The times., 1901-03-17
LONDON NEWS AND GOSSIP.
Great Anxiety Being Manifested over
the English Budget.


rect and indirect consequences of war,
there are still no other themes for Eng
lishmen Every ingenuity that journalist
or trader could devise has been used in
vain during the past few days to wiring
from the Chancellor of the EXchequer his
budget secret. How does he mean To
raise the $50 000. 900 or thereabouts which.
even allow ing for further war loan of
$3.50 O11 o00. will have to come from addi-
tional taxation? The income tax is al
ready at war level. namely a shilling in
the pound. An additional sixpence would
produce $50 000,G00 but nobody imagines
that even a Ministry with $50 majority IN
Parliament viii thus affront the great
middle class upon whom the income tax
falls most heavily.
Probably the increase VIII DE t"ole"'e
or fourpence If Sir Michael Hicks-heacn
were amenable to pressure from seVerai
influential Ministerial quarters. he would
provide the balance by duty of Il nan
penny per pound on imported sugar
yielding $3G0J1. 600 asnuaIly, and by re-
imposing Sir Robert Peels registration
duty of one shilling per quarter on I'M
ported wheat. The Chancelor's political
friends urge that the time has come in
tire history of the Empire when the mill
tarv. naval. and other needs of the policy
of imperial expansion have outrun the
limits of direct taxation. Every visit of
the taxpayer gives the electorate a nasty
reminder OF the heavy price of imperial
ism. The time has come, they urge, TO
omen wider the doors of indirect taxa
tion. which throws no such damper upon
expenditure. Moreover, they recall the
speeches in which Lord Salisbury Ia
mented the paralysis of British diplomacy
in the face of foreign tariffs, and in the
absence of any British weapon of re-
taliation, and they suggest that, by the
exemption of West Indian sugar and
Canadian. Australasian and Indian wheat
England may revive the West Indies
thrust off the bOunty-fed sugar of France
and Germany, repay Canada's prO-Brit-
ish tariff preference, and give life to Mr.
Chamberlain's five-year-old dream of a
zollverein embracing the whole Empire.
Mr.. Chamberlain, they add, won the last
election, and the least the Minister can
do is to show confidence in his imperial
trade policy.
But Sir Michael Hicks-Beach is the one
man in the Cabinet who has always pub
lcy refused and repudiated these very
zOllverein ideas. Lord Salisbury, more
over, appreciates more keenly than ever
after his recent experiences with China,
that. hard as is the path of England s
accepted policy Of the open door and equal
opportunities for all in the worlds mar
kets, it must be ten times harder if Eng
land herself abandons that policy in her
home markets. He knows. too, that diff
cult as it now is to maintain active Anglo
American cooperation in foreign affairs
cooperation which is the Sheet-anchor
Of his policy, il would become infinitely
harder if impOSts were adopted, which,
hat toy ION u I'll
especial severity upon American wheat
and, most potent obstacle Of all, every
Minister who matters, except perhaps
Mr.. Chamberlain, knows that to place in
the hands of the Liberal Opposition any
justification for accusing the Government
Of 1eopardiZing the cheap loaf and free
breakfast-table would be to give Liberal
ism new unity ad vigorous life. In a
word, the Chancellor OF the Exchequer
will unless the Ministry means to ruin
the chances of TOryism for the next
decade, look anywhere else than to inn
ported food for means 10 meet his CO.
lossal deficit
Turning to other consequences Of war
of which this week has produced an
abundant crop, the most important is the
aftirma ton of the principle of the SUI
premc civil control Of the army. IL any
thing could have wrecked that vital prin-
ciple Of English freedom. il would have
been the essential feebleness of eX-Secre-
taryr of War Lord LansdoWne, as evi-
denced by his tolerance of Lord WOlSe
ley's neglect Of his duty as commander
in-Chicf and by his acceptance of Lord
Wolseley's COntemptuOus refusal to heed
the judgment of Lord Roberts, as head of
the army in the field, that General Col
vile was incompetent TO continue in com
mand Last nights debate in the House
of Lords gave the last blow to Lord
Wolseley's plea for the removal of civil
control of the war machine, and Mr..
Brodricks 5 firm adherence TO General Col
villes dismissal closes that tell-tale in
tIigue. Militarism has received a fur
theT setback this week by the widespread
disapprOvai of Mr.. Brodricks s threat of
conscription in the event of the failure of
his new army scheme. The criticism of
the week amounts TO this: His scheme
and many another must fail before Eng
land abandOns voluntaryism in military
service.
Another warlilge theme of gravest mo-
ment is this week s announcement that
the committee OF the Admiralty condemn
the BelieVille boilers, with which BRUSH
WaTships have been equipped Colossal
sums OF public money have thus been ad-
mittedly wasted. and the fleet Is in a
somewhat perilous condition. The COM
mittee now says that the Admiralty must
begin all over again and If the type of
Water-tube boiler be decided on, must
fit the navy with some or ali of the four
existing types. other than the Belle
Vile; but, as a naval expert remarked
Yesterday, viii better results be obtain
ed from any other type? We are as much
in the dark as the Admiralty were when
because the Belleville boiler pleased them
i'm the gunboat SharpshOoter, they built
the warships Powerful and Terrible in
demonstration of their confidence
Prot. ChurtOn Collins has set the lit
erary world talking by a vigorous on
slaught in his book. "Ephemera Critica,
upon what may be called criticism by
advertisement. He says, in effect, that
English literary criticism is rotten. Men
who write the bad books are, a rule.
the men who criticise the bad books, and
not half dozen reviews or newspapers
are left which these critics are not able
to coerce. Moreover, the literary journals
are absolutely in the power of the pub
fishers upon whose advertisements alone
they live MIR. Collins is one of the nrSt
literary critics. and he accepts the dec
laration which an editor once made 10
him that if he were to tell the truth as
forcibly as ne could wish about the books
sent to him for review, in six months his
proprietOrs would be in the bankruptcy
court Mr.. Collins gives no names. and
no means of testing his charges, which,
on the face of them, are e&agSerauonS.
Robert Louis Stevenson apparently has
as great hold as ever on English letters
The reprints of his works yield handsome
ROYALTIES for his widow, and at auction his
first editions have just realized the follow
ing prices: Deacon BrOdie' $50; Beau
Austin" So; Father Damien. with au-
-tOgraph corrections, Sl36; Moral En-
b1ems D" $57 The most noteworthy book of
the week is the Rt Hon. Leonard Court
news The Working Constitution of the
United Kingdom" a scholarly and author
cessful chairman Of committee the House
Of Commons has ever had.
SECURED BY THE TRUST.
r n UocI,efrIIer'S steel Intereats Go