The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-08-30 00:00:00

carelessness. Since that occurrence the lamp-black has
been always emptied, when brought from a warehouse,
into a large block-tin barrel, with a close-fitting cover.

COUNT DE PERSIGNY'S MANIFESTO.

LOUIS NAPOLEON is undoubtedly the " head
man" in France ; but the Count DE PERSIGNY,
we suspect, is " the man with the head." That
his Imperial master possesses wonderful abilities,

we.never doubted; but it seems as certain that
he has been much indebted to " my dear PER-
" for the tact with which he has concocted

and carried out his secret schemes, and managed to

keep_England so far in the dark. Both the Emperor
and the Count know England and Englishmen
. _
so thoroughly, and have evidently been so
mutually confidant, that the success with which

they have hoodwinked us is, in some measure,-
accounted for, especially when we take into
account the material they had to work upon in
the persons of the quondam. ."
guest of Cern-
pi4gne;" and the once Minister Plenipotentiary
to Vienna, to wit, Lords PALMERSTON and Rus-

SELL. We have had another very notable illus-
tration of the devotion of Count PERSIGNY to the

EmperOr's policy, and of his peculiar ability in
defending it, in the speech delivered at the open-
ing of the General Council of the Department of
the Loire, of which he is president. His objects
were to prove that the Empire has been, and still
is, Peace ; that war has never been waged by

LOUIS NAPOLEON, save to resolve difficulties
which could not have been solved by diplomacy ;
that no question now occupies the attention of
Europe that_need endanger its peace ; that the
existing uneasiness and distrust arise from envy
of the glory of France ; that the Emperor has
deceived nobody—that upon the whole his policy
has been pure and honest ; and that, the military

role of France having been ended, an era of peace

and prosperity is now opening for Europe.

If the Count had confined himself to general
assurances of an agreeable and soporific nature,
they might have gone far to deceive us ; but

unfortunately for his cause, he has attempted to
give detailed proofs of the truth of his several

statements ; and these, when subjected to the
test of facts now familiar to all the world, except
France perhaps,' will be found utterly insufficient
to support his specious and plausible assumptions.
This is especially remarkable with reference to
the somewhat summary manner in which Count
PERSIGNY disposes of the Eastern qUestion—the
question which, of all others, perhaps, most anxi-
ously concerns England at the present moment.
The Emperor, of course, receives all the credit of
the Crimean war and the destruction of Sebastopol,
whereby he "prevented Russia from taking pos-
session of Constantinople, and the Eastern ques-
tion
was confided"—by the Emperor, no doubt,—
"to the charge of united Eurepe." We all
remember hew the Emperor forced us into peace
with:RuSsia,... It Was rumoured and believed at
that time, and we have quite recently had further
good reason.: to entertain the belief, that the in-
decenhaste with which that war was concluded,
was efcpfp,ind and accounted fOr by the existence
of a secret arrangement then entered intObetween
Franee EYnd.,Russia for again opening: up the
entire • Eastern question at the earliest fitting
opportunitY. Russia reminded France of this
promik during the late conferences on the present
disturbances in -the twit. We have now beheld
the eagerness of Louis NAPOLEON to take action
in this matter, with or without the consent of
" united Europe," to whose charge the Count
would have us believe the Emperor had conten-
tedly confided the Eastern question. This critical
topic, however, the Count has not found it con-
venient to dwell upon, and, as we have seen, it is
dismissed by him in a few vague and unsatisfac-

t is

tory words.
The apprehensions entertained in Germany re•
specting the Rhine frontier, we are told, do no
merit serious discussion. What then was the
object of the Baden-Baden Conference, and what
induced Prussia and Austria, immediately after it,
to renew a good understanding for the consolida-
tion of the German powers and forces? But the
President of the Loire condescends to argue the
matter. " The Rhine is no longer a strategic
frontier. France, being much stronger when
Germany, is divided, will never support the pro-
ject of German unity for any compensation she
might obtain." These sentences are cunningly
devised. It is not asserted that France does not
support the project of German unity. Neither is
it asserted that the Rhine is no longer a frontier
which France desires and means to have.
simply argued that, as a mere strategic frontier,
it would be no adequate compensation to France for
her support. In other words, that that concession
is but a fractional part of what has been set
down by Louis NAPOLEON as the fruits he might
reap from the execution of his " project."
Although the fears of an invasion current in
England are also said to be unworthy of " serious
discussion," the Count does discuss-=arid that
very seriously and at greater length than any
other point he touches upon—the state of the
relations between England and France. He
enters upon the subject by adroitly flattering the
English nation as " peaceful," the Queen as
"virtuous," and our Ministers as "eminent men."
We are then favoured with the assurance that
"France did 'not create the complications in
Italy." We shall not attempt to prove that she
did; but we know that if she had not a secret
agency long at work exciting these " complica-
tions," all the world has been labouring under a
grave misapprehernion, and one too deeply fixed
in men's minds to be removed by a denial from
a devoted friend and servant of the Emperor's.
His secret promises to VICTOR EMMANUEL to
repulse the Austrians and his priVate bargain
for the cession of Nice and Savoy are now patent
to all men, and present a startling antithesis to
his repeated disavowals of any such intentions,
and of the existence of any such treaty. The
Count says that the Emperor "kept silence"
upon these subjects, and he attempts to justify
that silence on the ground of prudence. But the
Emperor did not "keep silence." •On the con-
trary, he was wont to declare that he was not
preparing for war ; and when asked to dis-
arm, his answer was that he could not
as he had not been arming. Then, again, when
he did go 'to war, we were told that it was
for "an iden," and not for " territorial aggran-
disement." . The underhand treaty with Sardinia
was repeatedly denied; and a solemn assurance
was given that nothing would be done by way
of annexation without the consent of the, Great
Powers, and so forth. All this is What is eillea
" keeping silence." But the Count goes farther,
and boldly asserts that " France has never con-
cealed her intentions, either from Sardinia or
from England. She has deceived nobody." This
is too much. It is downright falsehood, and is
flatly contradictory to the Count's own state-
ments, that the Emperor kept silence as to his
intentions of going to war and of annexing Nice
and Savoy. It has been flatly contradicted by
Lords PALMERsTON and RUSSELL, when to their
own shame they avowed in Parliament that they
had been deceived by France. Was it not one of
Lord PALMERSTON'S latest utterances on the
subject that, in consequence of the Emperor's
conduct in the Nice and Savoy treachery, it had
especially become our duty and that of every
other great Power to demise the greatest caution
and most prudent foresight. What else has
led us to expend so many millions upon
our naval and military armaments, and in the
completion of our fortifications. Never deceived
anybody ! Why, even those who stood out
longest against eery Waruipg as to NeaPoie9nic