11 MARCH 1854, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

OF one of the evils of war, for us who live at home—its tendency to obstruct the progress of social improvement—we had a foretaste last week in the virtual loss of the new Re- form Bill. This week, the War Budget of the Chancellor of the Exchequer brings us increased expenditure and increased taxes. The Budget is extremely simple in its construction. In regard to ordinary income and expenditure, by help of the increase of income over the estimate, and about an equal de- crease of expenditure under the estimate, Mr. Gladstone may be said to start with a surplus of 2,854,0001. But the extraordinary war expenditure, consequent upon the votes already passed, occa- sions an actual deficiency of not less than 2,840,0001. This de- ficiency Mr. Gladstone proposes to make good by an additional Income-tax of 31d. in the pound, to be levied on the first half of 'the financial.year—the period within which the increased expendi- ture will be incurred. As to any demand for the expenditure of the second half-year, Mr. Gladstone prefers to say nothing now : we have that to talk of later in the session. To meet present de- ficiencies arising from delays in arranging the collection of the re- venue under altered duties, he also asks authority for 1,750,000/. Exchequer Bills. That is the Budget.

In the course of his statement, Mr. Gladstone showed that the remission, redaction, and readjustment of taxes, had been so com- pletely successful as to have resulted in the excess over estimate which-ve have already named, notwithstanding curtailment to the extent of 1,500,0001. He stated, however, that he could not ven- ture upon :any new, remissions or reforms of taxes; another stop to progressive improvement. The only item under this head is a matter of detail supplementary to the Budget of last year,—a re- duced and graduated duty on bills of exchange, in lieu of the pre- sent scale, which is prohibitory on small sums, nominal on larger. Mr. Disraeli endeavoured to convert the occasion into a field- night for himself. Early in the session he had begun by moving for returns; he now appeared in the House with the fruitful re- sults of that collection, and charged with an elaborate retrospect of old transactions, intended to " show up " the Chancellor of the Exchequer as a bungler in finance. No real opposition was offered or intended ; and the motion for Exchequer Bills, the only one which followed that evening, passed as a matter of course.

It is unnecessary to say much about the other subjects before either House. The loss of Mr. Locke King's bill to compel sub- &Vision of land amongst the children of an intestate ; the Earl of Harrowby's questioning speech on the subject of the Board of Health, its constitution and inefficiency, with the official reply that Lord Palmerston has the subject under consideration in order to introduce efficiency; Mr. Fagan's annual motion on the subject of " Ministers-money in Ireland, annually lost, this time with the cheers of the minority; Mr. Craufard's bill to authorize writs of execution to run throughout the Three. Kingdoms, in which- soever they originate, introduced with the support of the Law Ofileers, English and Scotch ; Lord Ellenborough's moving returns at Ministers, to expose the imperfect manning of the Navy,-.-all these are subjects the nature of which may be understood frora-the mention.

At the first blush, the conversation in the House of Lords on the progress of consolidating the criminal law is unsatisfactory. The zeal with which most of the Law Lords, and: nearly all the most eminent legists, have been promoting this objecti is well known; and a Cabinet endowed with a Law Minister up to the average in respect to energy in statesmanship would have been able to accomplish the contemplated improvement, notwithstanding the disturbance of our foreign relations. But it so happens that, most creditably. as Lord Cranworth distinguished himself on the bench, he has distinguished himself in an opposite sense on the woolsack as a leader in the making of law. Over-conscious of the responsibility under which he acts, he has carried caution to

the extroine of indiscretion, in referring the deliberate judg- ment of the Lords, after the second reading of a bill, to the Judges ! Those whose whole training, present as well as past, absorbs their attention in interpreting and apply- ing law as they find it, very seldom exhibit that enlarged freedom of mind which is necessary for lawmaking; and in the present instance the Judges have found difficulties which no real legisla- tor would have regarded, and which would have occasioned no trouble even to the Judges themselves on the judgment-seat, had the consolidated law descended to them from Parliament. But the adverse opinion of the Judges has introduced a difficult; and perhaps the proposal of the Lord Chancellor, to refer the bill with the Judges' opinions to a Select Committee, for the purpose of reporting what ought to be done with respect to it, is as practical a mode of getting out of the difficulty as even an earnest law- reformer could have suggested.