The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-12-12 00:00:00

and, in the s

for Royal t

cnliar complexion of that mani

) far ad

ated all

.cely worth

cussing by anticipation, when the' delay` of only a few
irs will I

As usual, just prior to the op(

several rumours

of a I

the work

many of them conflicting

circulated as to the intended course of action to

be adopted by the leaders of the respective parties who
under the general names of Ministerialists and Opposition

respectively aspire to sway the destinies of this great em

The tactique of

the Ministerial faction, ever since the announcement o f

the pre-Christmas session, has been to show that a deadly
assault is anticipated from the Conservative phalanx
against the Minidfrial arrangements for the conduct of
the war. In vai Er have Conservatives of every degree of
standing denied that there is either intention or proba-
bility of such an attack. Self-conscious, as it would seem,
that the war has been ill-conducted, Ministers, through

their organs of the press, in coteries and in clubs,

to the whole Ministerial gathering, but is the peculiar
property of those individuals who are known as the
Peelite section ; and many well-informed politicians infer
from this that a coup is intended, whereby those credu-

lons and amiably-disposed individuals who believed in
Whig-radical honour and Liberal consistency will be

thrown out of that society which they ought never to have
entered. True, the cunning organs of the Whig clique
observe a discreet silence upon such a topic, and content
themselves with merely reiterating what is stated by the

unreal silence and feigned humility becomes only the more
ominous from the systematic regularity with which it is con-
ducted. Without making any charge, they give colour to
a particular line of accusation. In strains which are as
blustering as they are intended to sham deprecation of, we
are informed that it is by "no means necessary that the
entire Ministry should be changed because of the culpable
mismanagement of the war." The really responsible
parties for the " discreditable and disastrous management
of the war" are, we are told, "Lord ABERDEEN, the Duke
of NEWCASTLE, and Mr. GLADSTONE. It will therefore
be at these three," says the erudite and polished Morning
Advertiser, " that the attacks, on the reassembling of
Parliament, will be aimed : and we learn, from a source
on which we can rely, that the onslaught will be a fearful
one. On this occasion, at least, there will be a perfect
harmony of action between the leaders of the Conserva-
tive party and a goodly number of the Independent
Liberals." Fair and softly, good Mr. Tapster ! How the.
nondescripts alluded to as Independent Liberals may act
in discordant harmony with each other, it would be diffi-
cult for any one •to predicate ; but if the Conservative
leaders are themselves to be credited, the repulsive allure-
ments thus thrown out by the Advertiser will have no
more effect in bringing about such a coalition than would
the reverberations of a beaten brew-tun have in precipita-
ting the advent of an earthquake. The Conservatives,
leaders and followers, as well as the whole body of the
British people, with the exception of JOHN BRIGHT,
RICHARD COBDEN, and JOSEPH STURGE, if that anti-
national triad deserve to be included among our peo-
ple, are satisfied that the war ought to be prose-
cuted vigorously, and to a successful issue ; but neither
the leaders nor the followers of Conservative coun-
sels will consent to play the unprincipled game of
such shabby tricksters as the Advertiser represents
the Independent Liberals to be. The attempt made
by certain members of the " Coalition happy family"
to saddle the mismanagement of the war upon the respon-
sibility of one or two of the number is too obvious a trick
to pass current. An indignant public at once demands,
why did a whole cabinet lend itself to the carrying out of
measures, which were approved by no more than three
of its members ? -Ministers are, no doubt, now, somewhat
alarmed as to the responsibilities of their position ; and
there is equally little room for dubiety as to the reality of
the grounds for their alarm ; but they have too often
declared the congeniality of their agreement, and the
identity of their views, to be allowed to escape from the
difficulties they have brought upon themselves, by trump-
ing up stories in corroboration of their personal innocence
in the "coalition" measures. "Coming events cast their
shadows before," and so far as present appearances indi-
united cabinet " has made up its mind that
the PREMIER is the JONAH, by sacrificing whom they
may hope to save the labouring ministerial barque. Poor
old ABERDEEN will, without doubt, be thrown overboard,
and left to buffet the waves of legislative and ministerial
contumely, as the unhappy transports were the other day
left to contend with the billows in the tempest-tossed
Euxine. In sustaining this degradation, he will only be
paying the penalty incurred by associating himself in dis-
reputable company. That the war, which every one
joins in proclaiming to be a great war, has been carried on
on the principle and with the appliances of a "little war,"
no one is hardy enough to deny ; while the CHANCELLOR
OF THE EXCHEQUER, as he has sufficient pecuniary
resources, and the SECRETARY at WAR avers—and his
averment is backed by the whole cabinet—that he had
carte blanche as to the style and magnitude and equip-.
ment of the military and naval armaments ; and, with the
most edifying unanimity, ministers have one and all
declared, "at good men's feasts," their inflexible resolu-
tion to carry on the war with a vigour and energy worthy
of the character and the resources of this great kingdom.
Why they have not done so is likely to be demanded of
them, in accents not easily confounded with the whisper-
ings of Arcadian zephyrs, nor readily mistaken for the
adulatory strains of after-dinner panegyric.
It may, indeed, be no difficult matter for Ministers and
their friends to establish the truism that they cannot re-
gulate the weather, and had no hand in conjuring up the
storm which, but a little month ago, swept the Crimea,
and lashed into wild commotion the treacherous waters of
the Black Sea, till, in the violence of the elemental con-
tention, our gallant ships were tossed like feathers on a
stormy ocean, or dashed like egg-shells against the rocky
shores. Both they and their apologists may find it less
easy to explain why the reinforcements and the stores
were not despatched sufficiently early to have been all
landed in safety weeks before the atmospheric tumult had
broke loose. Questions upon this topic ought to be, and
will be, pointedly put. So also will there be straight-
forward interrogatories propounded as to the present con-
dition and future prospects of our forces in the Crimea ;
and it is quite within the range of probabilities that some
inquisitive popularity-hunter may demand a categorical
answer relative to the nature of Lord RAGLAN'S sup-
pressed despatches, of which, rumour says, 86 have been
received by the War Secretary, and of that number 15
or 16 only have seen the light. Whatever information
may be applied for or dragged from ministers on the points
referred to, unflinching demands will be made by the
people's representatives, and backed by the people, to know
whether we are to be farther cajoled by Austrian diplo-
macy into a waste of that time which is of so much im-
portance in the present emergencies, that the CZAR may
have time to discipline and transport his new levies from
the interior to defend his tottering position in the Crimea,
and, while our agents are amused with negotiations, that
he may have time to rebuild and extend the fortifications
of Sebastopol.
This is a matter the more to be insisted on, as resting
on the good faith of Austrian interference is the alleged
cause of our waiting so long in Turkey before deciding on
the expedition to the Crimea. It is no doubt true enough
that Austria has a vital interest in bringing about, if
possible, some accommodation between the contending
parties ; but it is little less notorious that the predilections
of the Austrian monarch are more in unison with those
of the CZAR, and less with the declared resolutions of the
Western Powers ; and most people are aware that, where
interest pulls one way and inclination another, among
self-willed people the latter is found to exercise more
potent influences than the former. The proposed basis
of the new treaty has been stated differently by different

cate, the

parties and at different times within the last few days ;
but if we are to accept the last note of Count NESSELRODE
as a key by which to decipher the implied conditions of
this new treaty, it must either, like the previous negotia-
tions, end in smoke, or lead to a conclusion of hostilities
more advantageous to the Russian Autocrat than the
terms he demanded prior to the outbreak of the war. So
far as can be gathered from the Russian Minister's note,
no syllable is to be breathed about reimbursing the
British and French Governments for the enormous ex-
penses of the war, although another account states that
indemnification for the war expenses is to be a point in the
treaty. The principle to which the Western Powers pledged
themselves as the basis of their alliance, that there should
be no interference with the sovereignty of the SULTAN in
his own dominions, is to be quietly ignored, through the
introduction of a clause placing the Christians in the