The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-05-03 00:00:00

F- left Paris for 'ilarseilles- en route for China.
There has been. no idea entertained, that we are
..accarti-of, that he, would not proceed. To bring
it forward now, therefore, only increases the
mystery Of the case_
The Hanoverian Diet; it will be observed, is
likely to reject the plan proposed by the Govern-
ment for ,the -fortification of the coast, and to
refuse, of course, the requisite supplies.
The Emperor of Austria has at length agreed
to grant two sets'of chaplains to the two so-called
"Evangelical" portion ~of his army,—one of. the.
Angsburg, and the other of the Helvetic Confession.
A similar Concession' is also to be made to the
military hospitals. The refusal of such an
arrangement was understood to 'be causing con-
siderable discontent. Whether or not its removal
is sufficiently timely remains to be seen.

THE debate on the Reform Bill is to be resumed
in the House of Commons to-night. It has now
been going on at intervals for several. weeks—
dragging its weary length along—ever and anon
emptying the house, and twice or thrice exposing
it to the ignominy of a "count out." Gladly, we
believe, would a large majority of even the Whigs
and Liberals, hitherto among the loudest clam-
ourers for Parliamentary Reform, be done with
it altogether,—not only with the debate, but with
the- Bill itself, of which there is no doubt they

are thoroughly ashamed. But as they have made
their bed, so must they endure it. Only by the
promise of a better Bill than that of the Conser-
vative Government did they succeed in getting
back to the treasury benches; and. now that they
have produced one, it is on all hands acknow-
ledrred to be infinitely worse.
There has seldom, perhaps, in the annals of
faction, been a more thorough exposure of party
scheming than the whole proceeding on this mea-
sure has already produced. The very provisions
of it which the Liberals themselves, or most of
them, have taken exception to, are just those
which mainly distinguish it from the Bill which
Lord DERBY'S Administration introduced, and
which yet they did not scruple to make the occa-
sion of a conspiracy for its overthrow. Lord
PALMERSTON, who, in his heart, is averse to Par-
liamentary Reform altogether; and Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, who seems to consider himself its great
and sole Apostle; and Mr. GLADSTONE, who even
voted for Lord DERBY'S Bill ; and Sir :CORNE-
WALL LEWIS, who at the time did not see the
necessity for any such Bill at all,—these, and
such as these, could agree .to coalesce with radi-
cals and revolutionists like :Vir.• JOFIN BRIGHT,

and form themselves into a new faction, expressly

on the ground that a much more extensive mea-
sure of reform was requisite ; whereas now the
mind of most of them appears to be, that not a
more, but rather a less extensive measure would
be " discreetest, wisest, best," one" the less
extensive the better, in fact,—any thing, indeed,
that can be passed under the name of a Reform
Bill, since unfortunately they are pledged to one
of some kind or other; but one with as little in
it as possible to alter things as they are —so
little, in Short, fis even to render it unneces-
sary to dissolve Parliament to' bring it into
operation! • One hon. member, the other night,
who had himself been a party to the factious
opposition to the DERBY Ministry on this ques-
tion, asked, even if Parliamentary Reform were
really wanted at all, was the present a fitting
season to grant it ? And then he proceeded to
argue that, even if it were, it must not be of such
a nature as to disturb the existence of the present
Parliament. "It did not follow that a dissolution
need immediately sricceed a reform of Parliament.
He thought it would be a great crime in the
Government, merely for the sake of collecting the
additional intelligence which would be supplied
by a franchise, to dissolve Parliament upon
the passing of such a measure; he saw no reason,
therefore, why, after the Reform Bill had passed,
the present Parliament should not continue until
some good cause might arise that required its
dissolution." Such was Vie line of argument
taken by one, we say, who yet could co-operate
in tripping up Lord DERBY'S Administration, on
the plea that their Reform Bill was not suffidently
effective,—whereas it is now virtually confessed
that even that measure was almost too much so
for the real necessities of the case !

Of course the Radicals are an exception to this
state of mind among the ministerial party. They
undoubtedly want a much more sweeping Reform
Bill than this ; to which, however, they are yet
reconciled by the conviction, that it will be the
means, in due time, of getting them all they
require. As far as it goes, it is to them satisfac-
tory enough; and they are sufficiently wide
awake to perceive whatever some of their less
revolutionary confederates may be—that it goes
quite as far as is requisite to make the future
composition of tha House of Commons
such as will enable them, at no distant
day, to carry their republican system into
pretty complete effect. How politicians of
such opposite views could ever coelesee_ on such
a question, can easily be accounted fo-r by the
fact, that while one party, in all earnestness and
eagerness, sought all this revolutionary change,
the other 'party only wanted the coalition in
order to place themselves and their friends and
_
partisans in office again.. Such were the differ
rent, yet, for the nonce,. concurring motives of
action, by which respectively they were influenced
in their factious conspiracy against Lord DERBY'S
Ministry,—aAtinistry that had shown its hearty
desiie to pass a safe yet efficient and constitu-
tional measure of Parliamentary Reform, but
which they were, most illiberally and factiously,
not allowed to do, just because it would have
tended to keep them in office, and thereby to
give the country the continued-advantage of a
stable, settled, and high-principled Government.
The very course Which it was only necessary
to purxie to have rendered Lord DiatßY'S Reform
Bill a really good and effective measure, but
which the Whigs and Liberals so pertinaciously
arid unprincipledly opposed, is just that which
they are now so ready to adopt, as the least of
the evils, with the bill of •Lord RAIN RUSSELL.
As Mr. WALTER observed, "it was to be hoped
that they would do their best in the discussions
that would follow upon this measure in com-
mittee, so to improve and amend it AS to send
it forth to the world in such a shape that it
would be an honour, and not a disgrace, both to
that Parliament and the future fame of the noble
lord." Nothing more than this, it will be
remembered, did Mr. DISRAELI ask of them
on behalf of the Administration of Lord DERBY.
But, in the spirit of faction, it was refused.
And now the Whigs and Liberals are finding
themselves in a worse position than eveiyupon
this self-same question of Reform. Fit retribu-
tion, certainly, will it be, should it all end, as it
is not very improbable it may, in the defeat and
disgrace of those who, -V such factious conduct,
have given so much needless trouble to Parlia-
ment, and inflicted, at the same time, so much
mischief on the country.
We see it stated, in a respectable and well-
informed quarter, that " notwithstanding the
absence of direct oppositiox, and the improba-
bility that important amendments will be carried,
there is a growing suspicion that the Bill will
not pass into a law during the present session"—
a suspicion that is naturally strengthened by its
becoming more and more evident, that " the
Hone of Commons is discovering that it has
yiekled to an imaginary pressure, and the well-
foutded 13horrence of a dissolution is gradually
overpowering the dread of indignant constitu-
ents" Should Ministers themselves, however,
be puties to a withdrawal, or any other failure
of tieir Bill, the effect • cannot but be fatal to
then, one would think, as the Government of the
couttry.- Not but that their rottenness, as a