Ministers, considering wh...
The Times, 1824-10-14T00:00:00

Ministers, considering what means are at thleir disposal for the purchase of discr?et and useful friends, do not al- ways appear t, iis in that partionlar to hove macle the hnst possible bargains. The public income las, within these two or three days, been shown off to some adlvantage. No person,. that we are aware of, has exlhibited a wisli to treat the finance retuins with undue asperity. The revenue has ha(d credit for all that it produeed-thc Minister for every tax that he abated, even for those, be it well remembered, which he clung to as long as he was able, and wlich lhe sacrificed only when he could no longer keep them. That the people generally have seemed well satisfied with the relief affbrded to telim, and with the fair prospects whichl begin to open upon the country, is a subject to every man of lhonest gratIfication. WeV have ourselves studied, and have hinted our reason for it, to keep d own as much as a sense of duty would permit, that spirit of criticism which oughlt to characterise the ordinary discussions of'a free press upon the Government, because it was far from our purpose at this moment to disturb, or in any way retard, the course of Ministers at their first entranec upon the path of good seRse anti liberality in wlhat concerns the financial system; but there are among the satellites of office, men who dis- (lain such temperate success. Rcasonable approbation of a Ministerial measure is to them no better than " damninlg with faint praise." A cotemporary passes a just stricture on sOlne item-s which have been scraped to- gether from the p4ublic offices, professing to give the amount of taxes reduced within the last five years. The gross esti- mate of such reductions is eight millions andl a lhalf; but althourghi it is perfectly true that above thrce millionis of taxes were imposed juist one year hefrre these boaste(d re- uluctionis werecommenced upon, and although it is sufficient. ly despicable to have stated the reduction of taxes without onCeC hinltinig at the previous augmentation, wvhiicl in cffcct reduces the relief to five millions instead of cight, we are justified in remarking further, that if thc condlition, of thc counitry at present be viewed in comparison with what it wvas seven or eight years ago, the relief from taxes so much preached about is rather nominal than real. If the revenue raised by Governmenlt from the country was then greater by five millions and a half than it is now-that is to say, greater by eight or ninle per cent.-so was the general income of the nation greater by at least tl/irly p)er cent. than that which for many years, exceFpl L11xi lr U. t the Treasury. The reit of land has fallen more than thirty per cent. The interest of money, to those who live upon that interest, has fallen in the proportion of five to two, or not less than forty per cent. If the income of the nation seven years ago, was two hundlre(d millions, payinig sixty millioDs of taxes; to-day it would( be less than one hun- dred and forty milhions, paying fifty millious of taxes! In this, we were not hitlherto disposedI to tell the people that they ha(d any cause for complaint ; but now that these whippers-in of Downlinlg-street are driving us, we do assert that is no groutn(l for gratitude or exultation. These gentry know nothillng of their btusiness. None but a fireside- sportsinan would be guilty of heading the hounds wheln they are onl the true scent. To " spur the willing steced" is not the act of ani accoinplishe(d rider.