The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-27 00:00:00

the general concurrence of this and preceding.
be permitted to infer from that circutnstaece
the measures of which so large majorities ap-
Prov ed, or in which all concurred, could not be quite
to far Wrong as the Honourable Gentleman would
B_ll.ggest. He was not disposed to take exception to any
ruetf the minor points to which the Hon. Gentleman
fererredi neither would he allude to the re-
nce made to local taxation. He did not see
th What connexion it had with the conclusion to which
bee 11°n. Gentleman had come, but thought it would
taxation found that a general increase of local
had arisen from the general improve-
ment which, in recent years, had taken place in local ad-
ministration, the adoption of better means of providing
for the secondary punishment of criminals, and properly
stneet:onernodating lunatic asylums. The general increase
'iocal taxation was owing to a general improvement in
trfeornen,
ninistration. Addressing himself to the main ques-
cheettooothkeno exception to the Hon. Gentleman's re-
year 1835. The Hon. Member for Mon-
trose and others had constantly referred to 1792; and
ere was no reeson why reference should
nIP be made to a prior year. But when the
maourable Gentleman took that year as the standard
a Which the House must necessarily revert,
;f
'w ought to be remarked that there were two conditions
2tl which any year could be accepted for the purpose;
first, that in the year selected adequate provision was
Made for the public service; and, secondly, that no sub-
sequent change had taken place in the state and circum-
stances of the country.—(Hear, hear.) The Hon.
Gentleman proposed, by recurring to the expenditure of
1835 on the naval and military services, to effect a re-
duction of 10,000,000/. He stated truly that in 1848 the
total expenditure was 54,185,0001., while it 1835 it
Was 44,422,000 L; the difference between them being
little short of 10,000,0001. But the whole of that in-
crease was not to be estimated as an increase in the
naval and military expenditure. The Lion. Member
himself referred to an extraordinary item of expen-
diture—the Kafir war, which was entirely unforeseen.
Then there were 276,0001, for Irish distress. The
lion. Member referred also to the increased expen-
diture for civil purposes. But, besides an increase on
the consolidated fund charges, principally for judicial
establishments and Irish constabulary, there was an in-
crease on the miscellaneous expenditure of ' 4,099,000/. •
leaving the increase on the naval and military 6,015,0001.-
Were the Hon. Gentleman to carry out his reductions
by assimilating the expenditure to that of 1835, he could
effect a saving of only 6,000,0001. It was not consistent
with the true and best interests of this country to effect
reductions in the naval and military establishments to
.the extent he proposed. If his proposition were simply
to carry out every practicable economy, he (the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer) did not differ from the Hon.
Gentleman; and he hoped to prove that Ministers had
not been unmindful of the pledge they had given last
Year, to make every reduction necessary for the public
Ititerest, although they could not anticipate the halcyon
days to which the Hon. Gentleman looked forward, when
a,. national quarrel would be settled in a court of arbitra-
tion, and every sword would be converted into a plough-
snare. Under these circumstances the Hon. Member
_could not complain of the manner in which he proposed
c meet his motion. It was desirable that the opinion of
thet House should be deliberately expressed upon the
great question whether the establishments of the country
should,_ be reduced to the scale of 1835. Experience had
;"„cwn that the provision made for the public service in
°,35 was inadequate. For four years which succeeded
1835 he had the honour to hold the office of Secretary to
e Admiralty, and during that time he was subjected to
repeated attacks, not for increasing the estimates, but
for
a parsimonious disregard of the best interests of the
country, by keeping them at too low an amount. The
estimates ot 1834-35-36 were constantly referred to as a
ePreach, !and yet the Hon. Member had selected the
lowest estimate of the three years, namely, that of 1835,
as the pattern for reduction.—(Hear, hear.) In the
i3::::13,835 we had no naval force in the Channel,
sand the necessity of maintaining such a force was
insisted upon in the discussions which took place
ktl the estimates in the following years. The Hon. Mem-
ber Was mistaken in asserting that the increase of the
fleet :in 1836 was occasioned by the alarm respecting
Re tlssia- The ground upon which an increase in the
naval force was proposed in that year was the necessity
on,afrarding further protection to British subjects trading
laroad. It was not until three years later, namely, in
;1131, that the Hon. Member for Birmingham and the
-41. Member for West Kent dilated in that House on
the danger to which the British coast was exposed of a
descent„ from Russia. The Hon. Member complained
.'at, although our forces had been augmented upon va-
rious occasions, they had never been subsequently re-
duced• but when the Hon. Member enumerated the
hmuds to which the country had been successively ex-
Posed, such as the Chinese war, the dispute with America
aoout Oregon, the dispute with France about Otaheite,
and the rebellion in Canada, it did not appear that at
hisperiod of the time to which he had directed
observations could we have reduced our establish-
tieing to the standard of 1835, without endangering the
interests of our commerce abroad and the safety of our
Shores at home. In 1844 the Right Hon. Gentleman
ePPosite, who always evinced a desire to diminish ex
Penditure where it was practicable to do so, reduced the
number of seamen from 43,000 to 36,000; but a single
Year's experience satisfied the Right Hon. Gentleman
that he had carried his reduction to a point at which it
Was impossible it could be maintained; and in the able
address which he delivered in that house in 1845, and
which was a perfect text book ou financial matters, he
Sontended upon grounds not arising out of temporary
circumstances or any particular state of things, but re-
ferable to general policy, that the number of
mete proposed to be maintained in 1844 was
not adequate to protect the interests of the
country, and he accordingly increased the number of
seamen to the amount at which it stood in the pre
sent estimates, namely, 40,000 men. It was, moreover,
clear that the Government of the Right Hon. Gentleman
did not think that even 40,030 seamen were sufficient for
the service of the country, for when the present Govern-
ment came into office in 1846, they found the number of
1:11an employed considerably more than had been voted,
and on the Ist of January, 1847, the number in excess
Was 4,000, making the total number of seamen then em-
Ployed 44,000 ,men. 4,000 men were reduced on the
estimate of 1848, and 3,000 more would be reduced in
1849-50, making a total reduction of 7,000 below the
force which the Hight Hon. Gentleman opposite proposed
to maintain in 1845. The principal circumstance to
which the Right Hon. Gentleman opposite referred as
Justificatory of the policy of maintaining the number of
seamen at 40,000 was, that since 1835 a large field of
!scPloyment for the British navy had been opened
in the eastern hemisphere. In 1835 our trade
With,_r China was mainly carried on by the in-
imentality of the East India Company. Now we
five ports open to us in China, in each of which it
7as necessary to maintain a British, man-of-war. Since
1835, too, New Zealand had been added to our colonial
Possessions; and then, so far from regarding the adop-
tion of frt. e trade as a reason for reducing our establish-
taenta, the extension of commerce which might be antici-
pated from that policy would give rise to increased de-
mands for protection to British subjects, and that
Protection must be extended to them, in whatever part of
the world they might be placed. The same argument
applied, of course, to our military force. The happy
and
contented state of Canada, as described by the Hon.
Member furnished some answer to his allegations of
colonial misgovernment. A military force was as little
required in New Zealand as in Canada for the purpose
Of keeping down the British population; but it was
necessary to protect that population against the war-
ase attacks to which it had been exposed during the
two years. The very letter which the Honourable
Member had read from an emigrant was calculated
prove that the money was not ill expended that main-
tained an armed force to protect colonies which opened
an extensive field for British enterprise and industry,
and from which we might in future years derive the raw
Produce for manufactures which in turn would be ex-
Ported to them. It was necessary to remark, also, that
Since 1835 a vast increase had taken place in our steam
navy. In 1835 we possessed not more than two or three
steam vessels. In that year no steamer had crossed the
Atlantic, and learned treatises were written to demon-
strate the impossibility of such an event. Since that
Period the application of steam to the purposes of the
Royal Navy bad been carried to an immense extent, and
had now reached a point beyond which it was not ne-
cessary to advance. The increase of the steam navy
rendered necessary an increased charge for stores, but
no attempt had been made to show that there had been
any extravagance under that head. Upon this point he
requested the attention of the House to the following
Passage in the report of the Select Committee on the
army, navy, and ordnance estimates:—
" The vote for stores differs essentially from the other
'fetes, inasmuch as it is not an estimate to provide for
the consumption of the ensuing year, but has reference
to a more distant period of time. The effects of an
"clue reduction in this vote are not, therefore, per-
ceptible until some years after the time when the in-
sufficient estimate may have been proposed. In such a
?age it is obvious that the apparent economy in this vote
Only a postponement of purchases necessary for the
maintenance of the navy, and, in fact, relieves the esti-
mates of one year by casting the burden on the votes of
a future session."
4- large increase of expenditure had likewise been in-
ettrred by the establishment of steam-packet communi-
cation with different parts of the world, but that was an
Item which the representatives of commercial and menu-
'acturang communities, whose interests were so much
Promoted by rapid communication with distant parts of
,tuee world- could not reasonably object to. The in-
rase of exoenditure which had taken place under the
heads of stores, buildings, and packets, since 1835,
riounted to not less than 2,310,4001. Our steam navy
Laving now attained its maximum, a reduction was
about to be made under the heads of stores and build-
legs to the amount of 638,0001. Trusting that the
nstate-
ment he had made must have satisfied the House Of the
tallossibility of making the large reduction in the navy
estimates which the Hon. Member proposed, he would
e
noß' proceed to deal with the question of the army. In
rhsidering this question, justice was rarely done to the
rish army. There was no army on the face of the
Rlobe from which such hard service was demanded in
timePeace.—(Hear.) With the except
of ion of the ser-
.,;e. .
4L "L
a portion of the French army in Algeria, and of
cue Russian army in one or two possessions, the armies
.?.? the continental powers remained always in time of
race in the countries to which they respectively be-
4neged- With British troops the case was reversed.
eeueY were exposed alternately to the frosts of Canada,
Ce tropical heat of the West Indies, and the burn-
ir Plains of the East—year after year they passed
etM One extreme ot climate to the other, and did
eer duty in all circumstances.—(Loud cheers.) It
WolQd be cruel to make the British soldier's service
More severe than it was at present.—(Hear, hear.)
lat 1845 the Right Hon. Gentleman urged that with the
amount of force ,which had up to that time been main-
taiteed it had been found impossible to relieve the soldier