barrel of beer, and consequently of each of the quarts which go to make it up, must be enhanced, through the pressure of the malt-tax, exactly one-third. We are far from wishing it to be supposed that, were the tax repealed to-morrow, the great brewer, much less the publican, would reduce the article to that extent. But every person brewing at home would be able to drink his beer for just two-thirds of what it now costs him; and without doubt the numbers so using the cheapened malt would multiply exceedingly. Compare this with the benefit secured to the consumer of tea, by the reduction of the duty to 6d. in the pound. An ounce of tea may be supposed to go as far at the labourer's table as two quarts of beer. Supposing him to get all the benefit of the promised reduction, he will save just one farthing and a half. His two quarts of beer, which now cost him from 8d. to 1s., he would be able to purchase for 5d. or 8d.; and if he brew at home, the saving will be infinitely greater. Which would benefit the labouring man most? Another of Mr Gladstone's fallacies had best be given in his own words: "It is constantly stated, 'In all your resolutions you have done nothing for the class of agriculturists.' (Hear, hear,' from the Opposition.) Well, I should like to know the class for whom you have done anything. In my opinion the most marked of all the characteris tics of our legislation of recent years is that we have been steadily endeavouring to restrain ourselves from the vicious habit of looking to classes, and to as steadily legislate for the interests of the country generally. I know there are constituencies in the country by whom the opposite view has been ta ken, and by whom gentlemen who were disposed to place confidence in the present Administration have been rejected, on the ground that her Majesty's Government were in favour of a policy in jurious to the interest of the agricultural class. But I want to know in what instance we have asked Parliament to surrender, or in what instance Parliament has consented to surrender, any VOL. XCVII.-NO. DXCVI. portion of the revenue of the country, which is the property of the country, on any other interest but the broad and I believe that legislation for the benefit comprehensive interest of the country. of a class is a mistake of the grossest order." If the tendency of our recent commercial policy has not been towards class legislation on the largest scale, we must confess ourselves ignorant of what class legislation is. England used to be a nation which could boast of its cotton trade, its woollen trade, its silk trade, its agricultural interest, its colonial interest, its shipping interest, all of them protected more or less from foreign competition, all blended harmoniously together, and contributing to the prosperity of the empire. The indirect taxation necessary for carrying on the affairs of the Government was levied chiefly on goods imported from abroad; on the natural productions of our own soil no heavier burdens were laid than the exigencies of the times required and the state of the markets rendered equitable. In proportion as one of these many classes succeeded in overshadowing the rest, a new principle of taxation came into vogue. In order that the cotton-weaver might pay less for certain articles which he consumed, the colonial interest was struck at, and, by a process of legislation on which we cannot even now look back except with shame and anger, the richest of our colonies were ruined. The next to suffer was the shipping interest. That the cost of export and import might be cheapened, the navigation-laws were repealed; and the flower of our seamen seeking employment in America, we are reduced too often to supply their place with the scum of the earth. By-and-by the turn of the agricultural interest came, and the repeal of the corn-laws effected among the owners and occupiers of land a social revolution far more painful than the outside world supposes. Now we would not so much 3 F complain of this if the repeal had been managed on any principle of equity; but the Legislature which refused any longer to protect the home grower of cereals from foreign competition, refused also to release him from certain heavy restrictions to which, under very different circumstances, he had been subjected. It continued to tax his barley when converted into malt, to levy a heavy duty upon his hops, and to prohibit him from growing tobacco. Was this common justice? Did not Sir Robert Peel himself warn the House of Commons that legislation so onesided could not long be persevered in? Yet now, when the agriculturists desire to be placed on a footing of equality with other producers, they are met with a peremptory refusal, and told, "We do not, in our legislation, look to classes, but to the interests of the country generally." Not look to classes! What then are we looking to? Can the farmer lay no claim to be considered when the general interests of the community are under discussion? Has he no stake in the country, nor any right to share in the prosperity of which he hears so much and sees so little? Are not the honest labourers who till the soil our countrymen; and the operative silk-weavers, ribbon-makers, watchmakers, and paper-makers? And have we not shown that all these, with the poor in every class, would gain infinitely more if cheap meat and cheap beer were brought within their reach, than can ever come to them from the importation into English markets of cheap brandy, cheap wine, and cheap paper? We cannot doubt that at the coming general election these truths, for truths they are, will be remembered. And if they be, then, not in the country only, but in boroughs also, where men's minds are open to the influence of reason, her Majesty's present Ministers, should they refuse to the people what the people have a right to demand, will find the people choosing for themselves safer and wiser leaders. INDEX TO VOL. XCVII. Aberdeen Ministry, the, and its fall, Allestree, Richard, provost of Eton, America, our policy toward our West- ern and Northern possessions in, 739. Augusta, sketches at, 36-the Confed- Austria, policy and position of, 121 et Aztec children, the, 195. Baines, Mr, his speech on the Union BALDWIN'S LAWS OF SHORT WHIST, Balston, Mr, head-master of Eton, 364. Banks, the, causes which lead to their Barker, W., head-master of Eton, 213. Bazire, the engraver, Blake trained un- Beckington, Bishop, opening of Eton Beer, Gladstone on the consumption of, Biographies and biographers, modern, Bismarck, the policy, &c., of, 119. Bland, Dr, head-master of Eton, 225. Blue Grotto, the, at Capri, 77, 81. Boats, the procession of the, at Eton, Boucher, Catherine, wife of Blake the Bragg, General, failure of, at Chatta- Briggs, Leech's illustrations of, 467. Brown, the Misses, a sketch, 180. Budget, the, and Gladstone's speech on BULWER'S POEMS, review of, 330. Canada, our policy toward, and its re- Canning, the Microcosm edited by, 482-the accession of, to power, 516. Canterbury, N. Z., prosperity of, 753. Captain of the boats, the, at Eton, 473. Castlereagh, defence of the coercive Catholic Emancipation, conduct of Wel- Charleston, sketches at, 29 et seq.-visit Cherokee Indians, the, 44. Chester Gap, skirmish at, 27. Church, O'Dowd on the, 565-reaction Dream, a, 564. Chess, comparison of, with Whist, 461. DRESS, 425. in favour of the, 639. Cialdini, General, sketch of, 663. Cleburne, General, 41-at Missionary Climate, O'Dowd on, 417. Commerce, Gladstone on the increase Commercial code, relaxations of the, by Confederate scouts, the, 162. Conservative party, the, breaking up of, Constance, by Sir E. L. Bulwer, 337. Cooke, W., head-master of Eton, 226. 427. Cotton, the recent fall in, and its effects, Cowper as a translator of Homer, 439. Cricket at Eton, 475. Criminal code, reform in the, under the Cruikshank, comparison between, and Cullen, Dr, medical superintendent in Davenport Brothers, the, 194. Davies, Dr, head-master of Eton, 358. DAY AND NIGHT, 89. DERBY, LORD, HIS TRANSLATION OF THE Derby, Lord, his speech in 1859, &c., Discount, high rates of, and its causes, 596. Divine Image, the, by Blake, 306. Dow, General Neil, 159. Draper, Mrs, Sterne's connection with, Droll people, on certain, 65. Duncannon, Lord, one of the commit- Durham, Lord, and the Reform Bill, EARL RUSSELL, 505. Edmunds scandal, the, 755. Education, efforts for, in Italy, 666. Election Saturday at Eton, 475. English Church, O'Dowd on the, 565. 462. Englishwoman in Venezuela, the, 177 Established Church, danger of the, 520, Etonian, the, its rise, &c., 482. EUROPEAN SITUATION, THE, 118. Ferguson, the showman of the Daven- Ferriar, Dr, his attack on Sterne, 553. 542. Fight over the way, the, 57. FIOCCO, MONSIGNORE DEL, an Italian FITZGERALD'S LIFE OF STERNE, review Fitzroy, Captain, his administration of Fixed capital, the so-called, 592. 221. Florence, the removal of the Italian Foster, John, head-master of Eton, 227. with, 549. Fourth of June, the, at Eton, 474. Index. Fox, C. J., educated at Eton, 356-his France, present position of, 125-the Fredericksburg, a visit to, 165. Gambling, efforts for suppression of, at George III., conduct of, on the India George IV., secret Camarilla of, 517. Gilmore, General, bombardment of GLADSTONE, THE RIGHT HON. WIL- Goldsmith, hostility of, to Sterne, 553. Goodford, Dr, provost of Eton, 364. Graham, Sir James, one of the Com- mittee on the Reform Bill, 514. New Zealand, 747 et seq.-his second Grey Ministry, first measures of the, 513. Grotto Azzurro, the, at Capri, 81- GUY NEVILLE'S GHOST, 342. Hawtrey, Dr, as head-master of Eton, Hayley, connection of Blake with, 299. 775 Henry VI., foundation of Eton College Henry VIII., visit of, to Eton, 213. Home the spiritualist, 200. Hotel charges at Richmond, United HOW TO MAKe a Pedigree, 721. TRANSLATED BY LORD Ill-used class, a word for an, 236. India Bill, conduct of George III. on Ingelo, vice-provost of Eton, 222. Ionian Islands, our policy toward the, Ireland, former position of, toward 515. ISLAND, LIFE IN AN, 72. Italian capital, the transference of, to ITALY, NOTES AND NOTIONS FROM, 659. J. C., a treatise on Whist by, 462. James Island, visit to, 31. KNIGHT-ERRANTRY IN THE NINETEENTH LARK, TO A, singing in February, 625. 221. Lawyers, cross-examinations by, 556. |