The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1861-01-29 00:00:00

THE COMING SESSION.

TnE Pa'iliathetitary session of 1.861 opens next
weck. What are its Prospects ? Are Whig_
Radical Ministers likely much longer to retain
the reins of power ? If a general election is .at
hand, what s'cV ill be its Probable res'illtS? Wift
'not the iseoPle', if at;;Ale'd ttl; the* Unequivocally
aka they are determined no longer' to endure a
do-nothing Coalition Cabinet ? What did Lords
PALMERSTON and RUSSELL come into office
chiefly to do? If it was to pass a Reform Bills
have they done it, or are they likely to do it this
coming session? If tiot-, AVJiy do ilVey'Aat resign,
did We 'Pit& these WhO are prepared to do
what they 'so PresUmptuoUsly Undertook, but
halv=e so signally 'failed to perform.? 'lie future

po'sition of lthe pres'e'nt Miniit;r?
Mainly rest! Upon success in dealing with
the reform question, and upon their ability to
satisfy the just desires of the country, as acknow-
ledged by all political parties, for a sound and
judicious measure of amendmeni, in our present
system of representation,. This', w think, *ill
be found it:eY t& history of the
xession. What, then, are the prospects of
Reform ?

. •
In answering this question, we shall 'appeal to '
authorities *hose political pret•ossessions are
altOgetlier infaVtitir of the present ministry,—to
organs of the press which, like the party whose
tactics they follow, were wont, when convenient
for factious purpose's, to profess great and undying
zeal in the " glorious cause" of Parliamentary
Reform. One Liberal contemporary of old stand-
ing knowingly remarks " It is no secret) nor is it
murk to tretto72lierVi cis, that 'ther'e area good
many members of the Liberal party in the House
of Commons, some of them, too, belonging to the
Ministry, who, while by no means opposed to
Parliamentary Reform, are in no great hurry to
get Their professions at the hustings were.
not exactly ' gammon they really meant, sooner
or later, to help ' to amend the representation of
the and they *oikid spurn 'the idea that
they had lOoied upon the various bills that had
been introduced on the subject as mere play-
things, to be bundled from one side of the House
to another. But being snugly ensconced in
power, or having with great difficulty secured
an uncertain lease of a seat in Parliament,

they are not unnaturally reluctant to push for,
ward a measure which might result in sending
the& to the back benches or to private life, and
which Would, at all events, put them to some
trouble to maintain their present respectite
positioris.7 According to this exPminder of
" Liberal" ethicB, it is quite " natural," and " not
much to be wondered at," that the very party
which ousted Lord DERRY'S Government, and
assumed their position on the pretence that a
larger measure of reform than they proposed
was absolutely and immediately necessary, should
be "in no hurry" to get any measure of reform
whatever, and " reluctant to push forward" a
bill which might result in depriving those
" Liberals " of their present position ! What
zealous Reformers ! How confident must they
be in the belief that they, and they only, repre-
sent the feelings of the country.? It may be all
very well for skilful political writers to attempt
to throw the blame of the failure of the bill of
last session upon the pretended obstructiveness of
the Opposition, but in the face of such " liberal"
confessions as we have noW quoted, such
an argument ought only to be looked upon as an
ingenious device by those who are secretly hostile
to Reform Of any kind. The truth which, during
last 'Session, we frequently dwelt upon, is now
becoming openly allowed, that Lord JOHN
RUSSELL'S latest effort at Reform was obstructed
and rendered abortive, not by the Conservatives, but
by his own professed supporters in and out of the
Cabinet. In short, the Liberals came into power

by a factious combination, and under hollow pre-
tences, which they never meant to be realised.
As our Liberal contemporary above referred to

says, this is now " no secret."

Let us call another witness of the Press. This
time we shall quote from one generally under-
stood to be in the confidence of the Government.
This confidential organ first clearly admits that
no decision has yet been come to by the Cabinet
for the introduction of a Reform Bill. It then
owns candidly that the course of the Government
on the question of Reform is beset with difficul-
ties, and adroitly assumes that " their choice in
the matter is almost limited to the selection of
the lesser of two evils"—which plainly means
that they feel themselves wholly incapable of
introducing any Reform Bill which they could
hope to carry ! With a show of candour
which is meant to be indicative of
great political honesty and sincerity, it is
unblushingly admitted that the Government,
"on the ono hand, are bound, not merely upon
the faith of public promises, but from their own
sense of what is just and advantageous, to do
their best to bring about a settlement of the ques-
tion that will be fairly satisfactory. Reform was
not forced upon them. If they had taken up the
question merely in obedience to the injunctions
of Parliament—if they only bovied to the House
of Commons in the matter, they might with
great propriety take the lesson of last session as
a dissolution of the injunction and an emancipa-
tion from the task. But as they made it a part
of their policy on assuming office, for reasons much
more substantial, so they cannot lightly abandon
what to them is a great public duty undertaken
willingly and from a full sense of its advantage
to the country. They are not quite in the
position of the party led by Lord DERBY, who,
with a majority in the House, may have a certain
course or a certain measure urged on them by
Parliament, and who would be perfectly justified
in abandoning that course upon a fair indication
that those who had forced it upon them had changed
their own minds, or did not mean what they said."
But mark the shuffling manner in which the re•
sponsibility is attempted to be thrown off or
evaded. "If then," says the same journal, " the
Government can really satisfy themselves that
there is a fair prospect of getting the House of
Commons to' deal practically with the question
this session, we have little doubt that they will
give the House another chance. We do think
they are bound to do so from a feeling of duty to
their party. That duty may be fairly said to
have terminated when, owing mainly to the con-
duct of their party, the fiasco of last year occurred.
But their own political views would no doubt urge
them to do their part in accomplishing a settle-
ment of the question. Should they not, however,
be confident of the co-operation of the great body
of the Liberals in Parliament ; should they not
be able to see their way to some mode of proceed-
ing more likely to make the obstructives of last
session tractable and true to their professions, the
Government would, to our minds, incur a very
grave responsibility, by wasting a session which
the public necessities require, should be usefully
occupied." Is this anything else than a pure
specimen of "Liberal" "gammon" and " humbug ?"
How could the approaching session be more
" usefully occupied " than in a determined and
painstaking effort to solve the riddle of Reform
—that is to say in achieving the very object for
which alone the present administration was sub-
stituted for that of Lord DERBY ?

We might proceed to call other witnesses, such
as "the leading journal," and our facetious, yet
sage contemporary, Punch, supposed to be also of
" liberal " political sympathies, and we should
find only additional confirmation of the truth
that there is now being carried on by the
Liberals and their organs of the press a deter-
mined war against reform ! -Could anything,

now, be more apparent than the utter hypocrisy
of the so-called Liberal party P Can the present
Cabinet be looked upon as a Reform Cabinet ?
Then why do they occupy their present seats?
There can; in short; be, no longer the slightest
shadoW of a doubt, that in the very quarter from
which a refotan measure was looked for, there is
a strong desire to shelve the question altogether.
The Liberals, and not the Conservatives, are the
obstructions. When the crisis comes, which
assuredly shall come, let this no longer unde-
niable fact be prominently remembered:,
So f'.4,r as the 0.-oVeiiiiaent is concerned; it seems
only too probable. that there is io be np
Bill this nekt session. But the Liberals have no
k. • . .
monopoly of the question. Why should not igr.
DISRAELI step toi-i.Vard and take the sense b the
itouse as to the conduct of the Government on
this subject, if it shall not appear from the
Queen's Speech that some reasonable measure is
to be brought forward ? We believe that Mr.
DISRAELI is prepared to submit a measure of
Reform that Would satisfy tlfe eob.ntry; arid sire
e:re not '4'vithoVit hope that a majority of the house
of Commons would sympathise with his appeal.
Patriotism, consistency, good faith, and common
sense, demand that the present Ministry
should not; it liossibie; be ailb4Cd tb
retain office one moment longer than is neces-
sary, after it has been demonstrated that they
have again proved false to the promises on the
faith of which they gained power, and for the
fulfilment of which the country looks to one or
other of the great parties in the legislature With
calmness, and Yet Vtrith a deterininatioii that is
riot to be thWaitecll If we are not
this topic will prove a stumbling-block to the
present motley Cabinet, anti, perhaps early in the
session, precipitate a crisis which shall lead to a
dissolution of Parliament and a general election.
A word to the wise is enough. The Conservative
party, fortunately, have nothing to fear from the
conflict,

FOR,EiGiSr IntELLIGEdE

FRANCE.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Jan. 28, 1861.

The French packet-boats belonging to the
Messayeries Imperiales, which were in the habit
of touching at Gaeta whilst the French fleet was
in the roads, have ceased all postal commiiniea-
tion with the place) and ho letter can now be
sent froth Gaeta excepting by sothe special packet
Which the foreign ambassadors who remain in
the Fortress may haVe occasion to send to Civita
Vecchia: A steamer from the latter port which,
was conveying to the ambassadors, theniselves
he baggage ivhieh they had left behind at Itotne,
was alloWed to puss Without any obstacle throUgh
the middle Of the Sardinian squadron, but
when the packet La Seine, which was freighted
from Marseilles, made its appearance at Gaeta,
after the armistice, with a cargo of provisions
intended for the garrison, it was stopped by the
French admiral, who, it is said, discovered, on
examination of the ship's papers, that the vessel
was represented as chartered from Messina. A
private telegraphic despatch, containing an extract
from the Mercantile Corriere of Genoa, and which
was brought from Mola dl Gaeta by a Sardinian
vessel called the Atithioni which left the place on
the evening of the 23rd, states that the Piedmon-
tese squadron had very seriously injured the
works fronting the sea, and that the attack on
the land side had been so successful that the
besiegers had been able to construct a breachinr,
battery at a distance of only 300 metres from the
fortress, thus rendering its capitulation inevitable
at the end of three or four days at the most.
But accounts received through other channels do
not tally with these statements. They represent
the fire of the Sardinian squadron as not having
produced any appreciable effect. Some frigates
and seVeral gunboats had attempted to come near,
but the fire from the batteries of the fortress
soon forced them to withdraw, in order to repair
damage. The assailing batteries on the land side,
however, which are splendidly manned and served,
cannot but have produced terrific effect upon the
town. The besieged, who are careful not to throw
away their ammunition unnecessarily, have con-
trived to keep up a vigorous fire in return upon the
batteries of approach, which are the only ones
they need trouble themselves about. As to the
breaching battery which the Piedmontese are
said to have constructed at a distance of only 300
metres from the front bastion of the fortress,
the fact is simply impossible—indeed, according
to official details furnished by the Piedmontese
themselves, the nearest point at which they have
been enabled to construct batteries, is at a dis-
tance of 600 metres.
The Union of hris publishes another circular,
which was transmitted by Francis 11., on the 10th
instant, to all his diplomatic agents at Foreign
Courts, in which, after reiterating those reasons
of protest against the attack of the Piedmontese,
with which he has already made Europe familiar,
his Majesty makes the following concluding appeal
to the European sovereigns :
In these circumstances, the King being desirous not
to save his person, which has been exposed to all kinds
of danger for the last two months, but to secure against
humiliation and insult the royal dignity which he repre-
sents, is entitled to expect, that in the unequal struggle
which is about to continue, the Powers of Europe will
declare yes or no whether they recognise the blockade
which is about to be established without any declaration
of war, and without any regular notification, by the
squadron now in the possession of Piedmont. And if this
blockade be not recognised, his Majesty has, at least,
the confidence that a collective summons will be sent to
the King of Sardinia to guarantee the liberty of his
Majesty if the hazards of a desperate siege should
respect his life, and to secure against every kind of out-
rage the person of the young Queen, who, with a mag-
nanimity worthy of her heart, and insensible to all
personal peril, has resisted the most incessant entreaties,
. in order to devote herself in the hospitals to the care of
the wounded.
One is glad to learn that the officers in the
Piedmontese navy, who formerly served under
Francis 11., have had the good taste to request
that they may not be employed against Gaeta.
It seems difficult to believe the report which is
current, that the Sardinian Government intends
to deprive these gentlemen of their respective ranks.
I referred in one of my recent letters, to some
explanations which had taken place between the
Emperor Napoleon and Prince Metternich, on
the subject of Garibaldi's threatened incursion
upon tlie Austrian territory. I now learn in
addition, that the Cabinet of Vienna has formally
made known to the French Government that
whatever happens, it will respect Lombardy; to
which M. Thouvenel is said to have replied, that
in the event of the Emperor Joseph in his war with
Piedmont emmploying the federal contingent,
the French Government will regard the Germanic
Confederation, as having violated the principle of
non-intervention.
Speculation is already very rife as to the eon-
. tents of the speech that is to be delivered by the
Emperor on the 4th of next month. Rumour
gives out that, while it will be generally of a
pacific nature, it will also be unmistakeably firm
and plain in its tone, with reference especially to
the attitude adopted by William I. in his recent
public addresses. Meanwhile, in all that regards
the increase of the efficiency of the French army,
" precautionary measures" continue to be adopted on
a very large scale. The number of horses for the
cavalry has been immensely increased, and it was
decided ten days ago that the adjutant-majors of
the army, who are not in .the habit of being
mounted during peace, are to be mounted forth-
with ; while a ministerial circular directs that the
muleteers are to be attached to the already exist-
ing military train.
I have sent you some copious extracts from the
speech of M. Berryer, in opening the case for
Madame Paterson, and perhaps you will be able
to find room for the following notice of the reply
of M. Allon on behalf of Prince Napoleon.
[These extracts are unavoidably postponed till
to-morrow.]

We reserve till to-morrow a repoet of the proceedings
of the Polytechnic Society.
Up to an early hour this morning Donegan, the
murderer of Cassidy, was not apprehended. The two
others who were stabbed are not yet out of danger, but
they are slowly recovering.
Colonel the Hon. P. W. and La4y Emma Talbot
leave Knowsley Park to-dav for London. On Wednes-
day the gallant colonel and her ladyship wiU go on a
visit to her Majesty, at Windsor Castle.
HOWARD PAULS —To-night and to-morrow night
will terminate the engagement of these artistes. We
have already written so often on this performance that
it is only necessary to state the fact, so that those who
have not enjoyed an evening at the Clayton Hall, may
do so without disappointment. _ _

RAILWAY ACCIDENT AT LEEDS.-0n Saturday morn-
ing, about- three o'clock, a number of luggage trucks
got detached from the engine on the Lancashire and
Yorkshire Railway, and notwithstanding the efforts of
the guard to stop them with the break, the whole went
with tremendous velocity forward to Leeds, several
being eventually thrown into the Great Northern good's
yard, Wellington-street, a depth of about forty feet.
The vans were all broken to pieces. The guard leapt
from the van, and thus saved his life.
STEALING A DONKEY.—At the Birkenhead Police-
court, yesterday morning, before Messrs. Win. Jackson,
Darbyshire, and Younghusband, a man named Patrick
Melior was charged with stealing a donkey from John
Roberts. The prisoner is a thief well known on this
side of the water, and it was only on Saturday last that
he was discharged from gaol, having undergone a term
of imprisonment for stealing money. In the present
case the animal was stolen from its owner on the 20th
of last August, and was afterwards sold to Mr. Johns,
of this town, for 7s. 6d. The prisoner was committed
to the sessions for tria'.