The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-26 00:00:00

whole matter must end in the imposition of fresh taxes, for
the only thing that the Ministers seemed able to do was to
Igo on borrowing more money. On referring to a paper re-
cently presented to the House, he found that the additions
to the national debt, from the Ist of January, 1847, to the
Ist of January, 1848, were as follows—deficiency, 2,956,983/. ;
money spent in Ireland, 4,976,276/., making a total of
7,933,2591. ; and even that, after all, was not the real deficiency,
for the whole of the 'money sent to Ireland was borrowed,
and England imposed upon herself, by that operation, a per-
manent annual expenditure of 200,0001. a-year. It was
quite evident that the country could not go on in that way
much longer ; and he regretted that the Right Hon. Baronet
the Chancellor of the Exchequer was not then in his place
that the House might learn from him how much he intended
to add to the funded and the unfunded debt. The Noble
Lord had, upon a former occasion, said that when the defi-
ciency amounted to so much as 2,000,0001. that there should
be no loan, no petty device ; that taxes should be found to
meet the deficiency. Now, when the Noble Lord was beaten
upon the tax that he had proposed, he ought to have sub-
mitted to the House some other scheme. The present plan
was a postponement, not an escape from fresh taxes.
Mr. MUNTZ could not but express his regret that, after
thirty-three years of peace, a deficiency was still to be met
by borrowing money, and by an addition to the national
debt. If the expenditure were necessary and just it ought to
be met by existing resources.
Mr. DRUMMOND was sorry that the able speech deli-
vered by the Hon. Member for Manchester had been
listened to by so thin a souse. He would now merely ex-
press his opinion that the country had came to the ne plus
ultra of taxation ; and he trusted that the Government,
looking to all the circumstances of the country, would at
a future period be prepared to come forward with some
plan adequate to the exigencies of the time. With respect
to the naval and military establishments the Hon. Member
(we believe) advised the-Government to call upon the naval
and military authorities to state the force requisite to be
maintained for the necessities of the country. In regard to
Ireland, he thought that the imputation thrown out by any
Irish Catholic bishop, that this country intended to starve
the Irish people, though it might be passed over with the
phrase that it was all " Tullagh-hill talk," was in plain.
honest Saxon, nothing but a wilful and deliberate falsehood.
Lord J. RUSSELL observed, in reference to what bad
fallen from the Hon. Member for Montrose, that there was
no ground to suppose any reason why, with the reductions
that had been made, and those that might be undertaken
next year, the ordinary expenditure should not. be made
equal to the income of the country. The Hon. Member
for Montrose had said that the Chancellor of the Exchequer
had not stated that any further reductions were to be
made, but there had been in various debates declara-
tions made by himself (Lord J. Russell), by the Hon. Se-
cretary to the Admiralty, and by other Members of the
Government, that on- every possible occasion reductions
would be made with the view of bringing the expenditure
within the income. At the same time he' did not at all re-
gret having, in the present year, kept -up the naval and
military forces at the point at which they were now main-
tained.—(Hear, hear.) When complaints were made of the
great amount of the navy and the army, he must say that,
considering the events which had occurred on the continent,
considering the excitement which such events were likely to
produce in this country, giving encouragement to misguided
men to imagine that they had only to go out into the streets
with knives and pistols in order to effect a revolution, and
considering the attempts made in Ireland, he should have
been sorry if, for the mere purpose of popularity, the Govern-
ment had proposed reductions in the army and navy.—
(Hear.) He did trust, however, that circumstances would
enable the Government to make further reductions; but if
they were to do so, he did not think it would be in the way
the Hon. Member for Surrey supposed—namely, by acceding
to the demand of the naval and military authorities as to the
amount of force: requisite to be maintained, for he had
hardly ever known an instance of the Government not pro-
ducing an estimate of about 10,000 men less than any esti..
mate furnished from those sources.—( Hear, hear.) With
regard to the statement made by the Honourable Member
for Limerick in respect to Ireland, he must say that the Go-
vernment claimed the confidence of the country for their in-
tentions. He hoped that the potato failure was not so great
as was apprehended a week ago, though he admitted that
there was still ground for fear and alarm on that head. He
trusted that the propositions of the Government would meet
with the support of the Parliament.
Mr. ROBINSON thought the question to be considered
was, whether substantial relief might not be afforded by a
revision and commutation of taxation ; and he believed that
there was no ground for despair, if the resources of the
country were wisely administered. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer would find various articles, not of necessity but
of luxury, imported on which he might raise 3,000,0001. or
4,000,000/. by increasing the Customs' duties ; for he be-
lieved that the country had lost that amount by the indis-
criminate application of what were called free-trade prin-
ciples.
Mr. MACGREGOR thought that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer had done wisely in providing for the deficiency by
Exchequer-bills, or by creating a new fund, instead of im-
posing a new tax.
The following resolutions were then agreed to :—That to-
wards making good the supply granted to her Majesty the
sum of 10,584,8711. be taken out of the Consolidated Fund of
Great Britain and Ireland. That there be issued and applied
to the service of the year 1848 the sum of 41,786/. 19s. 9d.,
being the surplus of ways and means granted for the ser-
vice of the preceding year. That the sum of 500,0004, being
part of the sum in the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, a
balance from the services of the years 1846 and 1847, be ap-
plied to the service of 1848.
On the question that towards making good the supply the
Commissioners of the Treasury be autnorised to raise
2,000,0004 sterling, either by the issue of Exchequer-bills, or
by the creation of Consolidated Three per Cent. Annuities or
Reduced Three per Cent. Annuities,
Mr. HUME objected to the mode in which it was proposed
to raise this amount.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that he
did not not think so small a sum could be raised in a more
advantageous mode.
Mr. DISRAELI observed that when the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, in the course of his statement, painted in rather
gloomy colours the situation of the country, he not only
referred to the bad harvests we had experienced, but espe-
cially to the disordered state of Europe ; and one of the
reasons assigned by the Right Hon. Gentleman for the dis-
advantages under which this country at present laboured
was the blockade in the Baltic, which he spoke of as likely to
last for a considerable time. That blockade, as was well
known, occasioned great loss, and inconvenience, and injury
to our merchants. He (Mr. Disraeli) had before called the
attention of the Noble Lord and of the House to this subject,
and especially to the fact that, when the blockade was re-
newed, it was renewed under much more stringent and se-
vere conditions. When he first brought the question for•
ward, he (Mr. Disraeli) had inquired whether her Majesty's
Government meant to fulfil a guarantee which this country
had given'to Denmark for the possession of Schleswig, and
he quoted the treaty, which was very decided in its language
and which appeared to him scarcely to admit of doubt. The
Noble Lord (Lord Palmerston),. however, said that it was
possible the guarantee was not so very decidedond he hinted
at two or three modes of interpretation which might leave it
open to this country to free itself from the force of that
guarantee. But since he (Mr. Disraeli) brought the question
of the guarantee before the House, the whole of the di-
plomatic correspondence which took place between the Eng-
lish Secretary of State (Lord Stanhope) and., our Minis-
ters at the Court of Copenhagen (Lord Polwarth
and Lord Carteret), which had been found in
the State Paper-Alice, had been published by a
learned Dane, and the nature of the guarantee was
no longer' a matter of doubt. It was a guarantee
which this country was as much bound to fulfil as it was
bound to pay the interest of the national debt. He be-
lieved, that if when he (Mr. Disraeli) called attention to
the subject, the Noble Lord had acknowledged the weight
of that guarantee, and had taken a decided course, they
might have avoided some of the great inconveniences
as o andte injuries they had experienced. The Noble Lor a
the other night, of the good understanding which existed
between her Majesty's Government and the powerful Go-
vernment of France. Now France had acknowledged the
force of the guarantee of 1720 ; and he (Mr. Disraeli) thought
the Noble Lord could not do anything more sensible or just
than to act in concert' with that Government with refer-
ence to this guarantee, and by taking a decided course to
terminate the vexatious blockade which the English mer-
chants could no longer endure. The Noble Lord had on a
former occasion made a statement which gave an impression
that the armistice which had originally been agreed to would
be carried into effect by the Prussian Government; but
he had since admitted that the hopes and expectations he
had permitted the commercial world to indulge in had
not been realised. As the Chancellor of the Exchequer had
so specifically alluded to the blockade, a good opportunity
was afforded to the Noble Lord to give the House some in-
formation on the subject. He (Mr. Disraeli) wished to
know what was the present state of the question ; whether
any arrangement had been made between Prussia and the
German Confederation which would allow Prussia to act in-
dependently; whether Prussia could act independently;
what was the nature or the relations subsisting between the
Court of St. James's and the. Court of Berlin; and whether
there was any probability of a termination of the blockade
of the ports of the Baltic and the North Sea?
Lord PALMERSTON did not undervalue the importance
of the subject to which the Hon. Gentleman had called atten-
tion; but he was sure both the Hon. Gentleman and the
House would feel that, although it might be right on proper
occasions for Ministers in that House to give full explana-
tions with regard to matters in which the British Govern-
ment alone was concerned, vet that it might not be alto-
gether competent or proper for them to afford full explana-
tions with respect to transactions between other Govern-
ments, in which transactions the Ehglish Government was
only incidentally concerned. He (Lord Palmerston) must
certainly admit that he had been very much disappointed
with regard to the armistice. On several occasions tie had
held out to the House hopes and expectations which had not
been realised, but he could assure the House that this had not
arisen from any want of activity or earnestness on the part of
her Majesty's Government. The transaction in question was
one in which many parties were concerned—the Danish
Government, the Prussian Government, and the Government,
varying from day to day in its character, at Frankfort, begin-
ning with a Diet, passing into a National Assembly, and end-
ing in a Vicar-General of the Empire. The question
had thus been embarrassed and complicated by the
varying disposition and character of the Central Ger-
man authority. If he (Lord Palmerston) were to
go into details, he would have to explain the trans.
actions which had taken place between the German
authorities at Frankfort and the Government of Prussia ; and
he did not think, if he entered into those details, that he
would advance the object they all had in view—a satisfac-
tory solution of the Schleswig-Holstein question. He (Lord
Palmerston) might, however, state generally, what he be-
lieved was in substance pretty well known, that the terms of
an armistice between the Government of Prussia and the
Danish Government were substantially agreed upon; that
those terms were considered by the Prussian Government
to require the assent of the Frankfort authority, and that
that Frankfort authority had coupled the ratification with
certain conditions which had for a time created delay and
difficulty. He still hoped, however, that there might
be, on the part of all concerned, a sufficient sense
of the absolute necessity and paramount importance of
bringing about, without further delay, a satisfactory
settlement of the armistice, and as resulting from it a
settlement of the Schleswig question. With regard to
the guarantee of England, what he (Lord Palmerston) had
endeavoured to point out on a former occasion was,
that the present position of matters could not bring that
guarantee into operation. In the first place, England was
at present acting in some degree in the capacity of a media-
tor, and her Majesty's Government could not combine the
linctions of a mediator with those of a party in the cause.
which they would do if they undertook to act in ursuance
of their guarantee. In the next place, the question at issue
was not whether Schleswig was to be wrested from the King_
Duke to whom it belonged, but it was a question complicated
in its nature, but of a different kind—namely, what should
be the internal administration of Schleswig—whether it
should be, as the Danish Government wished it to be, a con-
stitution combined with that of Denmark, or as the German
party wished, a constitution combined with the Duchy of
Holstein? It was not, therefore, a question of conquest or of
the forcibly wresting of a territory from a Sovereign, but of
the internal organization and administration of the duchy.
He trusted, however, that the good sense which he hoped