The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-12-21 00:00:00

WHIG-RADICAL DISHONESTY.

WHATEVER may be the ultimate result of the pre-
sent Ministerial crisis, the favourite dogmas of the
Financial Reformers and Free-traders have received
a practical negation at their own hands. When we
had a sweeping demand for the abolition of Customs
duties, in order to leave unfettered the operations of
commerce, the fears for the National Credit and the
sustentation of the Revenue were met with a cry for
direct taxation, as the only legitimate source of
national income. It was the stock principle of the
new lights in political science, and amateur finan-
ciers were eloquent in their praise of this wonderful
discovery. Abolish the Customs and Excise, with
their expensive establishments, and the revenue will
be raised easily and cheaply, because directly, from
the people. The Land, the Colonies, and Ship-
ping, had been surrendered to unrestricted compe-
tition, and all that was required was the adoption of
the new theory, in order to make the phantom of
Free-trade a living and substantial reality. Such
was the scheme of the Manchester school ; and,
though in the midst of their triumph Lord JOHN
RUSSELL surrendered his post from sheer weak-
ness, and the Conservatives were called upon to ad-
minister public affairs, the Radicals succeeded in
dictating a persistence in their favourite policy. It
was in full accordance with this principle that the
Budget of the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
was framed, and though, as we have previously
stated, we objected to some of its details, it had a
right to the support of those whose views it was de-
signed to carry out. Its rejection has, however,
served to show the hollowness of Radical profes-
sions, and the small reliance which can be placed
on their assertions. So long as direct taxation was
an abstract principle, having no definite application,
its praises were sung by every Free-trade orator,
and reiterated in every Radical journal; but no
sooner had the ingenuity of a Finance Minister
given it a practical bearing, than these selfish poli-
ticians found where the shoe pinched, and repu-
diated their own theory. It is now evident that
their object is simply to relieve themselves as
far as possible from any share of the public
burdens, either directly or indirectly, and the
struggle has been to eject the Derby Ministry,
in order to carry the new Reform Bill which
is looming in the future; to extend the Fran-
chise upon a wider basis than even that propounded
by Lord JOHN RUSSELL; and, as political power
would then be virtually in the hands of the lower
classes of the community, it was hardly likely that
they should consent to tax themselves, even in fur-
therance of their favourite theory. The struggle
for the future will be in reality between property
and poverty, and it is not difficult to foresee the
issue, unless those who are desirous to preserve the
blessings of a well-balanced Constitution should
battle manfully for the maintenance of a Conserva-
tive Administration. A return even to modern
Whiggery is manifestly impossible; and those who
have anything to lose must be content to suffer a
legalised confiscation of property, without a rally is
made against the only alternative of a Radical Mi-
nistry, with such men as COBDEN, BRIGHT,
GRAHAM, and Co., in office. At such a time,
minor differences should be foregone, or farewell to
the greatness of Great Britain ; for the saying of
NAPOLEON would be realised, that " political eco- '
nomists would grind an empire of adamant to dust."

INDIAN Gossir.—The following paragraph is published
by the Delhi Gazette :--` A bazaar report—and they
generally have some truth in them—is current here, that
Dost Mahomed has joined the Candahar people, and is
marching rapidly on Khelat. Whether this will affect us
or not I cannot take upon
is myself to say, but all the
people in Scinde are very anxious about it. The impres-
sion seems to be that it an attempt on the part of the
Scindians to throw off the British power by secretly
seeking the aid of the Dost and the Khans of Khelat to
effect their object. There is no doubt that the Dost has
made all safe with the hill tribes about the Khyber, so as
to prevent a British brigade walking quickly into Cabul."