Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-08-18 00:00:00

upon us for this prepara-
tion for an invasion from France. lie would just
read one extract which he took from the .2Verc York
Times, a paper not unfriendly to England. It was as

Ley case

follows :—" There was a time in Enilish history when
the 'inviolate island laughed all foreign threats to
scorn, and met even the terrible peril of the great
Armada of Spain with a front of haughty defiance;' but
that time seems to have passed by. The press and the
orators of England have now no capital stock so rich in
sure returns of interest and excitement as the chronic

ae great

disturbance of the continental relations of t
Powers ; on the least appearance of unusual activity in

Lock yar

L'rance

; on the meres'

new combination between one or more states of Europe,
not commonly united in their policy—England at once
sets up her outcry of distress. Her leading journals
thunder over the land, her parlia-
Lnstings ring with

alarm
anrlidatps r

nuke t

' dreadful notes of war,' her captains tale do-iin the
sword of Wellington, and her poets laureate take up
the lyre of Tyrtious. If England were consciously the
weakest or the wickedest of powers, her conduct in this
respect would be perfectly reasonable. If she knew
herself to have fairly earned the hatred of all the world,
and felt herself unequal to resist the onslaught
of avenging justice, one might attribute her propensity
for panics to causes that would be rational, at least, if
not respectable. Well, now, he would repeat, it was
not pleasant for an Englishman to read such articles as
these, and this was the mildest part of the article.
(Laughter.) There was scarcely a post that did not bring
some newspaper from some part of France or America,
particularly from Havre and the centr d parts of h'rance,
in wh.ch they did not speak with a pity resembling that
which would be given to a child. The Americans called
it the " English craze." (Laughter.) Was it too much
to say to newspapers—he did not want them to abstain
from one word that was hard against himself—(laughter)
—nor did he wish to curtail them in their privilege of
criticism of all the world ? They might say what they
pleased of all the arbitrary sovereigns in the world, and
he would tell those sovereigns, if they could not bear the
criticism of the newspapers, they were hard to please.
He did not want to curtail the liberties of the press
at all. Do not let them set up a screech against him,
as if he wanted to curtail their liberties; but this he
would ask of them, that the newspapers which had been
advocating these preparations should not make him
ridiculous by continuing in this tone. (Laughter.)
Was not that a reasonable request to make of them?
(Renewed laughter.) If they would only treat these
panics with the ridicule which they deserved, they
should be able to get to the end of them. But for
another fact. When he came home from America,
and after going into the House of Parliament, he
took a look into the bluebooks which had
been presented to Parliament during his absence,
and he found—he did not believe anybody else looked
at it, because it would not answer the cry of the
moment—but he found a paper presented to Parliament
which was drawu up by the late Government giving
athna at c ceoeleiennt
notf
inh e
thenE i
Housande e FfFrenchnneanz
ands. Hi t en read
was contradicted. It showed that for every vessel that
France had increased in number in her navy during
theer lnanstrysehveas h
n years,een all the time the extension of
h going on—for every vessel she
added to, her fleet, England added ten. Whilst their
public writers and speakers, who seemed to pander
to this. panic, and wanted to make money out of it in
some direction or other—whilst they were merely giving
then the defences of the frigates and the line-of-battle
ships,. they ignored other preparations, which were pro-
nounced by scientific men to he the most perfect pre-
parations. they could make against a foreign foe—these
were.the. steam gun-boats, of which they had now 160
add: U tic creeks aud harbours, These were pro-