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

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to make it difficult for those eminent men, who had beeii
voted as representatives of the people, to carry on the
government with moderation and success. But he said,
if they should fall into disorder by direct means, and
if within themselves they had the elements of self-go-

be interfered with. Is was only a hypocritical pretence
for the greater Powers to interfere in their concerns
When England was in the canidron o:

Lie revo:

from 1645 or 1650 to 1745, when the last battle was
fought in favour of the Stuart dynasty if, instead of
being left to fight out their own redemption, when they
were dethroning one king after another, and overturn-
ing one ministry after another, a hostile army had been
placed on their shores and insisted on settling their
disputes, and insisting on the power of remedying their
disorder, what would have been the fate of this country ?
Would it have grown up with that stamina and wisdom,
and with the experience which they enjoyed? What
they went through in that century was a process of fer-
mentation, which, in the moral world as well as in the
physical world, was necessary to pass through before
they arrived at those principles to which it was neces-
sary to attain. What gave strength to nations and to
individuals, but grappling with difficulties ? Where
would their maxims and laws have been, if, during this
contest, a Spanish or a French army had been planted
on oui shores to dictate the terms of peace, and insist-
ing on its preservation ; where would have been
their liberties, and their privileges, and their glories ?
Now, he contended, and heaven knows he would not be
charged with anything like sympathy of feeling with
bloodshed as a process for obtaining human good, but
he contended for the right to every country on the con-
tinent to go through the same process as England went
through, or by any other means to obtain the same
maxims of government, or to obtain it by that inevit-
able means—civil strafe. He was in favour of non-inter-
vention with the affairs of Italy; but it might be said,where
would Italy have been at that moment if there had not
been intervention on the part of the Emperor Napoleon.
He was not going to be so unreasonable as he feared
some of them haebeen—first, for having quarrelled with
the Emperor Napoleon for having gone to Italy, and
then having quarrelled with him for coming away from
Italy. (Laughter.) Napoleon had removed the
Austrians From Lombardy, and had left them in Venetia
—and he (Mr. Cobden) quite agreed with Mr. Glad-
stone that Napoleon had done as much good for Austria
in removing her from that perilous position in Italy, as
he did to Italy in ridding I,.er of her hated mistress.
(Applause.) He did not think Austria could do a wiser
thing than to make arrangements with the population
to pay.a portion of the national debt, and abdicate her
sovereignty altogether. He said Austria could not do
a wiser thing than emancipate the rest of Italy, and re-
move herself into other parts where she would be prob-
ably loved, which she would never be in Italy. He
said if she was a government, but governments were
never wise—(laughter)—and the least wise of govern-
ments was Austria, it seemed to him that :that govern-
ment was living in that happy state of blessed ignorance
that she had no more notion of what public opinion
was thinking of her government, than if she were
in the middle ages. (Hear, hear.) She might
have avoided all this bloodshed and all her pre_
sent disasters; and she might have received, no doubt, a
very large. payment for the independence of Lombardy,
and have avoided this collision with France, if she had
only undertaken to have abstained from interfering with
any other States of Italy than those belonging to her,
according to. the treaty entered into at Vienna. But it
wastolly to,expect any wise step from such a Gatern,