The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-31 00:00:00

Yeames, which was received by the Government on the
15th of April
"I beg to refer to my letter of the 4th inst., and I have
now to inform you that the movements of the sth corps
have of late been hastened, so that the three diiisions of
intently are to be assembled-in the positions descried be-
fore the end of the present mouth (0. S.), It is in par-
ticular to be observed that the 14th division, as well as
the 13th, is prepared for an expedition by sea. The troops,
including the officers, are to c irry rations for four days,
and knapsacks for the officers are now made for that pur-
pose. I hear there is to be no big•zitge further than can
be thus carried, and no horses will be embarked. • . .
Great exertions continue to ba inada by the Admiralty at
Nicolaieff and " Sebastopol to have everything that can
swim ready for sea."
He now came to the despatch making the well-known
announcement with regard to the proposal by Russia
to Turkey to enter into a secret treaty, to be unknown
to England and France. It was from Colonel Rose to
. Lord Clarendon, and was received on the 15th of
. April :

"Prince Menschikoff, as I learnt yesterday from the
Grand Vizier, has tried to exact a promise from Rifaat
Pasha, before he makes known to him the nature of his
mission and of his demands, that the Porte shall make a
formal promise that she will not reveal them to the
British or French representatives." •
The next and last despatch to which he would refer
was one from Vice Consul Cunningham, which was re-
ceived on the 15th of April :

" Galatz.
"My Lord,—l beg to inform your lordship that fresh
orders have been received in Bessarabia to prepare for the
passage of troops and to get waggons ready for the transport
of baggage. It is said, and such appears to be the case
from the amount of preparation ordered, that two corps
d'armee (upwards of 120,000 men), will pass,'and waggons
are ordered to be ready for the 10th of May (0. b.) When-
ever orders are given to make preparations the greatest
'secrecy is enjoined. Hitherto, no troops, in addition to,
the five battalions mentioned in my last, have entered
• Bessarabia ; but it is understood they are marching for-
: ward from all directions."
. He would troub'e the house with no more extracts. He
had given all, the information that was sent to her Ma-
.; jesty's Government,' beginning on the 7th of January
. and ending on the 15th of April. It began by informing
them that 144,000 Russian ,troops were advancing to
the Turkish frontier ; it then told them that a secret
proposition was made by the Emperor of Russia to Eng--
land for a partition of the territories of Turkey.- it next
informed them of the demands made on Turkey by the
. Russian ambassador at Constantinople, and of the alarm
which was inspired by those demands ; it also acquainted
them with the fact that a secret treaty was proposed to
Turkey by Russia, and it concluded by informing them
that Russian troops were adv timing in all directions
towards the Turkish frontier. He wished the house to
mark this fact, that the last despatch which he had
quoted was received by the Government on the 15th of
April, and the right hon. gentleman the Chancellor of the
Exchequer proposed hi.i budgeton the 18th of same month.
When the budget was proposed the Government were
in possession of all the information lie had now read to
the house. The question he would ask was, —could a
Government, know all these facts, and having received
all this information, shut its ee es to the real state of the
case, and not be convinced that in all human probability.
and so far as human foresight could discern, a war must
ensue—either that England must become a party to an
iniquitous partitioning of the Turkish empire, or be in
volved in a war with Russia ? Tiiese were clearly the
only alternatives ; and was that the moment fora pru-
dent Minister, holding the-high office of Chancellor of
the Exchequer, to come down to the house and make a
financial proposal, the clear tendency of which was to
weaken and imp tir the-e national resources which at
such a moment it was his paramount duty to guard with
peculiar jealousy ? It was, at that very moment, how-
ever, that the right hon. gentleman undertook certain
. financial operatinee, which mielit have been very pru-
dent had all that those despatches contained been false
and unfounded ; but, under the actual circumstances of
the country, with a war imminent, with a war, if not
certain, strongly probable, was that a moment to under-
take such a financial scheme am the right hon. geetlernan,
proposed, which, if not successful, could not tail to pro-
duce most serious effects upon the resources of the
country ? What, in the first place, had been the effect
in regard to the balances in the Exchequer—that re-
source which every prudent, Minister should reserve to
himself, in case events should (incur that demanded an
immediate supply of means 1 By a statistical abstract,
:furnished annually by the Board of Trade, there was a
statement of the balances in the Exchequee for the last
10 or 12 years. He would pass over the years 1841 and
1842, because the house would recollect the circumstances
of these years•and the financial difficulties which had
arisen in the country. It was when Sir Robert Peel
was beginning his new commercial system ; but what
had always been the policy of that great financial minis-
ter 7 Why, to take care of the balances in the Exche-
quer, and guard against the country being left without
resources. Beginning with the year 1844„be found
that the balance in the Exchequer for that year was
6,254,1131. ; in 1845, 8,452,0901. ; in 1846, 9,131,2821.;
in 1847, 8,457,6911. ; in 1848, 8,105,561/. ; in 1849,
9,748,5391. ; in 1850, 9,245,6761.; in 1851, 8,381,6371.;
and in 1852, 8,841,8221. But, by the commencement
of the following year, the right hon. gentleman had re-
duced the balance one-halt the amount in 1853, being
4,485,230/. He (Sir J. Pakington) felt himself justified
therefore in saying, as he had done on a former occa-
sion, that this country was entering upon a war with an
empty Exchequer, and that th was one of the main
causes of the heavy tax which the right lion. gentletuanti
bad imposed on the counter. But that part of the sub-
ject bad already been amply dealt with, and severely,
and, as he thought, justly, censured in former discus-
sions. He woul I now arithert to the plans submitted to
the house by the right hon. gentleman in his budget of
1853, and it was here that he thought the house and 'the
country had a right to complain. They bad a right to
complain that the war which was now coming upon them
should involve them in so obnoxious an impost as a
doubled income tax. Not that that house objected to
any impost which the country might be fairly liable to
for carrying on a just war ' • but they were bound in jus-
tice to the country to show that a prudent financial
policy would have prevented the necessity of that ob-
noxious impost. The right hon. gentleman had dealt
with the finances of the country in the past year in a
manner which was not justifiable ; and he was confident
of this, that if the House of Commons had known, and
if the country had known, that which they did know
now, and that which her Majesty's Government knew
then, if they had known the actual state of Europe and
the almost certainty of a coming war, they would not
have passed the budget of the right hon. genttemen, nor
have allowed him to endanger the resources of the comi-
c/A*4o the extent that lie had done. He was always
fermithembitter the discussions of that house by.any-
thing like personal altercation, and there was no one on
whom he was less disposed to cast any imputation than
the right hon. gentleman ; he, therefore, hoped the right
hon. gentleman would not suppose he meant anything
like a personal offence when he said- that the proposal
which the right hon. gentleman made to the house in
respect to the income tax in 1853 was not perfectly
fair and ingenuous under the circumstances under which
he made it. (Cheers from the Opposition.) The right
honourable gentleman came down to the house and
asked it to renew the income tax fir seven }ears.
When he made that propesal, he frankly allowed
that the income tax, as he proposed it, was an un-
equal and therefore an unjust tax ; he admitted to the
house that a particular class of property would be called
upon to pay 9d. in the pound, while all other descrip-
tions of income would only pay 7d. in the pound. But
the right hon. gentlenisri accompenied this announce.
ment by this proposal—" If (siiit he) you will adopt the
income tax for seven years I will only ask you for 7d. in
the pound for the first two year ; I will ask 6,1. in the
pound for the next two years ; and for the three last
years I will only ask sd-- in the pound, and then the in-
come tax will expire.' It was true, when the right hon.
gentleman was asked whether the tax would, at the end
of the seven years, really expire, he took very good care
not to involve himself in any kind of pledge. But cer-
tainly the house did not then know that the right hon.
gentleman at that very moment had in his possession
information in virtue of which, arid as the natural result
of which, that income tax of 7d. in the pound, before 12
months had elapsed, hid become doubled. It was now
Is. 2d. in the pound. (Loud cheers from the Opprisi-
tion.) The right hon. gentleman himself would hardly
deny, that if the house had known the state of our nego-
tiations at that moment, they would not have so readily
Lien into his proposal. They gave an income tax for
seven years, on the principle that the tax was to be gra-
dually diminished in amount till, at the end of seven
years, it should altogether expire. It would have been
more candid on the part of the right hon. gentleman,
and 'quid have done more credit to his character for
fairness, if he had frankly told the house the state of
Et;reDean affairs, and had said that the income tax could
not expire at any given period ; but that, if the ne-
cessity should arise, he would be obliged to appeal
to the house again. The right hon. gentleman would
do that (the Opposition) side of the house the justice to
recollect, that, although he had himself admitted that
incomes derived from land and houses paid a much
higher tax thyi other descrietions of income—a differ-
ence amounting t() 22 per cent.—and, although the
agricultural cle39 had long suffered under the injustice
of paying upon tile•grhte rent, while others paid holy
upon the net rent, Yet' they inade no objection to going
on'tvith the tax "P''i tPie eMltlitloll of having only to
pay the income tax foe
peried which he proposed.
But if the right hon. gee'-'7was at that time looking
forward to the income tax r deeteeying, the expenses of
a war—if
war tax and that
as' ta
such x wa t
s to be Nrded essentially as a
e ih aeincreased again and
,
again, then the country had a i to demand that that
tax should be 'made a just and equbletier, and the
right hon. gentleman was boniid to liktplo
taken one of
two courses—either to have imposed aactuated tax
according to the different descriptions nis,
or if
he was disposed to take the other course. and',saythat
all incomes oug
ht to be taxed then, on pro", a
wn
rule, the difference ,of the tax of 9d. on landed
and of 7d. on other property—being 22 per pe rty
should be done away with, and all jemmies shiula be
placed• on the same footing. He would now advert to
another part of the right honourable gentleman's
budget, by which, in his mind, the right hon. gentle-
man did unwisely arid improvidently weaken the re-
sources of the country. He alb' led to the repeal of
the
duty on soap, and tothe remission of dutyon tea. He had
heard out of doors that, although taxes had been taken off
to a very large extent, yet that the revenue did not suffer.
He did not think the right lion. gentleman was in a
position to say that. • He (SirJ. Pakington) could not
acknowledge the justice or the propriety of the course
which was taken-iist year, with a war pending over our
heads. In his opinion the right hon. gentleman was not
justified, under the circurdstno of impc iliing or
weakening the resources, of the country. If the right
hon. gentleman considered himself obliged to increase
direct tfuatica—aad to adopt a aucclagion-taz (which

was a tax originally regarded by Mr. Pitt as a war tax),
he (Sir J. Pakington) maintained, that at that moment
with a war so pending—the right and prudent course
would have been to have husbanded those resources for
.a- time of actual war, and to have retained those-reve-
'nues which he had in his possession, and which he was
perfectly at liberty to retain ; and which if one word had
fallen from him on' the subject that house would have
supported him in retaining. Those additional taxes
which he brought forward in his budget, as a compensa-
tion for those he had remitted, ought to have been re-
served for a time of danger; and if he had then proposed
them for defraying the expenses of the war, however
objectionable they might have been, the country would,
no doubt, have adopted them rather than have submitted
to this objectionable income.tax. But what was the
course which the right hon. gentleman pursued ? He
rashly and imprudently abandoned the soap-tax, the
gross amount of which was 1,397,0001., the net loss
being 1,111,090/. That was at once completely
thrown away—most imprudently and unnecessarily
thrown away ; fot he need not point out how much
more easy it would have been for the right hon. gen-
tleman to have retained that tax than it would be to
revert to it if the necessities of the country should re-
quire it. With regard to the remission of the tea, duty,
he observed that the right hon. gentleman had had
another correspondence with his old friend, a Birming-
ham cltrk, and he saw that the Birmingham clerk and
the right hon. gentleman were rather at issue. The
Birmingham clerk did not think that the right hon. gen-
tleman had given him full compensation in the remission
of duty on his tea for the double amount of income tax
taken out of his pocket. That, however, was not the
light in which he (Sir J. Pakington) was dealing with
the subject. The view which he took of it was this—
whether, with a coming war, with an almost certainly
coming war, it was wise to tamper with these great and
important means of revenue ? That was not the position
of thingi when his right hon. friend near him, the mem-
ber for Buckinghamshire, was in office. He (Sir J.
Pakingtoe) said, and he said so with pride, that the
overtures for the partition of Turkey were not made to
the late Government. On the contrary, there was every
appearance of a continuance of peace during the period
that that Government remained in ()Nee, and therefore
the circumstances under which his right hon. friend, the
member for Buckinghamshire, proposed a reduction in
the tea duties, were entirely different from those which
obtained when the right hon. gentleman opposite, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, made his proposition to
tire same effect. (Hear.) Estimating the reduction on
3,100,000 lbs. of tea, the reduction would amount to
336,000/. in the first year, 510,6001. in the second,
454,0001. in the third, and 604,000/. in the fourth,
making a total of 1,934,6001. spread over a period of
four years—a proposal for tampering with an im-
portant branch of the revenue, in his opinion,
altogether unjustifiable under the circumstances.
He moved no amendment, and had no intention of im-
peding the progress of the bill before the house. In a
few minutes that tax would be imposed upon the people,
and, so far as that house was concerned, the measure
would be complete. He hoped, and believed, in the
unhappy event of this war continuing, that the represen-
tatives of the people would continue to act in the same
spirit, arid, if so, while representing the right feeling of
the people who s -nt them there, should the right lion.
gentlemen opposite continue in place, and be charged
with the responsibility of conducting- the war, he
believed that they—that this country would furnish
the means, without hesitation, and with an unanimity
never exceeded in this country, provided only they
conducted that war with energy and vigour ; and might
God grant they would conduct it with victory and suc-
cess ! (Cheers.) So long they would continue, not to
refuse to the Government, but, on the contrary, with an
unparallsied unanimity, to grant it all it asked, that the
result might not be doubtful. But they had a right to
expect of the Government that in their financial ar-
rangements in dealing with that solemn state of affairs
we were now entering upon, they had a right to expect
that they would manage their expenses prudently, and
not for the sake of an ephemeral popularity waste the
re.,ources of the country ; and that if we were obliged or
called on to bear fresh bur4ens, which he doubted not
would be borne, at least he hoped they would be so
imposed as to be equal and just. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. CARDWELL professed himself at a loss to un-
derstand why the right hon. gentleman had raised this
discussion on the third reading of the bill. The right
hon. gentleman said be did not mean to oppose the mea-
sure. Then, what was his object? It was not to de-
bate the Eastern question, for the right hon. gentleman
had expressed a hope that it would not be discussed on
this occasion ; and, as far as lie (Mr. Cardwell) was con-
cerned, he would gratify the right hon. gentleman's
wish by not saying a word on the subject. There was,
to be sure, one point which he hoped the right hon.
gentleman would hereafter bear in mind. The right
hon. gentleman had given the house to understand that
if it had been his duty to bring forward a budget in
April last, and he had at that time been acquainted with
the contents of the despatches which the Government
had in its possession, he would have done so under the
settled conviction that the Crown of England must
either go to war or be a concerting party to the dis-
graceful partition of the dominions of an ally. When
the E.sstern question should come under discussion, the
right hon. gentleman would have an opportunity of re-
conciling that view of the case with the oft-repeated as-
sertion that war might have been averted by a greater
display of vigour on the part of the Government at a
later period, namely, on the occupation of the
itiee. (Hear, hear.) The right hon. gentleman
.. it only regnired firmnewe and ear..4-.or on the part
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to have retained the
soap duty and other imposts. If the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, anxious to retain the income tax, had
alarmed the House of Commons, and inspired them with
greater apprehensions than he really entertained, that
might have been an inducement to them to retain the
income tax, but he could not understand by what
stretch of imagination it could be argued that the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, desirous of retaining the tax,
had concealed from the house the magnitude of his ap-
prehensions with regard to the state of our foreign af-
fairs. But when his right hon. friend was pressed on
the subject of advertisements, of attorneys, and of
hops, had he always obtained that unanimous support
which the right hon. gentleman said he would have
obtained if he had chosen to retain these imposts ?
How deep must have been the right hon. gentleniin's
conviction of the certainty of war in the middle of April
if it would have induced him to have reversed his vote on
all these occasions in favour of remission of taxation, and
to have withheld from the country the boon of the remis-
sion of the tea duty! ("Hear," from Sir J. Pakington.)
If that were the case, let him not hear the war imputed
to anything that had occurred since the middle of April.
What was the object of raising this discussion on the
third reading of the Income-tax bill ? If it was argued
that the Exchequer ought to be replenished, that it was
not sufficiently full, why address that argument to the
house on the third reading of this bill ? The right hon.
gentleman had referred to a return for the purpose of
pointing out a minute alteration which he thought ou.ght
to be made in one or two lines, but if he would appeal to
the statistical history of the country, contained in that
return, he woulsl fiud that an important moral lesson,
never AO valuable as at a time like this, when all the na-
tions of the world, and particularly that nation with which
we had been drawn into collision, were examining the
condition of this country, would be read to him upon the
advantages of making the remissions of which he had
complained, and the growth of the strength and influence
of the country consequent upon them. That paper would
tell him that, improvident as was the budget of last year,
and although the income tax had notproduced 2,000,0001.,
and although the soap duty had been remitted, neverthe-
less the balance of revenue beyond expenditure was
3,250,0001. He would also tell him of the remission of the
debt, to which he had not alluded ; it would tell him that
there. had been a resoisiien of the debt last year to the
amount of nearly 8,530,0001., and if the balance in the
Exchequer had been reduced more than 4,000,0001.,
there was still a clear advantage amounting to 4,000,0001.
to the credit of the country on the face of the account.
Exchequer-bills were lower in amount than they had
ever been known in this century, and, in spite of a har-
vest which had compelled us to make almost unpara-
lelled imports of corn,
.and in spite of the apprehensions
of war, our trade had been increasing, and we had every
evidence of the growing prosperity and strength of the
country for purposes of peace or war. It was encourag-
ing to know that if the right hon. gentleman had been
in power, and had possessed the knowledge that these
despatches would have given him, he would not have
pursued that course of policy which the house, in its
wisdom bad thought proper to pursue He concurred
with the right hon, gentleman in acknowledging the
spirit with which the present exigency had been met on
both sides of the house, and he thought it was a circum-
stance of pride for this country, and of discouragement
for our enemies, that, from the position in which it
appeared from this paper we were placed at the com-
mencement of hostilities, we should be enabled to meet
the expenditure which had been sanctioned by the house
without the necessity of imposing fresh burdens, or of
withdrawing remissions already given to the great body
of the people. These were the circumstances under
which, at the conclusion of aliong period of peace, the
country was unhappily plunged into war. As there

was no motion befo're the Ions; except the third reading
of the Income-tax Bill—to which no amendment had
been moved— and every argument used by the right hon.
gentleman had tended to prove the necessity of replen-
ishing the Exchequer, and therefore the propriety of
passing the bill, he did not understand why the light
hon. gentleman should have thought it necessary, in
giving his cordial concurrence to the principle and objects
of th bill, to draw the house into a discussion upon
budgets of former years. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. MALINS asserted that the President of the
Board of Trade had left all the main points of his right
hon. friend's argument untouched. The right hon.
gentleman askNl why raise a discussion on the third
reading of the income tax bill, but he should bear
in mind that the increase in the income tax
formed the whole of the budget for the preient
year, and that in deprecating discussion upon it,
he deprecated financial disCussion altogether. Again,
be said that they (the Opposition) proposed no amend-
ment, and contemplated no division. It had been proved
to the house that the result of those financial operations,
if they had been carried into effect last week, would have
most the country 700.0001., and that now they would
cost the country 800,000/. Such was the lamentable
failure of the right hon. gentleman's first effort in fin-
ance The success of future efforts of the right hon.
gentleinan might, indeed, ultimately prove that he would
be cheap to the country even at that price. At present,
however, that was the price which they had had to pay
for him., In answer to the taunt of the right lion. gen-
tleman who had last addressed the house, " Why do yon
renew these discussions if you are not going to divide?"
he (Mr. Malins) answered, that he renewed them because
he desired to raise his voice, as he ahoutd continue to
raise it so long as ho had a seat in that house, against
the proposition that this war could be carried 011