The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-05-29 00:00:00

WHIG MINISTERIAL INCOMPETENCY.

Wuitt a small but clamorous section of the
House of Commons uses threatening language to
the house of Lords for having saved td the
national exchequer about a million arid a half-of
annual revenue, the anthers of the Paper Duty
Repeal Bill, Who were prepared to 'throw away
that poittiii of the national resources, have, with
strange inconsistency, and .contrary to all prece-
dent, been under the humiliating necessity of vir-
tually declaring that the treasury is empty, and
that the business of the country. cannot be carried
on for another week without an extraordinary
and, in the circumstances, Unprecedented tote
of credit. Thus, doubly convicted of their incom-
petency in dealing with the financial affairs of the
nation, and with sd itnich of the important busi-
ness of the session in a most unsatisfactoiy and
critical stage .of progress, it is impossible
to tell what may be the political issue of a few
days, or how soon the knot of perplexity, now
warped about the Ministry, may become so irre-
trievably ravelled that it can be undone only by
their resignations and the breaking up of the
present Ministry.
The same want of discretion and vigilance on
the part of Ministers which has led to so much
embarrassment:at home must be looked upon, in
a great measure, as the cause cf that portentous
feeling of uneasiness new felt by all partici on
casting a glance towards Italy and. over Europe
generally. The arch schemer who ocCupies the
throne of France has found lord Jogs RUSSELL
and Lord PALMERSTON easy victims to his arch
intrigues. England has been made a tool for the
promotion of his fiendish game, instead of taking
up the high and independent position she ought
to have done as the foremost nation in the world.
Latterly the guise has been somewhat torn, and
the true features of the fiend have peeped through.
Even Lord JOHN RUSSELL confesses it ; and every-
body feels that a crisis is approaching abroad as
well as at home.

Italy from north to south is in a high fever" of
political excitement. The Italians begin to feel
that their pretended regenerator desires to be
their dictator., For a time they may seem to
submit, because for a time apparently they must
maintain the semblance of a friendly alliance.
They are already sufficiently dissatiefied ; but, in
the disjointed state of affairs in. the peninsula,
they cautiously refrain from independent action.
They fondly wait for the period When, by the
consolidation of the new Italian kingdom, they
may be able to do without his powerful aid. 'ld
their heartS they say of NAP.OLEON.as LOUIS XI.
said of COITIER, his physician, after conducting
him to his room with an empty assurance of
friendship,—
" Ah, traitor only 'come the day that I can do
• without thee !"

This state of feeling has been very plainly

„ -
ested in the course of the discussion now going
on in the Sardinian Parliament on the Treaty
with .France foi'• the annexation of avoy and
Nice. Republicans and Liberals have alike
denounced the Treaty, and even Count CAltot
admits that the sacrifice of Bavoy and Nice is a
grievous thing, submitted to only froth the Itp-
posed mce6Aty of the me': rrtineC denianded
these -.l=,ro''•ie`ces on the around that they were not
and it was deemed necessary to comply
with the demand, since the maintenance of the

French alliance was thought essential to too
safety of Eardinia. Pet," it,ans Count CAVOLR,
"if the acquisition of Venice were to cost a foot
of Italian ground, I would reject it." There can
thus be no doubt that the Sardinian Parliament
will formally sanction the obnoxious treaty for
the cession of the ancient possessions of the. House
of Savoy; but. it is eitually tnariest that the
seeds of dissatisfaction have been sown, and that
already an ominous foreboding of coming evils
oppresses those patriotic Italians.
;I'M eyes are now turned with still greater
anxiety to Southern Italy. The Throne of
Naples and the Two Sic:lies is, by general
apprehension, about to become vacant. People
anxiously ask, who is then to fill that Throne ?
It is a question of the utmost importance to
Europe, but especially to England. It is scarcely
to be doubted that he who has originated and
perpetuated all these difficulties has his eye
steadily fixed on the movements of GAEIn!LDI,
if, indeed. through a secret agency, he does, not
direct and sustain them. He who was foiled out
of Tuscan autonomy, may have re-adjusted his
game with the hope of turning Naples to better
account. Whether, according to that .game, he
proposes to appoint a French satrap to rule in
Naples, or to demand, in the meantime, only
the cession of the Two Sicilies to France,
the ultimate object of the manmuvre may be
discerned ;with equal plainness. With a footing
in Sicily arid in Rome, the French can
easily maintain that same sense of dependence
in the mind of the Sardinians, Which at present
forces them unwilling to cede Nice and Savoy.
Count CAYOUE should still be the Emperor's own
nrtredeemable bondsman. To rule either directly
through his known myrmidons, or secretly
through his unacknowledged agents, from end to
end of Italy, is the determination of Louis NAPO-
LEON. In the end he no doubt hopes to make
Rome his own head-quarters, and the centre of
another great Roman Empire, to which every
nation in Europe shall pay humble tribute. By
the wiles of a mysterious policy, he believes it
his destiny to realise that dream of universal
empire which his uncle vainly attempted to
achieve by the sword. Will England tamely
submit to be kept quiet by a weak and incompe-
tent Clove,rnrrient while, before our open eyes, this
great gamester stealthily moves. to*ards the
accomplishment of his insatiable ambition ?
How long shall the people allow Lord JOHN
ItrssELL to retain a post for which he has
over and over again proved his utter incompe-
tence, with no better chief to guide the Cabinet
than the " guest of Compiegne ?" Take our stand
against the entire policy of the present ruler of
France we must sooner or later. . We know not
how soon. ,With such a critical state of matters
abroad, and such a crisis in our Government
at home, an emergency may arise at any mo-
ment, which would cause this country to repent
for many generations to totde, the day when its
greatest interests were entrusted to the keeping of
a Palmerston-Russell Administration. Were the
anticipated foreign crisis to arise at such a
moment as tte present, especially with our finan-
cial system in such dangerous confusion, must we
also, Cavour-like, be content to denounce some
new demand on the part of France, and say we
dare not oppose it, because, under present diffi-
culties, we must not break with our " powerful
ally? " Already there has been somewhat too
much of this feeling manifested among our
statesmen ; and, with the irresistible convic-
tion that the time is rapidly drawing on when
England must come to the rescue of Europe
from the tyranny of another NaroLEos, we
cannot view the present parliamentary and
financial crisis, Without experiencing the moat
profound uneasiness as to the future. AT.'`e cannot
help thinking how different might have beet
the aspect of affairs had Lord MALMESBURY
remained at the Foreign-office, with Sir JOAN
PAKINGTON at the Admiralty, Mr. DISRAELI at
the Exchequer, and Lord at the head of
the Gov.ernment. We should have had little fell
of Louis NAPOLEON. Nice and Savoy would never
have been transferred to France ; and there would
have been less talk about still further entending
the frontier of that empire to the Rhine ; of
turning our great highway to India, the Mediter-
ranean, into a Prfncii itiice; or of LOUIS NAPOLEON
"twisting the neck of England" on the eastern
question!