The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-06 00:00:00

THE BUDGET.

(From the Times.)
To-night we are to realise one of the first " hor-
rors" of war. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is
to tell us in his Budget how we are to pay for it.
There is, indeed, no absolute necessity for doing or
saying anything about the expense yet, and an
ordinary nation would maintain a grave silence on
that part of the subject for many a month to come.
The increase in the Estimates, though large in these
days of retrenchment, does not exceed the three
millions of annual surplus ; and, as the Chancellor
of the Exchequer calculates he is saving a million
a-quarter on the old Estimates, he starts well for
a war—better, probably, than any Minister of Fi-
nance ever started before. But as the war, now
imminent rather than impending, goes on, expenses
will increase. We shall have to arm, to feed, to
clothe, and to convoy our Eastern allies ; to make
fortifications, and raise the whole cost of the war
from a Turkish to an English standard. It is true
that, even with a whole continent intervening, we
shall be able to make war more economically than
the Russians, who have to march their troops thou-
sands of miles by bad roads, through as ill provided
country. It is true, also, that in the power of
steam we possess an immense advantage over our
fathers, who brought the last European war to so
just
about though so costly a conclusion. It was
about the close of that war when the appearance of
something like a coal barge, with a steam engine on
board, moving a pair of paddle-wheels, excited the
curiosity and the contempt of old sailors on the
Thames. Besides a surplus, and steam, and astock ef
national enthusiasm which willlast ratherlonger than
Mr. Cobden expects, we have also such an accumu-
lation of shipping and material of every descrip-
tion as no nation ever had before, or is ever likely
to have again. Thus prepared we could wage a
war with Russia for the next six months so tre-
mendous as to shake her huge bulk from sea to sea,
without paying
one shilling more than has already
been included in the annual estimates. But, strike
as we may, and astonished as Russia may be at the
blows she will undoubtedly receive, we have no
right to expect that six months or twelve months
will bring the war to a conclusion ; so we must
reckon on its further continuance and increased
expenses, and consider how they are to be met.
When .
Europe sees that we are prepared to be as
lavish, necessary, as in the last great war, that
alone will have the force of powerful armaments
and brilliant successes, inasmuch as the world will
see, that even should we suffer defeat after defeat,
and exhibit ever so much mismanagement, we must
win a t last from unlimited resources and sheer de-
termination.
Should the war be protracted from year to year,
and, as some prophets of ill have predicted and
others have desired, involve all Europe in the
quarrel—stir up the discontented "nationalities"
—fan the embers of revolution—and finally sweep
over as wide a range, and endure for as long
a period as the last war—we shall then un-
doubtedly have to retrace our steps through
the whole course of financial remission. We should
have to raise the succession-tax as a perma-
nent resource, and, possibly, also restore some
of the import duties to their former oppressive
amount. Indeed, there is no saying where we
should stop. But, without any attempt or desire
to conceal the full danger, we may honestly say
that there is no real reason against an early and
happy termination of the war. If England and
France put forth their best, and Austria, and
Prussia only observe their neutrality, there can be
no doubt, humanly speaking, that Russia will
suffer such loss and dishonour as must bring her to
reason. Driven back across the Pruth, shut up in
all her ports, with her great dockyards, her
arsenals, and most probably all her navy destroyed,
and her commerce entirely suspended, she must
soon feel the utter folly of her own first appeal to
the ultima ratio, in the invasion of the Principali-
ties. But such a war must not be done by halves.
We must take care, and we can very easily take
care, that not a yard of Russian bunting shall be
seen in any part of the globe, and the Czar shall
become as unknown and fabulous a personage as
the Llama of Thibet or his old neighbour Prester
John. In this there can be no real difficulty, see-
ing that Russia, huge as she is, cannot molest the
world without passing through the two narrowest
apertures in the whole range of the Ocean,—the
Bosphorus and the Sound. Providence, which has
made such great inequalities, and which has accu-
mulated on one semi-barbaric throne so many con-
ditions of power, has counterbalanced them in this
instance with a fundamental weakness that no
wealth, no territory, no population can over-
come. This weakness is fatal. It has ever
been found that empire was impossible
without. the command of the sea. In
ancient days, to have the Mediterranean was to
govern the world ; to be excluded from it was to be
nothing. Much more is it so now. We have only
to make this known and felt in Russia, and we shall
soon create a public epinion in that country that
will fight with our fleets and do the work of an in-
vasion. To do that well and at once, whatever the
cost, will be the best economy in the end, and we
trust that the House of Commons will this evening
show that it is prepared to enable Government to
pursue such a course.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
The Chancellor of the Exchequer will make his
financial statement this evening under very differ-
ent circumstances from those which attended the
Budget of 1853. A year ago, it was not necessary
to increase the public revenue, nor even to main-
tain the existing amount of taxation. The Finance
Minister had only to compare the ciaims of different
classes for relief, and, while reducing taxation, to
adjust the public burdens in the most equitable 7
manner. Mr. Gladstone accomplished his difficult
task to the satisfaction of the country ; and, with
a foresight which will now be more fully appre-
ciated, he took measures to secure, not only a
stable, but a growing revenue. To-night, how-
ever, it will be his less welcome duty to devise
the means for engaging- in a war, of which it is
at present impossible to foresee either the extent or
the duration. The House of Commons has already
granted, with unstinted liberality, the supplies
which have been asked ; and, according to the
well-founded constutional practice, the provision
of Ways and Means is considered after Parliament
has sanctioned the requisite expenditure. The
Government is immediately responsible for the
prudent choice of financial expedients, rather than
for the outlay for which it is necessary, according
to the votes of the House, to provide.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer will derive but
little aid, on the present occasion, from the practice
of his predecessors during the last European war.
It is generally admitted that far too large a portion
of the expense incurred in that struggle was thrown
on the shoulders of posterity. The annual charge
of the additional debt created between 1793 and
1815 amounted to 23 millions—a larger sum than
the entire expenditure of the country, inclusive of
the interest on the debt, during the first or second
year of the war. Even in 1798, the revenue
amounted only to 20 mullions, while the expendi-
ture exceeded 50. It was not until 1799 that the
Income-tax was imposed; and it raised the revenue,
in the following year, to 29 millions—a sum which
would have defrayed the total outlay of the year
1794, when the public income had only reached
17 millions. In 1815, the amount raised by taxa-
tion reached the enormous sum of 72 millions,
of which no less than 42 millions were absorbed
by the charge of the debt. It was only in
the thirteenth year of the war that the total
expenditure of the country began to exceed the
amount which was eventually raised within a single
year. A capital of 800 miilions, added to the debt
in two and twenty years, represents the price at
which exemption from immediate sacrifices was
Purchased by the nation.
Air. Pitt was fully aware -of the inconveniences
of that funding system which he carried to so great
a height. In 1798, in proposing to the House of
COECtra
tea thefts a large increase of taxation, he contras-
the p,ube°lieraparaive advantages of providing for
expenditure by loans, or out of the
annual revenue. " Raise the present sums," he
said, " by taxation in two years, and you and your
posterity are
Completely exonerated from it ; but
if, on the other hand, you fund its amount, it will '
entail an annual tribute for its interest, which, in
40 years, will Amount to no less than 40 millions.
. • • • Shall. we, eacrificei or shall we save to
our posterity,, a sum between 40 and 50 millions
sterling ? Unfortunately,
the views thus ex-
pressed by the Minister were not oven rtially
carried into effect, untillotohedebt had. lbeen
augmented by more than
millions involving
a permanent charge which greatly ' increased
the difficulty of furnishing the necessary re-
venue by annual taxation. It cannot, howevee
supposed that any such difficulty exists at thehave
i nogn(jloey.gerede. dulruinglBtlhse,
pre-
sent moment. The resources. of the country
expanded to an astonishing
long
r
peace which we
exports were valued at 52 millions—in the last
twelve months, they have been declared at 90 mil-
lions, while the taxes have sunk from 92 to 53 mil-
lions. Moreover, the economy of war is far better
understood now than it was at the commencement
of the last European struggle- The expedition
which is about to be sent to Turkey is more nume-
rous than any land force which was employed
during the whole of the war, up to the death of
Mr. Pitt • and yet the estimates show that a mode-
rate addition to the national income will be sufficient
to meet the increased expenditure. It must, how-
: ever, be'Temembered, that the extraordinary ex-
- -penses-of the campaign, cannot yet be ascertained.
i's
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Ll-P;utt.,„4.L.-wha 1g -'
e-idttional lesot'.rces rill ba neces• i
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• sarily required, it is satisfactory to know that the
financial arrangements of last year have hitherto
proved highly successful. The actual surplus, on
the sth of January, amounted to 3,000,0001.—
including, however, the proceeds, for a part of the
year, of the various taxes which were repealed in
the Budget of 1853. The Succession duty has.
as yet scarcely come into operation for the
benefit of the Exchequer ; but during the pre-
sent year, the first instalments will begin to
fall in, and the amount will gradually increase,
until it becomes permanent in 1858. There is
some reason to fear that the elasticity of the re-
venue arising from Indirect taxes may be repressed
by the operation of the war ; but it may, at all
events, be hoped that the allied naval forces will
be strong enough to secure commerce against any
interruption by sea. There seems no reason why
the American or Australian trade should be seri-
ously checked by a rupture with Russia.
The immediate wants of the Government will
probably be supplied by the issue of 1,750,0001. Ex-
chequer Bills, for which Mr. Gladstone will ask the
House of Commons to-night. He will probably ex-
plain, at the same time, his intentions with respect
to the unfundeddebt. The amount of outstanding
Bills—which was greatly reduced in the early part
of last year—has again been raised to its ordinary
limit of between 17 and 18 millions by issues in the
autumn, which, in consequence of the change in the
value of money, were required to effect the conver-
sion of the South Sea Annuities. It is well known
that the same causes operate somewhat differently
on the value of those securities which are always
convertible, and on the funded debt. If the war
continues, Exchequer Bills, though they may fall
in actual price, will probably rise in value as com-
pared with Consols ; and this peculiarity acts as a
protection to the Government against the possible
risk of a sudden demand for the payment of the
Bills in money. Bank-notes are held with confi-
dence by the public, because they are payable on
demand ; and Exchequer Bills are willingly ex-
changed in March and June, because the exchange
is not compulsory on the holder.
The Ways and Means which Mr. Gladstone will
this evening propose to the House of Commons
will be known throughout the kingdom in a few
hours ; and there is, therefore, little use in con-
jectural anticipations of the Ministerial intentions.
In the latter part of the last century, a Chancellor
of the Exchequer, under similar circumstances,
hunted through the tariff to find commodities on
which duties might be imposed or increased. The
long list of Mr. Pitt's taxes, extending from hair-
powder upwards, shows how severely a sound fi-
nancier must have been pressed, when he sought
for money, not where it might be obtained at the
smallest sacrifice to the community, but wherever
he could get it. The effect of multifarious imposts
on the springs and sources of wealth is now, how-
ever, more generally understood. The country
has reluctantly resolved on undertaking a just and
necessary war; and it will not refuse to the Go-
vernment the means of conducting it to a successful
issue. The needful expenditure must obviously be
met by that form of taxation which is at once the
most simple; the most economical, and the most
easily withdrawn ; and the unpleasant necessity of
the crisis has been so generally foreseen that there
can be no doubt as to the assent of the House of
Commons to the measures which will be proposed.

POSTPONEMENT OF THE .REFORM BILL.

The postponement, and only too probable sup-
pression, of the Reform Bill, may be regarded as
the first of those sacrifices which the country is
called upon to make at the altar of the implacable
demon of battles. The sacrifice is doubtless a great
one, yet we can hardly hope that all similar sacri-
fices will be made with equal cheerfulness and
alacrity. The ready approbation with which the
House of Commons met the proposal to immolate
this great, liberal, and beneficial measure on the
shrine of their country, or, at any rate, to sequester
it from public view for a decent period previous to
its execution, must not, we fear, be anticipated
when the Chancellor of the Exchequer asks, as he
may probably this very day do, for an increase of the
public burdens, which may curtail our incomes,
abridgeour pleasures, and confound our plans. It is
one thing to surrender, from a sense of patriotic duty,
the disfranchisement of a borough, which with all its
faults has, at any rate, had the good taste to re-
turn one good member to Parliament ; or to post-
pone the enfranchisement of a number of ten-pound
county voters, who, whatever be their abstract
merits, will have the drawback of swamping a
county influence in which one is interested ; or to
adjourn the granting of the representation to a
minority in a borough where one's party has hither-
to reigned supreme. These are sacrifices which
every true patriot makes with pleasure ; but the
proposal to forego hard money, or money's worth,
is not likely to be received with uproarious cheers,
or carried, if carried at all, with a burst of accla-
mation.
We fear there is no denying it,—wherever the
desire for reform resides, it is not in the majority
of the House of Commons. Ministers may see
clearly the wisdom and policy of passing into a
law with as little delay as possible provisions with
regard to our electoral system, which will obviate
the necessity for a considerable time of any fur-
ther change, and, by adopting the state of the re-
presentation to the state of society, may at once
insure the smooth working of the representative
machine and delicate sensibility of the political
balance. But the House of Commons does not
share in this conviction, or, if it does so, it is con-
tent to let it sleep with other convictions till some
imperious emergency shall occasion a disinterment
of buried principles, or the necessity of appealing
anew to popular favour shall cause men to look
about for some topic of interest and excite-
ment. Ministers may give what reason they will
for deferring or abandoning their Reform Bill,
but the one reason of infinitely more weight than
all others put together is, that they have not the
means of carrying such a measure through such a
house. If a Reform Bill is framed on the old
system, on the precedent .of the measure of
1832, it will require for its success conditions very
similar to those of that stormy period. There
must be union, there must be enthusiasm, or
a bill which combines against it all the corrupt in-
fluences of the country, by striking at them all, is
sure to miscarry. There can be no want of union
among the antagonists of the Reform Bill ; a com-
mon interest and a common danger secure this
without concert or preparation. But where is the
bond which is to unite and organise its supporters?
Every private abuse has its natural champion and
indefatigable defender, hut who will enter the
lists on the part of the public ? The great ma-
jority of the House of Commons seem to have no
vocation whatever for this task. Impressionable
they doubtless are, but there has hitherto been no
attempt to make any impression upon them. If
the house has been ready to make the Reform
Bill a holocaust on the altar of Bellona, the
country has shown no wish to interrupt the
rite. Iphiienia is bound to the altar, but no
Diana comes to rescue her. Calchas, in the
form of Lord John Russell, raises the knife, and
there is no Agamemnon to avert his face. The
public mind of this country, though clear in its
convictions and ardent in their pursuit, is certainly
not qualified to entertain many ideas at the same
time. The majority of the middle and the upper
classes are too much absorbed in those lucrative
pursuits which the prospect of war has as yet but
little interrupted, to spare time or attention for a
scheme which requires to be considered and ana-
lysed in order to be understood, and appeals rather
to the understanding than the passions ; and the
people—those by whose voices and whose influence
the first Reform Bill was carried, and by whose
opinion the second must pass, if it be destined to
pass at all—are engaged so entirely in contemplat-
ing the preparations for war, and have thrown
their passions and thoughts so completely into this
one novel and exciting subject, that questions of
domestic policy fail even to get a hearing, and the
national pugnacity, fairly aroused, leaves no room

for any otheX. sentiment.
Since, then, the house will itot act without the
people, and the people have not sufficient leisure or
eagerness to drive their legislators into a Parlia-

mentary suicide, we suppose we must give up all
hopes of passing this bill, good as it is, and adjourn
to a future, and perhaps a remote, time the cor-
rection of abuses which, little interest as they may
excite within Parliament or out of doors, are never-
theless of the highest moment, and materially in-
terfere with the working of our constitution, and
detract from the credit due to representative insti-
tutions in general. There seems to be no help for
it, and it is neither prudent nor dignified to pro-
tract a struggle with impossibilities. We must,
however, remark that the proposal and withdrawal
of such a measure at such a time is, though proba-
bly unavoidable, an evil of a very serious nature.
The war must be very-unlike other wars if it remains
all through its prosecution as popular as it is at pre-
sent. The public mind is flattered by the exhibition
of our strength and spirit, and dwells upon our
coming glory without counting the cost. If dis-
content, the inevitable concomitant of protracted
hostilities should arise, every one will be furnished
on the highest authority with a manual of griev-
ances ready prepared to his hand, and we shall not
be surprised to find the call for reform, which is
so silent now, loudly raised at a period when it
will be next to impossible to attend to it. The
county householder will have been taught to feel
his grievance in being deprived of the franchise.
The other classc intended to be admitted to the
suffrage by the :provisions of the bill will complain,
under incteisei burdens, that they hare no voice