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Fjsb. 18, I860.] T/ie Leader and Saturda...
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THE POLITICS OF THE BUDGET, WHILE the ex...
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DEBATE IN THE LORDS' ON ITALIAN AFFAIRS....
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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.
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Fjsb. 18, I860.] T/Ie Leader And Saturda...
Fjsb . 18 , I 860 . ] T / ie Leader and Saturday Analyst . 151
The Politics Of The Budget, While The Ex...
THE POLITICS OF THE BUDGET , WHILE the exhilaration produced by Mr . Gladstone ' s 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 most approved Free-trade stamp , like Mr . LocKE ^ and bir Charles Napier , find it necessary to finesse with the discontent of the hop merchants , and only succeed in escaping an order to rote ao-ainst 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 Biding 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 , tmless the French duty on yarns be cut down from thirty ' to ten per cent . These and other indications , likely to-be followed by others of a similar kind , were all that were required to restore animation to tlie political opposition within the walls of Parliament , that seemed for a moment stimned 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 URY s , to hear their chief propound his views of counter-policy . As might be expected . Lord Derby denounced the continuance » nd 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 France / 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 discretionary power whereby the British Government might , for 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 may obviously be meditating hostile combinations 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 . iind peculiar danger of steamer armaments , that they may be collected at i \ given rendezvous on a given day , and almost at a given hour , from all . points of the compass , and thence directed with terrible precision against any undefended quarter . The ohief remaining requisites of their strength arc heavy guns , 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 limi $ e < l amounts . It well behoves Parliament to consider whether in doubtful and threatening times we ought to throw away the advantage Nature has conferred on us in this great item of nlnritime defence . Mr , Horsman , it is said , has been specially 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-ministerial 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 Curlton 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 \ re intensely delighted at this ; particular part of Mr , Gladstone ' s projoct : we may therefore reckon on some serious defections from the usually compact yanks of Opposition , as a setolt to whatever amount of Radical defection there may be from the ministerial side . Xord Dkuhy has likewise , signified Jus intention of joining issue with Lord PalmerstpVs "Grovoriunent upon the general
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 J 150 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 arriere 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 . Gladstone : would fain be spared the desperate endearments of his selfappointed dry-nurse ; but furiously his uncompromising guardian flings him up in the air , claps his hands , laughs for glee , and then alternately cuddles and cuffs him with half-contemptuous , half ^ affectipnate 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 . \ BRIGH ' > vell as Mr . Gladstone beeiv earlier admitted to the Cabirjet . 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 questionsInvolved in the Budget will be sharplyfought ; but we doubt very much whether Lord / Derby Would really wish to win a decisive pitched 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 our opinion he is too shrewd and too honest a man to make the attempt .
Debate In The Lords' On Italian Affairs....
DEBATE IN THE LORDS' ON ITALIAN AFFAIRS . SIMPLE-MINDED and straightforward people frequently ask one another—what does Lord Hormanby 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 tlic present reign , ho has not 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 to conceive what lucrative sinecures can bo kept up for , if it be not to stop tho mouths of court favourites , who , like the marquis , have carfo ilahche to make thoinsclves troublesome whenever # . their wants ave not appeased . ' It is only needful that they should take euro to distinguish between tho wish of the nation , and the will of tho Court } and to bo always suro tlint , however they may oudeavour to thwart tho former , they nevor lorgct Mio
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 18, 1860, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18021860/page/3/
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