of notes and to suspend the operation of the Bank Charter Act of 1844. Ministers acceded to the request, and called Parliament together in December, when the Bank Charter Indemnity Act was passed. CHAP. III. tion under Victoria. The finances of India were grappled with by Lord Indian Stanley in 1859. Before the Indian Mutiny broke out, finances. the revenue nearly balanced the expenditure, but the total deficiency for 1857-9 amounted to £21,600,000, exclusive of all compensation for the loss of private property. It had been almost entirely caused by the increased military expenditure. The Indian revenue was not elastic, and the only present resource was to be found in diminished outlay. Lord Stanley, however, obtained from Parliament a loan for India of £7,000,000, and he promised various land reforms. Sir Charles Wood, Lord Stanley's successor as Indian Secretary, sent out in the autumn of 1858 an eminent financier, Mr. James Wilson, who rendered great service in reorganising the Indian finances. He reformed the Customs, imposed an income tax and license duty, and created a State paper currency. Budget of A new and memorable departure in the commercial The Free progress and general prosperity of Great Britain dates Trade from the year 1860, when Mr. Gladstone brought forward 1860. the most comprehensive of his financial measures. The Treaty with France negotiated by Mr. Cobden, with the co-operation of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was concluded on Free Trade principles, and it has resulted in lasting benefit to the two nations. In view of this treaty, Mr. Gladstone's Budget was awaited with the keenest interest. The expenditure included £1,625,000 for the China expedition, but there was a relief of £2,146,000 from the payment of interest on the National Debt. The war duties on tea and sugar were continued for fifteen months, but the duties on butter, cheese, tallow, oranges, etc., were abolished, and those on timber, currants, hops, etc., reduced. Other beneficial changes were proposed, including the repeal of the paper duty. Mr. Gladstone passed a glowing eulogium upon VOL. II. 32 tion under Queen CHAP. III. Mr. Cobden in connection with the French Treaty. The Later By the Budget of 1861 the income tax was reduced one In 1863 Mr. Gladstone reduced the tea duty to one Budgets. shilling in the pound, and took twopence off the income tax. The financial statement of 1864 showed a surplus of £3,152,000, and reductions were made in the income tax, the fire insurance duty, and the malt tax. Further reductions were made in 1865, the relief for this year amounting to no less than £5,420,000, and in 1866 there were also considerable reductions in taxation. The financial collapse and panic which ensued upon the failure of Overend, Gurney and Co. in the spring of 1866 brought ruin into thousands of homes. English credit and stocks of all kinds suffered severely, and the Government were compelled, as in 1847 and 1857, to authorise the Bank of England to issue notes beyond the legal The Abys- limit. In consequence of the Abyssinian war, which Panic in 1866. sinian War. was undertaken to compel King Theodore to give up Mr. CHAP. III. tion under determined that the ordinary pay of the Indian troops and shipping employed in the expedition should be charged on the revenues of India. Further heavy votes on account of the war were taken in 1869 and 1870. The Victoria. expedition was completely successful, but it cost the country nearly £9,000,000. Lowe's The financial schemes introduced by Mr. Lowe, when Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, excited much hostility. Budgets. The Budget of 1871 contemplated a deficit of upwards of £2,000,000, in consequence of the abolition of purchase and other improvements in the army. Mr. Lowe proposed to meet this by alterations in the probate and succession duties, by an increased and readjusted income tax, and by a tax upon matches. Each of these propositions was violently assailed out of doors, and the match tax was especially obnoxious to dwellers in the East End. Ultimately the Chancellor was compelled to withdraw his whole scheme and to substitute the simple addition of twopence in the pound to the income tax. When the Budget of 1872 was produced, it was found that Mr. Lowe had miscalculated matters. There was a surplus of £3,000,000, and the Chancellor withdrew the twopence previously added to the income tax, and lessened the duty upon coffee by one half. Yet, notwithstanding Mr. Lowe's mistakes, the Gladstone Government had a Gladdistinguished financial record. It had remitted taxes to the extent of £12,000,000, reduced the National Debt by £26,000,000, and brought down the income tax to threepence in the pound. When Mr. Gladstone suddenly dissolved Parliament in January, 1874, he held out the hope of abolishing the income tax altogether, for he had always regarded it as an undesirable, though a useful, impost; but the elections went heavily against him, and on quitting office in February he left his successor, Mr. Disraeli, a handsome surplus, amounting in round numbers to £5,000,000. In 1875 profound interest was evoked in England by the announcement that the British Government had purchased the whole of the Khedive's The Suez interest in the Suez Canal, at a cost of £4,000,000. It Canal. stonian finance. Legislation under Queen CHAP. III. was at first thought that this financial coup indicated a new departure in Eastern policy, but it was ultimately no more than a defensive step on the regarded as Victoria. Premier's part, and as a successful commercial transaction. The Budgets for 1875-6-7 were of an unpretentious character, but in 1878 the expenditure included £3,500,000 out of a vote of credit of £6,000,000 for the TurcoRussian war. Financial measures, 1880-1885. In 1880, when Mr. Gladstone was again in power, the malt tax was abolished, and a tax on beer substituted. The expenditure included £3,000,000 for the war in South Africa, and a penny was added to the income tax, while the beer and spirit licenses were increased. In 1881 a penny was taken off the income tax, and the legacy duties were readjusted and increased. The expenditure included special war charges and a portion of the TurcoRussian vote of credit, amounting together to £2,347,000. The extra war and vote of credit charges in 1882 amounted to £3,842,000. No alteration was made in general taxation. In July of this year a vote of credit of £2,300,000 was taken on account of Egypt, and the income tax was advanced threepence to meet the demand. Mr. Childers now became Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 1883 his financial proposals for the construction of a second Suez Canal were generally construed as being too favourable to M. de Lesseps, and were ultimately abandoned. A conference was held in London in 1884 for the settlement of Egyptian affairs, but it proved abortive; and Lord Northbrook was sent out to Egypt as Lord High Commissioner to inquire into its finances and condition, the result being a loan of £9,000,000. Mr. Childers was defeated in his Budget of 1885, which included, among other changes, a large increase of the wine and spirit duties. A hostile motion by Sir M. Hicks-Beach was carried by the narrow majority of twelve votes-264 to 252. Mr. Gladstone resigned, being supported by his colleagues in the desire to relinquish office, although a vote of confidence in the Government could easily have been carried. CHAP. III. tion under National Debt. Legislation in connection with the National Debt demands attention. A scheme was adopted in 1868 for its continuous reduction by the conversion of stock into terminable annuities; and in 1875 a new and permanent sinking fund was established, which was to be maintained The by annual votes of the House of Commons. Mr. Childers formulated and carried an important scheme in 1883 by which, through the creation of new annuities terminable. in twenty years, £70,000,000 of debt could be immediately extinguished, and £173,300,000 in twenty years. Mr. Childers carried a further act in 1884 by which a portion of the debt was to be converted from 3 per cent. to 2 per cent. stock. On the conclusion of the Peace of Paris in 1815, the National Debt stood at £861,039,049; at the commencement of the Crimean war (1854) it was £769,082,549; but in 1890 it had fallen to £689,944,026. VI. IRISH LEGISLATION. tion. Ireland was a conspicuous subject of discussion and Irish legislation from the very commencement of the reign. legislaLord Melbourne's Government resolved upon measures dealing with the tithes, poor-laws, and municipal corporations. With regard to the poor-laws, a commission reported in 1836, revealing a terrible condition of poverty. Mendicancy was universal, and no one felt it a disgrace. The labours of the commission were supplemented by those of Mr. Nicholls, one of the English Poor Law Commissioners, who recommended radical reforms. Accordingly, in the session of 1838, Ministers brought forward an Irish Poor Law Bill. Its main feature was the division of the country into unions, each union having a workhouse managed by a board of guardians, elected by the ratepayers. Every destitute person had an absolute right to relief, which was to be administered almost entirely in the workhouse. There was to be a central board, which would supervise the local bodies charged with relief, and the rate was to be levied on the annual value of real property. The laws were similar in spirit to those of England. The bill was severely attacked by Poor Law Act of 1838. |