The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-04-17 00:00:00

Naples another popular demonstration has
occurred, and the town of 4.yersa is in a state of
siege.

THERE is 'a.question thought to be a crucial one;
which it was once -much the fashion for latitudi-
narians and men of the laissez-faire type, to
throw at
.the heads of the advocates of religious
safeguards. It was a sharp decision of the whole
matter when these conservators of old-fashioned
expedients were trippingly asked whether they
really supposed that truth was weak enough to
need the support of legislative enactments and
provisions ? Every one knows that the true way
of escaping the dilemma which an answer to this
question, whether in the affirmative or the nega-
tive, would have inevitably involved, was to
change the issue all together. The real ques-
tion was, not as to the inherent force or beauty
or value of truth, but as to the tendency of man-
kind through evil or perverse habits to deprave
and oppress it. It would be no reply to an
alleged necessity of laws or police, that morality
was a strong and divine thing, able to stand by
itself. For though morality has an inherent and
unchangeable power of its own, legislators have
found by bitter experience that interest and pas-
sion have a great power over the hearts of men.
And so, though the system of legislative enact-
ment in support of religion,—well meant in its
time,—has been eagerly broken through, yet the
rupture has, in reality, been effected upon an
entirely different plea from this. It is from the
assumed uncertainty of truth, and because legal
enactment involved a choice of what might turn
out not to be truth, and which it was certain a
large proportion of the nation did not think to be
truth, that the law has in a great measure shrunk
from an odious responsibility.
We think we see a parallel to all this in the
adroit attempt which is being made in many
quarters—as for instance at Manchester the other
day—to impale upon a dilemma those moderate
politicians who cannot but look with apprehen-
sion upon the proposed disturbance of the basis
of political power in this country. If, it is asked,
we fear danger to our institutions from impending
changes, then what sort of institutions do we
confess ours to be ? But here we have in like
manner to change the issue. The question is not
as to the worth and fitness of our institutions, but
as to the expediency of giving .a preponderance of
power to men whose interests or passions may at
some period be impelled to distort or subvert them?
And, to complete the parallel, we may with the
same confidence assert, that if this excess of poli-
tical power be handed over to one class in the
State, the plea for effecting the concession will
be, not that our institutions are so good as to be
unassailable, but that this class has the right of
numberg to their entire control, without question
as to the probable way in which they will exer-
cise it. `

Now, both as reformers and as patriots—
characters which all sensible and true-hearted
Englishmen are anxious to assume—we should
do well to pause on the threshold of coming
changes, and inquire into the nature of that
body-politic which is in some way being put
upon its trial. We shall then have no pre-
tence of ignorance left us, as to what
any violent and fundamental transition really
means. If we are told, then, of a transfer-
ence of the basis of pOlitical power, to be
gradually accomplished by steps on the way to
universal suffrage, it is useful to recollect where
political power may be said under our present
condition to reside. Now, the fact is, that what-
ever else • may be disputed, this at least is
undeniable, that no class in this country does at
the present time hold in its hands political
supremacy. The freedom of discussion among us,
the ceaseless clash and whirl of opinion, the mul-
tiplicity of lights and shades in which every
question.is viewed and presented, the eager and
exciting canvass which goes on everywhere for
all sorts of theories, and contrivances, and even
mental and social peculiarities, all this eagerness,
and vitality, and confusion' and difference, testify
that every class of society is surrounded by an
atmosphere of liberty, where it breathes freely,
feels no undue pressure from the one beside or
above it, and is not hemmed in by any restraints
which itself has not, of its own will and for
itself, created. There are two things, each of
which must in its own defence set shackles upon
the expredsion of general opinion ; a tyranny
from above and a tyranny from below. Now
whatever may be said as to the tendency of
modern society, or whether there is an unfair
and vicious tendency at all, it will not be said,
even by a Birmingham Radical, that that ten-
dency is more in the way of the first tyranny than
of the second. The man who dreams of any
application of fOrce by what are called the
governing classes of society upon those who are
more numerous but less susceptible of combination
than themselves, may very fitly take up his
parable with the respectable old ladies who are
still found now and again warning the strong
spiriti of a material age against the return of the
tortures of the thumb-screw and the boot. As
for ourselves, we are inclined to think that the
existing relations of society, could they be kept
upon the whole at their present level and in
their present interdependence, afford a sufficient
field for indulgence, of all the reasonable aims
and aspirations, whether moral or political, which
civilisation originates or encourages. If this be
the case, it is impossible to suppose that there
exists any undue pressure of power upon any
single class of mind represented throughout the
whole social range.

The most serious duty, therefore, which at
this time presses upon the reformer and the
statesman, is to keep the social and political
supremacy out of the hands of any one class,—to
leave us still the opportunity of rivalry and com-
petition, and to parties the healthy alternations
of success - and defeat. If the basis of political
power at present be a broad one, and nothing
less- than spread over the whole framework of
goele , thpn, uthors ',cm 4,11 r of fundamental.
change, they must mean the violent disruption
and concentration of that controlling element,
and the subjugation of every national type, and
every special interest but one. In which case it
would just amount to this—that the cycle has
lrought round again the national contest for
fiberty and independence.

A large number of shipwrights, caulkers, painters, &c.,
vere on Saturday discharged from the shipwright's
(epartmeut in Woolwich Dockyard.
LADY STAMFORD IN THE HUNTING FIELD. —A
orrespondent of a Leicestershire paper send the fol-
bwing :—" I am an admirer of feminine equestrianism.
'inch had been told me of Lady Stamford's excelling in
fie art, but till the other day I never had an opportunity
(f. seeing the countess on horseback. The hoands met
it Wymeswold. Lord and Lady Stamford went to the
iteet in a carriage and four, took luncheon at the
fincipal inn, and mounted—Lady Stamford on a rather'
ain brown horse. Before the hounds were well in Ella's
(orse a fox bolted, and they were laid on immediately.
luring the circuit, which was exactly that of a steeple-
ease, and rim in steeplechase time, I had the good
frtude;.to be very near to the countess, and come-
gently in a very forward place—in fact, close to the
bunds all the way, and I had, therefore, an excellent
oportunity of observing that lady's riding. The country,
a all old fox hunters know is difficult to cross. There
\ere two brooks, and at feast fifty strong fences to be
lapt--eight or nine of them regular posers. It was a
yrfect treat and a lesson too, to see the countess take
tese fences. The hand and seat were perfection. There
as no bustling bravado preparation for them ; calmly,
cacefully, and always with a word of cheer, Lady
tamford put her steed to the leap, and showed
judgment in handing him over that I have never
:en surpassed even by the most accomplished horseman.
t one fence I fully apprehended a baulk, a detour, or a
ill, but it: was cleared without at all disturbing the
luanimity equilioise of Lady Stamford, though-
tveral of the rougher'igx refused it. There were two
trious falls in the run—a proof that the line was a
ifficult one. I have seen many clever horsewomen
ping on well in the Quorne country—the Duchess of
Pmerset particularly—but I never saw any lady so
irfectiv mistress of the art of equitation as Lady
famfoid ; and I 'shall always think it a piece of good
rtune that I happened to be one in the first flight om
liday last, thus enabling me to witness what I had
on heard of, but never fulle credited."

QUACKERY UNMASKED ; Its extortions, impositions, and
deceptions fully exposed. Sent free for two stamps, by Dr.
Sargeant, 8, Store-street, Bedford-square, London.
HOME-MADE Sumrs.--Noricg.—All Shrts made to order at
the Golden Glove Establishment, 18, Berry-street, are made
by Liverpool Needlewomen.
EAR.---It will be seen by our advertising columns that Mr.
Rackham, of Norwich, one of the most celebrated aurists of
the day, and whose treatment of the various forms of deafness
has been so successful, is in Liverpool, and may be consulted
daily.
. .

The latest edition. Just published. Sent free per post for
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peruse, as, emanating from such a source, it may be confi-
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and
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d number. s
110, Regent-street, London Note name an
lished 1813. We diploma.
St. Margaret's,
The Rev. William Goode, rector of _ _
deanery of ftipon,
Lothbury, has been appointed to the
now dean of
in room of the Rev,: Thomas Gamier,
33, Ludgate-
Lincoln.]