The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-10-21 00:00:00

fiendlike scenes from,' which 1V

estern Europe so
r heard or thought Bus-
..ned, and plunder, were to be
~mending countries the moment after
had withdrawn their forces from the
France would never have covered herself
with such shame,'and Great Britain would not have
clothed her name with like disgrace. We would
gladly believe, then, that the entire story is a foreign
telegraphic rumour, or a mere Stock Exchange squib
directed against Russian Bonds. We can scarcely
persuade ourselves that the renewal of bloodshed
is all;we are to get for the 400,000,0001., which, when
our war taxation is capitalised, and all is told, will
be the price we shall have paid for peace.
It would have been cowardly to have paid so
vast a sum for our own safety, leaving other and
weaker States to resist the common enemy of
nations. We had nothing to fear from Russia in
a single-handed contest. Our worst foes were
routine in the field, and red-tape in Whitehall.
When these were overthrown, the Muscovites
had to fly. The Redan was the work of Russian
folly and our own official incapacity ; and when
one was cleared away the other fell—it had lost
its foundation, and a handful of British muscle
was found equal to a huge mound of Crimean
granite. And, after all this, it cannot be possible
that we withdrew our armies and fleets from the
East without demanding some guarantee for
the gallant Circassians. If we have done so, a
heavy burden of guilt rests somewhere. We may
talk as glibly as we please—we may boast of our
unimpeachable adherence to truth, justice, and
humanity, but it will all be scattered to the winds.
Falsehood, want of consideration, political honesty,
diplomatic foresight, or whatever else we think fit
to call it, leaves the curse of perfidy behind them,
and we shall reap our harvest of regret, if not of
sorrow, sooner or later. Nations and individuals
share alike in the distribution of rewards, and as the
Western Powers have sown, so will they assuredly
reap. The Circassians may, meanwhile, baffle
their brutal enemies, and ultimately find that they
have out-lived a policy which must be execrated by
posterity, as a foul blot left on the country they
are to inherit.

nobly retired. No one eve
sian ambition, blood-

renewed in unr'
the AUir

THE whispers which reach us from Ministerial
circles are very amusing. Lord JOHN RUSSELL 41
to be resuscitated under the Premiership of Lord
PANMURE, and the Judgeships of the realm are to
be conferred on the party hacks who can bring the
greatest amount of Parliamentary influence to bear
in favour of the less Conservative Whigs. Lord
PALMERSTON, according to the rumours of some
whispering busybody, is too much smitten with
finally" for this progressive age, and he must
make way for Lord JOHN and his noble patron.
From these statements we aro led to believe
that we are to hear no more of, Whigs out,
Tories in. The family-compact men have pre-
vailed over all political parties, and they have only
to effect a change now and then among themselves
to satisfy the public, who think that changes
ought to take place at certain times. It is not
intended, evidently, to keep the whole of the
compact members in the Cabinet at once. A few
of their leaders will always be in office—at the head
of affairs—but the bulk of our future Ministrys
will be made up of outsiders, care being
taken to provide for the most troublesome first.
This system would answer admirably, if its con-
eoctors could be certain that a large number of
members of the House would not become as
troublesome as Mr. MILNER GIBSON, for example.
Taking the Manchester Radical into the
Government, would contribute to the popularity
of the Panmure Administration with all who look
at such things politically; but it will not satisfy
the commercial classes, or those who wish to see
the material prosperity of the country advanced.
Mr. MILNER GIBSON'S admission into the Govern.
ment would be no guarantee to the community that
our Free Trade policy would be carried out a stage
or two further—that while a revenue of 16,000,000/.
a year is derived from property and income, that
a proportionate reduction in the fiscal burdens
affecting industry, and the supply of all the great
staples of consumption will be attempted. Man-
chester Free Traders have forgotten their watch-
word, forsaken their reasoning, and stand mute
before the statistics which make them appear more
like commercial operators, than true prophets
or single minded and patriotic politicians. If
Mr. MILNER GinsoN is to be raised to place and
emolument as one of the Manchester school of
singular memory, and as an acknowledgment of
past services, all well and good. But if he is to take
office to give a Cabinet a colouring of Free trade,
the absurdity will be seen through at once. The
first financial statement brought before Parliament
by the Government, with which he may be ever so
remotely connected, will show us how far he is in
favour of reductions in our tariff to compensate the
public for the direct taxation calls made upon
them

Mr. MILNER GIBSON cannot, surely, be in favour
of our present high tariff, and income and property
tax too. He must know that the poor man's loaf
is dearer now than it was when he first became a
Free Trade agitator, and when we used to bear that
58s per quarter for wheat was a remunerative'
price for the farmer. He must be well aware that