The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-11 00:00:00

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THE BUDGET.

As an elocutionary display, Mr. GLADSTONE'S
Financial Statement last evening was undoubtedly ,
a brilliant success. It was listened to, as usual, by
a crowded house without surprise—for the appre-
ciation of Mr. GLADSTONE'S consummate abilities
as a Parliamentary rhetorician dates not from yes-
terday—but it was listened to throughout, as a
lucid exposition of a most complex and elaborate
scheme, with far more than ordinary admiration.
The Opposition itself did net for an instant attempt
to withhold the generous applause extorted from
all sides and from all parties alike by a physical
and intellectual feat in every way so remarkable
in its accomplishment. One marvelled hardly less
at the silver and bell-like clearness of that noble
voice, but just now restored in the very nick of time
by Dr. FERGUSSON'S magical medical skill from a
week's catar'h and a week's hoarseness !—one mar-
velled, we say, hardly less at the musical resonance
of that almost miraculously restored organ during
nearly four hours' sonorously-sustained declama-
tion—than at the perfect mastery of that in-
tricate and comprehensive series of fiscal and
financial innovations displayed within the ample
grasp of a statesmanlike genius by our gifted
Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Recollecting, however, the very magnitude and
the really vital importance of the numerous pro-
jects submitted to the House last evening by our
English Minister of Finance, it was certainly not
unreasonable that Mr. DISRAELI should at once
deprecate the notion of taking these wonderfully
elaborated plans into anything like precipitate eon-
sideration. It is not simply that the House of
Commons has to decide upon the rejection or ac-
ceptance, or modification of an ordinary Budget. It
has to weigh in the balance of its judgment one of
the most extraordinary Budgets in every way ever
submitted to the scrutinythe of popular branch of the
legislature. And it has to consider impartially at
the same time one of the most surprising com-
mercial treatises ever negotiated. The Budget and
the Treaty--there can to be no hesitation at least
in arriving, forthwith, at this one conclusion—the
Treaty and t lac Budget, the Olive Branch and the
Price of it, a re inextricably Dove-tailed together.
Accept the o le, and you must p:;rforce accept the
either. Twer y-four hours have not nearly, as yet,
elapsed, at tht., time at which we are now writing,
since the Treat -was laid upon the table by Lord
Juttx, and sir. Ice both Treaty and Budget were
simultaneously explained to the House of Commons
by the Chancel. lor of the Exchequer. An interval
of
_Um days, it has been decided, shall elapse
before these subjects shall become
in that hou the themes of deliberate
discussion. :DI tring that period every one who
cares to. do ,Sc I, whether within the House or
witthout of the I louse, will have had ample opi or-
tamity for ;dub; ,ecting Mr. GLADSTONE'S schemes
and caleulal CiOD ,O, in an adequate degree, to an im-

partial and searching examination. It is certainly 1
what they demand at the hands of every patriot
Englishman. And as to the necessity of scruti-
nising thus the financial situation of the country,
as it has now been displayed to the national gaze
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that is only
too painfully demonstrated by the following tables
(for 1860.61) of our estimated charges and
expenditure. The estimated charges being, for
the ensuing twelvemonth :
Funded and unfunded debt
Charges on the Consolidated Fund
Army and Militia,including the China
Expedition
Navy and Packet Service
Miscellaneous Civil Service
Revenue Departments

£26,200,000
2,000,000

15,800,000
13,900,000
7,500,000
4,700,000

Total • £70,100,000
The estimated income being, also for the ensuing
twelvemonth : _ _

Customs
Excise
Stamps
Taxes

Income-tax
Post-office
Crown Lands
Miscellaneous

Total

£22,700,000
19,170,000
8,000,000
3,250,000
2,400,000
3,400,000
280,000
1,500,000

£60,700,000

Shewing, consequently, at a glance, an excess of
expenditure over income of exactly £9,400,000
a positive deficit of Ten Millions sterling for one
year, in the Exchequer. To fill up this enormous
gap, Mr. GLADSTONE proposes his elaborate scheme
of yesterday. The precise nature, tendency and
character of this remarkable Budget will be found
succinctly given in the epitome subjoined to these
remarks of our own, a singularly able
epitome, extracted by us from the columns
of a morning contemporary. It is especi-
ally worthy of notice, however, at once, that the
commercial treaty with France, so far from tending
in any way to diminish the sum total of the deficit,
will, on the contrary, do exactly the very reverse.
It is simply a concession or peace-offering to
France—at any rate, it is wholly and entirely so
during the next eighteen months. It is a treaty
during that interval wholly in favour of French
finance—yet one concluded in the name of Recipro-
city ! It is a Treaty entered into for the purpose
of forwarding the principles of Free-trade by the
very surprising medium of a series of large conci-
liatory arrangements in favour of the French Pro-
tectionists ! In reality, this so-called reciprocal
treaty of commerce is so entirely one-sided that it
literally amounts to a peace-offering to France, the
fabrication of which must cost England an additional
£1,000,000. At the very time, moreover, when
our warlike expenditure amounts to close upon
£30,000,000. A commercial treaty like this cer-
tainly comes to us as a dubious boon, all the more
unwelcome in the manner of its coming when we
find our Foreign Secretary last night vouchsafing
such an answer as the following to the inquiry of an
hon. member who asked whether in the event of
Parlialiament not thinking it right to confirm this
treatythe friendly relations between the two Govern-
ments would be in any way endangered? What
was the response of Lord JOHN RUSSELL ?
Why it was actually thus sinister and signi-
significant! "As to whether the rejection of the
treaty would produce any disturbance of our friendly
relations, why, the lion. gentleman and ever✓ other
member of this Reuse are quite as capable of form-
ing an opinion as we are. That any threat or inti-
mation of that kind has been made is utterly un-
true. [Surely a rather superfluous intimation !
The next sentence, however, fills us with unmitti-
gated astonishment, as addressed by Lord lonN
RUSSELL to the British House of Commons ?] But
as to what effect any speeches in this House against
France, followed by the rejection of the treaty, might
have, the hon. member must judge for himself ! "
That the House of Commons is not only meekly to
accept any treaty like this, through fear of endan-
gering any alliance likely to be jeopardized
by the contingency of its rejection but
that in its acceptance the perfect freedom of debate
is in any way for one instant to be deprecated—
cannot but be regarded as a proposition worthy
only of the scorn of the House of Commons, and
one calculated to excite resentment at the mere
utterance of it, in the heart of every trueborn
Englishman. Viewing the alternative of the ac•
ceptance or rejection of the Treaty under the influ-
ence of such paltry finesse and petty truckling—
one can only remember, with a glow of patriotic
ardour, the words of our Poet Laureate, ALFRED
TENNYSON, upon a like contingency, in respect to
a kindred alternative—

"Is it peace or ever BETTER WAR! LOUD WAR !BY

LAND AND BY SEI,

WAR WITH A THOUSAND BATTLES, AND SHAKING A
HUNDRED THRONES !"

As to the heart of the labyrinth of the Budget
threaded yesterday with such adroit and familiar
footsteps by Mr. GLADSTONE—there is the one
grand secret evil enshrined in the very centre of
it—The Income Tax of TENPENCE ! Modify, how-
ever, the manner of its being levied, and the scale
upon which it is apportioned among the larger and
smaller incomes, and even that bitter bolus may be
swallowed, if the gulping of it is followed by a quid
pro quo in the way of national compensation. Upon
this tenpence, however, we have the next ten days
during which to reflect with all impartial delibera-
tion. Our candid judgment has that most acceptable
interval during which to scrutinise conscientiously
and searchingly this and all the other integral por-
tions of the two great interwoven projects of Treaty
and Budget, laid yesterday before the councils of
the nation by the wizard eloquence of Mr. GLAD-
STONE.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, at a few mo-
ments before five o'clock, rose, and was received
with cordial cheering from all parts of the house.
He commenced by alluding to the fact that in the
present year a sum of two millions and a half of the
interest of the national debt was about to lapse ;
the war duty on tea and sugar and the income tax
also were about to cease. These circumstances,
coupled with the commercial treaty with France,
had compelled the Government to adopt the unusual
course of causing the financial statement to precede
the estimates of the year. The receipts of the year
were as follows :—Customs, 24,750,0001.; excise,
19,724,000/. ; stamps, 8,000,000/. ; land and assessed
taxes, 3,200,0001.; income tax, 9,894,0001.; post-office,
3,250,0001. ; crown lands, 280,000/. ; miscellaneous,
1,408,0001. The expenditure had been—interest on
debt, 28,638,000/. ; army, 13,550,000/. ; navy,
12,630,000/. ; civil service, 7,700,000/. ; revenue de-
partments, 4,475,000/., which, with the miscellaneous
charges, reached a sum of 68,953,0001., which would,
under ordinary circumstances' have left a surplus of
1,625,0001. But there had been additional charges,
arising out of the expedition to China, in the army
of 900,0001., and the navy 270,0001. Then came the
effect of the treaty with France, for which there
was to be deducted from the customs 640,0001. The
total was 1,800,0001, which would have placed the
revenue on the wrong side of the account, but in a
happy moment Spain had paid a debt of 500,000/.,
of which 250,000/. would be available at once, and
so that a small surplus would still be left on the total
revenue. The estimated charge for the interest of
debt in the coming year was 26,200,000/., leaving
2,438,0001., or more than the annuities which were
about to lapse. a and the
The Crrohnesoalirdma3t,e,dmiyiutind, charges
would be 2,000,000/.
charge for China would be 15,800 0
,000/ro h
~ thetentaveyr
and packet service, 13,900,0001., 0
29,700,0001., by an increase of more than three mil-
lions. The miscellaneous estimates were 3,500,0001.;
the revenue department, 4,700,000/. ; the total
being 70,100,0001. With respect to the increase of
the military expenditure, he would leave it to the
ministers for the two departments to explain the
circumstances. The estimate of the income for the
year in perspective, taking the imports as the--
now stood, was :—Customs, 22,700,000/. ; excisi
19,170,000/. ; stamps, 8,000,0001; taxes, 3,250,000/4
income tax, 3,200,000/. ; with the post-office the
total being 00,700,000/. ; being a deficit of
9,400,0001., and this, without any prevision for
1,000,00 W. coming due on Exchequer Bonds.
Supposing that the existing war duties on tea and
sugar were retained, the deficit would still be
7,300,0001. That would require an income tax of
91 in the pound, there being no remission of taxa-
tion in the trade and commerce of the country ;
but the 9,400,000/. would require an income tax of
elosm. ien
otthtehpeo
cuanldc alt
itonnlsi6o).hf tlBhse3aps
His nh
saNtv he
ra dwbaes-,
that in that year it was reckoned there would be
gained by
linbtytae a sumxeslil of 5
teiimrsVoboeit.:Neen that and the
present
which was about
the sum which the income tax would have reached
at sd, in the round in this year. The succession

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1,1, .r"'ePTI•• • I

THE SUN.
LONDON, SATURDAY, FEB. 11, 1860.