, 1874-03-04

Stafford Northcote.
Foreign Secretl y-Rt: Hon. Karl Derby.
Colonial Secretary-Rt Hon. Earl Carnarvon.
HONS Secretary-Rt. Hon. Richard Assheton
Cross.
Secretary for India-Rt. Hon. Marquis Sails
bury.
Postmaster General-Rt. Hon. Lord John
Manners.
War Secretary-Rt. Hon. Claiborne Hardy. =!
Secretary Of Admiralty-Rt. Hon. Geo. w.
Hunt.
Lord Privy Seal-Rt. Hon. Earl Malmesbary.
Mr.. GLADSTONE AND THE FINANCES.
1t is not difficult to show, says the Daily
News, that there is a real and vital connection
between Liberal policy and the good finance
of recent years, as we'll as with the Budget.
The speakers and journals Of the Tory
party deny that there is any conrec.
ton. The prosperity of the country, they
say, makes the large surplusesj and the
SURPRISES being, granted, it is easy to
remit taxation. 80 this the first answer is,
that the prosperity of the country has itself
been dependent on the pursuance of a Liberal
policy. Our prosperity would have been i'm
possible in the midst of great wars or dipIo-
matte entanglenents; but under great tempta-
tons TO an opposite course, amid t%aunts, from
the Tory party, of failure to uphold the nation
al flag, the Liberal Government in recent
years has itself successfully avoided great
foreign wars and entanglements, and the Liber-
al party, when it happened to be in opposition,
has forced its own foreign policy on the tempo
rary Conservative poSseSSOrS of power. This
is no small praise when we consider how immi-
nent the danger of Intervention was in the
Franco-German war. and in the. diplomatic
conflicts which preceded it for years, and how
easily the difficulty with America might have
been allowed to slip into an insoluble phase,
instead of the policy of arbitration being loyal
ly persevered in. The result of the wise and
prudent policy which has followed is the
growth TO an unexampled height of individual
and national wealth, and the possibility of
those. Budgets which are the envy of Tory
detraotors of Liberal Governments and policy.
And. while the past prosperity which is the
cause of augmenting revenue is thus connected
with Liberal policy, there is a second answer
to the assertion of Tory critics that the pros
perity of the country is the cause of large sur
pluses. The fact is not exactly so. There
must be another cause in combination, and for
this cause, viz, economy in expenditure, Liber-
al policy is responsible. Mr.. GLADSTONE on
this point has an transferable case. In the
first years of his administration his Govern
ment effected a reduction of 1000, 000L. in the
annual expenditure Of the Supply Services,
which had been bequeathed to him by his pre-
decessOrs. Since then the rise of prices, the
Abolition of Purchase 10 the Army, and the
Education and other Acts, have been the neces-
sary causes of increased expenditure but ah
annual saving of 2,35O.OO has nevertheless
been effected, as compared with the Tory scale
of expenditure, with no diminution, but with
q a great increase of our defensive force, both
:" naval and military" Such economy In e-
penditure is clearly a direct cause of good
Budgets. If the expenditure even now were
to be raised to the height at which the Tory
Administration left it, Mr.. GLADsToNE's pro-
posed Budget would be impossible ; while the
presumption fairly is that with a Tory policy
at work, and carried out by a Tory Administra-
ton, the expenditure would have increased
and not diminished; rendering good Budgets
more and more impossible. Indirectly, the
economy of expenditure is also a potent cause
of good Budgets The money saved during
Mr. GLADsToNE's present Administration alone
has partly enabled a reduction Of l23 millions
to be made in the annual t~axationd such remis-
sions being a.notorious cause of national pros
perity and an elastic revenue. Another part
has been applied in reducing the debt or in
purchasing the telegraph prop erty, which is.