The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-01-22 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. much respect to the people as to apprise them of the laws intended to be imposed, a little before—a very little be fore the hammer is upon the rivet. At present our par liamentary debates are a gross burlesque upon pophlar deliberation.—Standard. sent of free, reformed, and Christian England, for Afri can negroas ? It is not unadvisedly that we make the startling comparison ; nor is it for the purpose of dispa raging manufacturing improvements, or discouraging manufacturing enterprise, that we represent our factories, whose machinery is worked by children of tender age, in the same light as West India plantations cultivated by negro slaves. The similarity is established in almost every point,—the parallel is drawn in the broadest lines; and it is only because the same element enters into both, is only because domestic, white, English slavery is now proved "byx cloud of witnesses" to exist, that we call upon the legislature to interfere, and to abate the rank offence. Children of from six to twelve years of age, who are driven from their scarcely warmed beds to the mills before daybreak, and are wrought till they can no longer stand, or who can only be kept awake at their task by the application of blows and stripes,—who have sometimes their bodies maimed, or their lives endangered by a cruel taskmaster, when invincible fatigue over powers the strength of their feeble nature,—who struggle with scanty and int•ufficient food against the effects of an unwholesome atmosphere and a torturing position,—who contract diseases, stunt their growth, and acquire defor mities, by an over exertion of their frames,—who are de prived of all the opportunities of healthy exercise, and all the means of moral instruction; so beneficial or neees sary for their time of life,--children in this situation, we say, though sold to the factory by the necessities of their own parents, as the African chiefs sold their subjects or captives, are no more free agents than a West Indian gang, and therefore, for the same reason, ought to be placed under the special protection of the law. Instances may occur in the agricultural districts where the young are equally exposed to physical suffering and moral de gradation; cruel parents, in towns and villages which never saw the smoke of a steam-engine or heard of a cot ton-factory, may keep their infants in misery and bond age. These cases the law cannot reach without probably the greater evil of domiciliary visits, but where great masses of children, as in our manufacturing districts, are collected into a particular place, and follow a common occupation, beyond the care of their parents, general rules can be enforced, and a kind of labour police esta blished. We beg that this principle of the absolute un deniable slavery of factory children, and this distinction between them and other children not congregated by the nature of their employment into masses, may be kept in , mind in all notions of legislating on this question, as otherwise we must attempt an impossible task, or effect a mischievous result. The masters themselves, if their feelings deserved to be consulted on such a subject, could not object to this interference with the age at which children can be allowed to enter their establishments, or the number of hours which they may be permitted to work. They cannot pretend, like the West Indian plan ter, that the children are their " property," and if they derive no benefit from their work, they will not be re quired to pay for their wages. The parent or the parish must supply the funds for their sustenance till they can support themselves ; but, from whatever quarter these funds come, English humanity must not be further out raged by a continuance of the present system of infant bondage. Dr. Chalmers, as we see in the excellent and instructive evidence of the Rev. Mr. Gordon, one of the ministers of Aberdeen, told the Glasgow manufacturers, from the pulpit, several years ago, " that they regarded human beings as so many pieces of machinery, and the living principle within them as the power which set the machinery in motion, and that their sole object was to get out of the machines as much work as possible at the least expense." There could not be a more undeniable or a more melancholy statement. This infant "machinery" must now be regulated by those who " regard the living principle within it" as something different from a mere mechanical power. There are duties more important than those of accumulating wealth by whatever means ; and even the commercial wealth of a nation is bought at too high a price, if that price be the degradation, the de pravity* the suffering of those who produce it. Law must interfere to check the reckless inhumanity of the avari cious, as it does to control or punish any other bad or selfish passion which seeks its own gratification at the expense of others.—Times. THE FACTORY SYSTEM. We this day present to our readers further evidence of the existence in England of a system which, for the atrocious brutality whicn it calls into action, and the phy sical suffering and moral degradation it produces, has, we sincerely believe, never had a parallel in the most revolting practices of the most barbarous and savage nations. We willingly encounter the risk of being thought tedi ous and importunate upon this subject. The whole thing is so monstrous that nothing, we are persuaded, short of a constant recurrence to the incontestable evi- • dence by which the facts of the case are established will be sufficient to convince those who have never witnessed the operation of The factory system, that in England—in the country of sincere and unaffected benevolence—in a country where the principles of genuine religion are supposed, as we believe truly, to exercise a very exten sive influence—in a country which possesses thousands of philanthropists so eager to search for and to relieve human suffering and degradation, that they cross the Atlantic in order to find them, and assume their existence where they are not—hundre ds of thousands of children are condemned from their birth to a species of slavery which of necessity involves the extreme of physical and moral suffering—which produces infallibly bodily, and mental decrepitude—which drags, by a compulsion more cogent than the driver's lash, its helpness victims through a life of vice and torture to a premature and unhallowed tomb. We feel it to be our duty to compel our readers to dwell upon the details of this faithful picture, lest they should deem it no more than a hideous and frightful illusion. This is no wanton infliction of unnecessary or useless pain. The humane and Christian people of England must be taught to realize to their own imaginations all the horrors to which this abominable system gives birth, as a means of inducing them to exert the necessary efforts to ensure its speedy and complete extinction. The children of the poor of England must be emanci pated from the horrible slavery to which so many of them are now condemned from the cradle. This is an object for which it is worth while to incur the risk of being deemed tedious and importimate ; and it is an object for which the interests of individual cupidity, and the vanity of short-sighted and callous political science, or of that concatenation of silly notions which it is the fashion to flatter with the name of political science, will, it is now plain, labour strenuously and conjointly to im pede. We have, however, no apprehension as to the result; the final triumph of humanity and justice is secure; but yet victory is not to be won without zealous and perseverin g _ exertions, and on our part they shall not be wanting. Let the factory system be once thoroughly understood, and its workings clearly perceived by the mass of the people of England, and the defensive ex cuses and palliations which cruel selfishness or cold blooded theory may attempt to throw around it will be found a feeble, and ineffectual protection to the gigantic and abominable enormity. In order to accelerate the speedy and complete extinc tion of this horrible system of oppression and barbarity, it is desirable that the nation should make its sentiments known .to the legislature by means of petitions from every part of the country. The system, abominable as it is, has friends—friends among those who by its means have become rich, and' who being rich are powerful— friends scarcely less numerous, and perhaps still more influential, in those who know that the theoretic princi ples with respect to trade and public wealtr, on the practical success of which they have staked whatever reputation they possess, will receive a fatal blow when ever this system of melting the bones and sinews of the poor, and destroying their health and their minds, in the production of cheap articles for exportation, shall be finally abolished. I'he system, therefore, we may be sure, will not fall without a desperate struggle in its de fence, and for this struggle it is incumbent upon the friends'of humanity to prepare themselves. We hope and expect that ere long committees will be formed in all the principal towns in England, to act in unison with a central committee in the metropolis, for the purpose of diffusing information upon a subject so deeply important to the national character and welfare, and of bringing the national feelings and opinions fairly to bear upon the legislature. There is one class of persons to whom we would more especially address ourselves upon this subject, and it is a class to whom we do not venture to ofler a suggestion upon such an occasion without great and undissembled diffidence. We mean the parochial clergy of 'the church of England. It has been the uniform practice of this ex. cellent and discreet body to abstain from direct inter ference upon subjects of immediate public importance, preferring, most wisely and judiciously, that course of general admonition and instruction by which their hearers are gradually fitted and disposed to the discharge of their duties as citizens and men upon every occasion or emergency. In a country like England, where every subject of discussion or of interest assumes more or less a tinge of party politics, this general abstinence on the part of ministers of religion from interference with prac tical or secular affairs in the discharge of their pastoral office is probably the only means by which they could invariably protect themselves from misconstructions in jurious to the usefulness and efficacy of their labours. Such considerations do not appear to us, however, to ap ply to a case like that which we now humbly but earnest ly recommend to the zealous attention of the .clergy of the Church of England, and which it is plain to every un biassed understanding that humanity and religion are arrayed on one side, and nothing but individual`Selfish ness and the foolishness of theoretic conceit on the other. If there were no more to recommend the evil we have been describing to their most strenuous hostility, this alone would be sufficient, that it is proved beyond the possibility of contradiction or dispute that one .of the in tallible consequences of the system is to reduce all the childlen who are subjected to its influence to an utter incapacity of deceiving moral or religious instruction, or even of attending at all upon the stated ordinances of religion.—Morning Post. We present our readers with some further extracts from that painful and distressing volume, "The Report of the Factories' Regulation Inquiry," the record of in fant slavery, and more than infant torture. During the forty days' investigation of the committee, and from the lips of nearly a hundred witnesses who were examined, we have learnt the existence and extent of a system of cruelty and degradation to which a large portion of the young of the workinc , classes in our manufacturing dis tricts are subjected, which ei almost makes us shudder at the means by which our manufacturing superiority has been acquired, and our immense Manufacturing wealth accumulated. For the last forty years we have had nu merous examinations into the atrocities and abominations of the colonial slave-trade, and into the hardships and horrors of colonial slavery. The former has been abo lished in consequence of the damning nature of the evi dence by which it was assailed ; and the latter, we trust, will soon disappear amid the loud indignation of an en lightened and improving community. And shall the scene of slavery, then, be transferred to the mother coun try ?—shall English infants be substituted, by the con- ELECTION OF SCOTS REPRESENTATIVE PEERS. The Peers of Scotland have shown themselves worthy of their name and station—they have given the best answer to those who level sarcasms against the political independence of that noble nation ; they have scorned the threats, and baffled the intrigues of a mean and tyran nous Government, and have sent to the Imperial House of Lords, as their Representatives, men whom that Gov ernment cannot command nor influence. But it is said they have decided differently from the bulk of the people, who have returned representatives to the Lower House of Parliament friendly to the Government. Be it so— they have thought differently from the mass of the people, and who will deny that their opportunities of coming to a right judgment upon political affairs have been better than those of the mass of the people ? The mass of the people of Scotland have come suddenly into the exercise of a new power, which the people of greatest intelligence and property in the country thought they would have been better without. Whether they were right or no, will appear some years hence, when the progress of the kingdom can be compared with its mighty advancement under the system now designated as the worst possible— as a system for the gain of a few at the expense of the many. But the populace having suddenly acquired this power, it is no wonder that they should exercise it with that passion which distinguishes the populace—they were resolved to have their revenge against those who were (for /their good) opposed to giving them the elective power, and they voted against them. The Peers of Scotland had no such motive for their votes—they reviewed political affairs as able and experi enced men—they saw the danger of the policy of the present administration, and they have returned represen tatives who will oppose it. This plain following of their understanding in the ex ercise of their right, heedless alike of Government influ ence and popular clamour, has called forth the virulent abuse of men whose nature is so constituted that they can shift and turn always to the successful side, and who are gifted with a wonderful facility of perceiving the wisdom and excellence of the more powerful party. "The peo ple think so and so," say they—" the Government think so and so—how iniquitous that the Scotch peers should think differently, or, if they do think differently, how mad are they to act as they think—why do they not bow down and worship the powers that be, no matter how their sto machs revolt at it ? We would not hesitate to do as much, nor ought they." ' The spirit and the honesty of the Peers of Scotland will enable them rather to bear the abusive reproaches of those who thus teach, than to follow such advice.—Albion. The election of the whole sixteen peers of Scotland, from the conservative body, notwithstanding the most ac tive and industrious exertions of the ministry, bas natu rally provoked considerable resentment from the govern ment writers. The unprecedented exclusion of every ministerial can didate, without a single exception, were, by itself, a se vere practical censure upon the administration foiled; but the result of this election becomes infinitely more im portant as the testimony of a class. The House of Lords may be nothing, it is nothing We admit in its corporate character, it is a far less important body sitting at West minster than the Conunou Council sitting at Guildhall. it` td it tb s' roi c( ! froo- „ the hy ° r fo THE LONDON PRESS. ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS. Without going into the extent of certain opinions upon the subject of the punishment of death, when fairly ad vanced, we are disposed to pay a calm and respectful at tention to the arguments by which they are supported. It sometimes, however, happens that the eagerness of humane persons to establish their views leads to a species of reasoning both fallacious and untenable. For instance, the unfortunate conviction of an innocent person has no necessary connexion with the propriety of the penalty awarded for the crime. A false conviction, be the penalty what it may, is an affair of error or blame upon quite a diff.!rent principle, and we know not what is to distinguish the erroneous conviction of an innocent man for murder (more likely, by the way, to occur than for way ( t ter crime) from that of a similar mistake as to a petty larceny. That in proportion to the weight of the penalty, the nature of the evidence should be more strictly canvassed, although a sort of concession as to strict legal principle we are not disposed to deny; but we totally object to the.real or supposed errors of juries being made a criterion by which the extent of a legal penalty ought to be regulated. We have been led into these observa tions by some ingenious attempts in the Brighton Guardian and other apers to confound these distinc tions in the case of CTeorge Webb, lately executed in Sussex for that species of arson which has prevailed to so injurious an extent for the last year or two in the agri cultural districts. All sorts of efforts are made to show that the jury should not have convicted him—why, be cause he was innocent ? No, but because the punish ment was death. Need we point out the fallacy of this logic, and to what absurdities it would conduct? The _Brighton Guardian calls the evidence very slight upon which this poor wretch was convicted ; if so, the imputa tion is not against the law, but the jury, who are very poorly vindicated by saying, that had they supposed the extreme penalty would have been levied, they would have acquitted him. As reasoning, indeed, all this is intolerable ; although preferable to the apology for ma lignant arson as a mere crime against property. We hesitate not to say, that we deem it one of the most in excusable and atrocious of all crime, because it is one for which the natural reason of the most stupid of mankind can form no moral excuse. A little study of the preva lence of this class of notions among the Irish peasantry, and the consequences ought to convince every reflective person of theGveakness of extending mercy to delinquents of a similar description. The loss of the single barn or haystack may be a trifle, but the burning of barns and hayitacks as a prevalent custom, even the logicians who call forth these remarks must deem an evil . which calls for the most severe and direct repression. We know no thing of the case of George Webb, but that a respectable jury found him guilty of arson, and nothing to impeach their verdict but a simple possibility of innocence has yet been stated. This may be an argument against circum stantial evidence, but not against death for arson. Go vernment in the denial of mercy could have no other guide but the verdict of a competent jury, and a convic tion of. the absolute necessity of acting with all legal se verity towards crimes at once so inexcusable in motive, and abounding with so many afflictive consequences, not only to property but to the character, habits, and asso ciations of the labouring agricultural population of the country. To conclude, let us attend to every reasonable argument against the punishment of death which is pre sented to us, but let them not be formed upon factitious inferences and false analogies. George Webb has been executed, had he not been executed an additional score Of barns, &c. might have been burned, and as many in cendiaries transported for life ; all which are serious con siderations, and to be taken into account.—Globe. THE MINISTERIAL PLAN OF CHURCH REFORM. A thousand rumours circulate about some scheme of church reform, said to be agreed to by certain of the pre lates. Nothing, however, snaking any approach to an authentic character has transpired, and we, therefore, shall not assume, even for argument sake, the probability that any of the atrocious schemes of spoliation and of de gradation to religion itself; which the majority of the ru mours surmise, can be seriously contemplated. On the other side, we are bound to say, that some reports — though, indeed, much the fewer number—speak of an arrangement which will deserve the support of the con servative party in the country, as it proceeds from the conservative party in the cabinet. Let us hope the best, but let us not trust too far. Meanwhile, we cannot help thinking that the modern system of secrecy upon great and fundamental questions until the moment in which men are summoned to give a peremptory opinion, is highly irrational, and altogether unsuited to the genius of a free government. It is very plain, that this carry ing forward public business by improvisation as it were on one side, and surprise on the other, cannot permit a deliberate judgment even upon the most abstract propo sition, much less allow of that inquiry into details, that consultation of practical persons, and that calm collection of public opinion in a calm state, all of which is not more than what is necessary to form a just estimate of the pro priety of adopting any great public measure. It will, perhaps, be said, that the several stages through which a bill must pass in Parliament afford ample time for the most mature consideration. This we wholly deny: every measure of importance is either virtually carried or de feated on the first reading, that is, to reject cant and de lusion, without any consideration or inquiry at all in the country, and with merely a mockery of both in Parlia ment. If no decision was to be come to until after a bill had been discussed in its three several stages, that is, if the threefold discussion were matter of course, there would be some pretence that a measure was fairly can vassed in the House of Commons, as far as the discussion of an abstract proposition, but no farther. At present, when secrecy is observed up to the promulgation of a law, as in the cases of the Roman Catholic bill and reform bill, however the people may feel on . the one side or the other, they may assure themselves that they have had nu tting to do in the business, and that the parliamentary exhibition is, on the ministerial side, a mere farce, the representation of an intrigue previously well rehearsed in secret. The system of secrecy with respect to pro posed measures had its origin, we believe, in those ques tions of trade and taxation in which a law, if known be forehand, might be evaded beforehand. Now, besides that "necessaas ex•cusat legem," in this case, whereas there is no just necessity whatever in the case of a great constitutional change, laws of trade and taxation operate but partially, and if they inflict a wrong it is a wrong which can be repaired without difficulty, and they can have no analogy to such momentous and irrevocable mea sures as those to which we have been alluding. Such, surely, ought not to be adopted, without giving the pub he full time for careful, we will say for nanute and even jealous investigation. In claiming for ourselves and fel low-subjects this right, we are not aware that we are pro moting the peculiar interest of any party, except it be the parties of truth, freedom, and popular right; and conservatives, ministerialists, and radicals, will all claim to.belong to these parties, though we have recent proof that both conservatives and ministerialists [the radicals nominalim have not been in power) can violate, as we Think very improperly, the right of deliberate examine ticn for which we contend. 1 1 V e propose nothing so wild as a sudden change of the present mode of proceedings in Parliament : they may be very well c,ontinued, if only Ile system of mystery and surprise be abandoned, and if s:,e responsible ministers of the crown will only show so agE, ted ? Would a separation tnore i Why, then, should Courier. Lord Grey could not " swamp" the latter: who line not how he tan deal with the House of Lords ? Let readers exercise their minds for names of contempt illustrations of feebleness to be applied to the House Lords, and we engage to subscribe to them all, and to beyond them all in saying, that it is the house which, der an undisguised duresse, passed Lord John Ru bill. But, however despicable the House of Lords be as a legislative chamber, or mock legislative club, class of nobility in this country can never be an u portant class: never, except in times of seditious ex ment, can the possessors of the soil of the country, heirs of Its ancient families, the possessors of traditi rank, be less than the most important class. Now, the general revolution in property which will very s follow the late political revolution, if the House of regain not its position—until this approaching comple of Lord Grey's work, the nobility of Great Britain m be taken as representing out of doors the rank and p pert of the country ; and they have declared agaid, ministers—declared with a degree of decison and pool, which demonstrates that either the nobility or the mini try must fall. If all the former do their duty to the selves, their country, their posterity, and the fame their ancestors, as the nobility of Scotland have doe there can be no doubt as to the result. If, however, thi do not do their duty, they may be sure that their person power will disappear as rapidly as that which they on held in the House of Lords. This, however, is a wii topic. At present we take leave of the subject, mere congratulating his Majesty upon the possession of se vants who can show him "a deadly animosity" betwo the populace and the gentry in one division of his kin' dom, and between themselves and his nobility in tl other. —Standard. PREPARATIONS TO ENFORCE 'I amused at the extreme surprise Irish journals at the prevalence meat deems the state of Irelai the propriety of adopting every may be necessary to enforce a c ity and to law. It may appear and the most innocent thing in ling down woods to form pike 1 transform the said volunteers summon a national convention, to the country all who refuse to impede legal process; to inurd' 1 man or farmer now and then u 4 other trifling deviations from th 1 der; but we can assure them tit escapades are regarded as indica ,yalence of, and even a belief in, tatural. Were Mr. O'Connell dally to assume the dictatorship doubt not that the same sort of any small demur on the part of Would be manifested. But that Carolina should suggest any t against agitation fur a repeal these unconscious scribes more Life rest ; that is to say, a glartn, ale frailness of the federal tie is against a return to a similar in , Country in which it was once ; tended by the most unhappy div lion itself. We are not, howev of day to canvass the political an tiv,es that led to the union, wh it IRELAND. too wide a field; but we may be DEMOCRACY AND TERRORISM.—The public,. who take to the pleaded reasons for it as Prise of our Irish contemporarie: deep interest in the a ff airs of Ireland, are anxious to kno' ca, rolina, producing certain a what is the standard of outrage in that devoted co.untr, minds in relation to the kindred ( fixed upon by government, ere the arm of the law is to b instances are dissimilar, it seem! stretched forth to arrest the march of murder, and F 0 our Irish repealers are not declat down that system of denouncement which has caused ead, the Carolina people. True ; : man to hold his life, as it were, by sufferance. Irelan in point of fact, is not, at the present moment, under wanted Catholic emancipation Mr. O'Connell plainly avows th sway of England or of English law. She is ruled by . arch-agitator, through whose _incendiary mach i nat e one thing at a time, and it may L talk of separation until the vole those desperate bands have been formed, by whom ter bite the national guard. Be tl desolation, and death have been borne through the I There is in this beggared country a power beyond t brother journalists must no long of the monarch's, and far above that of the la . w— . a p oval supposition on the part of simpli bidding defiance to the gove . rnment, and issuing . vernment may deem a little prude dates with an audacious confidence that they will be U t it m?'" maintenance of authority essenti: plicitly obeyed, which can proceed only from a perfec disclose all which they intend to iltimate views of patriots who, knowledge of the monstrous, despotic, and sanguinar, influence it possesses. Whether under the name to stimulate every dignified and " Captain Rock," of " Whiteboy - s," of " Volunteers,' e C ien ce le assumption of a poson vvhic which is due to it. As t of " the Liberator," this authority is alike potent ; ail 1. now nor affect to know the exac the secrecy of its organisation only renders more alarnt. went , ing the sudden and evidently combined mode i n wh i ff in as respects the repression o la Ireland. But this much we wi in different places it, at the same moment, displays it barbarity. This many-named tyranny may be .divide Pose that the existing state of par not call for early parliamentary a into two classes—the One, that of the orators who inflani by their maddening speeches the worst pass ions . of tbt , a direct view to repression—won deluded multitude, and who boldly take their stand .. 00 Government and the parliament, the very verge of treason ;the other, that of the =dn. bi of this opinion must we be suppos assassins who immolate the victims denounced in tlf 'g Ministers are called upon to et i earnestness into a thorough env: inflammatory harangues of . the former. .These form . on body, having one aim in view, .and that aim the extinct grievances, especially as respect tion of all remnant of authority possessed by En . g!aa fi, ministration of justice, and the 1 over that portion of the empire. But are the minis . t calmly to look on and see thus rent away, without . resist ante, one of the most important members of the ki . ngdout Are they to deliver up the loyal portio n . of the . Irish co munity, with their possessions, to the infuriated sway uoth i n _ ul ....e numerous peasantry. But b come an imperative duty, the d thoritv by the government, by wl performed, is doubly necessary ; than suspect, that in the estimate g would be more fatal at the ruthless hordes by whom they are at this moment a quiet attainment of so much goo sailed ? Or ought they not energetically, and at once, 0 ir iWn interested objects and misc put in full force the powers with which they are entruste & G lobe. and put down with a vigour proportioned to the emer . .......................... gency of the case those who have set themselves ahoy° the common feelings of humanity ? It is time the reign r 011:1-- - aGN iNTE3 of terror and of blood should end ; and, if the laws as nos 4, FRANCE framed are too weak to combat with the Machiavelian an In the French Chamber of Deput tagonists they are brought to cope with, let them strengthened until the educatedi ncendiary is made t a discussion of considerable interes dame in the new departmental law pay for the double guilt of instilling treason for the pur triode of election, and the number c pose of engendering murder. Let this be done, and rondissement is to send to the genes quickly too, or men will turn from loathing those who of the interior the several districts,ath si insinuate, and those who do the deed of blood, those to by which the number of membe who permit it to be done with impunity.-11fornmg Pot, to elect ought to be regulated. On importance of Bizoin, Las Cases, Charlemagne, an . Canton should have the privilege of out reference to its pfaplilatiou and was almost equally divided on this divisions, but the result of both wi then demanded; when there appear proposition, 168; against it, 164. staunch friends of the centres were of 4. This decision goes to prove ohambers, notwithstanding in most wand a very great majority. The Chamber of Deputies has pa the Ultra Royalist law of 1816, whirl of the anniversary of the execution close holyday. This bill was sen onlendecrit, after their fashion, by jug articles— !. The 21st January shall continu Mourning , 2. The law of the 19th January lE This amendment was intended, laittee informed the House of Peers, f that m elancholy event alive in tl of the country." But the Chamber this amendment, by an immense rr expected that, at their next meet Would reject the bill altogether, unl Posed, s and made it a cabinet questic remark, that out a b voted with them on this chignon. The French papers bring us an tween the Chambers, which will end, ef l o t r i e w the o r t opening y worthy of the . session voted on of the democratical faction. The If to reject the bill for desecrating th bon of Louis XVI., but they ventur °0 considered as a day of general in by being a majority of 96 to 65. Imm .."eing communicated to the Deputi L'l. Mauguin, voted without any de 1 4 43, that the bill, as originally s oe, returned for their instant accei Paris that the Upper House would Neet it again, but they must submit 'lilt soon be as insignificant, as Iteform Bill has rendered the peers 11 , ow House of Commons may vo tokens of r es pect for the martyrdoi of whichs'they are so appropriate] first meeting. If they do, the Lord they will in France. A reducti on amount of 100,000 men is annoue kitandard, Friday, Jan. 18. THE IRISH PARLIAMENT.-The Irish papers con' tain an account of a meeting of the " Irish Vo lun' teers' Society," on Saturday last, at the Corn Er change. The names of those refusing to attend the, dictation of this incipient convention, were Messrs , James Grattan, J. Jones, Mervyn Archdale, and Niche. las A. Vigors. Every thing was conducted according to form, and with the most punctilious regularity , The Secretary read over the names of the member , who ought to have been , there, in like manner as t names of the members of the House of Commons a read over when absent from the House. But as ne Sergeant at Arms has yet been appointed, the recusant members, instead of being handed over to the civil cuF , tody, were consigned to the uncivil vituperations of thoo engaged in the rehearsal of the proceedings of an Irish Parliament. What these proceedings would be, may be' pretty well guessed at from the speech of the dictator 0 Ireland, and agent of Catholic priesthood. The first grand Parliamentary measure to be proposed is the mill' tary organization of the whole of the Catholic popula' lati on of Ireland. Nothing can exceed the regularity the order, and peaceable association with which the ob' ject is to be effected. None are to be admitted as volun, teers but those whose characters will bear the strictest examination by the parish priest : so as to insure the admission of those only whom the opportunity of auri' cular confession enables the priest to vouch for as 0 persons to aid in the accomplishment of the _purpose fot which the association is designed. The " Volunteers are not to be armed ; Oh ! no ; that would be agains! the law; to be sure the designation of " Volunteers has an ominous sound, and it is difficult to contemplaV them as an unarmed body ; but, then, they are Irish Volunteers, which explains the apparent contradiction , What can be more delightful contemplation than an assn' elation of all the males of a population of six and a half, regularly enrolled as volunteers, with the means of taking up arms at any moment, and still philo' sophically abstaining from their use ; trusting for victo' ry, not to guns, but to argument ! To a philanthrope mind, such as that of Mr. O'Connell, such a sight inn be as gratifying as novel; more particularly when it 0 considered that the inhabitants of Ireland, who are compose these " Pacific Volunteers," are not remarkably ' celebrated for mildness of demeanour during excitement or abstinence from the argumentunt baculinunt, even of festive occasions. To suppose that the spirit which 0 now calling into existence this array of Irish logicians discuss abstract questions of civil and religious govern' meat with the British legislature, has any ulterid designs in their organization, would be equivalent t° l suspecting the agitators of the selfish desire of person ' aggrandizement. It is true that this measure bears verf much the appearance of an attempt at inthuidation 1 and some persons pretend to see in it the occult d sign of using it as a means to force a separation. 130' what motive can the agitator have for desiring a separw tion ? Has he not disclaimed it ? And, besides, has hi° not already an income of X 12,000 a year from tb° HOLLA:s The following are the articles of Holland and the five powers, as pi with Belgian strictures : " 1. The free navigation of the rats of tonnage : this is plausible, " Holland to refuse ingress and as is Antwerp, where the tide rises salts which is the national definitio "2. The nasTiation of the Meuse dues of the Convention of Mentz : which lead from one river to the of the treaty of the 21 articles, which ` 4, 3. Belgium to pay from the Ist 11 13 Fins, as interest of her share of objection, when the treaty is sigi share. f