Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-04-26 00:00:00

nomination in Liverpool will take place at atven
o'clock on Friday, and for South Lancashire on Tues-
day next, at Newton. The Conservative candidates,
Messrs. Egerton and Legh, are to have a monstre
meeting today at noon at the Amphitheatre. The_
first borough: elections in England ii-ill take place on
to-morrow (Wednesday), and will include Maryle-
bone, Lambeth, and Southwark. The City of
London election will take place on the following,
day. Lord Harry Vane has retired from the repre-
sentation of the Southern Division of the county of
-Durham. Mr, Wortley has ceased to be a can-
didate for Bute, and Mr. Dalton has re-
tired from Lambeth. The contest in Birmingham
is attracting great attention from the fact that the
most determined effort is to be made to defeat John
Bright, Esq. It is not • much expected that the
attempt will be successful, but, under the direction of
the Carlton Club, everything possible will be done to
accomplish it. •The.-txcitement is very great in the
town. Yesterday, a monstre meeting of the friends
of Mr. Bright aid Mr. Scholefield was held under
the auspices of the Mayor, in the Town Hall: Both
candidates addressed the meeting, and Mr. Bright's
reception was, perhaps, the most enthusiastic . ever
given to a public man. The cheering is reported to
have lasted. for ten minutes. In another column will
he found a report of the meeting.
The news received from India and China, pub.
fished in a considerable portion of our impression of
yesterday, and, repeated in another column this
morning, adds but little-to that- previously known.
It is reported that the' Begum and the Nana had
come down to the Nepaul with 8,000 men, and
that Brigadier Kelly was Watching them. Another
attempt to produce mutiny among- the Sikhs had
, been discovered at Lahore. The increase in the
import duties continued to occupy a large share of
attention. The Furious, with Lord Elgin on board,
had arrived at Galle, en route for England. Sir
Michael Seymour is about to return from Hong
Kong to England.
Yesterday were issued the Board of Trade returns
for the month and three months ending the 31st of
March, 1859. We ,subjoin a statement of the total
declared value of the exports of British and Irish
produce and manufactures during the month and
three months, including only the ' " enumerated"
articles. :

For the month.' For three months.
1857 £9,636,2.07 .... £26,634,036
1858
1859
Including the '• unenumerated articles," the
aggregate exports stand thus :
For the month. For three months.
1857
1858
1859

THE WAR AND ITS PERILOUS ISSUES.

IT is important, if one would come to a correct

conclusion upon this subject, not to give way to any
political, or party prejudices ; whether against
Austria, on the one hand, or in favour of Piedmont,
on the other. It may be all very true, that the
latter Power has shown an .earnest desire to intro-

duce free institutions among its people, whereas the
other maintains the old system, in all its sternness; of
an absolute autocracy. As the subjects ourselves of
a free State, all our sympathies are 'naturally with
Sardinia. But this must not blind ns to the true
state of the case. Austria has hitherto done,
nothing to precipitate a war with France and Sax.;
dinia—with Sardinia, as the .Power that has come
the nearest with its menaces to the Austrian frontier,
and with France as backing Sardinia in its hostile
attitude towards Austria. Whatever there may be
amiss as respects the ltalian States, Austria has not
refused to have the matter examined, and any thing
wrong there might be found redress. The Con-
gress to which Austria had readily agreed to submit
the whole case, was to be empowered to do this. Of
course, the Treaties of 1815 were not to be disturbed.
And both the great political parties in our own
Parliament maintained that it would be most mis-
chievous to interfere with those Treaties. " Austria,"
Said Lord CLARENDON, in the debate last week on
the state of Europe, —" Austria has a right to take
her stand upon the Treaties of 1815." Lord PAL-
, MERSTON'S remarks on this' point, in the debate in
-the Commons; were more explicit, and more emphatic.
" There is not, I apprehend," he said, " any preten-•
sions to set aside existing Treaties by the infraction
of the Austrian possessions in the north of Italy.
The ground on which the position of Austria was
established in 1815 was the preponderating power of
France, and its wide extended aggression. The
apportionment made in the north of Italy was all
directed against a recurrence of that danger, and
men did not at that time -so much consider, I pre-
sume, what effect that apportionment might have on
the welfare generally of the States of Italy. That,
however, was done by treaty, and that- treaty is the
charter by which Europe at present holds its politi-
cal distribution of territory. I have no doubt there
can be on the part of no one any desire to violate
that treaty. Those arrangements of Central Italy
are matters in which France and Austria must be
too much enlightened, and too desirous of promoting
peace, not willing to vitiate it ; and if that be done
the legitimate cause of war appears entirely to dis-
appear." This is all, no doubt, quite true. But see
how France and Sardinia have been preparing for
hostilities, which could only be aimed at a violation
of that Treaty,—in a word, at revolutionising Italy ;
and this, too, we are of those who believe, with an
eye, and a keen one, to their own aggrandisement
respectively. And would not this be reverting to a
very similar. state of things to that which this very
Treaty of I'Bls was designed to counteract, and to
obviate ? "The preponderating power of France,
and its wide extended aggression." And must not
this be again the evil that would have to be over-
come, if France, through the conflict she has so
evidently been provoking, once more gain an ascen-
dancy in Italy.?
And that France and Sardinia have to the last
moment, been provoking war, the accounts we have
received from those countries must unmistakably
testify. Among the latest of those accounts, it was
:remarked with what feverish haste preparations for
hostilities were being:pushed forward, in all 'cliree-
lions, at the very time, too, when negotiations were
going on for their disarmament. It was stated, for
'instance, a day or two since, that "in France the
Breat squadron had been ordered to the Mediterra-
nean, and had already steamed in defiance of wind
and weather ; the eeheloning of troops along the
lines, of railway to the sonth.eontinued to be carried
on with so little - concealment that the prefect-
beridden journals are allowed to announce the
movements of troops, and the statement of the
Lyons liailsvay- Company having been ordered to
prepare for the conveyance of .25,000 men per diem
is beyond .question. In Germany and Lombardy,
where the army was not in a state of such forward
preparation at the commencement of the year as that
of France, councils of war are sitting daily, They
manage things were quietly and more cleverly here,
where all the men on duty are always in a state of
such constant drill that very little extra exertion is
requisite to makethem ready to take the field. In
Piedmont, on the other hand, the volunteers are
continuing to pour in—a horrible nuisance, both in
the event of a peace or a war, as in the one event
they arc pretty
sure to indulge in a little revolu,
tionary Amusement ; and
in case of war their only
use is Its) molutionilw the Austrian Fistls of the

al MIIA1(1:117

.;:: 11, • •` -

peninsula whore the natives may be only lukewar m
in the hallowed cause." Now certainly this was
not only provoking,: but threatening toe, 'Austrh.
No power callable of defending itself could

reasonably be expected to submit to
such proceedings, under any .cireumAtances. Hence
the 'peremptory demand on Sardinia to put a dap
to them—to dissolve the free corps that she had
raised as a menace -to, and in 'preparation for an
attack upon Austria, and to withdraw' her troops
from the• frontier of the 'ltalian. States under
Austrian pfotection,—insi-sting on, a definitive reply-
in three days, or Austria would immediately there-
after march her armies upon Sardinia.
Much as we must regret sxch issues as these—
much as it is to be deplored that, after all, the plains
of Piedmont and of Lombardy should be deluged with_
blo—od—it must yet be acknowledged that the Power
which may now strike the first blow, is not the
Power which has provoked the qUarrel. • Upon
France and Sardinia does the responsibility now
more immediately rest Hand a fearful 'responsibility
it is. "If a war takes place in Italy," said Lord
MALMESBURY the other everting in the House of
Lords, " I would. entreat your lordships to consider
what will be the consequences and the result of that
war. That .war, if once it is commenced, will
be no common war. It will embrace the whole
of Italy ; and not only that, but it will spread.to
other countries. It will bring within its vortex
republicans and exiles of every grade and character
and that being so, I may be permitted to use my
utmost persuasion with others to endeavour to avert
so great a catastrophe. The only consolation we
have is this, that we have neglected no
_means to
prevent - those, great disasters which such a war
would lead to ; and if it is the will of God that such
a disaster should visit Europe, then let those who
have been the'means of bringing it on reap the ad-
vantages of it." And reap they assuredly will ; but
it must be to very perilous profit, eventually;, if it
be profit all. HaVing sown the wind, they will,
reap the -whirlwind. - --- • --

OUR FOREIGN POLICY

AT THE PRESENT

CRISIS:

THIS has now become a subject
,of ektraordinary
interest to the country. In times of peace, it is
important that there should be some confident
assurance regarding the foreign policy of our rulers,
if only as a guarantee for 'the maintenance 'of a good
understanding, with the rest of Europe,. and of the
world. Wide-spread, and complicated withal, as .1
the foreign relations: of. her Majesty's Government
now are, there would seldom be wanting oppor-
tunities of discord and strife, if not also of war, were.
that policy in anywise such as to provoke dissension
or But when war's alarms are already
sounding in our ears,—when one of the Great Powers
of Europe has actually cried havoc, and is now
letting slip the dogs of war,—it is a matter not only
of all absorbing interest, but it is just that which is
probably to decide the nation's good or evil destiny
for at, least :another generation. Ever since
..the
present year has dawned upon us,
_has there been an-
uneasy feeling abroad on the very matter which has
now come to a crisis. The Emperor' of the French
sounded a war-note on New Year's Day ; the King
Of Sardinia took it up soon afterwards ; and, ever
since, hate both these Potentates been pursuing a
course of hostility and provocation towards Austria,
which has now fully reached its culminating point.
Louis NAPOLEON was, no doubt, -on New Year's
Day, in secret confederacy with VICTOR EMMANUEL.
And it shows, as lord DERBY hai well observed,
how careful persons in high positions, and whose
words therefore have often a significance which,
under --other circumstances, they could never bear—
how careful they ought to be in their allusions _
the GOverninents of other countries. " I must say,"
were the Premier's remarks on the occasion we refer
to, "and it shows how careful we ought to be in
words and expressions —particularly when they
come from persons in high places,—that I attribute
much of the distrust, much of the anxiety, and the
military preparation that has supervened to those
unfortunate words that fell from the King of
Sardinia when opening the Sardinian legislature,"—
words, however, which, there is every reason to
believe, were not only deliberately used, but used
with the full concurrence of, if not in positive
concert with the French Emperor. And when,
along with all this, there was begun by' each of
these Sovereigns a course of military preparation--
a providing of warlike armaments on a most
stupendous scale —which could only have reference
to some expected, perhaps some wished-for out-
,break, it ought to excite no surprise that Austria,
against whom it was all so obviously - directed,
should think it high time to stand upon the defen-
sive. Not but that Austria's past conduct
towards the Italian States has in many
respects been most objectionable. But this
does not justify either Louis NAPOLEON of France,
or VICTOR EMMANUEL of Sardinia, in his provocation

of the war that is now beginning. As Lord DERBY
went on to observe,—" The moment the King of
Sardinia, stepping out of his legitimate course of
watching over the property and welfare of his own
people, of consulting their liberties, upholding their
interests, and consolidating their prosperity, so as
thereby to secure to himself and the country over

which he swayed the sceptre the approbation and

support of all the nations of the Continent, and more
especially of this country, and of all those nations
that have at heart the cause of peace and freedom—
when stepping out of this allotted and most honour-
able station, the King of Sardinia supposed that a cry
of anguish came forth from Italy, and assumed that to
that cry of anguish Sardinia could not be indifferent ;
when in the Senate of Sardinia allusion was made to
the discontent that prevailed throughout the Lom-
bardo-Venetian provinces, and the occupation of
Piacenza was treated as a standing menace to the
security of Europe—when all these statements and
allusions were made, tending undoubtedly to show
that an outbreak in the Lombardo-Venetian terri-
tories, if not actually stimulated, would not be
discouraged, but would be looked upon as the
legitimate expression of national feeling; in which
the sympathies, and even more than niere moral aid
might be brought advantageously to bear,—when
such statements were made, it can hardly be consid-
ered unnatural to her own protection and the
maintenance of her own territories as well as the
order of those districts, that she should feel herself
dissatisfied, and that preparations should be made
on a larger and more extensive scale by Austria ;
and I am. bound to say that, so far as language
could go, the declarations of Austria from first to
last have been unintermitting and constant—namely,
that so long as Sardinia confined herself within her
own territories, and did not interfere with those
obligations to which Austria was bound, in that case,
Sardinia had no reason to apprehend any attack
A'om her, and she was n,ot unwilling, under the
friendly auspices of France avid Finglwl—if France
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