The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-07 00:00:00

the most sanguine votary of the direct school. The hon.
member for Montrose complimented the right hon. gentle-
man on the clear and able statement he had made to-night.
The right hou. gentleman is used to compliments for his
able statements, and no man more deserves them. (Hear,
hear.) But I win bound to say, having listened with much
interest and close attention to all that fell from his lips,
that, though I found one portion of his statement very
clear, there was another portion which appeared to mo in-
volved in an obscurity which does not become financial
statements at any time, and under such circumstances as
are those under which the right hon. gentleman has made
his statement to-night. (Hear.) So far as the right hon.
gentleman's statement of the balance-sheet was concerned,
nothing could be more perspicuous; and, as to the remedy
by which ho is prepared to supply the deficiency which
may occur, nothing could be more plain. He gave as to
our expenditure and our income an explanation in lan-
guage which no one could misconceive, and he de-
scribed the remedy by which the anticipated deficiency
was to be supplied in a manner which no one could
misapprehend. Objections may be taken, no doubt,
and I reserve to myself the power, on another occa-
sion, to make them, as to the manner in which
the increased income tax is to be raised. (Hear.
hear.) But the state of the revenue, of the income and
expenditure, and the means by which the deficiency of the
increased expenditure is to be supplied, have been placed
before the committee and the country iu a manner which
cannot be misunderstood. When, however, wo come to
the second portion of the right hon. gentleman's state-
ment—that which relates to the actual state of our finan-
ces and the money in hand—we did not experience the
same satisfaction, or, as it appeared to me, the same
perspicuity. (Hear, hear.) The right hon. gentleman, iu
anticipation, probably, of objections, favoured the com-
mittee with, I will not call them invectives, but un-
friendly criticisms on largo balances in the public Exche-
quer. There may, no doubt, be two opinions on the degree
-of treasure which we should have at command, but, being
of that school which has been educated to believe that an
ample and sufficient balance in the Exchequer is an im-
portant feature of finance.—(hear)—l feel it to be my
duty to impress on the committee my conviction that the
present state of oar balance is not sufficient, and may lead
to danger. (Hear.) The committee, lam sure, will, on
reflection, feel that this is not a point of indifference, even
in ordinary times ; while in a time of exigency, in a time
when the country may be suddenly called upon to make
large unforeseen exertions, it is most unsound to encourage
the idea in the Government that the finances of the coun-
try may be left in such a condition that, in order to meet
engagements from new circumstances, you must stretch
that credit, which should at all times be treated with
great delicacy and reserve. (Hear, hear.) When the late
Government quitted office, on the 3d of January, 1853,
immediately before our quitting office the balance in the
Exchequer was nearly 9,000,000/. sterling. (Hear, hear.)
One year after, at the commencement of this year, in
January, 1854—exactly one year after wo left office—the
balance in the Exchequer was reduced one half. (Hear,
hear.) The right hon. gentleman asks, " What of that ?
If I employ the public money for the advantage of the
public, why do you criticise my conduct ? Why do you
cavil at my policy ?" If the right hon. gentleman can show
us that ho has conducted with the necessary prudence his
affairs—if he can prove that he has employed the public
money for the public benefit—the question falls, and there
is no doubt the right hon. gentleman will have a verdict in
his favour, even from those who are, abstractedly, approvers
of large balances. But I want to know what are your
balances at the present moment, and what are the engage-
ments which the right hon. gentleman has to meet at the
close of the financial year—on the sth of April next, one
month from this time ? (Hear, hear.) I think that is test-
ing the question fairly for the right hon. gentlemen. I can
only estimate the amount of the balances in the Exchequer
at the present moment by referring to the returns of the
parallel period in the preceding year. According to the
parallel period in the preceding year, allowing for the ex-
traordinary deductions from the balances which were occa-
sioned by the conversion of 6,000,000/. sterling, there ought
to be now in the Exchequer—l mean, of course, on the sth
of April—something like 3,000,000/. sterling. There is no
reason why, on the sth of April next, the balance in the
Exchequer should bo more than 3,000,000/. sterling. Now,
what will be the liabilities of the right hou. gentleman at
that period ? He has, first, to pay the dividends then duo,
to inset the public credit. It is not in my power precisely
to fix the amount so required, but it will certainly not be
less than 6,000,0001., and it may exceed 7,000,000/.; let us
take it at 6,500,0001. The right hon. gentleman has, at the
same time, to complete the conversion scheme, or to meet
its non-success, to the amount of not less than 2,000,0001.
more, or, together, 8,500,000/. ; and he has, in the third
place, to meet the current deviant's of the public service
in its increased amount. Upon the -whole, taking a mo-
derate estimate, I should say that the right hon. gentle.
man will, on the sth of April, have to meet demands to
something like the amount of 9,000,000/. or 10,000,000/. He
has to meet this, it would appear, with a sum of 3,000,000/.
Under such circumstances I want to know how he proposes
to carry on the business of the country. (Hoar.) The right
hon. gentleman may say again—" What is the use of large
balances ? I can borrow money, and will take the amount
in deficiency bills, which will carry me on." The right hon.
gentleman in the quarter which is now expiring, from
January to April, has only been able to carry on his affairs
by deficiency bills to the amount of 4,000,000 sterling.
(Hear, hear.) The right hon. gentleman will perhaps
tell us that 4,000,000/.. sterling is not an immoderate
amount of deficiency bills, and that it is better to carry
on the affairs of the country by deficiency bills to
that amount than by amassing the public treasure in the
Exchequer. I will let that point pass. The right hon.
gentleman says the amount of deficiency bills that Sir R.
Peel complained of was more than 4,000,0001.—was
6,000,0001. or 8,000,0001. Will the amount of deficiency
bills in the coming quarter that will be necessary for tho
right hon. gentleman be less than 6,000,000/. ? (Hear,
hear.) Is the committee of opinion that at any time the
Chancellor of the Exchequer should have in any quarter
6,000,0001, of deficiency bills ; and is the country of opi-
nion that public affairs should be thus conducted at a mo-
ment when the Chancellor of the Exchequer comes down
here and tells us that it is impossible for him to make any
precise statement of affairs because he is not prepared to
meet any need that may be emerging? (Hear, hear.) Sir,
1 say that there should be a balance in the Exchequer—
(hear, hear) ;—but, instead of a question between proper
and improper balances in the Exchequer, between ample
balances and excessive balances, the question is now be-
tween a balance at all and a large deficiency. (Hear, hear.)
In fact, at this moment, looking to the completion of the
financial year, instead of a balance in the Exchequer you
have an enormous deficiency. (Hear, hear.) Well, now,
is that a state of affairs which is desii able ? Is it desir-
able at any time? Above all, is it desirable in a time of
war ? (Hear, hear.) These are questions which cannot
be evaded. You may to-night say, "We have nothing to
divide about ; let it pass;" but you may rely upon it,
especially if those events occur which we now count upon,
that you will find this weakness in your finance perplex
all your movements, and destroy, perhaps, all the fine
combinatipns of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. (Hear,
bear.) Why should this state of things exist? You had,
not so long ago, an ample balance in the Exchequer, in a
time of peace, of commercial prosperity, of low prices;
you had an ample balance when on the eve, I will not say
of disasters, but of contingencies that may involve disas-
ters. Why is this balance, which we had in time of peace,
not at your service now? That is what I want to know.
Had you come io this low state of the Treasury in the
natural cause of natural events, and this position of diffi-
culty had befallen you, you might very fairly then have
said, " We have to encounter these circumstances of diffi-
culty and danger ; help us to buckle to, and face them."
But I said you had, when you entered office, this large
surplus at your command, a surplus that would have met
the exigency of the present moment ; this surplus does not
exist. Why does it not exist? All this has been omitted
from the financial statement with which we have been
favoured by the right hon. gentleman. (Hear, hear.) That
great balance has disappeared because the right hon. gen-
tleman about a year ago chose to take a course in monetary
affairs which the circumstances of the times did not war-
rant, and which he pursued in opposition to the best au-
thorities that could possibly guide a man even as gifted as
the present Chancellor of the Exchequer. (Hear.) The
right hon. gentleman dealt with our resources in a manner
which has ultimately deprived you of this command of
capital in two ways. His great object was to reduce the
rate of interest paid on the public securities, funded and
unfunded. He began by dealing with the reduction of in-
terest on Exchequer-bills. I think it was on about the Bth
of February, 1853, that the right hon. gentleman reduced
the interest on Exchequer-bills to 1i per cent. For six
weeks before the right hon. gentleman took that step every
indication which generally influences and should govern
gentlemen in the position of the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer had intimated that the value of money was rising. I
will not look at papers, because that would trouble the
committee; and if I make any mistake in my figures—in-
voluntarily, I am sure, for I desire to make no mistake—l
shall, doubtless, be immediately corrected. The price of
Consols when Lord Derby left office, about the end of
December, was 1011 • when Parliament met again, in
February, Consols had been- continuously declining, and
they were then down to 99.1. Exchequer-bills, again,
which when Lord Derby left office were from 69 to 72, had
fallen by February to 55-59. These were, I think, very
significant symptoms. (Hear, hear.) Yet, with such in-
dications before him, the right hon. gentleman began that
great campaign which was to be signalised by vast reduc-
tions in the public debt of the country. Did the right hon.
gentleman receive no warnings from this house ? A man
whom we all look upon as a great authority on these sub-
jects rose and entreated him to pause. The hon. member
for 'Westmoreland, whose absence from the house this ses-
sion has boon such matter of regret—a man whom we all
regard as of most competent authority on all these subjects
—Mr. Alderman Thompson—particularly warned the right
hon. gentleman, telling him that the time for his operation
NU peculiarly inopportune, and reminding him earnestly
that money was then in large demand, and per cent.
dearer than it had been five months before. The right hon.
gentleman, however, persisted in his plans. I will not now
dwell on what were the consequences of those plans. The
committee will recollect that these Exchequer-bills, the
price of which I have just quoted, the price of which had
so declined, had the.interest upon them reduced to 1A per
cent. at the time of which I have spoken. On the sth of
May they were at 2s. premium ; on the 26th of May they
were at par ; on the 26th of September they were at 10e.
discount. The right hon. gentleman, in the interval, had
made his financial statement, and estimated that by the
reduction of the interest on Exchequer-bills he should effect
an annual saving of 65,000/. It appears by ono of the re-
turns for which I moved, and which are now on the table
of the house, that the loss which that reduction of interest
has occasioned is something like 36,0001., making, iu the
whole, so far as the financial statement of the right hon.
gentleman is concerned, a difference of 100,000/. (Hoar.)
That is the brief account of the dealings of the right hon.
gentleman with Exchequer-bills, so far as the reduction of
interest is concerned. But the right hon. gentleman fol-
lowed up this reduction of interest on Exchequer-bills by a
much larger enterprise, which was announced as the herald
of measures which would ultimately affect the amount of
interest on the entire national debt—l allude to the plan of
the right hon. gentleman for converting what he styled the
patriarchal stocks. It is of great importance that the com-
mittee should recollect that by these plans of conversion
the country is now deprived of that balance in the Exche-
quer which nothing I have heard to-night has convinced
me would not have been of great benefit to this country,
especially
at this critical juncture. 'Well, Sir, were warn-
ings
wanting to the right hon. gentleman on that occasion ?
He advanced with only a small part of the great scheme.
And what was that ? He was to convert, in round figures,
at the rate of 1001., stock, or an aggregate of small stocks,
forming altogether a sum of little short of 10,000,000/. ster-
ling. I shall say nothing of the scheme by which this con-
version of stock was to be carried into effect. It consisted
of three schemes, all of which were diametrically opposed
to each other, (Hear, hear.) One of these was founded on
the principle that the amount of the public debt should be
increased ; another on the principle that the amount of the
public debt should be diminished; one went on the prin-
ciple that the amount of the funded debt should be dimin-
ished ; another on the principle that, by means of Exche-
quer-bonds, it should be largely, and, if the _Rouse of Com-
,Quis did not interfere, increased. Thu right