The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-12 00:00:00

,

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 1851.

The feeling explanation given to the House of
Commons last evening by Lord Jorn Rut-wr..r.,
on the occasion of the Noble Lord's announcing,
through the House to the Country, the withdrawal
for the present session of his last new Bill for the
Reform of Parliament, will ultimately and inevi-
tably command from the people, as it at once com-
manded yesterday from their representatives, that
respect for his emotions, and sympathy for his re-
grets, which are, assuredly, the deserved meed of
his labours and the merited tribute to his reputa-
tion.

It must be recognised at once that this with-
drawal of the new Reform Bill must be to Lord
JOHN RUSSELL a source of poignant regret and
of peculiar and painful disappointment. That,
we believe, is already admitted by the vast majo-
rity even of the most determined among his poli-
tical opponents. It was last night acknowledged
with manly and becoming candour by the Right
Hon. Gentleman the Leader of her Majesty's
Opposition. Mr. DISRAELT justly declared that,
painful though it was in many respebts, the speech
just delivered by the Noble Lord was one worthy of
him in every particular. Such, we believe, will be
the verdict of the great masses of our population.
It may be regretted by some that the measure,
now postponed till another and more fitting oppor-
tunity, was introduced at all this session to the
notice of the Imperial Legislature, considering the
almost unexampled circumstances with which that
session must be remembered to have been inau-
gurated.
But it must be acknowledged, at the
same time, that the councils of her Britannic MA-
JESTY were, in so doing, influenced by an anxiety
to be faithful to their promise of these innovations
in our representative system, while they were at
the same instant paralysed in the exercise of fore-
sight and judgment by the despairing tenacity
with which some of her MAJESTY'S Ministers
clung to the very last to the hope of a tardy
pacification.
Occurrences have since multiplied--4occurrences
which have tended to dissipate every visible ves-
tige of these illusory anticipations. War at length
became not only certain, not only inevitable,
not only unavoidable it was actually de-
clared. Messages to this effect were despatched
simultaneously to the Parliaments both of France
and of England by their respective Sovereigns.
Notifications appeared immediately afterwards in
the London Gazette and iu the Paris Moniteur,
(4liciallY intimating to the world at large that
there was really, after all, an end of political
e°rreePendence, of those at one time apparently
interminable seneds, notes, and ultimatums, which
graduallY wove around the intricate maze of the
Russo-Turkish
-i-,uu
of diploglati culty,.. the bewildering laby-
rinthe negotiation. By the time
this conclusion was arrived at, however, by the
time the unwelcome truth of a war with Russia
was at last forced upon the recognition of the
Earl of ABERDEEN and his Ministerial colleagues,
the. New Reforms, to the furtherance of which
they had solemnly pledged themselves, were
already, in the form of Lord Jou
N RUSSELL'S care-
fully elaborated "Bill," lying on the
table of the
House of Commons, and awaiting the attention of
un
the Legislature. Here was a new, an expected,
ssformidable embarrara
and a rather mt. Pro-
mises had been made, pledges had beet givenn_
those pledges
had been partially redeemed, those
promises
partially fulfilled. However, to
have
persisted in the course upon which Ministers had
mistakenly adventured would have been to have
added enormously to the difficulties of the State
by jeopardising in the crisis of a dread struggle
among the great nations of the earth the stability
of the English Executive, the very existence of
the-British Government. Than which certainly—
meaning the otherwise unavoidable necessity of a
change of Administration in the midst of a

general war--scarcely anything could be more
detrimental to the interests of the Empire, and
• thirilostinterests to the twofold cause of
Ml"7:_44l:7l'4nA:.vilisation. It became mani-
; of:IW4Q 4.. g the interval secured for
ethictio-7111,YZ:gid?k,14journment of the second
lAteforra Bill to the 27th in-
st4oo. other consideration must be
to-that 9f the general welfare of the
A4a to
ayerYthin ha. so saGacoci I

The explicit and reiterated engagements of the
Cabinet---the repeated assurance of some forth-
coming " large measure of reform"—the most
dearly-cherished hopes of the Noble Lord the mem-
ber for the City of London—all have been sacri-
ficed. And they have been so sacrificed, we
believe in our conscience—we speak, remem-
ber, not by any means as Ministerialists, we speak
as publicists diametrically antagonistic to what is
popularly understood by the phrase Aberdeenism
—all these things have, we believe in our con-
science, been so sacrificed from considerations of
loyalty to the Crown, and from a supreme and all-
absorbing regard to the welfare of the Empire.
Honour then, say we as Reformers, and as oppo-
nents of the weakness, and the moral obliquity
and the deplorable vacillation of Aberdeenism—
honour to the manly courage, and to the patriotic
resolution, and to the self-forgetting magnanimity
which last evening enabled Lord John RUSSELL
to sacrifice his own ambition to the require-
ments of the State, and to throw aside his pro-
jected scheme of Parliamentary improvement in
the presence of that dread peril which threatens
not only the might of England, but the peace of
Europe, and the liberties of Christendom, and the
vitality of Civilisation.

Last night the Chancellor of the Exchequer
brought forward his promised statement respecting
the revenue of the financial year, which termi-
nated on the sth April instant, and also as to
the condition of the public balances, and of the
unfunded debt at the same time. Very undue
importance had previously been attached to the
revelations expected from the Right Honourable
Gentleman, which many persons seemed to sup-
pose would have been " Budget No. 2," in which
the sanction of Parliament would be required to
a new loan, or the issue of an additional amount
of Exchequer-bills—a further increase to the
Income Tax, or the restoration of some of the re-
cently abolished indirect sources of revenue.
There were a variety of rumours abroad, some
insisting on one point, while others, with equal
energy and determination, maintained a conflict-
ing view. All agreed that something of unusual
interest would transpire in the course of the
evening ; but what that " something" might be
puzzled the SonoNs of the Stock Exchange, and
led to very violent fluctuations in the prices of
Consols and other Securities. Indeed, a fall of
nearly 2 per cent, was at one time established ;
and although subsequently there was a partial
rally, prices were more than 1 per cent, lower
than on the preceding day.
The anxious anticipations on the subject
were, however, by no means realised. The
Right Honourable Gentleman had not been
many minutes on his legs, when it was apparent
that there was nothing to excite the serious ap-
prehensions or glowing expectations that had been
indulged in. The ursine fraternity were griev•
ously disappointed at the failure of their sanguine
hopes that something exceedingly injurious to the
public credit would be officially announced, while
their adversaries were equally amazed at not hear-
ing. something decisive on the other side that
would act with extraordinary rower on the Capel
Court barometer. Since the epoch of the " par-
turient mountains," however, nothing more com-
mon-place or indecisive has taken place. The
Right Hon. Gentleman might have exclaimed
with the needy knife-grinder.—
" Story, GOD bless yon, I have none to tell."
No new loans or taxes were " dimly sha-
dowed forth." No intimation of arrange-
ments with the Bank, or contemplated re-
laxation of the stringent provisions of the Bank
Charter Act, by which an adequate supply of
" the life blood of industry" would be insured
during the struggle. There was nothing either
to magnify the difficulties of the present moment,
and to enhance the difficulties of the impending
commercial crisis, or, on the other hand, to show
that the efflux of theprecious metals from our shores
would be arrested, or an adequate substitute pro-
vided—nothing to indicate that a judicious and

well-devised small currency would be made avai

able for general use. It was, after all, merely an
explanatory statement ; a necessary supplement
to that of the 6th of March—showing how
the actoal facts would tally with the estimates
for the month which was just commencing,
when Mr. GLADSTONE detailed his fiscal and
financial views for the year. There was no in-
timation of altered intentions—nothing to show
that any important change was in contemplation.
It was merely a correction of the data on which
these opinions had been framed, and the first plan
for the Session decided on.

The Right Honourable Gentleman proved that

our comments on the revenue returns for the last
quarter, were but too well fonnded. He declared

that " the improvement on the 6th of April, as
compared with his estimate of the 6th March,
was no less than 749,000/." (rather a consider-
able error, by the way, for a single month 0—
" but that it was not to be supposed that so con-
siderable a difference was to be accounted for by
any substantial change of circumstances 1" This was
precisely what we stated on the 6th inst., and the
accuracy of our opinion has thus received the
strongest corroboration. "If there is any differ-
ence as regards the ultimate receipt, it is merely a
difference as to the time of the money arriving at
the Exchequer. But the difference between the
estimate he submitted on the 6th of March, with
reference to the Income Tax and the amount re-
ceived, is 417,0001." We need say nothing fur-
ther in support of our view after this conclusive
testimony in its favour.

Again, on the " Customs" we find that "parties
being anxious to deliver tea at a very early hour
on the morning of the 6th of April, a large sum
of money came into charge on the sth. of April,
which, properly speaking, belonged to the next
quarter !" We were, therefore, again unfortu-
nately more than justified in our statement, to
the effect that we could not altogether coincide
with the Times, in thinking the returns " very
favourable."

But, notwithstanding the disappointment expe-
rienced, the proceedings of last night are not with-
out a certain degree of value. Mr. GLADSTONE
revealed the secrets of some of the financial jug-
gles habitually resorted to by the department
over which he presides. He clearly showed that
the figures furnished by the accounts are by no
means such infallible guides as had erroneously
been conceived—that, although 5, 85 2, 00 0/. ap-
peared to be the amount of "deficiency-bills" for
the quarter, the real amount was some three mil-
lions less, or only 2,808,0001. We have neither
time nor space, however, to discuss at present this
piece of Exchequer " thimbleriggieg." We shall, like
Mr. DISRAELI, "take time to examine the figures."
At present it seems that the matter is not of very
great importance—that the. point is one of form,
and not of substance.; but. that in either case,
whether the deficiency bills be issued or not, our
resources are consumed in anticipation, and that
the vulgar but expressive phrase, " the calf is still
eaten in the cow's belly," is verified. This it is
that has been so strongly objected to, and we fear
that the elaborate explanations of the Financial
Minister do not in any degree remove the real
difficulty.

We do not wish to be captious about trifles,
especially when our own recommendation is so
promptly attended to ; but we could wish that
Government had appointed a Sunday and not a
Wednesday (the 26th) as a day for national prayer
for the success of our arms. Indeed, were it not,
as we are afraid it is, too late to alter, we should
strongly
urge the cancelling of that appointment
in regard to the day, and its postponement till the
following Sunday. Whatever sacrifice is made,
or rather felt, by .fixing
a working-day for such
purposes, is chiefly by the class which can least
afford it, and which therefore is but too apt to
indemnify itself by a holiday. ;On the other
hand, Sunday is- the universal day of worship,
Ithe exceptions being altogether unimportant. To
Jews, indeed, who lose now one day in a week
more than their Christian neighbours, the appoint-
ment of a Wednesday is somewhat of a double
hardship. We trust that we shall not be accused
of an irreverent spirit, as if we grudged sparing
an extra day for Divine worship on a highly
solemn occasion. We must think, on the eon-
tray; that useless asorifirs, Wing goo most
•
.-.