The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-28 00:00:00

MR. LOWE AT GLOUCESTER.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer's response to the toast
of " Her Majesty's Ministers," at Gloucester, was one of
his happiest speeches. On the question of the Irish
Church he said little that was new, observing that whilst
depriving the Church of Ireland of its connection with the
State, the Government would not impose upon it any
fresh fetter whatever, but leave it to determine in the
freest manner possible its own destinies. The right hon.
gentleman spoke decisively in favour of peace, urging
hat it was ridiculous for persons to call themselves the
friends of peace when they indulged in puerile sympathies
and antipathies, and allowed themselves to Ate hurried
into support of unworthy causes by schoolboy recol-
lections and prejudices, picked up from a state of
things which had vanished thousands of years ago.
Naturally enough, however, the chief attention of the
right hon. gentleman was given to matters of finance. He
said that on the question of economy the laurels of the
Government were all to win. "My friends the Secretary
for War and the First Lord of the Admiralty are dili-
E;el:Vy endeavouring to cut down whatever is superfluous
ii the establishments over which they preside ; but I am
sure it is not the wish of the Government, any more than
it would be necessary, to mar the efficiency of the
service. The princVe cn which they me going, and
which has my c.:rdial approbation, if I may describe it in
one word, is that of concentration—that of drawing
our forces together to that one point where they
will be rendered most available for the defence of the
country, instead of being scattered and rendered useless by
being distributed all over the world. With regard to the
navy, the principle on which we propose to act is to con-
centrate the expense upon fewer dockyards, and save the
expense which would be occasioned by keeping up smaller
and less efficient establishments. How far these plans may
succeed remains to be seen. We must be jtu'ged, not by
our words, but by our acts, and to those acts I must refer
you in regard to these matters. Perhaps you expect that
I should say a few words about my own department..
Gentlemen, the late Mr. Cobbett said that for £.500
be was willing to undertake the task of Prime
Minister of England; but every man thinks he can
be Chancellor of the Exchequer without any salary at
ail. I have been endeavouring to gain instruction in the
duties of my office from the numerous gentlemen who
favour me with their correspondence every morning, and
the result of their correspondence is very different from
what I think any of you would expect. You may
suppose that I should be overwhelmed with applications
for the removal of taxes. Not at all. That is
.the
least view which is taken. The view of the
British public is that it is the whole duty and busi-
ness of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to devise the
imposition of new taxes, for almost every letter that is
received by him is not a request for the repeal of
old taxes, but a suggestion for the imposition of
new taxes. It appears to me that the amount of atten-
tion devoted by the mind of England to this subject is
perfectly portentous--it forms part of the people's daily
life, and is associated with their most intimate convictions
and ideas. If a child burns its finger with a lucifer match,
the father at once writes a letter to the Chancellor of the
Exchequer and suggests that an adhesive stamp
should be applied to lucifer matches. If a gentleman
on whose birth Venus and the Graces have not happily
smiled finds in a photograph his features depicted in a
manner more truthful than flattering, he writes
off to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and suggests that
an adhesive stamp should be applied to photographs. If
a man has a neighbour who plays upon the pianoforte
when he wishes to go to sleep, he suggests a heavy duty
upon pianofortes, commending it with the remark that the
duty will be easily collected because they make such
S row. Now, gentlemen, my business is to be guided
by public opinion, but I must frankly tell you that
this opinion does not agree with mine. Every man
has his beau-ideal of what he would like to do, but
my beau-ideal of a happy Chancellor of the Exchequer
is a man who does not like to impose new taxes, but
to take off old ones. In the present highly developed
and completely finished state of the science of taxation,
I should as little think of taking credit for inventing
a new tax as for inventing a new torture ; that
is my ideal, my aspiration, but I dare not say it is my
intention, for I can assure yon my wings are very closely
clipped indeed, and I must tell you not to form on these
expressions of mine any hopes or wishes which may lead
you very far from the fact. We are indebted to Abyssinia for
the carat with which we weigh our gold ; that country has
not only taught us how to weigh our gold, but how to
spend it. There is a small bill in this matter which will
prevent me from gratifying the philanthropic inspirations
with which .1 have been endeavouring to gain credit with
you. I fear that you must be content with these expres-
sions of my good will, which I fear will not go far. I will
only say that I mn of opinion that all highly-refined and
complicated financial operations avail very little, and that
there is only one secret to insure prosperity, and that is,

to spend much less than you receive. I will endeavour,
as far as I can— and perhaps there is some little that I can
do in that way—to watch the expenditure of the country,
and to throw the weight of ray of; in the sale when
retrenchment is pursued in any part of the public service;
that I will promise you faithfully to do. A tendency
is growing up in the country to make the Govern-
ment do everything. If there is an enterprise to be
performed the benefit of which is for some local community,
the first thing is to come to tl.e Government for a
guarantee, and, if they can't get a guarantee, for a grant
pound for pound for what they will suscribe. I strongly
disapprove this proceeding. I think it is is not just to the
general taxpayer, and I sincerely hope it may be in my
power to restrict the province of the Government to what
I conceive to be its legitimate duties, and to prevent it
from embarking in a'l enter p ises fer which any person
thinks fit to invoke its aid. I can't say much as to my hops
of a prosperous administration, but these two things I
will do, and if I can save any money it will give me
heartfelt pleasure to give you the benefit of it in the
remission of taxation. Before I sit down I ought to
notice, though very briefly, certain very hard things
which have been said of us, or rather of our leader ,in this
county, by a person of great weight and distinction in it.
Mr. Gladstone has been denounced as unscrupulous and
insidious, as not being a straightforward Englishman, as
a man actuated by the meanest feelings of revenge, as a
person who said he would
.destroy every country gentle-
man he saw, and kept his word (which, I am happy to
say, can hardly be literally true), and who, having been
expelled the University of Oxford, wishes to disestablish
the Irish Church out of sheer spite. I can't pretend
to enter into these charges except so far as this—
that I should like the eminent person who made
them to state, the next time ho feels inclined to
address a meeting on such a subject, where and to
whom Mr. Gladstone said he would, destroy the country
gentlemen, or that he would avenge himself by the dises-
tablishment of the Church of Ireland. If that noble person
is not able to give that information—and I think he would
have given it before now, for the matter has not passed
wholly unobserved, if he had been able to do so —I would
venture to offer to his consideration, with great humility,
one remark. The French say noblesse oblige, which I take
+o mean nobility is bound, not only to keep the peace, but
at any rate to observe the decencies and proprieties of life.
The characters of illustrious public men, and I may
Also say of great noblemen, are not things to be
lightly sported with. The public has an interest in them;
and if they do not respect them for their own sake,
they ought to do so for the sake of their country. Men of
"nark and distinction are not to be accused in this manner
without some proof being furnished of the truth of the
charges which are made; the only truth, so far as I know,
in this matter being that Mr. Gladstone—whether
wisely or not it matters not—thought fit in the execution
of his duty to impose a succession tax as countervailing
to the tax already put on probate to wills, so that
land and personal property might be placed on the same
footing. That may be a wise or unwise law, but it
deserves none of the epithets which have been applied to
it ; and as to its not being straightforward or scrupulous,
there is not a man who knows Mr. Gladstone who does not
know that if he has a fault it is that his conscience is too
tender, and if he has a weakness it is that if he thinks he
has made a mistake (as in what he said about the Southern
States of America) he cannot help letting all the world
know what he thinks of them.

In proposing " Success to the Liberal Party," Mr. Low,
made a second lengthy speech, entering at length into the
causes which had led to the Liberal triumph at the last
election. He said : If we are to wish success to the Liberal
party, what success are we to wish it? I tell you very
plainly that the first wish that I have for us is that
we may keep the Tories out ; and I will tell you why
Of course the Tories or some kind of opposition is a greet
good and a necessity in this country. 1t is not desirable
that we should all be on one side, even if it were possible.
The presence of a powerful Opposition— of an Oppo-
sition powerful in intelligence, if it call be procured—
moderates the insolence which is apt to he eng,cn.
derctl by too great prosperity. Its criticisms point
o:it the weakness which may otherwise remain unobserved,
and the fear of its taking advantage of errors binds
the party together and perfects its discipline. It
is part of the working of the English Constitution that
there should be such a thing, and therefore, so long as the
Tories are out, they are not only very good fellows,.but
very useful people. But, gentlemen, how is it when they
come in? That is what I want to consider. lam sitting
judicially on the question, totally uninfluenced by the fact
that I happen to be in office myself, and I pronounce
this verdict, that although the Tories are very good people
when they are out, they are very indifferent people when
they come in. These arc general words, but are they not
borne out by the facts ? You know what happened
with respect to Roman Catholic Emancipation. It
was declared to be the ruin and destruction of the
constitution anal the country; and the Duke of Wellington
came in and carried it. You know what happened
with respect to the corn laws. Parliament was dissolved,--
e-ned
and Sir Robert Peel came in and repealed them
n
know what happened with respect to the emancipationYo
of the Jews. lt was announced that it would unchris-
tiauise the Legislature, until Lord Derby had to
between going out of office or sacrificing hist pruichprees.
And you know what happened with nrgspec
tatatikail Lord Derl4 vilpa: • F - • 'AUz°ll
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