The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-31 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 31, 1870.

The Financial Year closing to-day, we can more
reasonably anticipate the character of the tale that
will have to be told immediately after Easter by
Mr. LOWE, when he comes before the House of Com-
mons with his Budget, in his capacity as that Purse
Bearer of the Nation, her MAJESTY'S Chancellor of
the Exchequer. Even now, before tho revenue
returns have been closed up to the end of March,
we are apprized of the fact that we are
£lBO,OOO more than a good round half million
better off than the right hon. gentleman himself an-
ticipated. The receipts actually recorded up to the
morrow of quarter day, come to the grand total of
£74,193,865, whereas Mr. LOWE had forecast those
receipts upon the whole financial year last past,
namely, 1869-70, at £680,000 less—that is,
at £73,515,000. This improved condition of the
revenue was—as matters stood up to the 26th inst.,
viz., last Saturday. A Supplementary million may
not unreasonably be looked forward to as likely to
roll in upon the National Exchequer before this the
fourth of the 1 tat d tys of this final quarter have run
our, thereby completing the whole financial twelve-
month. In all human probability therefore we shall
find the nation better off in its gross receipts of
Income by a million and a half, than even the
sanguine anticipations of the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer had encouraged us all to believe that we
should be. Simultaneously with Vie acquisition of an
odd million and a half, the country has diminished
its expenditure by another £1,500,090. So that,
in point of fact, we are al-eady on our
way to the announcement of an agreeable
balance in our favour to the tune of, at
any rate, some £3,000,000, so soon as the contents
of Mr_ LowE's new Budga shall have bean laid upon
the table of the House of Commons. Su far so goo]
—the increase of the Revenue, by the way, arising
'from the two sources of Excise and of In-
come Tax. The advance upon the Excise re-
turns alone, remarkable to tell, is absolutely
over a goad round million sterling. The bulk
of the remaining gain is found under the head
of the improved receipts upon the Income Tax. In
the same way the economies effected in our ex-
penditure are traceable mainly to two sources—
those being the economies carried out by Mr.
CHILDERS, as First Lord of the Admiralty, and
the economies carried out by Mr. CARD-
WELL, as the Secretary of State for War.
What to do with the surplus on hand,
is precisely what Mr. LOWE will have to explain,
towards the close of his speech on the forth-

coming Budget ! That being a feast that the House
of Commons, and, through it, the country at large,

always enjoys diseusiing

WE fear there is only too much foundation for the
-t..tement of the Globe that Mr. Bright will retire
from the Ministry. Our readers have been told that
the right hon. gentleman's illness was very serious,
far more so than has been admitted in some
quarters; and is of a nature to render hard
work disastrous, if not impossible. It may
be that Mr. Bright will, hereafter, be
restored to health. We sincerely hope it ; but
we do not anticipate that he will ever feel himself at
liberty to resume the responsibility and the toil of
office. This is a most melancholy incident as well as
a serious national misfortune. Mr. Bright has, by
the force of his character and the greatness of his
abilities, raised himself to the front rank of British
statesmen. No man has been exposed
to greater misrepresentation, no man has
been more generally abused. It was not
till his principles had triumphed that th 3 country
generally came to recognise the honesty of the man.
Occasionally he has been injudicious in word, and has
at times spoken of the upper classes with a severity
that seemed without sufficient justification. But
this fault has been modified of late, and Mr. Bright
has even been accused of too great Conservatism
by the more advanced Radicals. So far as regards
the department over which he presided his retirement
will not be a serious loss. But Mr. Bright, though
he .did not shine as a portfolio minister,
was one of the most fertile originators of great mea-
sures even in the present Cabinet. His retirement
will be seriously felt and lamented by his colleagues.
The nation, too, will mourn at this cutting short of
an official career so ably begun. It will see in this
striking down of a statesman just as he had gained
the reward which ha had so well merited another of
those dispensations of Providence which seem sc
strange and so insf,ru table

(FIZOM 4 CORRESPONDENT•)

THE general who is always prepared to fight, under
any circumstances and against any adversary, must
secure a victory sometime. It has been reserved for
Mr. Nowdegato at last to lead the Protestant host
triumphantly against the hitherto unconquered forces
of the Government. Mr. Gladstone and
his:colleagues manfully resisted the motion for an
inquiry a select committee into the conventual
and monastic institutions of Great Britain ; but in
vain, The hour of Mr. Newdegate's success was

come, and he won by 131 to 120. It is difficult to
be angry with a triumph which giTes so much real
pleasure to so many excellent people and their
"organs." The Advertiser, the Record, and the Stan-
dard, not to mention lesser luminaries, are delighted.
The two former are congratulating themselves upon
a deadly home-thrust at the Beast ; the
latter sees in this division " a crushing
defeat" of the Government. Yes; notwithstanding
that the Ministry took the matter far too lightly, and
only whipped in a third of their rank and file, not-
'withstanding that numerous Liberals went over to
the assistance of Mr. Newdegate, the Slandard still
sees in this division a continuation of the great work
which was begun in Southwark by Coloncl Beres-
ford. But it would be invidious to analyse too
closely the sources of such keen joy.
The only point of difficulty is whether all this
gratification can have been fairly obtained at the
cost of another section of the community. It
may be well to please Mr. Newdegato
and his friends, but it is not well, with-
out strong expectation of real good, to gratify that
zealous party by offering an annoyance and an insult
—for such it will be regarded—to the Catholic,
body. It is always understood 4. that a
committee of inquiry is - appointed only
when there is some real prima facie
case for investigation, and some end in view when
the inquiry is completed. There is much difficulty in
reconciling Mr. Newdegate's motion with these con-
ditions. It is nothing to the purpose to affirm that
monasteries and convents are largely on the in-
crease, for it is as natural that Catholics
should found such institutions as that Protestants
should found Sunday schools. This great multipli-
cation is undoubtedly owing to those measures of
religious liberty which the nation does not regret,
and which it has no intention of revok-
ing. If such an atrocious case as that
of Barbara Übryk were brought to light
the need for intervention would be clear. No such
instance, however, is to be found oven in the records
so carefully kept by Mr. Newdegate. His
great leading case is that of Miss Saurin ;
hut .it is not easy to see how such
practices as those disclosed at Hull can be pre-
vented, supposing they were proved to be common.
Miss Saurin suffered no violent tyranny. It was
by a series of petty persecutions, small depri-
vations, and slights, which, though galling, were
almost unrecognisable, that she was driven out of
the convent. How can these inflictions be avorted
between superior and nun any more thanbetween mis-
tress and servant?

A system of inspection, such as Mr. Newde-
;ate proposes, could do absolutely nothing
with this evil. Not one nun in a thousand
would confess that she suffered from perse-
zution, even though her life were made as miser-
able as Miss Saurin's. The supreme power given to
the lady rulers of convents may be misused; it is a
well-known fact that women who have the absolute
control of other women's happiness frequently do keep
up a merciless system of mean tyranny; but this
is a consideration which must be weighed
by those who submit themselves to such restraint.
Government inspection to prevent " nagging," as it
is called, is an absurdity. The Executive cannot be
called upon to settle women's quarrels, though it may
be just the work suited to Mr. Newdegate. And it is
not right to pre-suppose that any more serious scan-
dals exist' in British convents, because there is no
evidence of those graver practices which would
demand Government intervention. The inquiry may,
however, be of some benefit. There is a large class
in this country who are convinced, evidence or none,
that unheard-of horrors are perpetrated behind con-
ventual and monastic walls. An investigation may
set the minis of these at rest, if anything can. But
it is more than doubtful whether this advantage suf-
fices to warrant an interference with those
principles of religious liberty which have become so
firmly establishol. The Catholic doctrine of seclu-
sion ought to be respected, as far as po,sible, i ust as
much as any other doctrine.