The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-08 00:00:00

party- , and has thus managed to screw more money
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oet an overburdened people than they before yielded,
and that is all !" No, it is not all. For be it observed,
that to raise a large revenue by fair means—by means
which shall not cripple trade or destroy commerce, is
not by any means the easiest thing in the world. The
immediate cause of the utter failure of the Whigs in
1841 was just that they could not do this one thing—
could not raise the needful revenue by means which Par-
liament would sanction or the nation bear. First, being
unable to invent any new impost, Mr. Baring quietly
added 5 per cent. to the existing duties, supposing, as a
matter of course, that every 1001. would become 105/. But
he soon found out his error. The 1001. remained 100/. still,
and obstinately refused to increase and multiply at his
bidding. Grown frantic at this disappointment, and at
their wit's end what to do next, the Whigs, as has been
often observed, " set the house on fire in the hope of
being able to run away by the light of it." They boldly
proposed, by way of improving the revenue, to ruin at
one blow cur farmers at home and our colonies abroad,
on the pretext that the C Lt -Awns' duties would be increased
by the admission of torvien corn and slave-grown sugar.
L tterly disgusted at such undisguised quackery, Parlia-
ment, by a distinct vote, declared its confidence with-
drawn, and the nation, on a general election, put the
Whigs out of office by a mejority of 90. And thus the
reign of empiricism ended, and that of statesmanship re-
commenced. For, hoe ever unpleasing the fact may be,
it is not the less true, that it is a principal duty incum-
bent on an English Minister, to discover the means of
raising nearly fifty millions of annual revenue in an
equitable and not oppressive manner. And to say that
this has been effected, is, in fact, to say, that the Mi-
nister has adequately performed one of his most im-
portant functi ms. The Whigs took office in 1830, with
a surplus of 2,667,0004, leinded over to them by Mr.
Goulburn, the retiring Chancellor of the Exchequer. In
1841, Mr. Baring, when opening his last budget, was
obliged to confess, that on the, most favourable view
he could take, there was a deficitof 'nearly, the same
amount ! In fact the real deficiency must have been
much larger, for Mr. Baring stated his expenditure at
50,731,7661.; while his income, in January of that year,
appeared to be only 44,746,400/. This state of things
was becoming mate r just alarm, and there can be no
doubt that the Whigs felt it to be such, and were but
too happy to escape' from a responsibility which was
growing serioue. A nation whose expenditure exceeds
its income by two or three millions per annum, must be
daily plunging into fresh difficulties and dangers. Its cre-
ditors must gradually lose confidence. Its securities
must decline in the public esteem. Its enemies, mean-
while, must daily become more and more alive to the
perplexities which surround it. Thus the downward
course, would be fearfully rapid. A vast empire, like
that of England, spread over the whole globe, and open
to attack at every point, must mainly be defended
by its internal character—by the known valour of
its troops whenever called into action, and by the known
vastness of its pecuniary resources whenever required to
be exhibited. And the first moment that should ex-
hibit such an empire, either without defenders, or with-
out the means of sustaining them, would leave her, like
some huge carcase among the vultures of the desert, an
instant prey to myriads of assailants. This may appear
far-fetched and improbable; but the confusion into which
the Whigs had thrown our finances in 1841 had made
even this a possible supposition. The extent of that
confusion may in some measure be estimated by the fact,
that it has taken Sir Robert Peel three years to restore
matters to a healthy condition. That task he has now
successfully accomplished ; and if he were to resign the
helm to-morrow, and never more to appear in public
life, he might exultingly look back on the three years
which have just concluded as those in which he fully and
triumphantly restored the financial credit and prosperity
of the British empire.
POST.—Beyond all question the present state of the
public finances of this country is, per se, a legitimate
ground of Ministerial congratulation and triumph.
When we consider what the state of the public finances
was when Sir Robert Peel obtained office, and what it
is after three years of his administration, we must own
that in this point he has been most successful. Whether
he has taken the best way of increasing the public re-
venue of the country is, no doubt, open to discussion,
and many men of ability and experience are of opinion
that equally good results as regards the Exchequer
might have been arrived at with much better results as
regards the general condition of the people. But the
in portant fact is indisputable that whereas, for several
consecutive years, the Whigs had gone on with a public
annual revenue considerably below the annual expen-
diture—since the accession of the Government calling
itself Conservative, this bad state of things has been re-
versed, and the public revenue of the country has been
made to exceed the expenditure. The Government, we say,
deserves to have credit for this fact, and we du not see how
any one who is not dishonest, or driven out of his right
mind by the acrimony of party spleen, can refuse to Go-
vernment the credit of having effected this great and
salutary change. But while this matter of fact, by itself,
is a fair ground for praise of the Administration, we
must take leave to protest against the nonsense, and the
sycophancy of certain inventors and publ;shers of flat-
tering inferences from the state of the public revenue.
Surely these people would be more dis:reet if they
bridled their tongues a little, and restrained their pens
from exaggeration and fulsomeness. They tell us that
it is a necessary inference from the state et' to public
revenue that the country is highly prosperous What
do they mean by this word " prosperous ?" We know
they would have the world believe that, as the
Minister has succeeded in obtaining a revenue greater
than the expenditure, so he has succeeded in improving
the general condition of the people ; but will they ven-
ture to eay plainly that there is good evidence upon
which sensible and observing men may rely that the im-
provement in the general condition of the people is similar
to that in the public finances? Some people we know have
not any other standard of the prosperity of the country
than the prosperity of the public finances. So far as they
are concerned, the affirmation that the state of the revenue
proves the country to be prosperous is merely the affir-
mation of an identical proposition. The prosperity of
the revenue is the prosperity of the country—the revenue
is prosperous, therefore the country is prosperous.
Granting the first assumption, we cannot deny the infe-
rence. But experience will not confirm the proposition
that the prosperity of the revenue is the same thing as
the prosperity of the general condition of the people.
It may be (as a Member of the Government has ad-
mitted in the House of Commons), that the rich are
growing more rich, while the poor are growing more
poor. In that case, a direct tax on wealth, which does
not touch incomes below 150/. a-year, may swell the
coffers of the Exchequer, while poverty is sorely pinch-
ing the lower orders—
" While the tide runs in darkness and coldness below."
For let us remember that, though the revenue de-
rived from taxes on consumption is improving upon
what it was two years ago, it scarcely yet equals what
it was in the worst time of Whig mismanagement,
and it is very far below what it was when the population
was but two-thirds of its present amount, if so much,
and when the people appeared to have no difficulty is
paying the heavy taxation. That there is direct evi-
dence of the greatly improved condition of a portion of
the labouring people in the manufacturing districts, from
what it was in the first year of the present Administra-
tion, we admit ; but the direct evidence as regards the
agricultural districts is quite the other way ; and in the
face of such evidence it is folly to ask the world to
infer that farming labourers are prosperous because
the public revenue shows a large increase of receipts,
One Ministerial writer asks, with anile
hether it can be that the agriculturists suffer while
the home and foreign markets are manifestly so pro-
sperous ? The answer is that the home market for
agricultural produce is not prosperous. If thousands
of able-bodied labourers are seeking work, at from a
shilling to fifteenpence a day, and cannot obtain even
that, shall we tell Ilodge and Giles, and the rest, that
they must be prosperous, since Mr. Goulburn is rubbing
his hands cheerfully as he contemplates the state of the
Exchequer ? If the union workhouses be getting too
full, notwithstanding the general hatred of them—if
discontent prevail, and agricultural property be burned
by stupid wretches whom want has made desperate—
shall we say, nevertheless, that all must be well since
the public revenue is in a prosperous condition ?
Whig and free-trading journalist, with the habitual au-
dacity of Whigs and free traders in forcing matters of
fact into conformity with their theories, wakes
no scruple of asserting, point blank, that
trade in our manufacturing towns is trade for
Essex, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk—that bustle in
the manufacturing implies a mitigation of distress in the
agricultural districts. People who write in this way
would make no hesitation in saying (if it suited the
Marty purpose of the hour)
that the scarcity of chalk
implied the dearth of green cheese.At this moment
they would willingly transfer the wheatgrowing business
of Essex and Norfolk to Poland and Upper Canada ;
and if the business of Manchester increased, in conse-
quence, they would insist that Essex and Norfolk must
be all the more prosperous, although their occupation
was gone, and the land was receding into sheep •walks
or barrenness. There is nothing too monstrous for poli-
tical bigotry—nothing too servile for political syco-
phancy. Rational observers of public affairs will, how-
ever, take facts as they find them—give credit where
credit is due, and not hesitate to condemn where disap-
probation appears reasonable, and likely to be useful.

BIRMINGHAM AND GLOUCE9TER AND BRISTOL AND
GLOUCESTER RAILWAYS.-It seems to be generally
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admitted that the r fficient working of the two gauges,
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en-
deavourbe to bring about an amalgamation of the two
Companies, so as to secure the laying down of the
narrow gauge to Bristol from Gloucester. Several in-
terviews have already taken place between the Directors
of the two Companies, and some advance towards the
basis upon which an amalgamation may be proposed to
the Proprietors has been made. It is understood that one
of the conditions is the laying down of the narrow gauge
to Bristol in such a way as to render it available for the
conveyance of goods. A very influential meeting of mer-
chants and manufacturers was held on Thursday week, at
Birmingham, at which resolutions, deprecating the bad-
ness of the arrangements in the conveyance of goods
over both lines, were passed. We believe that the fault
has been entirely with the Gloucester Company and its
late Manager ; but, as matters are now to be remedied,
we need not go into into details.—Railwsy Record.
ENLARGEMENT OF SMITHFIELD MARKET. —A
meeting of the principal graziers and butchers frequent-
ing Smithfield, took place on Monday, at the Ram Inn,
for the purpose of procuring an extension of that part
of the market allotted for the sale of sheep. The chair
was taken by Mr. J. Weal!, who pointed out the incon-
venience of the present arrangement, observing that, as
the Corporation of the City of London derived a very
large revenue from the tolls, it was only reasonable to
expect that they would endeavour to consult the con-
venience of those resorting to the market. It was ulti-
mately agreed that a memorial should be presented to
the Court of Common Council, praying for the proposed
enlargements.