The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-27 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

On Tuesday the 3d Battalion of the Military Train, sta-
tioned at Aldershott, and commanded by Major M'Court,
underwent the usual half-yearly inspection by Brigadier-
General Lord George Paget, C. 8., commanding the Cavalry
Brigade, who was pleased to express his entire satisfaction
with the cleanly and soldierlike appearance of tke men and
the good condition of the horses, as also with the efficient
state of the whole battalion.
The detachment of the 3d Buffs on board the Sir William
Peel, screw transport, were disembarked early yesterday
morning at Portsmouth Dockyard, and were forwarded by
special train at 10 a.m. for Dover.
The batteries of Royal Artillery on board the Hougomont,
sailing transport, at Portsmouth, were disembarked yester
day at the new coaling jetty of the dockyard, Major Rot-
ton's battery, the 4th of the 2d Brigade, proceeding to
Dover, and Captain Harrison's battery, the 2d of the 4th
Brigade, marching to Hilsea, where they received over a por-
tion of Col. Turner's battery of 12-pounder Armstrong guns,
with their horses and drivers, the Artillery relieved march-
ing into garrison quarters at Hasler.
Lieut.-Col. Sampson Preeth, R.E., the newly-appointed
Commanding Royal Engineer at Sheerness, has arrived at
that garrison from Bermuda, and commenced the duties of
his office. Lieut.. Col. H. W. Montagu, the late Command-
ing Royal Engineer at Sheerness, has been appointed Com-
manding Royal Engineer at Malta.

Yesterday orders were received at Chatham by Colonel
Jervis, commanding the Ist battalion of infantry, directing
the depot of the Ist battalion 7th Royal Fusiliers, under
the command of Capt. Lord R. H. Browne, to be held in
readiness to proceed from that garrison to Walmer, to join
the 6th depot battalion at that station. The headivarters
of the Ist battalion 7th Royal Fusiliers are now in India,

the regiment having embarked on the 21st July, 1857, pre-
viously to which it served throughout the campaign in the
Crimea.

111 E FRENCH PRESS ON THE

BUDGET.

The Protectionist organ, the Illonitettr Indztstriel,
has a long article on Mr. Gladstone's financial expo-
sition in the House of Commons on the 15th. It
says that the Chancellor of the Exchequer—
" Has worked a financial miracle which has disconcerted
his adversaries and stupefied even his friends. The former
awaited that critical moment with malicious impatience.
The short harvest of last year, the embarrassments of trade,
the bad results of exportation in the most important markets
of England, the financial crisis, the expenses of the Chinese
war, the reduction of the revenue caused by the Anglo-
French commercial treaty, were regarded by anticipa-
tion as se many circumstances which certainly could
not have prepared a bed of roses for the Chancellor of the
Exchequer. What was the deficit ? How was the Minis-
ter to provide for it F Such were the questions asked
everywhere in England, and, in spite of the ability and
undoubted capacity of Mr. Gladstone, public expectation
was anything but favourable to him. Mr. Gladstone has
issued from this critical position with marvellous address.
Not only is there not a deficit in his Budget, but, on the
Contrary, and with a talent which places him in the fore-
most rank of his country's statesmen, he has exhibited
before the House of Commons, surprised and charmed, a
Budget with a surplus."
After these praises, and after examining Mr.
Gladstone's calculations, the Moniteur Industrial
concludes thus :
" But when we descend from the heights of this arith-
metic, a little too accon..,-.1, facts what do we
find. ? In the first place, the confirmation of. the =mean;
preference accorded in England to otherloreign wines over
French wines. It is, under the action of the treaty, in the
proportion of 9,878,000 gallons, or 449,000 hectolitres to
2,631,000 gallons, or 119,990 hectolitres. The alleged pro-
portional augmentation in French wines, compared to other
wines, is, if we look closely, but another illusion. It is evi-
dent that the wines of other than French origin absorbing
the great mass of English consumption could not augment
their proportional importation in the same measure as the
French wines, occupying a place much more humble in Bri-
tannic predilections. To arrive at a correct conclusion we
must consider the real numbers, and not proportional
numbers. Now, these last show that the consumption of
wines other than French, comparatively so consider-
able already, increased by 1,857,000 gallons, whereas
the consumption of French wines has increased only by
1,475,000 gallons, which gives a proportional advantage of
nearly 30 per cent. to wines not French in the comparative
consumption of the two sorts. Wines other than French
have thus maintained in the English market, and even in-
creased, their relative superiority. In fact, all the advan-
tages for us up to the present are limited to an importation
of 67,000 hectolitres of wines, on a production of 60,000,000
of hectolitres—that is to say, one thousand% part. Let us,
therefore, not be surprised that the House of Commons re-
ceived this result with unanimous applause. We would
not even inquire if that importation has not been somewhat
artificial, provided it were advantageous to us. Neither do
we desire to recall the bitter deception which last year fol-
lowed the greater part of our wine exports to England. Be
this as it may, it is .on wines that our neighbours seem to
count, for finding from us a slight compensation, necessary
for the vast importations they have from us. Mr. Glad-
stone stated that before 1701, before the Methuen Treaty,
French wines enjoyed much vogue in England, and that
they lost it only when the interests of commercial policy
required that Portuguese wines should be substituted for
them ; Portugal now being exhausted and ruined, the
same commercial policy requires that what has been done
with Portugal should be commenced in France. Tho les-
son is remarkable; it teaches us how England throws
away the orange peel when she hat sucked it•te the last
drop I"