The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-05-16 00:00:00

WASTE OF TIME IN PARLIAMENT.

IT is not easy to define the purpose for which
Parliament- is now assembled, unless it be for
voting supplies and making a show of doing some-
thing by long discussions upon measures, about the
failure or success of which the public at large are
utterly indifferent. The long list of promised bills
with which the Government commenced the session
has dwindled down to that for the reform of Oxford
University, and two or three more of perhaps even
less importance ; so that legislation has become
literally a farce, and we are fast hastening to the
times, of CHARLES 1., when Parliaments were voted
unnecessary. The Ministers appear °.to be totally
unwilling to do anything themselves, for, no doubt,
sufficient reasons ; and their example has become
contagious, so that no one else can do anything.
OnWednesday week,which is a day usually devoted
to the measures of independent members, no fewer
than three bills were thrown out in succession, on
the motion for the second reading ; and on Wed-
nesday last a similar fate attended three more
measures, two of them being thrown out, and a
third referred to a select committee, -which is
equivalent to a rejection. Their demerits may
have demanded such a fate, but the opposition
seemed evidently to have arisen from a determina-
tion on: the part of the majority of the House to
follow the Ministerial example, and do nothing ; so
that legislation has come to a dead lock, and the
progress, upon Which Sir JAMES GRAHAM expressed
his determination to take his stand, and which has
formed the bye-word for professing Liberals, is
literally interpreted by standing still. It is,
however, instructive to notice the reasons which
are given for this obstructive course. Lord JOHN
RUSSELL'S sweeping measure of reform—or rather
revolution—is postponed to a more convenient sea-
son, because the public mind is too much occupied
with the war and its vicissitudes to give due atten-
tion to such a comprehensive scheme. But failing
in obtaining much, we may still have little ; and
members whose time is not occupied in preparing
estimates and other efforts of administrative genius,
employ their humbler talents in devising remedies
for evils considered more pressing. Alas ! for such
ill-directed industry; for they are met with the
converse of the argument. The great scheme of
Reform will not do, because it is great, and we
have no time to discuss it properly ; and the little
scheme will not do, because it is little, and all
reforms should be of a comprehensive character.
Such are the arguments of our Ministers of pro-
gress, and the result is a session barren of results,
except additional taxation, financial blunders, and
a few minor measures on subjects of the least pos-
sible consequence. The day may come when the
people of this country will awaken from their
apathy, and become convinced that a Ministry
composed of the shreds of faction, with no intelli-
gible policy, and without an atom of principle, con-
sistency, or honesty, is incompatible with the
national welfare. It would, indeed, have been
better that rampant Radicalism had tried its hand
at official business, and then we might at least
have had the satisfaction of a Parliamentary Oppo-
sitiou equally distinct in its policy and purposes,
and appealing to the country upon intelligible
grounds. Now, unfortunately, we have neither,
but a confusion of parties and principles, a surren-
der of convictions to a hollow peace which leads to
nothing, and no hope for the future except some
signal disaster should rouse the country to the
necessity of restoring distinctive Conservative
principles to the ascendant. It is the price we are
paying for the political treachery with which the
late Sir ROBERT PEEL brought about the plausible
and yet destructive system of Free Trade, a system
which is converting the once loyal and chivalrous
people of England into a nation of shopkeepers,
measuring everything by its money value, and some
even refusing to provide for the common decencies of
public worship, because it would involve the pay-
ment of a three-farthing rate. We do not, however,
despair that brighter days will come. We have too
much confidence in the sterling qualities of English-
men to believe that they will long continue in error,
when once it has been made apparent to them ;
and we look forward to the speedy arrival of the
time when Whigs, Peelites, and Radicals will be
driven from office, with the execrations which have
eve? accompanied the termination of their official
career.

PRINCE ALBERT A PROTESTANT.

WE cannot feel quite consistent with our duty
as public journalists to allow to pass in silence the
well-considered and weighty remarks of the Prince
Consort, at the anniversary of the Sons of the
Clergy on Thursday last. His Royal Highness
said :

" When our ancestors purified the Christian
faith, and shook off the yoke of a domineering
priesthood (loud cheers), they felt that the keystone
of that wonderful fabric which ,had grown up in
the dark times of the middle ages was the celibacy
of the clergy, and shrewdly foresaw that their re-
formed faith and newly-won religious liberty would,
on the contrary, only be secure in the hands of a
clergy united with the people by every sympathy,
natural, personid, and domestic (cheers). Gentle-
men, this nation has enjoyed for 300 years the
blessings of a Church Establishment which rests
upon this basis, and cannot be too grateful for the
advantages afforded by the fact that the Christian
ministers not only preach the doctrines of Chris-
tianity, but live among their congregations, an ex-
ample for the discharge of every Christian duty, as
husbands, fathers, and masters of families—
(cheers)—themselves capable of fathoming the
whole depth of human feelings, desires, and diffi-
,culties. (Loud cheers)."
This is the language of 'a decided Protestant.
We affect no surprise that his Royal Highness
should utter such sentiments ; but we may reason-
ably express our high satisfaction that he should
express them publicly, with so much force, decision;
and clearness. The Prince is not daunted by the
increasing arrogance of the Romish party. On
the contrary, he seems rather to feel that it sup-
plies a fresh reason for plain speaking.
A member of the House of Commons has recently
proposed to that assembly to inquire into the work-
ing of one part of the law of celibacy in this coun-
try, by investigating the state of the convents in
these kingdoms. Indignant that any one should
dare to think that any practice of theirs required
investigation, the Romanists have been meeting
and declaring themselves " insulted !" They have
even gone so far, in some cases, as to threaten us
with the anger of the Emperor of the French. It
is in the midst of all this insolence that her Majes-
ty's Consort stands up in the centre of the metro-
polis, and gives utterance to a few simple words,
which, in the most direct and effectual manner, as-
sert the Protestant principle. His Royal High-
ness has thereby set us a noble example. Already
in Parliament, men were flinching from an encoun-
ter with the brazen men of the Pope's band. They
held their breath and minced their words. The
Prince shows them how quietly but firmly the
truth may be asserted and maintained, without
furnishing any just ground for complaint to any
reasonable Roman Catholic.—Morning Herald.

LORD MmalotruNE once said in hearing of Sir Bulwer
Lytton that " he rejoiced to have been Prime Minister,
for he bad thus learnt that men were much better, much
more swayed by conseleuce and bononr, than he had before
supposa',