NEWS OF THE WEEK.
Mr. Cobden introduced one point on which he was not so clear as it is his wont to be : he included the local taxation, to show how it swells our annual outlay to nearly 80,000,0001.; and re- marked that such expenses cannot be kept down on the spot, but that they can only be checked by "general legislation." Now, , as Sir Charles Wood remarked, the increase of local taxation has been caused mainly by improvements in local economy, such as the better keeping of lunatics and prisoners ; which are capital instances of a quid pro quo obtained in return for outlay. Mr. Cobden can hardly mean that by strength of general legislation he would debar the ratepayers from purchasing those advantages with their own money ; and yet he seems to be so run away with by the notion that increased outlay is in itself an absolute evil, that we see no other construction to be put upon his remarks. On the whole, Sir Charles Wood's counter-arguments were as little new as they were cogent or conclusive against Mr. Cobden's mild suggestions : they were rather a palliating paraphrase, an emulous reply to a challenge, a competition for public favour; as one cock crows to another in the distance, or as one barrel-organ strikes up " Dermot astore " in reply to a rival grinding of " Kath- leen mavourneen." The expenditure of 1835, says Sir Charles, left the public service in arrear; increase has been inevitable— even Sir Robert Peel felt its necessity ; men are wanted for relief of regiments abroad ; the Ordnance is an arm difficult and ex- pensive to maintain ; part of the increase has been for extraordi- nary wants, such as Irish distress; altogether, the increase in ordi- nary expenditure is not ten but only six millions. But some re- ductions shall be made ; 10,000 men shall be struck off the Army —or transferred to Indian account ; and 2,275,0001. off the Esti- mates: and we are entering, saith Mr. Chancellor of the Exche- quer, not only on more economical but on more prosperous times. Most effectively did fluent Sir Charles execute his " Gems it la Cobden, with variations, on the Corno Inglese." After a debate not very animated or interesting—varied by an anti-revolution- ary epic on French finance from Mr. Herries, and a semi-sarcas- tic admission from Mr. Milner Gibson that his collaborateur found amore exciting audience in Manchester, the not urgent resolu- tion was negatived by 275 to 78—three and a half to one. The debate presents neither side in a very commanding posi- tion. Instead of setting up a standard budget which was to over- awe the Chancellor of the Exchequer into economy, Mr. Cobden suggested a truism touching what it is desirable to do in that direction—which nobody could deny ; and Ministers made such colourable compliance with the suggestion as let them off easily. It was a compromise on both sides, and nothing substantial can be expected from it. It only signifies, that for the day Mr. Cob- !lea impersonates the general desire to look a little more sharply Into the public accounts,—a function he is in many respects well qualified to perform; and that Ministers prepare for the severer
audit by sacrificing a little of the substance of the Army and non-essential scraps of the public service, in order to save the quite useless sinecures and dead-weights from a rougher over- hauling.
The position of Ministers with respect to the Irish Poor-law is strange and precarious. Lord John Russell having induced the Se- lect Committee of the Commons to pass that small part of his scheme which consists of a sixpenny rate levied throughout Ireland in aid of local deficiencies, he has hastened to ask the sanction of the whole Commons ; but his procedure has been so little marked by straightforwardness as to suggest very awkward suspicions, either of double-dealing or of that conscious incapacity which evades scrutiny. Lord Stanley discovered a curious discrepancy in the
conduct of Ministers, who presented the resolutions to the Com- mittee of Peers as suggestions, to the Commons as a Cabinet mea- sure ; yet it was in the Commons that Lord John consented to accept sanction for a fraction of his scheme, while he left the rest to be overhauled by the Committee : Lord btaniey asked for ex- planations. Lord Lansdowne's reply would seem to show that he had not been aware of his colleague's fast and loose play, and that he did not approve of the splitting of the measure. Indeed, to this day, not only does the scheme appear to be lying at the mercy of uncertain opinion in the Committee of the Com- mons, but also of no less uncertain and conflicting opinion in the Cabinet itself. It is under these circumstances that the Premier asks the House of Commons to go into Committee on his six- penny project, without a word of explanation; as though he de- sired to surprise the House out of a colourable assent for a scheme not unfolded. Sir John Walsh showed that the sixpenny rate would serve—for seven weeks ! Mr. Napier and Mr. Disraeli exposed the trifling of the official statesmen ; Irish Members in the interest of the North and East gave voice to the hostility which the plan has provoked. A few Members in the Celtic in- terest only evinced greediness to get at the Ministerial plan- et the money. Ministers ever and anon threw in a whining ap- peal about the necessity of "saving life." Lord John induced the House to go into Committee, and our Postscript will tell the sequel. Nothing has occurred to Ministers this session of a more damaging kind than the exposure of these small shifting ma- noeuvres.
The history of a bill introduced by Mr. Cornewall Lewis, to Consolidate and improve the administration of the highway funds, is instructive. Mr. Lewis obtained leave to bring in his bill, had it read a first time, discussed it on the second reading, ran the gauntlet of innumerable objections, and withdrew it; re- turning to the point from which he started. Now the whole career of that abortive bill in the House was a waste of the public time : the same strictures and suggestions might have been in- voked without suspending public business for the purpose ; and, introduced in a maturer state, the bill would have made a better start from the very point at which it now stands. But this habit of introducing merely suggestive bills, to elicit objection and concoct the real measure out of the criticism on the false basis, gains upon Ministers ; attesting an incapacity for guiding public business, which makes them try to shuffle off the responsibility upon Parliament.
Mr. Hawes has again been figuring as Lord Grey's stout cham- pion. Mr. Miles having asked for certain despatches from Ja- maica, Mr. Baillie put the question naturally suggested by recent facts, whether they were to be presented entire or "mutilated." Mr. Hawes did not answer the question ; he only said there " would be no objection to lay the whole of the despatches "—be- fore the Select Committee on Guiana and Ceylon. But he de- nied the implication respecting former despatches; which he says he explained at the time. He did not do so ; but he at- tempted it now. He says that the passages struck out of the former despatches referred to charges of a treasonable nature against individuals : Mr. Baillie perhaps did not see an oppor- tunity of asking, whether those charges formed the only matter struck out ; and Mr. Hawes did not explicitly aver so much. In the absence of new occasion, that might furnish matter for a fur- ther question, and so afford a new opportunity of having out Mr. Hawes ; whose ready combativeness becomes a standing sport for listless Members. They like to tease him into a passion; and the nimble Member who stirs him up with the name of " Lord Grey" is as much applauded as the tauridor who works up a good fiery bull in the Spanish arena. Mr. Hawes says that the suppressed passages referred to declarations at a public meeting, that the speakers wished to transfer their allegiance to the United States : a nice sample of the feeling kept up in the Colonies by Mr. Hawes and his master !
