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EFFECT ON PARTIES OF THE VOTE IN THE LORDS.
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THE GLADSTONE HASH.
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Mat 26 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 487
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AS people begin to recover" from their surprise at the overwhelming majority of 'Monday last against the financial policy of the Government , the question inevitably suggests itself to every mind , —What will the probable consequences be as regards the relative condition of parties ? Great pains were
taken during the debate to repudiate the imputation of party aims or motives . The rejection of the Paper Duty Repeal Bill was first suggested by a ci-devant Whig Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and amongst those who helped him to carry his motion were twenty of the staunehest members of the political congregation worshipping at Brookes ' s . About the party-colour of men like Lords Donegal and Normanby . Panmure and Grey , Camperdown and Stratford , there can be no doubt ; and as little
as to the politics of men like Lords Harrington , Airlie , Abercrombie , Aveland , Holland , Overstone , and Gosford . Some of these have held Cabinet office , and others places of more or less confidence under Whig administrations . But there is perhaps still more significance , under existing circumstances , in the fact that men like Lords Cowper , Blantyre , Clifton , and Leconfield , men who are not supposed to be easily carried away by individual opinions , and who are very
to allow him to perform certain experimental exploits of a financial kind , But they had subsequently perceived that even in some of these his confident assurances of succesa had not been justified ; and supposing him to be thoroughly sincere , upright , and disinterested , they could not but regard him with aversion and terror as a pre-eminently dangerous man . What the majority of the Lords really meant by supporting Lord MoNteagle's motion was not to displace the Government , but to drive Mr . Gladstone out of it . The son-in-law and stepson of Lord PalmerstoNj the brother-in-law of the Duke of Argyll , the brothei > in-la \ v of Sir Charles Wood , and the nephew of Lord Carlisle , would not have been found among the non-contents had this not been clearly understood- ; and the brother of Lord John Russell and the brother of Mr . Yilliers
would not have been found wanting on the other side . But there is no denjing the fact , that among statesmen and politicians of all shades of opinion save one , Mr . Gladstone has lost influence and character by identifying himself with Mr . Bright and his party . Whether it be too late for him to retrace his steps with safety and with honour , or whether he must pay the forfeit of his generous and unreserved adoption of their peculiar tenets by abjuring office at least for a season , we cannot tell . But certain we are that the governing instincts of both Whigs and Tories are irreconcilably opposed to the financial views of the Manchester School , and that the vote of . want of confidence in Mr . Gladstone come to by the House of Lords will inevitably , though perhaps not immediately , lead to the break up of the coalition of which Lord Palmerston is the head . The noble
closely connected by tics of relationship and friendship with prominent members of the Government , should'have helped to . swell the majority of eighty-nine ; while persons of the highest weight and distinction , like the Dukes of Bedford and Grafton , Lords Leicester , Clarendon , and Stanley of Alderley , refused to aid in reducing it . It is , indeed , quite true that in the ordinary sense of the term the vote cannot be called one of & party description ; and it was not concealed by the speakers in the debate that the matter was regarded very much with
Viscount may retain the' helm- of State , of which nobody just now is anxious to deprive him ; but if he would weather the impending storm , he must part-with-some of his present crew .
reference to class interests . Nevertheless , it is clear that a strong undercurrent of specific animosityjo Mr . Gladstone and those whose ideas he has lately adopted , influenced various sections of the Peers . It was the allusions during the discussion to the principles and projects of the Manchester School that evoked the loudest cheers "; and it has been truly said by a keen observer of passing events , that there was no such speech made in the House of Lords agaimir the second reading of the Paper Duty Bill as that which Mr . Bright made at St . Martin ' s Hall . If the Peers , Liberal as well as Conservative , were to speak their minds unreservedly , nineteen out of every twenty would declare
that they believe the finances of the country are in unsafe hands so long as the Manchester party are allowed to dictate the policy to be pursued with respect to taxation , or , in other words , as long as Mr . Gladstone is Chancellor of the Exchequer . We-are not here considering whether in this ^ nn ^ iAMnn ^ hny -are ^ right or wrong ; we are simply stating a fact of the utmost significance in estimating correctly the character of the remarkable vote of Monday last—a vote , probably , with hardly an example or parallel within the memory of the present generation . Had Mr . Gladstone always been an
advocate of the policy of direct taxation as opposed to indirect , and of pence with France at any price for the sake of commercial intercourse with the people of that country , more deference , perhaps , would be paid to his authority as a financier , and more respect would undoubtedly be shown for his motives as a man . But it happens , unfortunately for him and for the section of politicians of whom he must now be deemed the head in Parliament and in the Cabinet , that he has won that position , whatever its value be , by the most signal abandonment of specific pledges , ami the most abrupt conversion to novel views . It may have been thought , by some , undignified that a statesman like Lord Derby
should choose for the staple of his speech on so great a question , conflicting quotations from those of the Chancellor of the Exchequer during the last three years . But Lord Derby knew well the audience he addressed , and the ideas that were uppermost in their minds . He thoroughly understood what it was they wished to have done , and what were the incentives that would most effectually impel them to aid in doing it . It was not about the PnpcrDuty as ft form of excise , or Die specific amount of deficiency its repeal might create in the ways and means of next year , that the Peers were thinking of . They
believed themselves standing below a sluice-gate , which , if opened rashly , it would be difficult to close , and through which a flood migh t pour thnt would sweep away half the privileges and immunities they most valued ; and they believed that ho whom they snw standing ' b y the side of the sluice , brandishing the key in his hand , was a man governed by imagination and impulse , regardless of his own recent promises and opinions , and equally indifferent to tho ordinary misgivings and apprehensions that influence mankind . They had recently watched with wonder and admiration the way in which he had contrived to persuade his proauic colleagues and a half-incredulous Houso ^ of Commons
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TTTHATEVER be the result of the pesent crisis , Mr . W Gladstone has been the chief ¦'• agent to bring it on . His much-boasted eloquence has sharpened the _ desire of envious rivals to upset him , and increased their chances of success . His Budget 7 which has occupied so much _ of the time of Parliament , has-provoked opposition and supplied opportunities for protracted debates , discomfiture , and defeat . He has inflicted a . deep wound on the party he took office to serve , and has delayed the cause he undertook to forward . If every part -of his Budget were not unavoidably necessary , he is inexcusable for the mischief he lias done .
It cannot be urged as a reproach to us that we pride ourselves on wisdom gained after the event . Immediately on his Budget being promulgated , flattering ourselves on having escaped the seductiveness of his eloqxience , we insisted on the necessity of reducing the expeiidttmtsp ^ vrc ^ We stated the propriety of leaving all great financial questions to the Reformed Parliament ; and we then said Mr . Gladstone had " added to all the difficulties of the Government the great difficulty of unnecessarily disturbing the whole financial system . " " W e stigmatised as ill-timed his furtive attack on the publicans ' monopoly , which , if left alone , would have become , with free trade in wine and other things , utterly unbearable in a short time , when it might have been easily and totally ' suppressed . We condemned the many new and petty Custom-House regulations and duties he applied to trade , and more than once we insisted on
the necessity of simplifying our fiscal regulations , which his plan complicated * . The result justifies our remarks . When it is seen that excessive , expenditure involves the two Houses of Parliament in a quarrel , dislocates a ministry , endangers public credit , begets animosity amongst different classes , and even threatens our institutions , it will be admitted that greater exertion should . havc been made to keep it down . The Ministry which shields itself behind a popular cry , be it what it may , for having brought on by unnecessary expenditure such a series of calamities , merely admits its * inability to rule . It shows that tho aristocracy n » ul the advocates ' of the aristocracy refuse parliamentary reform to avoid , already exists ; and the Ministers are only tho instruments for giving effect to the wishes of the little-instructed democracy . Besides sanctioning unnecessary expenditure Mr . Gladstone ' s Budget was unnecessarily complicated ; it
pretended to promote- freedom ., and . multiplied . restrictions ; it was confused as well as complicated . If the session have -been wasted , tho Ministry injured , and tho Commons degraded , Mr . Gladstone is to blame . / Ho has failed before . In 1853 his budget was essentially different in all points from his budget of 1800 , except that it too was a failure . Some excuse . was found for him in tho Itussinn war , which ensued in the following year , but an increase in the value of money had , before that , rendered his inaneial plan a byword in the City . Tho war hid his blunder .
Effect On Parties Of The Vote In The Lords.
EFFECT ON PARTIES OF THE VOTE IN THE LORDS .
The Gladstone Hash.
THE GLADSTONE HASH .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 26, 1860, page 487, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2349/page/3/
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