The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-04-19 00:00:00

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TUESDAY

MORNING, APRIL 19, 1853.

THE BUDGET.

LAST night, Mr. GLADSTONE made his long-
promised Financial Statement; and, though he did
not realise all that bad been predicted of him, nor
gratify the expectations which had been raised by
preliminary rumours, he succeeded in creating con-
siderable surprise. It was confidently believed that
the surplus with which he had to deal was above
Two Millions, but he soon dispelled the illu-
sion by stating that it would be below One
Million. The vexed question of Ow Income Tax
he has attempted to dispose of in a most extra-
ordinary way. He proposes to charge incomes
between £lOO and £l5O a-year, at the rate of
sd. in the pound for seven years ; to renew
the tax on the present incomes for two years
at 7d. in the pound; for the succeeding two
years at 6d. in the pound ; and for three years
after that at sd. in the pound, so that we have
some idea of what we may expect from the wisdom
of " all the talents ;" though it remains to be seen
how far the House of Commons will sanction the
scheme, particularly as the Irish Brigade will not
be conciliated by extending the Income Tax to
Ireland. Some little reductions are to be made
in Stamps ; and a sop is to be given to the Attor-
neys in reducing the certificate duty from £l2 and
£8 to £9 and £6 ; and the stamp on Articles from
£l2O to £BO. The repeal of the Advertisement
Duty is treated in the same shabby way, by
retaining sixpence upon each ; but another
class is to be conciliated by the abolition of the
Soap Duty at a cost of three quarters of a million.
He is not, however, content with reductions, but
proposes to add one shilling a gallon on Scotch,
and eighteenpenee a gallon on Irish spirits, thereby
making more enemies, and helping, it is to be
hoped, to seal the downfal of the ABERDEEN
Cabinet. It will be seen there is to he a reduction
of 4d. a pound upon Tea for one year, and another
4d. the following year, and also a small reduction
upon Carriage, Horses, and Servants, as well as upon
Cheese, Bacon, Oranges, Lemons, &c., at a loss to
the Customs of £658,000.

THE CANADA CLERGY RESERVES.
IT was one of the dangerous tendencies of the
present mongrel Administration, that, notwith-
standing the professions of Liberal Conservatism,
with which their Chief announced his policy, the
evil associations would corrupt the whole body,
and the once professing Conservatives become
the most rabid Destructives. They may conceal
their designs under specious sounding phrases, and
talk of liberty of conscience with all the cant of

Whiggery, hut in plain English their policy is
rank Radicalism, and their legislation is all directed

towards sapping the foundations of our most
hallowed institutions. Under the flimsy pretext of
securing the freedom of internal government to the
Colonial Legislature of Canada, the ABERDEEN
Cabinet have carried through the House of
Commons a bill on the Clergy Reserves of that
colony, which, as was well expressed by Mr.
DRUMMOND, is neither more nor less than a
measure of Church plunder. In vain did Mr.
WALPOLE, Sir J. PAKINGTON, Mr. NAPIER, and
other members of the House expose the iniquity
of the scheme as a flagrant violation of the
faith of Parliament, which was solemnly
pledged to the Church of Canada by the Act
of 1840; the members of the Government and
their supporters stuck to the cuckoo cry of the
Colonial Legislature having the best right to deal
with the question, and being the best judges of their
own interests. Mr. GLADSTONE, with all the zeal
of a new proselyte—for the character of whom we
may refer to the Scriptures—expressed his belief
and hope that the Canadian Legislature.would deal
justly by the Clergy; when it is well known that the
whole object of the bill is to enable it to do otherwise.
Romish superstition has the ascendancy in Canada,
and the blow against Protestantism is to be struck
by robbing the Clergy of the incomes guaranteed
to them by the British Parliament. Mr. F. PEEL
and the SOLICITOR-GENERAL met the charge
of breach of faith with the astounding assertion
that the incomes were only guaranteed to the
existing Incumbents; so that, according to these
trucklers to expediency, the Church of Canada has
only a life interest in her endowment, and the next
generation may resort to the begging-box, or leave
the Colony to those who are enemies to Britain both
in religion and politics. The Clergy are to be left
to the tender mercies of the Colonial Legislature,
with about the same expectations as to their fate as
would be excited by entrusting a flock of sheep to
the guardianship of wolves; and yet, in a British
House of Commons, this fustian about liberty was
allowed to prevail, appeals to honour and common
justice were made in vain, and the third reading of
the bill was carried by a majority of 290 to 210.
Let us hope it may meet with its proper fate in the
House of Lords.