The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-03-17 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY.

On account of whom it may concern.
On WEDNESDAY next, the 19th instant, at One o'clock,
at the Brokers' office, 8, India-buildings,
About 50 Bales Damaged Egyptian COTTON,
ex Pactolus, from Alexandria.—For further particulars
apply to REYNOLDS & GIBSON, Brokers.
___

THS AincrTAL SußscßrrnoN TO THE NORTHERN
PAILY IMES xTWO GUINEAS PER Aimum.

EVENING EDITION

1W An Evening Edition of the NORTHERN DAILY
TIMES is now Published every Afternoon, at Three o'clock,
containing the Markets, together with all the News of the
Day, up to the hour of going to Press.

Or .3-Antall Chum

MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1856

PRUSSIA is to be admitted to the Peace
Conference ! FREDERICK WILLIAM has been
invited to send two representatives to the
Congress, to guard Prussian interests in the
reconstruction of treaties the Prussian monarch
was the first to abandon; and, after allowing
Europe to be plunged into war by his silence at
the moment of trial, and 'encouraging the con-
tinuance of bloodshed, when hostilities bad com-
menced, by a species of " neutrality" which was
nothing short of an open violation of the estab-
lished law of nations But what is this secret
conference to be? Is it to confine itself to that
for which it has been called together? or is it to
enter into a discussion of matters affecting the
rights and liberties of Europe, with closed doors,
without mature consideration, and that popular
sanction which Constitutional countries always
look for, and think essential to the maintenance of
great principles ? The Conference was tolerated
by the people of France and Englarrl on the dis-
tinct understandhig that it was to receive the
acceptance or refusal of Russia of certain
conditions of peace. It was never supposed that
Lords CLARENDON and COWLEY were to pledge
Great Britain to an entirely new political organ-
isation of Europe, and to conditions of
which her Parliament and people know
nothing whatever ! Analyze the Congress,
and what is it ? A secret assembly,
composed of modern Bonapartists, two Russians,
two Austrian, two Turkish, two Sardinian, and
two British Envoys. The political predelictions of
the three first are identical, no matter how
wide the breach may be which mistaken and
" unfortunate" hostilities has caused, and if two
Prussians are added to the representatives of the
three Powers, who will assuredly side together, on
the readjustment of political influences, what is to
become of Constitutional Europe, when defended
only by two enlightened Turks, two Piedmontese,
and two Englishmen, whose colleagues require
peace at any price to secure their retention of
office ?

We will not answer this last and all-important
query in plain English. It suffices for us to know
that the Conference is about to travel away from
the matters which it was called together to consi-
der, and embarked in secret, in great questions,
which, as a free and Constitutional country,
England has a right to expect will be discussed
openly and above board. We can have nothing to
say to Continental Star Chamber conclaves, which
deny to the European public—to the civilised
world—all information as to what they propose to
do with their rights and interests. There is no
need for secrecy where humanity and justice—
man's happiness, progress, and prosperity—are the
sole objects to be attained and forwarded. The
British Parliament, for the first time in its
existence, is not suffered to know what this secret
--this mysterious Congress—is about. As the
guardians of this mighty empire, and of Constitu-
tional Liberty, its members are to wait for
" results" before they are to ask for information
touching the proceedings of a great international
Council, armed with plenary powers to bind them
and their constituents to terms at which the
national honour may revolt, which Christians
instincts may denounce, and moderation and
enlightenment openly abjure. If the Conference
has led to the Russian Envoys' accepting the terms
of peace proposed to them, the treaty of peace
should be signed and ratified before fresh ground
is broken. Let us know the terms on which we
are to have tranquillity before we are pledged to
alliances in which it is manifestly desired to
include all the military despots, tyrants, and

autocrats of Europe.
When we dwell with warmth on such matters
the reader must not suppose that we attach any
great importance to " treaties," or feel any appre-
hension whatever with regard to the arbitrary
and unjust dicta they may contain. All wars have
grown out of a disregard of verbal or written
engagements, and if in these days treaties which,
in their turn, will be found breaking through the
great intellectual, moral, religious, social,
and even political bent, and obligations of an
advanced age, it is fair to assume that they will
again be treated as waste paper, and Englishmen
once more called on to re-enact the slaughter of
Alma, Balaklava and Inkermann, and to renew
the
thunder of Bomarsund, Sweaborg, and that
which Sebastopol witnessed on the Bth of Sep-
tember. We do not like to see the recognised
will of the Deity, the teaching's of Christianity,
the fixed bent and unalterable purpose of
human intellect and greatness, childishly tampered
with, foolishly laid aside in solemn councils, and
jeered at by the rulers of nations, as it bodes evil
to mankind, and is full of melancholy, if not
bloody, augury. Sweep away the dangers which
follow in the wake of political darkness, prevent
the bloodshed which attends diplomatic atheism,
and let us have no more of those barricades which
rise out of neglected misery, and all our concern
for the future of civilisation will cease' If the
industry, the genius, and intellect of Franco and
England could live without unrestrained com-
mercial intercourse with the millions of Russians,
Germans, Austrians, Ottomans, and Asiatic
nations on the borders of the Black Sea—if the
Allies could " drag on" without enlarging
the circle of employment, widening the
field for mental action, and that restless
energy which grows with a nations