The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-08-23 00:00:00

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difficult•and ineffectual. The
however, been without a show of d
for 'they have hurried through Parliament
India Bill at the very time when Committees
were-sitting to investigate £he subject ; and while
they declined to fix a limit 'to its duration, they
spiAce of it as being mer* preparatory to some
other scheme. When •atl 'deliberation was et an

ing busine

ta, from very weariness of
they abolished Tram--

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discus

Lion compulsory. The Torras of the Constitution
render necessary the 'annual voting of the Supplies
to the Crown, and this formal business apart,
there is very little to show at the end of the
session for which the country need care whether
it had ever begun. Indeed, in many respects the
Ministry might have given the Pailiament a
holiday, and no doubt they would have done so,
had there been a Great Exhibition or -some such
excuse for doing nothing, as served them in 1851.
We must not, however, 'forget Mr. 'CARDWELL,
who was ambitious of showing his administrative
talent, his zeal for the Shipping Interest, and his
revenge upon Liverpool for his deserved rejection.
His Merchant 'Shipping Bill has *thrown our
seamen into competition with foreigners, and
roused those of the North-Eastern ports to
strike in their own defence ; while his Pilotage
Bill has attempted the same blighting influence
upon the Mersey pilots, by giving 'the author of
the measure authority to over-rule the decisions of
the local Board. Let the warmest partizans of the
Ministry ponder well the doings of the last Ses-
sion, and point, if they can, to any measure for
which they are entitled to credit, or any which
afford the slightest hope that the next Session will
be productive of more good or less harm. But
the Conservatives have much cause for disappoint-
ment even with those they believed to be their
friends, after the great exertions which were made
during the last General Election in defence of
Constitutional principles. Had 'those who -were
returned to Pa :Lament remained true to the prin-
ciples which gained them their seats, the Ministers
would have sought in vain for their majorities.;
and even in the House of Lords, where we look for
that spirit of chivalry which was wont to animate
British Statesmen, there was the same pusilla-
nimity apparent which has paralysed our repre-
sentatives in the House of Commons. The evil
must, however3e redressed at the fountain-head';
the battle must be fought in the Registration
Courts ; and when increasing weakness shall have
compelled the Ministry to appeal once more to the
voice of the electors, the Conservative ranks must
be weeded of those lukewarm and renegade mem-
bers who make loud professions on the hustings,
and desert their principles in Parliament. The
best interests of the country are at stake,Wand men
must not be afraid to speak out or surrender their
better judgment to absurd apprehensions of Incon-
venience from another Ministerial resignation. We
are better without a Ministry than such a one as
the present ; but the country need never have lost
the services of the Earl of DERBY, had those who
should have supported him not proved traitors to
Itheir party, their professions, and the real interests
of the nation.

TIIE Ministerial declaration as to the state of
_affairs between Russia and Turkey was made by
'Lord Jouw RUSSELL in the House of Commons on
Tuesday, but after so brief a notice that many of
theleading members were absent ; and, if we may
judge by the comments of -the Ministerial London
papers, the speech was anything but satisfactory.
The 'Times says that " the .effect of this meagre
declaration on the House was painful and depress-
ing?' The _Daily News says, '" There are few by
whom this statement will be
-read, as there were
few any) by whom it was heard, without disap-
pointment
and regret." The Morning Chronicle
takes a similar Conservative journal the Morning Herald, strain of depreciation ; and the
says,
" The debate ,will be 'read by the people of Eng-
land with mingled feelings of indignation and
dismay." Indeed it would be surprising if such a
statement could produce any other impression, in-
asmuch as it did not enunciate a fact which was
not well known before, nor afford the slightest in-
formation on the present position of affairs. It
was but a brief history of facts which were patent
to all the world long since, and the only points
which could have been of any avail to know were
studiously concealed. Lord JOHN did not tell the
Parliament, for perhaps he dared not make -the
confession, what were the -demands now conceded
to Russia, which three months since we counselled
Turkey to refuse ; and, when he came to the im-
portant item of the evacuation of the Danubian
principalities, he asked permission to say nothing
further about it, but to leave the question in the
hands of the Government, although they have
shown themselves so little entitled to confidence.
It is clear, however, that in whatever way the affair
may be terminated, the ice has been broken, the
Russians have seized their opportunity for giving
facilities to their future occupation of the provinces ;
and, though the protracted negotiations have, for
the present, averted the horrors of war, the ques-
tion has only been rendered more difficult for the
future. Refusal to Russian demands were persisted
in when arrangements might have been conducted
on a principle of independence, and they have been
virtually conceded when the concesion will be ge-
nerally attributed to a sense of weakness. It is
the old Whig game, in Foreign affairs, of 1 •
playing
the bully and the coward ; and, though the evil
may be postponed, the day of reckoning, when it
does arrive, will be the more fearful. The previous
impression which existed, of divisions and dissen-
sions in the Coalition Cabinet, have been corrobo-
rated, and the Ministers have had to submit to the