The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-09-19 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES.---LIVERPOOL, FRIDAY.

Government considers the definitive settlement o

the question according to treaties as indispensable
iu the interest of the peace of Europe."
Letters of the same date from Milan state that
preparations are being made at that place for a
corps of observation on the Sardinian frontiers)
and that the troops concentrated for the annual
exercises will remain in their present encampment
after the end of the autumn manceuvres.

The Swiss Federal Assembly opened on the 15th

The events

inst. the second part of its Session
of Neufchatel naturally occupied the most promi-
nent place in the speeches pronounced by the
Presidents of both Chambers. The opinions
expressed on the subject by the Presidents
of the National Council and of the Council
of the States are identical. They both con
gratulate the Republicans of Neufchatel on having
triumphed so promptly and so energetically
without the assistance of any federal troops, and
solemnly pledge themselves, in the name of Swit
zerland, to reject all foreign intervention, and
defend the integrity of the Constitution.
We have Madrid advices of the 11th. They
state that a Council of Ministers had been held
under the presidency of the Queen, and at it, it

was said, the draft of the proposed New Constitu-
tion had been read to her Majesty. The Bishop
of Urgel, in exile at the Balearic Islands, had
received permission to return to Spain. M. Costing.
and M. Roda had returned to Madrid. Marshal
Narvaez had caused an action to be brought
against the Nacion for publishing a letter from
Loja, in which he considers himself libelled. A
band of eight or ten men had appeared in the
province of Burgos, but the Captain General had
published a bando declaring that such of them as
might be taken should be shot; and, says one of
the papers, they " are sure to be exterminated."
A large concentration of troops has just taken
place at Naples. The pretext was the fete of the
Nativity of the Virgin, which is always celebrated
with great military pomp. The Augsburg Gazette
insinuates that the real object was to show that the
King was able to assemble 50,000 men at Naples,
without taking any men from the garrisons of
Capua or Gaeta.

OUR port witnessed yesterday one of those scenes
which have rendered Liverpool famous throughout
the habitable globe. The bold enterprise and
majestic liberality, the sound practical experience
of the merchant, and the keen judgment of the
shipowner, combined to render one of our frail
tenements of the ocean the rival of the Ark in corn_
modiousness, and the stately palace in all that is
required for use, or can contribute to comfort,
ease, and luxury. We allude to the inauguration
of a direct trade between this port and Wellington

SPAIN has become Muscovite, and Russia is
therefore about to renew diplomatic relations with
the once offensive Constitutional State. The world
had just began to believe that Bonapartism was
to enjoy ascendency at Madrid. It appears,
however, that the butcher O'DONNELL is the man
for the CZXR, and that the QUEEN will receive all
corners to her Court. England, as a matter of
course, is thrown into the shade, and the Credit
Mobilier delusion is to do all that honest British
sympathy, British blood, and gold, have done to
establish and maintain Constitutional Spain.
Great Britain can stand no chance in a war of
words, and an outburst of Continental credulity.
We must not show our heads in those capitals
where greater contentment and prosperity reigns,
and remain to be prolonged by credit, to be
redeemed by British gold, purchased at a heavy
premium. We can have no trade except through
the condescension of this autocrat, or that
tyrant; no voice where the tongue of Constitu-
tional Freedom is silenced by a coup d'etat. All
this must be very alarming to those diplomatists
who think all is lost, where they are ruled at a
discount.

—the name given to the New Zealand Company's
principal settlement some years since. The
Oliver Lang, one of the Black Ball Line of clipper
ships, is to take her departure from the Mersey for
Wellington on Saturday, and will carry within her
spacious wooden galls the largest number of
passengers ever conveyed to that Colony in one
ship : and her appearance in the waters of this

youngest section of our transmarine empire,
cannot fail to make a favourable and lasting
impression on all who see so noble a vessel

bearing so large and valuable a cargo to a corn.
paratively young country. This vessel's accom-
modations certainly cannot be surpassed, and
while she possesses all the advantages of fast
sailing, room, and ventilation, she can convey the
Government emigrants 20 per cent. below the
London contract price.
The latter important desideratum is accounted for
by the facility with which ships can procure freight

at this port; and the Colonists, seeing the vast
benefit which will accrue to them in the saving
of their emigration fund will.nc doubt, exert them-
selves to the utmost to get our Liverpool ships all
the wood, oil, minerals, and other produce they can,
in return. The flax of New Zealand, which has
been shamefully overlooked hitherto, must also '
take the important place it is destined to fill in the
catalogue of the colony's exports. Few articles
would attain a higher commercial value, if properly
dressed and prepared for the spinner, either here
or in New Zealand. We expect ere long to see
the immense mineral resources of that country
more largely developed, and adding to its trade
and prosperity. Its agricultural produce will long
find a highly remunerative market iii Australia,
and looking at the near future of New Zealand, we
fo,el assured that the Liverpool line of clipper
ships will prove a successful undertaking. Every
man who has devoted an ordinary share of
attention to the growth of our Colonial possessions,
must feel convinced that all New Zealand requires
is labour, to render it one of the most thriving
portions of our Colonial dominions. The fertility
of its soil, and the mildness of its climate, give it
incalculable advantages over Australia, and it is
well that we have such a large and legitimate field
of passenger traffic to turn to, as feeders for our
noble fleets of maritime palaces.
Our Colonies have often proved the mainstay of
our ships, and most valuable homesteads of our
commerce, and they will do so to the end of time,
if we do not abandon them to experimentalising
politicians, and allow them to become the arena of
factious discussions. In our effort to give renown
to a kingdom, we had well nigh annihilated the
glory of an Empire, and left the most boundless
wealth that ever fell to a nation's lot to enrich a
wiser and further-seeing generation. The history
of thousands of years has been thrown away
upon us.. The tradition of Ophir, the riches
displayed in the temples of barbarous
races, the gold possessed by those tribes,
who never knew the use of pick, shovel,
or spade, never once suggested the idea to the en-
lightened guides of the age, that there was gold on
the surface of the earth for civilised man as well
as for " the wild men of the woods?' All was left
to the discouraged enterprise of individuals, and
the adventures of commerce. To these two agen-
cies we owe our present greatness, and to these two
agents we look for power, might, and glory as an

Empire.
We must bridge over ocean after ocean, rivet
Colony to Colony, give British subjects in every land
equal rights and equal justice ; make them feel the
same interest in the welfare of the parent State
that we do in the prosperity of a Colony, and fill them
with that patriotism and loyalty of which English-
men justly boast. These are our duties ! What
are our means? That spirit of commercial enter-
prise—that heavy expenditure to attain maritime
perfection—that disregard of trifles where a great
end' is to be obtained—and that cool calculating
commercial mind, governed by experience, and
strengthed by well merited success. These are the
means by which we, from a pigmy kingdom, are to
become a really great Empires? which we now
possess only in name—in sound, in fable,
and in song. In commerce we must be
latitudinarians, let the orthodox say what
they may. We must spread it, push and drive it
ahead, wherever a ship can swim or a steamer can
float. To the great mercantile spirit of our times
we must look for the union and maintenance of

our superstructure of Imperialism. How Tories would swell the traffic receipts while it lasted,
drag along, or how Whigs walk over the course, and as we have nothing to expect from the CzAtt's
rue matters of little importance to people digging dominions beyond discontent and flight, the most
and delving away in our Colonies. They want to his railways can do is to pay a dividend, but they
see our ships, to trade with our merchants, to can never give a bona fide security, or yield a fair
exchange labour for labour, to live as Britains live, commercial profit on the capital invested in them.
and to do as England does. There is something
enoliling, then, in" that thing called trade," besides
large balances on the credit side of the ledger. The
merchant is the pioneer of civilisation, the distri-
butor of the industry of millions, and the producer
of the wealth and happiness of nations. And when
they do step forward and move, we should not
only wish them success, but endeavour to contri-
bute towards it.
If the owners of the Black Ball Line should
succeed, as they most certainly will, in establishing
a direct line of packet ships between this port and
New Zealand, what a triumph they will have
achieved for Liverpool ! They will not only find
employment for a fleet of first class vessels, which
might probably not be employed in any other way,
but they will open a field to all the other shipowners
of the North. They will secure to Liverpool ships
the trade that belongs to them. They will bring a
large passenger business to the town, and they
will add to that prosperity which legitimate enter
prise has heaped on its inhabitants. It will also
inspire the New Zealand Colonist with fresh hopes
and confidence, and show him that one pound of
of their fund set apart for the importation of
labour, will go twenty per cent. further than it has
heretofore. This will have its effect. More land
will be sold, and an increase of labour will be
required. Colonial Produce will next begin to
augment, cargoes will become more abundant, and
once a well regulated commercial machinery has
been set in motion, the Colony will go on prosper-
ing as New South Wales, Victoria, and South
Australia have done. The field for capital and
industry is just as wide and promising in New
Zealand as it is in Australia, and it is sincerely to
be hoped that Messrs. JAMES BAINES and COM-
PANY will find in it the reward their spirit, enter-
prise, and princely hospitality on all occasions,
so richly merit. They are doing their country
good service, it may be unwittingly, and may they
not be disappointed in their individual hopes and
ambition

THE Financial Reform Association have, with the
best intentions; hit upon a plan of rendering the
income and property tax unpopular, and its pro-
longed existence more than doubtful, They would
have its payment more rigidly and generally
enforced. They would have no man to be assessed.
They would make lodgers pay up, and the way-
ward million, who are always on the wing, contri-
bute to the fund. This, we contend, is the shortest
cut that could be taken to render the impost
odious. It would be utterly impossible to main-
tain any perfectly honest and evenly distributed
burden. In physics the doctrine is opposed by
negatives and rejected by affirmatives. Nature
takes space for her sportive vagaries, and delights
and terrifies the earth alternately by the blandness
of those passing smiles which fills every homestead
with gladness, or those dark and stern frowns
which sweep down forests and rent temples in twain,
leaving the world to ask in one clime, " How is
" Babylon become a desolation?" while in another
all is verdure, enjoyment, repose, and promise. The
Financial Reform Association would reverse this
order of things, and bring out of a chaos of taxa-
tion a more perfect creation. They would not
have a sunny side of the hedge—no grottoes or
caves, no temples or lodgings, not even "on the

" cold ground"—no corners or hiding places where
one branch of ADAM'S family can eat grapes and
revel in the delights of perpetual spring, while
other limbs of the same stock are feeding on
blubber and fins, and exposed to incessant snow
and biting frosts. _

The Association's intellects appears to fall short
of a due appreciation of the beautiful and impres-
sive phenomena of nature. They say, "If we
" are to have frost, let every man who inhabits the
" frigid zone have his share of the pelting storm."
And the Laplander, who endeavours to escape the
tortures of being frostbitten, they would visit with
pains and penalties. They look on the man who
gets on the sunny side of the style as a common
rogue, and a traitor to the Imperial Exchequer,
and they would brand him as a depraved character;
But here it is necessary to observe that the mora-
lity of the few is always in advance of the multi-
tude, and that it is very difficult to draw a line of
distinction between the enormity of the man who
adulterates exciseable or duty-paying articles, such
as bread, flour, tea, sugar, coffee, and other import-
ant necessaries of life, and the man who evades the
payment of the property and income tax. The latter
only sins against the bottomless pocket of the
State, but the former commits a twofold crime.
He endangers the public health, and has no more
loyalty in his composition than a shrimp. And,
taking up the idea of the Association, we venture
to say that, if the Excise were as vigilant as the
Financial Reformers—who, strange to say, exclude
our banking and monetary laws from their cate-
gory of grievances—there would be far less property

French credit is to make Russia's railways, an,
the SULTAN'S fortune. British Envoys are no
longer required at foreign courts. Everything is
to be done by decree, and carried out by Imperial
and absolute will. The enthusiasm which gives
vitality to these Royal dreams is quite equal to the
vastness of the design. Give France the cream of
Continental concessions, and she will find the cash,
the material, and the hands to do the work.
French credit, backed by a ukase, a firman, or a coup
,d'etat, can command British bullion, skill, and
experience. Cover the walls of foreign cities with
Imperial placards, and JOHN BULL will down with
his money. He has prodigous faith in bills
drawn on posterity, and accepted by a mor-
tal who needs all for his immediate use.
Political paper he seems to think bona fide
security. He will not wait a moment to
enquire into the character of its fabricators, or the
chances of its being taken up in due course. The
assumption is, if the CZAR wants 50,000,000/ , or
O'DONNELL asks for 1,000,0001. or so for reactionary
purposes, that neither one or the other would try
to get money unless they were prepared to repay it,
But Spain has not met her obligations in a honour-
able or exemplary spirit, and the CZAR could no
more pay off the foreign debt of Russia than the
SULTAN could. The question then resolves itself
into a very narrow compass. How much are we
prepared to stake on the duration of the present
Continental regime ? What will we hazard on the
maintenance of prohibitive tariffs—power destroy-
ing military chests and ruination pageants? All
foreign rulers ask is money to keep this cruel,
unjust, and empty show business alive—to give
increased vitality to that folly which has brought
so much misery on themselves and desolation on
their people. The insurance system tacked
on to the Credit Mobilier fallacy would
complete the whole story of financial and
commercial foolery, and we should not be
surprised to hear of the establishment of an
association to insure railway traffic on the frozen
plains and mountains of Russia, and the punctual
payment of dividends in England. Three and a
half per cent. on railway shares might be
guaranteed on the receipt of a premium of four
per cent. This would leave something for semi-
official remonstrances in case of default, and a
small margin to meet the other incidental expenses
of disappointment.
We have no wish whatever to paint the picture
the Continent presents, both socially and
politically, in colours which may be thought too
dark and portentous. But we cannot help thinking
that foreign credit, whether princely or plebian, is
not a fair equivalent for the gold or silver for which
they must come to this country. Foreign Govern-
ments, Continental intriguers, and butchers like
O'DONNELL, must come to Great Britain for
cash to carry out their plans ; and since
politics are largely mixed up with the
public movements of every State, it behoves
us to see that we do not, either directly or indi-
rectly, arm our enemies against ourselves, or supply
the means to enable sanguinary demagogues to
overthrow Constitutional institutions, and murder
the people whose friendship and lives they have
betrayed. The casual observer may see the efforts
that are being made in this country, and abroad'
to draw British capital into the vortex of political
speculation, to the manifest injury of ou: own
trading and industrial interests. It is true that the
Russian railways may pay, as it appears the inha-
bitants of certain provinces are prepared to emi-
grate en masse, and they will, no doubt, do so
eventually, notwithstanding that they run the risk
of having their heads shaved at one side, and
their backs well scored with the knout if they are
caught in the act. The exodus of the Muscovites

and income-tax required
Free Trade, in the modified form in which we
enjoy it, has not done for the British Exchequer
what the few reductions in the French tariff has
done for the revenue of France. Shall we attribute
this awkward fact to the increase of adulteration ?
The Association will probably enlighten the public
on this head. Meanwhile, it must not be forgotten
that the income and property tax is, under existing
circumstances, an excessive war burden, which is
entailing all the worst characteristics of a Euro-
pean war on this country. Mercy, forbid, that we
should ever refuse blood or money in the defence
of our homes, or to advance the cause of justice
and humanity in the remotest parts of the
globe. But let us add, that we cannot at all un-
derstand the wisdom or propriety of keeping up an
excessive war expenditure in time of peace, and
exhausting our sinews, when all those we have to
dread are prostrated by political bankruptcy,
and fiscal starvation. The tax in question is not
the creation of necessity. It is simply the ponder-
ous invention of groundless fears, unless, indeed,
adulterations have been suffered to sap and mine
the sources of revenue to such an extent as to
threaten the Exchequer with famine. But beyond
this, what have we to apprehend ? Where have we
an enemy that dare to brake in upon the peace of
the world ? Until it can be proved, then, that we
have a foe to dread, we say, with all respect, that
we think, before the Financial Reform Association
complain of the mode in which a war tax is raised
—when all nations desire and are at peace—they
ought first to justify its continuance on some
palpable and rational grounds. Finally, we are
ready to give the Association all the support in our
power to render the objectionable tax as uniform
as possible in its pressure, but we doubt the
success of the attempt, and tremble for the Jura•
Lion of the most prodigal military expenditure which
this country has ever groaned under.