The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-09 00:00:00

per individual. But the very highest of these
(Spain) i 3 more than trebled, while the two
next highest (France and Denmark) are nearly
quadrupled by England, where, as we have seen,
the pressure of the National Debt is as that, not
of 54 dollars or of 40 dollars, but of as many as
187 doll4Lrs, on each individual of the popu-
lation. Allowance must, of course, be made
for the relative commercial prosperity and
general productiveness of the different States
particulari sed. But even then the contrast pre-
sented must be allowed to be sufficiently startling
and extraordinary. Remembering all which, the
country will do well to weigh maturely in its
consideration the scheme proposed by its noto-
riously exi)erimentalisiug Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer—now that his demand for war expenses
has expanded, within au interval of four weeks,
from little more than 3,000,0001. to be raised
in half a year, to an annual addition of

10,000,000/. !
England will not grudge the expenses of the
war, hove ver burdensome those expenses may
be. The people of England are satisfied
that the conflict upon which they have
entered against Russia is a struggle in behalf of
those pure and holy principles eulogised on the
3d instant at Paris, in a memorable speech by
the Polish Prince CZARTORYSKI• In behalf of
those lofty and glorious principles, they are pre-
pared to attest their patriotic devotedness by
almost any sacrifices. There is no question what-
ever as to the reality of this loyal and unani-
mous enthusiasm of the people of England,
in behalf of the great interests at stake
in this war against Barbarism and Auto-
cracy. But with all their ardour in the mighty
and momentous cause at issue, we do not for an
instant believe that the people of the United
Kingdom are prepared to place their delicate and
complicated system of finance unconditionally at
the disposal of any rash and bungling expe-
rimentalist.

Mr. GLADSTONE has succeeded in achieving that
which we had believed to be an absolute impos-
sibility. He has made even Sir CHARLES WOOD
appear in a favourable light. He has proved
that there might be a worse Minister of Finance
than the Right Hon. Baronet the President of
the India Board. It is needless to recapitulate
his various proceedings, or the positive mischief
which he inflicted on the country before he suc-
ceeded in accomplishing this extraordinary result.
The different stages of his progress in the
downward journey are but too painfully
impressed on the popular mind to need
repetition. Up to yesterday some doubt might
have existed on the subject. The Right Hon.
Gentleman had not so irretrievably fallen in
general estimation but that a locus penitentice re-
mained. He would, no doubt, have found it a
painful and arduous task to have attempted to
regain the position from which he had fallen ;
but a vigorous and straightforward line of policy
might have done much. Had he set himself fairly
and honestly to meet the increased expenditure of
the country with the least possible increase to its
obligations ; had he, to the utmost of his power,
endeavoured to alleviate the burdens—to occasion
the least possible disturbance to the trade and
commerce of the nation, and to develope to the
greatest extent practicable its industrial capabilities,
his past errors might have been overlooked, and
he himself exalted to a position higher than his
most sanguine day-dreams could have visioned
forth. But, unfortunately, he has not done any
of these things. On the contrary, he has used
his powers for the most mischievous purposes, and
by his speech of last night, able and brilliant as
it was in point of language and rhetorical arrange-
ment, irrevocaibly classed himself with the hope-
lessly incorrigil de. Indeed, henceforth, in place of
appealing to Mir. GLAnsTorm, fiscal, financial, and
monetary reformers must appeal from him to
those from whom he holds his power—the People
—and call on them to exert their irresistible
power to hurl ltim ignominiously from a position
for which he has proved himself to be wholly un-
fitted. He has ostentatiously assumed the entire
responsibility of his measures. He allows no
rival near the Throne—will not allow even his
colleagues to participate in the very doubtful
honours, or rather•, we should say, the certain
disgrace, of the paternity of his financial abor-
tions. With the arrogance which he has so
frequently and so unblushingly displayed, he
gloried in his shame, while repeating the rather
hackneyed verse—
" Me, me, adsuzm qui feci in me convertite fern um."
Many persons, however, would, doubtless, have
considered the (potation more appropriate had he
completed the &sentence by adding—

" 0 .Rutuli, mea frans omnis,"
for that there has been, if not fraud and decep-
tion, something very nearly approaching thereto,
it is impossible) to deny. We do not wish to
charge the Financial Minister with treason to his
Sovereign and to his country, with wilful
and deliberate treachery ; but this we will say,
that if he had drawn his inspiration direct
from St. Petersburg, if his coffers had been filled
with the richest produce of the Ural Mountains,
he could not have adopted a course more favour-
able to the AUTOCRAT, more calculated to dis-
courage and dil3gust the English people, and in-
duce them to of ent to the doctrine of "Peace at
any price," the, avowal whereof, by the effete
Septuagenarian nominally at the head of the Go-
vernment has involved the nation in the arduous
and formidable contest in which it is now

engaged.
Mr. GLADSTONE has put forward one point, and
one only, inwhichhe willreceive the cordial concur-
rence of the community. Hehas emphatically repu-
diated the ridiculous fallacy that, because we are ai
war, we should tnibmit to allthe crotchets or the un.
wise and impolitic schemes of the Administration
by whom that war has been occasioned, and many
of whom—for we will not include Lord JOHN
RUSSELL Or Lord PALMERSTON, pr others of their
colleagues in the censure—persist with perverse
and obstinate determination in their ruinous
policy. The Right Honourable Gentleman says,
" There are, indeed, those who say that a
period of war is not a time when a question
of confidence should be entertained. Sir, to that
I reply, even as regards an Administration, still
more as regards a Minister, and, most of all, a
Minister of Finance, that a period of war is the
very last when that important trust should be
committed to hands that have been discredited in
the view of the House and the country !" And
again, when he had been for a considerable time
on his legs, and had thoroughly warmed on
his subject " Now, don't let it be said
that this is a time of war, and that
therefore the question of confidence should not
be raised. It being a time of war is the very
reason why you should make up your minds whe-
ther financial matters have been mismanaged or
not 1" We entirely agree with these opinions,
and shall not hesitate, therefore, in calling upon
the different constituencies and their representa-
tives in Parliament to accept the arrogant chal-
lenge, the unequivocal defiance that has been flung
forth. That argument has at least been taken
away by the Right Hon. Gentleman himself, and
is no longer tenable either to friend or foe as a
means of defence for the one or an excuse for
apathy or inactivity to the other.
It is time that we should briefly notice the
naturethis decided
condemnation. ofthepnrdopemosnitaitoinosn w.
N. 3 Budgethichohavecalled i
forth
north
less objectionable for its acts of omission than of
commission—for what it leaves undone than what
it does, or rather for what it attempts to do. There
is nothing whatsoever to restore the shattered finance
of the country, to arrest the stream of bullion
leaving our shores, or to offer an efficient substi-
tute in its place. There is to be no modification
of the iniquitous Bank Charter Act, nothing to
mitigate its atrocious enactments, or to give a
free trade in money or in banking. And while
the monetary laws are still retained, wselauraenacsdaaelbrltoeehdra
our resources by paying off
to bear the entire expenses
stffi oo fnmeaotlonhrveedeewrtbsahti roa;ini
eight Nay,
more, to do so after having
propose that the mpriiloloion s
of sterling
.n g
the holders of South
equi-
valentstaon. HwehidcoheshenGoo offeredtfA DetsivlTeeonNtonEa,