1863.] THE BUDGET. 227 "The value of British goods exported to the United States in 1859 was 22,553,000l.; in 1862 it had fallen to 14,398,000l., and thus exhibited a decrease of 8,154,000. The value of foreign and colonial goods exported to the United States from this country had during the same period increased. In 1859 it had been only 1,864,000l.; in 1862 it had increased to 4,052,000l. The augmentation was as much as 2,188,000l.; but nearly the whole of it was represented by the single article of cotton-wool, which amounted in value to no less than 1,712,000l. However, deducting the increase on our foreign and colonial goods from the decrease upon our own export of British goods, there remains an aggregate diminution in our export trade to the United States of about 6,000,0007. 'I will take next the case of our trade with France; and here it will be my pleasant duty to point to a very different state of things. The year 1859 was the last full natural year before the treaty of commerce. In that year the value of British commodities exported to France was 4,754,000. In the year 1860 the treaty was concluded, and it took effect almost wholly as regarded our imports, but on a very few articles as regarded our exports. The value of British goods exported to France in 1860 was 5,250,000l.; and thus showed an increase of about 500,000l. In 1861 the treaty took effect as regarded its provisions relating to the duties on imports into France. It came into operation late in the year, namely, on the 1st of October. A very large augmentation appeared in our exports; but a part of this was due to the concurrence of a very bad harvest in France with a large supply of corn in the markets of this country. In consequence we sent a great quantity of corn to France; but in order to a more just calculation, I shall not take this article into account. After striking-off the sum of 1,750,000l. for an excess in the export of corn, I find that in 1861 the value of British goods sent to France rose to 7,145,000l. It thus showed an increase of 2,391,000l. over what it had been the last year anterior to the treaty. Then came the year 1862, with the treaty in operation from its beginning to its close. The value of British exports during the year now amounted to 9,210,000l. It thus showed an increase of 4,456,000l. In other words, the amount of British goods sent to France had about doubled under the operation of the treaty of commerce. 'But the figures I have named by no means set forth the whole extent of the advantage which the trade of England and France has derived from the treaty; for an augmentation of exports still more remarkable took place in foreign and colonial produce; and I need hardly remind the committee that the foreign and colonial produce which we sent to France is something that we have ourselves obtained elsewhere in exchange for British produce. It therefore follows that every increase in the export of foreign and colonial produce from this country constitutes or represents effectively a corresponding increase in the export of British manufactures. The value of foreign and colonial produce sent to France in 1859 was 4,800,000l.; whereas in 1862 it amounted to no less than 12,614,000l. Accordingly the total amount of exports to France, which in 1859 was 9,561,000l., had in 1862 gone up to no less than 21,824,000l. In fact, while we had a decrease in the total trade to the United States of 6,618,000l., that decrease was a good deal more than made up by the increase in the trade to France, for the augmentation in the French trade was 12,268,000l.' Although this speech was spoken under circumstances not so favourable as some of those financial addresses that Mr. Gladstone had already delivered; although it did not announce such great changes as those which were connected with the introduction of the treaty of peace; although it did not contain those ingenious disquisitions on the philosophy of finance which had given a special interest to his previous budget-speeches; there was none of them that was more striking in the delivery, or that produced a more powerful effect on those who heard it. The moment he concluded, the house, by one spontaneous and instinctive movement of approval, rose to express its admiration of the wonderful ability which, on a dry question of figures, could keep the house for three hours hanging on the lips of the speaker. The name and the misfortunes of Poland had often stirred the heart of the English nation; but never, perhaps, had British sympathy for the misfortunes of that unhappy country been more energetically manifested than by the 1863.] POLAND. 229 representatives of the British people in the earlier part of the session of this year. The question was brought forward in the House of Commons by Mr. P. Hennessy, a conservative, an Irishman, and a Roman Catholic. Speaking with the eloquence of deep emotion, he depicted in glowing colours the writhings of Poland under the cruel tyranny of the Grand-duke Constantine; he mentioned. that since the commencement of the year upwards of 14,000 men and women had been crammed into one single dungeon in Warsaw; he stated that the conscription had been carried to such an extremity, that out of a population of 184,000, only 683 persons were left to carry on the trade of the country; that the Count Andren Zamoyski had been punished by banishment for the crime of having presented a petition couched in the most respectful language; that Poland was threatened with extermination, her barracks and fortresses transformed into political prisons, the houses of her citizens surrounded and invaded in the dead of night, and the flower of her youth torn from their beds to be swallowed up in the Russian army. These statements produced their intended effect. There was a good deal of difference of opinion as to the course that should be adopted; but there was no difference whatever in the loud cry of disgust and indignation which proceeded from every side of the house, and which made itself heard even in the palace of the czar. Mr. Disraeli, Lord Palmerston, Lord J. Russell, Mr. Walpole, Mr. Stansfeld, and Lord Robert Cecil vied with one another in the expression of their detestation of the barbarities that Russia had committed. So far as the House of Commons was concerned, the debate ended with the somewhat lame and impotent conclusion of leaving the matter in the hands of the government. But this resolution did not satisfy the more ardent spirits; an agitation on the subject was commenced; a great meeting, attended by a large number of members of both houses, was held in the Guildhall. The language used in this assembly was more indignant and outspoken than that which had been employed in the House of Commons; but it did not go the length of recommending that we should embark in a war with Russia; indeed, such a step on our part would have been an act of madness. It was in the last degree unlikely that, even with the assistance of France, we could penetrate into Poland; and even if we could, it was quite certain that the Poles would be crushed by the vast and neighbouring armies of her powerful oppressor long before we could afford her any succour. All that England could give to Poland was her moral aid; and that she gave in no stinted measure, and with a deep sigh of sorrow that it was not in her power to render a more efficacious assistance. A good deal of public indignation was also expressed both in and out of parliament at the seizure of British ships by cruisers of the Northern States, especially at the behaviour of Captain Wilkes in the Trent affair, and at the manner in which his conduct had been sanctioned by the congress, the admiralty, and the people. These grievances were the subject of long debates, which were carried forward in a somewhat angry tone. Mr. Roebuck brought the matter before the house, relating in some detail the substance of an alleged conversation between the French emperor and himself, in which the former stated not only that his feeling in favour of the recognition of the Southern States was the same as it had always been, but that it was now stronger than ever; that he was ready in all things to act with England; and that, more than in any other thing, he was ready to act with her as regarded America. Mr. Roebuck subsequently withdrew his motion, on an assurance from Lord Palmerston that the matter was receiving the careful consideration of the government. This year the defenders of church-rates gained a more unequivocal triumph than they obtained in the two previous years. As we have seen, in 1861 the numbers were equal, and the bill rejected by the speaker's casting vote. In 1862 there was a majority of one against it; but in 1863, the majority of the opposing party rose to ten. We have already mentioned that since the elimination of parliamentary reform from the place it had occupied in the queen's speeches, law reform was the only organic change which the government was prepared to propose. The measures that were brought forward in fulfilment of the pledge thus given were, a bill for the amendment of the bankruptcy laws, and another for the registration of titles to real estates. We have already seen what the author of 1863.] LAW REFORM. 231 the former bill, Lord Westbury, thought of the first of these measures after it had undergone due parliamentary manipulation, and the other was not a whit more fortunate. Undeterred, however, by the treatment they had received in previous sessions, he determined to introduce another of still greater importance, requiring much more labour to prepare and to conduct it through the house, and likely to encounter a far greater amount of hostile criticism and amendment. The measure to which we refer was one for the consolidation of the statute law as contained in forty-four thick folio volumes of acts of parliament, many of which were obscure, obsolete, or contradictory. The work of examining, compressing, and digesting this prodigious mass of statutes had been already commenced, and the chancellor proposed that steps should now be taken to carry it forward more rapidly and effectually. He also proposed to attempt the consolidation of the common law, as contained in a vast number of recorded judicial decisions, commencing at the end of the reign of Edward II., and carried down to our own time. Of course such an immense mass of long and often conflicting judgments and opinions, contained in eleven or twelve hundred volumes of reports, the number of which was every day increasing, required an immense amount of attentive consideration. Lord Westbury proposed to appoint competent persons to examine, compare, revise, and expurgate these reports, and to remove from them all decisions that were obsolete or contradictory. For this purpose he suggested that they should be divided into three classes; the first extending to the revolution of 1688 or the commencement of the reign of Queen Anne; the next to the end of the reign of George III.; and the last to be carried down to the period at which his bill was introduced. The measure was a vigorous and honest attempt to effect a reform of the first necessity and importance; but it was one that was sure to encounter a strong opposition from the lawyers, who, though comparatively few in number in the upper house, formed a very considerable proportion of the lower. And this opposition was not likely to be balanced by any enthusiasm for a measure which, however useful, was not calculated to call forth much public sympathy or much zealous support. A bill designed to put our volunteer force on a more |