HOUSE OF COMMONS,—April 28.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 4, Issue 210, 30 June 1849, Page 3

HOUSE OF COMMONS,— April 28.

Financial Reform. On the motion for going into a committee of supply, Mr. Cobden moved a resolution to this effect : — That the increase of nearly ten millions between the net expenditure of 1835 and that of 1848 having been caused principally by augmentations of warlike establishments and outlays for defensive armaments, which increaae is not warranted by the present circumstances of the country, whilst the taxes required to meet the present expenditure impede agriculture and manufactures, and diminish the funds applicable to productive industry, thereby adding to the burdenß of the people, it is expedient; to reduce the annual expenditure, with all practicable speed, to the sum which, in 1835, was sufficient to maintain the security, honour, and dignity of the nation. He began by stating that be did not I desire that any member should infer from his notice } that the reduction he proposed could be made initantcr ; his object was to afford the house an opportunity of expressing its opinion as to the desirableness and necessity of such a reduction. He compared various items in the budgets of England and France, and contended that, notwithstanding the disparity of their populations, the items wtre larger in the former country than in the latter. He referred to the extravagance of our local taxation, which he attributed to the fault of the imperial I Legislature, and then proceeded to juttify his seiec- | tion of 1835, as a model year, which he had done ! in order to avoid the charge of taking an aartb * tr * r y standard ; just as, at the close of the war, 1792 had, been taken as the starting; point. Mr. Cobden then instituted a comparison between various items of expenditure in the respective years of 1835 and 1848, and laid great stress upon the enormous item of ,£18,000,000 for our naval and military establishments, upon which, he saiu, the great gist of his argument rested, and showed what had been the increase in that grand item since 1835, and the causes of that increase. He gave a sketch of the political condition of this countiy. with reference to its foreign relations, during the last fourteen years, and the apprehensions, gome real, some imaginary, which had induced the housa to consent to augment our army and navy, insisting that our foreign relations were upon an infinitely safer fooling now than in 1835, and that if we took advantage oi our maular position, and did not run heedlessly into the

internal disputes of other countries, there never was a time when this country, as respected its foreign relations, was in stiller water. Mr. Cobden then adverted to the expenditure incurred on account of the colonies, and put it to the house to say, whether the colonies ought not to maintain their own establishments, for il was a monstrous injustice that, i considering the boons given to the colonies, the people of. England should be taxed to support poseessiona from which they derived no greater benefit than the mass of th=. people of any other country. With respect to our armatneuta at home, he maintained that neither in Eogland, where there was a jierfect feeling of loyalty, nor even in Ireland, the dfisturbances in which had been exaggerated, did any cavie exist for keeping up such a military establishment as was now proposed.. Mr. Cobden expatiated upon the relief which every branch of our industry would enjoy by a remission of taxation ; this could only be obtained by a reduction of our naval and military establishments, by which he would undertake to bring back the total expenditure to the amount in 1835, at the same time adding £1,500.000 to our civil expenditure.— The Chancellor of the Exchequer complimented Mr. Cobden upon the temperate manner in which he had brought this subject forward, and glancing slightly at the subject of local taxation, which had little connexion with the question, observed, that Mr. Cobden's argument for assuming 1833 as a standard to which we should go back, depended upon two conditions : First, that in that year adequate provision was made for the public service ; and secondly, that no subsrquent changes had taken place calling for increase. The excess of £9.763,000 of expenditure in 1848 over that of 1835, was not, he remarked, attribute able to the augmentation of the naval and military establishments alone; and he undertook to show that it was not consistent with the true interests of the country — the protection of life and property at home and of trade and commerce abroad — to effect a reduction in these establishments to the extent proposed by Mr. Cobden. He entered into details to establish hia first proposition, that the estimates of 1835 were inadequate to the exigencies of the country, in doing which he combated the theory of Mr. Cobden respecting the colonies, and contended that it was the true policy of the mother country to extend its protecting arm over its colonial possessions. He then enumerated various changes which had been made in the navy since 1835, by the crea» tionofasteam force, and by other causes, and, passing thence to the army, he demonstrated the positive necessity of the augmentations, not merely to meet political exigencies, but for the relief of the soldiers, incidentally noticing and repelling the sneer uttered at the Liverpool Finance Reform Association, that the only object for keeping up the army waa to feed the younger brothers of the aristocracy. Our prospects abroad, he agreed with Mr. Cobden, were in a very different condition from those of last year ; the chances of peace had materially improved, and he believed that domestic incendiaries, like foreign revolutionists, began to perceive the folly of their projects ; and these considerations had permitted the Government to reduce the army from 113,847 men to 103,254. He then i stated a variety of reductions effected in the present estimates, and appealed to the aggregate amount — nearly a million and a half — as a proof that the Government were not inattentive to the calls of the country. Sir Charles gave the house some striking facts in disproof of the alleged pressure of taxation upon this country, which showed that its revenue was more cheaply collected than that of neighbouring countries, and asserted that, comparing the incomes of individuals, no country was so lightly taxed. — At the conclusion of his speech Sir C. Wood read some financial statements, which he had prepared in anticipation of Mr. Hume's motion, showing that, excluding extraordinary itemß, the total income, up to the sth of January, 1849. was j£52 ,933,000, and the total expenditure £52,563,000 leaving a surplus of ,£370,000.— A debate followed, but Mr. Cobden's resolution was negatived by a majority of 275 to 78. California.— Mr. Wyld wished to ask the noble lord the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, whether it was his intention to appoint a consul at San Francisco, or California generally [laughter].— Lord Palmerston replied that that question was one not put to him for the first time — [laughter] — but certainly but privately— -[continued laughter], — He had no intention of appointing any person as consul at San Francisoo at present, because there was no form of government established there — | [a laugh] — and he could not, therefore, communicate with any established authorities.