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No. *1S. Mabch 6,1858.1 T H E L E A P E ...
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LORD CLARENDON, THE PRIVATE AND CONFIDEN...
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MR. DISRAELI AS A FINANCIER. Nox having ...
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MR. BUTT'S CASE. Mr. Isaac Butt, the mem...
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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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No. *1s. Mabch 6,1858.1 T H E L E A P E ...
No . * 1 S . Mabch 6 , 1858 . 1 T H E L E A P E R . 229
Lord Clarendon, The Private And Confiden...
LORD CLARENDON , THE PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL . It anything could justify a violent agitation against the forms of secret diplomacy , it would be the speech delivered by Lord Clarendon on Monday last . To diplomacy as a civilized and humane substitute for war , we can have no objection ; but to Lord Clarendon as a British Minister our objections are very strong . His private and confidential method of settling international questions is one which , if the precedent be adopted , may lead to serious inconveniences . The history of the
Walewski despatch becomes still more instructive , and still more personally discreditable to the members of the late Cabinet , as one explanation after another is invented by way of apology . With Lord Clarendon ' s interpretation of it we do not quarrel ; he may , if he pleases , consider it a letter ' that one friend in private life might address to another ; ' but two great Governments are not friends in private life , and that is exactly where we hit the flaw in Lord Clarendon ' s diplomacy . M .
"Walewski had transmitted a State paper to the Imperial Ambassador at the Court of St . James , which was formally communicated to our Foreign Minister , and officially published in both countries . What did Lord Clarendon do ? He replied to this public missive privately and confidentially ; and why ? Because the French Empire was then * staggering under its escape from an imminent danger , ' and because M . Walewski ' s statements
were not to be contradicted . It was from . England , M . Walewski said , that M . Ledrtt Kollin directed the assassins whom he had furnished with arms . " Now , my Lords , " said the Earl of Clarendon , " these words are strictly true . " On the contrary , we take the liberty to affirm , they are strictly false , and Lord Clarendon has libelled a gentleman . He confesses that he avoided public controversy , in order to allay the ' exacerbation' of the French Government
but his confidential communications were vigorous enough . We wish we could say they were satisfactory . Every one knows what these private letters mean , or , at least , may mean . Behind every one of them is a shrug of the shoulder ; behind that , perhaps , a wink of the eye ; behind that , possibly , a postscript , explaining away everything that has been said on the face of the letter . If this be Lord Clarendon ' s theory of diplomacy , no politician can regret that , upon his removal from office , the world caught a glimpse of his private and confidential way of making things pleasant with foreign ministers in their angry moods .
Mr. Disraeli As A Financier. Nox Having ...
MR . DISRAELI AS A FINANCIER . Nox having been able to secure the services of Mr . Gladstone , Lord Derby has reinstated Mr . Disraeli as Chancellor of the Exchequer . Remembering former budgets , the Premier would willingly have sent him to Constantinople or anywhere else , and his party would cheerfully have done without him if they could . He is not so much dreaded by his political enemies as by the party whom he leads in the House of Commons . They fear to follow a man who has in turn advocated and opposed every shade of political feeling —who has in turn attacked and defended almost all the leading men of his time . The pursy and respectable country gentlemen are afraid of the paradoxes of the brilliant orator who would be ready , ifit-suited- 'his * taoticsrto-declare ~ vote-by'ballot-the very essence of Conservatism , and triennial parliaments the palladium of British liberty . But the party are allied to him for bettor and for worse till political death thorn do part ; and as there is a fair prospect that this party is to rule for a time , it may be as well to . inquire what sort of a Chancellor wo have got , and what his qualifications « re for the office . He has already presented two budgets to the
House of Commons—the first so liberal and anti-Protectionist that Sir Charles Wood warmly commended it and claimed it for his own . Sir Charles had but lately vacated his office in Downing-street , and Mr . Disraeli very modestly . made use of the materials he found in ' his predecessor ' s bureau , to the intense disappointment of the agricultural interest , who found themselves betrayed by their supposed champion , and to the horror of Lord Derby , who took occasion to make an after-dinner speech in Goldsmiths' Hall censuring his colleague for neglecting the claims of the occupiers of land . The second budget was entirely his own ; no one would
disputed with him as to its parentage ; no one have anything to do with so rickety and ill-favoured a bantling . The House was treated with a speech upwards of five hours long upon the introduction of the celebrated scheme which was to reconcile all conflicting interests , and to give equal satisfaction to the Free-trader and to the Protectionist . It was not to interfere with the great principle of the day , ' unrestricted competition' ( he could not bring himself to say free trade ) , but it was to give a compensation to the agriculturist by the remission of half the malt duty . This was to benefit the working classes also , by giving them cheap beer , a notion when it
that was compelled to be given up was found by some meddling member ( who was precise enough to descend to calculations ) to amount to a farthing on a pot of beer . This precious reduction of a farthing a pot was to be accompanied by a doubled " house tax , and a well-expressed dogma of ' extending the area of direct taxation , ' which , when explained , meant extending the tax down to all houses in towns . Then the income-tax was to be re-arranged on such an admirable plan that Lord Hertford and the Duke of Devonshire , spending their Irish rents out of the country , would pay only 5 £ d . in the pound on their landed property in Irelandwhile the fundholders , whose dividends were
, specially declared by Act of Parliament to be inviolable , were to pay one-third more than the absentee landlords . The distressed agriculturists were also to pay income-tax at a reduced rate , on the false ground of an assumed diminution of profits , and the difference was to be made up by a further call on men like poor clerks , who were specially selected as bein g the fittest objects for increased taxation renderea necessary by the relief intended to be given to the ' distressed agriculturists . ' ] Mo wonder Sir Charles Wood told the aspiring financier to take back his budget and reconstruct it : no wonder he was told that either he was totally
ignorant upon the subject of finance , or that he had recklessly abused the knowledge he possessed ; no wonder that the budget was proclaimed the most subversive in its tendencies and ultimate effects ever submitted to the House ; no wonder that a triumphant majority declared it was too much to expect that the House should teach the Executive its duty in elementary matters of administration and finance . The first budget was unpalatable to the Conservative party on account of its liberal character ; the second disgusted the whole nation , who immediately saw through the clumsy trick by which the inhabitants of towns were to give to the owners of laud a sort of compensation for the losa of the protective duty on corn . The errors of the
first were excusable , as there was comparatively little time to prepare it ; the second was the result of incapacity , as it was the boasted work of months by which the finances of the country were to be administered upon new principles that were to do everybody good—principles never before heard of . Mr . Disraeli docs not very often descend from the airy regions of paradox to the terra firma of intelligible statements , yet he committed himself to the opinion that a low rate of interest was likely to be permanent from 1852 . Haw grievously he erred in this respect is shown by the fact that during the last five years the rate of interest has varied from five to ten per cent .. Yet he failed to take
advantage of the golden opportunity , by reducing the interest on the Government Debt . His successor made the experiment the following year , but , unfortunately , he came too late , although the public mind was prepared by the Australian and Californian gold'Tiarvests-to-accepfc-a' -diminiahed-rate-from-the Funds . Had a practical and less brilliant man sat at the Exchequer in 1852 , the Three per Cent . Consols would probably have beoomo a matter of history , and an annual saving of some three or four millions would have been effected hi the public expenditure . Our Chancellor ' s latest speeches on money matters have given no signs of improvement ; in the debate on the Bank Charter Wore Christinas he was singularly unsuccessful in his
attempts to dazzle the House by meteoric displays of brilliant sentences that conveyed no intelligible ideas to his hearers ; and City folks eye with distrust and suspicion his ill-judged and factious attempts to tamper with , the principle that secures to us tne blessings of a convertible currency . Up to this time , therefore , Mr . Disraeli has signally failed as a financier . He does not possess that steady , cautious , plodding application which alone enables a man to excel in the science of figures . His ambition is to be brilliant and to be admired , but a good financier forgets himself in the absorbing interest of his subject , and strives only
to be exact and intelligible . If a Chancellor succeeds in bringing the matter clearly before the mind of the House , and gaining their assent to his propositions , if he has carefully worked out the details , and anticipated objections , he may win the respect and admiration both of the House and of the country , though his statements may not have excited a single cheer , nor his speech been adorned with , one well-turned period . Probably , the forthcoming budget will very nearly resemble what we should have had from Sir Cornewall Lewis . The pigeon-holes of the Whig bureau will be again ransacked , the figures on the
blotting-pad of the retiring Chancellor will be carefully examined . The less Mr . Disraeli exercises his inventive genius the better for Lord Derby , the better for the country . There are two millions of Exchequer Bonds falling due , one million of debt to redeem , and increased army and navy estimates to be met . If this be arranged in an honest , straightforward manner , with as little disturbance as possible of existing duties , and with a fair distribution of any increased taxation ( if an increase should be required ) , the countx-y will care but little whether they learn their fate from the smart author octavos
of Coningsby , or from the writer of heavy on political philosophy . Mr . Disraeli can never be a great financier ; he does not possess the logical power , and the cool , unimpassioned judgment which are essential to a first-rate Chancellor of the Exchequer . He may , however , possibly rise to mediocrity , if , taking warning by former failures , and steadily quenching every effort at brilliancy , he apply himself to facts and figures with the same energy and perseverance which have raised the stammering and discomfited opponent of O'Coknell to take his place in the first rank of living Parliamentary orators .
Mr. Butt's Case. Mr. Isaac Butt, The Mem...
MR . BUTT'S CASE . Mr . Isaac Butt , the member for Youghal , has been acquitted of the heavy charge brought against him by Mr . Roebuck . For once that formidable and disinterested accuser has failed ; and the result is the more remarkable since , after the first suspense and astonishment created by the announcement of a prosecution against a member of Parliament for corruption , the public had learned to think there must be something in it . Satiated with stimulating news of all kinds , we had looked to the sacrifice of a member of Parliament as a variety in the melodrama of real life ; but the happy ending has only the more effect as a dramatic surprise . Now that it is all over , we turn round and ask what the cose , and the verdict , amount to .
Briefly , the circumstances of Mr . Butt ' s case are these . According to Mr . Roebuck ' s statement at the opening of the proceedings in committee , it appears that An Moorad Khan , one of the Ameers of Scinde , having been dispossessed by the East * India Company of certain territories which had been granted to him by Sir Charles Napier in recompense for assistance rendered to the British commander , the Ameer had determined to come to England to obtain reinstatement in his confiscated lands . To assist him , he induced Mr . Edward Lees CoFFEYto relinquish the appointment of post master-ereneral to one of the provinces of Scinde ,
worth 1000 / . a year , and to become his secretary . Mr . Coffbt was to roceivo 3000 / . for his services to the Ameer , and an annuityof 1000 / . in the event of success . On his arrival in England with the Ameer , he placed himBelf in communication with Mr . Butt and-several-other-niombcrs-of-JParliamont-relativo to his master ' s affairs . The agreement entered into between Mr . Butt and the Ameer , according to Mr . Cofpey ' s statement , was this : Mr . Butt was to advocate tho Ameer ' s oauso , and if successful to the extent of getting back for him all his landa , was to receive 5000 / . ; in addition to this sum he was to receive another 5000 / ., should ho bo required to go to India in tho interest of the Ameer . Upon the strength of this engagement Mr . Bu ^ x is declared
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 6, 1858, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_06031858/page/13/
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