Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-07-08 00:00:00

to be in, if not

the character of her Majesty's Gove;nment, and

how injurious also it must be to the interests
be it

of the country. And this was done
remembered, well knowing all the
they themselves had 'rendered it im

otherwise,

that the Conservatives

possible to be

so far from

having sought for place, had had -place forced
upon them,—that Lord DERBY, when sent for,
by the Queen, had frankly informed her Majesty
that he could not command a majority in

. _
Parliament, and that therefore he would rather
not undertake, at the moment, the responsibilities
of office, but that her najesty had pressed' it

upon him, and he felt it therefore his duty not
to shrink from the task. The -.conduct: of the
Whigs in upsetting a Ministry formed under
such oiremnstances—formed in an emergency of
their own creating—wag something very like that
of the dog in the manger. They would tell us,
of course, in answer to such an imputation as
this, that theirs was the Liberal party—the great
Liberal party—which showed its strength in the
vote of no confidence in the late Administration.
That vote, it is true, was concocted on such a
pretext. But it was all a sham. The artful
Whigs made use of the Liberals on the occasion,
as they had often done before ;. but as to their
having formed theniselves into one party—a great
Liberal part,y —that, we say, was all a mockery
and a delusion. They pretended, too, ixiten they
had succeeded in tiacir conspiracy, that in the
Ministry they would saw have it in their power
to construct, all the 4several sections of mint

they called the Liberal party,—sections differing
even mere widely than do the Whigs from
the Conservatives,—should be fully and fairly
represented. All this was trumped up, it is
now evident,, in order to get the Whigs back
into office. And, as is well known, it has
succeeded. But having so succeeded, now begin
the divergences. They united to destroy one
Ministry and set up- another- in its place ; and
now they will disunite, and render this, like the
other, 'a Ministry on sufferance.

See what a special organ of one of the most
influential of the Liberal sections says of their
Whig associates, -" It is undeniable," is -the
remark of the Star, " that there are members of
the present Government who are so simply
because it would have been dangerous . to
disappoint their, eager anxiety, for office. It is
further notorious that others have been disppointed
because it was deemed safer to incur their anger
than their gratitude. The competition of candidates
at the late election has been closely imitated by
the rush of claimants for place to the doors of
the Minister-in-Chief. Previous length of service,
or, rather, previous enjoyment of spoill has been
unscrupulously urged as a title to fresh gratifi-
cation. Something like a vested right to posts in
a Liberal Administration has been asserted," anti
but too successfully asserted, by men whose admin-
istrative failures have been a reproach to their
party and a misfortune to the country. Others who
have crept up the ladder of preferments, without
once distinguishing themselves in the public inter-
ests, have contrived to jostle aside others of more
merit and modesty." Now does not this most
forcibly impugn the.political integrity of the Whig
"claimants for place ?" Surely the votes of such
persons, on such a question as that which turned
out the late Ministers, could be of no sterling value.
They told, of course, as all the rest. did. But they
were obviously given from interested motives. The
House sat in judgment on the Ministry ; and its
vote was as the verdict of a jury that had a true
deliverance to make, by pronouncing, on their con-
science, guilty or not guilty. But of what worth
could the conscience of those be, whose judgment
was passed, not from any sense of public justice, but
only with a view to their private interests ?
We must at least do Mr. COBDEN and Mr. BRIGHT
the justice to acknowledge, that they have acted on
the occasion of this change of Ministry with mach
purer motives. For it -is quite true, as it has been
observed, that " amid all this scrambling and scuffl-
ing, there has been seen one man with power almost
to command office, but too much pride to' ask it, and
another on whom it is absolutely pressed, and who
resolutely declines it. Mr. BRIGHT might honourably
have stipulated for a conspicuous place in the
Government he helped to create. Mr. COBDEN
would have offended none and gratified many by
accepting the post reserved for him. Without con-
cert or communication of any kind, the one stands
aloof—the other unhesitatingly refuses." This, we
say, was certainly a display of political virtue, that
we do not see exhibited in the ranks of the Whigs,
on any such occasions.- ..

How, then, is it possible that the Liberals of that
pure and high-minded type can ever reconcile it to
their consciences to be identified with such scheming
and self-seeking Whigs, and be content to merge
with them into one so-called Liberal party ? Well
may our Independent Liberal contemporary aforesaid
it was possible for such antagonistic
natures to have blended,''--and, by way of illustrating
their antagonism, well may he take the two great
leaders themselves, as the representatives of
,their
respective parties, and thus. contrast them :—" The
one belongs to the politics of the past, the other to
the politics of the' future. The one is guided .by
traditions and works by expedients. The other
searches out fixed principles, and attempts their
application as fast as the growth of public opinion
will permit. Lord PALMERSTON belongs by nature,
origin, and habit, to that school of Parliamentary
diplomatists which systematically evades or perverts
the will of the people —postponing every reform to
the latest possible moment, and inflaming the pas-
sions by which pretext, for delay may be, created.
Mr. COBDEN, on the contrary, is of the new order of
statesmen whose inspirations are drawn, from -the
people themselves, but . not the less .sustained by
studies worthy of the political philosopher, and guided
by
.
such experience .as_ can only be -acquired by, the
active citizen of a free country. The practical .con-
trast of their respective creers may be summed up
in a sentence. Lord PALMERSTON has been busy
through a long life in stirring up dissensions abroad
and in obstructing progress at home, while . Mr.
COBDEN is yet in the youth of his public life, and
has gained thias early the renown of a universal
benefactor." Let us hope that the people will look
impartially on this honest contrast, and 'then
decide if that can be a Liberal party worthy of
the name which has of necessity to be made

ask, " how

up of politicians so opposite and principles so
antagonistic.

THE ATTITUDE OF GERMANY

WE have on more than one occasion lately referred
to the attitude of Germany towards the allied in-
vade,rs of Austrian Italy ; and, as we have then
observed, it is an attitude which must of necessity

become more and more critical, in proportion as the
invasion extends to the frontiers of that country.
There is in Germany, let it be borne in mind, a
federal union of the several States into which it is
divided, —a union, that is, of those States in a league
or contract for national defence and protection.
There was formed at the Congress of -Vienna, in
1815, on the important occasion of the settlement
of Europe after the final overthrow and exile of
BUONAPARTE, a perpetual Confederation, bearing
the name of the Germanic Confederation, by which
the affairs of the whole country were confided to a
Federative Diet, consisting of seventeen individual
and collective States, the majority of whose votes
have the rule. Of course, the protection of Germany
from hostile invasion is an indispensable duty of this
federative union ; and when a possession of one of
its body is attacked, although such possession may
not be German soil, but only contiguous to it, the
Diet cannot but feel anxious and apprehensive,—
while if the assailants threaten to extend their
invasion to that soil, the Confederation must
needs be on the alert to repel it. Not only have the
Allied Powers who are the invaders, naturally felt
uneasy as to the probability of any hostile movement
on the part of Germany; but Russia, as a neighbour-
neutral Power, thought proper, it will be remembered,
a short time since, to address to the Federal Govern-