The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-05-12 00:00:00

compromise and compact,—it was made a matter

of barter and traffic between politicians of the
most opposite characters, opinions, and objets.
Pseudo-Liberal Conservatives and anythingarian
Whigs bargained with Ra,dicds and Republicans
for their assistance to, get ~them back to office—
.
agreeing to give tbffm, in exchange for their
support, certain further instalments of the revo-
lutionary measures which they are seeking to
.Abtain in. their-. entirety and, efficiency. As to
_ .
political principles, they were; qui*.put aside, as
only of course, standing in the way of so unprin-
cipled an arrangement. Can we wonder, then, .
that a Government so constituted should now be
becoming weak—now that its utter hollowneSs is
being so glaringly . exposed every .day ? Well
may there be a report of dangerous disunion -in
the Cabinet. "Such a report," we see it stated,
by a Liberal contemporary, "has been abroad for
some time, and; as no official denial has been
given to it, the public mind accepts the report as
true.". . Of course it does—if only because it
knows that the truth of such a report is one of
the mist natural and probable things in the
world.'

The apprehensions of defeat Avhich,Lord Mont-
eagle's notice of motion for rejecting the Paper
Duty Repeal Bill has excited, are considered' to
he considerably heightened .by the state of dis-
sension' in which Ministers have been for some,
time past : occasioned, among other things, it is
believed, by matters, one of. the Most. serious of
.which was this very measure 'respecting- paper.
,The Times had already intimated, that it was no,
'seeret.. that the Cabinet had been" fiercelT
_at
variance on the commercial treaty, the budget,
the tenpenny incoine=tix, and the repeal of the-I
paper duty. t
On the. plea,, that the few , concessions which
France is ready to make could_ be Procured,,for
SWitzerland by; way of diplomacy, the idea of a
.Conferenco on the rietitrality question of the
Sa'voy and Nice annexation affair is now discou-
raged, it is said, by the. Freneh Eniperor. It was
asiertained, that should England maintain her
opnion that SWitzerland would derive more
advantages from a Conference, Austria would be
willing to send a representative as well as the
tither Powers. And there is no doubt that England
must maintain that as her opinion. Whether or
not England's present Government Wiltdare tonci
upon it is quite another question,—especially
since it is declared; that France is quite deter-
mined not to accedeiO the Claitiis bf
however they may be supported. by the other
Great Powers.

A telegram from Madrid informs us, that Mar-
shal O'Donnell had arrived there;crowned with
the laurels he gained in the Morocco war, and
had met with an enthusiastic reception. The
army of Africa was to make its triumphal entry,
into the capital yesterday. All this contrasts
strangely with the departure into exile, at the
same instant, of him whom a large portion of the
kingdom still regard as the de jure sovereign of
Spain. -The-Count de Montero°lin embarked on
ethat day for Port Vandre, in the EaStern Py-
rennees, in France. Theie isno doubf, itis'aicer-
tained, of :the fact of his formal abdication of his
claims to thii throne.

IP there is anything that might not unreasonably
make the working classes discontented with the
present state of their representation in Parliament,
it must be the difficulty that' They find there
always is in getting any. measure passed through
the House of Commons that is designed for their
especial advantage—iitore particularly if it inter-
fete in any way with the interests: of their
employers. We allude more especially to such
instances 'as that bf last Wednesdayin the House
of, Commons, when the .bill for protecting the
operativec bleaching and dye works against
the overworking and overheatitig to which they
art' now so painfully and so-perniciously exposed,
had to go into Committee, and be forwarded in
readiness for a third reading. Had the measure
been met in any generouS spirit----:with any due
regard for the comfort and well-being of the
workpeople—L-by the Manufacturing interest,' it
might at once lut.ve been duly considered in Cora-
mittepLand reprtedtothe Honse, and all further
delay avoided. But .the "Ma neliester school,"
aslwe all. know, . are, .upon. principle, opposed,to
all such legislation for the benefit of the factory
people of every kind.. They have given the most
determined opposition to almost every' measure
that has been brought forward, whether for
shortening or regulating the hours of labour in
factories, or for any other purpose that had in
4* the relief of the, workpeople under any of
their physical stifterings; err social or domestic
diScomforts and disadvantages. Mid hence it
was quite in character that one of the hon..fileitt-
bers for Manchester, by an endeavour to get the
measure we allude to shelved, on Wednesday,
through the device of referring it to a Select
Committee, should contrive so to waste the time
of the House as to preclude anything being
done with -it" in Committee ; the other hon.
metniier kJ. Manchester frankly admitting the
while, and seeming to gicii.Y if/ the fact, that..," he
had ule4l-, every,
.means in his powci ,to prevent
legislation on this subject." , Of 'Course they
"Could discover no ground why the HouseAould
legislate in the proposed manner." Sapk was
BAZLEY'S declaration, to which his ; hon.
colleague, Mr. TtlittiElt, said ditto with all his
heart: It was in vain that the complaint was
reltefiteit; tit& " Very great cruelties and hard-
ships were committed it 'works as those
alluded to,,and the unfortunate worlipeor mast
either put up with them or starve." They heeded
not the admonition that "it was the duty of that
House •protect the Poor and the young, and it
behoved them to have full regard to 'the interests
of their poorer countrymen in dealing with the sub-
ject ti forte them." Even the very rational ques-
tidn lust NCO* no ittlsvitci, that "if the restrictions
which the Vactory Act irriposed had operated so
well iii the cotton and woollen districts why
should they rio'h answer Who'n appliedto bleaehing.
and dyeing Works ?'"-we tiny conclude because it
IN as unanswerable. The Otily pled that even Mr.
BAzi.EY could putiorward against Or tinder
consideration, was the insignificant one, in Such
a cage, that ," he had reason to believe, from his
oven experience; that the great mass of those
dyers)eo were
nce of
r.
personsgentlem gentlemen (gtrheeatmater s and
respectability
and teri
character." 'Why, of course, according to the
principles of the Manchester school, they must
be "persons of great personal respectability,"
.because they are persons doing a great stroke
of manufacturing business, and, thereby, getting
very rich ; though as to their ." benevolence of
character," in whatever other way it may be dis-
played; it certainly cannot be discovered in their
treatment of the poor people in their works, or
they would not reqUire to be protected, as they
have been shown to do, against the pains and
sufferings of excessive toil, in an atmosphere,
often, which ieof itself most injurious to health,
and which not unfrequently proves most de-
structive of life.
Well- might Lord.TOILN MANNERS declare, as
he did, that the course which the Manchester
masters had directed to be taken by their Liberal
representatives. " was absolutely fatal to the
settlement of the question this seSsion,land that
as the bill had, been read a second time by an
overwhelming majority, and as the whole question
had already,been the object "of a most laborious
investigation, and the principle of the bill had
Veen affirmed, it was not fair to shelve it under
the plea that further inquiry was necessary."
3'or this, we re' )eiti,zWati-dOubtlekk the objeCt in
view,—to get rid of the this wretched
trick of sending it to a select committee,—" to