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

PUBLIC PROSECUTORS.

Mr. J. PHILLIMORE postponed the second reading
of his bill on this subject for a month, as he understood
the Government intended to take the matter into con-
sideration. _

INCOME TAX BILL.
On the third reading of this bill,
Sir J. PAKINGTON rose, and said that when the
Chancellor of the Exchequer made his financial state.
meat he declared that the ordinary revenue of the coup.
try would be insufficient to defray those expenses of war
which had already become certain. The right hon. gen-
tleman, therefor; proposed to double the income-tax.
It was true that the tax was only to
,Pe doubled for six
•months in the first instance, but, under all the circtun-
stance, he was justified, for the sake of greater simpli-
city, in speaking of the tax as being doubled. The
right hon. gentleman then sought to impose on the
country double ithe amount of a tax which, according
to his own authority, was unequal; oppressive, and
inquisitorial in its nature. The honourable member
for Evesham (Sir 11. Willoughby) on a former even-
ing moved an amendment which at any other time
would have been a most fair proposal in reference to the
merits of the plan of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
but under the circumstances of the country he declined
to press it to a division, and the house acceded to the
proposal of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with the
most sincere desire unhesitatingly to furnish the Crown
with the means of carrying on the approaching war.
He (Sir J. Pakington) thought that at this particular
time honourable members were hardly free to press
upon the house their own individual opinions on the
merits of the plan of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
for they must feel that, under present circumstances,
the attention of foreign nations was directed to their
proceedings, and he for one should have been extremely
sorry if iany course had been taken in reference to the
proposal of the Chancellor of the Exchequer which in
the slightest degree should have carried with it the ap.
pearance that they were not acting as one man in sup-
plying the means necessary to carry on she war with
vigour. (Hear, hear.) Having thus fulfilled the duty
they owed to the Crown, it still became them, looking
to the objectionable nature of the tax and to the whole
circumstances of the financial arrangements of the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer during the past year, to con-
sider, not at the present moment whether the increased
income-tax was really required to defray the expenses
of war, but whether the management of the finances by
the right hon. gentleman had not been such as to lead
to the necessity of the increase for the purpose men-
tioned ? (Hear, hear.) The main reason why the right
hon. gentleman was called on to double the income-
tax was, that a war was about to be commenced with
an empty Exchequer. But why was the Exchequer
empty ? First, because of the financial operations of
the right hon. gentleman at the commencement of the
last year ; and, secondly, because he brought down to
the house in April what might fairly be called a peace
budget, at a moment when the Government were in
possession of information which might have made
them feel certain that war with Russia was inevitable.
(Hear, hear.) The Chancellor of the Exchequer had
explained the mode in which he proposed—at least for
a time—to defray the expenses of the coming war. The
right hon. gentleman meant to rely mainly on the in-
creme of direct taxation, and had told the house that
anything like a recourse to direct taxation was to be the
very last resource. Under these circumstances, he (Sir
J. Pakington) thought he was justified in endeavouring
to show the house that the state of public affairs at the
time when the Chancellor of the Exchequer brought for-
ward his budget last year was not such as to justify him
in anticipating a continuation of peace, and therefore he
ought then to have guarded most carefully the existing
resources of the country. (Hear, hear.) In order to
show the house what information was in the possession
of the Government at the time when their financial
plans were brought forward last year, it would be neces-
sary for him to refer to the papers laid on the table of
the house, including the secret negotiations with respect
to the Eastern question. Upon the Eastern question,
however, it was not at all his intention to raise a debate.
Tise.gifaffsis eadimerb.lae should read Was from a despatch
froth Sir H. Seymour to Lord J. Russell, dated Jan. 7,
and received Jan. 19, 1853; it was to the following
effect :

"Orders have been despatched to the sth corps d'arinee
to advance to the frontiers of the Danubian provinces,
without waiting for their reserves ; and the 4th corps, un-
der the command of General Count Dannenberg, and now
stationed in Volhynia, will be ordered to hold itself in
readiness to march, if necessary. General Luder's corps
d'arini,e, accordingly, being now 48,000 strong, will receive
a reinforcement of 24,000 men soon after its arrival at its
destination, and, supposing the 4th corps to follow, the
whole force will amount, at least, according to official re-
turns, to 144,000 men."

The next extract he should read was contained in that
remarkable collection of papers known as the "secret
correspondence." The extract was from a despatch from
Sir H. Seymour to Lord J. Russell, dated January 22,
1853, referring to a conversation held with the Emperor
of Russia on the 14th of the same month, just seven
days after the date of the despatch he had first read :
"The Emperor said, `For my part, I am equally dis-
posed to take the engagement not to establish myself thoro
—as proprietor, that is to say—for as occupier I do not say.
It might happen that circumstances, if no previous provi-
sion were made—if everything were left to chance—might
place me in the position of occupying Constantinople.'
The Emperor assured me that no movement of his forces
had yet taken place, and expressed his hope that no advanco
would be required."
This statement of the Emperor of Russia, that no move-
ment of his forces had yet taken place, might be con-
sistent with the statement made a week previously by
Sir H. Seymour, for, though orders had been given for
the advance of 144,000 men to the Danubian provinces,
it might be that the troops had not then moved. Never-
theless there was such a discrepancy between the two
despatches as ought to have attracted the attention of
the Government. The next despatch he should quote
was also from Sir H. Seymour to Lord J. Russell, dated
Feb. 21, 1553, and related to another conversation held
with the Emperor of Russia on the previous night at a
party of the Grand Duchess's. The Emperor then said:—
" The sick man is dying. We must come to some un-
derstanding ; and this we should do, I am convinced, if I
could hold but 10 minutes' conversation with your Minis-
ters—with Lord Aberdeen, for instance, who knows me so
well; who has full confidence in me, as I have in him."
There he repeated that the sick man was dying, and
lie repeated it in a manner to prove pretty clearly that
his meaning was that if he did not die it would only
be because he would be killed. (Hear, hear.) Sir
Hamilton Seymour in that despatch not only reported
what the Emperor of Russia said, but gave his own opinion
on the snbject. He would read to the house the warn-
ing which Sir H. Seymour gave the Government, and
the construction which ho put upon the language of the
Emperor :

" It is hardly necessary that I should observe to your
lordship that this short conversation, briefly but correctly
reported, offers matter for most anxious reflection. It can
hardly be otherwise but that the Sovereign, who insists
with such pertinicity upon the impending fall of a neigh-
bouring State, must have settled in his own mind that the
hour, if not of its dissolution, at all events, for its disso•
lution, must be at hand." . • • " ilupposing
my suspicion to be well founded, the Emperor's object is
to engage her Majesty's Government, in conjunction with
his own Cabinet and that of Vienna, in some scheme for
the ultimate partition of Turkey, and for the exclusion of
France from the arrangement.
Here was a distinct warning and an explicit construc-
tion of the language of the Emperor of Russia, fairly
communicated to her Majesty's Government. What
followed ? On the very same day the Government re-
ceived another despatch from Sir H. Seymour dated the
22d of February—the former being dated the 21st ; but
they both arrived together, and in that despatch Sir
H. Seymour's anticipations had actual; been fulfilled,
y
for in,a conversation which he held
with the Emperor
the next day the Emperor made the very suggestion
which Sir H. Seymour
had before stated would pro-
bably be made. The Emperor threw out a proposal for
partitioning the estate of the dyitig man, and suggested
that Egypt and Candia should be the spoil of England.
The next despatch to
which he would refer was of an
older date, and one which was well known—he meant
the despatch in which Colonel Rose assigned his reasons
for demanding the fleet to be sent to Vourla. He wrote
thus :

me to relqvilateicslit thea(
Turkey
" The Grand v " Constantinople, March 7, 1853.
evidently inte izier said that the Russian Government
led to win some important right from
h i s andsquadron
asked
wouldßritish de destroy raodym.h,i her independence, itnod ebpr
.ienngd enni?c
to Vourla-ba '
tio y from Malta. _booting this intimate convic-
tion that if the Sultan wore not supported on this occasion
IN
he •
ould call to his councils a Ministry selected under
411331411 influence, I informed his Highness that I would
tell your Lordship that I felt convinced that the safety of
Turkey required the presence of the British squadron in
those waters. DI. Bendetti said the same as regards the
French squadron. But these assurances did not tranquiliso
the Grand Vizer's mind. He thought that Turkey would
be lost before an answer could arrive from England and
France. The Russian Government had not kept faith with
her Majesty's Government ; instead of withdrawing or al-
lowing her troops to be stationary, she had advanced them
up to the Turkish territory, ordering provisions for those
troops in the Turkish provinces, without having ever de-
clared war, or stated her cause of complaint against the
Porte to the Porte—a thing unheard of among and con-
trary to the rights of civilised nations. She was taking
other warlike measures, maritime as well as military, on
a very great scale, unmistakeably with the view of over-
coming Turkey's independence, or making war on her."
This was received by her Majesty's Government on the
19th of March. The next despatch was out from Consul
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