REVIVAL OF THE SHANNON JOB.
WHEN any reduction or modification of taxes pressing upon the industrious classes is suggested, the ever ready answer is, that " the financial statement for the year" must be made before the House of Commons can fitly judge of the proposition. Wait, it is said, till the Budget is opened, and then Members will know what funds are at their disposal. The end of June approaches, and yet no Budget. Nevertheless, Ministers, violating the rule they would impose upon others, scruple not to propose immense outlays of public money to gratify " the Tail." Not a shilling is tendered in aid of the honourable industry of Scotland or the suffering labour of England; while Government would lavish upwards of three nullions, in one session, on their creatures in Ireland. Two mil- lions and a half for Irish Railways would have been voted many weeks ago, had the Government possessed strength enough to carry the job ; and, by trimming between different parties and interests, they may yet manage to obtain a majority for it. Not satisfied, however, with having this unfinished affiiir in hand, Mr. SPRING RICE has given notice of a motion for a bill "to improve the Navigation of the river Shannon;" which motion stands for Monday next. The bill, we presume, is the same which was before the House last session for successive months, but postponed from one day to another, till at length it disappeared from the paper. Already has the Shannon Commission cost the country 50,0001.; and, according to the Fourth Report of the Commissioners, it is intended to lay out nearly 600,0001. more ; to be contributed in the following proportions, by
The Public £290,716 1 4 Counties and Baronies 266,334 6 21 Proprietors 27,755 10 3;
£584,805 17 9f
But the whole of this sum, like the two millions and a half for Railways, is in the first instance to be advanced out of the public treasury ; in other words, an increase of more than three millions is to be made to the National Debt for Railway and Shannon jobs in Ireland. " Oh, but the money will be repaid after the improve- ments are effected !"—Credat Adams ! The history of Irish im- provements warns us how to trust the security of public works for the restoration of money advanced upon them. No; the truth is, that Government intends to lend on security which private capi- talists would not look at—in effect, the loans would be grants. The amount of patronage thus obtained, not merely by the actual disbursement of the cash, but by the means of increasing the value of property in favoured districts, is incalculable. When it is recollected that Mr. SPRING RICE'S estate is in the neighbourhood of Limerick, it will appear scarcely decent that he should be the Minister to propose so large an expenditure of the public money in raising the value of land on the banks of the Shannon. In the actual state of the finances, the Budget still unopened, but a large excess of expenditure over income being notorious, and almost certain to continue, even Lord MELBOURNE'S faithful Commons must pause before they throw 600,0001. into the Shan- non. Possibly Mr. RICE has no present expectation of carrying the bill, and has merely put his motion on the paper to show that the scheme is yet alive : but if we find that the measure is to be pressed this session, we shall endeavour to make a fuller exposure of its iniquity.
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