Ô2
THE TABLET.
[Saturday, January 20, 1872,
Mr. Vernon Harcourt writes a long letter to mr. 11AR- t]le T im es, first to explain his grounds for adunnecessary vocating reduction o f our military establish-
defknce. n rent; and, secondly, to state more clearly in what the economy which he advocates consists.
H is reason for reduction is a very simple one ; an invasion by sea is a simple impossibility, unless the country invaded has lost command o f the sea. We have heard this before, but it is not an utter impossibility that we might temporarily lose command o f the sea. Circumstances are perfectly conceivable in which this might be the case, although Mr. Harcourt is as incredulous as to the possibility o f our fleet being “ decoyed aw a y ” as he is o f the French “ decoying “ away the Prussian army and then conquering Germany.” T o us we confess that it appears to be not exactly the part o f Englishmen to insist on the uselessness o f defensive measures by reason o f the absence o f danger. Let us leave it to foreign military science to decide that an invasion o f England is out o f the question; i f we are not greatly mistaken, as a matter o f fact, this is not the prevalent opinion ; and, as long as it is not, precaution on our part can never be so very unreasonable. When it is a received doctrine among competent authorities abroad that the sea renders us impregnable, it will be time for us to recognize the fact and act upon it. Mr. Harcourt meanwhile is gratified to learn from the T im es that there is no question o f placing on the Continent a handful o f British troops, for “ the invasion panic” he does not fear, while o f “ the Continental obligation panic” he is “ mortally afraid.” And he does not suggest a reduction o f ¿ 16 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 o f expenditure, but an ultimate remission o f ¿ '16 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 o f taxation. The gradual reduction o f expenditure which he contemplates amounts to ¿ 1 1 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 ; ¿6 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 in the army, ¿ 1 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 in the navy, and ¿ 4 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 in the C iv il Service estimates. We should then still have a naval expenditure eight times as great as that o f Germany, and a military expenditure half as great again. But what would be the relative value o f that which we should have to show for it ? And would that value— o f course very inferior to the land strength o f a great Continental power— be even sufficient for our own special needs ?
On Wednesday evening Mr. Roebuck made mr. roebuck a Speec]-i t0 his old constituents, a good deal o f which was sound sense, and some o f which was downright claptrap. I t was in the main an attack on party legislation— but was the speaker uninfluenced by party when he said that there had been no religious concord in Ireland since the D isestablishm ent B ill ? H is remarks on the Irish education question we notiqe elsewhere ; in his observation that Sir Charles D ilke does not call him self “ plain Charles D ilk e ,” “ because he is wise in his genera“ tion, and knows that the world still considers that such “ distinctions have usually been w isely granted," we entirely concur. H is comments on the agitation against the House o f Lords were just. The very qualities, he said, which are made the ground o f accusation are precisely those which add to the value o f “ a second checking Chamber.” The rest of the speech was a violent philippic against Mr. Gladstone.
I t would seem as though Mr. Fawcett’s pro-
d ilkites test a rra {nst the legitim acy o f brickbats and niLKiTEs. cayenne as political arguments would have to be extended to meet sim ilar methods o f per
suasion brought into play by his own side. The loyal inhabitants o f Chelsea have been holding, or trying to hold, a meeting to resolve on an address to the Queen, and to express their disapproval o f Sir Charles D ilk e ’s proceedings. In order to avoid being swamped by the other party, tickets of admission had been prepared, but the other side were quite equal to the occasion, for they had the tickets imitated. Consequently, while the real electors were prevented from entering the meeting by a howling mob o f several hundreds, the partizans o f Sir Charles D ilke got in with their forged tickets, and began to shout for the doors to be opened to the rabble outside. An old man who clambered on to the platform, and “ a man in top-boots,” are specified by the reporters as the leaders o f the row which ensued, luckily not till after the address had been signed. Chairs were used as missiles, and everything was completely w recked; after which, the respectable people having decamped, and the gas having been turned off, the roughs threatened to set fire to the broken platform , till the hall was at last invaded and cleared by a detachment o f police.
This week has been remarkable for two o f the two tp e inos t extraordinary criminal trials which op death, have ever come before a jury. I heir exceptional character consisted in the antecedents o f the prisoners, the apparent absence o f an adequate motive, and the parallel breakdown o f the plea o f insanity, the only plea which, in either case, could be adduced for the defence. The crim inal in one case was an aged clergyman, who murdered his wife ; in the other an unmarried lady, who sowed poison, broadcast as it were, among the population o f a large town. In the one case the act itself was acknowledged, while the doer o f it was under the impression that he was about to escape from justice by suicide ; in the other case the facts were too clearly proved for denial. In the first, the only possible explanation o f the deed was a sudden fit o f rage; in the second, the alleged motive was the desire o f the culprit to recover the good opinion o f a man to whom she was attached, a plot in which the end was so disproportionate to the horror o f the means employed as almost by itself to suggest insanity. There was, however, such an absence o f proof to establish the unsoundness, in a legal sense, o f the prisoner’s intellect— although her father, sister, and grandfather had been mad— that her counsel professed him self at a loss how to deal with the case, and the ju ry convicted without even a recommendation to mercy. In the case o f Mr. Watson the attempt to prove insanity equally failed, and the ju ry contented themselves with recommending the convict to mercy on account o f his great age and previous character. Each is one o f those cases in which the disproportion o f the crime to the motive baffles our speculation, and throws us back upon the mysterious impulses which seem sometimes to sweep like a storm over the very depths o f human volition.
The report o f the Commission on M . Du-
i'a r is AND châtel’s B ill for the return o f the Assem b ly and Versailles. Government to Paris was brought up last week. M . Buisson, who was chosen as reporter, was very decided in his conclusions, and was loudly cheered by the majority when he summed them up in the words “ restons à “ Versailles,” The R igh t is firm ly impressed with two convictions : one that the object o f the Left in urging the return to Paris is to get the Assem b ly dissolved ; and the other that they would not be long installed in the Palais Bourbon before this object would be attained in a more or less forcible manner. The Government finds it impossible to use the defeat o f M. V ictor Hugo as . an argument to allay these apprehensions ; for the fact that no more satisfactory candidate than the objectionable M . Vautrain could be set up to oppose him with any chance o f success, goes far to prove that the Conservative elements in the population o f Paris do not muster in very imposing strength, and would be quite incompetent to put down a Democratic demonstration against the Assembly. Seeing this, M . Thiers, it is believed, will not press this question, as he presses certain others, as, for instance, the tax on raw materials.
On this last-named subject M . Thiers made m. Th iers s a great soeech. H is case, in a few words, was this ; 250 millions more are absolutely required ;
house-rents, sugar, cotfee, liquors, tobacco, railway transport, postal transport, paper, and other sources o f revenue have been already charged to make up the 366 millions o f increased taxation already imposed. O f the various proposals made, the additional two décimes on various articles would only realize 50 instead o f 250 millions. A s to the income tax it is in M. Thiers’s opinion, “ socialism by means o f tax“ ation.” B y which he appears to have meant that it would facilitate the efforts o f the International to obtain a rise in wages. The proposed décime on various taxes would be irrecoverable in some cases because o f its harshness, and in others from the impossible fractions which it would be reduced to, as for instance, one-tenth on a five centime cigar. M. Deseilligny’s proportional tax on commercial transactions would be utterly irrecoverable without an agent at the back o f every tradesman, whereas the fixed duty o f 10 centimes on receipts is easily raised. M . C lapier’s tax on manufactured products would only be a premium on cheap goods, whereas the iron trade would sink i f it were not for protection and the increased requirements o f railway construction. Coming then to the tax on raw material, M. Thiers showed that the proposal o f the commission to impose a tax o f three per cent, without drawback would only produce 32 millions, whereas the Government proposal o f a tax o f 20 per cent, with drawback would realize from 16 5 to 18 0 millions, which, with the other articles not previously taxed, would g ive
