Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-22 00:00:00

closer, and more dependent one upon another.
We have the strongest reasons for wishing sve2:l
to France. NAPOLEON 111. is the first French
sovereign who has ever heartily thrown himself
into an English Alliance. He deserves well of
Europe and of England for the faithful and
honourable fulfillment of his public engagements.
But when we look at his home Government—
his rule of France—we are not without the
greatest fears.

It is impossible that the existing state of
things in France can be perpetuated, A whole
nation gagged and dragooned by one man
cannot always last. We can imagine reasons for
excessive rigour at the beginning of a career,
when the reins of power had to be seized and
held by a strong hand, supposing it true that
France had to be saved, and society protected
against anarchy. But this preliminary work
has not always to be done; repression is not to
be always the order of the day ; and the settle-
ment of a dynasty and the form of a government
are not to be the eternal questions proposed to
France and Europe expected and
expects that when chaos and anarchy were
checked, the bonds of a temporary despotism
would be relaxed, and a wise and moderate
liberty would be granted to the nation—or, at
the very least, that preparation would be made
for such an improved state of things. Not a
glimpse of this is yet visible. The Emperor
is still the government and the nation. lle not
only reigns, but rules, and is the sole ruler.
This is very perilous to the Emporor himself;
for though in the way, he may of course get
credited for the good, he may also be blamed for
the evil.

a nation.

In our own country, when anything is seriously
wrong, a Ministry is displaced, hut the Sovereign
is sacred and above criticism. Not so the
French Emperor. By ruling despotically
instead of constitutionally, through responsible
Ministers, he makes himself personally account-
able, for whatever results. The present General
Election shows France just as remote from
freedom as the last, after six years of military
rule. The Emperor politely dictates candidates
to the nation ; they are not capable of choosing
for themselves ; as the dangerous power of
originating laws is withheld within the Legis-
lative Chamber, so the dangerous power of
initiating or proposing candidates is withheld
from the public outside. It is proposed by the
Emperor that, with a few exceptions, the entire
of the lats Legislative Body should be
re-elected.

We cannot imagine such a thing proposed in
England or Belgium, the near neighbour of
France. Not even in Spain or in Italy would it
be dared. Now the only justification of the
coup d'etat, of setting up the Empire, and
suspending the liberties of the French nation, is
the gradual restoration of those liberties as soon
as this may be deemed safe and expedient. A
momentous, rigorous, unrelaxing despotism will
neither justify the Empire, nor permanently
attach the French people to the Bonaparte
dynasty. Having no to the Emperor,
and having the heartiest good-will to the nation,
we see the only safety fur both is the frank and
wise concession of a regulated freedom, as the
people are able to bear it and use it. This
day and to-morrow the French elections will
take place; and though probably a few oppo-
sition Liberal candidates may be returned, yet
the great body will obey the word of command
as.they do in the 'army, and delegates will be
sent up according to the riod and beck of one
who is the military as well as the civil chief of
France—lmperador as well as Emperor.

WE-have not, in general, much faith in the
instrumentality of public meetings and large
associations of hasty formation and undefined
aims, where the promotion of purely commercial
objects is concerned. The Manchester Cotton
Supply Association has, however, narrowed its
scheme of operation to the limits within which
such an organisation may advantageously work.
Its policy may be considered as defined by the
tone of the very important meeting which was
held in the Manchester Town-hail on Friday,
and of which -we published a report. The
members of the Association do not mean to be
growers of cotton, or speculators in land in their
collective capacity.;
~they do not propose even
to invite others to do-so, or in any way to irtter-
fere with the ordinary movements of private
enterprise and commercial progress. Their
operations will be confined , merely to the
collecting and disseminating of information on
a larger and more general scale than private
effort could easily at.tain ; and thus, by opening
up the question fully ;,1:o the commercial world=
removing some of the obstacles which retarded
at the very threshold, the entrance of mercantile
speculation and energy into new ground.
'Reduced thus into shape, and bounded by
reasonable limits, the newly-formed Association
must meet with general approval, and even from
those who may still entertain doubts of any
practical issue to its labours, can hardly
encounter any objection. The pressing character
of the difficulty which offers itself in regard- to
the supply of cotton, must render men cautious
in obtruding objections founded upon theoretic
and abstract rules; where any effort likely to
rerwhe any obstacle, and lead to any
degree of success, is undertaken by
agents so well qualified to conduct
safely a great public organisation the
commercial and manufacturing classes of
Aanchester. We may, therefore, safely hope for

ml-
- ultimate advantage arising from the

present movement, which Manchester has
inaugurated; and may express our conviction
that the more its objects are limited and defined,
the greater its chances of successful labour.
Many difficulties it will have to get over, and
some temptations it will have carefully to
avoid.

In the singularly able speech deli-
vered by Lord STANLEY, it was emphatically
recommended that the special object
for which the Association has been
called into existence should be kept clearly
seperated from any questions of an exclusively
political character, From the manner in whieh
that speech, and some others delivered in
Liverpool as well as in Manchester, were
received, it may be concluded that the operations
of the Association will be mainly, if not alto-
gether, directed for the present to British India.
Against the temptation of Indian politics, Lord
STANLEY delivered a valuable warning.

We earnestly hope that no object, however
desirable in itself, no scheme of improvement or
reform, however philanthropic and deserving of
support by other agencies, will withdraw this
Association from the sphere of labour in which
it can war-k with advantage to this and other
countries, and beyond which its strength would
be wasted, its own object missed, and none other
attained or even served. The Association will
also have to guard against entering into too many
subjects, even where its immediate object seems
to be concerned. Every one who fancies he has
discovered a new Cotton Country will, of course,
expect the Asscciation to turn its attention to
his scheme in preference to all others. Nothing
short of exploring expeditions to every country
in the world where an Englishman has ever
lived, would satisfy the endless variety of
demands which new projects will every day
make upon the Manchester Association. The
eyes and ears of that body must not, of course,
be closed against any reasonable suggestion, but
the danger of allowing its means of operation to
run to waste over too vast and varied a surface
must be carefully shunned. As much as
possible, one subject at a time, until it be finished
one way or the other, must be kept in view
The manufacturing of silk, or the rearing of the
vine in the colonies of Great Britain, are
important questions of themselves, but they are
not involved in the immediate object now before
the public, and should not be suffered to
embarrass it. The Association must also
remember that the undertaking it has commenced
must not hope to rest on large popular support.
However important the question, and imminent
the danger in the eyes of commercial men, it
cannot be hoped that very much of popular
interest will be stirred up. The appliances by
which Manchester carried its corn law victories
cannot be called into operation to aid in the
development of new cotton fields. One great
advantage this scheme possesses over most
undertakings of a national character, is to be
found in the fact that the immediate personal
interest of every man actively engaged in it is
concerned, and it therefore has a larger share of
that superiority which private enterprise in such
a project must possess over the more easily
exhausted and less defined efforts of an aggregate
public body.

We can hardly pass over this subject without
a distinct allusion to the speech delivered by
Lord STANLEY, at the Manchester meeting. It
was one of the very ablest of the many able
speeches delivered by that rising young states-
man within the last few years. It evidenced a
full and close acquaintance with its subject, and
was delivered in the hearing of men who could
not be deceived by any theoretic and doctrinaire
declamation, or by the hastily-crammed " facts"
of an amateur legislator. It was exact as well
as comprehensive, and had that clearness of
arrangement and detail which can only be given
by one who is a thorough master of the question
he deals with. It afforded another of the many
proofs Lord STANLEY'S public carreer so far has
given, that as CLIVE led armies to victory
without the training of a military school, and
SPINOLA became extemporaneously a master of
strategy, it is possible for a man who has not
passed his youth in a counting-house to become
a great commercial statesman.

As we stated on Friday, the Oaths' Bill,

the ostensible object of which is to admit
Jews into Parliament, passed through Com-
mittee on Monday night, and as several
notices of amendment were given, the end
and aim of which were to defeat the measure,
there was a strong muster of flleinbers, and a keen
and spirited debate. Mr. DEAsY appeared first
as the champion of the Roman Catholic party,
and, urged• upon the House, with a sort of
forensic eloquence, an amendment which sought

to place Protestant and Roman Catholic
members on the same footing., by taking the
same oath. This Lord PALMERSTON resisted,
on the ground that it would have the effect of
defeating the entire measure. But this was a
consideration which neither Mr. DEASY nor his
supporters thought or cared about. Their sole
aim appears to have been "to improve the
occasion" for the special advantage of the
Gatholic members, totally regardless of any
consequences to the Bill before the House.
This move of the Roman Catholic members not

tied to the Cabinet, met but little sympathy
from the House. The discUssion on the
amendment was short, and the division dicisive ;
so much ,so, it was perfectly evident that the

House viewed Mr. DEASY'S side-wind opposition
as sinister in its character, seeing: that the
knowledge that it would be brought forward
emboldened the real opponents of the Bill
to make their determined effort to upset the
measure, by retaining the very form of oath
which the Government sought to abolish.
We are not going to argue the desirability of
altering the form of oath taken by Roman
Catholic members of the House of Commons.
While we admit that in some respect that oath
should be less offensive in its character, we feel
that the attempt to improve,it, which Mr. DF,Asy
and his supporters made on Monday nijht, was
ill-timed. Indeed, Lord PALMERSTON told them
as much, when he declared that if they carried
their amendment, the only result would be the
I defeat of the Bill, and with it, of course, their
own motion—so that neither Jews nor Catholics
could gain anything by the movement of Messrs.
DEASY and Co. The House, no matter how they
may regard the wording of the oath adminis-
tered to Catholic members, viewed the matter in
the same light as the Premier, and by a majority
of 290 decided that the present was by no means
a desirable or fitting opportunity for bringing
forward plans of improvement thereon.

After Mr. DEASY had been silenced by the
vote in question, Sir FREDERICK LIES IGER
redeemed his promise and introduced an amend-
ment, sanctioning the ancient formula of
intolerance, by retaining in the oath, " On the
true faith of a Christian." This, in other words,
was to retain, in its most objectionable form, the
very words which have for years hindered
Baron ROTHSCH ILD from taking his seat as
member for the city of London. It raised the
question whether the Jews, who are now eligible
to fill every civil and municipal office, and have
risen in many instances to hig h social distinction
and honour, are to be for ever excluded from
Parliament, by the tender of an oath which they
who administer it know full well cannot be
taken. In opening the debate on his amendment,
it was quite remarkable that he advanced no new
argument to support the bigoted faction of
which he was the leader ; and had he talked
ten times as long as he did, it was evident
that all his ideas were quite threadbare, and had
been often and often refuted within the very walls
wherein he then stood. Both Sir FREDERICK
THESIGER and his quondam friend, Mr. JOSEPH
NAPIER, seemed to think that the most forcible
and cogent reason which could be advanced
against the measure of Jewish Emancipation was
the fact that the business of the House of
Commons opened with an invocation to the Deity
to bless the labours of Parliament, and that it
was impossible that a Jew could be permitted to
mingle in the supplications of a Christian
assembly. He might, as Lord Mayor of London,
go in state to St. Paul's, and, with the judges of
the land, join in the services of the Liturgy of
the Church, but to allow him to attend and
listen to the Rev. Mr. GARDINER, the Chaplain
of the House of Commons, offering up his daily
prayers of sacrifice and thanksgiving, was
certainly more than the pious principles of
SPOONER, NEWDEGATE, and Company could
endure. Passing by the oft-refuted fallacies
urged by Mr WARREN, we come to the speech
of Sir JOHN PAKINGTON. On former occasions
he had resisted Jewish emancipation ; on
Monday night he recanted that political
error, and took his stand on the side of civil
and religious liberty. Glad to find that the
cause had gained a convert, who , begins to
be somewhat popular on account of his exer-
tions in the cause of education, it was satis-
factory to hear his vindication of the measure ;
but we do not coincide with the Right Hon.
Baronet when he said that if the admission of
Jews into Parliament would unchristianise
Parliament, it was already unchristianised by
the number of Unitarians amongst its members.
This was a reason unjustified by fact; and we
think that the Right Honourable Member for
Droitwich might have selected a much more
conclusive and less offensive proof for the
arguments he was advancing.

Unitarians, it is true, hold certain doctrines.
They' are in unison with true morality; and
although they may differ from other sections of
the Protestant community, they are no less
Christian in their character. There was an
entire absence -of reason put forward by the
Opposition to show that Baron ROTHSCHILD'S
admission to Parliament could or would
influence the decision of the Legislature either
one way or another. He is more a representa-
tive of a great body of monetary and commercial
electors, who regard him as the champion of
their order, and who desire to see their interests
watched, and their views advocated on all great
questions of finance, more than any thing else.
It may be that the constituency of London, who
have so often elected him, are chagrined at the
continued exclusion of their representative.

The amend:nent of Sir FREDERICK TIIESIGER
was rejected by a majority of 140, in a House of
543, the Speaker included. The character of the
debate, and the overwhelming majority by
which the main Principle of the Bill was
affirmed, must convince the Lords that

opposition on their part must prove unavailing ;
and that should the "Right Reverend Fathers
in GOD" lend their aid to procrastinate the
settlement of this much-vexed question, they
will only be atallenging a storm of public indig-
nation, and affoydina a just pretext for the
Minister of the day to swamp the Peers in order
to carry by means of such a political Coup d'etat
this important measure.