The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-03-15 00:00:00

application of tie-eapital and skill eniployd, r

commerce." The document will be read', we are
sure, with much interest in our coramercial coil;

munity.

A very. significant significant exposition of the Ministerial
Reform Bill by the Economist is forcibly remarked
upon by the Morning Herald of yesterday. "The
Bill," says the Liberal elucidator of political
economy, "has not and does not profess to have
any principle or specific character of its Own. It
is ' simply an instalment yielded to the demands
of the democratic party. The best that it asks
for itself is to be Considered as the smallest cow
cession which it would be of- any use to make
the minimum price of a little lank, on the subject
of constitutional machinary—in short, the price
of a truce with the democratic leaders." This
were 'certainly ti.‘ very 'frank, as it is a most
ominous admission, coming:from such a quarter.
But how long can fetich a " truce with the demo-
cratic leader" possibly last ? " Ali we-know at
present," observes •_ our Conservative eontempo,
rary, "goes to prove that the truce will pot be
kept, anany years—probably not half-a-dozen---:
nay; iris Currently rumoured that John Bright
'deems this bill the very measure by which he
will accomplish all his objects within that time.
These objects are a peaCeful democracy,' riddance
of all armies and navies, and freedom from Estab-
lished Churches and an hereditary aristocracy—ill
fact, a state of, things in which real property
alone will be mulcted. for the national revenues
whilst trade arid commerce and those erigaged in
them will be relieved of all taxation. This it
John Brig ht's climacteric, and it is by Lard loin/
Russell's Ran* Bill that he hopes to reach
at no distant period." This conclusion is only
too evident. Surely, then, the country ought to
be saved from the infliction of so dire a curse as
duch'e. RefOrna Bill will inevitably be.
If we ,are to judge from the reply of Lord Pal-
merston to-Mr...Liddell, in the Hoitie-of Comnions
'on Tuesday night, Ministers would seem to have
all at once become sensible of the greatimport-
lince of the' British Shipping Interest, and of the
necessity there is for promoting and defendingit,
klr. Liddell inquired what course Her itajestY's
Government :were prepared to recommend ,the
Houseto adopt, in order to induce the Govern-
ment of Franee to make such- alterations or
odifications in its Navigation Laws as might be
thought just and necessary under the circum-
stances in which we- were about to be placed ;
and the Premier's answer was to the effect, that
the Government . were now quite disposed, when
Mr. Lindsay briogs forward the question, as he -
has proposed to do, to give that hon. member
every assistance in his exertions in behalf of the-'.4.
Shipping Interest, and to support some similar ;
resolution for its benefit as he has given notice- of
to the House.
Ode "eaii I.ladily believe that the Manchester
.r
cotton lords who are heaping up riches at -so
, - •
inordinate ti.' tate, -are averse to having tfie-enOr-
mous ankunt of their gains exposed to theiwlrid-
There are, doubtless, Many inconveniences to them
in such Pulilicityt.iiut .at the same titne,.whn -
so much is being nationally sacrificed to still
further: augment their lucre,: and" exaggerate; their
accnmulations, it were but just, and fair that pate
light should be thrown,uppn. it. An attempt has4:l
been made, it seems, by a Manchester correspon-
dent in the Tintes, to controvert the statements
recently published as to the profits of the cotton
trade.. But the contradiction is not credited k and
ihe leading journal itself declares, that "although,
' perhaps, no one would say so much in Manches-
ter, some of the' best-informed capitalists in Lon-
don, connected with Manchester, freely assert an
opinion that theifigures hazarded were not very
far from the truth."
A recently published circular of Mr. Potter,
the " Secretary to the Conference of the
Trades on Strike," has afforded the Tinzes an
opportunity, of which it has promptly taken
advantage,. to offer the United,Trades—consistingi,.,
principally' of thote connected' with buildingil.':;T
some sound and seasonable advice.. "We recomL "'"
mend them," says that influential journal,'" not to
revive a movement which has just been signally
defeated by the masters, and as signally con-
demned by public opinion. We recommend them
not to throw away their earnings in support of
an. agitation which can never produce any good,
and, above all, to discard the impression which
Mr. Potter still strives to deepen and perpetuate,
--that the employers of labour are the oppressors
of the labourers, and that workmen ha -e
grievance when they cannot succeed in getting
More than the market price for their work. That
such delusions exist we know full well. That they
are not the fruits of all-powerful capital,'as Mr.
Potter would say, or of political disabilities, as
Bright argues, is clear from the fact that Work
men in Australia_ are under the same species of
influence, :and Islaves to the same organisation,. .4,,
These errors spring from the action Of insidious
persuasion upon natural cupidity, and are main-
tained by the force of social. terrorism. They
must be completely dispelled before 'masters and
men 'can work harmoniously together for their
couinion profit; but of one thing workpmge may
ever, achieve that independence of labour of
which he, prates, it would simply amount
to the banishment of capital and the destruc-
tion of employment together.", Now this is,
doubtless, very true, in the main. But our
Liberal contemporary should, at'the same time,
have cautioned them, if he, wished his advice to •
be .effectual, against being led away by that
baneful influence of political " advanced Liberal-
ism," which has so much to do in fostering among
the working classes those pernicious ideas of
"oppression,' and those mischievous delusions

about the " independence of labour," which are
generally, more or less, at the bottom of all
." strikes." It might not •be 'convenient for a
Liberal journalist to dn- this; but without it, he
may depend upon it, sUchadvice,—good as, tar as
it goes—will very much' fail- its practical
effcet. •

THE real 'inttiest and importance attaching t4:10
the course which Her Majesty's Ministers.:Wq
•
Pursued, with respect to the affairs of Italy, and
their connection with the French Emper' 0r,,,t007
justly be said to consist in the indication that. 4
thereby given of the capability and trustwortiOl
of Lord PALMERSTON, and his colleagues of !"e
coalition Cabinet, to' conduct the affairs of this
great country, 'with a due regard to its honbur,
that
its security, and Proiperity.
N977'"*le• !°.iNivibgich it
conduct in the most favourable
of C 012201001- 011
was placed before _the Hous: RtraELL hithself,Aliero
Tuesday by lord JoHY
app. rehension, and
most mis.
is much in it, to excite ELI2,--tirce-,
it is very evident
question. It' is true,
mistrust. In the :fi,,rstjena. meddling
;that Ministi
chievously
denied
- one breath,the accusa-
tion noble lord,
f promotedtheir.havingthe annexation of
tion 0
.Thseany' and the Romagna ts) Sardinia, and
pursued a policy which necessitated the_
en"tijilenibt."ll6l.l.
se thereby
le se oh
ann of Savoy to France,—pretending that
accusation resulted from an entiremis-
apprehension of that policy; yet, in the very
next breath, he showed that they had actually
endeavoured, by 'negotiation, to Promefe what
Was called, the inrkpr.',ldence of Italy, just as it
has turned out to be arranged. It is plausibly
prbfessed,
of course, that all they wanted was to
allow the Italians to exercise their own free-will
in the matter. But the populations of Tuscany
and the Romagna were swayed altogether by the
revolutionary chiefs, whose ends Lord JOHN. and
his colleag,ues had. done - everything to -forward? •
The people were indeed dissatisfied—they wanted
a change=any change, perhaps, they thought, or