Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-02-24 00:00:00

IHE NORTHERN' TIMES THURSDAY, FEBRUARY- 24, 1859

.
people at first cost, and exchanged for cotton."'
Now if, under any circumstances, a projected
extension of direct commercial intercourse between
Belgium and the United States could have created
any jealousy on the part of England, this appar-
ently indispensable section of the scheme would at
once remove all apprehensions. Is it likely, when
the Southern States have a reliable market for
their Cotton at all times open to them here in
England, and their returns therefrom are obtained
in the regular course of accredited mercantile
transactions, that they would ever prefer the
precarious ,and- less remunerative results of such
dubious affairs as " exhibitions of Continental
industry, taste, and manufacturing skill," in their
principal towns ? Why, the Southern planters
want the money as soon as ever it can be obtained
—and with as little trouble, as well as with as
little delay, as possible. They are not men of any
energy or enterprise for such a complicate system
of " reciprocity," even were it one that was really
feasible and promising, which most assuredly it is
not. They grow their Cotton, and gather and
clean it, and pack it up in bales ; and this is quite
as much as they will take the trouble .to do,—
beyond, of course, receiving the money for it, with
all convenient despatch. It is not as though
Cotton were
_a drug in the markets! The supply
of American Cotton is at present scarcely equal to
the demand—from England alone, to say nothing
of Belgium, or any other country of Continental
Europe.
It is true that Belgium is already a consumer of
Cotton. But for every single pound she procures
from America, England gets perhaps a hundred
pounds,—that is to say, the exports of Cotton to
England are probably a hundred times greater
than those to Belgium. Very likely Belgium
could manufacture more extensively, and therefore
consume more Cotton, had she the requisite
capital. But this is just the practical difficulty of
the whOle case. And hence the chimerical idea of
paying for their larger supplies by means of
" exhibitions of Continental industry," instead of
in the usual commercial course of proceeding, in
order to get rid of that difficulty. England,
therefore, we repeat, has no occasion to look with
jealousy upon any such scheme as this. Let
Belgium by all legitimate means extend her
mercantile intercourse with the United States, if
she can. 'But were we her adviser, we should
certainly put in our very earnest caution against
relying upon any such expedients as those which
appear to have been communicated to the United
States' Government, and at which, we are persua_
ded, the practical Americans whom they are
intended more immediately to interest must laugh
in their sleeves.

he consented, at very considerable inconvenience,
to remain for a short time. Mr. GLADSTONE'S

labourfeithpr is, or in the course of a very few
days will be, brought to a close, and he will be re-
placed by a permanent officer, and when he
appears in the House of. Commons—to which
I trust he will be shortly restored —he will
have every power to satisfy them of the
wisdom of the course which has been pursued."
All this, save the latter object, has now been_
literally accomplished. Mr. GLADSTONE has
himself recommended the reforms of the lonian
system of government and legislation—Sir JOHN
YOUNG has retired—Mr. GLADSTONE has remained
—but at length he has brought his labours to a
close, and he has been replaced by a permanent
officer. More than this, he has also been restored
to his seat in the House of , Commons, which his
acceptance of the office of Lord High Commissioner,
although for only a few days, obliged him to vacate.
And now, we have no doubt, the time is close at
hand when he will realize, in conclusion, the
remaining expectation of Lord DERBY,—chew to
Parliament and the country that he has " every
power to satisfy them of the wisdom of the course
which has been pursued."
The truth is, that our position in the lonian
Republic is sadly misapprehended.; and hence, no
doubt, the eagerness with which certain of the
more violent opponents of Lord DERBY'S Admin-
istration
.have endeavoured to'arraign it at the bar
of public opinion for what it has done. " What
are facts ?" asked, a day or two since, the Morning
Star—a paper certainly with no party predilections
in favour of the Administration, but which, in all
honesty and independence, has thus answered the
question :—" Certainly they are not such as they
are misrepresented by the assailants of Mr. GLAD-
STONE and his mission. The lonians" are
discontented under the Protectorate, but it was
not the appearance among them of the great
English Philenhist which made them so. Yet
that is assumed by these assailants. The despatch
of Sir JOHN YOUNG proves that in the opinion
of that officer it must ever be unprofitable to
maintain a British Protectorate over the Seven
Islands, and that discontent and irritation must be
permanent if it exists. We entirely concur in the
opinion, and have never ceased to urge the
adoption of what is, in our apprehension, the just
as well as logical course to take. But as the
abandonment of the Protectorate is absolutely
rejected, what remains except to try what may be
done to reconcile the lonians to it, by giving them,
from the hands of a man whom they know to be
friendly towards them, a Constitution leaving their
Government entirely in their own hands, and
limiting the authority of the British Crown, as it
never yet has been limited, strictly to the terms of
the treaty ?"
Such, then, is briefly and simply the fact of the
whole matter. Ministers did what, under the
circumstances, they thought best ; and they
selected the very best man they could find for
what they wished to have tried. We cannot,
therefore, but coincide with our liberal
contemporary, just quoted, when it adds,—" If the
Government should deem it permissible to enter
upon a Parliamentary discussion, we do no not see
what they have to fear on the merits of their
conduct." •

The Liverpool Corporation Water Works Bill was read
a second time in the House of Commons yesterday.

We understand that two new baronetcies are about to
be conferred—one on Mr. Cunard, the great shipowner,
to whose energy and enterprise we owe the establishment
of the line of steam-packets well known by his name;
and the other, on Sir Charles Nicholson, whose well-
deserved reputation in the Australian colonies fully justi-
fies the new honour.— Globe. .

Loss OF A. STEAMER. —A telegraphic despatch, received
at Lloyds yesterday morning, from their agent at Milford,
reports the abandonment of the Scotia (screw steamer),
Captain Atkins master, from Rouen for the Clyde, on the
night of Monday last, off Skobham Island, the crew sav-
ing themselves by the boats. The Scotia, it appears,
had met with an accident to her engines, and when
abandoned had seven feet water in her engine-room, and
was fast sinking. The crew had reached Milford in
safety.