EUROPEAN NEWS TO THE 26th JULY.

Marlborough Press, Volume I, Issue 40, 6 October 1860, Page 3

EUROPEAN NEWS TO THE 26th JULY.

GENERAL SUMMARY. [From the Home Neivs, July 26.] Notwithstanding the mass of work to he done, and the desire to do it speedily, Parliament, somehow, flags and drags its slow length along very tediously. Of its laborionsness there can be no doubt. It is always sitting. It is always talking. It is always asking questions, and coming to divisions,- and redividing, and resuming, and counting out without breaking up, and putting notices of motions on the books, and taking them off again, getting small collateral discussions, and “ ventilating ” obscure questions, and, in short, busying itself about everything in the world, without bringing anything to a satisfactory result. Upwards of a week ago, the Chan-

cellor of the Exchequer explained the modus operandi by which he proposed to raise the money for paying the expenses of the China war. It was the leading question of the moment. It superseded the Collision and the Reform Bill- Even the great grouse question was insignificant in comparison. The versatility of Mr. Gladstone, not only as regards opinions, but facts, was never displayed more characteristically than in his speech upon this subject. He admitted sundry former errors, or miscalculations. The surplus he had originally relied upon has melted down to nothing, like fairy money, upon being tested practically) and if it were nor for the prudence of the Lords, in the matter of the Paper Duty, we should now be within a shade of bringing our income and expenditure to a dead level. The China war furnishes another instance of that sanguine temperament which is brilliant on holidays, but droops sadly in bad weather. He never dreamt of having to fight the Chinese. All he thought we should be called upon to provide for was a pompous menace. He prepared for an expedition to frighten the Chinese; not for an armament to invade them. Hence, after having made his arrangements for an outlay under this head of £2,500,000, he now finds it necessary to increase that amount to £5,850,000. The difference, that is to say £3,350,000, may therefore be taken to mark the relative cost of the two enterprises. Fortunately, a portion of this large amount has been already paid; and, what with an ticipated malt duties and unexpected payments of old debts from Spain, and the windfall of paper duties from the House of Lords, we are in a position to provide for a further portion of it, reducing the actual sum to be levied just notv to £2,330,000. No confidence, of course, is to be placed in this estimate. Next session it may be doubled: and all that can now be said about it is, that Mr. Gladstone does not yet see any necessity to draw any higher amount from the public purse. His method of getting this sum is simple enough. He raises a million by increasing the spirit duties, and borrows the rest from the Exchequer. There is a little inconsistency in imposing fresh burthens on spirits, remembering that one of the features of the French treaty, which Mr. Gladstone dwelt upon with particular eulogy, was the advantage the people of this country would derive from cheap brandy; but times are altered since then, and the war, with a new policy, brings a new set of political morals. The plan has the merit of being extremely easy ; but that is its principal merit. Few people will object to an additional impost on spirits ; but the resort to the Exchequer balances is of doubtful sagacity. “It is like a tradesman who makes up his books as well as he can,” says the ‘ Times ’ “ and pays the balance by instalments out of the till as the receipts come in.” The analogy does not run on all fours; but it will serve to indicate the character of a measure which flies to current resources, as a refuge against an extraordinary pressure. The House had hardly become accustomed to the contemplation cf this tremendous outlay, when Lord Palmerston came forward with another proposition still more startling, and likely to involve a still larger outlay. This was the proposal for the immediate erection of fortifications, founded on the recent report of the National Defence Commission. The speech introducing the proposal was ominous of European difficulties. There was no attempt to disguise the fact that a tempest is brooding over Europe, and that no man can foresee where or when it may burst. But the reference to France, with her vast army of 600,000 bayonets, which could "he putin motion in a fortnight, and a navy nearly as powerful as our own, was frank and explicit. Lord Palmerston did not effect to throw a veil over the danger, but stood plainly and avowedly on the ground that when such’ formidable preparations were going on close to us, the Government was bound to provide for any contingency that might arise; he repeated, at the same time, the observation which has now passed into a national axiom, that the best way to preserve peace is to be ready for war. The speech produced a profound sensation, not only by the extraordinary importance of its matter, but by the openness and candour of its statements. The defence of the dockyards and arsenals is all that is intended in the present year, and for this purpose a sum of two millions will be required to be charged on the Consolidated Fund. Government being empowered to raise that amount by terminable annuities for 30 years. Lord Palmerston desired to obtain the vote on the same evening on which he proposed it; but, yielding to the general feeling, he consented to postpone the further consideration of the subject till next week.