The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-05 00:00:00

THE PUBLIC EXPENDITURE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—The independent press will render the,
most important public service if it ehali assist in-
dependent members of the House of Commons in
enforcing a strict but well-considered economy on
the Government. As a public censor you have a
perfect right to hold up to blame any members of
Parliament who neglect their duty, and are mere
pretenders to the merit of carefully guarding the
public purse. But I hope you will not confound
those who do their duty with those who neglect it,
and that you will not by your criticisms impair the
effect of a combined and seasonable effort to obtain
a reduction of our enormous expenditure.
If I may judge of others from myself, the object
of those members who signed the recent memorial
to Lord Palmerston was to produce an impression
on the Government favourable to retrenchment, at
the very time when that impression would be of
the greatest service—namely, while they were pre-
paring the Estimates. To wait till the extent of
the public establishments had been decided, and
Government had been publicly committed to them,
would have been to come a day after the fair.
Admitting most fully the duty of members to
attend during the discussion of the Estimates, I
need not observe to you that the difficulty of effect-
ing well-considered retrenchments in Committee of
Supply, in opposition to the Minister and to the
numerous members who professionally sympathise
with the maintenance of large establishments, is
very great. In questions admitting of doubt there
is a natural but too great readiness to throw the
responsibility from the members themselves upon
the Minister. Hence the value of impressing the
Ministers beforehand with the necessity of care
and economy in framing the Estimates.
I can scarcely have failed to produce some in-
fluence on the Government to find a great number
of members who have generally been among their
supporters* and who represent many of the largest
constituencies in the kingdom, so convinced of the
necessity of retrenchment as to join in expressing
their .-.sentiments to the Prime Minister. If the
measure is unusual, it would only have the more
effect, providing it was in no sense improper.
So far from the signing of the memorial excusing
members to themselves or to their constituents from
the duty of watching the estimates in the house, I
conceive it must have exactly the opposite effect.
It must blind them, iu consistency, to the perform-
ance of that duty.
Allow me to say that the terms in which you
criticise the memorial to Lord Palmerston are not
calculated to encourage zeal in obtaining a reduc-
tion of the public burdens. You say, "We believe
the opinion of the country upon this somewhat
pharisaical demonstration will be—' Instead of
masquerading as Censors, go into the House of
Commons and do your duty." Now if, as I be-
lieve to be the case, the subscribers were sincere in
their wish to obtain retrenchment, the charge of
" pharisaisra" is unjust ; and it is hardly calculated
to induce members to support economy in the house,
because it shows how honest attempts to serve the
public may be misinterpreted. As to " masquerad-
ing," at least there was no concealment of faces,
seeing that each gentleman gave his name to a
document that was sent to the Government, and
was sure to become public. Neither was there the
assumption of any dress but his own, unless it be
said—for which there is no pretence—that the re-
quest for economy was hypocritical. Nor did the
subscribers become " Censors," for there was no
censure conveyed in their memorial. Would it not,
then, have been more just and expedient to say,
" You have done well to make a timely representa-
tion to the Government while the estimates
were under their consideration, and when, as
Parliament was not 'sitting, you had no other
means of doing it ; nciw go into the House of Com-
mons, and there do your duty by supporting with
your votes the economy which you have advocated
in your memcs-rial.',
When rs.gti call the memorial "a lazy device for
neglecting the duties of a member of Parliament,"
I must not on my own part, lest I should be charged
with " pharisaism," but I may on the part of others
express my belief that the imputation is not well
fora ded. I believe that many of the members who
s'igned the memorial are those who attend best
during the discussions on the Estimates. It is too.
true that the benches .of the house are at such times
deplorably thin ; for this I will offer no excuse ; on
the contrary, I blame it, let the blame fall where
it may. It is too common for members to absent
themselves during discussions on the details of
establishments with which they are not profes-
sionlly acquainted, and the public suffers from the
practice. Reprehend this as forcibly as you like;
but do not, as one sometimes hears in public meet-
ings which are thinly attended, scold those who
are present for the fault of those who
are absent. And, above all, do not represent a
memorial in which members go out of the common
way to urge economy as " a device for neglecting"
the common way of securing it.
A searching examination into the details of the
public expenditure is important; but I hope you
are mistaken when you say-.." We believe that if
these gentlemen were to poll the country through
it would 'be found that the great majority of the
people 'of all classes are thoroughly convinced that
there is not at this moment one soldier or sailor
toes much in the service of Queen Victoria. We
I•Jelieve it would also be found that every one is
equally convinced that we pay too much for them."
If you are correct in the first of these supposi-
tions, I confess that I shall have small hope of
any effective reduction of the public expenditure ;
but my own opinion strongly differs from that
which you, suppose to be general as to the extent
of our warlike establishments. Last year Parlia-
ment -coted,the following numbers of soldiers and
sailors—namely, for the army, 145,269 men of all
ranks, with 83,585 men on the East India estab-
, lishment—total, 228,854 (of course exclusive of the
Volunteers) ; and for the navy 66,100 seamen in the
fleet and Coastguard service, 18,000 marines, and
1,400 civilians for Coastguard service—total, 85,500
men. These numbers very far exceed those voted
in any former year when the country was not en-
gaged in an European war. In the year 1840 the
total coast of our warlike establishments was
£14,119,418 ; in 1650 it was £15,392,944 ; but in
1860 the Army and Navy Estimates reached
£27,644,746, exclusive of supplementary estimates
for the China war, which carried the total warlike
expenditure to up wards of £30,000,000. My con-
viction, then, is both that the army and navy are
unnecessarily large, and that the cost is excessive ;
and whatever the country may have thought in
times of high prosperity, it is certain that a Go-
vernment which maintained establishments like the
above would in any less prosperous state of things
be denounced for its extravagance.
Whatever justification, apparent or real, there
may have been for the vast extent of our establish-
ments in 1860, surely no man can look at the posi-
tion of England in 1861 and deem establishments
of the same extent to be necessary. I think, there-
fore, every member who signed the memorial to
Lord Palmerston for retrenchment did his duty as
a guardian of the public purse ; and I hope they
will be ready to support the demand by their votes
on the Estimates.—l am, sir, your obedient servant
Reform Club, Feb. 4. EDWARD BAINES.

EXETER _HALL.

----..•-•

A grand performance of the " Messiah" will be given by
the National Choral Society, to-morrow evening in this
hall, for the laudable purpose of assisting the funds for the
relief of the Coventry Weavem. The principal singers
will be Madame Lemmens Sherrington, Mrs. Loekey, Mr.
George Perron, and Mr. Thomail. The two ladies have
frequently distinguished themselves in their respective parts,
and Mr. Thomas is well known as a favourite bass singer.
We may, therefore, hope that jus Lice will be rendered to
the beautiful solos which-are all thtted to each of the four
voices in Handers masterpiece. The magnificent choruses
will be given by five hundred voices, and the band will
consist of the principal members of the Philharmonic and
Opera orchestras. Her Majesty said the Prince Consort
head the list of patrons, which includes the names of many
of the leading nobility and the heads of some eminent com-
mercial firms. Under such auspice's, and with such attrac-
tions, we can scarcely doubt that the hall will be crowded,
and that the public will readily respond to so just an appeal
to their sympathies.

THE COVENTRY IVEAV ERS dirD " IHE

ItESSIAIir."