The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-19 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 19, 1848.

present position of the country.—(Hear, hear.) In
1842 there was a deficiency of 3,000,0001., which pro
duced the fall of Noble Lords and Right Hon. Gen-
tlemen opposite. lie did nut wish that the present deficit
might be ominous of a similar result, but that they
might be able to contend successfully with the almost
insuperable difficulties they had to encounter. And they
had this advantage, that there was no: a party ready to
take the government of the coo dry on principles
avowedly opposed to theirs, and who professed to
raise the country from its low position by a proms
which he would not then designate. It was enough
that that process was sufficient, that the deficit
was made to disappear, and that a large surplus re-
mained. But the 5,000,000/.: raised by the income-tax
disappeared during a time of peace, and then they were
in the same position.—(llear, hear.) Was there no
moral to be drawn from that result?—(Hear, hear.)
Without floating in the atmosphere of theory, had they
not the experience of seven years to guide them? and
that experience was condemnatory of the new system.
They had been told that, with the imposition of the in-
come-tax, there would be a simultaneous relaxation in
the principles of their commercial system, which, before
the period for which it was passed elapsed, would produce
benefits which would relieve them from their difficulties.
Where were they?—(Hear, hear.) Where were the
profits which they had received in consequence of the
abrogation of a single duty ?—(Hear, hear.) Where
wits the 100,000,000/. which it was stated in the evidence
of the late Secretary of the Board of Trade before the Im-
port Duties Committee, and which was the basis of the
legislation of the then Minister of the Crown, they were
to receive from the abolition of the corn laws?—(Hear,
hear.) Since then a new lease of the income-tax had
been taken, and with the incumbranco of a great
fine in addition.—(hear, hoar.) And the defi-
ciency had been amplified into monstrous dimensions.
Where was the 25,030,000/. which the more modest
Member for Bolton proposed ? It was not to be found.
Not one shilling in the pound had been received,
but they had, it seemed, to pay a shilling in the pound,
not only to support the credit of the country, but to
maintain its independence in consequence of this new
economical policy.—(Hear, hear.) Tnis was bad enough
after the magnificent destiny that was promised them,
but it seemed they were not to stop here, for it appeared
they were not only to have an income-tax, but an in-
creased income-tax, as a permanent part of their
system.—(Hear, hear.) For the sacrifice they were
called on to make in 1842, they were promised a rapid
and immense harvest; but the dismal picture now was
that they found themselves swimming against the tide
with the same deficit hanging around their necks.—
(Hear, hear.) Ile wanted to know what the principle
of the income-tax was, and whether it was to be
perpetual? The Right Honourable Gentleman (the
Chancellor of the Exchequer) by his cheer intimated
that it was. The Noble Lord at the head of
the Government ought to speak out his mind
on that point—(Hear)—because it was one of the
remarkable circumstance of the income-tax diet, while
one principle was alleged to that House, for its imposi-
tion, another was given out of the House. The Right
Hon. Baronet (the Member for Tamworth) told the
House, with his accomplished plausibility, that the in-
come-tax was a temporary sacrifice for great national
purposes; but, shortly after Parliament was prorogued,
a letter appeared from the same Minister, containing a
reason for the tax totally discordant and totally different,
and which remained up to that moment unexplained,
and he believed inexplicable.—(Cheers.) If a majority
of that House believed that the additional tax would
continue for only two years, thet assembly was composed,
he would not say of most guillible materials—(Laughter)
—but was one to whose sympathies the Minister might
appeal with more confidence than any that ever
existed. Was it more likely that the Noble Lord
would take it off than the Right lion. Gentleman ?
They had a right to probe the financial conscience of
the Minister to the bottom in this point, for it seemed
that prime ministers had revelations to make to the
foreigner which they would not communicate to that
House. What if, after the Easter recess, they see in the
Journal des Debuts or in the National a letter from the
Noble Lord to M. Guizot stating that the peace of
Europe was secured—that he had an income-tax of five
per cent., and that he might defy France. That would
not be more marvellous, and the mortification which it
might produce would not he greater, than that which
must have been felt when, a few months afier the House
consented to the first income tax, a Minister declared
that the reasons which he alleged to the House of Com-
mons for its imposition were not those which influenced
him in his own closet.—(Hear.) The Noble Lord had
no right to complain, therefore, if they received his
proposition with some degree of suspicion. With regard
to the relation in which this country stood towards
other countries, he expressed a hope which amounted
to an opinion that there was no prospect of the
peace of Europe being disturbed; yet the Noble
Lord came forward to propose a war vote.--(Hear, hear.)
The Noble Lord declared that the armaments of Eng-
land were by no means iu that sorry plight that they
were represented to be in, and that they had bee* in- L
creased; and all this notwithstanding the vigilance of
the Nestor of finance (Mr. Hume). If this wore so,
where were all the advantages of a reform in Parliament,
which was to produce cheap government, and reduction
in the military establishments of the country ? The ,
army was cut down, and the navy cut down, and the
guns spiked, but after the hubbub was over, and the dust
laid, a reaction took place—you (the Reformers) and
your constituents were gulled, and the armaments of the
country were increased while you were looking on.
—(Clear, hear.) You who got metropolitan constitu-
encies to elect you because you said that you would cut
down the estimates, find, after a long peace, that not
only more soldiers, and more sailors, and more artil-
lerymen, aro required, but the country was in a
state of alarm ; that it was not sufficiently pro-
tected and defended. So much for economy, and
for attempting to produce effects which it ought to
i
be known were napossible.—(Hear, hear.) But it
seemed that the age of petty criticism had passed away,
and that they would no longer tolerate that Gentlemen
should get up with that indomitable perseverance, which
ho always admired in the lion. Member for Montrose,
modified as
.it was with a 7laivetd that was charming—
(Laughter)—and criticise the conduct of Government
with respect to the expenditure of the country. A new
era was at hand. Armaments would no longer be re-
quired—ships no longer necessary—English regiments
would be as obsolete as the Roman legions, bet:luso
there was a new principle of government in action
thrOughout the world—the millennium, so often dreamed
of and anticipated in such different shapes, was at length
arrived. It appeared, however, that this new principle,
which inflicted 5 per cent. income-tax upon them, was a
costly compensation as a security for the blessings of
perpetual peaca—(Laughter and cheers.) The apostle of
that new principle he had never spoken of with disrespect
in that House, and he ventured to admire his genius
when he was not supported by Prime Ministers.—(Hear.)
But the principle now propounded by the Hon. Mem-
ber for the West Riding
i (Mr. Cobden) was not so
original as that other principle which he promulgated—
the principle of buying a . the cheapest markets and
selling in the dearest. This principle, which was not
new to the minds of men—it was not confined to en-
thusiasts or preachers
i upon tubs, or solitary monks—
for it had before now influenced men of action as it had
influenced cabinets. It had been considered in cabinets
and public assesubliee, aud he need not remind the
House of what had been the barren results of those
aspirations. A eentury and a half elapsed since it in-
fluenced public councils, and they had during that cen-
tury and a half the longest and the bloodiest war that
ever existed. —(Hear.) There was a man who had all
the eloquence of the Hon. Member—though he was not
a Member of Parliament—(Laughter)—the Abbe faint
Pierre—and he influenced Minist erg a century ago by a
plan for perpetual. peace. Ilse attended the Congress at
Utretcht,
by desire, to explain his views to the repre-
sentatives of the great Powers, who were extremely
inclined to act on his views. They were the views of a
remarkable man, and they became the more remark-
able, because they influenced the convictions of Rous-
seau, who made them popular throughout. Europe. By
them the mind and opinions of Robespierre—the dis-
ciple, or rather the apostle, of the doctrines of univer-
sal peace—(Laughter)—were formed, and he was de-
termined to put them in practice, and develop them
when he obtained power. The Able 6 St. Pierre's argu-
ment was, that Europe was a confederation, and that
none of the states which composed it could have an in-
ferest in going to war, because war was opposed to their
interests. It was, therefore, necessary that every power
should disband its army; but when it was put to - him—
" Supposing any power
it did not consent to the new sys-
tem?" he replied, that wasincumbent on the others
p
to enforce those peaceable principles of which he was
the great promulgator.—(Laughter.) So that it seemed
war was the essential element of his peace. The fal-
lacy of St. Pierre was the fallacy of the Hon. Gentle-
man. It was true that it was not the interest of those
nations which were constituted to go to war. War was
not produced by powers that were satisfied, but, as in
individual, disturbance was created by an dividual, who
did not find himself in that position which he thought his
talents entitled him to.—(Loud cries of "Hear, hear,"
from the Ministerial benches.) So was war always
produced by nations, races, or princes, who agitated for
a position.—(Hear, hear.) Prussia had been often held
up in that House by liberal gentlemen as ft model in the
art of government, but sixty years after St. Pierre laid
down his doctrine, Prussia did not exist, and a Al ar-
grave of Brandenburg, conscious of great talents, and
representing an unknown and rough race, started up,
and said he would be King of Prussia, instead of
Margrave of Brandenburg, and so produced the coven
years' war.—(Loud cheers.) To reason in favour
of peace fram existing circumstances was to reason on
superficial grounds. The Hon. Gentleman took an easy
view of the whole continent ; and he had a right to do
so, because he had been everywhere well received, He
(Mr. Disraeli) was glad of that reception, though per-
haps he might be disposed to think that the continent
did a great deal for him, because he did a great dual for
the continent.—(Protectionist cheers.) Ho did not think
that the argument derived from increased commercial
intercourse was a sound one. Looking to the commer-
cial relations which existed with France in 1787, when
Mr. Eden was sent out to negotiate a treaty, ho was not
surprised that Mr. Pitt should have indulged in the ex-
pectations to which the Noble Lord had referred. Like
the hopes and expectations of the lion. Member, they
were founded on the commerce with France, but at that
moment they were on the eve of the longest and most in-
ternecine struggle that ever took lace between two
nations—longer than the thirty years war in Germany.
The increase of commerce did not prevent war then ;
why should it prevent war now ?—(Hear, hear.) He
believed that by the aid of a . wise diplomacy the peace
of Europe was never more secure ; he believed that the
struggles of former times would be gradually forgotten,
but there never was an argument founded on it more
flimsy basis than that which offered commercial rela-
tions as a bond of perpetual peace between nations ;
and as long as the universul principles of human nature
a: were not repealed by Acts of rarliaraent, he would be-