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    DIGGINGS FQIR MB . GLADSTONE . The tenders received at the Treasury on the 2 nd inst . did not cover the whole of the first series of Exchequer-bonds payable in 1858 , and for the other t \ vo Beriea repayable re-Bpectively in the two subsequent years . There were very few tenders . No doubt the motives "which restrained subscribers would

    bppear in . the Circumstances which attended the proposal , On ! the previous night Iiord 43 rey , Lord Monteagle , and Iiord CLanricarde joined the Opposition in the endeavour to -daaaaage the Croveriunent finance . The subject before the House , indeed , was the second reading of the Income-tax Bill , which was not CMr , Gladstone ' s loan ; and so far as the subject before the House went , it would appear that the grumblers had no warrant for their complaints , since the bill passed almost without ' 4 k word , except h protest , in which we entirely . concur , ftom Iiord Broughaifi against any uch tax as an But

    price of consols , or to railway debentures , or to discount for doubtful bills of exchange between private parties . The maiden aunt , indeed , could tell the other two that railways are bottoms as uncertain as Russian ships ; the tradesman remembers 1825 , and the retired colonel knows that there is a difference between Exchequer-bonds and cohboIs at three per cent ., especially as the bonds are to

    be paid off at par in" four , five , or six years . Still they cannot fix the price , —they would tender , if they only knew what to offer . If they were to offer , say & 7 , Mr . Gladstone might laugh at them , and they are all three rather too tenacious of their own repute for common sense to relish the idea of being laughed at by so gentlemanly and so clever a person as Mr . Oladstone . On the other hand , if they make a short cut and offer a hundred pounds , which in their own mind they would feel to be a very satisfactory mode of lodging the said hundred with its companions , they feel that they might have got more ; and no man likes to give , away his money "to the nation . " So they would wait and see what other persons did . That this was the feeling of the country was shown by the circumstance that as soon as Mr .

    Gladstone stated his real price , 98 J . 15 s ., the public began to send in their tenders . The tradesman felt glad that he had escaped exposing a vulgar ignorance , and making Mr . Gladstone laugh at him . by offering 87 ; and the maiden lady reflected that 25 s . on the 100 / . amount to 12 / . 10 s . on the 10 OOZ ., and would quite cover the cost of her clothing during the year ; for she can make the same sum go as far as most women with a draper and dress-maker .

    Still she does not exactly know what an Exchequer-bond is , nor the shop where she can send to buy one . If she could only learn that , her thousand pounds would be safe ; but she does not like to expose her ignorance— -what woman does ! : —to some people , and does not like to take advice of others about anything so tempting as a 1000 Z : She took advice in 1846 , and the advice took her to Clpel-court . It is an adviser that she wants , anct perhaps when the public becomes better acquainted with Exchequer-bonds , and English people

    have seen the documents , the ins and outs of this proceeding will become better understood , and the direct appeal which the Chancellor has made to the public will receive a more complete answer . It is desirable that it should be so , for if democracy is valuable in anything , it is in trade . It is by a perfect freedom of bartering that a public Minister can find out on what terms he can procure assistance . " We are confident that there are millions of money lying idle in the hands of those private persons who are financially called " the public , " and whom we have ventured to represent by tne maiden aunt , the retired tradesman , and the colonel on half-pay ; sums which might be lodged with tlie Minister , most safely for the owners—and profitable too—and which the Chancellor of the Exchequer might obtain on honeater terms than those which he is obliged to give to the Caucasians that trade upon the State , and make their profits out of " deficiencies . "

    ^ income-tax . leaving the * B ^ ttsure under their consideration undis-£ §| j | p $ tl ^ -IiOrd ; 0 rey , Lord -Mxrateagle , and ^| bW ^ lanricarde made a series of compl aints implying so many charges against Mr . Grlad-WOT % |^ i L using language intended to sug-^^^ iiSat ^ the ^ finance of the country was in a ^ tate of aanger---tliat Mr . Gladstone had not -succeeded in hilt- stock commutation of last

    -year , because he was ? unacquainted with ' ^ nance---and tijat he was opening a career ^ fi | $ t- ' . would so reduce the balance in the -Exchequer as to leiave a defi ^^^ Jjord ( irafc ^ taficea about 'Mile serious statement " *^> 4 * Ik ^ wera ^^ -biU 3 ^ ' % ntl he warMed the House against the bill 3 ^ % nd he warMed the House against the

    > time when the cashier of the Bank might be ^ obliged to disappoint the public creditor , and might ask to haye time in paying dividends ! . Mtbgether it is impossible to imagine a more inonstroua fabrication than that suggested by -these complaints when there is an actual -surplus of'revenue , whenMr . Gladstone has ; ehown the most minute acquaintance with , the ^ details of finance , when his conduct of our

    taxation Ms been such that his benefits have already reached the humblest households , and when the plans he lias laid before the country - *—however controverted by some that have interests arrayed against them— -have received approval from those "who have a practical as well as theoretical knowledge of the subject . The three lords whom we have named , IJord Grey , Lord Monteagle , and

    Lord Claoricarde , are Whigs , who expected to have been promoted with the new Ministry : two are out of place , and one holds nothing better than a pa-tent office . It is for this reason that we find the trio singing the doleful ditty of" danger to the country" from " deficiency" through Mr . Gladstone ' s defalcations , when there is a surplus , and England enjoys an unmeasured amount of wealth , freer from the oppression of "taxes than it has ever been . But the day after that niglit of dismal forebodings was the day for receiving the tenders

    and it was well known that the public had been hanging back , wanting to find out how it should settle its price . This was natural enough , for the public ia not " up" in such matters . Ask any given colonel on half-pay , who has a few spare thousands which he would be glad to place in safety ; ask your maiden aunt , half of whose " little a ] l" invested in railway shares and thus swamped , and who is very nervous about the other half ; ask the retired tradesman , who has some part of his accumulated affluence lodged in a joint-stock bank , where it makes him as

    uneasy as if it wore on board a Russian ship ; — ask these people to tell you oft-hand what would be a fair price per cent , for an Exchequer-bond ? and their replies would tell you how desirous they were of concealing their greenness , by obacuro allusions to tho

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    Most minds seem just now to be inflamed to that sanguine pitch , and most mental palates have "become so feverish that they demand daily victories to be served lip with the eggs and toast , and the Times . Great impatience has seized the noisier part of the public ; the Opposition , although they must know better , artfully increase the excitement , and people seem almost to think that we cannot only transmit the news of battles , but actually win them "by electric telegraph . ' * They forget Russian forts , Russian camion , and Russian

    armiesj . Russian fleets , it must be admitted , are out of the question . In fact , they forget that Russia is a great hedgehog , extremely difficult to handle ; especially as your hedgehog , or porcupine , is made of rock and granite , and can . launch forth not spears , but tieavy cannon-balls and explosive shells , vrhereas your manipulators are untried wood and iron , apable of hitting hard also , but still untried . Under t " hese circumstances we can but regard as most timely the publication of such an article as that in the current number of

    Fraser ' s Magazine , giving sound information , not only as to tlie state of the Russian fleet , but the state of the Baltic fortresses . Russia , as we liave said , is a grim hedgehog , rolled up at present , prickles outwards , very formidable to see . Peter founded St . Petersburg on a shaking bog , and built a fort on the island of Cronslott ; Nicholas has converted the whole strait into a huge fortress ; Alexander seized Pinland , and captured Hel singfdra by treachery ; and Nicholas makes of it " the Gibraltar of the Korth . " So it is

    with the islands of Aland . He has attempted to make of them a padlock on the Gull of Bothnia . The object of war is to destroy or humble your enemy , so that he sue for peace . In the present case we view with just suspicion , and not without alarm for the freedom of

    the North , the vast military works , tlie huge robber castles which the Czar of Moscovy has constructed about the Baltic ; and it is through these very structures that lies the way to the heart " of our foe . Take-, for instance , the islands of Aland , commanding the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia . ! Fhe Czar

    has erected there a vast fortified casemated barrack , which presents 120 guns in two tiers to the roadstead , and commanding the passage of the strait called the Bomar Sund . The use of this , except as a constant menace and ever present danger to Stockholm , it is impossible to conceive . Again , Riga is a fortified city of the first class , but inspired by terror at the name of Napier , the fort commanding the Duna has been strengthened , and other defensive works begun . Revel is

    defended by three batteries , one mounting 62 , another 96 guns , in casemates ; but these forts do not properly support each other . The outworks of Cronstat may be said to begin with the intricate navigations—the sand-banks , rocks , and islands , from which all lights and beacons have been withdrawn —and to this must be added the fire of batteries placed in commanding positions , Sveaborg , where lie eight sail-of-the-line , a frigate , corvette , and three steamers of the Russian

    Baltic fleet , is a most formidable fortress or nest of fortresses protecting Helsingfors . There is a mile of works , not only defending the narrow entrance to the bay , but commanding some points of tho mainland . In taking a fleet to St . Petersburg , it would be necessary to pass , ship by ship , first "between two forts , one mounted with 116 guns , all in casemates , the other mounting nearly sixty

    THE RUSSIAN HEDGEHOG . It becomes a most interesting question now , what is the power of KusBia ? Can . tho Emperor Nicholas , "b y standing to his guns and firing at everything that ventures to come within range , beat back the steady advance of the powerful armaments of the Western Powers ? The question ia not can we take Kussia—but can we bo prevented from destroying the Russian strongholds in tho Baltic , and from bombarding St . Petersburg ?

    guns ; then Fort Peter , seventy-sLX guns ; after that Cronslott , forty guns a Jleur do Veau ; a mole and several other works ; and , lastly , Fort Menzikoff , looking straig ht down tbe channel . Now whether all these works are proof against the firo and nia-

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    4120 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 6, 1854, page 420, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2037/page/12/