The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-04-11 00:00:00

Lord Mayor's Easter banquet, where his was
almost the only speech of any public interest, was
by no means unsatisfactory. Although we are
not reputed to be a military nation, yet, he con-
tended, there was no army in Europe which
could beat us in any respect, and ho trusted the
country would never allow the efficiency of the
two services to be impaired. Costly as we all
know it is to maintain the efficiency of our naval
and military armaments, yet it is true economy,
be argued, to do so, in order that we may always
be prepared to stand on the defensive. " Nothing,"
said his Royal Highness, " can be more lamen-
table than a constant succession of panics. The

extraTagance which ensues from them it is impos-
sible to estimate. A wise and judicious annual
expenditure is far less burdensome and much
more effective for its object." We were already
aware of the Duke's high opinion of our Volun-
teer corps; and he repeated his expression of it
on this occasion.

The ominous absence of her Majesty's Minis-
;ers, one and all, from the Lord Mayor's Easter

banquet, is pointedly and significantly remarked
upon by the Morning Herald of yesterday,—Lord
John Russell's absence, in particular, as being
one of the representatives of the city in Parlia-

ment, it is declared, "unless it arose from actual
ill-health, was either a studied indignity or a

cowardly desertion of his post ; and we cannot,"
continues our contemporary, " wonder at the
uncomplimentary contrasts that were everywhere
drawn between the straightforward conduct of
the late Administration and the system of evasion
that characterises the proceedings of the present
Cabinet." That there was a cause why Ministers

should keep away, may readily be conceived. They
are, unhappily in a position when evasion is, with
such politicians, quite unavoidable, if they are
called upon to say anything ; and the most
effectual kind of evasion, they doubtless thought,
was to evade the occasion altogether. We quite
agree with the opinion, that "if Lord John Rus-
sell had any news of a satisfactory nature to
communicate, the opportunity would not have
been lost." And then, there is the veteran
Premier, who "excels in the art of selecting
occasions, nor does any man know how to ride
the British lion more artistically ;" but who could
let " this obviously fitting moment pass by ;
though it is perfectly clear that every week's
delay and incertitude add to the distrust and
deep suspense with which the foreign policy of
the present Administration is regarded." Such
are the very natural reflections to which such
conduct has given rise. Obviously the absence of
her Majesty's Ministers on an occasion when they
are accustomed to be present, and at a moment
when they might give assurance that all was
well, was anything but an encouraging sign.
Yesterday was the anniversary of a day of
anxiety and apprehension in the metropolis twelve
years ago,—the memorable 10th of April, 1848 ;
and the Times takes occasion to give an appropri-
ate lecture-leader upon it. It was a day, we are
reminded, "when 150,000 special constables, sworn
in within a few days, held the streets of London
to protect it from the mob. The enemy which
then threatened us happily exists no more. It
was discontent, the child of hunger, working
upon the poor and ignorant artisan, and increased
by the oratory of professional agitators. Things
have now wholly changed. In 1848, liberal
legislation had already removed a chief cause of
periodical distress, and the bounty of Heaven has
done the rest. Good harvests, good cotton crops,
the gold discoveries, and emigration, have given
meat or taken away the mouths. Chartism is
dead, killed by the food which has strengthened
and invigorated its former votaries. At the pre-
sent time no cry can be got up even for a moderate
Parliamentary Reform, and the ranters who were
great weu for six weeks in 1848, have wholly
sunk out of public notice." This is, in the main,
a tolerably One account of the time. Too much
is imputed, perhaps, to the political discontent
that prevailed as being "the child of hunger,
working upon the poor and ignorant artisan."
The Whigs and Radicals had quite as much to
answer for in the matter as hunger had; and the
revolutionary spirit in France, and elsewhere on
the Continent, having got a-head, and carrying
all before it, the infection was easily caught
here among those whom Whig and Radical
instigations had so well prepared for its
reception. 1$ I,lt Amy the enemy which thus
threatened us happily e*isis rlo more," we have
yet got another and a more formidable one,
against whose machinations it has been thought
prudent to provide, not 150,000 special con-
stables, but twice that number of Volunteer Rifle-
men and Artillerymen. And strange to think,
this very enemy, or his impersonation, was him-
self' one et' the 150,000 special constables that
"held the streets o f I.4cqq.on " on the 10th of
April, 1848 ! Tempora mutanter, iucked; And
truly is it declared, that " the Volunteers of 1860
must go to their work in a far more earnest
spirit " than did those of a day in 1848. " They
have a more powerful, although a more distant
foe than the half fed Chartist—a foe directed by
heads more subtle than poor Feargus O'Con-
noF's ; " and " to be worthy of the task they have
undertaken they must recollect that mere enthu-
siasm and patriotic feeling will do little without
steady perseverance, and that on tho field of
battle a general would sooner have a position
undefended than held by men upon whom he
cannot depend." Such is the advice which the
leading journal, at sncla a moment, deems it
opportune to offer. Let as hope it will bo acted
upon.
The French Emperor is evidently afraid of the
animosity of the Clergy, and he is preparing,
accordingly, to keep them down. He has just
ordered an inquiry to be instituted into the origin
of the property held by religious communities,
and also erected an injunction to be addressed to
the lave-officers in the departments, as to the
prosecution of all clerical offenders against the
organic law of the Concordat, without any respect
of persons.

There is China news to the 20th of February.
They were getting very uneasy at Pekin, it is
stated, about the preparations of the Allies to
obtain redress for the outrage in the Peiho.
They had made a re-disposal of the guns of certain
of their forts, in readiness, no doubt, fora defence
against the attack that was apprehended. Affairs
in Japan itre epresented as being still in an
unsettled state.
The accounts from Calcutta 9xe to the 14t4 of
March. There have been some outrages Jy the
natives in Lower Bengal ; but steps were immedi-
ately taken by the Lieut. Governor to suppress
them, which would no doubt have the desired
effect.

THERE can be no more objection to financial
reform than to any other kind of reform,—pro-
vided only it is a reform that is actually needed,
and the principle or It is in accordance with the
constitution of that to which it is t 9 lie applied ;
so that it may really and truly be reform, awl
not revolution. But the worst of it is, that our
chiefest and noisiest reformers, so-called, are not
reformers at all, but something far more dangerous
and destructive ; men seeking not to improVe, but
to subvert. They persuade themselves, perhaps,
that to subvert is, in their case, to improve. But
this is not the qtiestion; if it were, one might
doubtless very easily show that, while subversion
is not reformation, neither would it be improve-
ment. Now our financial reformers are in this
category, as well as so many of our parliamentary
ones are. They 4re Radicals, in the strongest
and worst sense of the word. Our Liverpool
Financial Reform Association is a society of ram-
pant Radicals, who seek to revolutionise our
whole system of national finance ; just as they
who are parliamentary reformers seek to change
our whole constitutional system, and make it no
longer monarclical, but republican. They pretend
that reforms such as they propose are necessary,
nay, inevitable, in an age of "progress" like
the present. "hey quote Dr. ARNOLD, when he
says,—" There s nothing so revolutionary, because
there is nothing so unnatural, and so convulsive
to society, as the strain to keep things fixed,
when all the vorld is, by the very law of its
creation, in eternal progress ; and the cause of all
the evils of tie world may be traced to that
natural, but most deadly, error of human indo-
lence, and corruption, that our business is to
preserve, and lot to improve." Thus do they
affect to believ), that we who object to their
Radicalism, do bo as objecting to all change;
whereas the fac•, is, we do so because, instead of
reforming it is arbverting—instead of improving
it is deteriora.t4g. They quote also Lord BACON