like-minded to the present holders of those offices, would gladly accept any check upon the importunity of those who escaping in the recesses of Whitehall the burden and heat of the night in Westminster, are the authors or suggestors of those excess demands. And, trusting that the importance of the subject will excuse more dry minutiae of a dry subject,-it may be noticed, that occasionally in Committee of Supply the money votes run off in a rapid and unbroken stream over the Chairman's lips, and are accepted without remonstrance by those around. A sensitive member of the community, but not of the House, who chances to see the load of taxation piled, with such seeming heedlessness upon his shoulders, feels a natural soreness. The provocation, however, is more seeming than real; no opposition was offered to those votes, because, in truth, no opposition was possible. Still, a hint may be received, even from the feelings of a galled tax-payer. The House might gain practical aid, and offence might be avoided, by a classification of the miscellaneous estimates, by the concentration of the pages specifying grants which can be considered unquestionable into one page, to be taken in one aggregate vote. Examination might prove that many items of Civil Service expenditure, though nominally submitted for discussion, no longer are capable of dispute. Either they are small rills of cost springing from emotional impulses which acted on us in past years, such as allowances to 'distressed Poles,' contributions which it would be ungenerous to deny; or else they are grants based on national compact, such as allowances to Dublin hospitals, or payments in discharge of equivalents under the Treaty of Union with Scotland. That union has brought its own equivalent; it assuredly justifies an annual donation of 21007. In conclusion, the fact that responsibility for outlay which is to come, rests chiefly on the Government, and that responsibility for outlay which is past, remains the special charge of the House of Commons, does not restrict the field for rightly directed efforts after economy. Well-grounded opposition does arrest expensive tendencies, if exerted at the outset. A proposed large outlay on a harbour, was very recently prevented, or at least delayed; and the Commons, by an undoubted indication of their determination not to entertain such Army Estimates, as were presented during the Session of 1848, compelled a subsequent reduction of those estimates to the extent of 3,000,0007.* Yet what, it may be asked, does the popular Hans. Deb. Srl series, 144, 2158. Public Income, &c., Return (366), Sess. 1869, Part II. p. 704. method method of advocating economy by repeated attempts to cut down the estimates do, but harm? Being efforts directed against the settled disposition of the House, as a rule those efforts fail. And this is the result of these repeated failures; they have discredited the sacred cause of thrift, retarded the realisation of salutary financial reforms, and obscured the operative action of Parliament upon the estimates. That action, working over a wide area and to important ends, can only be obtained by the united pressure of the community and of Parliament, pushing the body politic into the way it should go; so vast is that body, that it must move altogether, if it move at all.' National expenditure is the expression of national life; that expenditure and that life are, of necessity, linked with the very existence of a ministry; hence nothing but an influence affecting the whole tenor of that existence can create a wise and universal spirit of economy. The power of the Commons formerly rested wholly upon their control over the public purse, because thereby they controlled monarchs. That control is still the source of most of their authority, because it endows them with a direct claim upon the people's regard. But in the very directness of that claim lies its peculiar almost terrible character. Unfaltering in operation, it suffers no escape from evil, or good repute. Respect, or disrespect stand at the heels of every trustee of other people's money; his choice must lie between these two attendants upon that duty. Yet, fence it how you may, it is a duty most liable to misconstruction. The money grants which yearly come before Parliament are many in number, and large in amount; and yet they are passed, almost invariably, without reduction. Much also has been spent on purposeless fortifications, and unstable ships; and for this, at first sight, Parliament seems directly to blame. That this is an error we have endeavoured to explain. Parliament is to blame if the permanent officers of Ŝtate remain free to act as faithless or foolish stewards of the supplies which Parliament intrusts to them; but as expenditure depends upon administration, the Executive is primarily responsible both for the demand, and the application of those supplies. If the scope of the financial function discharged by the House of Commons is not very clearly appreciated, even within its walls; and if that scope be more limited, than is commonly supposed,-necessity the more rests upon the House to make the power it does possess, a distinct and visible force. Sir James Graham, whose words cannot be slighted, felt regret at the willingness which the House evinced to accept proposals he was once compelled to make, for augmented outlay upon upon the Navy; he knew those demands to be just; yet he remarked, that he would have been better pleased, had the Commons been less easily intreated to grant so large a sum.' Something of the same feeling, also, appears in that hard saying, that the tendency of the House of Commons is to alleviate taxation, and to increase expenditure. There exists, however, a security against misconstruction of inestimable value, which Parliament both deserves and enjoys. It is known to all, that the hidden things of dishonesty' do not lie concealed either in Westminster or Whitehall; that the era of jobs and sinecures is over; that our expenditure is freed from the taint of undue influence; and that a wise application of our resources is the desire and object of the Legislature. The knowledge also that, aided by those able officers who superintend the receipt and distribution of public money, and by the action of the Committee of Accounts, Parliament does strictly scrutinise into the national disbursements, must diffuse, as time passes, an increasing and a wholesome influence. But a just appreciation, so rightly accorded to Parliament, should not tempt that assembly to suppose that it is above criticism because it is above suspicion, and to forget that the charge of money is a charge ever demanding a jealous watchfulness. This article has not carried us beyond the outworks of our subject; those who desire to penetrate further throughout the whole range of study afforded by our Parliamentary Government, may gladly avail themselves of the assistance of Mr. Alpheus Todd. With the utmost care and research he has compiled a very complete commentary on the working of our political organisation, and on the duties intrusted to our public Departments. Did we not esteem a Canadian as one of ourselves, surprise might be felt that so valuable a contribution to English constitutional literature, should have been sent to us from across the Atlantic. ART. IX.-1. Our Seamen,' an Appeal. By Samuel Plimsoll, M.P. London, 1873. 2. Reports of the Royal Commission on Unseaworthy Ships. Presented to Parliament in 1873 and 1874. 3. Debates in Parliament on the Merchant Shipping Bills of 1875. THERE HERE can be no doubt that the questions raised in the above publications and debates must receive the early * Sir J. Graham, 'Life,' &c., by Mr. Torrens, M.P., ii. 568. attention attention of Parliament in the ensuing Session. Independently of the great importance of the subject itself, the temper of the public will permit no half-hearted dealing with it. The withdrawal at the close of last Session of a Bill, which, after all, dealt only with the outside fringe of the question, raised a storm of feeling sufficient to shake a strong Government, and to compel Mr. Disraeli to bring in and carry at the eleventh hour a Bill, the imperfections and haste of which were admitted by the temporary character given to it. Fortunate, indeed, that it was so; for if anything in the nature of permanent legislation had been attempted under the excitement of the moment there is no knowing what mischief might not have been done. As it is, the Ministry have gained time for consideration, and there will now be no excuse if the subject is not thoroughly and satisfactorily dealt with. In the meantime it may not be out of place to attempt to clear up some of the darkness which has gathered round the subject; to consider what, in point of fact, has been the past, and what is the present condition of our Merchant Shipping; and to discuss, by the help of experience and reason, rather than of sentiment, the remedies for existing evils, and their probable consequences. Statements have been made in Parliament, and repeated elsewhere, to the effect that, until Mr. Plimsoll called attention to the subject, our merchant sailors had been neglected, and that with Free-trade came in a system of laisser faire with respect to British shipping and seamen. There cannot be a greater mistake. For the last thirty or forty years there has scarcely been a Session without legislation on the subject, and the number of Committees and of Commissions appointed to consider schemes for the improvement of our Mercantile Marine has been legion. Ministers of all parties-the late Lord Taunton, Lord Cardwell, Mr. Henley, Mr. Milner Gibson, the Duke of Richmond, Lord Carlingford, not to mention other nameshave been all equally diligent on the matter; and it is a calumny on any recent Parliament or Government to accuse them of indifference to a matter so full of interest for every Englishman. It would be easy to fill an article with a list of the inquiries instituted, and the measures passed, during the present generation, which have had for their object the safety, welfare, and progress of the British ships and seamen; but we have space here for only a merest outline. In 1836, 1839, and again in 1843, Committees were appointed to consider the special subject of shipwrecks, and these Committees made a great number of recommendations. Almost all of those recommendations have since been carried into effect, except, indeed, in the few cases in which they savoured. of protection to native industry, and in which a wiser policy has, as we shall see below, been attended with triumphant results. Lighthouses have been multiplied and improved; sound signals have been established; harbours have been constructed, deepened, and made accessible; charts have been perfected; the classification of ships has been revised; tonnage measurement has been reformed; an excellent system of ship registry has been established; masters, mates, and engineers have been required to pass examinations; they can be cashiered if drunken or incompetent'; offices are set up where seamen are engaged and discharged, where they receive their wages, and where their characters are recorded; savings-banks and money orders are provided for them; they have summary means of recovering wages; special provision is made concerning their food, medicine and lodging. Life-boats, and rocket apparatus for saving life from shipwreck, are established round the coasts; every wreck is made the subject of an investigation more or less stringent; shipwrecked property is protected from plunder; international rules have been made for preventing collision; an international code of general signals has been established, as well as an international system of signals of distress; and the old law of merchant shipping has been once codified, and again, after a lapse of twenty-five years, a second and still larger scheme of codification has been prepared and presented to Parliament. Above all, burdens and restrictions of all kinds, general and local, have been removed, so that ship and sailor are now absolutely free from all burdens, except such regulations and such taxes as are needed for their own welfare. To extend this catalogue would be an easy matter did space permit. But it will be more profitable and more to the present purpose to endeavour to ascertain what have been the consequences of this legislation, and of other circumstances, during the last thirty years; in other words, to inquire whether during that time British ships and British seamen have deteriorated or improved. This is no easy task. The difficulty of obtaining trustworthy facts is very great. The confident opinions which so many people are fond of expressing on the amelioration or deterioration of different classes of society or modes of life are for the most part founded on personal impressions, which are of all things the most fallacious. We often hear the 'good old times" spoken of, but we are seldom told when they existed. Unless we know what it is that we are to compare with the present, how are We |