The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-03-22 00:00:00

Chanced to remain conitant ands consistent. The
Ballot has -not yet attained sufficient political and
popular importance, perhaps, to render it altoige-:
filer expedient for the noble lord to change his
opinions upon it, and take a course-directly in
the face. of all that he has uttered against it,
as recorded in the pages of Hansard. So long
a,s-'lll6 Millie- of TofinnOifs --keeps .fejeethigif
majorities Of two to One,' and the Muse of,Lords'
by majorities of nearly ten to one, there may be
no actual necessity, upon those prixciples -of
expediency.which haVe been so: much-the guide
and motive of Lord PALMERSTON'S political move-
ments, tQ -turn round upon this, as he has done
Upon so many other questions. But only let it
once become a matter of party necessity—only
let the 'advocacy of
,the Ballot become essential'?
to the retention of place—and -there can be very
little" doubt, that soon Lord PALMERSTON will no
longer be ,in a position to refer those gentlemen
who wish_ to became acquainted, with his argtt-i
ments_ against it, to the pages of Hansard. Hoiv
many !of those pitges have there not been occupied
with 1* arguMents, equally cogent, equally
earneq-, and quite-as convincing no doubt, against
Parliamentary Reform iiSelfmore especially
against any such
,fneasttre of Parliamentary
Reform. as that which, under the sanction of his,
own Administration, has just been submitted to
Parliament' Lord PALMERSTON, we suppose,-will
have to speak in favour of that measure, either
now or at" some thture 'period of
.its passage
through the House .of Commons; ,and if he con-
descend to argue :the .question at all, we haye
no doubt that; by the very means he now 'jug-
gests, as regards the question .of the Ballot,
one Could obtain ,arguments of. his own _in
foriner days diametrically opposed to those
which he will now use upon the same subject !
There is scarcely, indeed; a great public question
Which has agitated the country, and occupied the

attention of Parliament; during the last half
century, uponiwhich Lord PALbqRSTON 1140 not
changed or modffiefl his opinions. And we recer
to Ivith Lconfidence in pied; thus:
!Nor is Lord PALMEESTON'S case by any means a
singular one among the Whig-'Liberals. Most of
his present colleagues in office are in very much
the same predicament. Take Mr. GLADSTONE,
for instance.' Why, he voted for Lord DERBY'S
Reform Bill ;' and he is. now one of Ministry
that has brought forward a Reform measure of a
totally opposite character, as respects some of the
most prominent and important of its provisions.
Take Lord JOHN RUSSELL himself. There are
reform speeches of his :in -Hansard—and plenty
of-them, we dare say Lin 'Which 'arguments the
most powerful and earnest may belound, dire'etly
opposed to those which he now uses in.support'
his present measure. 'What reliance, then, can
be 'placed upon statesmen such as these'? It is
not that we object to any one altering or modi-
fying his opinions, either upOn the .details 9f any
great public question, or the degrees of its appli-
cation„or the proper _
_occasion for its being
brought forwarct.';' In an aW:of "progress," one
must Of: necessity .enlarge one's vieWs; and
adapt one's' opinions very much .to altered
circumstances as they may arise; But it
Aihnite anOther thing. ' fOr"veteran statesmen}; tp
swear the whore principles of their former
lives. it ii not necessary-that there should be
any Actual abandonment of principle in a change
of opinion, orA modifieation or one's views. But if
black was black yesterday, it can only be pine-
thing very like a miracle that could make' it white
to-day. .r. resides, such tergiversations are so
generally, if not invariably, not only mere matters
of party expediency, bit of party manoeuvre of the
most disreputable kind. Tlite kiskopy of the
Whigs,. fOr alMost all time, more or less, has
remarkably illustrated this, 'though at no' period
of our country's annals, perhaps, anything like so
reiias44bly as during the last twenty or thirty
.Ate ,Whip,igery, indeed, had been becom-;
ing so " small by degrees and beautifully less,"—
owing, we believe, to its utter hollowness tuitykig
been so thoroughly exposed, that 'the Whigs as
Party had become completely powerless, and 'had
no hoPe,,therefore, Afyetaining any political posi-
tion in the country whatever, unless by, a coali-
tion with the Radicals. There is not now v 01.,,
ron,ch to choose between them, as regards many of
the political-v.estions of the day, save, perhaps,
ati to degree,--7exceptiiktb.e case of this question of
the 13allot and only et httle more
strength in Ow cOnntry, and even that
,cane44o4
will cease to be the eteeption it now is.

years.

lord PALMERSTON, paid a coryplii4e4t
BERKELEY, which can Jneyer be paid to himself,
when he praised his devotion to this particular
subjeet, and commended him, in that he had.per!.
severed With it through goQd report and bad re-
port:—through adverse results, sometimev greater
and snmetlines "less—and declared that it did ,
greet honour to his Censi.etency and persei-eritrice.
Corto..i4ly Mr. BERKELEY QgCl,ll*s 4 position in
this respect 104141:ely iggber than auy which 4F4
PALMERSTON can claim 4$ to his fidelity ands
constancy upon questions a iugoitely sll3fiter
moment than the Ballot. -And the time, we
repeat, is probably not far distant, when even'.
his oppoeition to the Ballot, like his opposition to
many other political eFils, will have to be giVen
up,—so that, in the end, there is on).y too much
reason to fear, it will have to be recorded of the
94ble lordi as HUDIBRAS has recorded of one of
the hot4ilities of his day, that—

. As be 144 turAe4 4.914 44e to side, .
;As a astige44g 4ed N elgtageling he died.

Lord PALMERSTOT suggeste4 tAa tli\p most
fitting monument to be erected over the tomh of
Mr. BERKELEY, would be a ballotbos. We make
noSaggestion as to the shape or'design of Lord
PALmE44O]e6 monument ; but we must say that
if a motto be wanking for it, it 'Will be difficult to
find one more appropriate 0'44 4ke .above two
lines of HUMBRAS, one of the ivaiptes,t wd
most plain spoken of poets. •