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is powerful or trustworthy in the Conservative party , have been for forty-eight hours masters of the government of Britain . The failure of their opponents and the voluntary abnegation of their rivals left them a wide field for the display of all their policy and all their re-. sources . The urgent want of an Administration to conduct the business of the country was never more strongly felt . All the powers which the constitution places in the hands of a Minister on his accession to office were in their posssesion . Even their own followers had begun liberally to discard the encumbrances of their creed . All was in vain . Th « bigotted adherence of the Protectionists to a lost cause has reduced them to the fraction of a party , and Lord Stanley arrived by the exhaustion process at the demonstration that no Tory Government can now be formed out of the materials he possesses , or upon the principle of commercial protection .
« ' It now , therefore , becomes imperatively necessary to terminate the present crisis by a return to the most practicable of the combinations already attempted , and to make whatever sacrifices or concessions are required to give the utmost possible strength and effect to that combination . This is not a moment at which any sort of personal recrimination would be in place . The embarrassments of the past week have been too great , the stoppage of the whole business of Parliament at the outset of the session is too deplorable , the duties of the immediate future , especially in the present year , are too pressing , for us to stoop for a moment to the gratification of any personal predilections . The only question worth asking , since we have now completed the round of all the known combinations of party , is , How is the Queen ' s Government to be most efficiently carried on f
" This is not a time at which any accession of strength can with impunity be thrown away . It is understood that the members of the Whig Administration will meet this morning in their private capacity at Lansdownehouse , to consider the course that it becomes them to pursue , since they are thus thrown back to office by the failure of all competitors . But we trust that it will be admitted by those who are most anxious to promote the stability of the Government , that a mere repetition of the performances which terminated last week will be hailed with no satisfaction by the country . It will leave the abrupt resignation of the Prime Minister wholly unaccounted for , if , within eight days he is to resume his place in the Hou 3 e of Commons , as if his "Government had suffered no defeat , or had become insensible to what it suffered . Too much sensitiveness then Would
only be followed by too much indifference now ; and the transaction would pass with the world for little more than a piece of legerdemain . To remove these impressions another vigorous effort should be made to obtain for the Administration that increase of strength which it requires . In political life nothing is so hopeless as to attempt a return to the past . That ever-shifting sphere effaces in a few hours the traces of what has ceased to be , and the seat which is once left vacant has already crumbled away . Not an address , not a meeting , scarcely a journal , has signified the faintest desire to revive the identical Administration which expired last week ; and if this crisis has destroyed the last illusions of the Protectionists , it lias more clearly demonstrated the necessity of uniting the great divisions of their successful opponents . "
At a later hour yesterday the Herald , in a third edition , announced that Lord John and his friends were " again endeavouring to reconstruct a Cabinet . " " This evening ut five o ' clock , " says the Herald , " Lord Stanley will state all the facts which have been connected with the strange events in English history which have left the nation for a week without a really responsible Minister ; and we doubt not tliat his lordnhip will prove by his statement who ought to be at the helm of Government . "
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We understand that on the meeting of the House of Commons on Friday Mr . Cobden will give notice that he will submit a resolution expressive of the determination of the Houkc to refuse its nupport to any Administration that is not prepared faithfully to adhere to the free-trade policy adopted in the year IHKi . Such a motion will have the effect of discovering the intended policy of Lord Stanley ' s Government , should tmch a Government be formed . — Times .
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MKKTINGS OF THK PEOVLbl . The country is gradually beginning to movo On { Saturday a manifesto from the Parliamentary and Financial Jteform Association wan issued ; but . it does not seem to have attracted any notice . Several meetings have been held during the week to condemn the budget , and the Ministers who proposed it . One of the largest was held in St . I ' aneras , on 'ruesday evening . The large ; vestry hull in which the meeting wan held i « calculated to hold at leant 2000 ihtbouh , and hundreds were unable to obtain udmiHnion . The apueiouH galleries , and even the lobbies of tlu > building , were literally crowded . The senior churchwarden presided , and wua Hupported on the platform by Viscount Diincun , Lord JDudley Stuart Sir 1 \ . Hull , Mr . T . Wnkley , Mr . Jacob Hell , and a hir ^ o number of lneinheiH of the vestry and delegaten lroin the various metropolitan parishes . The whole of the upeakor . s condemned the budget , but especially that part reluting to the bonne tax ! Evorjt allusjou to tho prcNont crisis was caught up most eagerly by the meeting , uiul anything like a bold allusion to Parliamentary Reform wiin warmly cheered . Sir Henjainin Hull , after referring to the proposed Stanley Administration , nuid : — " Jt was idle to suppose thut they could go on with fluou a Ministry aB wuu now formed , and with a certain
right honourable gentleman on the Treasury bench , from whom he ( Sir B . Hall ) said ' Good Lord deliver us . ( Cheers and laughter . ) It was the absurd financial measures of the late Government that turned them out and nothing else—( hear , hear)—and Lord Stanley was at that moment the Prime Minister of this country . ( Tremendous hisses , groans , and uprour , with cries of We won't have him . ' ) All he ( Sir B . Hall ) could say -was , that so far as his vote went , he would not have him . ( Cheers . ) He would do all he could by his vote to turn him out—( cheers )— because if Lord Stanley in the one House , and his representativeMr . Disraeliin the other , must , if
, , they act bbnestly , attempt again to inflict a heavy duty on the food of the people . ( Groans , and ' Let them try it . ' ) The men of Marylebone , it would be said , are difficult to please ; they had turned out the Whigs , and now did not like Disraeli . ( Hear , hear . ) What on earth did they want ? ( Criesof ' Cobden , ' and cheers . ) He could tell them what they would have . They would have reform and retrenchment ; and if they could not get both at once , only let the House of Commons give them the first , and they would get the other themselves . No Ministry could stand at the present day who did not carry out these principles . "
Lord Dudley Stuart did not know whether Lord Stanley would venture to appeal to the country . Let him do so , however , if he liked . The sooner the better . ( Cheers . ) An address to the Queen was carried unanimously , praying her to take only such persons to her Councils as will carry out Reform and Retrenchment . A public meeting of the inhabitants of St . Andrew Holborn , was held on the same evening . Several of the speakers spoke in condemnation of our representative system , and resolutions were passed condemning the land and income tax as unequally and unjustly assessed , causing loss to the revenue and dissatisfaction among the people ; and declaring that realized property should be fairly and equally assessed to the support of public burdens .
The electors of Southwark met on "Wednesday evening at the Bridge-house Hotel , London-bridge , which was crowded to excess . Mr . Thomas Pococke , the chairman of the meeting , said they must have a modification of the income tax : — " For himself , he desired to see removed all imposts that pressed upon the poor man—( cheers )—and he preferred that the taxes should fall directly upon realized property . ( Renewed cheers . ) He was , he thanked God , the holder of a large portion of realized property ; and so long as it was realized he was quite willing to pay his fair share of taxation . ( Cheers . )"
Mr . T . Walker condemned the present system of representation as a mockery and a pretence . " The House of Commons , instead of representing the people , represented an oligarchy and nothing else . " Mr . Howard thought "it was quite sufficient for the aristocracy to have the House of Lords to themselves ; and what he wanted was to see the House of Commons a true representative" of the opinion of the country . " Alderman Humphery , M . P ., said that no man in his senses would attempt to go back to protection . The country would never consent to an alteration which would raise the price of food .
Sir William Molesworth was decidedly of opinion that the window tax should be immediately repealed . But if the people of this country wished to maintain the national credit , they must make up their minds to pay such an amount of taxation in some shape or other as would enable the income to meet the expenditure . The largest portion of that expenditure was the interest on the debt " that could not be curtailed without an act of national bankruptcy , and rather than consent to so disgraceful a deed , he would agree to pay his last shilling in the shape of taxes . ( Cheers . )"
" The other portion of the expenditure of the country wan on account of the general government and defence of the empire . Now , in an old country , with a dense population , holding the position of this country among the nations of Europe , with territories in every portion of the globe , and carrying on a trade with all mankind , it was impossible that the expenditure on account of its general government and defence could ever be an inconsiderable sum , even with the strictest economy . ( Disapprobation . ) It was true that at times the expenditure of the country had been excessive . Ah one of their representatives he had laboured to reduce ; unneceasary expenditure . For three years consecutively he hud « at upon
a committee appointed to inquire into tho military ami naval expenditure of the country . In consequence of that inquiry , her MnjeHty ' n late Ministers had made considerable reductions in expenditure , and he believed that if they had continued in oflice they would have made still further reductions . ( A luuijh . ) It was not the fact , as stated by a previous speaker ,, that the ofllcerH were exclusively or chiefly scions of the aristocracy—( uproar ) -and , aonHidering everything the army and navy were ecrtainly hardly worked , and not overpaid . ( U ) lie thought further reductions
proar . could he made without detriment to the public service , especially in the expenditure on account of tho colonies ; and partly with thin object in view lie had endeavoured to obtain for t ! i « colonies complete self-government in local nfluirn ( C / meni ) lie must , however , repeat that , HujmoHJnJ every reduction to bo mude in national expenditure which could be inado without detriment to tho public nervine yet the expenditure on account , of the debt , the tfenerai government , uud the defence of Una empiro , must always lunouat to a very considerable « um of money ( Moses )
That seemed to him to be a self-evident position , and , therefore , he held it . to be the duty of the representatives of the people , in order to maintain the credit and honour of their country , not to attempt to take off a tax , unless the income of the country exceeded itB expenditure by the whole amount of the tax . Some persons wished for a general and immediate revision of the whole . taxation of the country . They wished to substitute for those taxes which they thought most burdensome other taxes which they considered to be less burdensome . He did not affirm that the existing system of taxation was perfect , nor did he deny that a better system could be devised , if they had to begin afresh to tax the country . ( Hisses ) ' irf **^ . a . _ m —< 4 « Ai s \ % ^ a r \
But he doubted that it would be practicable , even if it were expedient , to make a complete and immediate revision of the whole taxation of the country . ( Hisses . ) He doubted the expediency of so doing : for , though every tax was in itself an evil , the evil of a new tax was more sensitively felt than the evil of an old tax . When a tax had been long imposed , men made arrangements and acquired property under the expectation of its continuance , and became accustomed to it . ( A laugh . ) A new tax disturbed existing arrangements , and altered the value of property , and the novelty of the thing produced discontent . ( Oh !) He doubted also the practicability of not
so doing , for there was a great difference of opinion , only as to what taxes ought to be taken off , but as to what taxes ought to be imposed in the stead of those which might be taken off . In fact , every tax pressed , or appeared to press , unequally upon some portion of the community ; those persons upon whom a particular tax pressed most heavily , were generally most anxious to get rid of it ; and , if they could not hope to do so in any other manner , they not unfrequently endeavoured ^ to transfer it to other persons , who were equally unwilling to accept it . ( Hear , hear . ) What men generally meant by a complete revision of taxation was , to get rid of their own burdens , by increasing the burdens , of other
men . " When there was a surplus he would repeal the most oppressive and obnoxious tax first . At present there was a surplus which would , enable them to repeal the window tax . " Next , he would wish , when the financial condition of the country would admit of it —( derisive cheers )—that the taxes on knowledge should be repealed . " His general views on finance and taxation he summed up as follows : — -
First , and above all things , to maintain in the highest degree the pecuniary credit of the nation ; to reduce unnecessary expenditure ; to adhere to free trade ; and to carry out the financial policy of the late Sir R . Peel . By acting up to these . views he hoped to deserve and obtain their approbation . ( Cheers and disapprobation . )'' wtf Several questions were put to Sir William respecting his Parliamentary votes which did not seem to give satisfaction to his constituents . The inhabitants of the parish of St . Anne , Westminster , met in the theatre , Dean-street , Soho , on Wednesday . The meeting was addressed by Lord Duncan and Sir De Lacy Evans . A resolution was passed
declaring" That the window tax , having been condemned by the people and surrendered by the Government , no future Minister will be allowed any longer to enforce it . That the Bubstitution of any impost in its place is unnecessary because reductions ought to be made in the expenditure of the- country to an amount sufficien t to enable the Government to remove not only this but other taxes which pressed upon the industry of the community ; and that the various members of Parliament be requested to oppose all grantsof money till this grievance be reduced . "
The Liverpool Financial Reform Association held a meeting in the Music-hall , on Monday evening , to discuss the budget and the Ministerial crisis . The chief topic was the blundering budget and the incapacity of such a man as Sir Charle s Wood to manage the financial affairs of this country . Mr . Boult , after stating his belief that " the social progress of the nation , the happiness of the masses , and their progress in intelli gence and education , depended more on a thorou gh alteration of the system of taxation , the Betting free the enorgies of the poople , than anything else , " went on to ttuy :
" The Chancellor had made a wonderful discovery that wo can raise £ 40 . , 000 a-year of taxes from excise , customs , stamps , &o ., without severe pressure . Had he ever heard what were the wages of the agricultural labourers , haiidloom weavers , poor curates , clerks , Sea ., and the tttute in which the smaller tradesmen were all over the country ; for any man to make « uch a Btatement at tlna time of day betokened a callousness « nd an ignorance which , in a Cabinet Minister , wa 8 most discreditable and unpardonable . ( Loud applause ) . The princi ples propounded by the Financial Reform Association were that u system of taxation ought to be carried out by which every man , woman , and child should be allowed to
earn a living , without rcHtriction , whensoever and wherever they pleased . ( Applause . ) The national burdciiH ought to bo fairly levied in proportion to the amount ol the unarm of thouo called on to pay ; not , ua at present , where tho weight wa » laid on the poor i »»» . ilia a leaser proportion on the rich . ( Applause . ) Ho bogged to move , thut the dissolution <> f the Administration , since this meeting was Htiminonrd , aiFordbtoall now assembled the opportunity of expressing their opinion mat the recent embarrassment of the Cabinet , which has long been supported owing to the principles they |> roitwHeu , and the personal character of its chief , has amen from itH want of program in a pro reasive age , and tho utter incompetence of it « financial Minister , both the « o defects being attributable to tho fatal polioy of selecting
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192 « H « iUa *** . __ Satv ^ a y , .. _ ^^^—_ , ^—« —_— . — ^_ i . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ m ™* " ...
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Leader (1850-1860), March 1, 1851, page 192, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1872/page/4/
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