On this page

• Departments (1)
  • 
• Text (3)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    THE PARLIAMENT AND THE PRESS.

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    that it is overrated to the extent of more than one half , and will not exceed £ 3 , 000 , 000 . If that be an approximation to the truth , a large portion of Mr . Wilson ' s new taxes will positively not be wanted . Then a very important consideration arises , to which we earnestly hope the public and the Parliament will pay attention , and not allow , as Sir C . Wood recommends , the Indian Government to arrange the taxation of India without interference . Governments , we know , are only encouraged in wasteful extravagance by an abundant revenue . Those who are acquainted with our financial history will recollect how the money of the

    people of England was squandered , for example , in 1823 , 4 , 5 , when the Government had a " Godsend , " and an unusual supply of money . It has always been squandered whenever it could be easily obtained . On such a subject no witness can be superior to Sir C . Trevelyan , and he tells us that " official hierarchies never look with favour on reduction of expenditure . " " At Calcutta , " as at London , " the favourite remedy has always been increase of taxation , " which the late Sir K , Peel once described as the vulsar expedient , had recourse to on all occatheihand into the

    sions by feeble Governments , " of putting r national pocket . " " Large funds , " says Sir Chakles , " suddenly placed at the disposal of a public department are certain to weaken the restraints of economy . " "F unds procured by such taxes as are proposed would be wastefully raised and wastefully applied . " Correctly , we have no doubt , he observes , " that the proposed increase of taxation would arrest the course of improvement in the South of India , and . prevent the reduction of the redundancy of ill-paid revenue officers , which is its greatest evil . It would lead to its increase , for the European officers are

    already overtasked . ' In accordance with these just remarks , Sir Charges' zealously and eloquently advocates , as opposed to increased taxation , the reduction of establishments and of expenditure . This is the only safe means of dealing with this great subject . "We cannot afford ' , " - he says , "to have a discontented people and a discontented ' army on our hands , at the same time . " He therefore would , if possible , increase the content of-the people , now most favourably disposed towards our rule , who have continued quiet in the midst of mutiny ; and decrease the army , which would give additional hands to industry , and thus increase the national prosperity and the national revenue .

    Our limits forbid us to follow Sir Charles in all his detailed recommendations for melting down all the heterogeneous elements " of the old military establishment into a good police and a good auxiliary native force ;* ' to concentrate our military power . aLa _ few : _ ceritrai positions , from which , with our present facility of transport , every part of The huge empire lnigfrtrbirspeedrly reached and commanded ; to make the civil service more efficient , and to pay its members better , the present general rise of prices making salaries and wages insufficient for subsistence , and therefore making additional taxation unusually objectionable . We content ourselves with saying , on his authority , " that

    large reductions are making , both in Madras and Bombay , and large corresponding improvements , but that the great field for reduction is Northern India . " He remarks , correctly , that there are now no large native armies in existence , as in Lord Amheust ' s and Lord William Bentinck ' s time , and no necessity , consequently , for us to keep up corresponding armies . The Bengal : native army has dissolved itself ; there is , throughout our territory , prosperity and-unusual employment for the people .

    The opportunity , therefore , is' excellent for making reductions . " The national balance-sheet may be adjusted by reducing expenditure , or by increasing taxation ; " but the Government has no right , Sir Chakles justly asserts , to demand additional taxation , unless it be impossible " to reduce expenditure . " His enlightened sentiments and his vigorous denunciation of Mr . Wilson's new " tremendous taxes , " are fully subscribed to by Sir Peter Grant , the Hon . W . A . Morehead , and the Hon . R . Maltby , the members of the Madras Council ; and there already prevails ,

    we are told on authority , a " sullen feeling of dissatisfaction wherever Mr . Wilson ' s scheme of taxation has been understood . " We nro well assured that the contest between the two official gentlemen on sneh . vital questions will not end in mere words . One or other will have to secede from the Government . The public , therofove , must bejnrepnrcd to take a side , and resolve whether it will stnhd by Sir Ciiar £ t 3 S Trevelyan , a reduced revenue , nnd economy ; or by Mr . Wilson , now taxes , ah enlarged revchuo , and corresponding waato , ending in renewed mutinies and ruin . There are indications in the Minute pf a strong personal feeling between these two official gontlemon , and it ia impossible ) that both oai ^ remain in high positions in India With advantage tp the public service .

    Untitled Article

    rpHE public are at last indebted to Mr . Hobsman for an amnsing J- and instructive episode , that has relieved the weary sameness * of parliamentary debates . For a long time Mr . Hobsman lias been in a state of chronic irritability , and if we did not know that the honourable member for Stroud was an old stager in public affairs , we should imagine him to be cutting his political teeth , and exhibiting that fractioushess which is too well-known in the nursery , and drives suffering parents to " Mrs . Johnson ' s soothing syrup , to moth Hobsman is

    or some other " real blessing ers . " Mr . certainly entitled to the praise of disinterestedness . He disgusts his constituents , and flings away his reputation with a spendthntt magnanimity that gives the lie to any accusation of corrupt motives . If any one accused him of self-seeking , he could point triumphantly to his constant practice of self-slaughter , and those who wish him well regret that he does not manifest the ordinary circumspection of a man who is able to perceive the consequences of his acts . We do not wish to be hard upon Mr . Hobsman , and much prefer the reality of bis quemlousness to the sham and pretence of most parliahat

    mentary speakers ; and we believe that , without clearly knowing w he was about , he has done more good than nine-tenths of the tiresome " -entlemen who have lowered the character of the House of Commons by their six weeks' chatter against Parliamentary Reform . . , Mr . Hobsman was dragged before the assembled wisdom of the nation on Monday as the proprietor of a singular grievance . The Times newspaper had accused our immaculate senators of being influenced by the fear of dissolution and the expense of contested al had made h

    elections , and the chief proprietor of that journ . a speec on the inconvenience of sending members of Parliament to meet their constituents on the cosily occasion of an appeal for their votes . In the . remarks of the Times Mr . Hobsman ' s name figured with an ironical allusion that might , with a little squeezing , be interpreted to include him in the category of imperfect patriots , and which induced him to write to Mr . Wai / tee , complaining of the course his paper had taken , and expressing his intention to notice the matter in the House of Commons . A few letters were exchanged , and the end of it was that Mr . Walter brought the case forward himself ,

    and emphatically denied any personal responsibility for the opinions expressed by the journal of which lie was a proprietor . Mr . Hobsman , in reply , complained of the irresponsibility of the Press , and was virtuously indignant about what hjj called the calumnious attack of the Times tipon the House of Commons . "In the course of his speech he read a letter he bad addressed to Mr . Wai / teby . and which that gentleman was too-modest to _ read himself . In this epistle he expressed his belief that Mr . Walter was responsible For the conduct of his paper , and . spoke of the calamity of a great journal being " true to no principle , constant to no policy , and disdainful of all rules of public justice and morality . " These and ' similar sentences were loudly cheered as they were read , and a sensation was produced by the following public allusion to circumstances well Known but rarely referred to : — " I have not time to remark on

    the personal influences by which the Times is supposed to bennected , oi . " the peculiar influences that draw Mr . Delane to Lord Palmerston , ¦ and ~ f . » iA _ fl . nnmAmns _ position and proceedings of Mr . Lowe onj ; he Treasury Bench . " Mr . Hobsman seems altogether to mistake the * source of the power a newspaper wields . Its editor may dine with Lord Palmebston , nnd One of its writers may sit on the Treasury Bench , but it can exert little influence if it is not , on the whole , an accurate representation of the thoughts and wishes of its readers or constituents . If the Times did not obtain support from that portion of the public to which it is addressed , its plans would soon be" altered , or its circulation and influence would full . Not one reader in a thousand cares for its columns of advertisements , and , thanks to competition , all the facts of the day can be obtained

    elsewhere . It is idle to talk of irresponsibility—the Times is responsible to its supporters ; and those who habitually buy it or read it would not do so if they felt any horror at its career . The average tone of the morals of the wealthy class does not lead them . to brand the conduct of a journal that chops arid changes with the varying interests and passions of their order , nor does a connexion of responsibility with such an organ cause any one to be shunned in tho " best society . " The time , no doubt , will come when playing fast and loose with great public questions will be deemed a crime ; but ho long as members of Parliament buy their seats , and refuse , session after session , to legislate honestl y against political corruption , it is ridiculous for them to complain that somebody besides themselves trades in political principles , and keeps on hand a stock that their business experience leads them to anticipate will soil . The journalism of England is a long way from perfection , but it

    is in advance of the public , who will scarcely ever supply anythingbetter than insolvency and ruin for any Tonrless and consistent advocate of truth . There is not on record an instance of a high-priced paper that has obtained a large circulation on account of the integrity tuul ability of its editorial department , and few . things are more unsaleable than steady devotion to sound princip les and just plans . Tho anonymous character of leading articles may , perhaps , bo modifled , but it could not be advantageousl y abandoned . Hundreds of the most laborious students and ablest thinkers are not known to the -public , and tho systematic appending of their naincs to their contributions would excite porsonal antagonisms that now happily do not exist . In provincial towns the editor of a paper is always known , and many London journals oxerfc a power from tho character of particular persons who odit or contribute to them .- In the case of the Times everybody has known that Mr . ' DELANE was its editor , and Mr . Lowb one of its chief soribes . Thus , then , has exitsiod the

    Untitled Article

    444 The Leader and Saturday Analyst , [ May 12 , 1860 .

    The Parliament And The Press.

    THE PARLIAMENT AND THE PRESS .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), May 12, 1860, page 444, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2347/page/8/