The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-03-06 00:00:00

NORTHERN TIMES.-LIVRRPOOL, THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1856

should be very

orry to share the pain of those 1

who must recite all its tragic incidents,
Had we secured the great prize of war, and laid
aside loans, war taxation, and were preparing to
enjoy the increased blessings we hope to secure
to our enemies, as well as to ourselves, by an
equitable and solid adjustment of long pending
grievances, we should have no objection to reading
the romances of the Eastern war, and give their
authors the benefit of a literary criticism. But
when we come to the direful realities of the past,
and the events now occurring before our eyes, and
behold mighty armies standing face to face, and
monster fleets preparing for the renewal of that
work from which nature itself delivers man for six

months in the year in some regions, facts assume
inordinate gravity, and cannot be lost sight
_ _

of, without incurring imminent risk. If
the desperate struggle be decided the world
should know it, and such an important circum-
stance would be worthy of some demonstration
amounting to proof. This cannot be obtained from
the surface of events. In whatever direction we
look, war and its preparations exhibit themselves.
No man in the French or British Parliaments will

venture to announce, on authority, that the
struggle has been decided, and that peace is at
hand. If the Emperor NAPOLEON is determined to
restore tranquility at any price, that implies the
existence of fresh difficulties, rather than the
certainty of a " pacific solution."
But is France satisfied with the renown won by
her arms, and will her troops retire from the field,
1 and leave their comrades at Alma and Inkermann,

glorious a co.

Until peace is proclaimed, we must be at war. This
is so homely a proposition, that it will scarcely be
disputed; and, while we remain belligerents, there is
incalculable danger in entertaining counter assur-
ances which are enveloped in mystery. We must
not, in fact, listen to anything which is not as
intelligible to our senses as the roar of broadsides
and the charges of cavalry and infantry with fixed
bayenets. Our success depends mainly on the
experience and intelligence we can bring, as a
people, to bear on the business in which we are
engaged. And let us not for a moment throw aside
those inestimable qualities which we have pur-
chased at so high a price. If peace should not be
restored by the deliberations of the Conference,
let us not have to reproach ourselves with having
incurred further losses by falling into the traps of
the enemy, and giving way to groundless expecta-
tions. The public are well aware that there are
certain political movements which cannot be made
with eclat, unless they are preceded by a fabulous
story, or a slight departure from the ordinary line
of business. We can, consequently make a liberal
allowance for much we hear in high political circles,
and having done this, experience admonishes
prudence.

States, when they require money for war, have
invariably been
.declared to have reached the
advent of peace ; and who would not venture to

give expression to a mere opinion, when money
is the object to be obtained for the defence of his
country ? He would be something more than a
Turk who would not depart a little from the truth,
in obedience to the earnest promptings of
patriotism ! And here we think we have given
an explanation of that singular passage in the
'EROR'S speech, as it appeared in the London
And now with regard to the assurance
which his MAJESTY gave, that since the event to
which he alluded, " the opinion of Europe has
"been more openly pronounced," we can only say
that it would be difficult to name those
ountries, with the exception of Sardinia
Sweden, which have declared in
and England. Denmark,
Prussia, the German States. Holland and Belgium,
lave certainly not " pronounced" more openly,
unless it be in favour of a " neutrality" of a
most unjustifiable or doubtfnl character. Austria
has only given us her assistance as a mediator,
and look whence we may, we can dis
cover nothing but the workings of silent
intrigue. Under such circumstances, the public
mind should be kept fixed on the fact that we are
at war ; and while we leave rulers and politicians
) make the most of the cards they have to play,
.y to keep from falling into the mazes of a childish
redulity.

f Franc,

THE Birkenhead Dock Bill was read a second
me in the House of Commons, and committed,

pro forma, on Tuesday. The completion of the
Docks now in existence, and the extension of Dock
accommodation on the other side of the river,
cannot be opposed on any valid grounds. The
trade of the Mersey has gone on doubling itself
every fifteen years. From this it must not be

nferred that only five or six times the amount of

tonnage comes to this port now than the returns
show a hundred years ago. It is the ratio of
increase which we have to consider, and this shows
that the trade of each fifteen years doubled itself
in the next fifteen. This being the case, it cannot
be denied, that all the Dock space which can be
obtained at Birkenhead will be required within a
very short period. All the shipowners, merchants,
and the public, therefore, have to guard against is
crude and ill-designed engineering plans, and the
wasting and jobbing away of money. If the plans
and estimates now before Parliament are
the best that could have been designed
no opposition could be raised to them. But
there are many grave objections to closing in
Wallasey Pool, and shutting out those tidal waters
which are required to carry away, in their efflux,
the banks formed at the outfall of the river. Then
again there are extensive excavations to be made
from which the earth is to be carried and deposited
on ground which would probably be the next
required for a floating dock.
Let the former of these questions which so
deeply affects the conservancy of the river, be at-
tended to, and let no money be thrown away in
doing in one year what must be undone the next
at immense costs. If these thing are attended to, the
proposed bill will meet the most strenous support,
where it otherwise will be opposed in all its future
stages. The present proposal differs widely from the
4,000,0001 scheme of last session. There is not in
the amount required anything to cause alarming
and wide spread perturbation. It is, moreover,
of the highest importance that all local feuds
should cease, and that Birkenhead should
be treated with something like justice. We
can there find abundant space for Docks without
carrying our trade to the utmost northern limits of
the port of Liverpool. The merchant seeks con-
centration, and with a view to economise money
and labour, would fain see our forest of masts
brought close to the windows of the Exchange.
But this cannot be done, and they,
g
therefore,reat
centre are
anxious that the nearest spots theto
of business should be selected for their shipping.
As Birkenhead is certainly in closer approximation
to Liverpool than the North shore, the only objec-
tion that can be urged to the plans laid down, are
purely of an engineering character—on which it
would be unfair to offer an opinion until their
authors have had an opportunity of explaining