Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-02-11 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL PRODUCE:

SUGAR..—We have still a quiet Market to notice, the
business being confined to 121, Mods. Porto Rico ut 40s.
to 435., and 675 bags Siam at 475. per cwt. (16s. duty).
MOLASSES, Rum, and COFFEE.—Nothing bas occurred
in these articles.
MM.—At public sale, 700 bags of fine old Bengal
were disposed of at 135., but of 8;000 bags Madras also
offered; only 900, with all faults, found buyers, at
•4s. 3d. to Bs. 6d.; 100 tierces Carolixa are also reported
at 235. per cwt. from the quay.
• JUTE.—Of 2,900 bales brought to auction, 2,000 were
sold at £l2 15s. to £l9 55., being full prices to 10s. per
ton advance. _ _

SEED:L-1,400 bags Bombay Linseed at 525. per qr.
PEARL SAGO.-300 boxes, large grain, 17s. 6d. ; small,
18s. per cwt.
DYEWOODS. —5O tons Maracaibo Fustic at £5 2s. 6d.;
and 100 tons. Barwood at £3 15s. per ton.
DRYSALTERIES, &c.—Eight cases Red Florence Argols
at 102 s. 6d. Six cases white Perugia, at 120 s. Five
casks discoloured Tartar, at 1255. to 1295. per cwt.
Three tons Tartaric Acid, Is. 110. per lb. Small sales
of Tyrol Sumac, at 7s. 220 bales of Gambier to arrive,
at 175., rejecting sea-damaged ; and 50 bales on the
spot at 18s. for sound. No further sales reported in
Brimstone. Moderate demand for Nitrate of Soda at
14s. 6d. to 165.; 1150 barrels of Potashes at 315., and
small sales of Pearls at 355. per cwt.,
• Orr.s, &c.—Palm, £46. P.Y.C. and South American
Tallow, fits, Olive Oil in good demand at fall rates,

gortkertt Eimts

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1860.

THE DAY'S NEWS.

In the House of Peers, last night, the business
was unimportant, and their lordships adjourned
at about twenty minutes before six o'clock.
In the House of Commons the attention of
members, and the anxiety of the country, as
these could be represented by a very large attend-
ance of members and strangers, were concentrated
on the financial statement of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer. The statement was as usual a
very long one, and at its conclusion, after a
merely formal proceeding, the House adjourned.
If it be a calamity—and who doubts it ?—to
have another Chinese war forced upon us, it is so
far, under the circumstances; satisfactory to have
facts, now in evidence, to prove that the powerful
expedition on its way to those distant seas, has

been really unavoidable, and that its action is
really indispensable in putting our commercial
relations with that nation upon a proper footing.
The-extensive and unprecedented preparations now
being made by the Celestials to defy the A llies,prove
that th6late Peihoodiiaster was not an accidental
_collision, but an unexcnsable -and pfenieditated.
insult: to our ambassador and that of France;
while .the fact of a hundred thousand troops
haiin4 now been stationed at the mouth of the.
Peiho, and the erection of strong fortifications
round Pekin, shew, beyond a doubt, that the
Chinese are determined on making every opposi-
tion in their power to our just and moderate
demands. This war, then, is justly undertaken
to avenge our national honour, and we have no
choice but to maintain it ei la outrance.

The French Emperor, by the latest accounts,
has taken another turn with reference to his
army in Italy. But we are not to suppose that
the announcement of orders countermanded im-
plies any alteration of prpise.-- Louis Napo.
leon
"can turn, and turn, and still go on." We
,yestgrday ,referred to the startling informa-
tion, and its accompanying explanatiot,-that
the French troops, were ready
_to -move into
Tuscany, in case any further opposition
should be offered by Sardinia to the annexa-
tion of Savoy- to France ; but this was
rather premature ; one of those mistakes
arising: from the precipitate loquacity of '''some
of his officials, which the, French Emperor
is occasionally called on to correct. We arenow,
therefore, informed by telegraph, that the order
for the French army in Italy to be in constant
readiness to march, has been countermanded.
But we should-like to know what practical dif-
ference this' Would-be soothing announcement will
makF.,, The whole arrangements for- a sudden
movement having been cometed, the original
`order, we can suppose, might be countermanded
pro forma", 'without substantially' counteracting
the arrangements already entered into with the
view of coercing Sardinia.

The leading journal accounts for the impend-
ing annexation of Savoy, and Nice :to France
thus :—" That.beforelhe war of last year, before
LOrd. COWley's mission to Vienna, a secret agree 7
inept had been entered into between the Royal
Fan4lies of France and Sardinia, by which the
,Emperor undertook to transfer to the King two.
Italtan provinces of his good ,friend and brother
the Emperor of Austria, and the King undertook,
in consideration of the said Italian provinces;
duly conquered and' deliVered to him, to give up
to France his hereditary dominions of Savoy-and
the county of Nice." This is just what we have
all along suspected. Such a bargain, however,
can never have the sanction of any -British
Government. , •

- If the real explanation of the Savey annexation
question, as above given, be disreputable, what_
shalt we think of the version:' of. the matter-: put
forth by the French. Government 'through the
_press ? "We are told," says a conteMporary,
that Savoy is to i e transferred to France because
its inhabitants speak the French language ; be-
cause it has only a geographical frontier; because
-a demonstration has been pt up which the French
press is pleased to consider as cOriclusive evidence
of the national will, and any attempt to put doWn
which the French press pronounces an act of hos-
tility to France." Why, here we have an enun-
ciation of principles by the French GovernMent
which, as has been truly observed, " seem to
summon all
.mankind to anarchy, rebellion, ,and
war,"principleS " which are not the less odious
because they attempt to cloak the r©al nature of
a questionable transaction, nor the less dangerous
because they have in them a certain travestied
likeness to the noble doctrines of freedom- and
self-government."

Some of the London,jprnaLs are remarking
upon the bitter feeling of/hatred which, it seems,
is manifested' through. the Spanish ; Peninsula
towards England and EngliShinen. This ani-
mosity against our country is considered to be
mainly the work of the Spanish press, which, it
appearS, is almost as much in, the power►of the
Government as the press of France is; and one
of
.our contemporarieS very properly observes,
that " when it is plain that the Ministry is the
real agent, and that the joarnalists are merely As
instruments, we think it is the duty of the
British representative to' '.remonstrate with a
Cabinet which uses these methods of exciting
public feeling."

All, uncertainty as to' Mr. Gladstone's ability
to make his financial statement to the House
of Conimons last night appeared to have been
removed on Thursday night. But in the interval
there has been, along with a good deal of anxiety,
some little amusement occasioned by the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer's peculiar position. The
Times thinks this cold has been made rather
too much of," not unreasonably remarking that
"the Budget., ought to. heymo clear that Phocion
might explain it just as well as Demosthenes."
"For," • wittily adda,:our contemporary, "we
always, if we can, rummage out a Greek or Latin
precedent for Mr. Gladstone ; and, if we gauge
rightly the acuteness of his old, friends the
Athenians, we believe that if a matter of = this
kind had been held over at Athens till Demos-
thenes could speak, that sharpwitted people
would have grievously suspected that a thing
in such absolute necessity of strong gilding was
slightly unsound."

The Standard very forcibly points out the fatal
consistency of our Whig Home Secretary, Sir G.
C. Lewis, in " regarding with complacency the
decent behaviour of the mob at St. George's," and
" finding nothing at all extraordinary or improper
in the attempted spoliation of the Church in seiz-
ing on her revenues,"—that is, by, abolishing
Church-rates, and thereby 'depriving hex of her

legal rightii of prove/V." WAI may our ep4tenl"
•
porary add, that 14 it is difficult todecide which $
more apparent in Sir GeOrgesorations-4s sense
of equity, the power of his logic, or his sympathy
with the mob. lii both questions, howev,er, he

will find the people of England against him•"

WHEN are we to see .the last of the changing
phases of the French-Italian question ?
up with all its vicissitudes from the commence-
ment of the war, the personal character and de-
signs of the French Emperor have been one of
the most pronlinent features in the picture'
-Louis -NAPOLEON may have been the victim et
many unworthy suspicions, and of muchexagge-
rated inference ; but it will be admitted that the
case was questionable, and the world had need to
be vigilant. But how is it that, when the lan-
guage of invective had received a short respite,
and we-had all --consented-toact a part of deco'
-rani toWards -each ether, Louis NAPOLEON Wlll
not allow a moment's lull to a blackened reP""
tation ? Surely it is his fate to conceive all
sorts of 'improbable plans and projects, and to
say—or have.said for_him—all sorts of improper
and questionable things, lest suspicions, long ne-
glected, should have a chance of dying out ; lest
accusations, plausible at the time, should be for
gotten ; lest critics should fall into the- illist4ce
of writing out his character before his Part i 5
played, or he has left the stage. French apolo-
gists, of course; admitted that the seeming caprice
which provoked a collision with Austria, needed
explanation. But, as the complications gre'ic
more intricate, and the task of defence more dif-

. _
ficult, the tone of the apologies gre more mar
niloquent and more ihOrOuil.. The represents'`
tive of French idealism measured things by
different standard from ours ; and, naturally, took
different means for. the accomplishment of 10.
great ends. We Were made: to7inOw,. tl2e
was the great Colossus who bestrode the narr°l(
world,' while we little_men peeped about for our
.
moral reasons, and motive's drawn,
.from the orcli
• ,
nary conduct of the actors in human affair*
and stale sequences of cause and consequence'
purpose and accomplishment. There was One in-
terpretatia -which* reconciled every anomalir
and sublimated every motive; and sanctified 014
means ; France warredfor an idea.

And so the master, magician is, after al, Prei.
paring ,a little afterpiece, where all the secrets °a
the tricks' with which the gaping audience
been startic,,l and deceived are to be revealed, an
the obverse false-bottom, hidden-slide side of
the
paraphernalia exposed to view ! The second s°'
dier of the Napoleon line seems at least deter;
mined, -like his great predecessor, .to put his ideas
into very substantial shape, and base his adc.4.,°-
caey of. them on very tangible bargains. Milit3c,.
reputation_ may be a pleasant thing, but el;
practical quid pro quo warrior has no adtnirati°
for tlie poetie'charaeter of the. f.dementedl Care
thaginian, nor any fancy for crossing the fierc
Alps itt pueris placeat et deelaniatio fiat. Cri
,ties are to be again involved in a great conflict
motives ; and every motive, whether below
°
above that of ambition and acquisitiveness, scel
to be once more melting into air: The mission °(
LOUIS NAPOLEON, for the true exposition
.01
which Europe has been so long waiting wit()
bated breath, is,—to annex Savoy and dice
France.
Perhaps it.is as well Long NAPLOLEON Sh°llla
e
'dins bring himself down to earth again; for l"itb
ordinary mortals may now, it is hopedaut
a
some reason the question which has been for
long time on the lips of most of usnarrielr
whether there are any denizens of this nesq
world, and this Western side of Europe, who art
seriously of opinion, that there is legitimateV
function in the modern system of National and
Cosmopolitan civilisation, to be discharged iR
what seems to be the peculiar French or Napo'
leonic way ? Has this modern civilization, 5°
much 'talked about, leisure to stand aside while
its foremost representatives and ministers: engage
in the intrigues of territorial ambition, and dis;
tort the energies of their people into the path °I
warfare or even revolution, merely to extend the
bounds of a material Empire, and put a province(
Or a district under one nominal banner instead
,
another ? How is it that the boasted pioneers °I.
civilization can, as the most serious part of their
missionary work,_ conseiously diverge from tb
onward path, and. distract the world about such
a
miserable subtleties as the right of a penPLe t
exchange its lawful ruler for a foreign and oce-
tous aggressor ? Until France shows a nt°,orei
single-eyed appreciation of her mission thail
this amounts to, we shall credit her with rintiliri°
but very ordinary, vulgar, , and poor-spirited
tions of the way in which' a. great nation 5110
show her love of great principles, and her send
of the moral destinies of mankind.
There is another and more particular asPect
this revived question of annexation, so often 3111-
pnted and so often denied, in which it very Pll-
fully embarrasses the whole Italian di as
ito
just when men thought that difficulty lc t,
nearer than ever to its practical settleinell
Loins NAPOLEON's interested and ambition
schemes will throw a vast moral weight int° the
other scale, and take out of his mouth the °Le-
what imposing arguments with which he
assailed the refractory Italian Powers. If Italia,
;
independence be a great and worthy cause, °lea
the assistance of allies, moved by personal en t
territorial ambition, cannot do it any good, blie
must encumber it with help. But what juncturtp
is chosen for this exposure of the cloven foot
This, precisely 'of all others, when the question
has assumed principally a moral and argurnen
of
tive aspect, and is taken out of the hands
of
material force to be -decided by the power
cii;
European opinion. The question is thrown

again. to be canvassed' on the lOwest grounds, a nct
,
` ivilatc:vo advantage had been gained on the side
of " liberation" and " freedom," so far as' France
is identified with the cause, is thrown. away.
whether it concerns Louis NAPOLEON to fritter
away the friendship and good-will of 'England,:
just as he had ostentatiously made advaoes to
revive and secure it, is a question for hiaiself. To
England it is a more important question, whether
her rulers are at 3,11'14 danger of committing her
to this policy of spoliation,---a question upon
which we might wish to 'be more satisfaCtorily
assured, than by the, hesitating and :apologetic
explanations of the 'Ministers on Tuesday night.