The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-06-20 00:00:00

PRESIDENT.

His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch and Qneensberry,K.G.
LOCAL BOARD OF DIRECTORI.TOR LIVERPOOL.
Thomas Chilton, Esq., Merchant, Chairman.
David Cavinon, Esq., Merchant.
James Blake, jun.; Esq., Soalaioiler.
Richard Vateeshaw, Esq., Shipowner.
Wm. Balleny, Esq., Commercial Bank.
MEDICALOFFICER.—J. Petrie, Esq., M.D.
MANAiGEIL.—Robert Christie, Esq.
SECRECARY.—WiIIiarn Finlay, Esq.
HEAD OFFICC.-26. St. Andrew-square, Edinburgh.
Lea DoN, 126, Eisinapsgate-st. I G LA...we, 103, at. Vincont-st.
AGENT AT LIVERPOOL.
ARCHD. TOD, Skarebroker, 3, Liver-chambers, 23, Tithe-

TUESDAY .MORNING, JUNE 20, 1854.

THE PARLIAMENT.

THE Ministry appears to be sadly puzzled how
to spin out the .session to a decent length ; and
this may possibly account for the long discussions
which often take place on 'questions leading to no
results. Is it an established principle of the Con-
stitution, that Parliament must sit every year, from .
the end of January to the month of August ; for,
if ,not, it is a great waste of time that so much of
it should :be spent in talk, and nothing be done for
any purpose whatever. Of seven measures, which
were to form the business of legislation this session,
six have been defeated or withdrawn upon various
pretences; andthe seventh—the Oxford University
Reform Bill=has undergone such an elaborate
discusiion in committee, that it is already thread-
bare, having been diminished from a compulsory
enactment into a merely permissive measure. There
is something truly Whiggish in all this. Magni-
ficent promises with-miserable performances; while
on the only bill which may be allowed to pass—for
the -success of this one is by no means even certain—
the pruning-knife has been so cunningly applied,
its provisions have been so craftily • attenuated,
that:both friends and foes are alikeindifferent to
its fate. What 'then -remains as the,ecord of
Parliamentary proceedings, but the votes of sup-
plies ; and, for all practical purposes, the business
might' have been got through in .as many days as
the session has occupied months. It was thought
at one time that the important affairs of the war
in which we are engaged, and the exigencies of the
public service, worild have taxed the energies of
our legislators; but Parliament has hardly been
consulted en the subject, except to impose additional
taxation and legalise the CrrANcELLou of the
ExcrtEguEn's pet scheme of •Exchequer Bonds ; so
that the members of both Houses have been
unnecessarily:taken-away. - from other pursuits, in
order to make a show of-doing something and
playing the larce of 'legislation. Another such a
• session, if the country shoald so :king endure
a Coalition Administration, and we .may be
reminded of the days of GELLELES 1,, when Par-
liaments were voted unnecessary, and people were
forbidden to speak .of them. Modern policy has
1-been all in this direction, 'by 'gradually converting
Avhat were annual supplies into permanent
as, for instance, the Sugar Duties and the Grant to
3&aynooth College:; .and it may ,be that, in time,
• when every vestige.of our constitutional privileges
have been absorbed into, the Whig system of
government, the eyes.of the people will be opened
-to -the folly of which they have ibeen guilty in
believing Whigs and Radicals to be friends of
popular liberty.