NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Easter recess is over : the country has had time to " consider" the financial measures of the Government ; and rather a curious use has been made of fhe time. The threatened " agitation "- meaning by that, any organized war against the general scheme— seems to have slumbered in the intent : the leaders of the Opposition have not come forth : if Sir ROBERT PEEL has buried himself for the holydays in Kemp Town, Lord JOHN RtissELL has not gone so far, for he has remained perdue in Wilton Crescent. The Whigs indeed have no plan ; a fact which is amusingly typified in the course pursued by their chief organ, the Morning Chronicle. We saw it on Saturday last inviting the Tory dissentients from the Income-tax to a united attack, on the ground that although Sir ROBERT had declared he should stand or fall by his measure as a whole, yet, even if be were beaten on the single point of the Income-tax, he could not be guilty of so cowardly an act as to resign ; therefore, it was insinuated, the Income-tax might be quashed without driving Sir ROBERT from office. In the very next paper, on Monday, speaking on the same topic, the same writer expressed surprise that the Premier's supporters should " address him as if they had nothing more to do than to prove the justice of their case to induce him to act on their suggestions"; and declared that "he is not at liberty to abandon the Income-tax part of his scheme." On the same day, the Chronicle saw through " his cun- ning drift " for raising a much greater amount of taxes than the bare deficiency : " he is taking advantage now of his unexpected power and large majority in the House of Commons, in order to buy up and consolidate it ; he is seeking to get this large sum in baud in order that, when the tide turns, he may buy off the oppo- sition of this or that party, by the remission of this or that tax, ac- cording to the suggestions of his Whipper-in." Two days after; the Whig politician saw something different through the millstone ; but he arrived at his insight by an odd process. On Tuesday he de- clared, that ""the Income-tax and the Tariff, taken together, are agitating the country from end to end "—" the farmers are up in arms "—" we do not entertain a doubt that before a week is over the constituencies will everywhere have met to call peremptorily on their Members to vote against the measure of Sir Robert Peel." On Wednesday, the Chronicle went back to the question, " Why does Sir Robert Peel meddle with the Tariff at all ?" since it would augment the deficiency: why purchase so costly a boon to con- sumers and traders at the expense of the Income-tax ? The querist replies to himself—" He imposes it' as a boon to the agri- culturists ' : " from the Income-tax the agricultural classes are comparatively exempt ; they will have to pay little and to endure none of the vexatiousness of an inquisition ; they will sit by in calm repose, sub tegmine fagi, and see the traders enduring the heat and burden of the day, or writhing under the screw." On Thursday, our contemporary has " all along said that the Income-tax, how- ever objectionable on principle in a time of peace, would not be the part of Sir Robert Peers financial scheme which would now be most opposed": " the objection to the inquisitorial machinery is nearly confined to trades and professions," who "hope to reap ad- vantage from the Tariff" ; and "it would not surprise us" were Sir ROBERT " to be dependent on the Liberals in Parliament for his success in carrying the Tariff." The Chronicle " wages war" against the protected abuses ; "the worst of them all being that Bread-tax which, in a slightly varied form, Sir Robert Peel is strug- gling to uphold " ; and " on that point should the trades direct their fire." Such are the devious counsels uttered by the mouthpiece of the Opposition ; a confession that the warfare, if not without an object, is certainly without a plan.
About the country the proceedings have not been much more systematic. Though the constituencies have by no means met everywhere, " the farmers are up in arms "—in the George Inn at Reading, and in a club at Braintree ; and in Norfolk they are said to be signing petitions. A constituency is going to be up in arms in Lincolnshire—next week ; and the Chronicle avers that several letters have been sent from Scotland to the Members for that part of the country. Then, some special interests have taken the alarm,—as the coal-owners in the Northern counties, the pro- vision-growers of Ireland, the glovers of London; and the In- come-tax has aroused the Ward of Farringdon-Without to the emission of long speeches ; while the agriculturists of East Lothian are not at all content with that " boon to the agriculturists," but lump it along with other grievances which they find in the financial scheme. We have now named the most remarkable of the not very many public " demonstrations" against parts of Sir ROBERT'S plan ; but at none of them, with a single exception, was there any determined spirit of hostility : opposition to one part of the scheme was neutralized by concurrence in another. At the Farringdon-Without meeting, the speaker who took the lead dwelt upon the merits of the new Tariff. The glovers, the coal-owners, and the provision-merchants of Ireland, direct their attack to par- ticular points ; and in each case the vast remainder of the scheme is untouched by their objection. The East Lothian farmers choose a chairman who is quite satisfied with the Income-tax to which they object ; and one of the speakers, who moved a resolution approv- ing of a reduction of duty on certain seeds, and disapproving of the increase on oil and rape cake, objected to the changes in the Tariff that they do not go far enough. The upshot of a meeting at Sunderland was remarkable : it was called to "consider," obviously to condemn, the alteration of the Timber-duties ; but resolutions were passed, almost unanimously, refusing to interfere ; while the speakers who supported that amendment spoke of the change in strong terms of approval. At this meeting, a glass-manutitcturer advised his hearers to look at the financial measures as a whole : he was newly deprived of protection in his trade, but then the re- duced timber-duties would diminish the cost of packages. Indeed, the Minister's most determined enemies are the farmers of Reading, who are mortified that " their exertions " in the Conservative Cause should be rewarded by the lowered protection of the new Corn-law. They seem as if they would be willing enough to help the Duke of RICHMOND to realize his threat of turning out Sir ROBERT; but the threatener himself stirs not. Other meetings have passed strong resolutions—for it is very easy to vote yea or nay to a para- graph on a slip of paper in a chairman's hand; but the speeches have not come up to the mark of the resolutions—they have often been both for and against. In fact, Sir ROBERT'S measures involve so many and such various points, that they divert and distract hos- tility; the opposition to them is neutralized by conflict within itself; and although the forced adjournment of the Income-tax debate has enabled the country to " consider" the subject, the said country has really not been able to make up its mind.
The crumbling of the opponent interests by collision among themselves, or by misgivings as to the extent of their absolute loss under the innovations, prevents the bringing of any compact force against the Premier. He is stronger than before Easter, because his antagonists have exposed their weakness. There is little chance, then, of successful contest against any integral part of his project. It is not quite certain that there will be to him unmixed advantage in that condition of things. If he will have the less struggle to make in carrying his measures, he will also have none to share with him the responsibility. If the Opposition is broken up into such fragments that he can trample it all down and he is alone in vic- tory, he is alone also in council. That is for him a very grave con- sideration. The same thing, too, which distracts Opposition, mul- tiplies the sources of future danger ; for his scheme comprises many ventures. First he is exposed to the severest constructions because he has assumed the post of a Minister imposing taxes ; and then he undertakes enterprises against a number of protected in- terests. Suppose any part of his scheme were to fail,—that the In- come-tax, for instance, were to prove more vexatious or less pro- ductive than he estimates ; or that a worse " crisis " should befal, and that the tax should prove more productive, so that he should be placed in the light of a statesman extorting more money than he professed in the hardest times,—in either case the odium would be his without mitigation. The Corn-bill, again, may not much cheapen bread ; or a very fine harvest and low prices may bring an "agri- cultural distress," which will be imputed to his legislation. Simi- lar contingencies may mar his triumph iu other parts of his measure. In each special case of failure, the unpopular Income-tax will bear the blame : should the Corn-bill fail, the Coal-tax, the Timber- alteration, or the Provision-alteration, the sufferers will turn round and say, Was it for this that you made us submit to the Income- tax ? In such a temper, many of his present followers might waver in their allegiance ; and, wanting a countervailing support from the opposite host—always compellable by conduct of unquestioned high principle—the victorious Minister might find that his strength had gone from him, and he had become weak, and like any other poli- tician.
We are disposed to give Sir ROBERT PEEL credit for higher, de- sires than merely to exalt or exonerate himself—for a wish to do good. The principle of his measure—to treat difficulties as diffi- culties, to meet and master in place of evading them—is both honest and wise. There is little disposition anywhere'to question the necessity of additional taxation. But as it lies with the Minister to determine upon the mode of that taxation, it is doubly incumbent upon him to take care that it be so imposed as to weigh most equably and easily upon those who have to bear it. To the special interests, as such, we would have him pay no more attention than they merit ; merely ascertaining that they do not suffer needless injury for the general good. Mere opposition for its own sake de- serves to be crushed. To evils inseparable from any taxation we would not have him attach undue weight. In taking upon him- self, however, the adjustment of new burdens, a new commercial code, and complicated and extensive changes in the trade of the country, it behoves him to deliberate to the latest moment upon the possible effects of his act ; to give fair scope to the con- flict of his own convictions, and honestly to defer to that among them which vanquishes. Before the renewal of the debate on Monday, party squabbles, irritations, the bitter perversities and obstinacies which all contest engenders, should have passed from his mind, and he should be in a state to decide upon, not what is absolutely best—for that is not to be expected of him or any Minister of the day—but what to him seems so, apart from factious purposes.
As a Tax-Minister, the source of triumph to him is single—the success of his whole measure : dangers of defeat and reproach lie in each separate part. As a statesman who has volunteered for the helm in the storm, he will be made answerable to all for the wreck which Fate may bring—to his own conscience if he shall have ne- glected one single precaution. There is but one compass to guide him—justice ; simple justice, in intent and deed Abiding fast by that, he may win success, and will surely avoid self-reproach : swerving from it, he cannot escape defeat, disgrace, and repentance.
