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THE BATTLE OF THE BUDGET.
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ENGLISH PROPOSALS REGARDING ITALY.
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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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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* TX 7 "HElSr a great Blunder is to be spoken of , it . is some-\ V times hard to avoid the language of blundering . It is thus that we feel ourselves half inclined to say that the Battle of the Budget has been lost before it has been begun . The Opposition had , a week ago , a great ganie in their hands , and they . seem not only to have been aware of it , but to have taken suitable means for endeavouring to win it . Assembled in council by their astute and adroit chief , they bad agreed to go m for the spoiling of the Budget , not for its rejection . They knew that been h in the
their time was not come , had they strong-enoug present Parliament , for snatching the tools of taxation out of their rivals' hands , and again setting up :, in business as Queen ' s Pinchers in the old Downing Street shop . Their aim must rather be , while making a great show of strength at the outset , to create the impression that they could , if they would , be exceedingly formidable , and thus lay the grounds for bullying their antagonists into all manner of concessions and compromises of detail . This policy was calculated to evoke the greatest possible amount of sectional discontent , and to encourage the greatest possible amount of sectional resistance . Flourish Amend
Were Mr . Du Cane ' s Grand Introductory - ment carried by a mere handful of votes , every class interest ^ vh ose gouty toes had been trodden upon by the Chancellor of the Exchequer , would flourish its threatening crutch , and set About seriously trying , ¦ ¦ whether : it could not poke or palaver a majority to vote in its favour , when the resolution affecting it specially was submitted to the House . . Where so many vested interests declared themselves aggrieved , and where such an obvious ; party gain would ensure the attendance of members generally , it would be strange if some blots were not hit . Lord Derby , like ail experienced gamester , saw the moment the cards were dealt that he could not win the rubber : but he led in a way calculated
to show his partner how they might save several tricks * if they could not prevent their opponents Dnarking hononrs . What : must have been his dismay at finding that partner in the very first round , play a wrong card , and thus throw away the lead ! Practically , the effect of Mr . Djsraeli ' s absurd amendment of Monday night has been to spoil the Opposition ' s chance of doing anything effectual in the campaign before Easter . Illogical though -the . conclusion may be , the uridiscerning public infers from the majority of sixty-three Mr . Gladstoke obtained at starting , that all opposition , at least on matters of moment , is fruitless . Tn vain Sir John Pakington tried the next day to re-enlist the
way into Prance , while the more bulky descriptions are practically excluded . A blind average seems to have been taken of the various rates of duty itpw exacted from the importers of yarn ' into . France , and the result is set down as somewhere about 25 per cent . This , then , is assumed as the fitting standard for the new ad valorem duty ; but the result , it is to be feared , will be , tliat while the coarser yarns will be shut out as much as ever , the finer kinds will be subjected to a gi-eatly enhanced duty . It will npt diminish our regret should this prove to be the case , that , through the overreaching spirit of the French Government , and the too compliant disposition of our own , injury wOtild be inflicted On the French manufacturer of lace arid cambric as well as on the Irish and Scotch spinners of yarn . ¦ We , who are sincere free traders , can derive no satisfaction from mutuality of mischief , or reciprocity of harm ; on the contrary , we are disposed to regard with redoubled regret every double disappointment that may arise from the present treaty . It ls ^ reo-ards France essentially an experimental one . Should it fail or seernto fail in any important particulars , opinion will retroo-rade on the other side of the Channel , on the subject of commercial competition , for many a day . Let not such an apprehension be deemed altogether- illusory . Three-quarters of a century ago , a far greater and more generous movement in the direction of Free Trade was made by the Government of Lours XVI . The Commercial Treaty between France and England of 1786 , was infinitely more fearless and confiding on the French side , than that now under consideration . Its general scope and tenor was the reciprocal admission of goods and merchandise , at ad valorem duties of 10 per cent . In the present treaty it is true indeed that Ave abandon all charge , even for revenue , on most of the articles of French manufacture , but France is to maintain protective duties on our manufactures , at first to the extent of 30 and eventually of 25 per cent . We cannot help thinking that this is a worse bargain for both than that which was made by Mr . Pitt and M . Calonxe m 1786 . Perhaps the worst blot of all is that ¦ yrtiicli ,- _ by . establishing what is called the alcoholic test of duty in this country , on the importation of wine , goes directly to create de novo a differential duty' in favour of French wines over those of other countries . * There is but little alcohol appreciable in the produce of Provence or the Gironde , whereas there is a considerable quantity easily discoverable in the produce of Andalusia and Estramadnra , It is rather too bad , that when we are called upon to make such sacrifices of revenue to prove our unflinching devotion to the theory of Free Trade , we should be asked t © inaugurate furtively a pettifogging scale of new differentia : duties ; to propitiate the humour of our exacting Imperial ally If Parliament be wise it will insist ere it be too late on the correction of this and other errors .
mutinous hop-growers in the common cause of indiscriminate opposition to the Budget . That fatal number , " sixty-three , " rang in their Kentish ears , and warned them not to identify themselves with allies who had shown that they had not the sense to discern how to serve them . In vain Mr . BoiiN endeavoured to persuade the Society for the Abolition of the Paper Duty not to be satisfied without obtaining a free export of raw material from foreign states ; the paper makers- believe that Mr ., Gladstone can just now do as he likes with them , xind therefore they are his very obedient humble admirers , even to the extent of praising his fancy sketch of village mills . In vain Mr . Du Can is exerted himself beyond even the point of
extravagance which he finds successful in Essex , and strove by frantic gestures and frowns a la Brutu ^ burlesqued , to daunt the ministerial spirit , and re-kindle hope and courage in the gentlemen around him . Neither Mr . Gladstone nor any of his subordinates ( for he is now the virtual leader of the Whigs in the Lower Honse ) , condescended even to notice Mr . Du Cane ' s theatric rage , or to gather his odds and ends of argument into a ball , for the purpose of fiingiug it back to him . The steam had been let off'so effectually before the controversy had fairly begun , that nothing seemed capable of restoring animation or vigour to it j and but for one or two speeches on cither side , it ] mus , t be pronounced wholly unwprthy of the occasion .
Although the party ^ interest of the struggle be at an end , there remain , however , many serious points of importance , "well worthy of deliberate discussion . Onco the Commercial Treaty with Franco conies to bo regarded as mi fait accompli , people will begin tp scrutinize more closely th © details of its workmanship . Some of these , if wo ore not u > uch mistaken , will hardly realize the inordinate prnise bestowed upon them . , A groat mistake is . snid to have boon committed by our negotiators , when they consented to the substitution of an ad valorem , duty pf 30 per cont . on British yarns imported into Franco , for the duty now levied by weight , Undor the present system , a bale of yarn , fine , enough to supply the makers pf cambric or lace with the' material , they need for their costly and delicate fabrics , pays no more duty at Havre 6 v Calais , than jv bale of tlio coarsest thread " . The consequence is that in proportipn tp their fineness and vnluo , British yarns find the
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GREAT praise has been lately bestpweci on xne ciespaicnes Lord John Russell to our diplomatic agents abroad , and more especially on those contained in the volumes of correspondence recently laid before Parliament respecting the affairs of Italy . Our Foreign Secretary seems indeed to have lost no fair opportunity of energetically enforcing the faith as it is in Whig constitutionalism . As might have been expected , no doctrine can jar more thoroughly upon' the ears of the Austrian Court and Cabinet . As high priests and grand inquisitors have ever members
been more intolerant of subtle heresy in distinguished of the Church , than a philosophic denial of the very postulates of belief by those who arc not of the sacred order , so despotic rulers are more incensed at any tampering with the foundatipns of authority on the part of monarchs or aristocratic ministers , than at the projects of republicans or the open threats of revolutionists . Count BiioiiHKUo appears to hove more than once lost « 11 command over ¦ his temper , and all recollection of dignity , when forced to listen to a lecture on the superior merits of constitutional Government as administered in England , over the svstoiri established throughout the Austrian empire , and until
lately prevalent in Italy . The quostipn iu dispute between the Cabinets of Vienna and London seems to hovobeen mainly this , whether the new form-of rule about to bo ostubllslind ' ui the peninsula . ought to rest upon legitimacy as its basis , or upon that species of general acquiescence in a compromise between privilege nnd right , which was sanctioned in England in 168-8 , and wiiich the traditions of Wobiirn declared to bo not only the pest possible guarantee for good governmoht , bat the only one thut can be relied on . . Individually , Lord Jons' inny entertain more liberal and comprehensive views as matter of speculation ; but « s a hereditary spokesman of . his class , ns tlio departmental mouthpiece of an oligarchic ) cabinet , and ns the Foreign Seorotnry of a Cowt whoso unooneonlod sympathies are with tlio anuso ot
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Feb . 25 , I 860 . ] The Leader diid Saturday ' Analyst . ' . " . ¦¦ : : ¦ ' " * 75
The Battle Of The Budget.
THE BATTLE OF THE BUDGET .
English Proposals Regarding Italy.
ENGLISH PROPOSALS REGARDING ITALY .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 25, 1860, page 175, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2335/page/3/
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