TOPICS OF THE DAY.
FINANCIAL GLADIATORSHIP.
AIR. Gladstone, thanks to Mr. Disraeli and Lord Palmer- i!1 ston, has escaped a very serious. danger. It was not likely that a blunder like his speech at Manchester, the best excuse for which is that he spoke amidst a distressed popu- lation, would escape searching comment, and had the matter been left to Sir Stafford Northcote, the comment might have been most disastrous. The speech of the member for Stam- ford on Thursday night was most of it only too true. It is the fact that we are sailing a great deal too near the wind, that taxes which did not press have been taken off before we had a certainty of surplus, that the balances have been reduced by four millions, that extraordinary receipts ari counted as revenue, that we have no surplus and ought to have one, that if a war broke out we should be compelled either to reimpose taxes we have just got rid of, or increase the income tax, or resort to loans—that, in short, the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer looks more to the development of commerce than the solvency of the State. That is no reason for importing a Tory Ministry, who would tax the country as heavily as at present, without giving it in return the policy which makes the taxes endurable, but it is a reason for urging Mr. Gladstone to adopt the sounder principles of which he is always talking. It is quite true, as Mr. Forster said, that discontent is not produced by a promise to remit taxes, but it is nevertheless infinitely vexatious to taxpayers to feel that they are paying more than they can afford at the bid- ding of a Chancellor who says the payments are not abso- lutely necessary. What is an Executive Government for, if not to suggest reductions when it believes them neces- sary? or why should the country he told to make them for itself any more than to reorganize the army, or settle the pay of custom-house clerks ? It is true that we are in alliance with France, and undertaking wretched expeditions in com- pany with her, while we are nevertheless arming to resist our only ally. That apparent absurdity cannot be helped while France is ruled by a chief who thinks of his dynasty before he thinks of political principle, but it is a sound reason for not exhausting in time of peace the reserve of strength which will be our guarantee in time of war. Mr. Glad stone, who sees that, goes on spending, and is justly liable to be called to account. His answer, excellent upon de- tails, as for example about the paper duty, which he says, was taken off not on its own demerits but as part of a policy, does not meet the main argument. He says that in exceptional times the duty of a financier "is to avoid all entanglements and.hold on steadily until the period of pros- perity." Very true, and that. is precisely what Mr: Glad- stone has not done, for he has taken off taxes, i.e. entered into new speculations, before his cycle of prosperity had come round. Mr. Gladstone, in short, excellent as a statesman, admirable as an orator, has, as a financier, yielded too much to the desire to secure popularity by taking off taxes before it'is certain that they can safely be dispensed with. Had the debate ended there the verdict of the country would thus far have gone, against Mr. Gladstone. His view, plain folk would have said, may be the right one, but he is• bound to carry it out, and not content himself with exquisite periods telling us why he does not. But most fortunately for the true interests of the country, which demand reduc- tions. from Mr. Gladstone, and not Mr. Gladstone's expul- sion, Mr. Disraeli rushed into the fray, and in an hour all the effect of his colleague's sensible though acrid speech, had been destroyed by exaggerations better befitting an Irish member screaming for " justice to Galway" than one who essays to lead a great and temperate party. Had Mr. Disraeli wished to destroy the moral cohesion of his following he could not have made a. speech better adapted to its end. If they have any distinctive principles these two are distinct, that English policy should be a Protestant policy, and that this country should maintain herself' in the rank won by eight centuries otvictory and endurance. Mr. Disraeli flung over both, as he would fling over the Ten Commandments if they stood in his way to power. He, the chief of the country party, of the men who still revere the memory of Wellington, and who in office are always talking of the suicidal impatience of taxation which leaves the country- defenceless, actually took phrases as well as arguments from the member for Lambeth, and talked about " bloated armaments," and ridi- culed what he called repeatedly " our influence in the councils of Europe." And then, because our armaments were bloated, and our revenue were far too large, he depre- cated taking off taxes. Indeed the whole speech was a of inconsistencies. He denounced hostility to France, and then exerted himself to prove that throughout the world the two countries were not in agreement ; advised the country to reduce its armies, and then ridiculed the notion of moral power. He uttered, in short, all the ideas which Tories denounce in the Manchester school as undignified and un- English. There is not from end to end of his speech a line suggesting a constructive policy. It is all criticism, intended to destroy the Government, but really effective only to pulverize the Conservative party, whose members must blush with annoyance as they hear that their• true principle is to follow meekly the policy of a Napoleon.
This, however, was not the best. With that strange in- capacity to understand Englishmen, which will always debar Mr. Disraeli from the sway his intellect might secure, he uttered a dozen sentences which, if they could but reach all E glish voters, would put an end to Tory hopes for at least another decade. The Pope, he said, ought to be independent, and moreover must be independent at Rome. So earnest was he upon this dogma that he threw caution to the winds, forgot that he had just denounced all insults to the Emperor, forgot that the country clergy study his speeches with a wary respect, which a word would develop• into criticism, and declared " if the Roman question were settled in the underhand manner which some seemed to expect and desire ; if to-morrow the Pope were an exile, a fugitive, or a prisoner, he who is the ruler of France, what- ever may be his name, or family or dynasty, could not afford to view that circumstance with indifference, perhaps not with impunity." "If,"' continued the speaker, " there was a fact with respect to which there was a general concurrence of opinion, it was that the occupation of Rome by France was an act not of ambition on the part of the Emperor of the French, but of self-defence." There is no mistaking the import of these words ; if the Tories come into power they will urge the Emperor with all the weight of English influ- ence, not to abandon Rome, to maintain the " independence of the Pope," which, if not the temporal power, still involves it, and to retard as long and as openly as he dares the unity of Italy. We thank Mr. Disraeli for this open avowal of the policy which his wiser chief has hitherto carefully con- cealed. The country would- pardon much to any party which promised large retrenchments, but we ask no better fortune for the Whigs than to go to the country against an opponent who promises to take off the income ter, but will exert the strength of England to maintain the temporal power. Mr. Disraeli has a reputation for shrewd Parliamentary manage- ment, but the strategy which sells the English clergy to buy up the Irish priests can be excused only by ignorance, and palliated only by the certainty of ignominious defeat. The member for Bucks never proved his courage more completely or more unwisely than when he held out as the new banner of the Tories " Peace, Retrenchment, and Rome."
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