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    Untitled Article

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    Untitled Article

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    Untitled Article

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    THE TREATY.

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    THE COMING PAULIAMENTABY STRUGGLE. certain to atten

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    Untitled Article

    / CONTRARY to what was intended , the Commercial Treaty V-A with Erance tas been published several days before the Chancellor .-of the . Exchequer has been . able to . make his financial statement for the year . - The ; public curiosity , has thus been prematurely gratified to the detriment of ministers , and the proportionate advantage of Opposition . No doubt it is a bore to have the taste of the pill in your mouth , even for a short time before you have currant jelly but so it is , and there is no help for it now .. Perhaps , upon the whole , Mr . Gladstone may have no great cause to complain ; for whatever may have been the disappointment felt at what the treaty does not contain , time lias

    been given for it to pass away , before the many consolations of the Budget have been revealed . Without adverting to the . latter , it may not "be amiss to consider the specific merits and demerits of the former . .. . The Budget may or may not be adopted by Parliament , in part or in the whole . Whig Governments have never shown themselves immovably obstinate in refusing to remodel their measures of finance . It seems , indeed , to be one of their traditions , that a mere money question , a matter of a few

    millions more or less , to the vulgar tax-paying community can ever be fairly considered a point of honour with them . Lord Althokp ., the most popular of Whig Chancellors of the Exchequer , did not mind coming down to . the House on a Monday , and telling it to rub out of its recollection all he had said 611 the Friday before about what he should want to meet the current outgoings of the year , as in point of fact he had quite forgotten the beer duties . Sir Chaui / es Wood , another of our heaven-born , financiers , was never indeed known to admit

    himself wrong in any of his . calculations : but sooner than resign ive know that he agreed to . take back his -Budget . . . three times in one session . Mr . Gladstone has indeed been brought up . in a different school , and might possibly evince less ' pliancy ; yet there are those who believe that the additional week afforded him for reflection ., after the ¦¦¦ warning division on Mr . ¦ . ¦ Wise's motion , was not altogether thrown away ; and that in the intervals of gargling for that not inopportune sorethroat , many minor points were reconsidered . But the terms of the treaty with France having once been agreed to between- ' the- , two Governments , cannot be so easily modified . Such as they are

    them the advantage it is likely to bring . But we are bound to acknowledge as impartial jurors , whose verdict as between the classes must be given without fear , favour , or affection , that another great interest had a paramount claim to the care of piu 1 Government in their dealings with France . We need hardly say that we allude to the Shipping interest , just now seriously depressed , and at all times deserving the peculiar consideration of the rulers of this country . The differential duties on P > ritisli vessels entering French ports from any third country , are most injurious to our commercial marine . It is one thing to propose retaliating duties here on French vessels , and it is quite another thing when negotiating a Free Trade Treaty to allow this odious and oppressive system to remain intact . We do not wish to impute to ministers forgetfulness of the interests of their country in this matter , but we must give utterance to our regret that if they made the demand for equalized tonnage dues , they were not more firm in insisting upon them . Our fops might very well have been left to pay sixpence a pair more for their gloves , and our fine ladies a few shillings-a yard more for their velvet and lace , if something more nearly approaching to common justice had been extorted for our mercantile marine engaged in the carrying trade from distant parts of the world . We treat French vessels as we treat our own ; why should not France reciprocate our cosmopolitan liberality ? . But , as we have said , we much prefer to rest the defence of the new commercial treaty on other grounds . It is a great political fact , —a fact worth ten times the utmost fiscal loss _ its enemies charge to its debit , —arid that not only morally speaking , but in monies numbered . Already it has caused the army and navy estimates for the year , as they were originally framed , to be cut down very materially .- But , bearing in recollection that we are not yet emerged from a military fever ,, following a national ague of unexampled intensity , it cannot be supposed that w « shall see at the first blush all the good effects that are likely to ensue in this respect . Every year , moreover , will . . inevitablyincrease the number of those ' hi ciieli country the rate of wltose profits and wages ; will in future , depend upon the preservation of peace . The Chancellor of the Exchequer declares that within--a very limited time , the experiment lie thus proposes to make will , by its financial results , vindicate itself . We say , whether it does so or not ,, we shall be large gniners thereby ; and that , taking into account . calmly the whole of the consequences , were the whole of the revenue permanently lost which is , now about to bo temporarily-given up , the treaty would be worth the money .

    they must stand for the present , and we must make up our minds to make the best of them , for we do not suppose that even Lord ' Derb y , rash as he is , would like to accept the responsibility of repudiating what has been done as the joint act of the two Governments . Friendship with France , after such repudiation , would of course be at an end ; and when those who have been friends abruptly cease to be so , we know pretty well how they usually regard each other . Without rescinding the treaty , however , its details may fairly be criticised ; and as in point of fact we know that they are certain to be so , and from different points of view , it becomes our duty to set before our readers the principal grounds of the exceptions about to be taken .

    It is said with truth , that to bind ourselves for a term of yenrs not to impose duties for revenue on articles like brandy and wine beyond a certain fixed amount , and not to impose any duties whatever on the various fabrics of silk , wool , leather , jewellery * lace , paper , &e .,, in many of which our French neighbours excel , is improvident as a ' matter , of finance , and contrary to principle ¦ as regards free trade . Mr . Gladstone contends that , fiscally , we shall lose nothing in the long run by either the abatement or . abolition . He believes that foreign wine and spirits will be consumed to an additional extent , sufficient to reimburse the Treasury for what it is about to forego in high duties ; and he

    contends that articles of manufacture which compete with similar 'products of our own , ought under no circumstances to form the objects of taxation when brought from abroad , inasmiich as they cannot do so without becoming the objects of protective duties . We own that , in our opinion , it is ensier to defend the provisions of the treaty in both respects on wholly diflbrent ground . Mr . Gladstone will apt be able to convince pluiu folks easily that the class which is to have tho benefit of cheapened cognac and claret will bear exclusively tho burthen oi waking good tho temporary loss that all agree must be incurred in trying tho experiment ; and when it was determined that we should bartrnininir about mutual reductions with our friends UMV / UU VlUV ^^ i * WUltWVlVUa A * tWIJl \ l ,

    go U 11 UUAU n ^ M ^** f « ttl * AAAI ^ A A * A VTAUft * WIIJl M on the other sides of the channel , we must say we think it is a pity that the only cessions wo should have required from tlioin were in favour of those , groat and flourishing interests that need no further help , > vliilb all the concession ^ made by us appear , to have been in favour of nrtiolos of comparative luxury , whim , or show , Mimclies"ter . nnd Leeds , Staffordshire and Wunviokshiro wore already busy , nnd likoly % o bo so . Tho raining nnd manufacturing interests , genorally , have seldom indeed been in n more prosperous state . They are , no doubt , highly pleased nt tho proposed change , and no one ought to gmdgo

    Untitled Article

    rpi-IE battle of the Budget is engross public - - * - tion during the coming week , to the exclusion of all other subjects of a political nature . Rival systems of finance ami abstract economic theories will furnish forth the weapons of tin ; fray : but weapons are one thing , and the motives which impel men to seek them out and use them are another . An egotistic crotcheteer like Lord Oveustoue , or a savings-bank squire bewitched with the notion that lie was born , sixty years since , to . * ... . .

    be a finance minister , like Sir Hexhy Willougiibv , may really take an interest in the questions at issue for sake of their intrinsic merits . But as neither of them has so much as a Saxojio Pan ' za to follow him , they may , with some half-dozen other arithmetical knights-errant , be allowed to do their solitary tiltings on the flank of tho armies to which they do not properly belong , without . further consideration or notico . The bulk of the" fovees engaged' on either side Jinn for the fight in no visionary or romantic mood . The various leaders they follow arc

    stimulated in the main by the passion for power , which , though it degenerates sometimes ' into factious spite or cupidity , is not nlwi »\ s ignoble . . We hate sentimentalise in politics , and therefore we : eschew the stale hypocrisy of believing that Lord-PALMEiiSTON is actuated only by self-ibrgotfvd patriotism , and that Lord Dekhy is too rich and highborn to * eaiv ; lor . oflieo , save to oblige -tlio Queen and to promote the public good . AVe believe nothing oi tho kind , and we do not know any man out of Bedlam who docs . On tho contrary , wo know , and as we know we think it far better to say , that Whigs and Tories nr <> animated mainly by th « desire they novcr coaso to deny but never ceaso to fool , of boating ono

    another at tho gamo of parliamentary ascendancy . Ot course thoro arc shades of difference in tlio keenness of personal appetite , and corresponding varieties in the jschI which individuals display in tho contest . Mr . Disiiajsij way bo excused' for being move impatient for decisivo victory thun Lord Stanley , who hns a longer life before him , and who eun better allbrd to abide tho chapter of accidents . Tl » 6 right hon . member for Bucks has md quite enough of tho manna . of tho wilderness , and would uko onco more to spend a summer iu the promised land of potfor , wore it only to make sure of a oily of refugd beyond Jordan , bur John Pakinoxon and Sir Edvakw Bumviiu would likoimcom-

    Untitled Article

    Fjlb . 11 , I 860 . ] The Ijeader and Saturday Analyst . 12 ^

    The Treaty.

    THE TREATY .

    The Coming Pauliamentaby Struggle. Certain To Atten

    certain to attcn THE COMING PARLIAMENTARY STRUGGLE . '_ — ~ m —¦ ¦ * ' ft ' t - ' . IT * If

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 11, 1860, page 127, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2333/page/3/