So.

a character should have appeared in the Times. Earl Granville, in reply, explained that he had obtained permission from her Majesty to state to his political friends the result of what had occurred; but it was never intended that it should be communicated to any newspaper, nor had he done At the same time, he could not see that any injury had resulted from the publication, seeing that her Majesty appeared therein as desirous as ever of walking in the spirit of the constitution. Lord Palmerston agreed to the proposed arrangement; but Lord John Russell would not consent to serve under Lord Granville, expressing, however, his willingness to serve under Lord Palmerston. This refusal rendered it impossible for Lord Granville to form a ministry that would be likely to command a majority in the House of Commons. Lord Palmerston was then sent for by the Queen, and undertook the formation of a new ministry, of which the following were the principal members:

It will be perceived that the name of the president of the Board of Trade is omitted in this list. And the reason of the omission is, that Mr. Cobden, who was on his way back from America, had in his absence been elected member for Rochdale, and Lord Palmerston, anxious to have the support of the Manchester party, had determined to offer him that office. Accordingly, on his arrival he was informed of his election for the borough of Rochdale, and received Lord Palmerston's offer of office, which was couched in very flattering terms. To Mr. Cobden this offer was very tempting. The salary of the office would at that time have

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FREQUENT CHANGES OF MINISTRIES.

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been an object of consequence to him; and, as he afterwards said, the office was one in which he felt that he would have been 'a square peg in a square hole.' He nevertheless refused it. He strongly disapproved the policy of Lord Palmerston, and especially his foreign policy; he was decidedly opposed to the large military expenditure which he knew that the prime-minister deemed to be absolutely necessary, but which he could not, consistently with the opinions he had often avowed and still held, consent to sanction or support. The post which he refused was accepted by his friend Mr. Milner Gibson, who generally acted with him, and whose opinions on almost all the great questions of the day were nearly identical with his own. Another gentleman whose accession to the ministry gave it great strength and stability, and whose presence in it was perhaps necessary to its existence, and certainly to its permanence, was Mr. Gladstone. He had to face a strong contest for his seat for the university of Oxford; but his friends succeeded, though not without difficulty, in obtaining his re-election, notwithstanding the opposition of many members of the university who had formerly given him their support, but who were becoming intolerant of the more and more pronounced liberality of his views, and whose anger and suspicions were farther roused by his acceptance of office in the Palmerston administration.

Thus in the brief period which intervened between June 1846 and July 1859 there had been no fewer than six changes of ministry, each attended with all the evils inseparable from such changes; the interruption of the public and private business of parliament, alteration in the domestic and foreign policy of the government as a whole, and in the direction of its several departments. The consequence was, that before a minister had become familiarised with the duties he had to discharge, or with the faces of the subordinate members of his department, he was obliged to make way for a successor, who in his turn was speedily compelled to yield his place to another. And it must be remembered that during this period the holders of the different great offices of state were even more frequently changed than the ministries. These changes led thinking men to inquire whether the time was not approaching when

the system of government by party, which had existed ever since the year 1693, would not have to be replaced by a system under which each office of the government would be occupied by the person best qualified, in the opinion of the representatives of the nation, to fill, and who would be allowed to remain in it not for a few months only, but as long as it seemed to be for the interest of the public service that he should retain it. It is no part of our duty to endeavour to resolve the problem; but it is a part of it to mention the fact that such questions were raised, and to direct the attention of our readers to the circumstances which at this time naturally gave rise to it, and the more so as these circumstances will very likely recur in a not far distant future.

While the political changes to which we have referred were being made in England, events of a much more serious nature were occurring on the Continent. The Austrians, after having suffered a rapid succession of defeats, had been driven out of Northern Italy by the combined forces of the French and Sardinians, into the quadrilateral of fortresses from which it would have been a matter of great difficulty to dislodge them; and as Prussia showed signs of preparing to interfere on behalf of Austria, the war was brought to a speedy close. An interview took place at Villafranca between the emperors of France and Austria, at which an armistice was concluded, followed by a treaty of peace. An intention to annex Savoy to France was reported to be entertained, was protested against by the English government, disavowed by Count Walewski on behalf of France, but shortly after carried into effect.

Mr. Gladstone's budget, introduced on the 18th of July, was a thoroughly simple and at the same time a thoroughly honest measure. He had to provide for a large addition to our naval and military establishments, in consequence of which it was expected that while the revenue for the coming year would be 64,340,000l., the expenditure would be 69,207,000l. Mr. Gladstone did not attempt to make up this deficiency by a loan, or by any of the expedients usually adopted by chancellors of the exchequer for putting off the evil day, but by an addition of 4d. in the pound to the tax on incomes of above 150l., a penny stamp on bankers' cheques drawn across the counter, and by the

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FINANCIAL REFORM.

145

diminution of the malt credits from eighteen to twelve weeks; thus adding to the accounts of the present year this duty, which otherwise would not have been available till the year following.

A Financial-reform Association had been formed at Liverpool, and was the means of drawing public attention to the increase of taxation which had taken place during the last few years; it was replied that the increase of taxation had gone on less rapidly than the increase of population, and that while at the commencement of the century the taxation of the country was 43s. per head, in the year 1858 it was 41s. 2d. per head, and in the year 1851 it had fallen as low as 39s. per head. It was also argued that the increase of the wealth of the country had during the same period gone on much more rapidly than the increase of its taxation; and that the proportion which the taxation of the country bore to its wealth was only half what it was in 1803, and only four-fifths of what it was in 1845, and this notwithstanding the large increase of expenditure that had been caused by the reconstruction of our national defences.

The association adverted to the heavy cost incurred in collecting the revenue of the country. That revenue, as we have just seen, was estimated by the chancellor of the exchequer at 69,207,000l.; and it was stated that the cost of collecting this amount would be 4,740,000l., that is to say, 77. 10s. to the collector for every 1007. collected by him. By the Financial Association the cost of collection was placed much higher than this. But it was alleged to be lower in England than in France or America, and to appear to be much more than it really was, because it included the payment of a multitude of extraneous and miscellaneous functions-the collecting of statistics, of light duties, the working of the merchants' shipping act, the whole cost of bonding and warehousing incurred for the benefit of the merchant. And it was affirmed that when these various items were deducted, it would be found that the cost of collecting would be greatly reduced, and probably be found not to exceed three per cent.; and that if some protective duties that still remained could be abolished, this amount would undergo a farther and considerable reduction. It was difficult to discover the truth VOL. III.

L

amongst the greatly-different statements that were made; and the general opinion was, that the expenditure under this head was excessive, and that a saving of at least two millions in the cost of collecting might be effected.

The plan of the Liverpool financial reformers was ably put forward by Mr. Bright, in a speech which he delivered on the 1st of December 1859, at a meeting arranged by the Financial-reform Association, and which being published by them may be regarded as an exposition of their views.

The plan proposed by Mr. Bright on this occasion was certainly one of the boldest that has ever been put forward, involving, in fact, a complete financial revolution. He proposed the repeal of those taxes which fall on the bulk of the community and on persons with precarious incomes, and to substitute for them taxes on property producing a fixed income. He proposed to repeal the income-tax, the assessed taxes (except the house-tax), the tax on marine assurances, the tax on fire insurances, and the excise duty on paper. He farther proposed to strike off every duty from the customs' tariff excepting those on foreign wines (which he would reduce from five shillings and sixpence to one shilling on the gallon), foreign spirits, and tobacco. He calculated that these remissions would have the effect of reducing the revenue by upwards of 26,000,000l. He proposed to cover this enormous deficiency by a tax of 8s. per cent on the income of all persons whose property was above 100l., which, according to his estimate, based on parliamentary returns, would yield a revenue of about 27,000,000l., and thus more than cover the amount of the deficiency which his proposed reductions would have produced.

These bold proposals attracted at the time a large share of the public attention, and would probably have led to some important changes, if there had not arisen about the same time one of those invasion panics which have periodically afflicted this country, encouraged, as it would seem, by the prime-minister himself, and certainly aggravated by the intemperate boasts and menaces of French officers and journalists. One of the consequences of the alarm thus created was the formation of rifle-corps throughout the country, intended to assist in its defence, in case the very