The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-12-13 00:00:00

Abruzzi have their origin in Legitimist intrigues in
Rome, and are supported by Spanish gold, a commodity
which appears to be much more readily forthcoming at
the suggestions of generosity than at the calls of honour
and justice.
On the subject of the redemption of Venetia, thb
Cologne GazMe publishes a letter from a Berlin corres--
ti:drident; *he nlentions., aniCnti; CAhe'r thinks; that the
Piedmontese Government has made a private and indi-
rect offer of a milliard of florins (about five millions
steeling) for the fee-simple of the Province, coupling it
with an intimation that if the sum he not accepted
within a reasonable time, or in case of a doubtful issue
to the struggle for the possession of the territory in
question, the offer would be very considerably modified.
The 'condition or liiingary is represented to be in the
higheSt degree serious and alarniing, btit the concessions
*hiCh are announced to follow the installation into
office of General Schmerling, will probably deprive the
inhabitahts of many of their prihicipal grievances. The
Emperor Alexander, also, has already made preparations
for assisting the Government of the .Emperor Joseph to
pat down all really darterods elernents in the move-
ment.

A decree published in the Moniteur, regulates
the import duties into France of dry vegetables
and their farina, and it is to have effect till
the 30th of September, 1861, when the regula-
tions suspending the sliding scale applicable to the
admission of foreign grain also; expires.
It is reported that the Emperor, whose policy towards
Naples and home has been so tinateountnble of late, is
desirods orf haVing a 'Congiess assembled to consider and
determine on the course to he pursued by
.the Powerswith reference, to the state of anarchy which at.present
prevails in the tie Twb Sicilies—and which it is
generally belie'red his Majesty had no inconsiderable
share in bringing about.
It will be observed that a special courier, with the
Chinese mails and despatches, is hourly expected in
Paris.
The result of the recent enquiry into the loss of
the mail steamer Connaught has been presented
in a report to the Board of Trade, signed by Mr. Traill
and Mr. Harris. The opinion expressed is that there
is nothing to prove that the Connaught wO3 lost through
the act or negligence of any parson holding a Board of
Trade certificate, it inaY .be thOght tlift a little
more intClligeice might have been displayed in the
endeavour to detect the probable cause of the leak and
devise the most effectual remedy. But it appeared
desirable that the loss of a ship apparently so complete
should, if possible, be accounted for. The suggestion
of one of the witnesses, Mr. Palmer, is that the cause
of the fire was the urging of the fires in the after stoke-
hOle, virligcn ihe chip had
.a strong. list to port. The
report contains a number of suggestions respecting the
construction and machinery of such vessels as the Con-
naught. Her length was nine times her breadth.
Lastly, it is urged that there should be some public test
of the competency of engineers, and some proof that
masters and mates have a practical knowledge of the
engineers' department.
The British Government, through the Consul at Bos-
ton, U.S., ba.i Piesented Captain Wilson, of the Minnie
Schiffer, with a valuable gold chronometer ; Mr. Con-
nonton, the mate, with a telescope ; and $lO to each of
the crew. Also a liberal compensation has been made
for the demurrage and subsistence of the crew and pas-
sengers of the Connaught.
The authorities at the Horse Guards, instead of waiting
for requisitions from the seat of war, as is usual, at once
obtaintd Orders frOm the Secretary of Stale for W.ar for
the speedy despatch of every description of stores likely
to be required by the troops. The recent statement
regarding ammunition for the Armstrong guns and short
Enfields is of foundation.
The half-yearly meeting of the Royal Agricultural
Society was held on Tuesday. Earl Powis, who was in
the chair, anticipated a most satisfactory result of the
meeting at Leeds, which will take place in the week
commencing July 15. The report, which paid a deserved
tribute to the late Duke of Richmond, was adopted.
A meeting was held at the Hanover-square Rooms,
yesterday, to consider the necessary steps to be taken to
secure legislative facilities for the improVement of oat-
falls and arterial drainage in England generally. The
chair was taken by the Earl of Romney.
Messrs. Gladstone, Cobden, and Gibson—the three
leaders of the so-called free-trade party—are to be feted
and flattered by the townsmen of Bradford, who are in
ecstasies at the improvement in the worsted trade, which
the French treaty, it is believed, will effect. A public
banquet is to be held, and we shall doubtless have
plenty of one-sided statements on the benefits of the
treaty. We wonder whether we shall hear anything
per contra about the Coventry ribbon weavers.
The heavy and continued rains which have fallen for
the past ten days in Notts, Derbyshire, and Leicester-
shire, have caused the rivers Trent and Soar to overflow
their banks.
Twenty millions of bricks are now wanted in South-
port. It is a proof of the rising prosperity of the place
when £20,000 of bricks are required for the building of
100 more houses.
The President of the United States will in his mes-
sage recommend the call of a constitutional convention
of all the states to deliberate upon the condition of the
Union, and the means of saving it from destruction.
But supposing such a convention should be called, what
then ? Abolitionists and disunionists—men of the two
extremes—will chiefly compose it. The former would
demand the abolition of slavery, out and out, and the
latter would simply withdraw, secede,—as at Charleston
and Baltimore, and form a project for a new confedera-
tion. A convention, should it meet at all, will meet for
the reconstruction of the government, and reconstruc-
tion will be destruction. It can mean nothing, and can
come to nothing better. But even if the Convention
shall adopt and present reasonable and truly Con-
servative amendments, where are the four-and-twenty
States, which will adopt them ? Neither the anti-
slavery States, nor those States that are bent upon
disunion, will sanction them. A Convention win
be able to draw a distinct line of separation
tween the States. A Convention may even pro
vide for a peaceful separation of the slaveholdinl
from the non-slaveholding States. There their labour
would terminate. The Southern States thus represented,
would form one or more confederacies. The Northern
States would, at leisure, make some alliances with each
other. The Pacific States would form a distinct Confede-
ration. The North Western States might be kept together
in one Union. Pennsylvania and New Jersey and a part
of New York—the river counties only—might agree to
stand together. New England would be left to herself.
However, every member of the Cabinet is in favour of
the President's Convention project; and the hope on
which it is founded is, that if it may not enable the
mitt' and boutli to nve in union, it may enaino 61.1CUL
to part in peace. Wise men think that if things go on
under present impulses, civil war is close at hand, and
that the only alternative, desperate as it is, is a separa-
tion of the hostile elements by means of a constitutional
government. It is a serious thought that this may be
—in fact is quite likely to be—the last session of a
Congress for the United States.

won'

MR. BRIGHT'S NEW REFORM

AGITATION.

THE Elixir of Life, in Mr. JOHN BRIGHT'S esti•
mation, is the possession of the political franchise
The more extended study of politics among the
people, according to the same high authority,
will cure all the evils of ignorance and poverty.
It will elevate and comfort the humble and
oppressed. It will reform and restore the vicious
and the unfortunate. Give the poor and needy
the right to vote and you may shut up every
charitable institution. There will be no more
misery and distress to remove. Wages will be
doubled, and taxes reduced to nil. Peace:
plenty, and pleasure will reign in every cot-
tage. The Golden Age will be restored, and the
Millenium of prophecy be realised by anticipa-
tion. The working men of England are upon
the whole a happy, contented, and loyal race ;
but Mr. BRIGHT would teach them, as he endea-
voured to do at Leeds the other evening, that
they are unworthy of the noble designation of
" men " because they do not, like him, rail dis-
contentedly against the upper classes. The
leaders of all parties of politicians have com-
mitted themselves to Parliamentary Reform. Mr.
BRIGHT, well skilled in wily arts and defiant
style of rhetoric, would turn this fact to party
account by loudly proclaiming that at the recent
elections at Reading, Newcastle, and Southwark
no candidate opposed to Parliamentary Reform had
dared to show his face. In the same meaningless,
ad captandum fashion, he went on to swagger that
"no man could stand upon the hustings in any
town of the United
Kingdom, with much proba-
bility of being returned, if he was definitely
pledged to oppose Parliamentary Reform." How
could there be, seeing that all men are agreed on the
necessity of a sound measure of reform ? If Mr.
BRIGHT meant to imply that the Liberal-Conser-
vatives were afraid to test the representation of
free constituencies, we would remind him of the
Conservative victories at Boston, at Dartmouth,
and at some four or five other places since the
close of last session. At the last-named borough
the triumph was most significant as having been
gained in a field previously supposed to have been
peculiarly favourable to miscalled Liberalism. Mr.
BRIG= deplores the exclusion of large numbers

of the working classes from the franchise.' I He
had recourse to the use of various kinds of sti-
mulus with the view, if possible, of rousing some
measure of enthusiastic indignation in ',his
aticlienee; bat beyond an occasional latigh and
some faint cheers there seems to have been nn
adeciizate reeperise. Tie base and unpatriotic
spirit of this arch-demagogue has noWhere b&n
made more apparent than in his attempt to draw
a parallel between the corrupt and tyrannical
governments of the recently dethroned Italian
Sovereigns and the Government of this country;
followed by his effort to incite the people of Eng'
land to rebellious action. " Was it possible,"
cried this excitement-loving agitator, "that the
blindness of Italian dukes; that the Perverseness
at Venice, that the obtuseness at ISTaiiles, that all
which had passed before us du-ring the last feW
years had passed in vain, and that Conservative
gentlemen in both ifouseS of Parliament had
learnt nothing from it ?" Scarcely less daring
and unprincipled was his language in abuse of
Parliament. Could anything be more slanderous
and untrue than the assertion that the members
of that august body had been in the habit Of
" hurling miserable arid insulting slanders against
the great body of the Working people of Dig'
land 9" if the people of,Frigland were not in the
enjo3.-nierit of the cheap PresS; and; thrbrigh it in
the possession of full reports of all ParliamentarY-
proceedings, such a vile falsehood might for a day
pass current. But in the face of the well-known
tendency of all recent legislation to lighten the
burdens and elevate the condition of the working
classes, it is something amazing that even Mr.
JOHN Britcarr should have the effrontery to repeat
his stale calumnies against the legislature. This
rodomontade was appropriately followed up by a
lengthened piece of cant as to the intelligence and
prudence of the working clasB6. -We yiel4
to none in our appreciation of the general good
sense and sterling virtues of the great body of the
people; but it puzzles us to reconcile with the facts
the assertion of any well-doing artisan in any of our
large towns, who is really desirous of exercising a
share of political influence, being unable to secure
a vote under the presently existing system, or, at
all events, under that system amended and ex-
tended as it would have been under Lord DERBY'S
Bill, as it was presented to the House, or as it
must have stood, had it been permitted to go into
coniiiiitteo. Mr, Bractilea great 'leltation is
the absence of all discontent among the ecircle
with things as they are. He is especially annoyed
by the fact that all his juggling efforts to com-
municate his own rabid disease to the multitude
are utterly unavailing. If Leeds, Manchester,
and Birmingham would only speak out and back
Mr. BRIGHT! Aye; there'A the rill): But they
In enumerating the great centres Of
population Liverpool is never mentioned by Mr.
BRIGHT. He either looks upon this town,—
second in importance only to London itself,—as
either unworthy of his notice, or by far too
thoroughly awake to his clap-trap nonsense to be
in the least likely to encourage, far less to offer
a cordial response to his seditious appeals. The
latter we believe to be the real state of the case.
He has not yet forgot the miserable failure of the
banqiiet got tip for him in the Philharmonic, nor
the complete abortiveness of the Radical clique
here to organise a " constitutional committee," to
back him against the House of Lords.
The country needs no exhortations of Mr.
BRIGHT'S to convince it of the propriety of Par-
liamentary Reform. The greatest service he
could do the cause would be to hold his tongue,
and never allude to the subject. His injudicious
advocacy of extreme and revolutionary changes
has done as much as anything else to retard the
progress of true Reform, and postpone the settle-
ment of the question, upon a fair and equitable
basis. His object is not to bring about Reform
by honest, enlightened, and safe steps, such as
the sound-hearted and sincere friends of the
working classes recommend, but to produce a
morbid and unnatural degree of political excite'
ment such as might tend to precipitate changes
and feelings calculated to shake our political
and social fabric to its base. Under the name of
Reform he seeks to produce disorder and confu-
sion. Fortunately he has small chance of success.
His fallacies have been so repeatedly exposed and
rejected, and his weakness become so generally
understood and despised, that his wild efforts to
resuscitate a political agitation for impracticable
measures of so-called Reform, must for ever fail to
disturb the serenity of a people profoundly con-
scious of their unparalleled freedom, nationally
and individually.
,e-

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE

FRANCE.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, 12th Dec., 1860.
The Moniteur remains silent on the affairs of
China, and. contents itself with reproducing the
official telegram published in the English journals,
It is concluded from this, that the Empereres
Government is hourly expecting the arrival of it
special courier from Pekin with the mails and
despatches, and is unwilling to deprive the im-
portant intelligence which they oeui..'"" 'lie
startling events ..appened i"n
that
...Ay portion of their absorbing interest.
Things seem to be in a complete state of anarchy
in Pekin, and this may explain not only
the restoration of Messrs. Parkes, Loch, and
Eschayarac, but also the state of ignorance which
unfortunately continues to prevail as to the fate
of Captain Brabazon and the Times' correspondent.
The siege of Gaeta progresses but slowly, and
without any remarkable incidents. The French
squadron still prohibits any attack on the fortress
from the sea, and Admiral de Tinan has been
reinforced by two additional line-of-battle ships ;
but it is right to add that one of the objects of the
despatch to Gacta of these two ships is to afford
to Francis 11. and his party a comfortable and
commodious means of performing the sea voyage
from his last remaining stronghold to the earnest
French port. It is again reported that the Empe-
ror Napoleon has begged the young monarch to
accept of an asylum in France ; and. I should not
be surprised, on many accounts, to find that the
invitation was accepted. It is also said that
the Government of the Emperor has offered to
charge itself with the conduct of all his pecuniary
arrangements, so far as Piedmont is concerned.
The Queen Dowager, now in Rome, loses no
opportunity of making known in that city that
the French Government is the only Power in
Europe with whom her son has the slightest rea-
son to be satisfied.
A great variety of rumours are in circulation
regarding the relations between the Imperial
Government and the Court of Rome, but many of
them are not worth repeating. It is fully be-
lieved, however, that the Emperor is secretly
exhorting the oly Father to make up matters
with Piedmont ; at the same time, one fact need
only be alluded to, for the purpose of evidencing
the excessive coolness of the present relations
between the two Governments. In consequence
of the difficulty of coming to an understanding as
to the appointment of Bishops in France, there
are at this moment not less than seven episco-
pates vacant ; which reminds me, by the way, that
this is, after all, not the worst instance of the
effects of a misunderstanding between France
and the Holy See ; for, at the time of the diffe-
rences between Louis XIV. and the Pope of that
day, there were not less than seventeen vacant
bishoprics.
There is no French home news of importance.
The circulars of M. de Persigny, and the discus-
sions, comments, and speculations which abound
on the subject of the new legislative and execu-
tive changes, absorb ,every other topic.
The Empress is exrcted to return to-morrow.
The decree reorganising on a new basis the
Government of Algeria, was to be published
yesterday.
M. Emile Olivier has requested M. de Persigny
to authorise the publication, under his (M:
Olivier's) auspices, of a new weekly journal ; andh
has offered three titles for the approval of_t
e
minister—viz., "The Elector," " Universal,.Suft,„_e
rage," and " Liberty ;" but the replY..°l In
government has not yet been receiv One
ch,t;iee of the
' would suppose there is not much
last named appellation being authorise,
nd ht
have
An accident is spoken of which
was T
Re lately •
proved fatal to the Emperor.
the boiler of the establishment burst with a loud
when .suddenly
visiting a factory near La Vilette,
noise. The walls of the building were
,throvrn
rof t_he factory by the
down, and so was the owne
injured ;but his Majesty
concussion, and severely
escaped untouched.
The state of matters at the Pours° presents no