The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-03-08 00:00:00

THE. DAY'S NEWS.

In the House of Commons yesterday afternoon,
the business tfa,nsacted was of little more than a
merely formal character:
The Australian mail, it will be observe& has
brought , one. important item of intelligence,
respecting trade, which ought to read a lessen to
some of our sPeculators at home. - Thee have
been a great many serious failures of late ; and
although . the down Ward course has, for .the
motherit'apParently, been checked, yet, we find,
"the markets were still glutted with English
gotxls, every' hope entertained from time to:time
'that thez.supply-may still. be reduced within a
moderate compassiheingthecked on the announce-
ment of each -successive, mail of further heavy
shipments from this, side." Well may it have to
remarked,--as the comment on • such a state of
things, that " fromAlteste, facts it is plain, that
notwithstanding the experience of .1857, there,
must still be a class- of traders' in England who
are supported by. improved banking facilities in
carrying on a losing business,"—and therefore, of
course, a buSiness which, the sooner it were given
up the better.
Austria would seem at length to be going. to
work in good earnest, in instituting the means of
conducting the public business of the Empire
upon a more satisfactory, because a less absolute,
and more enlightened system. The Imperial
Council is to be placed upon an enlarged basis;
and apparently to assume more the-character of a
Representative Legislative Assembly. As well
as the councillors nominated by the Emperor
himself, there are to be Ahirty4ight members
appointed by the Provincial Diets, 'subject to the
approval of his Majesty, who will choose, every
Member from a list of three tandidates presented
by the diets. These members will take their
-seats-in the Council for six years. The Council
thus constituted will be CalTecl upon to deal with
the budget, the 'exathintition of the balance of
public accounts, the demands of the commission
for the public debt, and important projects of
general The first Council . under the
reformed systent,is convoked ,for the month of
May next. Thi'S may, at first sight, appear to be
no great reform; after all. But for 'Ail:stria, it is
a most important' 'step ih advance, and will, no
doubt; lead immediately to--still-further- progress
towards more liberal and 'enlightened political
, •
institutions.
The „substance of the reply of Count Cavour
to the message of 'M. Thouvenel is given, it will
be seen,'in one of our late telegraphic despatches.
The count deciaieg, it wall be found, his con-
viction " that , if. ,the King of Sardinia rejects
the demand of Tuscany for annexation, the
Cabinet of the King would lose all moral power
in Italy, and would find itself reduced to govern
by force." It is evident from this, therefbre,
that' the *Aution: preposed by M. Thou4enel is
unacceptable. As to Savoy, no mention what-
ever is made of it.

The Paris papers tell us, that they " are unable
to make known the exact reply of Sardinia in
reference to the annexation of Savoy to France."
The French papers dare only make known what
they are permitted by Imperial authority to do.
There is every reason to.believe that the reply of
Sardinia will be-4f it is' not already=onerefus-
ing
,to sanction the annexation of its ancient
territory to France,—but the longer this can be
delayed being made known, the more agreeable,
no doubt, to Louis Napoleon.
The 7imes, apparently ;alarmed as to the
probable result of the, discussion 'of tile Treaty
with',France in Parliament, is having recourse to
misrepresentation. of the object in view. " The
principle,". it is remarked, " somewhat loosely,
though vigorously, laid down by the Opposition
on Monday, was that of moral reprobation by
means of what is called ' exclusite dealing.' We
are to buy less of .France, to make our people pay
more-J*ol'ller. piciduce, and obstruct 'her trade, in
order to mark our sense of her political impro-
pridtieS. We are 'td discourage the use of Bor-
deaux tainted with annexation, and to drink
BritiSh brandy in place of a mere genuine article,
unfortunately 'associated in our minds with a
story of Naboth's vineyard." This is certainly
plausible, and rather_ witty; hut it is; at the same
time, a wretched piece of sophistry-. It is not by
refusing to trade with France that we are to
. ..
'mark our sense of her political improprieties ; "
but we are hot, While_ jsach . improprieties, are
t eing perpetrated by the French Emperor, to
farther or favotir. his 'designs by a closer alliance.
The TreatY itself sets forth, it must :not be' for-
gotten, ' that it is . inteaded. " to draW closer the
ties of friendship." What the Opposition wish to
to, then, is to discuss the expediency of doing
his with one whd, by thus perpetrating'" political
improprieties," is evidently exciting the distrust
bf Europe, and not improbably furnishing groimds
for future hostilities.. ' ;

The Morning Herald, remarking upon the ill-
starred Treaty, says :—" The events of the last
few weeks have represented in a concentrated
form all the evils and all the anomalies of the
forced alliance, and have shown with singular
clearness the bad advice of those who would per-
suade the two countries that they have a common
mission." We do not think, however, that .it has
been such " bad advice" to talk of " a common
mission," as it has to force the alliance in ques-
tion upon mere Manchester principles. Our Con-
Servative contemporary adds, that "the negotia-
tion of the Treaty represents the mode -in which
Certain politicians believe that England and
France- can - be brought together and a warm
friendship be cemented between them,"—that is to
say, we.suppose, by makiug, cotton the adhesive
material. But there must be something more
than this, we are persuaded, if the cement is to
be durable.

SINCE the French Emperor's designs on Savoy
' and 6eustitute, if not the sole topic, yet the
most prominent one, of discussion amongst con-
tinental pOliticians, and is, or ought to be, consi-
dered in our own country one of the most impor-
tant questions of the day, it is of no- slight
moment that there should be a right nnderstand-
ingof the Treaty with his Imperial Majesty which
our GoVernment have contracted, and whicli but
for the timely interference of the Conservative,
Opposition in the House of Commons would, in
all probability, by this time have secured : the
sanction of the representatives of the people, and
the Ministers, its authors, have received, through
Her Majesty; the thanks of Parliament for the
same. Now, the great mistake, we humbly think,
which is committed, in popularly estimating this
Treaty, is the separating it, as a Treaty, from all
political considerations. It is quite true. that
ostensibly, the Treaty has respect to commerce
atone. And, as such, there is no, doubt that a
great commercial people like England, ought
highly to. appreciate it, as showingrenh towards the
the advances
c
made by the Emperor of the
principles of trade
F
adoption of those.
which the Treaty beneficial
e_
ati ablishes. This, however,
is 'bUt the outside' ,
it were, ,of the question.
It, is a TreatY. of Commerce-a Treaty for the
_
extension of commercial intercourse between the
two countries—an object, we repeat, of the bene-
cial nature of which there can scarcely be two
Opinions. But it involves a political alliance
which, at such a juncture as the present, has a
peculiar and very perilous aspect. We need go
no further than to the preamble of the Treaty for
proof of this, since it states that "it is the object
of the high contracting parties to draw closer the
ties of friendship which unite the two peoples."
It would be more correct to say, which unito the
two Governments; since whatever may be the
feelings of our own people as regards free-trade
with France, those of the French people, as
regards free-trade with England, are decidedly