The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-02-27 00:00:00

PR' NORTHERN TIMES.---IAVEIWOOL, FRIDAY.

of a character which can only be overcome by
a large Reform of the Legislature. The absence
of that practical element which produces so
much wealth and prosperity for the people was
folloWed by the loss of an artily. The want of
that common sense and intelligence which mark
the movements of the public mind, and directs
its action, may be traced in the crude laws
passed for our guidance. Totals and not prin-
ciples, are the sole study of our financiers. And
hybrid political economy of the most besotted
and selfish order is suffered to feed on the in-
dustry of the nation. How then are we to
grapple with this long list of chronic evils ?
We must endeavour to infuse the popular
element—the purer national breath into the nos-
trils of the jaded hacks of party, and monopo-
lisers of place. Charlatans are harmless in
politics, but when the national interests of a
people fall into the hands of quacks there is
grave danger to be apprehended. A Throne
may be compromised, or a State convulsed
and beggared.
Both events are to be dreaded and deplored.
A. Crown may lose its power, and a people their
security, by the loose and random shuffling of
State cards, or a blind adherence to individual
views opposed to the national will. To avoid all
these difficulties and dangers, Parliamentary
Reform is imperatively demanded. If there be
truth in Protection, reason in Free Trade, or
common honesty in the language of the public,
a sweeping measure of Reform is necessary. No
immovable or self-denying Stoic will pretend to
say that legislation keeps pace with the growth
and wants of the Empire. The great struggle of
the day is to force retrogression on the country.
In finance there is no lack of bold views with
regard to income, and no degree of modesty
when treating of expenditure. The quasi Retro.:
gressionists would carry us back to the prodigal
income of the Aberdeen Cabinet—to the rank
Whig money laws enacted by the Peelites, and
would support the PALMERSTON expenditure of
1357• The present Ministry have notions far
beyond their modern predecessors with regard to
the charges levied on the public, but they look
further back than Mr. DISRAELI or Mr. GLAD-
STJNE, with respect to the principles of taxation
on which the wants of the State are to be sup-
plied. They would go back to the palmy days
of trade restriction and prohibitions of commerce.
No vestige of indirect taxation is to be found in
their Ministerial programme three years hence
They go to the poll with this pledge inscribed
on their electioneering banner, and the multitude,
from whom the revenue iseto be raised by indirect
taxation, are not to have any more voice in the
great contest of true principles of finance and
government, than they possess at the present
moment.

This is not the time, in Lord PALNIERSTON'S
Opinion, to discuss the question, or to ask the
Legislature to bestow a passing thought on Par-
liamentary Reform ! But it would be difficult
to rake out of the whole catalogue of human
affairs a greater mass of subjects of vital import-
ance to a great industrial and civilised community
than that which we see spread before our rulers
and Legislators—and they have taken upon
themselves to consider and decide . The
present session is to do more for the good or
evil of the British Empire than any that has
preceded it within the present century. The
increase in our numbers, and the proportionate
decrease in the supplies of food and staple pro-
ducts required for the employment of the
; the collapse of our Colonial Empire,
to which is to be attributed the prevailing
dearth of Tropical products ; the surrender
of the Crown's prerogative in questions
relating to the supply and quality of money
in which taxation shall be levied and paid, and
the legislative power of interference bestowed on
Joint Stock Bankers, with the employment and
wages of labour, and the prices of all commodi-
ties, are matters which might well claim the
attention of an assembly of SOLOMONS and
LYCIRGUSES. Seeing the positively frightful
magnitude of the great material questions which
are dependent upon Parliamentary Reform for
an adjustment, which shall be as intelligible as
it will be acceptable to the nation at large, Sir
JOSHUA WALMSLEY showed some indiscretion in
asking Reform members to support him in his
motion for a Select Committee to enquire into
the propriety of extending the franchise.
Sir Josnun's mistake was not, however, a
sufficient justification for the alacrity displayed
by " Liberal" members in giving their votes to
the Ministry. Mr. J. C. ENVART took Mr.
HORSPALL'S place on the memorable division ;
but, as he gave the Premier a silent vote, we
shall not venture to criticise his motives. The
question was one of Parliamentary Reform, and
it ought not to have been blinked, and made an
excuse for swelling the majority of an anti-
Reform Cabinet. But all the little whims and
evasions shown in this division will only tend to
convince the country still more strongly of the
necessity of reforming the House of Commons ;
and the public are much indebted, to Sir
JOSHUA WALMSLEY for the insight his motion
has given them, into what they have to expect,
should a general election end in the return of
the same gentlemen to the Senate. We have all
heard of the ingenuity of AAIASIS, and how he
secured the devotion of heathens—and it would
appear as though a large.section of Reform Re-
presentatives are quite ready to follow the
example of the crafty Egyptian, to secure the
favour of the Cabinet, and the glorification of
their constituents, at the approaching general
election.

The friends and committee of Sir Edward Butler
have held a meeting at Southampton to determine
on measures tor protesting against the return of
Mr. Weguelin. It was resolved that a petition be
prepared and presented to the house on the
grounds—First, that the sheriff is the only re-
turning officer; secondly, that the polling booths
were torn down before the appointed time; thirdly,
that one of the returning officers had left his posi-
tion for half an hour during the day of polling ;
and, further, " bribery and corruption."