The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-09-13 00:00:00

IAL COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER

lich may serve his pu
lnon 011 ;

interest, when the people without care nothing
about the result. He may, how

x, overshoot the

The great fault of the Reform Act of 1832

was throwing too much power into the hands of
the shopkeepers of small towns, essentially a selfish
class, who, with little wisdom and destitute of
principle, have sought only to shift their own bur-
dens without caring who suffered from the change.
If the same privilege were extended to the work-

ng classes, it might be tl

at the representation

would be more essentially Conservative ; for expe-
rience has shown both in France and America
where the popular suffrage has been appea

that the operatives are the stoutest advocates for

Protection to native industry

All experiments in government should, however
be carefully avoided as dangerous, excep
imperatively demanded I

if urgent nee

,sitv, which

cannot now be said to exist, and therefore any
attempt on the part of the Ministry to interfere
with the present state of the representation cannot

be too strongly condemned. But if ach
at all defensible, there are some
sent system to which it is possible to
considerable amendment might be
made, though
we dare not anticipate that the Ministry, bound

,c,re were

ints in the pre-

as they are to Rome, have the moral courage to

attempt it. Ireland returns a much 1

r numbe

she is fairly entitled to, either by col

population or amount of taxation. The number
should be reduced, and every borough disfranchised
that returns members at the bidding of Romish
priests. It would be a beneficial weeding of the
House of Commons, and a wholesome check upon
prieltly intimidation, which, in Ireland, has made
freedom of election a farce. It would thin the

ranks of the Romish Brigade, and render great
questions less dependent upon such aid ; and if

the same number in the House of Commons is still
to be preserved, there are many places in
to which the franchise might be advantageously
transferred. Why should the City of Londoi

England.

turn four members to Parliament, and Liverpool,
with a larger constituency, and a much larger
population, return only two ? The plan of Mr.

DISR-kELI, to give two more members each to
South Lancashire and West Yorkshire, might be

carried out, and the representatives of other popu-

lous emmties might be similarly augmented.
Birkenhead and the surrounding district might be
formed into a Parliamentary Borough, and as the
preponderance now rests too largely with the shop-
keepers of England, a greater influence might be
given to the interests of shipping and commerce
by extending the franchise to more of our seaports.
These, however, are but suggestions of what
might be done, but we do not entertain the
slightest expectation that they will emanate from
the party now in office ; while we view any change
which they are at all likely to propose as fraught
with more mischief than can be compensated by
any remote probability of advantage.

IF the Ministers were'now called upon to concoct
one of those unmeaning documents known as a
Speech from the Throne, they would, no doubt,
declare, as usual, that HER MAJESTY continued to
receive from all Foreign Powers the most flatter-
ing assurances of amity and good-will. Yet there

is little in Foreign Affairs upon which the Ministers
could congratulate the country, and we may find
that, notwithstanding the many professions of
peace, we are upon the verge of hostilities of which
it is difficult to foresee the end. The threatened
outbreak between Russia and Turkey, which had
been almost precipitated through the vacillation of
Lord ABERDEEN, was believed to have been set at
rest through the judicious remonstrances of M.
DROUYN DE L'Hurs, the French Minister for
Foreign Affairs, the conference at Vienna to modify
the terms of the arrangement, and the readiness of
the EMPEROR OF Russia to accept the note pro-
posed by the Great Powers. It was confidently
concluded that Turkey, acting by the advice and
under the protection of England and France,
would at once have received the friendly mediation,
and that the whole affair would have been at an
end ; but it appears that she has been availing her-
self of the delay, and, emboldened by the proximity
of two powerful fleets in the Bay of Besika, has
been collecting all her Mohammedan forces to
make war on her own account, unless her altera-
tions of the note agreed to by the conference at
Vienna are acceded to. The latest telegraphic
despatch states that, while the EMPEROR OF RUSSIA,
in his desire to preserve peace, will consent to the
terms proposed by the Great Powers, he will not
accept the alterations made by the SULTAN OF
TURKEY. The only solution, therefore, of the
difficulty is, for the latter to give way, unless the
conference will consent to make the proposed
alterations : and, in that case, a peaceful ter-
mination of the affair may reasonably be anticipated.
The question, however, is capable of another aspect,
if the reports from the East may be relied upon.
It is said that the SULTAN is not a free agent, but
that his subjects insist upon his not surrendering
any point involving Turkish ideas of national
honour for the sake of peace. The call for aid has
been responded to with religious enthusiasm, not
only through the Turkish dominions in Europe,
but from her dependencies in Asia and Africa.
The troops are animated with zeal for their faith
in the PROPHET ; and, relying upon their numerical
strength, are solicitous for war ; so that, instead of
conceding any demand for the sake of preserving
peace, the tendency is in the opposite direction. If
this view of the case be correct—and it may be
that Mohammedanism in Europe, being doomed to
destruction, will precipitate its fate by its own act
—the preservation of peace will be beyond the
control of the Christian powers ; and the fleets
which were combined in Besika Bay for the pro-
tection of Turkey, may assist in her annihilation,
in the vain attempt to restrain the fury of her in-

habitants. In whichever way the question be
viewed, it is far from satisfactory ; and that this
opinion is generally entertained, is shown by the
recent fall in the English Funds, and the inaction
which now paralyses almost all commercial opera-
tions. The affair is not also without interest as
affecting the position of the English Cabinet ; and
reports are current as to important changes in
contemplation. Almost all parties agree in the
condemnation of the Earl of ABERDEEN, whose an-
tipathy to Louis NAPOLEON prevented that cor-
dial co-operation, which, if it had been acted upon

in the first instance, might, perhaps, have pre-
vented the first misunderstanding, and all the sub-
sequent difficulties. The Earl of CLARENDON has
proved himself to be manifestly incompetent for
the duties he has undertaken, and Liberal predi-
lections point to Lord PALMERSTON as the fittest
man to supersede both. Such an alternative may
be but the choice of evils ; but when it is evident
that a change cannot be for the worse, there is at
least a hope that it will be for the better. Eng-
land has by far the greatest interest at stake ; and
yet she has been compelled, through Ministerial
incapacity, to yield to Prance, both in influence
and diplomatic skill ; and though, if blows succeed
to words, the British fleet will, no doubt, prove its
superiority, it is mortifying to think that its ex-
ertions might have been spared.
With the United States of America we have
peculiar interests to be on friendly' terms, but the
correspondence which has just been published
respecting the proposed tripartite treaty for the

Ition of the Island of Cuba to Spain

likely to receive an

The A

not willinv, to forego their ulteric

annexation with this wealthy island, and now set

up the preposterous assumption that European

tes have no right in any matter concerning the

western side of ti

ktlantic

England is not prepared to a

RUSSELL, faili

To such a doctrine

ind Lord JOHN

g to gain the consent of the United

States Government to the proposed tripartite treat 3
has addressed a letter of remonstran

to the

English Minister at Washington, insisting upon
the right of England to interfere, and France also

loins it

ie move'

whether Spain has any claim to our good offices

consider

g the treatment which English subjects

receive in that country; but as the anr

ation of