The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-02-08 00:00:00

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

THE resumption of the business of the Session of
Parliament will take place on Thursday next, under
the new Administration, whose policy and whose
principles have yet to be discovered. The first
business may be the issue of such writs as have
been rendered necessary by recent changes; but,
even supposing that the principal Ministers hold
the places they have accepted, there is much to be
learned as to the sacrifice of principles which have
enabled them to do so. The public will be naturally
anxious to know whether Mr. GLADSTONE has
become more Radical, or Sir JAMES GRAHAM more
Conservative; whether Lord ABERDEEN has gone
over to Lord JOHN RUSSELL, or the latter returned
the compliment; whether Sir WILLIAM 'MOLES-
WORTH has given up his crotchet of the Ballot, or
the PEELITES conceded it; whether, indeed,
amidst this fusion of antagonistic opinions, there is
likely to emanate any one intelligible principle. The
Times, with a nonchalance which is amusing,
supposes the difficulties of the Budget to be got
over, and predicts a course of easy sailing in
legislating upon petty reforms. The suggested
measures are,—a system of Decimal Coinage, which
has no other practical value than upon paper; the ge-
neral management and administration of Railways;
the reform of the Customs; the London coal-tax;
and the sanitary improvement of the metropolis.
Why not have added the encouragement of clair-
voyance for the detection of crime, the ocean
penny postage, and the promotion of universal
happiness ? It may be asked, is it for this
that the Conservative party have been over-
thrown, to substitute an Administration of "all the
talents ?" But before an approach can be made to
such a conglomeration of petty legislation, the first
step has to be got over; and this may prove, as in
many other undertakings, the chief difficulty.
Finance has been the greatest stumbling-block to
Whiggish Ministers from the first time they tried
their hands at it, and there is nothing in present
circumstances to make the task of constructing
a Budget more easy. The ominous appearances of
war are admitted by all but the braggarts who fret
their little hour upon the Manchester stage, and
the national defences must be provided for; nor will
the unfulfilled promises of the Radical part of the
Ministry, for some measure of Parliamentary
Reform, be suffered to fall to the ground by their
ultra adherents. To divisions within the Cabinet
will be added the powerful phalanx of the Con-
servatives in Opposition ; and the Romish Brigade,
though deserted by the two or three who have been
bought over, threaten to turn the scale against the
ABERDEEN mixture. All these obstacles will have
to be surmounted, before a step can be taken in the
direction pointed out; and long before that time
we may hope to see a change which will put
Liberalism in the minority, and restore the Con, Li
servative voice of England to its constitutional
position. The battle has once more to be fought,
and our Representaves will best perform their duty
by ridding the country of its present rulers.