The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-05-16 00:00:00

wishes are so often anythinitittAte results of
sober reflection, or the dictates of sound' discre-
tion. For is it not still too generally found, that
" what is:urged as the public opinion is, in truth,
but the opinion of a few craftyleaders; that the
numbets'who join in the cry serve only to swell
the sound, without any accession of judgment, or
exercise ,Of understanding ; and that oftentimes
the wisest councils are overborne by tumult and
uproar." So that we may very reasonably,
indeed, conceive occasions to arise in which the
commonwealth may be saved by the reluctance of
the Lords,. to adopt the caprices of the Commons,
or yield to the popular vehemence in their behalf.
The opinion entertained of Mr. GLADSTONE'S
present position in commercial circles has already
been ascertained to be anything but favourable to
his eventual success as a financier. Even the
merchants' circulars are noticing this. " The
announcement by Lord DERBY," says one we see
quoted in the city article of a London paper,
" that although he will offer no obstacle to the
French treaty, he will oppose, by every effort in
his power, the repeal of the paper duty, and thus
save £1,500,000 to the revenue, has created a great
sensation, mingled with anticipations of ` the
possibility of a Ministerial crisis. Mr. GLAD-
STONE, apparently, has become suddenly unpo-
pular in the House of Commons, but the Conser-
vative party have doubtless preferred to defeat.
his proposals in the Lords, where an adverse
division would give less pretext to the Cabinet
for a dissolution of Parliament. Possibly Mr.
GLADSTONE'S resignation might • solve the diffi-
culty." . Neither from the terms of thiS notice of
the subject, nor the suggestion with Which it
concludes, is it to be inferred that the defeat of
the Government upon this financial question
would be regarded by the mercantile community
as anything to be regretied,—rather, indeed,
the reverse. But our Radical Reformers think
otherwise, financial Reformers, and Parlia-
mentary Reformers • alike. They are, in fact,
very much one and same body ; for in both
capacities they find
,that they can advance their
republicanising devices.
The House of Lords, then, must be the nation's
hope on both these queStions. The Upper House
must check and control, as it is at once its high
privilege and its solemn obligation to do, the
mischievous measures of the Lower. The Satur-
day Review has well remarked, that " the diffi-
culties of the Reform question arc sufficiently
serious without noisy attempts to supersede dis-
cussion by intimidation. All parties have, by
their want of foresight or of courage, brought
themselves into an uncomfortable and untenable
:position. There is now a probability that an-
other year-will .elapse -before a final decision is
adopted, and every politician will have become
wiser through the experience of the present
session. As in numerous other cases, the waiters

on public opinion have been left behind by its

- .
current. The vague desire of innovation, which
had long been a chronic affection, has given place

to the strongest feeling of political caution which
has been known to the present generation. Thou-
sands of Liberal politicians have been frightened
by Mr. BRIGHT, and hundreds have been im-
pressed with a deeper uneasiness by the language
of Mr. GLADSTONE." Equally serious are the
difficulties of the Finance question ; and neither
with it must there be any " noisy attempts to
supersede discussion by intimidation:" The Lords
are asked to assent to a measure of Finance, which
they must of necessity bring under discussion,
just as they would any other measure of le&isla-
tion submitted to them. And if the result of
their discussion of it should be the conviction that
it is an undesirable, because a mischievous mea-
sure, England has a right to expect that they
will fearlessly do their duty by rejecting it.

VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COURT.-YESTERDAT

JOHNSON V. GALLAGHER AND ANOTHER.—The argu-
ments in this case were resumed yesterday morning, and
extended over the whole of the day,—The decision of
the court was deferred.