Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-08-03 00:00:00

and then cried " halt " to the Emperor at
the victorious outset of his long-weighed plans
which announced, as the reason for his dictating
comparatively light terms to a humiliated foe,
that ' very external pressure which the foe him-
self 'alleged for accepting them ; in which
.by public

acts of complicity and countenance he first 'let loose
the dogs. of revolution, order to restrain wham'

he abruptlyl-etired from a disappointed contest and
an unfulfilled "programme ;!' which at Villafranca
,pretended to expel Austria from , the fairest.portion
of Italy, and yet guaranteed her that position of
advantage which Jeaves her actual mistress of the
situation say it will
,he only a completion, or
!' at least a further 'decisive step, in this anomaly, that.
a Conference of 'despotism shonld be held Under the;
pretext of securing' the rights of nations. What
makes Englishmen the. more distrustful of the Con-
.gress,-. and the more doubtful of our taking part in
its. deliberations, is this air of improbability and un-
truth, which it contracts from the whole character
1 .of, the. campaign, and of the man who began, carried
on, and brought it to a premature close. English-
► men, who were not' flatterers childr en, would not
believe that the man who enslaves France was sin-
cere. in his engagement to free Italy. They could
see . nothing' in his character, or career, or position,
to lend the' slightest credibility to such an engagement.
They compared the;position of Louis NAPOLEON in
his own country with that of Austria in Italy.
They 'admitted "that there was a " necessity" far
• political oppression in both countries. But while in
• the case of Austria that necessity was to preserve a
territory which Europe by, treaty had guaranteed
her, and that in exchange ?or what she had
herselt:yrieldeir; the: necessity in the case of Louis
NAPOLEON was to preserve, for himself a position
which he had nefariously, and irk violation of
solemn engagements, arbitrarily assumed. They
well understood the position of an empire, which
finding itself in possession of certain territorial
rights—Or what the public law of Europe had made
legal—adopts as a tradition; of justice, the most
effective policy- to maintain them. HcOwever much
they condemned the details of that policy; they were,
compelled to acknowledge a. great difference in the
position of the present French. ruler, who, having
crept into power, over the Republic, prider,the mask
of the extremest Republican. opinions, afterwards
used the advantage of his temporary authority as -a
means of. making it permanent, by destroying the
Constitution which it was first ihity, to defend ;
and: did all this with the deliberate intention, that.if
the suspicion of his designs should provoke a revolu-

tion; he would: suppress it by a 'cold.blooded
massacre,"under the pretence- of "saving society!"
There was no• earthly, certainly no heavenly

14eessity, that Louis INAPMEON should be the
prmanent ruler of France. It is, therefore; for the
Mere aggrandisement of his own:power; for his own
pleasure and ambition, that one: man has destroyed
the liberty of speech and political action among a
great people. But' the ascendancy' in Italy
tradition which united Europe herself has embodied
into Austrian pciiey, and whichthe latter has. found it
:necessity to maintain by political oppression; The
position of Austria in Italy, therefore, is infinitely
more excusable than that of-. Louis NAPOLEOV in
France ; for the one keeps in subjection a people who
were, whether rightly or wrongly, given to her,
and who were never 'yet a nation ; but the. other
oppresses and degrades his own country, for no end
that even hypocrisy can colour), but solely to•consoli-
date his personal power, and . secure in helplessness._
the prize of his ambition.

To suppose that Lours NAPOLEON can renounce
thee-traditions of despotism at Zurich is, therefore, a
height of simplicity to which not even an-undiplo-
matic Englishman can attain. England has been
top honest for European Cettgresses. She will be

top honest for this ; unless, indeed, Lord JorrN
RUSSELL plunges her into: a black complicity in
anworthy'designs, or throws her with simple' child-
ishness into the treacherousdap of diplomacy.
It might be asked—since- the traditions' of liberty,
Of which alone England can, be the becoming mouth-
Woubit sound so a' ward and initi6propos in
the .Council•. of, Princes, whet can be their motive for

inviting her, their special representative, to spoil the

harmony ?' This_ the more inextricably - Tngland

becomes involved in the complex arrangements of

'the. Great PoWers,

- .
the greater opportunity is

socured for: turning to advantage the ;accidents of

politica?, eomplications. They weave their nets round
the tion, in hopes to see him their prey. Already
the .Tmernal des Debat& speculates with satisfaction

on the joy which Frame is destined to confer upon
the Powers which compose the Contkiental system,
in the.discomfiture or a doubtful and ill-affected ally.
Alreadyshe gloats with rapture on the orgy with
Which confederate despotism shall.-celebrate a foul'

aid hellish triumph:
Let England be•ola her guard., With all her faults,
slie is. the one great Power in Europe which- possesses

a conscience. But this high possession entails upon

her the tremendous responsibility of noukishing7-the

hopes of liberty, and 'strengthening the securities: of
international justice. . ,

NOTES OF THE DAY

The horrors. of the Italian war are by no MOMS at an
end, although hostilities have ceased. The would of the
French army, especially, are represented to, be, many of
thin, in a state of great suffering, The army, encumbered
as. it is by so many wounded men, and witlithe heat and
dist so excessive, is only able to move out of Italy at the
rate of eight miles a day. The effect of the heat on the
wounded is described as terrible in the extreme ; many of
them sinking under it, and; thus ending their sufferings in
death. The number of wounded men at Brescia alone is
stated to be seven thousand. It is apprehended, that before
It4ly is evacuated, the mortality in this way will have been
enrmous.

tf hg States of tb.e, Church have become infected ea
s ugly with the revolutionary spirit of the late war in
L bardy; that there will be great difficulty, it appears, in
re onciling.aie peciploto continue under ,the papal dominiop,.
In the Itoniap,na, they have actually. signed a declariition
against the rope; expressing a desire .to . be annexed to
Sardinia. They have left the yoke, of: the, Popes they
deilare ; and will not submit to it, any more.. These cir-
cuinstanees are being the occasion of great embarassinent to
both Austria and Franee, but especially the latter; nor are
they the only consequences: of the recent diaturbances which
are inducing the French Emperor to wish that he were free
from the Italian difficulties with which he .has encumbered
hiniself. 1' .:.

Whatever may have been the advantage of our statute
fairs in the olden time, when the people in the rural districts
were more unsophisticated than they are at present, there
can be no doubt, we believe, that such institutions are now,
almost everywhere, great social evils. In some of the agri-
cultural districts, under the conviction that those fairs were
most -pernicious and fruitful sowers of mischief, they have
already been abolished ; and we are glad to find that a
similar social reform is now going on in Gloucestershire.
The matter has seen earnestly taken up by the grilat belay.
of the indowliera and farmers of ,that eptuq. The faire