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    Untitled Article

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    THE POLITICS OF THE BUDGET,

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    DEBATE IN THE LORDS' ON ITALIAN AFFAIRS.

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    "tTt 7 " HILE the exhilaration produced by Mr . Gladstone s W speech was still fresh-and vivid , few people > seriously contemplated the probability of effective Opposition to his plan . 'Che public mind was startled by its varied novelty , and dazzled by the brilliancy with which it was displayed . But as the effervescence has subsided , and the aroma of the first pouring forth has passed away , different degrees of appreciation begin to l > e expressed , and as the wine grows clear a certain degree of sediment is found in the cup . Metropolitan members of the inost approved Free-trade stamp , like Mr . Locke and Sir Charles Napier , find -it necessary toJinesse with the discontent of the hop merchants , and only succeed in escaping ah order to

    rote against the scheme , as a whole , by the amusingly elastic promise to do so if , after full debate , it should appear that its other provisions are as objectionable as that which embitters the soul of beer . Even Lancashire and the West Riding are far from being satisfied with some of the most important details ; Liverpool objecting loudly to the increased delay and incon-Tenieiice of the proposed penny-onrpackage duty , and Leeds seriously threatening a demonstration against the export of machinery , Unless the French duty on yarns be cut down from thirty ' to ten per cent . These and other indications , likely to bo followed by others of a similar kind , were all that

    were required to restore animation to theApolitical opposition within the walls of Parliament , that seemed for a moment stunned l > y the far-resounding rhetoric of the Chancellor of the Exchequer . On Tuesday last a meeting of the Derbyite members of the House of Commons was held at Lord Salis-3 i : ry's , to hear their chief propound his views of counter-policy . As might be expected . Lord Derby denounced the continuance ¦ and increase of the income tax , and made many severe comments Loth upon what is contained and what is not contained in the Commercial Treaty with Prance , He dwelt especially , we are told , on the recognition by England of the differential duties in Trench ports on English shipping , and on the absence of any overnment htfor

    discretionary power whereby the British G mig , . political reasons , restrain the export of coal to the Continent , Without ' violating its other engagements with France : the latter is a point on which we believe grave debate is likely to arise—not on mere party-,, but on what may be truly designated national , grounds . The export of coal as a matter of commerce in ay , in itself , be right ; but coal having been recently pronounced by the prevalent opinion of Europe not to be contraband of Avar , it becomes a more serious question whether we ought not to reserve to ourselves , in case of threatening danger from abroad , a legal and acknowledged power of limiting betimes the supply of this great essential of maritime strength to those who hostile combinations

    ¦ may obviously be meditating against us . Times are changed since we could afford to allow a powerful fleet to be gradually assembled in the Baltic by a professedly neutral power , confident in our ability at the last moment suddenly to seize and destroy it , lest it should be turned against us . We cannot rely fox our safety upon the precedent of Copenhagen . It is at once the peculiar advantage « md peculiar danger of steamer armaments , that they may be collected sit i \ given rendezvous on a given day , and almost at a given hour , from all . points of the compass , and thence directed ¦ w ith terrible precision against any undefended quarter . The ohief remainini ? requisites of their strength arc heavy guns , ¦ ¦

    scope and tendency of the Financial Plan , which he , not without reason , regards as deriving its origin mainly from the inspirations of the Manchester School . He says , and perhaps truly ; that , after What has already occurred , any further transfer of permanent burthens from indirect to direct taxation will be irreversible ; and that the country must make up its mind to an increased and yearly increasing income tax , or to a vast reduction of naval and military armaments , if it adopts Mr . Gladstone ' s Budget . Mr . Bright says the same , and confesses that he is chiefly reconciled to the re-imposition of tenpence in the pound on all incomes above 06150 a year for the ensuing year , because he hopes by the end of that time that the community in general will have got thoroughly out of temper with its undisciiminating injustice ; and that when they find it impossible tb re-enact customs and excise duties in place of it , they will sweep it away , and some ten millions of army and navy estimates at the same time . The avowal of this arr ' iere pensee is equally characteristic' and inopportune . Mr . Bright , with , his usual impatient egotism , cannot resist the premature utterance of his delight at the prospect of working out so much of his antiwarlike principles , even under Lord Palmerston for Premier . His delight with Mr . Gladstone , as the finest official child he has ever seen , breaks forth into passionate raptures and gesticulations , as reckless as they are rough . Poor Mr . Gi > ad stone would fain be spared the desperate endearments of his selfappointed dry-nurse ; but furiously his uncompromising guardian flings him up rn the air , claps his hands , laughs ; for glee , and then alternately cuddles and cuffs him with half-contemptuous , half-affectionate care . The evident moral meant to be drawn from the whole affair , was set forth the other day * in plain terms , by Mr . George Wilson at Manchester , when he asked his hearers to think what we might have c 6 me to by this time , in matters of taxation , had Mr . Cobden and Mr . Gibson been sooner-employed in high stations , and had Mr . \ Bright as well as Mr . 0 lad stone been earlier admitted to the Cabinet . Conservatives will hardly fail to fasten on these boastings , and to incite the flagging party zeal of their friends out of doors by pointing to the ultimate results at which the men of Manchester aim . We hate little doubt that the leading questions involved in the Budget will be sharplyfought ; biit wedoubt verymuch whether Lord Derby would really wish to win a decisive pitclted battle before Easter- A practical grievance like a renewed and unreformed income tax would be worth more to him than a premature triumph . He has but three hundred votes in the present House of Commons , though it is one of his own calling ; and he could not presume to ask the Queen for another dissolution within twelve months from the last . It is capital fun for him to find fault with the present Budget , but where is lie to find another , without resorting to four-fifths of the same materials as those which have been used by Mr , Gladstone ? He may carp at the treaty with France , and in some particulars not without reason ; but is he prepared to tear it in pieces , and thus provoke a rupture with our great rival , for sake of replacing Lord Malmesbury in Downing Street , and Lord Chelmsford on the woolsack ? Lord Derby well knows that a more desperate undertaking was never conceived than that of a Tory resumption of power at the present moment , and . in pur opinion , he is too shrewd and too honest a man to make the attempt .

    .... ** » i i * i nil _ i » _ i . powerful steam engines , and supplies of coal . The first , every foreign notion will soon be able to command ; and the second they can , at a certain cost , always manufacture for themselves , Fuel is alone beyond the reach of treacherous absolutism , save iit enormous cost and in very iimitjeU amounts . It well behoves Parliament to consider whether in doubtful rind threatening times we ought to throw away the advantage Nature has conferred on us in this great item of njnritime defence . Mr , HoRSMAN . it is said , has been sp ecially applying his attention to this subject , and intends to take personal satisfaction for his exclusion from the present Cabinet by giving , the country

    the benefit of his anti-mimsterial investigations . Mr . Disraeli has received instructions from his chief to back to the utmost the malcontent member for Stroud ; and as nineteen out of twenty members of the CJurlton Club have " no interests in coal ,, we may take for granted that they will ns a body vote against Government on this clause of the treaty . On the other hand , not a few of the Welsh and North Country Tories i \ ro intensely delighted at this ; particular part of Mr , Gladbton e ' s projoct : we may therefore reckon on some serious defections from the usually compact yanks of Opposition , as a setoff to Whatever amount of . Radical defection there may be from tlie ministerial side . Xord Dkuky has likewise signified Jus intention of joining issue with Lord PalmerstpVs < GrQvoruinent upon the general

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    SIMPLE-MINDED and straightforward people frequently ask one another—what does Lord Normcanby mean ? Once a week , since the Session opened , the Veteran courtier lias availed himself of his position to denounce and defame the Italian cause . Were , his position as insignificant as his personal capacity for mischief , the evil would be too small to merit attention . Unfortunately such , however , is not the case . -The noble Marquis 'filled , for some years , the post of Ambassador at Paris , and subsequently that of Minister at the court of Tuscany . Of his previous career as Governor of Jamaica , Post Master General , Home Secretary of State , and Viceroy of Ireland , it is unnecessary to speak . Suffice it to say that during tlie present

    reign , ho has pot been suffored for any length of time to remain out of place j and as ho is now not more incompetent in point of good , sense or ability than he ever was , ho naturally expects to be reappointed to some lucrative office , either abroad or at home . And for our parts , we are , we confess , at a loss tQ conceive what lucrative sinecures can be kept up for , if it be not to stop tho mouths of court favourites , who , like the marquis , have carfe hlaitcliG to make themselves troublesome whenever their wants ave not appeased . ' It is only needful that they should take care to distinguish between tho wish of the nation , and the will of tho Court j and to bo always suro thnt , however they may endeavour to thwart tho former , they never lorget the

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    Fjsb . 18 , I 860 . ] T / ie Leader and Saturday Analyst . 151

    The Politics Of The Budget,

    THE POLITICS OF THE BUDGET ,

    Debate In The Lords' On Italian Affairs.

    DEBATE IN THE LORDS' ON ITALIAN AFFAIRS .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1860, page 151, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2334/page/3/