• TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE QUEST OF THE TRUE BUDGET.
JUDGIAG by such signs as can come before the public in the re- cess, we incline to hope that the discussion of" finaticiel reform " will take much the turn that we have desired. Journals that be- gan by simply bantering or criticizing Mr. Cobden's budget have now distinctly recognized the necessity of dealing with the sub- stantials of the question ' • Mr. John Macgregor's still more un- wieldy budget is received with less empty criticism, and accepted as another sign ; the Times opens its columns to a military cor- respondent, " Emeritus," who institutes a series of letters on the reform of military expenditure • and while stray spokesmen about the country give voice to the demand for "retrenchment," there are many tokens that a goodly band will array itself against any mutilation of the effective service. Financial reform therefore will stand as the foremost subject of next session ; and, forewarned of that fact, Members who are ambitious of distinction, or are moved by sincere wishes for the welfare of their country, will consider how they can be best prepared to handle the work before them so as to improve the opportunity. None who can bring to the council of the nation practical knowledge or useful sugges- tions, each in the department best known to him, should be con- tent simply to " follow the previous speaker " with arguments picked up at the moment. It would be a fine opportunity of breaking through the habit of mere speechmaking by supplying substantial counsel. There is no section of the House of Com- mons that ought not to take advantage of being forewarned : the Ministerial Members will have to support their leaders in defend- ing the efficiency of the departments against the new Luddites ; the Opposition will have to revise the Ministerial defence ; while the Independent Members might perform a signal public service, directly by dragging to light the facts that either party might like to conceal, indirectly by stimulating the emulative industry and vigour both of official and anti-official Members. It lies with the independent Members, under whatever denomination they may be classed-for truly independent men now sit in all parts of the House-to see that this financial reform movement does not end in a mischievous revolution or a more mischievous farce.
The movement bears upon what are properly two separate questions, which ought to be kept distinct,-the question as to the balance of income and expenditure is properly separate, and ought to be kept distinct from, the question as to the just disposition and due amount of expenditure. The question as to the balance of income and expenditure ought to be kept distinct, because this country is quite able to furnish whatever income may be necessary for the public service. The country is not bankrupt : it has plenty of means, over and above the actual revenue ; so that its case does not bear the resemblance which hhs been imputed to it, to that of a private individual with limited means. Practically, the means of the country are unlimited. The amount of needful expenditure having been ascertained, the question of income is solely this-whether the Tight process is used for extracting those means, most advantageously and least hurtfully. Show that any service is profitable to the country, and it needs be no question whether the country cant' afford" it : the only question is, how to raise the needful amount.
Not a shilling should be levied in taxes which is not justi- fied in its expenditure by a return with profit to the country. Every shilling of expenditure should go in payment of service-for work done ; every shilling otherwise expended is fraudulently filched from the public exchequer. In this sense, no single office should exist except for the sake of the service-not for the sake of the servant. Every office main- tained for the sake of the office-holder is a fraud. Office should never be given for reward or as a " provision " for the in- dividual. Promotion with that object is an abuse. If our Army requires a given number of Colonels and so many Generals, so many there should be, not one more or less : that many more merit to be Colonels or Generals than the service requires, is a fact very consolatory to the nation, but in no way justifying the creation of superfluous offices. If men have done so well that they merit reward, yet no vacancy offers for promotion, let them be paid at once, or pensioned, or dignified with titular honours ; but the practice of superfluous promotions opens a wide door to the claims of meritorious mediocrity, and forces into the service men who seek it as they would admission to an almft- house. Against the genuine kind of promotion we say net a word : signal service is a very proper sign, in many instances, to direct the selection of an officer for service in a higher office. Lieutenant Edwardes, for example, may be employed more profita- bly for the country as a field-officer than as a subaltern ; and if we say that promotion is the reward of his gallantry, we speak rather of the effect of justice on his own mind : criticizing the ap- pointment itself, we say that the service rendered, the work done, has pointed him out as the fittest man to be selected. That he was only appointed with brevet rank, was an abuse in the priva- tive direction-an observance of a practice which exists for the protection of place-hunters. On the other side, " Emeritus" holds up a recent appointment conferred solely for the sake of the hold- er-that of Colonel Alderson to be Secretary of Chelsea Hospital; an office so little needed for the public service that it might well be suppressed. We say nothing against the merits of Colonel Alderson ; which, for anything we know, may quite justify a na- tional provision ; but if so, it had better be conferred distinctly
and avowedly. It is the universal complication of service and reward which enables the defenders of corrupt finance to shift their ground so repeatedly, mixing up the appeal to generosity with the appeal to policy, until the true merits of the case are confounded, and in the confusion the abuses pass.
Such is the test that ought now to be applied to every depart- ment of the public service. It is possible that a rigid application of the test may not result in any great immediate saving. On revising the actual condition of the departments, and weeding them all, it may, indeed it would most certainly, be found that some are languishing for want of a stronger staff and ampler funds. It may be found that individuals of meritorious personal character have been thrust by the system into places for which they are unsuited, and the weeding of the departments may only be feasible at the cost of compensation. But in such case the compensation would be well expended : the country can better "afford" to buy off an inefficient servant than retain him ; it can better afford to pay for his retirement than to incur the odium of unjustly and meanly extorting a public reform at the cost of private sufferers. And that would be a thoroughly good invest- ment which should once for all put an end to the system of giving places for the sake of the holder rather than of the service, and so saddling the public with servants who impede the due performance of public duties.
The true object is less to effect a large immediate saving than to do away with the scandal of the present system—its lavish ex- penditure for idle if not corrupt purposes. It is that of which the country will not tolerate the continuance. And it is mani- fest at a glance that immense economies may be enforced. In the military and naval expenditure this fact is strikingly illus- trated by "Emeritus": the total amount expended directly for the pay and maintenance of the whole force in the Army, Ord- nance, and Navy, is 6,936,491!.; the amount paid indirectly, for extras and subsidiary expenses, is 10,448,873/. The actual forces cost us seven millions, the etceteras ten millions and a half ! Of course, large slices might be cut out of that second class without any detriment to the public. The sources of the superfluous outlay will be found for the most part in the sufferance of obsolete usages, in lax methods, in bad administratiou—briefly, in some form or other of inifficient service. Similar results would ensue from the application of the test to the civil departments : branches of service would be discovered that need pruning, others that need strengthening, in order that every shilling of taxation may be re- turned to the public in the shape of service profitable to the public. To this double question, of just expenditure and skilfully-raised income, there are many men, in both Houses, who could bring valuable practical information and suggestive ideas. If such men now perform the duties which they undertake in accepting their trust, they may improve the opportunity for placing our finances in a safer position, and while they override a mercenary agita- tion, may snatch from the movement a national blessing.
Previous page
