The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-03 00:00:00

rnE -SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 3, 1860.

strides. NAPOLEON was half afraid to carry
out his own magnificent " idea" of liberty
from the Alps to the Adriatic, and it is perhaps as
well that he halted in the glory of his march, lest
1 the Italians should be " blasted with excess of

light"—for.now they have had time to rub their
eyes and look around, and behold the horizon of
liberty spreads and enlarges even beyond their utmost
ken, for Italy is becoming free from the furthest Alps
to the more sunny regions of Vesuvius, while the
glare of liberty extends to Calabria and even il-
lumines the kindred land of Sicily—

".Where Etna's fires sublimely rise,
Tinging the evening skies with flame I"
—Aye, the kindred flame of liberty. We may
thus hope to see Italy free from one extremity
to the other before the year is out. In
fact, we should not be sorry to see Prince
NAPOLEON mount the late throne of MURAT, and
thus become the successor of a chivalrous soldier,
who was as kind-hearted as he was brave.

We copy the following from our French confi
dentin! contemporary, the Morning Post, as an in
teresting foretaste of what Italy may soon expec
from the concessions of her friends, and from the
exigencies of her own changed position, as well as
the irresistible course of events :
" We announced at the beginning of the year
that a virtual alliance had been erected between
England and France flr the settlement of Italian
affairs. We expressly stated that the two Govern-
ments bound themselves by no Treaty, but that
their agreement was the result of the force of
circumstances and the dictation of Public Opinion
This alliance, every day drawn closer, already
begins to produce evident and tangible conse-
quences. It is now formally determined that no
intervention shall take place in Italy, and that
the people shall be left to their own devices. It
is therefore agreed that the States of Central Italy
shall dispose of themselves. Fresh elections are to
be held, and the Assemblies resulting from popu•
lar choice are free to decree the annexation of their
constituents to the Sardinian kingdom. The French
troops are to be withdrawn from Northern Italy
and from Rome at an early opportunity. It is no
secret that Austria, having regard to the Western
alliance and her own serious difficulties, gives up all
hope of retrieving herposition and influence in Italy,
and not only sheathes her sword, but puts it aside.
An attempt will be made to induce her to grant re-
forms in Venetia, of which she is still legal mistress.
Here the Italian question might terminate in the
recognition of the new State of Europe. But will
it be allowed to do so ? We doubt it. The stub-
bornness of the POPE bids fair to deprive him of
the whole of his temporalities. Naples groans un-
der a heavier tyranny than ever, and the cries of
Venice arc loud enough to strike our ears, however
we may shut them. The Italian question, then,
being likely to take still larger proportions, our
best, safest, and most beneficent policy is that line
of strict duty by which, this time last year, we
might have prevented war, and by which we may
now guarantee the peace of Europe. That line is
no foreign intervention, but Italy for the Italians."

It is doubtful, of course, after all, whether any
good, even now, will come of it in the way of
Economy in the Public Expenditure! But at
any rate the House of Commons yesterday entered
at last upon the right course—it for once made a
really admirable beginning towards the realisation
of an enterprise that if but resolutely carried ont
must lead us inevitably to the long-desired goal of
a rational and systematic Retrenchment. To Mr.
WISE belongs the credit of bringing the House to this
happy decision upon Thursday, the 2d of February,
1860. Whatever else may be the result, there at

my rate will be emblazoned upon the records of
HAN SARD, under that henceforth notable date, the

satisfactory incidents, firstly, of an excellent dis-
cussion upon this subject of v!tal interest to the
community, and secondly of a decision as auspi-

cious to the advocates of Economy as it is unques

tionably ominous to the members of her
MAJESTY'S Government. The motion submitted to

the house yesterday by the hon. member for
Stafford was simply for the appointment of a select
committee to inquire annually into the rniscellane
ous expemlituro of the preceding twelvemonth.
Is there any doubt as to the necessity for
such a yearly investigation ? Ask the
very Cabinet Minister who last evening
came forward to oppose (officially) the proposition
his own reiterated complaints have more than
merely justified—have, we might even go so far as

to assert, so to speak, necessitated—complaints,
again and again repeated, in his capacity as Chan-

cellor of her Majesty's Exchequer. No one has
more loudly or more perseveringly denounced the
profligacy of the National Expenditure than Mr.

GLADSTONE. No one has more plainly put it to
the House of Commons in the form of an explicit
reproach, that the public monies aro year by year
voted by it with a thoughtless and wasteful extra-
vagance. Yet, year by year, this prodigal
expenditure gees on, not only without interrup-
tion, but actually goes on year by year increasingly,
no matter what Minister happens to be First Lord
of the Treasury—n e matter what financier wears
the gold robe of Chancellor of her MAJZSTY'IS
Exchequer—no matter what party chances to hold
within its grasp the reins of the Imperial Govern-
ment. Yet no sooner does an hon. member rise, as
Mr. WISE did yesterday, for the purpose of at
least proposing the appointment of a Select Com-
mittee of Inquiry into the admitted fact of this per-
petually increasing and increasing expenditure,
than he is met with the preposterous objection that
the House, by referring these matters to a select com-
mittee, will be diminishing the responsibility of
Government ! Remembering that that responsi-
bility has in no way prevented the increase of
taxation, and the larger and larger prodigality of our
annual disbursements under any and every Govern-
ment, we do not hesitate one instant to express our
unalloyed satisfaction in the result of last night's
debate and division. Mr. WISE'S motion having
been carried in spite of the arguments against it
advanced to the House successively by the Secretary
of the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
and carried too by the really considerable majority
of 121 against 93, giving a clear majority of 28 (in
a house of 214) against the-Government !
In submitting his motion yesterday to the House
of Commons, Mr. WISE was arguing from first to
last, as the phrase is, from the book—in using of
those exceedingly stubborn things—facts and
figures ! He drew them exclusively from official re-
turns, but chiefly from one important and authori-
tative paper which (it is worth particular notice
this) had been prepared by that accomplished
Master of Finance, Mr. NAMES WILSON; late
editor of 7he Economist, and now the Indian
Chancellor of the Exchequer. From that document,
we may see at a glance, how notable has been
years
tinheorlaetce
iovfilinscerrelaisceedEursitnimgatthese. lastT a
k2eo ortk
thee3o follow-

ing :
10 years ending 1827 , ......... .C 2,000,000 per annum.
1837 ............ 2,200,000 „
9/
1817 ............ 3,000,000
)7 „
1857 ............ 5,700,000 „
Again—viewing the matter at once in a more con-
densed form, and yet by a more comprehensive
,survey--it is observable through Mr. WasoN's

paper, that while those Civil Service Estimates
during the twenty years ending in 1839, amounted
to an aggregate of £43,000,000; in the twenty
years ending with 1859 they reached the monstrous
total (more than doubling the previous amount) of
£94,000,000. The subjoined contrasting array of
figures will help to throw a flood of light upon the
manner of increase in a few important particu-
lars

1839. 1859.
Palaces, public buildings, parks, &c £197,000 £793,000
Law and justice 666,000 .. 2,544,000
Education, science, and art
Colonial and consular establishments 339,000 .. 428,000
Superannuation allowances
Miscellaneous
The charges upon the Consolidated Fund, for the
year ending upon the last 31st of December, being,
for example, as follows :
Civil List
Annuities and pensions
Salaries and allowances ...... . 157,802 18 1
Diplomatic salaries and pensions .... 162,298 11 1
Courts of Justice
Miscellaneous charges on the Consoli-
-188,273 14 6
dated Fund
The Supply Services for 1859 admitting of the
subjoined astounding enumeration :
Army, including militia, commissa-
riat, and ordnance £14,675,719 16 0
Navy, including packet service 11,072,242 8 9
Miscellaneous civil services 7,369,214 11 6
Salries, &c., of revenue departments. 4,410,379 4 11
Extraordinary expenses of the late
war with Russia
The aggregate of the Supply Services for the
twelvemonths last past being in effect £37,688,136
ss. 2d. ; the charges on the Consolidated Fund,
£2,029,500 15s 11d.—making altogether a grand
total for the expenditure of 1859 of £68,090,053 Os.
4d.—by the addition to_ the foregoing amounts of
another agreeable little sum of £28,372,415 19s. 3d.,
thus distributed :

Interest and management of the perma-
nent debt
23,688,037 3 0
Unclaimed dividends paid
Terminable Annuities
Interest of Exchequer Bonds, 1854 to
1858

135,000 0 0

Interest of Exchequer Bills—Supply .. 439,353 10 2
Ditto ditto Deficiency .. 818 15 0
Bearing in mind that the aggregate of the national
income during the same period of a single
twelvemonth, ending a little over a month
since, on the 31st of December, amounted
to £66,070,469 Os. Bd., we arrive at the knowledge
that, even with that magnificent total of receipts
in 1859, we had a deficiency for the year last past
of £2,019,583 10s. Bd.—in consequence of this
monstrous and profligate extravagance in the na-
tional expenditure ! Here are reasons enow in all con-
science for the motion of yesterday--" Reasons plenti-
ful as blackberries." No wonder the Economists
below the gangway, upon either side of the House,
upon the announcement of the result of the divi-
sion, cheered vociferously. To glance for an in-
stant down the Division List (given elsewhere),
and to note how very nearly all the lords, and how
every one of the Right Honourables, in the House
last evening are clustered together in the minority
of ninety-three--is (in American phrase) just
simply cautionary !