Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-11-29 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 29, 1859

nd. the busy supportbrs •of trade, should by
common consent turn aside from the rule of daily
life, to anticipate with satisfaction a fruitless and
destructive war, and for the sake of a fancy or a
prejudice throw everything upon the hazard of a
diet If our worst apprehensions should prove
true, and France should have the temerity to
attempt an invasion of this country, we think we
shah be indebted for this onslaught of evil to the
ferOcious'vanity of a portion of the army, to fiery
spirits among an Ultramontane Priesthood, and
among a firebrand Press; but not to the desires
or the hopes of the French people at large.

Yet, there is no doubt that we have something
to apprehend from the temperament of the French
nation. We know that it is easily worked upon;
and tempted to the approval of hurtful measures.
We know that it lies there inert and malleable ;
ready for the Imperial operator whenever it
suits him: to manipulate, and acutely responsive
to the lightest touch. We cannot shut our eyes
to the fact, that so sensitive an object as this may
be moulded any way in the hands of a manager
at once so skilful and so unscrupulous as Louis
NAPOLEON; j or that when the leader declareS
war, there will be no lack of enthusiasm among
the people.

'3-ut in the meantime there are just as many
motives calculated to damp a war-feeling, and.,
to! overlay the foolish and artificial -spirit, of
revenge •a,mon g all classes of the general poppla-
ticin in France, as there are reasons why we on
',his side of the water desire to be left in peace
id The F- ne-shr

grid quietness. _ _-renchrnan in his wine-shop
and the Englishman in the bar-parlour," may be
given'to amuse and flatter themselves, and waken
up a sort of sympathetic-excitement by " old
saws and ' modern instances," and fond delusions,
in disparagement of each other's prowess, or
valour, or historical faine. - Yet a touch of nature
may make, both nations more really akin than
appears on the surface, and their hearts may be
after all' substantially at one. They have the
same objects in life, which war would derange l.
. ,
th,3 same ties of home and family which the
ruthless deraands of an army would dissolve ;
the same general interests and pursuits, which it
it is tlieir daily anxiety, should not be injured or
disturbed. It is therefore Without any surprise-
that we learn the marked satisfaction evinced by
the tradesmen of Paris on the report that the
Emperor' had proposed a general disarmament to
Europe ; • and of the impulse given to trade
generally, by the idea of a new alliance' between
England and France, on the battle-field of China.
The piteous appeal of the peasant to the Emperor,
that his, eldest son might be spared from. the con-
scription, and the gradually increasing difficulty
of meeting the financial demands of the govern-
ment, predict, at all events, a very speedy tiring
out of the war feeling among the classes that feed
the army with men, and the classes that feed it
With money.

It is not for us, indeed, to be unduly elated by
any appearance of mere amicable dispositions on
-the other side of the water. If any ground of
confidence can be got out of it, at all, it is simply
that unlawful intentions are postponed. Although
the " leadin, ;ournal" has not scrupled to take

g
upon itself to make, or suggest a proposition of the
sort to Lows NAPOLEON, yet we are unable, foy
a moment to believe that it has been seriously
made to :England. Because, so far from its dis-
playing amicable intentions, we think it. would
most unmistakeably indicate hostile ones. France,
we know; has means of arming, or of being pre-
pared for war,' thOugh She- "is on a 'peaeefoot-
ing." Eugl!and is not in a position to defend her
own shdres. France resting upon her Oars' in the
midst of an extraordinary course, has no right to
exact as an appropriate response, that England
should discontinue the work of repairing the
neglect of thirty years. To rely upon any en-
gagement to disarm, would be the most fatal folly
ever perpetrated by the public directors of the
fortunes of this country. Such a proposition
would by no means demonstrate the honesty of
T,OUIS NAPOLEON'S designs ; while the probable
effect would be to lull England into a helpless-
neis and insecurity which would digable her from
counteracting hostility when it, becomes con-

yenient;
As for the new mode of defence-, which is being
raised with •so much diligence and enthusiasm
throughout the country, it at least does not for
one moment enter into a question of mutual dis-
armament. It is an arm we should always have
at command, which we should be always training,
andbe resolutely and steadily careful about. It is a
Means of: strength which offers no' Menace to

foreigp a Iliations, but is entirely domestic and
internal. No one can be offended with it, but he
who meditates the atrocity of invasion. No
country can be considered less menacing to foreign
Powers than the United States, and it cannot be
complained of if we propose to ourselves the exam-
ple of a free people who, muster two millions of
volunteers, or rather,- we may say, not of volun-
teers, but of compulsory militia.

_ • -
Review deals rather severely, yet
.certainly not unjustly, with our Liverpool Finani-
i
!mai Reformers. " The weakest and silliest," it is
'observed, "among all the servile imitations of
the Corn-law League took the title of the Finan-
cial Reform Association of Liverpool. At its
first start, the promoters of the club employed
themselves in the construction of an amateur
:tariff to which all the national 'establishments
were, in the event of their success, to be made to
conform. The QUEEN, the Ministeis, the Judges,
and the Ambassadors, were to be cut down by a
certain liberal percentage; and the army and
navy were .of course limited in accordance
with notions which have of late years lost the
Partial popularity Id.hich they commanded before

the Russian war. There were also projects for
repudiating the whole or part of the National
Debt, of which it can only be said, that such
measures would have facilitated the ultimate pur-
pose of the Association, consisting in the aboli-
tion of all indirect taxes." Now, here we have
no doubt, a, pretty fair programme of the business
which our Financial Reform Association had
prepared to undertake. The task, it must be
confessed, is rather a herculean one. But
then the worthies who form the Association
have evidently so high an opinion of their powers
that, herculean though it be, one cannot very
much wonder at their fancying themselves
capable of performing it. Why, it would be to'
constitute themselves almost a department of the
Legislature, and of the G'overnment of 'the coun-
try,—of the Legislature, as taking upon them to
devise the means requisite for so sweeping a
reform of our financial system, and, -of the
Government, as undertaking to carry out the
details of it, and thereby, of course, superseding
-the legitimate functions of any Chancellor of the
EXchequer, and consequently giving themselves
pcissession o?the purse-strings of the nation.
" Vaulting ambition," we are told, " cloth der
leap itself, and. falls on t'other side" ; and, surelY'
'the vaulting ambition of this Financial Rcfor°
Association must of necessity have such a result'
For what ambition can be more vaulting than
that of. an obscure knot of Radicals taking uPen
themselves to dictate to the Country its system 3't
finance P—a dictation, too, which would go, t 3
upset our -whole financial organisation--have et
revolutionary effect upon some of the most /In'
portant of the institutions of the country—and'
as is suggested in the extract we haVe o°3
above, even involve a -repudiation, in -whole or it'
part, of the National Debt.
Independently of any other cause of misgiving'
in the integrity, as well as the ability, of such 33
Association as this, when we find some of its
leading mernbers having recourse to devices--
such, for instance, as those which Mr.. BnlGlrr
has employed with such great effect in gainill
the plaudits of the popUlace—it is impossible t°
have any, confidence in the proceedings of such 3
body. Mr. BRIGHT has laboured hard to persuade
the people,. that the owners of property are the
habitual enemies and plunderers of the poor, ana
that this is very clearly and forcibly illustrated-
in the taxation of the country,—which of course'
it is implied, the owners of property have
contributed to impose. But that this is
glaring- misrepresentation, is evident 33
the face of it. It is impossible to 1301;.
around without seeing innumerable evidences'
that so far from the owners of proPerti
being the habitual enemies and plunderers of the
poor, they are the warmest friends, and the bee
supporters of the poor. It is property Jo
gives employment; and just in proportiO
property is impaired, will employment We°sn
,sve
scarce, and its payment insufficient. More 11
this, as the able- writer we have cited, so ,
observes,—" property, and chiefly real proper'J:
bears all the local taxation of the country, 31
addition to a third Or perhaps' two-fifths °f tke
national
_burdens." True, as ,our contempera!,
proceeds to remark, "it is a fair subject for ld
quiry whether the proportion, largely as it 11;
been increased of late years, may not still adl9
of
of judicious extension for the encouragement
commerce and production."
Such,efore
in our
show, of all the changes that havheianbddeecendt ,
s
Our financial system of late years. And
been the object—as we have b icl:e
wonderful progress that has taken place, co.""
the last quarter of a century,onore espce',a has
the commerce and production of the eoun"--i,
grid
doubtless found its greatest encouragenlell
most powerful impulse, to have arisen 1 0
ciously placing, more and more, the local t°e
..g
w 11
of the country- upon real property as - he vs,
fair proportion also of the national hurt
To ignore ignore all this, then,—to address the po°
plc on the subject, not only as til°llo the
such adaptation of our financial system toll
growing increase of commerce and prod
04j
withantaykven itsplace,
more than greatereax: extension'
really,
such a colouring to the case as would Pr e 4,00
SO f3rP-
an impression on the public mind that,t and
our system of taxation being in any wise jus and
fair, it was, in all respects, most iniquit°l•l!
410 s,
oppressive,—to pursue such a course as coo
say, cannot possibly inspire one with any
tihe
principles
dwlehs of se who are on
atevtliero,eitherin otheoerectitude °
stiforco:
means,, they
woulddesirableness accomplish.: of theobjects which, by
taer'
**llef°r
But the very fact of these Financial
of itg
being men of repUblican principles, were tjocles
a sufficient cause of mistrust and alarm•
reviblr
a.moharchy like ours, no man can favour
r,..% 0 „
rceanvoisluni ti
own.i.theAutn,d inoursomoeontdoenigproele;ri4es ;
610
tn 0;
remarks we have been alluding to, r
heri
just and forcible view of the whole otte
cinl re
fhoermo observes, sesrh\o- ensl,d thatnot
oiomatpoodrtoannt fle3„tionsri,
&will° • atear
but that' it interferes with production
illdlre
• vons 0
tgarxoautnidons t„linatotthteb:l4 eaittadiitsN reasonis ;use
unjustly
distil
folly
sumption,"—and that "it is mischle coal
to discuss a question of universal an" „.,00'4i
interest, as if it involved a deadly ee,, ft
qtile- tie°
between classes assumed to be —°-
Aso ite
true that there are members of the
deba
t•
,who, like Mr. BRIGHT himself, have n a
;oilsr4,
he
purpose in distorting the nature of t
have at
egiraetniont,.howhmileerittheiorf obirellei
such tll
maEgnity." And it is because s lace '5
take P
demonstration, as that which will
day after to-morrow in our fa hilharin°nie
intelligent
tlowo ra
coollsaisatieco: