GREAT BUDGETS
The year 1860 marked the beginning of the second half of Mr. Gladstone's
life as a statesman, in which he stood prominently forward as a
Reformer. July 18, 1859, as Chancellor in the Liberal government of Lord
Palmerston, he brought forward his budget. The budget of 1860 was the
greatest of all his financial measures, for a new departure was taken in
British commerce and manufactures. Mr. Cobden, in behalf of the English
Government, had negotiated with France a treaty based on free trade
principles--"a treaty which gave an impetus to the trade of this
country, whose far-reaching effects are felt even to our day."
The Chancellor explained the various propositions of his financial
statements. Speaking of discontent with the income tax he observed: "I
speak on general terms. Indeed, I now remember that I myself had, about
a fortnight ago, a letter addressed to me complaining of the monstrous
injustice and iniquity of the income tax, and proposing that, in
consideration thereof, the Chancellor of the Exchequer should be
publicly hanged."
Mr. Gladstone said that the total reduction of duties would be over
£1,000,000, requiring a slight extension of taxation; that by this means
nearly £1,000,000 would be returned to the general revenue; that the
loss to the revenue by the French Treaty, which was based upon free
trade principles, and the reduction of duties, would be half made up by
the imposts specified; that the abolition of the paper duty would
produce the happiest results from the spread of cheap literature. The
reductions proposed would give a total relief to the consumer of nearly
£4,000,000, and cause a net loss of the revenue of over £2,000,000, a
sum about equivalent to the amount coming in from the cessation of
government annuities that year. The total revenue was £70,564,000, and
as the total expenses of government was £70,000,000, there remained an
estimated surplus of £464,000.
Mr. Gladstone concluded; "There were times, now long by, when sovereigns
made progress through the land, and when at the proclamation of their
heralds, they caused to be scattered whole showers of coin among the
people who thronged upon their steps.... Our Sovereign is enabled,
through the wisdom of her great council, assembled in Parliament around
her, again to scatter blessings among her subjects by means of wise and
prudent laws; of laws which do not sap in any respect the foundations of
duty or of manhood, but which strike away the shackles from the arm of
industry."
"It was one of the peculiarities of Mr. Gladstone's budget addresses
that they roused curiosity in the outset, and, being delivered in a
musical, sonorous, and perfectly modulated voice, kept the listeners
interested to the very close. This financial statement of 1860 was
admirably arranged for the purpose of awakening and keeping attention,
piquing and teasing curiosity, and sustaining desire to hear from the
first sentence to the last. It was not a speech, it was an oration, in
the form of a great State paper, made eloquent, in which there was a
proper restraint over the crowding ideas, the most exact accuracy in the
sentences, and even in the very words chosen; the most perfect balancing
of parts, and, more than all, there were no errors or omissions; nothing
was put wrongly and nothing was overlooked. With a House crowded in
every corner, with the strain upon his own mental faculties, and the
great physical tax implied in the management of his voice, and the
necessity for remaining upon his feet during this long period, 'the
observed of all observers,' Mr. Gladstone took all as quietly, we are
told, as if he had just risen to address a few observations to Mr.
Speaker. Indeed, it was laughingly said that he could address a House
for a whole week, and on the Friday evening have taken a new departure,
beginning with the observation, 'After these preliminary remarks, I will
now proceed to deal with the subject matter of my financial plan.'"
The ministry was supported by large majorities, and carried their
measures, but when the bill for the repeal of the duty on paper at home,
as well as coming into the country, came before the House of Lords, it
was rejected. Mr. Gladstone appeared to be confronted by the greatest
constitutional crisis of his life. He gave vent to his indignation, and
declared that the action of the Lords was a gigantic innovation, and
that the House of Commons had the undoubted right of selecting the
manner in which the people should be taxed. This speech was pronounced
by Lord John Russell "magnificently mad," and Lord Granville said that
"it was a toss-up whether Gladstone resigned or not, and that if he did
it would break up the Liberal party." Quiet was finally restored, and
the following year Mr. Gladstone adroitly brought the same feature
before the Lords in a way that compelled acceptance.
The budget of 1861 showed a surplus of £2,000,000 over the estimated
surplus, and proposed to remit the penny on the income tax, and to
repeal the paper duty. Instead of being divided into several bills as in
the previous year, the budget was presented as a whole--all included in
one. By this device the Lords were forced to acquiesce in the repeal of
the paper duty, or take the responsibility of rejecting the whole bill.
The Peers grumbled, and some of them were enraged. Lord Robert Cecil,
now Marquis of Salisbury, rudely declared that Mr. Gladstone's conduct
was only worthy of an attorney. He begged to apologize to the attorneys.
They were honorable men and would have scorned the course pursued by the
ministers. Another member of the House of Lords protested that the
budget gave a mortal stab to the Constitution. Mr. Gladstone retorted:
"I want to know, to what Constitution does it give a mortal stab? In my
opinion it gives no mortal stab, and no stab at all, to any Constitution
that we are bound to care for. But, on the contrary, so far as it alters
anything in the most recent course of practice, it alters in the
direction of restoring that good old Constitution which took its root in
Saxon times, which grew from the Plantagenets, which endured the iron
repression of the Tudors, which resisted the aggressions of the Stuarts,
and which has come to its full maturity under the House of Brunswick. I
think that is the Constitution, if I may presume to say so, which it is
our duty to guard, and which--if, indeed, the proceedings of this year
can be said to affect it at all--will be all the better for the
operation. But the Constitution which my right honorable friend worships
is a very different affair."
In 1860, Mr. Gladstone was elected Lord Rector of Edinburgh University,
and the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him.
Mr. Gladstone, in 1861, introduced one of his most beneficial
measures--a bill creating the Post Office Savings Bank. The success of
the scheme has gone beyond all expectation. At the close of 1891, the
amount deposited was £71,608,002, and growing at the average rate of
over £4,000,000 annually.
Mr. Gladstone's financial measures for 1862, while not involving such
momentous issues as those of the preceding year, nevertheless
encountered considerable opposition. The budget was a stationary one,
with no surplus, no new taxes, no remission of taxes, no
heavier burdens.
In October, 1862, Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone made a journey down the Tyne,
which is thus described: "It was not possible to show to royal visitors
more demonstrations of honor than were showered on the illustrious
Commoner and his wife.... At every point, at every bank and hill and
factory, in every opening where people could stand or climb, expectant
crowds awaited Mr. Gladstone's arrival. Women and children, in all
costumes and of all conditions, lined the shores ... as Mr. and Mrs.
Gladstone passed. Cannon boomed from every point;... such a succession
of cannonading never before greeted a triumphant conqueror on
the march."
It was during this journey that Mr. Gladstone made the memorable speech,
at New Castle, upon the American Civil War, which had broken out the
same year. There had been much speculation as to whether the English
government would recognize the Confederacy as a separate and independent
power, and the utterance of a member of the Cabinet under the
circumstances was regarded as entirely unwarranted. Mr. Gladstone
himself frankly acknowledged his error in 1867: "I must confess that I
was wrong; that I took too much upon myself in expressing such an
opinion. Yet the motive was not bad. My sympathies were then--where they
had long before been, where they are now--with the whole
American people."
The session of 1863 was barren of important subjects of debate, and
hence unusual interest was centered in the Chancellor's statement, which
was another masterly financial presentation, and its leading
propositions were cordially received. The whole reduction of taxation
for the year was £3,340,000, or counting the total reductions, present
and prospective, of £4,601,000. This still left a surplus of £400,000.
In four years £8,000,000 had been paid for war with China out of the
ordinary revenues. A proposition to subject charities to the income tax,
although endorsed by the whole cabinet, led to such powerful opposition
throughout the country that it was finally withdrawn. The arguments of
the Chancellor were endorsed by many who were opposed to the
indiscriminate and mistaken beneficence which was so prevalent on
death-beds.
A bill was introduced at this session by Sir Morton Peto, entitled the
"Dissenters' Burial Bill," the object of which was to enable
Nonconformists to have their own religious rites and services, and by
their own ministers, in the graveyards of the Established Church. The
bill was strongly opposed by Lord Robert Cecil and Mr. Disraeli. Mr.
Gladstone favored the measure. The bill was rejected, and Mr. Gladstone
at a later period discovered that his progress in ecclesiastical and
political opinions was creating a breach between himself and his
constituents at Oxford.
Mr. Gladstone's financial scheme for 1864 was received with undiminished
interest. It was characterized as "a policy of which peace, progress and
retrenchment were the watchwords." An available surplus of £2,260,000
enabled him to propose reductions.
The subject of reform, which had been coming up in the House of Commons
in one way or another and agitating the House and the country since
1859, when the Conservative party was beaten on the question, reappeared
in 1864. The question of lowering the borough franchise came up, and Mr.
Gladstone startled the House and the country by his declaration upon the
subject of reform, which showed the rapid development of his views upon
the subject. The Conservative party was filled with alarm, and the hopes
of the Reform party correspondingly elated. "The eyes of all Radical
Reformers turned to Mr. Gladstone as the future Minister of Reform in
Church and State. He became from the same moment an object of distrust,
and something approaching to detestation in the eyes of all steady-going
Conservatives."
Mr. Gladstone said: "I say that every man who is not presentably
incapacitated by some consideration of personal unfitness or political
danger, is morally entitled to come within the pale of the
constitution." This declaration was the first note sounded in a conflict
which, twelve months later, was to cost Mr. Gladstone his seat for
Oxford University, and finally to culminate in the disruption of the
Liberal Government. The general feeling in regard to this speech was
that if the Liberal party had failed in its duty on the subject of
reform in the existing Parliament after Mr. Gladstone's utterances,
that the condition of things must undergo a change, so great was the
effect of his speech in the country. The bill, which was presented by a
private member and lost, was made memorable by the speech of the
Chancellor. The eyes of careful political leaders were again turned
towards Mr. Gladstone, and strong predictions made of his coming
exaltation to the Premiership. Mr. Speaker Denison said, in October,
1864: "I now anticipate that Mr. Gladstone will be Premier. Neither
party has any leader. I hope Mr. Gladstone may get support from the
Conservatives who now support Palmerston." And these expectations were
known to Mr. Gladstone himself, for Bishop Wilberforce had a
conversation with him and writes: "Long talk with Gladstone as to
Premiership: he is for acting under John Russell." Again to Mr.
Gladstone: "Anything which breaks up, or tends to break up, Palmerston's
supremacy, must bring you nearer to the post in which I long to see you,
and, if I live, shall see you." Lord Palmerston himself said: "Gladstone
will soon have it all his own way; and whenever he gets my place we
shall have strange things."
The hostile feeling towards the Palmerston government, which had been
growing in intensity, chiefly on the ground of its foreign policy,
reached its full height in a fierce battle between the Ministry and the
Opposition. July 4, 1864, Mr. Disraeli brought forward his motion of
"no confidence." Mr. Gladstone replied for the government, and sought to
rebut the accusations made by the leader of the Opposition. He said that
it was the very first time in which the House of Commons had been called
upon to record the degradation of the country, simply for the sake of
displacing a ministry.
An amusing episode which occurred during this debate is worthy of record
here; Mr. Bernard Osborne "grew amusingly sarcastic at the expense of
the government, though he paid at the same time a great compliment to
Mr. Gladstone. He likened the Cabinet to a museum of curiosities, in
which there were some birds of rare and noble plumage, both alive and
stuffed. There had been a difficulty, unfortunately, in keeping up the
breed, and it was found necessary to cross it with the famous Peelites.
'I will do them the justice to say that they have a very great and noble
Minister among them in the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and it is to his
measures alone that they owe the little popularity and the little
support they get from this Liberal party.' Describing Mr. Milner Gibson,
the honorable gentleman said he was like some 'fly in amber,' and the
wonder was 'how the devil he got there.' Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright must
have been disappointed in this 'young man from the country.' He had
become insolent and almost quarrelsome under the guidance of the noble
lord. Should that Parliament decide on terminating its own and their
existence, they would find consolation that the funeral oration would be
pronounced by Mr. Newdegate, and that some friendly hand would inscribe
on their mausoleum, 'Rest and be thankful.'" Mr. Disraeli's motion was
lost, and the ministry was sustained.
The budget of 1865 represented the country as in a prosperous financial
condition. The total reduction was over £5,000,000. Such a financial
showing gained the warm approval of the people, and excited but little
opposition in the House. It was evident that a master-hand was guiding
the national finances, and fortunately the Chancellor's calculations
were verified by the continued prosperity of the country. At a later
period, in commenting upon the policy of the two parties--Conservative
and Liberal--Mr. Gladstone said: "From thence it follows that the policy
of the Liberal party has been to reduce the public charges and to keep
the expenditure within the estimates, and, as a result, to diminish the
taxation of the country and the national debt; that the policy of the
Tory government, since they took office in 1866, has been to increase
the public charges, and to allow the departments to spend more than
their estimates, and, as a result, to create deficits and to render the
reduction of taxation impossible. Which policy will the country prefer?"