The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-01-29 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Commercial *airs.

Zbis Dap.

THIS DAY (Tuesday), the 29th instant, at Half-past One o'clock,
at the Commercial Sale-room, Temple-court,
6 Tierces American PIGS HEADS, in dry salt,.
17 Hhds. Ditto DITTO in pickle,
per Arctic, from New York.
WM. GARDNER and CO., Brokers.

Apply to

THIS DAY (Tuesday), the 29th instant, at Half-past One o'clock,
at the Commercial Sale-room, Temple-court,
About 3,000 Boxes American CHEESE.
Apply to Messrs. TRIMMER and GRAINGER, Bank-chsmbers,
Cook-street ; or to WM. GARDNER and CO., Brokers.

On account of whom it may concern.
THIS DAY (Tuesday), the 29th instant, at Half-past One o'clock,
at the Commercial Sale-room, Temple-court,
567 Barrels FRENCH PORK,
per Eugke, from Morlaix.
WM. GARDNER and CO., Brokers.

sions, the majority may begin to question the use of
a Government, or, indeed of a Parliament, except to
vote supplies, increase taxation, and indulge in idle
and profitless discussions. Recent Acts of Parliament
have been but a mockery of legislation, reflecting dis-
grace on all concerned, and calling loudly for reform,
laws being made at the dictation of the lowest class
of mob agitators. A Bill for regulating hackney car-
riages in the metropolis was altered in its enactments
because the cab-drivers refused to ply for hire ; a Bill
to put a stop to Sunday trading in London was with-
drawn, because a mob of ragamuffins and the lowest
ruffians assembled in Hyde Park and broke windows
in defiance of the police ; and the Bill to diminish the
opening of public-houses and beer-shops on Sundays
was altered because similar means were used to inti-
mitate our chicken-hearted Cabinet Ministers. They
are destitute of moral courage, deficient in ability, and
possessing no quality entitling them to the confidence
of any party, or section of a party ; and yet, because
of their professions to prosecute the war, about which
the people felt strongly, and which would have been
infinitely better done by a Conservative Ministry,
these men have been permitted to fritter away the best
interests of the country, and now have the hardihood
to claim credit for their good management.
It is time that the Conservatives, as a party, be-
thought themselves seriously of their position, and the
duty which they owe to themselves and the common
cause. It may have been prudent to permit the exist-
ence of a Ministry upon sufferance when great inte-
rests were at stake which may have been imperilled
by political contests at home, but a day of reckoning
must come, and the longer it is delayed the worse will
be the settlement. Forbearance has been pushed,
however, almost to the verge of endurance, experience
has proved that our position abroad has been in no
way improved by simulated unanimity at home, or
endangered by a Ministerial crisis, as was shown when
the coalition was expelled, and we have therefore a
right to assume that even the pending negotiations
will be in no way damaged, but rather improved, by
attention being paid to our own affairs, which are in-
timately concerned in the right men being in the
right places.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.

PRESIDENT PIERCE was so anxious to make known
his sentiments, and publish the address which he
hoped would secure him a re-election, that he could
not wait for the organisation of the House of Repre-
sentatives, but sent them his Message, which they,
under the circumstances, very properly refused to
receive. The only point in it which may be considered
of any interest in this county, is his laboured com-
plaint against Great Britain, for an alleged infringe-
ment of the CLAYTON-BULWER treaty, with reference
to interference in the affairs of Central America. But
while he endeavours to assume a belligerent attitude,
which he hopes may serve him in good stead when
the choice of a President for the next four years is
the question at issue, he seems by no means confident
of having taken the right course. His comments
throughout betray his being willing to wound, and
yet afraid to strike ; for while he appears to insist
strongly on the violation of the treaty by Great Bri-
tain, he professes great confidence in an amicable
adjustment of the difference, as though he dreaded to
provoke an hostility which he wishes at the same time to
persuade his countrymen he is not afraid to encounter.
The whole of this petty storm is founded upon a ridi-
culous assumption by the United States of their right
to dictate to European powers as to their dealings
with all the rest of the Continent of America. The
possession of Honduras and the protectorate of the
Mosquito territory by England are of far older date
than the treaty alleged to be violated ; nor could it
have been supposed when the treaty was entered into
that it had any other meaning than to restrain future
acquisitions by either party, so that Central America,
which was about to become the highway to the Pacific,
might be preserved in its state of comparative inde-
pendence.

Whatever may be the assumptions of American
statesmen, Great Britain has never acknowledged
that absurd claim to exclude all European interference
with the whole American continent. It may have
been in some degree partially acted upon, because non-
interference, except in cases of urgent necessity, has
been a rule of English policy, but our hands are not
to be tied because the United States Government
choose to set up a claim, the assertion of which, if
tamely submitted to, may ultimately result in refusing
our right to defend the Island of Cuba from their
piratical expeditions. The time may come when
Mexico may claim our aid against another aggression
to gain another California ; or the States themselves,
no longer united, of which there seems some prospect,
may demand our interference, should some of the
northern ones, preferring British government, wish
to annex themselves to Canada. Such events are by no
means improbable, as shown by the disunion which
appears to prevail in the American Cong,ress. It has
long been predicted by those who have watched anxi-
ously the progress of American institutions, that
sooner or later a division of the Northern and Southern
States would be inevitable, for the antagonistic prin-
ciples of slavery and freedom could not long work
harmoniously together, however mutual forbearance
might prolong the catastrophe.

When, some few weeks since, a portion of the Ame-
rican press assumed a belligerent tone, and war with
America was becoming a topic of conversation, we
then stated that it was merely an ebullition of popular
effervescence, in order to give excitement to an
election contest. There is no doubt that President
PIERCE was endeavouring to prepare the public mind
for his message to Congress, and, in despair of any
claims to popular sympathy, trying to make political
capital out of a pretended defiance to England. It is the
whole secret of his laboured exposition of the CLAY-
TON-BULWER treaty; and as he has evidently mistaken
the tone of public feeling in America, for his warlike
notes have failed to meet with a reponse, there can be I
little doubt that his electioneering movement will
prove a failure, another President will be elected, and
then we shall hear no more about war. The interests
of trade, the love of hard dollars, will predominate,
and though the vote may be agreed to for the increase
of the American navy, it will have no reference what-
ever to any anticipation of a breach of the good un-
derstanding which exists between the two countries.