MR. GOSCHEN'S DEFENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT.
it/FR. GOSCHEN delivered a really brilliant defence of the Government in his Islington speech on Tuesday night. He did not in any way confine himself to finance. But his finance has been so savagely attacked lately by Sir William Harcourt and those who, like Mr. Henry Fowler and, we regret to add, Lord Rosebery, take their cue from Sir William Harcourt, that he was compelled to devote a considerable portion of his speech to the exposure of the singular fictions Which seem to oppress the imaginations of even statesmen of rank, when they begin to talk about finance. Mr. Goschen attributed it to a sort of mouth- disease among politicians. There appears to be some economic bacillus which propagates inveterate blunders and inaccuracies amongst the statesmen of the front Opposition Benches when they discourse of finance. Mr. Goschen showed how Lord Rosebery had quoted the Economist without verifying his quotation, to prove that the relief which the Chancellor of the Exchequer had granted to local ratepayers out of the Imperial Exchequer had/fully turned out to be an Imperial dole to Tory squires at the 'expexise of the ratepayers. That is not only not true, but the Economist never said anything of the kind. Lord Rosebery had been misled by some hasty remark of an inaccurate authority. Yet not only did Lord Rosebery say it, but Mr. Henry Fowler almost immediately.quoted Lord Rosebery, without attempting to verify for himself the accuracy of Lord Rosebery's reference ; so that the Economist has been credited far and wide with making an attack upon Mr. Goschen's finance which that high financial authority never made, and which no authority less weighty than that of the Economist could have floated for a moment. Mr. Goschen also showed that, so far from having "frittered away" his various surpluses, he had used them to admirable effect in reducing the Income-tax by four millions, in reducing the Tea-duty by 2d. in the pound,—though a Cobden Club leaflet is ;till in circula- tion which represents the Tea-duty at its old sixpenny rate, —in reducing the Tobacco-duty, in reducing the duty on low-rented houses, in abolishing the duty on gold and silver plate, and in abolishing the payments of school-pence for education in primary schools. He showed, too, that he had found the means of lowering the rate of interest on the National Debt so as ultimately to reduce the capital by a hundred millions ; that he had found the means of greatly increasing the strength of the N avy, and im- proving the condition of the Army ; and that he had, by imposing the Estate-duty and some new stamp- duties, found fresh financial resources for the Govern- ment which to some extent relieve the Income-tax from the necessity of supplying all the deficiencies of any time of dwindling enterprise and embarrassed commerce. Mr. Goschen also exposed another strange fiction of Lord Rosebery's,—that the Government had stood with a drawn sword in its hand across the path of the London County Council, obstructing all that the London County Council had desired in the way of the development of its powers and plans. The only justification for this statement was, said Mr. Goschen, that on a certain occasion when Sir John Lubbock, Lord Lingen, and Sir Thomas Farrer all disap- proved of what the majority of the County Council pro- posed to demand, the Government had taken the side of those eminent financiers against the majority of the Council, which was clearly the safe and cautious policy for any Government to pursue. Yet this could hardly be called standing with a drawn sword in their hand across the path of the County Council, since the drawn sword was borrowed from members of the London County Council so eminent and so much respected by the CountyCouncil itself. On another occasion, it was asserted that the Government stood. in the way of a Bill promoted by the County Council dealing with the subject of Betterment. What was the fact ? The Government allowed the second reading of the Bill, and the Bill was referred to a Committee with a very eminent' chairman. The Committee decided against the Bill, but the chairman of that Committee was Mr. Henry Fowler him- self. On two other occasions, the County Council had asked for the power and, the means to inquire into the best mode of supplying London with water ; and twice the Government assented to the demand. But the County Council did not proceed to use the opportunity offered, and its most eminent members pressed the Government to appoint a Royal Commission, on the plea that the County Council could not properly pursue the investigation for themselves. The Government appointed that Commission, and was then accused by the Star, Professor Stuart's organ, of having appointed the Royal Commission for purposes of procrastination, when the County Council itself might have conducted the investigation with much better effect. Such was the attitude of the Government towards the London County Council, which Lord Rosebery describes as standing with a drawn sword across its path. It would be difficult to produce a more triumphant vindication of the Government against the charge of adopting a policy of frittering away surpluses, of financial favouritism towards the class of landlords, of political hostility to the offspring of their own legislation, —the London County Council,—than Mr. Goschen suc- ceeded in laying before his hearers,—the truth being that the charges were really quite without foundation, indeed the• mere myths born of the wish to believe what irresponsible persons had said without examination and without But Mr. Goschen did not confine himself to finance, or to matters of detail. He dealt with the policy of the Government during the last six years all round, and main- tained, indeed, that every branch of that policy was in- tended to be, and had actually proved to be, subsidiary to the other branches of that policy. His finance had been designed to render the country freer and stronger, more able and. more willing to incur necessary expenditure on the services which really sustain English power, and stimu- late English capacity and hope. He had strengthened, for instance, Lord Salisbury's Foreign policy ; and in return Lord Salisbury's foreign policy had assisted Mr. Goschen's finance by protecting us against the ruinous influence of sud- den panics and little wars. In the same way, Mr. G-oschen's finance had helped Lord Knutsford's Colonial policy ; and Lord Knutsford's Colonial policy, by welding the Colonies together in cordial relations with the Mother-country, had given aid to Lord Salisbury's Foreign policy, and had. protected Mr. Goschen's finance from the dangers to which quarrels with powerful Colonies always expose us. Again, Mr. Goschen had found resources for placing the Army and Navy on a more solid footing; and the fact that they had been put on a more solid footing had more than repaid the cost of the operation, by increasing in every way the safety, credit, and foreign influence of England. Again, the Government had been able to find means to improve greatly not only the education given in our primary schools, but the intermediate education of Wales and the col- legiate education of Scotland, all these grants tending, again, to multiply the intellectual capital of the United Kingdom, and the capacity not only of our various services but of our whole people. Most of all, Mr. Goschen claimed credit for Mr. Balfour's great administration of Ireland, and for the partial removal of the Irish block from the field of British legislation. He showed how Mr. Balfour had restored peace to Ireland, and not only peace but prosperity, and this, too, in spite of a very serious threat of famine in the congested districts of the West. Nothing was more remarkable in Mr. Goschen's speech than the eloquence and energy of his generous praise of the colleague who had been chosen to succeed Mr. W. H. Smith in the leadership of the House of Commons, when under ordinary circum- stances Mr. Goschen himself would certainly have suc- ceeded to that position. Indeed, his speech brilliantly illustrated one chief cause of the success of the Unionist Government,—that it has not only devoted itself to the cause of Union amongst the different sections of the United Kingdom, but that it has shown itself heartily at one in all its administrative and legislative efforts. There have been no jealousies and squabbles in the Cabinet. All the various branches of the Government have been as cordially united amongst themselves, as they have aimed at making all the various branches of the -United Kingdom to be cordially united. They have not spent their energies, like some former Cabinets, in sparring with each other.
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