The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-01-17 00:00:00

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tiberpoot tanbarb.

TUESDAY .21101LVING, JAN. 17, 1854.

THE near approach of another session of Parlia-
ment, the ruinous condition of the Coalition
Ministry, and the confident opinion entertained of
a speedy change in political parties, have aroused
public attention fro pr the apathy in which it ap-
peared to have sunk, and produced a reaction of
excitement which must shortly be amply gratified.
It must be useless even for the most devoted of
Ministerial organs to dispute the fact that the
vaunted union of " all the talents" has proved a
rope of sand, unable to stand the first shock of a
Parliamentary encounter ; and the most interest-
ing question is that once ably put by the late
DUKE of WELLINGTON, " How is the Queen's
Government to be carried on 9" The Whigs, as
a body, are politically defunct ; the Peelites form
an infinitesimal section of the House of Commons,
strong only in official experience ; the Radicals
are unendurable, even by those who once hailed
them as the friends of public liberty ; and the only
resource is the numerous body Of Conservatives
who were returned at the last election to support
the Administration of the EARL of DERBY. It is
true that, through the treachery of the party who
ought to have supported him, and the profligacy
of the Irish Brigade, who sold themselves, he was
compelled to resign the office which he had so
worthily occupied, but the causes which led to his
discomfiture are not now in operation. The vexed
question of the renewal of the Income-tax has been
settled for at least six years to come ; even the
dreaded question of perseverance in free trade
policy would now receive fewer supporters ; and
the Whigs would be unable to play again the game
of deception with which they lured their ancient
foes into ill-assorted union with them. Were the
EARL of DERBY called upon to resume the seat
from which he was so treacherously displaced,
there is far more probability of his success than
existed a year since. The respectable Whigs, who
acknowledge the 31A.RQuis of LANSDOWNE as their
leader, would gladly hail the accession of a Con-
servative Administration after the bitter experience
of the past year, and the disappointment of all the
hopes so blandly foreshadowed by Lord ABERDEEN
of making the Conservatives Liberal, and the
Liberals Conservative ; the Peelites would wil-
lingly retreat from a position which they have long
since found untenable, and even lend their support
to a Conservative Administration, by way of de-
monstrating the sincerity of their repentance ;
Lord PALMERSTON has only consented to remain
with the coalition to save them from breaking up
befde a Parliamentary explanation has been
afforded ; and even the Irish Brigade, in bitter
mortification at the deception practised on them
in the affair of the Income-tax on Ireland, will
gratify their feelings of revenge by the depth of
their hostility to the Whig-Radicals. As for Lord
Josx RUSSELL, it matters little what becomes
of him : he may sink into the obscurity from
which nothing but a political mania could ever
have elevated him, and indulge his leisure in
amateur authorship ; and his compeer, Sir
JAMES GRAHAM, may he benefited by cooling his
disordered brain on his native hills. The country
has too long endured the infliction of political
charlatans, whose sole object has been personal
aggrandisement, and their means concessions to
vulgar clamour ; but it is full time that the
mighty interests of Great Britain were governed
by the principles of honour and honesty, and
guided by common sense. The intelligence of
England is unmistakeably in favour of a Conserva-
tive Government ; every day is strengthening the
growth of Conservative principles in public opinion,
and though much of the advantage has been lost
through want of union and co-operation, the ex-
perience of the past year must have taught a
useful lesson, of which we should experience the
benefit. A few weeks may serve to solve the
mystery, and we confidently look forward to the
meeting of Parliament for a complete and bene-
ficial change in the position of political parties.

POLITICAL feeling appears recently to have taken
a new turn, both rampant Radicals and pr etende d
Conservatives having indulged in attacks upon the
PRINCE CONSORT upon the slender foundation of
anonymous communications. His Royal Highness
is accused of unconstitutional interference with
political affairs—of taking a too active part in
foreign policy, and, indeed, assuming a kind of
dictatorship in public business which renders the
duties of responsible Ministers impracticable. It
will be remembered that when Lord MELBOURNE
was obliged to give up the office he was never
fitted to occupy, the Times gave currency to the
slander, " the QUEEN has done it all," and some
such motive may have induced the present outcry.
The Coalition Cabinet is crumbling to pieces, and
the real cause is attempted to be concealed under
this absurd charge against the CONSORT of our
SOVEREIGN, whose career since his naturalisation
has been one of untiring devotion to English
interests, and studied independence of political
parties. The charges, too, are in themselves
absurd. It is said that he is always present when
either of the Ministers has an audience of the
Sovereign. Admitting this to be true, what does
it amount to P Is the QUEEN, in affairs in which
she is called upon personally to act or to give an
opinion, to receive no counsel or advice from her
own husband ? or is it strictly constitutional for the
Sovereign to be guided solely by her own judgment,
whatever that may be, without even receiving a
suggestion from those nearest and dearest to her ?
Such a conclusion is positively preposterous. It
may be said that the QUEEN has her responsible
advisers ; but it is in her interviews with them
that the presence of Prince ALBERT is alleged as a
grievance ; so that it must be on her own acts, and
not those of her advisers, that he exercises any
influence—a position of complaint almost too
ridiculous to require refutation. Again, it is
asserted that Prince ALBERT corresponds with
British Envoys at foreign courts, and that his
interests are inimical to those of Great Britain.
Such a charge is as absurd as the former one. All
instructions to British Ministers abroad must pass
through the FOREIGN SECRETARY to render them of
any value ; that officer is responsible for the nature
of the advice contained in them, whoever may have
suggested it ; and it is, therefore, a question for
which the FOREIGN SECRETARY is answerable, if he
betray the trust reposed in him by permitting any
undue interference with his duties. It may suit
the notions of modern democracy to believe that