Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-12-26 00:00:00

they are at the mercy of designing men and
liable to be swayed hither and thither in the
exigencies and variabilities of party complications.
The Peelites are sometimes drags on the Parlia-
mentary machine, their support is calculated
about as a chance both by one side and the other.
Often in these occasions of doubt and nicely
weighed questions, their own unsteadiness and
want of purpose are found in the end to neutralise
their maral influence; so that in not unimportant
contests they become the odd man among the
gamesters whom familiar custom recognises as the
" Jack." But it is a more serious accusation
against their patriotism and conscientiousness that
the merest personal considerations should be found
at other times sufficient to do that, which
high political motives and honest convictions
should do at all times, and cannot,—and that is,
intensify their opinions, and decide their advo-
cacy. Will any one tell us that it was any
distinct conviction that threw the pretended
adherents of Sir ROBERT PEEL into the arms of
the present Ministry and their more consistent
followers P What sympathy of creed is it that
forms the bond at present existing through inter-
mediate gradations between extreme Liberals
and Peelites Let us admit that there is a
probable motive for intellectual men—such as it
is the boast of many Peelites to be—in the wish
to keep aloof from party organisations, with all
their intolerance, their narrow-mindedness, their
worship of words and names, their aspirations
for place and power, their net-work of lower
motives, and degradation of the principles of
public conduct : let us admit this; yet we
could expect that when the moment arrives
which drags them out of their mental
dream, and forces them into party arrangements,
they might be found ranged on the side nearest
to their traditions; and not in voluntary league
with opinions alien from their original con-
victions. There is something pretty, no doubt,
in the old Lucretian suave marl ?myna principle ;
nor need it be a wholly selfish feeling, to wish
rather to contemplate and criticise the struggles
in the ocean of politics, than mix among them
ourselves. Yet if it be even conceded that this
temper of mind is as suitable for the politician as
the philosopher, it must be for newspaper and
not Parliament politicians. The field of private
life is the only satisfactory stage for the in-
dependence and the indifference of criticism.
But it is not with Peelites thinking and
criticising that we have to do. Unfortunately
for them they sometimes vote ; they are
called on to support a Government ; worst
test of all, they are sometimes invited to
enter one. .It is the Peelites come out of their
philosophy, that can alone challenge the atten-
tion or the apprehensions of the country. And
it is precisely in their activity as party men that
their present doubtful position much disturbs our
calculations. We should never care to object to
their• little prejudices and eccentricities of opinion,
on their own account. Time is the surest and

best wearer out of these mental peculiarities.
But we have a right to expect, the country has a
right to expect, those who revere the memory of
the late'Sir ROBERT PEEL have a right to expect,
that if they do enter into party alliances, their
allegiance will be reserved for the party_
of the. Constitution.. It is idle. for these
independent thinkers to suppose that they
effect an available compromise by the platitudes
they may utter, or the admiration they may
profess, or even the advocacy they may
venture to promise, in favour of Constitu-
tional principles. It is evident that the best
interests of the nation are 'now greatly in danger,
less from any conscious -wish to endanger them,
or from legitimate power in the hands of those
who entertain such a wish, than from party com-
plications and deceptions. The Constitution is
not to be saved by talking about it, nor the intro-
duction of pernicious changes prevented by de-
, precating them. The country is now in the hands
of Party organisations, and those who take part
in public life have a ,very definite duty before
them. It is to disunite themselves at once and
decisively from the party-which affects the good
opinion of Mr. BRIGHT and the democrats ; it is
to throw themselves into the opposite scale, which
needs only a small addition to weigh down all the
open and disguised enemies of the Commonwealth.

THE two great questions that are destined to
agitate the approaching session of Parliament—
agitate it, in all probability, to its dissolution—
are those of *Our representation and our taxation.
To both these questions Ministers are more or
less committed,—to the first, indeed, most de3i-
d.edly so, since it formed the means by which they
contrived to climb into office. Not only are
they pledged, therefore, to bring forward a
measure for further reforming the representation
of the people in Parliament, but it must be a mea-
sure of a superior character : the " Advanced
Liberals" will insist that it must be a measure
of a very Radical description—much more so, we
may depend upon it, than probably a majority of
the Ministry will ever assent to. But connected
with that question is the other one of taxation.
.•
All our Radical Reformers are now taxation, as
well as representation, Reformers. They have
found out, they tell us, that the one is, or
ought to be, indissolubly connected with the other.
That is to say, that since taxation can only be
levied by that branch of the legislature which
embodies the representation of the people in Par-
liament, taxation itself must ever be materially
'affected by the character of such representation.
Nor are we disposed to dispute this, as a
theory. But just because there is such a
theory,' and the principle of it is one that
must not be altogether lost sight of in any
system of representation, is it' requisite that

FRANCE.

PARIS, Dec 24.
The Patrie of this evening states that Senor,
Calderon Colantes will be first plenipotentiary 01
Spain at the Congress, Senor Martinez de la Rosa
having refused the post on account of his health.
The Pays pretends that all the journals are in
error in their interpretation of the pamphlet i
Pape et le Congres, which, according to the Pays,
guarantees the Pope all his present possessions.
The. important part played by the artillery in
the Crimea and Italy, and the success of the.
rifled cannon, are about to lead to a considerable'
extension of that arm, and a project for its re-
organisation is now under re-examination by thi°,
Minister of War. The Emperor has employe('
himself in moulding the project.
The Paris correspondent of the Herald says Of
pamphlet on the Pope is attributed to N'
Mocquard, the Emperor's secretary.
La Presse says the plan suggested will Mee",
with the assent of England, Russia, Prussia, an
Sardinia, and, of course, France.
The Opinione National publishes accounts OW'
ing that the plan of restrictinq the temporal power
of the Pope is the reproduction of a project eon:
ceived by the first Napoleon ; and further, that
1798 the Court of Vienna endeavoured to indne__
the European powers to give Rome and the
tifical states to the House of Savoy in exchangy
for its subalpine possessions, while the PoPe
should have retired' to a convent.
It is stated that the PapalP
Count Walewski yesterday, in order to dema
an explanation on the rumoured official origillv,
the pamphlet Le Pape et le Congres. Count:
Walewski gave a positive denial to this riunour•
PARIS, Dec.

THE FRENCH FUNDS.
12.7 P.M.—Market opens with a downw3ra
tendency ; Rentes, 70 40.
3.25 P.M —There was little doing, but the
Bourse closed firm. Final quotation of Rentes'
70 40 ; showing a decline of 10 centimes si-uce
yesterday.

TURKEY.

THE SUEZ CANAL QUESTION. 24.
MARSEILLES, Dec.
Letters from Constantinople of the 14th .1112,
state that after numerous sittings of the 1)17;
a definitive solution was adopted, calling uPirs
Europe to settle the Suez canal question ?.1
political bearing by gndranteeing the into:P.l,lr
the Turkish Empire. M, Theuvenel a 0,4,1 the