The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-07-19 00:00:00

WHIG-RADICAL TRIFLING.

THE Coalition Cabinet, as we all know, is com-
posed of a motley crew, holding the most opposite
and conflicting views On almost every point of
state policy ; and their misunderstandings and
dissensions have incapacitated them for any
important legislative action. On Tuesday night
and,Wednesday morning we had another lamen-
table exhibition in the House of-t uumfons of-the
dislocated state of feeling which pervades the
ministerial benches. 'The " great Liberal party"
has fallMr entirely out of discipline: ministers,
themselves, are widely at variance with each

=other, and the ranks have manifested symptoms
of open • mutiny. These dissensions really arise
from personal spites and jealousies, not, as they
would make it appear,- from questions of high
political importance, which concern the public
interests, and which move the opinions of the
people. They have not fallen by the ears because
the great question of • Parliamentary Reform has
been thrown overboard and lost. They have
-not—broken--out-- into -rebellion.-- because
the Government failed to 'abofish ChurchLrates.
Neither has their wrath been evoked on the
general ground that the tempting -Whig pro-
gramme held forth to the admiring gaze, of the
Radicals, some months ago, has proved a mockery,
a delusion, and a snare. Their recent clamour
has not been in, reality for the repeal of the paper
duty, or for the adoption of some course of action
against the Lords. On all these really important
subjects they have proved their utter insincerity.
There can be no doubt that the fate of the Paper
Duty Repeal Bill' was settled by the state of the
vote of the Commons themselves on the third
reading. It is equally manifest that the question
of taking " action" in the matter was settled by
that House all sbut unanimouslyy passing Lord
PALMERSTON'S resolutions; and Lord FERMOY,
-and- those who supported him, made it very
appareUt that they never really meant his motion
to take effect. The whole display may be charac-
terised as made up of such .varied items as the
trimming insincerity of the Fiist
.111.NiciTER of the
Crown, the sulky petulance of the CAANCELLOR of
the EXCHEQUER, the unsCrupulous obstructiveness
of ambitious demagogueS, and the tardy,repent-
... •
ance of deluded Whigs. - • .

The deplorable effect of all- this trifling is to be
found in the backward condition of the business
of the; session. It is thus briefly describe& by a
contemporary :—" There is a great mass of unfin-
ished work, and a great many chips lying about
but there is nothing finished. Even the China
War has yet to be debated. The exigencieS of
action have outstripped so completely the pace
of the debates, that the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER has been obliged to beg the House
to pay the money first, to pay it if they
please without prejudice, and, to debate about
it afterwards. The Reform Bill is tossed
aside, having wasted half a Session ; the- Budget
fell to pieces, and has had to be patched
with a very expensive solder; the French Treaty
is in a transition state ;
.ancl.We are still sticking
half way in a Bankruptcy Bill of 500 clauses. A
short time since, when we counted the orders of the
day, there were forty-seven ranged for one evening.
Yesterday there were ninety-five orders of the day,
and seventeen folio pages of amendments and notices
of motion. The choice of subjects of discussion
in some. cases seemed to resemble the stock list of
a boys' debating club. Flogging in the. Army and
Navy, Marriage with a DeceaSed Wife's Sister,
Punishment of Death, all modestly pressed for
consideration; while, in the persons of Mr.
PIGOTT and Mr. COGAN, we are actually
favoured with specimens of temperaments . so
sanguine that they are proposing to intro-
duce new Bills, with the hope of having
them passed into law this Session. These, how-
ever, are merely the absurdities which appear
upon the Votes. Even if the House would come to
some arrangement by which every moment of their
working time should be employed in legislation,
the ruck of important Bills is tremendous.
The Corporation of London Reform Bill has
been three months before the House, and,
as Mr. JAMES declared, has been thirty-
two times on the paper, yet • has never
been , even discussed. The Poor-law Con-
tinuance Bill, if we may judge from the peti-
tions, will consume some time. The Bankruptcy
and Insolvency Bill must pass this session, unless
the House ofTemmous are prepared to tell the

country that they are not equal to their work ; for
the necessity of the bill is admitted by all parties,
and nothing delays it but the want of time for
a critical examination of its qtails. The Refresh-
ment Houses Bills for Ireland and Scotland are
not likely to pass in silence. The Highways Bill
and the Ecclesiastical Commission Bill are both
time-taking bills; and those bills which are so
silently being pushed forward by the Metropolitan
Board of Works ought to receive very careful
attention before they are allowed to become law,
and give new powers to an irrespcinsible "bddy
whose constitution is very nearly self-elective.
Add to this tfiat the Supplies are not yet nearly
voted, and we shall then-haVementfoned only the
steeples and high buildings of this great-Babylon
ofl legislation."

It is high time that something were done'by
the people to put an end to this grand farce.
It! is almost ludicrous to think of the House
attempting to overtake' such a :mass- of work
during the brief remainder or this session; even
were it to continue to sit until three or four o'clock
emery morning for the next month, as it has been
doing for the-last week.-- The-attempt-were hope-
less and absurd. It may be all very well for us
to resign ourselves -to -our fate for the present;
but we cannot help a feeling of profound uneasi-
ness as to the future. How
tfar a_ repetition of
this highly culpable course of procedure can
bb prevented, so long as the direction of the
blisiness of the Hoilse. is in the hands of a
lirhig-Radical Coalition Ministry, it were rash
to predict. But assuredly, sooner or later, a
day of retribution will come, when the people of
this cbuntry will cause their voice to be heird
_ t
in denunciation of a pseudo-liberalism which can
only pull down without the capacity to build up :
xhichitvvonld not permit a sound constitutional
inistry to do the work of the nation, and will
riot do it itself.; which factiously united with
revolutionists to eject Lord DERBY and Mr.
DisRAELT. from power, merely that they them-
selves might seize the reins. The first necessary
Steritowards. an effectual-remedy, --is-the-reversal
of that,unfortunate• mistake which deprived the
country of an earnest and united- Governnient.
Let the Conservative people of this country wait
patiently, but vigilantly. The time must and
Will come, we know not how soon, when the
return of Lord DERBY to power will be universally
acknowledged as a national necessity. •

FJREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

(From our own arrespondent.)
PARIS, TUESDAY EVENING,—
• July 17, 1860.

It is announced that the Credit Mobilier is to
take the loan required!by the city of Paris, which,
however, will be kept back for a little; and it id
anticipated that unless clouds multiply on the
political horizon,: the price of the shares in this
immense concern will continue to maintain their
ascending tendency; for, besides the above loan,
it has entered into several other lucrative engage-
ments, such as, for 'example, the supply Of the
funds for the line from Moscow to St. Peteriburg,
and other similar undertakings; and if the neces-
sary Government authorisation be forthcoming,
the association will also Offer-to the shareholders
the new Turkish Loan, which is' likely to be a
very good thing; and, lastly, there is the North
of Spain
.Railway, in which it has a large and
paying interest. The principal amount required
for the construction' of Algerian lines is to be
furnished
_by the Commercial and Industrial
'Credit Association. The iMproVetriericlii-alditist
all descriptions of railway Stock is general.

The next operas in which the two -.Sisters
Marchesis are to sing, after the since* of
" Semiramis " 'is 'exhausted—an event which
does not seem near at hand—are "Le TOVere "
(Trevatore), and " Moses in Egypt.`' ',After
which Mdlle. Sax , and. Mdme. Vandenheuvel, a
daughter of the famous Duprey, will make their
debuts
.simultaneously in "Robert le Diable "
Mdlle. Sax taking the part of Alice, and the
other lady that of Isabelle. The whole of the
costumes in the piece are to be renewed for the
occasion of this renewal, which, is to surpass in
brillidney all previous. representations. Some
new ballets are also in course of preparation at
the same establishment, and the services of the
renownett-Rotar so celebrated -as -a. getter_np_of
this ascription ief,divertissenzent,s, have- been
secured in advance for 1863.

Victor Huge's new comedy has produced a great
effect at the rehersal, and will be continued for a
month.• There is also a new and attraCtive comedy
promised-by M._ Ponsard.,
The Budget has been carried after an unpre-
cedented discussion. There were only seven
dissentients. The debate on the vote for the
additional 100,000 men derived importance from
a speech of M. Picard, who had supported an
amendment for reducing the vote by 20,000. The
speaker, in making allusion to a speech which
had been addressed to the Chamber by M.
de Pievue, took an opportunity of declaring
that his friends and he were by no means parti-
sans of the Peace-at-any-price party, but that they
were for the redaction' of the army at any price.
To this observation M. de Pievue replied that the
war budget cost France 1,300 millions, and it was
too much. According to him, France, with her
600,000 men, was a cause of fear to Europe ; for
his part, he desired neither to, have cause for fear,
nor to give it.,.
Before I pass from purely Parisian news, let
me add, that the rumour is current here at pre-
sent that Her Imperial Highness the Princess,
Clotilde-is in " an interesting situation."

Among other passages deserving of notice in
the recent article in the Constitutionnel, to which
I referred yesterday, there was one in which allu-
sion was made to the idea entertained at the
Tuileries, of elevating Spain to the rank of a
great. power.
.I have now the best reason for
believing that a project of this kind is actually
at this moment engaging attention. It does not
appear, however, that Spain is showing any very
great eagerness in aspiring to the high position
which it is thought of assigning to her. The
overtures on the subject, which have already been
made to the Great Powers, have been:very favour-
ably received, but serious objections have been raised
to their being entertained. It haS been observed
there are already five great Powers, which, upon
all questions, have always had the greatest diffi-
culty in coming to an understanding, and that
these difficulties could not fail to be augmented
in' this respect, when there came to be six to dis-
cuss them. . It has further been objected, that a
State cannot become a great Power, by the deter-
mination of Cabinets, but only after it has acquired
in Europe that real preponderance, which 'is the
privilege of important• Governments. As soon, it
is maintained, as a Power has at its disposal the
forces neCesstfry to support its demands, it is
de jitcto a great Power, since all it has to do,
when there is a question of independence, is to
interpose in it, by addressing a note to the other
Powers, in order that they may be compelled to
take its view and its interests into consideration,
seeing that it has, if need should arise, the means
of sustaining
,its position by arms. Lastly, it is
observed that Spain is not asking for this costly
honour, which would occasion to it considerable
expense in the department of foreign representa-
tion, which is hardly yet justified by the state of
its finances. The matter seems, therefore, to
stand -thus : the, Powers consulted haVe not
thought it necessary to come to any formal
decision on the question, because no direct
application has -yet come from Spain regard-
ing it. At the same time, they .have
all, it is said, with the exception of England,
acknowledged that the war with Morocco has
reflected the greatest honour on Spain, and has.
elevated her in the eyes of Europe as a military
Power. All this seems surely rather like a pre-
mium in favour of attempts at military aggran-
disement than an incentive to efforts to attain to
moral greatness. Perhaps when an ‘.‘ united Italy"
comes to apply for admission to the rank of a
Power, the proposal to in troduce
counterpoise may be more successful.
greatsp ai n Europeana
s.
a
It is,very justly observed here, with reference
to Turkish affairs, that the last occasion en which
the Latin Powers interfered hostilely in the affairs
of' the East was to deliver Turkey from the agres-
sion of a neighbouring power, but that now they
are called upon to interpose to save Turkey from
its own powerlessness. The intelligence of the
atrocious massacres that have been perpetrated in

FRANCE.

The inquiry relating to the Treaty of Com-
merce with England is still proceeding without
interruption before the Superior Council of
Commerce. The inquiry touching woollen manu-
factures began on Monday, and above fifty manu-
facturers and merchants interested in that branch
have already given evidence. It is
,thought this
portion of the inquiry will occupy several more

sittings.
The .3foniteur de la Flotte announces that the
Pomone frigate has left for Newfoundland, with
an officer who carries with him full powers for
settling the question of the limits of the French
and English fisheries on the Great Bank, which
has occupied diplomacy for the last half century.

THE FRENCH FUNDS.

PARIS, July 18.

3 30 P.M.—Funds have further 'declined, and
the market is depressed. Rentes closed at 68 65,
or 25c. lower than yesterday.

GERMANY.
The Gotha Gazette has opened a subscription
for Garibaldi.

PRUSSIA.

The Prince Regent of Prussia has ordered that
the various regiments shall bear denominations
recalling their origin, traditions, or glorious

exploits.

DESPATCH OF FRENCH TROOPS TO
SYRIA.

At Paris it is stated positively that a corps of
4,000 men- has been ordered to embark imme-
diately from Toulon for the coast of Syria. The
Pays says that this force is insufficient.
The Paris journal La Presse accounts for the
Druses not attacking the English Consulate at
Damascus not seeing a cross in front of the Eng-
lish Consul's house, they did not suppose the
inmates to be Christians.