The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-22 00:00:00

chievous consequences than they had been threat-
ened with by the noble and learned lord opposite
by adopting the amendment."
If the Lords thought it a matter of prudence to
save their rights when they seemed to be questioned,
L
no one can deny that the financial case might be
made almost as strong as Lord DERBY could desire.
Figures are not generally supposed to be his de-
partment, yet into them he plunged with a zest
which showed his strong conviction; He surpass d
the ex-Chancellor and the present Controller of
the Exchequer, Lord MONTEAGLE himself, and cer-
tainly made it as clear as figures taken from Mr.
GLADSTONE'S statements themselves could do, that
we must in the coming year be landed in a serious
deficiency, and that for the present year we should
have a deficit rather than a surplus.
He did not contend that the House of Lords ought
capriciously and lightly to interfere with the ordi-
nary course of assenting to all bills relating to
taxation as sent up by the Commons, but he cer-
tainly made out a strong case for affirming that
this was one of the exceptional cases. He had
shown from the statements of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer himself that the deficiency must be
£2,268,000 in 1861-2, and would probably be much
more, while the present year would leave, according
to the same statements, no surplus towards meeting
it, but rather the reverse. Some may hold that,
even in a case like this, the Lords ought to bear
with the Commons the entire responsibility of the
finances of the country ; others will think this just
the case in which the Government ought to equalise
the movements of the State financial-engine.
It is evident, too, that the Lords are disposed to
thwart the influence of Manchester counsels on the
Government. Perhaps Lord DERBY was a little
hard upon the Government here, since in the
balanced state of parties, that small and ener-
getic clique hold so much the turn of the scales
in their power that even his own party could not
do without their aid when they were last in power.
The movements of BRIGHT, and his tail, are now as
nervously watched as used to be those of O'CON-
NELL and his tail. The Manchester school, how-
ever, will now see how they are estimated by the
august school which has refused to repeal the
Paper Duties at their command. "I am charmed,
said Lord DERBY, to hear the noble duke declar-
ing, on the part of the Government, that there is
nothing in common in their principles and the prin-
ciples of the Manchester school ; but whatever may
be the intentions of her Majesty's Government
they are by their acts playing into the hands of the
Manchester school. The announcement made, and
openly and publicly proclaimed, is this, " We will
limit the range of taxation. We will make the
whole dependence of the country rest on direct
taxation ; and the pressure of that direct taxation
will be so grinding and so odious that whatever
may be the circumstances of the country war will
be avoided, because no one will be willing to defray
the expenses." That is the avowed object. They say
they will secure peace by taking away the power of
going to war, and that is to be done by making
direct taxation the sole source of the revenues of
the state. My lords, it is not therefore solely on
account of the revenue that I object to the abolition
of the paper duty at this moment. It is because
you are taking away an important part of the re-
venue, and, pro tanto, establishing the principles
and promoting the objects of those parties by weak-
ening the finances of the country. It is upon this
political principle as well as upon financial grounds
that I object to the proposition of her Majesty's
Government, and I shall not give my assent to that

proposition."
What the intentions of the Government are, we
cannot yet know. We presume, however, from
all we hear, that they will neither resign nor dis-
solve, but very prudently, as Englishmen often do,
" pocket the affront." Whether Mr. GLADSTONE
and Mr. MILNER GIRSON will do so in their indi-
vidual capacity, remains to be seen. Our contem-
porary, the tl' on2in,q Post, adverting to the large
majority, remarks :—" Of this majority so many
Peers were the habitual supporters of the Govern-
ment as to take off from the vote all suspicion of
its having been a mere party move. Under these
circumstances, we understand that the Cabinet will
aecept the decision of the House of Lords, and re-
tain the tax as it at present exists."

A telegram of more than ordinary importance
apprises us that the gauge of battle has been flung
down before the Western Allies by John China-
man. One Ministerial change at any rate is there-
fore at this moment inevitable. The Earl of
ELGIN'S anomalous position in the Cabinet as Post-
master-General will have to be definitively as-
sumed by some other administrator. The Duke
of ARGYLL
.will no longer be called upon to dis-
charge double duty by combining the temporary
responsibilities of his absent colleague, now en route
for China, with those hitherto devolving
upon his grace in connection with his own official
rank as President of the Council of Education.
A permanent substitute, and not one merely tem-
porary in his character, will have to be selected
by the noble viscount the First Lord of the Trea-
sury. Of one thing, we presume, we may rest
tolerably well assured in regard to the
filling up of this office once more under
Lord PALMERSTON—nameIy, that the selection
of the noble lord will not fall this time
upon the most honourable ULICK, Marquess of
of CLANRICARDE. The appointment of that noble
marquess, as Postmaster-General, towards the close
of the PALMERSTON Administration was ominous
of the collapse that followed so soon afterwards.
Hardly had the Marquess of CLANRICARDE been
installed in St. Martin's-le-Grand, when the
strong Government was discovered one fine day
to be comatose. And we all know that the
state of coma is often only immediately anterior
to that of a full stop, whether in the career of a
Cabinet or in the gradations of grammatical punc-
tuation.

It is scarcely, however, so much in reference to the
Ministerial modifications the intelligence brought
by this Asiatic telegrame involves, that the signi-
ficance of the important intimation it contains is
to our thinking so peculiarly deserving of our
consideration. It is rather, we would say,
at once in its vital bearing, on the one hand,
through our chief alliance, upon our foreign rela-
tions ; and, on thebother hand, through our financial
complications, upon our internal government. The
Chinese having, as we learn through this telegram,
definitively and peremptorily refused to accede to
our propositions, there result from this point-
blank rejection of the Ultimatum jointly
submitted by France and England to the Councils:of
the Celestial EMPEROR at Pekin, two grand and
obvious consequences. First of all, it will bind
together yet more closely at the actual seat of war
the warlike interests of the two leading Powers of
Europe, of the two great races, we may say, who
are foremost in the march of modern civilisa-
tion. Secondly, the drain upon the Exchequer
Chinawards is now pretty safe to be far more con-
siderable than was anticipated two months ago by
the Chancellor of the same in his gigantesque and
picturesque, but singularly rash and glaringly ex-
perimental financial statement. There is a pro-
bability, there is more than Et:probability merely,