount, it will
entail an annual tribute for its interest, which, in
40 years, will amount to no less than 40 millions.
. . . . Shall we sacrifice, or shall we save to
our posterity, a sum between 40 and 50 millions
sterling I" Unfortunately, the views thus ex-
pressed by the Minister were not even partially
carried into effect, until the debt had been
augmented by more than 100 millions, involving
a permanent charge which greatly increased
the difficulty of furnishing the necessary re-
venue by annual taxation. It cannot, however, be
supposed that any such difficulty exists at the pre-
sent moment. The resources of the country have
expanded to an astonishing degree during the long
peace which we have enjoyed. In 1815, our
exports were valued at 52 millions—in the last
twelve months, they have been declared at 90 mil-
lions, while the taxes have sunk from 92 to 53 mil-
lions. Moreover, the economy of war is far better
understood now than it was at the commencement
of the last European struggle. The expedition
which is about to be sent to Turkey is more nume-
rous than any land force which was employed
during the whole of the war, up to the death of
Mr. Pitt ; and yet the estimates show that a mode-
rate addition to the national income will be sufficient
to meet the increased expenditure. It must, how-
ever, be remembered, that the extraordinary ex-
penses of the campaign cannot yet be ascertained.
But, while additional resources will be neces-

warily required, it is satisfactory to know that the I
financial arrangements of last year have hitherto
proved highly successful. The actual surplus, on
the sth of January, amounted to 3,000,0001.—
including, however, the proceeds, for a part of the
year, of the various taxes which were repealed in
the Budget of 1853. The Succession duty has
as yet scarcely come into operation for the
benefit of the Exchequer ; but during the pre-
sent year, the first instalments will begin to
fall in, and the amount will gradually increase,
until it becomes permanent in 1858. There is
some reason to fear that the elasticity of the re-
venue arising from indirect taxes may be repressed
by the operation of the war ; but it may, at all
events, be hoped that the allied naval forces will
be strong enough to secure commerce against any
interruption by sea. There seems no reason why.
the American or Australian trade should be seri-
ously checked by a rupture with Russia.
The immediate wants of the Government will
probably be supplied by the issue of 1,750,0001. Ex-
chequer Bills, for which Mr. Gladstone will ask the
House of Commons to-night. He will probably ex-
plain, at the same time, his intentions with respect
to the unfundeddebt. The amount of outstanding
Bills—which was greatly reduced in the early part
of last year—has again been raised to its ordinary
limit of between 17 and 18 millions by issues in the
autumn, which, in consequence of the change in the
value of money, were required to effect the conver-
sion of the South Sea Annuities. It is well known
that the same causes operate somewhat differently
on the value of those securities which are always
convertible, and on the funded debt. If the war
continues, Exchequer Bina., though they may fall
in actual price, will probably rise in value as coin-
, pared with Consols ; and this peculiarity acts as a
protection to the Government against the possible
risk of a sudden demand for the payment of the
Bills in money. Bank-notes are held with confi-
dence by the public, because they are payable on
demand ; and Exchequer Bills are willingly ex-
changed in March and June, because the exchange
is not compulsory on the holder.
The Ways and Means which Mr. Gladstone will
this evening propose to the House of Commons
will be known throughout the kingdom in a few
hours ; and there is, therefore, little use in con-
jectural anticipations of the Ministerial intentions.
In the latter part of the last century, a Chancellor
of the Exchequer, under similar circumstances,
hunted through the- tariff to find commodities on
which duties might be imposed or increased. The
long list of Mr. Pitt's taxes, extending from hair-
powder upwards, shows how severely a sound fi-
nancier must have been pressed, when he sought
for money, not where it might be obtained at the
smallest sacrifice to the community, but wherever
he could get it. The effect of multifarious imposts
on the springs and sources of wealth is now, how-
ever, more generally understood. The country
has reluctantly resolved on undertaking a just and
necessary war ; and it will not refuse to the Go-
vernment the means of conducting it to a successful
issue. The needful expenditure must obviously be
met by that form of taxation which is at once the
most simple, the most economical, and the most
easily withdrawn ; and the unpleasant necessity of
the crisis has been so generally foreseen that there
can be no doubt as to the. assent of the House of
Commons to the measures which will be proposed.