The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-17
LONDON NEWS AND GOSSIP.
Grent Anxiety Being Manifested Over
the English Budget.


LONDON. March 16-War and the di-
| 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 100000 or thereabouts which.
even allowing for a further war loan of
Sl50. OD. 900 will have to come from addi
tional taXation2 The income tax is al
| ready at a war level, namely. shilling in
the pound An additional sixpence would
produce S50,0000 900, but nobody imagines
that even Il Ministry with $50 majority in
Parliament will thus affront the great
middle class. upon whom the income tax
falls most heavily.
Probably the increase will be twopence
or fourpence If Sir Michael Hicks-Beach
were amenable to pressure from several
influential Ministerial quarters, he would
provide the balance by a duty of a haif-
penny per pound on imported sugar
yielding SSG,O00 600 Asnually, 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
tary, 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 nasty
reminder of the heavy price of imperial
ism. The time has come, they urge. to
open wider the doors of indirect taxa
ton. which throws no such damper upon
expenditure. Moreover, they recall the
speeches in which Lord Salisbury la
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 prohibit
lsh tariff preference, and give life to Mr..
Chamberlain's five-year-old dream of II
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
licly refused and repudiated these very
zollverein ideas. Lord Salisbury more
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,
a cooperation which is the sheet-anchor
of his policy, ii would become infinitely
harder If imposts were adopted. which.
whatever the intention, would press with
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
word, the Chancellor of the Exchee,,iar
will, unless the Ministry means to ruin
the chances of TOryism for the next
decade. look anywhere else than to i'm
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
affirmation OF the principle of the SUI
prene civil control of the army. IL any
thing could have wrecked that vital prin-
ciple Of English freedom. it would have
been the essential feebleness of eX-Secre-
denced by his tolerance of Lord Wolse-
ley's neglect of his duty as commander
in-chicf and by his acceptance of Lord
Wolseleys 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
Wolseiey's plea for the removal of civil |
control of the war machine. and Mr.. |
Brodrick's firm adherence to General Col
ville's dismissal closes that tell-tale in |
trigue. Militarism has received a fur
Their setback this week by the widespread |
disapprOval of Mr.. Brodricks threat of |
in the event of the failure of |
the week amounts TO this: His scheme |
and many another must fail before Eng
land abandOns voluntaryism in military
service
Another warlilze theme of gravest mo- !
ment is this week announcement that |
the committee of the Admiralty condemn |
the Believille boilers. with which British !
warships have been equipped. Colossal |
sums of public money have thus been adj !
wasted. and the fleet is in a |
somewhat periious condition. The COM |
mittee now says that the Admiralty must |
begin all over again, and If the type of |
boiler be decided on, must re-
tit the navy with some or all of the four
existing types. other than the Belle
viii better results be obtain
ed from any other type? We are as much
in the dark as the Admiralty We're when
because the Believille boiler pleased them
in 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
He says, in effect, that
English literary criticism is rotten. Men
who write the bad books are, as a rule.
the men who critcise 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
they live. Mr. Collins is one of the first
literary critics. and he accepts the dec
aration which an editor once made to
him. that if he We're to tell the truth as
forcibly as he could wish about the books
sent to him for review. in six months his
)roprietors 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 eXaggerations.
Robert Louis Stevenson apparently has
rs great a hold as ever on English letters. |
The reprints of his works yield handsome
Qualities for his widow, and at auction his
irst editions have just realized the follow
ng prices: Deacon BrOdie." $50; Beau
Austin" $50: Father Damien" with au-
ograph corrections Sl36; Moral En-
,lems" $57. The most noteworthy book of
he week is the Rt. Hon. Leonard Court
ley's The Working Constitution of the
United Kingdom" a scholarly and author
tative political survey by the most sue
essful chairman of committee the House
# Commons has ever had.