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

be lost sight of. It is not the French nation with
which we have to do, but " Napoleon 111. and his
600;000 soldiers." They may; at present, have it
all their own way. • But the fOundations of such a
combination. are, terribly insecure ; and in the
havoc which their breaking-up may at any time
occasion, it were certainly most 'important that
we should in nowise be involved.
The French Emperor's speech 'to the Legislature
does not appear to have been received in Paris
with any very 'conciliatory feeling. Not only
• is it: deemed unsatisfactory
,on account of the
scanty information it furnishes on foreign afiliirs,

but because the people see in it more ominous
complications of European politics—and more par-
ticularly as regards the extension of the frontiers
of France to the Alps. The Paris Bourse has
been most unfavourably affected by it.
Even the " leading journal " appears to be
ashamed of Lord John Russell's Reform Bill.
" What," asks the bewildered Whig-Liberal,
" are we to say about it ? Were we to express
the feelings of nineteen people out Of twenty,
including probably the proposer 'of the measure
and the whole of her Majesty's present_ and late
Governments, we. should desire _that the bill
might be speedily consignedl to the grave of its
fathers, and no attempt,, made to resuscitate the
subject, in • our-time' at least: " And, this is the
measure, for .the sake of which a good govern-
ment was displaced, and a very inferior one put
in its place—the interests of the country, as a
natural consequence, having, for a considerable
interval, to be neglected, and its affairs thrown
into confusion! Verily, the people are paying
dreadfully " dear for their whistle ! "

The Standard thinks there is now the clear
proof, that all Lord John Russell aimed at in re-
sisting Mr. Disraeli's comprehensive measure of
Parliamentary Reform, was the poor praise of in-
troducing one so miserably inferior to it as that he
has now brought forward. "He has had his
way," adds our Conservative contemptuary ;
" and, though he undoubtedly played foully fo
win it, he has utterly failed in palliating the
error of his ambition by the excellence of the
measure he substitutes for a Bill which, even
taking it with certain defects, represented the
intelligence and thrift of the working classes,
and gave . a new constituency of nearly half a
million to the country.", Surely people must
now begin to get their eyes opened, and see how
completely they have been taken in.
The Report of the Committee of the House of
Lords on Church-rates has been issued,. and we
present a copy of it in another part of our. paper
to-day. The committee, it will be seen, are
decidedly of opinion that " the entire , abolition"
of the rate is opposed to the general feeling of
Churchmen, and is not "universally" desired by
Dissenters, and especially not by the Wesleyan
Methodists. They are also. persuaded that itu " a
great number of parishes" it :would be attended
with " serious and prejudicial 'consequences ;"
they therefore recommend that the rate should
be maintained. In order, however, to meet the
conscientious objections, of Dissenters, they pro-
pose that for the future such persons, by giving
yearly notice to the churchwardens, should be
exempted, the exemption, of course, disqualifying
them for taking part in any vestry called for the
purpose of levying a rate. The committee
further recommend that the ratepayers " in any
new parish or district" should not be rated for
any but their own church. These recommenda-
tions appear to accord pretty much with the

provisions of Mr. Hubbard's Bill on the subject in
the Hbusa of Commons.