Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-06-18 00:00:00

by the assistance of the Advanced Liberals

Opposition to the Derby Ministry could never have
prevailed without their active co-operation. And
out of the whole Liberal party, therefore, and not
from the Whig section of it, must a Liberal Cabinet
be taken, if it is to have any chance whatever of
maintaining its position.

-...41...=.

THE DERBY MINISTRY AND THE WAR

IT is something for the Times to have admitted, as
it has done, that, after having read carefully over
Lord MALMESBURY'S official correspondence on the
Italian war, Lord DERBY'S Foreign Secretary had
done all that could be done to avert that calamity.
No one, indeed, can read it, and fail to arrive at any
other • conclusion. We questlpn if ever a British
Minister took more true pains to prevent hostilities
being had recourse to, between neighbouring States,
than Lord MALMESBURY is shown to have done on
this occasion. No one, we say, can read this corre-
spondence, which is now accessible:to the public at
large, and not rise from its perusal with a thorough
conviction, that the Government whose pacific efforts
it presents in such a forcible light, was indeed and
most pre-eminently a Government of peace. This
correspondence, in short, completely justifies the
Whole course which the Government of Lord DERBY
pursued on the question of the dispute between
France and Sardinia and, Austria. The Opposition,
in the debate on the Address, made it one of the
most formidable of their charges against the
Government, that they had failed to prevent the
But they left, it is evident, no permissible
means to prevent it untried. They took true pains
to adjust the dispute, and to bring both parties to a
sense of propriety upon the question at issue. This,
we repeat, is now confessed, even by the leading

journal, the principal organ of the late Opposition.
Well might Mr. DisRAELI ask them to suspend their
judgment until they had read the correspondence,
which was about to be laid on the tables of both
Houses of Parliament. It was professed to be a
ground, and a prominent one, of their want of
confidence, that the Government had not prevented
the war. That they had preserved the neutrality of
this country was, of course, indisputable. But they
had not prevented the war ! Now the evidence on
which to form a right judgment is.contained in this
correspondence. And yet the Opposition would not
wait until it was placed in their handS,—which was
done just as the division on the vote was about to
take place,—but must come to a conclusion upon it,
and return their verdict accordingly, without really
knowing the actual state of the case, as here set
forth. This correspondence, we repeat, was essential
to enable them to form a correct and impartial
opinion. And they would not wait for its produc-
tion ! But there it now is, in their hands, and before
the country : and in the eyes of Enrope, as well as
of England, it will constitute a complete justification
of the Cabinet of Lord DERBY.
The remonstrances, and the admonitions, which
Lord MALMESBURY felt it his duty to address to
the parties concerned, on the part of her Majesty's
Government, were conveyed without any partiality
whatever to all alike ; in the true spirit of amity, yet
of strict neutrality. He instructed, for instance,
our Minister at Paris, Lord COWLEY, to represent

to the French Government, that there was no just

cause for the hostile feeling that was being
displayed. "No portion of the territory of either,"
he said, "is threatened by the other; no commercial
privileges are asked or refused by either ; no point
of national honour is at stake in either,"—signifi-

cantly adding, that " the solution of a sentiment
which has apparently brought these two States to
the verge of collision, appears to her Majesty's
Government to be found in mutual faults of temper
and indiscretion on the part of the two Governments,
and neither party appears disposed to make such
sacrifices as would put an end to the panic which
they have caused, and the practical evils which they
may create." And therefore, that "it is under these
circumstances that an impartial State like England
is justified in proffering to her two allies the best
and most sincere advice that she can give,",