The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-16 00:00:00

REDUCTION OF EXPENDITURE.

Forty additional members of the House of Com-
mons have subscribed the appeal to Lord Palmer-
ston in favour of a reduction of expenditure which
appeared in our columns last week. For our part,
we see no reason why it should not be signed by
one-half of that assembly ; and if closely pressed,
we really know not why it should not be endorsed
by the other half. Those who are at heart most in
favour of high estimates could not do better than
make this waive offering to frugality ; and those
who differ from one another on every conceivable
detail of reduction may nevertheless concur in
taking this one step together Put plainly, the case
amounts to this, that seventy-two millions in time
of peace is more than anybody likes to have levied
in the shape of taxation, and more than anybody
cares to defend in the lump as indispensable. It 15
something to bring people to say so uno jiatu and in
a clear and audible voice, on the eve of the legisla-
tive session ; and as furnishing an unexceptionable
text from which to preach remission and retrench-
ment, the address to the Premier is very well in its
way. But after all, everything must depend on the
wisdom and force of the preacher. Moving dis-
courses we may have, and no lack, from all manner
of gifted and giftless tongues, whereof no visible
fruit whatever will in all likelihood come. The nett
result of national economy sought to be achieved
must depend in the main on the judgment and skill
of the Minister whose business it will be to turn the
prevalent feeling to account; to take the general
profession of repentance for what it is worth, and
no more; to test its sincerity by practical proofs
as far as it will bear, and no farther. Any mistake
on this head would be sure to provoke renewed
relaxation of the national purse-strirgs, and to
postpone effective economy till what might prove
less convenient season. It is in the .coup d'ccil that
the genius of the financier is shown, as much as
that of the painter. Anybody can make a sug-
gestion, or present an object or point of view worthy
of study. He who is entrusted with the task of
combining and harmonising all must be left a
generous discretion as to what he will put promi-
nently forward, what he will but lightly touch, and
what he will omit altogether. If when it is finished
his design does not satisfy us, we may reject it and
call in another pencil to our aid ; but we repeat
that in a question of comprehensive financial
reform it is the Chancellor of the Exchequer to
whom the duty belongs of summing up, and leaving
the issue to the jury by whose verdict we are to
abide.

Meanwhile two methods of proceeding are advo•
cated with a view of bringing public opinion to
bear upon the cogitative faculty of our Finance
Minister and his colleagues. According to one
theory, " More is to be done by choking up the
fountains than by buffeting against the full stream
of extravagance :" and the meaning of this admoni-
tion, so far as it is explained by its authors, is, that
we should look to administrative reform of the Ad-
miralty and War-office rather than to any curtail-
ment or limitation of votes in Committee of Ways
and Means. The alternative doctrine goes deeper
into the matter, and, rejecting the notion that the
bronze mouths of the official fountains in Pall-mall
and Whitehall are the real sources whence the pro-
digal torrent flows, they urge the necessity of dry-
ing up a portion of the stream, if its wasteful tide
be really thought too large. It is certainly not easy
to controvert the force of this line of argument. So
long as the Treasury has seventy-two millions to
spend, spent they are tolerably certain to be.
Administrative reforms are excellent well in their
way ; and we would not be understood as mutter-
ing a word in deprecation or in depreciation of
them. But after classes B, C, and Dof permanent
or supernumerary clerks have been cut down to the
rates named in Treasury Minutes as adequate for
the payment of those who come within the catego-
ries of 0, P, and Q respectively, and after parti-
tions shall have been broken through and extra
staircases cut off at the expense of so many thou-
sand pounds, for the sake of economising 30s. a.
week to a half-employed messenger—and when hot
water pipes have been put upon improved principles
to save ordinary fires, and steel pens have been
contracted for by the million to avoid the scanda-
lous waste of quills—we greatly fear that we shall
find it impossible to congratulate anybody upon
the immediate advantage of the change, save the
fortunate contractors who may have been favoured
by the departments with the execution of the busi-
ness. Besoms, to the rescue ! Let not a spider's
web escape. We despise not the day of small
things, and shall duly note and acknowledge every
sinecure sofa and unthrifty Turkey rug that is
bundled out and sold for what it will bring to the
second-hand furniture shop. But when all has
been said and done, we have a painful misgiving
that our Seventy-Two enemies in the shape of
millions sterling of taxes will not look appreciably
less than they do now. There are indeed branches
of the Civil Service that might be cut down to
1 some purpose, as well as the War-office and Admi-
ralty. But so long as the question of Ways and
Means is postponed to that of Supply, and so long
as the comforts and pleasures of those who impose
popular burthens are stinted or lavish just in pro-
portion to the total amount of money voted each
year, we cannot help feeling a dismal persuasion
that the governing orders will provide for them-
selves, or rather that they will make us provide for
them. The more taxes laid on, the better for them
and the worse for us. Change. and chop it, refit
and remodel it, combine and divide it, however
you will, this is about the upshot of the whole
matter. If the House of Commons, or, as we like
to speak moderately, if one half of the House of
Commons were practically and directly responsible
to the-people, through the medium of independent
constituencies, for the votes they give in Commit-
tee of Ways and Means, there would soon cease to
be too much voted in Committee of Supply ; for th•
best of all possible reasons, that there would not be
anything to throw away. And this is one reason,
perhaps—we might say it is the one great reason—
why so large a proportion of both Houses object to
Electoral Reform. They understand perfectly that
it means Economical Reform, the thing of all others
most abhorrent to luxurious and listless sensi-
bilities.

If the people at large are content, therefore, with
Seventy-Two millions of taxes (besides the cost of
collection) in time of peace, or if, being discon-
tented therewith, they only want to be indulged in
a good general grumble, they will leave the matter
where the appeal to Lord Palmerston leaves it.
The friends of frugality threaten the Premier with
their displeasure if he does not prepare to retrench;
but as they do not condescend to particulars, the
gallant and gay Lothario of legislation will proba-
bly make them a very handsome reply, in which he
will say that he "entirely agrees with them, and
that all they have said shall have the best conside-
ration of her Majesty's Government with a view to
curtail all superfluities of expenditure, and relieve
the industry of the country—in a certain sense."
Just so ; and when a deputation shall have received
this highly characteristic and eminently patriotic,
answer, and the same shall have been sent for pub-
lication to all the newspapers, we shall discover
that we are uncommonly near the point at which
we began. Then will come the practical question,
what is to be done, and how to do it ? At present
we are about the preface : very respectful, proper,
tantalisingly vague, and philosophically general.
Only let it be borne in mind that as fair words pro-
verbiall7 furnish no condiment to food which is
hard to digest, so general admonitions to economise
do not produce the remission of taxes.—Daily
News.