The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-10-19 00:00:00

THE DERBY GOVERNMENT,

WHILE the position and prospects of the present
Administration are still in abeyance, waiting patiently
for that constitutional verdict which must ensue on
the approaching meeting of Parliament, the political
world is only left to judge by the signs of the times
as to the probable future. If we were to take fur
example the manly and straightforward course
pursued by the Government during the late session
of Parliament, the high character for ability and
integrity possessed by the individual members of

the Administratiou, and the changes in the repre-
sentation which took place in the late election, we
might augur the most favourable results, and
confidently congratulate the country upon the good
times in store for it, and the hopes of reviving trade
and restored confidence which shall bring " peace and
plenty to each pleasant home." But we have still
stronger grounds upon which to build our expecta-
tions of national blessings, and we find them in the
virulence and pertinacity with which the organs of
Radicalism and disorder revile the Constitutional Ad-
visers of the Crown. The Times, assuming to itself
to be the leading journal of Europe, and the especial
organ of public opinion, betrays its disappointed
ambition and its mortification at being rejected as
the Ministerial paper, by the venom of its attacks
on every member of the Administration. No stone
is left unturned, no opportunity thrown away, no
means left untried of showing its malevolence and
spleen, and the fair field of political warfare is over-
stepped in order to indulge its bitterness of hatred,
proving beyond its intention that the probabilities
of Ministerial success are so good as to need such a
guerilla style of attack. Even in our own town the
Mayor could not exercise the rites of hospitality to
the Earl of DERBY with the reserve which properly
attaches to the amenities of social life, without pro-
voking a diatribe of abuse, the malignity of which
is only surpassed by its excessive stupidity. There
would indeed be an end to all the courtesies of
private life, if the conversation of every dinner-table
in which men of note take part is to be made the
theme for party controversy ; and while the Mayor
of Liverpool showed his good sense and gentle-
manly feeling in excluding from his hospitable board
those who would make it an opportunity for grati-
fyingtheir desire for political strife, the Times showed
the utter weakness of its cause and confession of
defeat in making so judicious an exclusion the theme
for a senseless attack. We are satisfied, and so is
every man whose good opinion is worth having,
that however difficult may be the task which the
Ministers have before them, they are capable of per-
forming it; and the course which the Times has
pursued affords only a further proof that our poli-
tical opponents are convinced of the same truth.

THE FRENCH EMPIRE.
THE tour of Louis NAPOLEON in search of popu-
larity has at length been brought to a conclusion ;
the popular voice has already declared, in cries of
Vine l'Empereur, their concordance with the views
of personal ambition entertained by the self-elected
President, and all that remains to be done is the
formal declaration of the Empire. In order to carry

out this object there will be no lack of precedents,
for the great NAPOLEON, when he saw his way

clear, went through the farce of an appeal to uni-
versal suffrage, and was rewarded with the votes of
between three and four millions of his willing slaves.
Louis NAPOLEON has improved upon the example
of his great uncle, for, when the appeal was made,
after the coup d'etat of the 2d of December, he had
more votes recorded than the whole number of the
male adults of France. _ With such pliant machi-
nery at his command, he can, therefore, safely appeal
to the fiction of popular approval with no doubt as
to the result, and a very short time may suffice to
see Louis NAPOLEON installed as Emperor of
France upon the basis of the public will. If such a
change in the mere name of the absolute ruler of
Frahce had sole reference to the social position and
political condition of the French people, we might
safely leave the whole question to the speculation of
political theorists, as one in which we had no imme-
diate concern. Unfortunately, however, there is
mixed up with it a consideration for the future peace
of Europe, and upon this ground we have a direct
and immediate interest in the settlement of the
question. It is true that Louis NAPOLEON, in his
speech at Bordeaux, has indulged in professions of
peace, and endeavoured, with praiseworthy zeal, to
base his hopes for the future on the maintenance of
friendly relations with the other powers of Europe ;
but we cannot and ought not to forget that he
derives his present influence and position through
a violation of all oaths and promises, and that the
Empire, the restoration of which he so ardently
covets, has all its associations concentred in the
military conquests of the idol of France. If the
aspirations of Louis NAPOLEON mean anything,—
and all his claims bear reference to his relationship
with the Emperor NAPOLEON,—they mean a revival
of that military glory which was eclipsed by the
defeat at Waterloo. In no other sense is his ambi-
tion intelligible to Frenchmen, and we can only
view his elevation to a similar title as a prelude to
some attempt at military conquest, which may once
more light up the fires of warfare, extinguished for
nearly forty years, through the genius and the pru-
dence of the great dead whom we are now lament-
ing. We are willing to admit that Louis N
may be sincere in his

fessions

f peace—he may

y covet a pose

iich may give

defeat—

I old, "T

strength of Israel i