The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-04-02 00:00:00

perial source ; and it means nothing less than
that Louis Napoleon and his schemes of ambi-
tion and aggrandisement must be taken and
treated as a great necessity of the age.
We quite agree in the expression of satisfaction
that is made on every hand, in the Conservative
ranks, at the postponement of the Reform Bill
until after the Easter recess, It is not with any
wish to obstruct a safe and suitable measure of
Parliamentary Refbrm that this satisfaction is
expressed,--quite the contrary. The Conserva-
tives, as a body, we believe, are quite as anxious
fbr the settlement of the question as the Liberals
themselves—perhaps more so, indeed, if the truth
were known but they want it to be settled so.
as, if possible, to strengthen rather than weaken
the stability of the Constitution. And it is hoped
that as this not unreasonable delay may give
Parliament the valuable information regarding an
extension of the franchise which Earl Grey's

motion is designed to furnish, the country may
eventually obtain a bill really conducive to the

interests, and satisfactory to the aspirations of the
great majority of the community. Some of our
Whig-Liberal contemporaries, we perceive, are
denouncing these prudent precautions as " factious
delays." Nothing could well be more erroneous

than such an imputation. We certainly agree
with the remark, that " in all.the divisions which
have taken place on the Chancellor's Budget they
(the Conservatives) have been so signally defeated

as to render any further appeal to the sense of
the House out of the question." But when it is
_ _

added, that " they have only escaped a still more
• - - -

signal defeat on the second reading of, Lord John
Russell's Reform Bill by avoiding a division on

that measure," a gross misrepresentation is made
- -

of the case. As to " avoiding a division," they
have not contemplated one, that we are aware of,

on the second reading.

Unlike the former Oppo-

sition in their unjustifiable treatment of the

Reform Bill of Lord Derby's Administration, they
are desirous that it should go into committee ;
and then, but not till then, will they have divi-

sions upon those most obnoxious clauses which

make the Ministerial measure in its present form
so pernicious and perilous a one. The statement
we see made, that " with regard to the Reform
Bill, there is no end of tricks which are played
to delay and get rid of it," in so far as it is
intended to apply to the Conservatives, is con-
trary to the fact. They have no wish to get rid
of it, provided only it can be made' a safe and
salutary measure.

T is well observed, in one of the able politica,
papers in the April number of Blackwood, that
the four great questions which have in the last
month been discussed in the House of Commons,
have been curiously intertwined. " The Reform
Bill," it is remarked, " was connected with the
Budget by the • certainty that any considerable
disturbance of the present franchise must have a
serious influence on the future policy of the
country. The question of the Budget most
naturally involved the subject of the French
Treaty ; and the Commercial Treaty could not be,
regarded by itself, but necessarily led to remarks
on the French annexation of Savoy and the pest.;
tion of NAPOLEON in Europe." Now this inter-'
twining of three, at least, of the four separate
subjects was artfully contrived, and deeply
designed. The one, indeed, was made thereby
to prop up the other. They would never have
stood alone, each by itself. The whole was
so arranged as to gain a certain variety of
support ; and one interest was so set off against
another, and different political principles made
so to balance each other, as to contribute just
that amount of Parliamentary support which has
enabled Ministers, • so far, to override all opposi-
tion. As the forcible writer we have just quoted
proceeds to point out, " the grand fact against
the Government is, not simply that this or that
detail of their policy is objectionable, but that in
their entire policy, in their Reform Bill, in their
Budget, in their Treaty, and in their conduct with
regard to Italian affairs, they have sold themselves
to the Manchester party—they have practically
preached universal suffrage they have made
gain the measure of loyalty, and they have made
Quakerism the law of the Foreign Office." We
have ourselves said something to the same effect
in these columns more than once ; and it is satis-
factory and encouraging to be thus confirmed
and strengthened in one's views of that Minis

terial policy which has already placed the
country in so precarious and so perilous a position.
The secret of it all is very much to be found in
that one single fact,—" they have sold them-

selves to the Mancheeter party." And when
Lord CLAUDE HAMILTON, in the House of Com-
mons the other night, criticised the character of
the' diplomatic agency which Ministers employed
in the negotiation of their Treaty with the
Frqnch Emperor, he had " the motive and th,e
cue" for it all in that simple but forcible and

night, when they declined to utter one word in
reply to the animadversions of Sir Robert Peel on
the present, unsatisfactory position of Switzerland,
as affected by the recent annexation of Savoy to
France. The hon. baronet addressed the House
under the impression that, looking at the embar-
rassments of Continental politics, it would concur
with him in thinking- that it was most desirable,
before adjourning fur the Easter holidays, that
some expression of opinion should be given on the
subject, seeing the great dangers which now
threaten the neutrality of Switzerland, and thereby
imperil in no slight, degree the peace of Europe.
It was most important, he thought, that Parlia-
ment should know what the foreign policy of the
Government in this. respect really was, and
whether it was in accordance with the opinions
recently expressed by the Foreign Secretary ; for
there could be no doubt that a most wanton outrage
had been perpetrated by the Emperor of the French,
which was fraught with the gravest consequences to
the peace of Europe, and which would destroy the
independence of Swity.erland, unless the English
Government, which had listened only too long
and too credulously to the Emperor, and had
relied too implicitly and weakly upon the re-
peated expressions of his good faith, took some
decided course of opposition to his Imperial
aggressions. One would have thought that
expressions such as these might have elicited
some response either from the Foreign Secretary,
or from.the Premier, whose conduct is so deeply
involved therein. But there was no response.
Silence, they probably thought, was discretion;
and discretion, perhaps, under present circum-
stances, is really for them " the better part of
valour."
• The Tees, 'observing that Lord John Russell
has complained of its having made it known to
the whole of Europe that England does not
intend to fight about Savoy, does not hesitate to
tell his lordship that if he ever wished to conceal
this fact, they of the leading journal have clone
great service to this country by betraying it.
" If," says our cotemporary, " the English Min-
istry w ere playing their game so as to make the
Emperor of the French believe that they held
war in their clinched hand, it was an act of
earnest necessity to tell him at once that the
hand was empty. Such a game could have led to
nothing but mutual exasperation and ultimate war.
You cannot play fast and loose with the passions
of two such nations as France and England."
With this one cannot but in the main agree.
There could be no serious idea of war on such a
subject ;: indeed, as is further observed, " the Mi-
nister would deserve to be sent to bedlam who
should suggest so Quixotic a piece of folly." But
even this misunderstanding with France about
Savoy might already have been avoided if the
Coalition Cabinet had only acted on a sound policy
as regards its alliance with the French Emperor.
Had they followed the footsteps of their Conser-
vative predecessors, it never would have come to.,
pass that the French government could ever have
suspected that " the English Ministry were play-
ing their game so as to make them believe that.,
they held war in their clinched hand," when they
really held nothing of the kind ; a game which
we verily believe is directly calculated to lead to
nothing but mutual exasperation and ultimate
war.

The declaration of the Paris Constitutionnd,
" that Napoleon has done everything to render
the alliance acceptable, which, if ruptured, would
be the signal for a struggle and for fresh troubles,"
and " that this alliance is so firmly connected
with modern ideas and necessities that a partial
dissent will not be strong enough to break it,"
is one that has, no doubt, emanated from an Im-