the state of the crops in Ireland, I think | head of militia estimates, not a single it would, on the one hand, be unjust to shilling had been saved. The naval and the suffering people of this country, and military force of the empire was at least fatal to the ultimate welfare of Ireland, if twice as large as there was any necessity any sweeping measure of relief were at for. It could scarcely be credited, but once to be adopted; I hope and believe such was the fact, that there were more that it will not be needed; but, on the armed men in Ireland in the service of the other hand, I think it would be wrong, Government than there were voters. Let and an act of cruelty, if under the ex- them look at the income and expenditure tremest emergency we were to say that of past years. The national income from no assistance or relief whatsoever should 1840 to 1843 averaged from 50,500,0001. be given to a suffering and starving to 52,000,000l., and the expenditure was population. With these views I consider proportionately small; but since that period it inexpedient to hold out an expectation the revenue, instead of being 50,000,0007. of any large assistance being afforded; or 52,000,000l., increased in 1844 to while I hope that to a limited extent the 55,500,000l.; in 1845, to 57,000,000l.; House will place confidence in us, and al- in 1846, to 56,250,000l.; and in 1847, to low us, within moderate limits, to dispense 56,000,000l. In 1844, the expenditure on such assistance as may be absolutely ne- account of the Army and Navy amounted cessary. As to what the result will actu- to 14,000,000l.; in 1845, to about the ally be, no one can pretend to foretell. It same; in 1846, to 15,600,000l.; in 1847, may be like the former visitation. I hope to 16,800,000l.; until in 1848 it amounted and pray not; but if it be, then it will be to 18,500,000l.; and the country had a our bounden duty immediately to refer the just right to complain of such enormous case to the wisdom of Parliament. With- additions to the public burdens. The acout wishing, then, on the one hand, to tual taxation, including the cost of collechold out any general expectation of relief, tion, about 4,000,000l., amounted to nearly yet, on the other hand, feeling that relief 60,000,000l. As to the disturbances which ought to be given where it would be ut- had taken place in this country, he could terly impossible that life should be main- scarcely have believed that men were to tained without it, I think for the present be found capable of such visionary, crude, we must wait till we see what the result and impossible schemes. It was, howof the harvest shall be. We must know ever, satisfactory to find that the proceedwhat the produce of the crops is, and what ings which had recently taken place were the circumstances of the country are, be- not planned by the labouring classes of the fore we can decide what shall be the course country, but originated amongst the lowest we ought to pursue. and vicious of the community. Many persons were now suffering in prison who had openly given expressions to their political feelings who should no more be liable to be imprisoned than himself or any other hon. Gentleman. He had expressed himself as strongly on politics as many of those who were now in confinement; and he hoped that before long there would be an end put to such arrests. He trusted that the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer would not raise his loan by the creation of stock, as great loss had been occasioned by previous transactions of the kind. In conclusion, he expressed his deep regret that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had not announced any reduction in the Army and Navy. MR. HUME said, that where men found themselves not in quite so bad a position as they anticipated, they were in the habit of congratulating each other on their good fortune. The House was in such a position, and was evidently in the vein to be pleased with a very little. It was a matter of serious consideration to find that after reducing the deficiencies from 3,000,000l. to 2,000,000l. they still required to borrow. This might be very well if there was a thriving population well employed; but when the state of the country, and the increasing burdens on account of the poor, were borne in mind, our condition was not one for congratulation. He regaetted that no hope had been held out of a diminution of the Army and Navy, as a temporary reduction of 826,000l., caused by the postponement of public works, could not afford any substantial relief to the country. In point of fact, with the exception of a saving on the LORD G. BENTINCK: Sir, I do not propose to follow the hon. Gentleman the Member for Montrose, still less to dispute the statement he so frankly made, that he has held stronger language than that given expression to by those lately convicted That proposal for anin under the Crown and Government Security | the first financial statement was made, we Bill for sedition; and, I suppose I may add, were informed that there would be a defitreason and felony, for I remember the ciency of nearly 3,000,000l., and that occasion upon which the hon. Gentleman such deficiency was to be made up by an advised the Canadian colonists to cast off increase in the income-tax yielding the dominion of the British Crown. When | 3,500,000l. the hon. Gentleman rose, he created some creased tax upon incomes was subsesurprise at this side of the House by ob- quently abandoned; but we are now told serving that the Chancellor of the Exche- that the malt duties have so much exquer sat down amid general congratula- ceeded in amount the estimates framed tions. Surely, if any such expressions of by the right hon. Gentleman, that on the gratification were indulged in by hon. head of Excise there is already an increase Gentlemen on the opposite benches, they over the corresponding period of last year must have been conveyed in a suppressed of upwards of 500,000l. [The CHANCELwhisper, for they did not reach us. ILOR of the EXCHEQUER: I said the increase do not think there is anything to congra- was upon the Customs and Excise.] If I tulate the right hon. Gentleman upon, al- understood the right hon. Gentleman, he though I heard him congratulate himself said that the corn duties were not included that things were no worse. It appears to in his statement of Customs. [The CHANme, that a more insolvent statement could CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER: I stated, that not be made by a Chancellor of the Ex- the increase upon the Customs and the chequer; and the only consolation to de- Excise, taken together, was more than rive from it is that, as things are so bad, 500,000l. I also said, that there was an they may soon get better. Such also was increase of 22,000l. in the Customs duties, the right hon. Gentleman's hope in the exclusive of the corn duties.] Then we spring of 1847. For my part, I think the are to understand that there is a decrease best foundation he has for his congratula- on stamps, the amount of which the right tions, and his most consoling reflection, is hon. Gentleman is not prepared to state; very much akin to that of a certain gal- and that upon the balance there is an inlant knight (Sir Hudibras) who, when im-crease of revenue on Customs and Excise prisoned in the village stocks, expressed a hope that his dog-bolt fortunes might"quickly end, 66 Or turn about again and mend." The right hon. Gentleman told us, that various financial statements had been made to the House. Various and varying they were; for this is the fourth budget or explanatory financial statement with which we have been favoured. The right hon. Gentleman has gone to some pains to explain budget No. 4; but now that I have heard it, I am not sure I understand it. We have not been told that the corn duties were included in the statement. [The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER: They are always included.] Not always;" for when the right hon. Gentleman made his financial statement in the early part of the Session, he forgot to include them. understood the right hon. Gentleman to say, that there was an increase in the Customs of 22,000l. over the corresponding period of last year. [The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER: Exclusive of corn duties.] I understand, that 207,000l. had been received up to the 15th of June. So I presumed, that up to this time about 300,000l. had been received from corn duties. The House will recollect, that when I to the extent of 500,000l. The right hon. Let me pect of meeting again in three or four months, with a virtual deficiency of two millions. With such prospects as thoseapart from considerations of reductions of expenditure-I must say that I never heard a statement by any Chancellor of the Exchequer less a subject of congratulation, either to the House, to the country, or to myself, than the statement which the right hon. Gentleman has made this night. MR. J. O'CONNELL wished to say a few words with regard to Ireland. No doubt in some parts of the country the gloomy anticipations which had been entertained would not be realised to the full extent. The potato disease was perhaps not so active or malignant as it had formerly been, but it was to be feared that it was making a steady progress; and it was much to be apprehended that if famine visited the country to anything like the extent that was threatened, the people would be in a most frightful condition, inasmuch as in the year 1846 and 1847 they possessed resources from which in the autumn and winter of 1848 they could not hope to derive any advantage. The case of Ireland was most melancholy; it called for extreme and anxious attention, the more especially as the recent attempts to create disturbance were not the acts of the people, they were merely the proceedings of rash, mad, and criminal persons. As regarded the conduct of the Government, it was in this matter most merciful; and he earnestly hoped that they would continue to show the same spirit. 50,000l.; and these things, taken together, | until next year, and have amalgamated the indicate that there will be a diminution in- budget of 1848 and 1849, with the prosstead of an increase in the revenue. Really it appears to me as if the right hon. Gentleman is seeking to ape Sir Robert Peel; but he forgets that when Sir Robert Peel borrowed in 1842, that he put on a property-tax, which gave him 5,000,000l., and that at a time when there was something to look forward to. It is true Sir Robert Peel reduced the duty on timber, thus sacrificing 500,000l. or 600,000l., and that he made other reductions of duty to the extent of 1,000,000l.; but he compensated for the loss by the imposition of an income-tax. The policy of the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer inclines, on the other hand, to the increase of expense, without removing any burdens, or without providing fresh sources of revenue. I say, therefore, that he is unwarrantably confident when he looks forward to an increasing surplus revenue to compensate him for his 2,000,000l. of deficiency. He is aware that there are no more instalments of China money, and therefore on all hands I say there is every prospect of a diminished income. With regard to expenditure, he tells us that there is a saving amounting to 828,000l. upon the various estimates; but that saving will have to be made up in future years. It is not as if he told us that great works would have to be finished this year, but, on the contrary, everything is to be postponed, as a charge upon the future greater than the present charge. Far from thinking we have subject for congratulation, I am of opinion that the right hon. Gentleman's prospects are the darkest and most obscure that can possibly be conceived. The right hon. Gentleman speaks of a prospect of increasing the surplus revenue; but how is he to make amends for his present deficiency, and what will justify this irregular mode of borrowing money by selling stock which he does not possess? When I look at the return that was presented to this House a few days ago, which shows that in the Customs duties there is a diminished receipt of 500,000l., and an increased expenditure to the amount of 40,0007. on account of collection, in addition to the salaries of extra custom-house officers and coast-guards to the number of sixty-two, I cannot agree with the right hon. Gentleman in thinking that we can depend upon a surplus revenue in anticipation. But it appears we are to part this year at a period when we might have postponed the budget SIR H. WILLOUGHBY said, all they had heard amounted merely to a postponement for one year of the imposition of fresh taxes, and the only thing Ministers seemed able to do, was to go on borrowing more money. On referring to a paper recently presented to the House, he found that the additions to the national debt, from the 1st of January, 1847, to the 1st of January, 1848, made a total of 7,933,2591.; and even that was not the whole deficiency, for the whole of the money sent to Ireland was borrowed, and England imposed upon herself, by that operation, a permanent annual expenditure of 200,000l. a year. It was quite evident that the country could not go on in that way much longer; The noble Lord had upon a former occasion said, that when the deficiency amounted to so much as 2,000,000l., that there should be no loan-no petty device; that taxes should be found to meet the defi- circumstances would enable the Governciency. Now, when the noble Lord was ment to make further reductions. With beaten upon the tax that he had proposed, regard to the statement made by the hon. he ought to have submitted to the House Member for Limerick, he must say, that some other scheme. the Government claimed the confidence of the country for their intentions. He hoped that the potato failure was not so great as was apprehended a week ago, though he admitted that there was still ground, for fear and alarm on that head. MR. MUNTZ expressed his regret that, after thirty-three years of peace, a deficiency was still to be met by borrowed money, and by an addition to the national debt. If the expenditure were necessary and just, it ought to be met by existing resources. Resolutions agreed to :-"That towards making good the Supply granted to Her Majesty, the sum of 10,584,871l. 19s. 10d. be granted out of the Consolidated Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. That there be issued and applied to the Service of the year 1848 the sum of 41,786l. 19s. 9d., being the Surplus of Ways and Means granted for the Service of preceding years. That the sum of 500,000l., being part of the sum in the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, a balance from the services of the years 1846 and 1847, be ap MR. DRUMMOND thought, that the country had come to the ne plus ultra of taxation; and he trusted that the Government would at a future period be prepared to come forward with some plan adequate to the exigencies of the time. The imputation thrown out by any Irish Catholic bishop, that this country intended to starve the Irish people, though it might be passed over with the phrase that it was all "Tullagh-hill talk," was in plain, honest Saxon, nothing but a wilful and de-plied to the Service of 1848." liberate falsehood. SCIILESWIG-HOLSTEIN. On the question that towards making good the supply the Commissioners of the Treasury be authorised to raise 2,000,000l. sterling, either by the issue of Exchequerbills, or by the creation of Consolidated 3 per cent Annuities, or Reduced 3 per cent Annuities, MR. DISRAELI observed that when the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the course of his statement, painted in rather gloomy colours the situation of the country, he not only referred to the bad harvests we had experienced, but especially to the disordered state of Europe; and one of the reasons assigned by the right hon. Gentleman for the disadvantages under which this country at present laboured was the blockade in the Baltic, which he spoke of as likely to last for a considerable time. That blockade, as was well known, occasioned great loss, and inconvenience, and injury to our merchants. He had before called the attention of the noble Lord and of the House to this subject, and especially LORD J. RUSSELL observed, that there was no ground to suppose any reason why, with the reductions that had been made, and those that might be undertaken next year, the ordinary expenditure should not be reduced to the income of the country. The hon. Member for Montrose had said, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had not stated that any further reductions were to be made; but there had been in various debates declarations made by himself (Lord J. Russell), by the hon. Secretary to the Admiralty, and by other Members of the Government, that on every possible occasion reductions would be made with the view of bringing the expenditure within the income. At the same time, he did not at all regret having, in the present year, kept up the naval and military forces at the point at which they were now maintained. When complaints were made of the great amount of the Navy and the Army, he must say, that considering the events which had occurred on the Continent, considering the excitement which such events were likely to pro-to the fact that, when the blockade was duce in this country, giving encouragement to misguided men to imagine that they had only to go out into the streets with knives and pistols in order to effect a revolution, and considering the attempts made in Ireland, he should have been sorry if, for the mere purpose of popularity, the Government had proposed reductions in the Army and Navy. He did trust, however, that renewed, it was renewed under much more stringent and severe conditions. He had formerly inquired whether Her Majesty's Government meant to fulfil a guarantee which this country had given to Denmark for the possession of Schleswig, and he quoted the treaty, which was very decided in its language, and which appeared to him scarcely to admit of doubt. The noble Berlin; and whether there was any probability of a termination of the blockade of the ports of the Baltic and the North Sea? Lord (Lord Palmerston), however, said that it was possible the guarantee was not so very decided, and he hinted at two or three modes of interpretation which might leave it open to this country to free itself from VISCOUNT PALMERSTON did not unthe force of that guarantee. But since he dervalue the importance of the subject to brought the question of the guarantee be- which the hon. Gentleman had called atfore the House, the whole of the diplomatic tention; but he was sure both the hon. correspondence which took place between Gentleman and the House would feel that, the English Secretary of State (Lord although it might be right on proper ocStanhope) and our Ministers at the Court casions for Ministers in that House to of Copenhagen (Lord Polwarth and Lord give full explanations with regard to matCarteret), which had been found in the ters in which the British Government alone State Paper Office, had been published by was concerned, yet that it might not be a learned Dane, and the nature of the altogether competent or proper for them guarantee was no longer a matter of doubt. to afford full explanations with respect to It was a guarantee which this country was transactions between other Governments, as much bound to fulfil as it was bound to in which transactions the English Governpay the interest of the national debt. He ment was only incidentally concerned. He believed, that if when he (Mr. Disraeli) must certainly admit that he had been called attention to the subject, the noble very much disappointed with regard to the Lord had acknowledged the weight of that armistice. On several occasions he had guarantee, and had taken a decided course, held out to the House hopes and expectathey might have avoided some of the great tions which had not been realised; but he inconveniences and injuries they had ex- could assure the House that this had not perienced. The noble Lord had boasted, arisen from any want of activity or earthe other night, of the good understanding nestness on the part of Her Majesty's which existed between Her Majesty's Go-Government. The transaction in question vernment and the powerful Government of was one in which many parties were conFrance. Now France had acknowledged the force of the guarantee of 1720; and he (Mr. Disraeli) thought the noble Lord could not do anything more sensible or just than to act in concert with that Government with reference to this guarantee, and by taking a decided course to terminate the vexatious blockade which the English merchants could no longer endure. The noble Lord had on a former occasion made a statement which gave an impression that the armistice which had originally been agreed to would be carried into effect by the Prussian Government; but he had since admitted that the hopes and expectations he had permitted the commercial world to indulge in, had not been realised. As the Chancellor of the Exchequer had so specifically alluded to the blockade, a good opportunity was afforded to the noble Lord to give the House some information on the subject. He wished to know what was the present state of the question; whether the armistice was going to be fulfilled; whether any arrangement had been made between Prussia and the German Confederation which would allow Prussia to act independently; whether Prussia could act independently; what was the nature of the relations subsisting between the Court of St. James and the Court of cerned-the Danish Government, the Prussian Government, and the Government, varying from day to day in its character, at Frankfort, beginning with a Diet, passing into a National Assembly, and ending in a Vicar-General of the empire. The question had thus been embarrassed and complicated by the varying disposition and character of the Central German authority. If he were to go into details, he would have to explain the transactions which had taken place between the German authorities at Frankfort and the Government of Prussia; and he did not think, if he entered into those details, that he would advance the object they all had in view-a satisfactory solution of the Schleswig-Holstein question. He might, however, state generally, what he believed was in substance pretty well known, that the terms of an armistice between the Government of Prussia and the Danish Government were substantially agreed upon; that those terms were considered by the Prussian Government to require the assent of the Frankfort authority; and that that Frankfort authority had coupled the ratification with certain conditions which had for a time created delay and difficulty. He still hoped, however, that there might be, on the part of all concerned, a sufficient |