The Press. — London, England, 1856-11-08 00:00:00

• _ trb t rt No. 184.—V0r,.1V. (t! c cs s. LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1856. THERE is an obvious limit to imposture of all kinds. Its means are fictitious. It lives by exciting hopes it is unable to realise, and by making promises it has not the slightest in tention to fulfil. By fraudulent devices it may succeed in long delaying the day of reckoning. but that day will come ; and then, whether the imposture be of a nature that laws can take cognisance of, or whether it be merely moral involving loss of character, it stands de tected, and becomes an object of hatred or contempt. The Liberal party in this country, like a house which once had a good name, has for many years past been living on the credit of its reputation, and has been living on it. at a very fast rate. In the very nature of Libe ralism there is a principle which compels it to make continual appeals to popular support, and sto put forth projects and sentiments likely to captivate the multitude on whose favour it relies. The projects and promises may answer for a time, especially when up held by the whole force of party interest; but at length the people get tired of seeing one bubble burst after another. At first they are amused, as at the exhibition of a charlatan, by seeing grand preparations made for the sur prising performance they had been led to expect. The term of credulity will vary with circumstances ; while it lasts the imposture flourishes, and to-morrow is forgotten in the success of to-day. But we may be sure that the explosion of disappointment and rage at last will be proportioned to the patience exer• cised by the public, and to the extent of fraud of which they have been made the victims. It is impossible for the Liberal party to escape the eharge that it has for a lengthened period been deliberately practising upon the credulity of the people. Its history for the last twenty years has been a history of hypo critical professions, of delusive representa tions, of broken pledges. It has been con stantly shifting from one kind of imposture to another—from promises of reform at home to promises of revolution abroad. The experi rnentuni cilia. seems likely to overtake it at last. Its promises are brought to the test of its acts ; and no devices, however ingenious— no misrepresentations, however daring—will long succeed in blinding the public to the scandalous deceit that has been practised upon it. In the years succeeding the European settle ment of 1815, the Liberal party insisted on the necessity of retrenchment and peace. It de claimed against the maintenance of large stand ing forces, and it declared that non-intervention in the affairs of the Continent should be the general policy of this country. Its represent ations were not without effect. Linder suc cessive Conservative Governments, the na tional expenditure was lowered to the lowest point practicable ; taxation was greatly re- LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1856. duced ; our army and navy sank to a scale scarcely compatible with their efficiency ; and under the coercion of the Liberal party, then excessively hostile to Turkey and clamorous for the independence of Greece, no resist ance was offered to Russia when the Ottoman empire was invaded, and the Porte compelled to make ignominious concessions. With the triumph of the Reform Ministry of Earl GREY the former professions of the party were at least nominally upheld. Retrench mentand peace were still political watchwords, hostility to large establishments continued to be professed, and the ,policy of non-interven tion received on more than one occasion the express sanction of Lord PALMERSTON. When the popularity of the Liberal party was on the wane, it endeavoured to recover its ground by pretending zeal for new schemes of Reform. A wide extension of the Suffrage with the Ballot was advocated by the more ad vanced Liberals, and Lord JOHN RUSSELL, con ceiving that something must be done to save his party from extinction, was induced to strike his reputation on the success of a new Reform Bill. With an agitation for further measures of Reform, the Liberals have now been playing since the success of their bill of 1830. The agitation has been suffered to sleep as the possession of power by their party seemed tolerably secure, or has been roused into ac tivity as their political fortunes declined. The Government of Lord PALMERSTON opposes itself to the Ballot. It manifests not the slightest inclination to interfere with the existing electoral system ; yet as the cry fur Reform produces an effect on certain con stituencies, and as it may possibly be useful hereafter, it is not suffered wholly to drop. A majority of Liberal members declare them selves resolved to obtain the Ballot and ex tension of the suffrage, while they declare their determination to support Lord PALMERS TON, notoriously opposed to both. This creed, as impossible to be rationallAconstrued as the antagonistic assertions embodied in theolo gical dogmas, is yet thought ♦ery suitable for popular constituencies. It is one of the forms of imposture which are covering the Liberal party with ridicule and disgrace. Unable to sustain itself by this delusion, it endeavours to raise national sentiment against foreign despotisms and in favour of oppressed nationalities. This fraud is more dangerous and more disgraceful than the other. It is both petty and wicked. It does not deceive foreign Governments, but it tends to raise the expectations of continental revolutionists. It burdens this country with the support of heavy armaments, while it actually diminishes our external influence. In place of being favorable to - peace, the Liberal party is sedulous to propagate ru mours of probable disturbance and war. In place of studying economy, the Liberal party demands that our establishments shall be kept on a war footing. In place of insisting on non-intervention, the Liberal party is urgent that our Government should entangle itself with the internal politics of continental States, and should endeavour to provoke a European convulsion. While the war with Russia lasted, the Liberal party, contrary to every principle of humanity and sound policy, demanded that the war should be maintained to extremity, and that lan peace should be concluded except on terms which would leave Russia a con• STAMPED ....SIXPENCE. UNSTAMPED..FIVEPENCE. qttered and diminished power, destitute of all weight in the councils of Eutope. Yet, when Russia was treated with on moderate terms, the Liberal party found i; convenient to forget all the violence of its former sentiments, and to applaud the wisdom of a course of conciliation. The Liberal party maintained that Sardinia was to be supported against Austria as the great hope of Italian independence. When the Tripartite Treaty was concluded, the Liberal party indignantly denied that Sar dinia was to be sacrificed to an Austrian alliance ; but it now appears that the Cabinets of London and Vienna are agreed upon the leading questions of European policy. If the Liberal party has ide:itified itself with one principle of foreign policy more than another, it has been to the principle of irre concileable hostility with Austria. 'rake up what Liberal publication we may of the last forty years, and the probability is that we shall find in it some ;denunciation of Austrian per fidy. Of late years the abuse of Austria has deepened in intensity. She has been repre sented as even more than Russia the tyrant of the Continent, and the oppressor of down trodden nationalities. Liberal politicians have joined in a chorus of hatred and vengeance against her; they have sworn eternal enmity to her dynasty and power; they have rejoiced when the dagger of an assassin was directed against her Sovereign's life, and they have openly expressed their hope that the hand of some future desperado might be more fortu nate. They have encouraged Italian discon tent that they might keep Austria insecure ; and they have feigned that to act against Naples was in reality to point a sword at the heart of Austria, with this great recommenda tion—that the Power offended would be too weak to retaliate. As the result of all this Liberal declama- tion, what do we find ? The Liberal Govern ment of Lord PALMERSTON deems it expedient to support Austria in her continued occupa tion of the Danubian Principalities, and to come to a good understanding with that Power on the Eastern question, even at the risk of endangering the French alliance. Upon what question is it that this agree ment is deemed so essential ? Upon the question whether the Principalities shall remain subject to Turkey, or be erected into an independent State. The population of those provinces answer most distinctly to the character of one of those oppressed nationali ties which have heretofore been championed by the Liberal party. The people are Rou• mans ; they demand the union of the pro. vinces; they demand that their nationality shall be recognised. If ever there was an occasion on which the Liberal party should have been united, and on which they should have stood firm, it is this. Those provinces have just been rescued from the Protectorate of Russia—the hold that Turkey had on them was scarcely even nominal. The question is between the national independence of these Christian provinces and their subjection to a foreign and, in race ani Government. The Li be! it must oppose the ind, provinces, and that it mus Austria against—if need great and generous ally, For the last forty years the creed of the Liberal • expediency of a Frenoh id religion'', a hostile oral party de& depende 'o st suppost. be—the-vi France. rs it h party t alliano4L: • • .9. "\i cp. * PlAl4tl':