Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-04-29 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES, FRIDAY, APRIL 29 1859

of `such a course, ort'thii part of the Goveinment of
the country, at once produced, showed how properly
sensitive is the public mind upon this subject of
intervention in foreign quarrels, particularly at such
a moment and, indeed, upon the question of war
under any circumstances. We believe that what-
ever hopes her Majesty's Ministers may have reason
to entertain of securing a majority—be its calculation
what it may—in the Parliament now in course of
election, would have been utterly scattered to the
winds, had there been any well-grounded belief that
they really intended to take part, either for one
party or another, in the impending war. But the
apprehension of such a procedure, if it were ever
seriously entertained, has been already in some
degree dispelled .by Lord DERBY'S assurance to
the contrary. It was fortunate for the Government,
as it was advantageous, we cannot but think, to the
country, that even so purely convivial an occasion as
the Lord Mayor's Easter banquet presented the
timely opportunity of the Premier giving such an
important assurance ; and it must .have been re-
ceived, we feel persuaded, by the great body of the
people, at such a moment, with no ordinary satisfac-
tion and thankfulness.

Lord DERBY felt it to be his duty, he declared, to
avail himself of that opportunity of disabusing the
public mind. The citizens of London had been
alarmed by being told, by no less influential
an authority than Lord JOHN RUSSELL, that the
head of the Government had declared it was
intended to interfere, and to do so on the most
unpopular side too, in this most deplorable, this
most criminal conflict. But it was too serious
a matter to be thus dealt with at the hustings.
However, Lord DERBY has utterly repudiated the
alarming idea. "My Lord Mayor," with animation,
he exclaimed, " I take the liberty here—and I
rejoice to have the opportunity of saying it em-
phatically and publicly—that nothing could have
been further from our views. I think that if the
words which I used had been correctly represented
to that noble lord he would have seen that it was
impossible that they could have had that meaning.
What I • did • say was this, that we intended to
maintain a strict neutrality, but that when a million
or more of men were in arms, when a contest was
already engaged in, when war was not only imminent
but actually in existence—and that, moreover, in
Italy and upon the shores of the Mediterranean—
it was incumbent and absolutely necessary for us,
looking to the great interests which we had there
involved, looking to our situation, and the military
position we occupy there—it was necessary that we
should be in such a state as to maintain and defend
the security of our possessions and to preserve the
British flag and the British arms from the possibility
of an insult among any of the contingencies-which
might arise." "Well might such a declaration as this
elicit, as it did with apparently electrical effect, the
prolonged cheers of the distinguished company to
which it was addressed. It must, we say, have been
a great relief to the anxiety, not of the City of
London only but of the kingdom at large, to find
that " nothing could have been further from the
views " of the Government, than any idea of
involving this country in the war which is now
impending.
It is fortunate, perhaps, in some respects, that it
should be at the moment of such an appeal being
made to the country, that the very crisis of this
impending war should all at once have arisen. For
it has evidently had this good effect,—an effect
which probably not even Parliament itself, in its
ordinary coarse, might so fully have realized,—that
it has influenced the Government to be open, and
communicative, and candid, as to the circumstances
of the present conjuncture, and their policy under
them. "In the present state of public affairs," Lord
DERBY wound up his eloquent address by declaring,
"charged as I am with the fearful responsibility
which attaches to a minister of this country in these
anxious times, I was desirous that there should be
between me and the British public no secret as to
the course which her Majesty's Government have
adopted, and as to the position in which we stand ;
no secret as to the counsels by which we intend•to be
guided ; and I greatly mistake the character of my
countrymen if, in supporting that determined, and
at the same time that peaceful policy, and in laying
our every political thought and feeling open before
the knowledge of our countrymen, we shall not
secure that amount of confidence and support which
is essential to every minister, and the possession of
which is the greatest and highest reward for the
anxieties and toils to which he is exposed." This
ventilation of the question, we are humbly of
opinion, cannot but be beneficial to the public
interests, at such a moment. One of our respected
contemporaries, we perceive, has called this timely
speech of the Premier's " a hustings appeal." And
no doubt it will, practically be felt as such. But, in
justice to Lord DERBY, it must be admitted, that
he did not go oat of his way to make it. The
opportunity very seasonably, very fortunately pre-
sented itself ; and he would have been much to
blame had he neglected to avail himself of it.

ENGLAND AND THE WAR.

THESE two words are parts of speech which it is
to be hoped will never come to express anything
that implies a connection. England and the impend-
ing war must remain separated by a great gulf. It
is well that she is what she is—an island :

" hedg,'d in with the main,
That water-walled bulwark, still secure,
And confident from foreign purposes."
It is fortunate that, between her and the fair plains
which war now threatens to desolate, there is " the
ocean's waving tide,"—that she has no frontier
interest to protect, save that which has the sea

" To serve it in the office of a wall."
For she is thereby secure from that risk of actual
connection with the conflict which otherwise she
might have incurred. The blessings of peace can
thus, assuredly, be all the better guaranteed to us.
There would, undoubtedly, be the less excuse for our
allowing ourselves to be involved in such a calamity,
in such a crime, as that of which the Continent is
beginning to witness the perpetration. The public
opinion of this country is, to the people's honour,
most decidedly adverse to one and all the sanguinary
disputants on this occasion. There is no sympathy
with one side or the other. Not but that there are
principles- involved in the conflict, in which one can-
not but feel deeply interested, knowing, as one does,
the practical value of them here at home. But they
are in too unsafe hands to promise any immediate
issue for good. And they are placed under circum-
stances, in which they are more likely to be abused,
than be turned to profitable account for the interests
they are designed to promote.
At any rate, it is not the duty of England to in-
volve herself in such a quarrel—least of all to be a
party in so unjustifiable, and therefore so wicked a
war. It has been our opinion, it will be remembered,
all along, that her Majesty's Government would