The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-03-22 00:00:00

SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 1856

THE Conference must terminate in a very fe
days; and, as the moment of dissolution draws near,
public anxiety necessarily becomes greater. The war
and peace parties wait the final issue with equal
impatience, and whichever side is doomed to
disappointment, its anguish will be intolerable.
And since we hear so much about " the balance Of
"power," there can be no impropriety in looking a
little to the strength of belligerent factions. Our
Paris correspondent has reason to believe that
Lord CLARENDON is not satisfied with the
terms of the coming treaty ; that Sardinia
is even more displeased; and Turkey
perfectly outrageous. Their assent to the
conditions have been given to counterbalance the
understanding, and extraordinary friend-
ch had lately been shown by the represen
tatives of France and Russia for each other. If all

ship, whi

this should prove to be true, what is to become of
the Peace party? The war aide will have new and
rather promising ground to start on, if the Power
which is to be saved rejects the proposals for her
deliverance ! Turkey may be too weak to offer any
formidable resistance. Her friends may be vastly
too strong for her. But will the question—the
Alpha and Omega of the diplomatic scheming of
P--
be settled by

any
tl ng

short

nnn+liv•Tr-
; of a

plain, matter-of-fact recognition, and establishment
of that policy for which the Western Powers have
been contending in the East ? If the Conference
does secure this—setting aside those conditions

which we ought to enforce to compensate us in
some measure for the war—it merely brings us
back to where we were before a drop of blood was
shed, or a shilling spent on armies and fleets.
Such terms would indeed be peace•at-any-price.
But is Europe prepared to go back to the old
status-quo Can England, with the Eastern sore
open, disband her army, lay up her fleets in
ordinary, and return to a peace level ? If not, can
she bear the taxation of warfare in the midst of
universal tranquillity ? Those who would propose
such a thing are not our friends, and those who
consent to them take a responsibility upon them
selves which no man of moderate intelligence
would like to share. A country may do much
when excited by battles, and led on by victories.
No nation has done more mischief to others and
themselves, under these alluring circumstances,
than the English. But where shall we find a
ministry who will, first, conclude a peace and then
ask the people of these realms to keep up
military and naval war establishments ? Can this be
the position in which the Congress is to leave the
PALMERSTON Cabinet? or what are we to obtain
by abandoning Turkey ? If we are doomed to the
former, the Ministry will have chained us to an
impossibility, which will destroy their political
reputation and official, life. Obloquy and appo-
plexy will, assuredly, convey them off the stage.
If we submit to the overthrow of the Ottoman
power, our military prestige will be irretrievably
lost, and our national honour for ever damned.
Such things cannot be meant. No set of British
Statesmen would fly from desolation to death. In
this instance the gulf is too wide, and, we trust,