The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-04-16 00:00:00

FROM OUR PRIVATE CORRESPONDENT.
" LONDON, WEDNESDAY.
" The unexpected course taken by Sir Robert Peel, in the
House of Commons yesterday evening, of giving notice of his
intention to move an amendment on Monday night, to the
resolution to be submitted by Lord John Russell, carried
terror into the ministerial camp. The members of the govern-
ment are under the impression to-day that the amendment
will go the length of inculpating their general policy, and in
that event a section of the Radicals would be detached from
them ; but althorigh the precise terms of the amendment have
not yet been agreed upon, I think I may take it upon myself
to prognosticate that the counter resnlutim will hp ctrirtiv
___t comamea trie resolution to be pro-
posed by Lord John Russell, and to the event which called it
forth.
" It is manifest that the House of Lords, in granting a
committee to inquire into the state of crime in Ireland, have
transgressed no constitutional principle, have violated no
precedent, or done aught deserving the censure of the other
branch of the legislature; and as it is most unjust to prejudge
a case pending an inquiry, I make no doubt the resolutions
to be submitted by the conservatives will broadly assert those
propositions.

- "Of course, it cannot be expected that resolutions contain-
ing so much truth will obtain the support of the Radicals,
and therefore, ministers may probably succeed in negativing
the amendment by a majority of something between fifteen
and twenty. But when they have done so, they must not
imagine that matters will be allowed to rest. Their Irish
policy will be disposed of ; but there remains their foreign,
domestic, and colonial policy to be considered ; and, from
what occurred in the House of Commons last night, it is
pretty clear they have no chance of carrying their bill for sus-
pending the constitution of Jamaica. In fact, they are utterly
powerless, except where Ireland is concerned, and a vote of
want of confidence, omitting Ireland, must inevitably be
successful.
" That such a vote will follow, as a matter of course on
the decision of Monday night, I have not the slightest
doubt.

" The cause ofMr. Sheil's resignation of his commission-
er's place is the subject of general conversation here. It is
not generally known, however, that though the place was
conferred upon him for life, as he supposed, and as was cer-
tainly intended by the Government, yet on looking to the
act of Parliament, it has been recently discovered that he would
be liable to be dismissed on a change of administration. Does
not his resignation look as if he thought such an event not
merely probable, but inevitable ?
" The House of Commons did not meet to-day."
We cannot better conclude this article than by subjoining
the following very interesting letter from Mr. JERVIS, the
the member for Bridport; a flaming Radical, to the Whig
whipper-in upon the subject of this same " crisis." We ex-
tract it from the Morning Chronicle of yesterday, which has
just reached us :

" Whitehall, March 27, 1839.
" Mr. Stanley presents his compliments to Mr. Jervis, and
begs leave to inform him that Lord John Russel's motion
respecting the policy of the Irish government is postponed
till Monday, the 15th of April, on which day it will certainly
be brought forward : and Mr. Stanley begs leave to express
his earnest hope that he will be in his place for the division
on that day.

" hitehall-lace, April 9, 1839.
" DEAR SlR,—Having been recently favoured with a com-
munication from you, on the subject of Lord John Russell's
motion, which I observe now stands for Monday, the 15th
I feel bound in fairness to trouble you with a few lines in re-
ply, for the purpose of removing any apprehension as to the
course which I shall consider it my duty to take at this
juncture.
" Upon all former occasions, whenever I could do so
without compromising my opinions and principles as an
earnest Reformer, I have voted with ministers, and if their
conduct as respects the executive administration of Ireland
were all that we are now called upon to sanction, I might
still, perhaps, consider myself justified in giving them my
support, though I cannot help thinking that but a narrow
and short-sighted policy which is beneficial to one section of
the empire only, and that but for the passing day, to the
neglect of permanent and universal interests.
But the question which is now about to be raised in the
House of Commons, however it may be glossed am- disguis-
ed, involves more than the mere approbation of the Irish
policy of ministers. Greater and higher considerations are
at stake ; while Ireland, as has been the case upon too many
occasions, is made a convenient stalking-horse to support
their waning popularity.
" It appears to me utterly impossible to join in a vote of
approbation of the ministerial policy in Ireland, selected as
it is without reference to any pending or contemplated mea-
sure, without indirectly sanctioning their general policy ; and
this, considering the conduct of government with regard to
the ballot and many other highly important questions, I for
one am not prepared to do.
" Under these circumstances, and looking at the question
in its several lights and bearings, I think it right, however
much I may regret it, to inform you that I should be acting
contrary to my own convictions, were I to give my support
to government in the division of the 15th.—I am, dear Sir,
your obliged and very obedient servant,
" SWYNFEN JERVIS.

" E. J. Stanley, Es., M.P."
Nothing can be more amusing than the course adopted by
that once ministerial journal, in finding fault with Mr. Jer-
vis for honourably following out those same principles which
the Morning Chronicle itself, with unaccustomed indepen-
dence, has been advocating so hotly for the last three weeks.
Have any other members taken the same independent coun-
sel of the Chronicle? We shall see. The followiug are its
observations upon Mr. Jervis's letter :
" We differ in opinion from the highly respectable mem-
ber who announces his refusal to support ministers on the
15th ; and we have already stated at some length our reasons
for wishing that all liberal members should adopt a different
course. We do not, any more than Mr. Jervis, believe that
the beneficial policy pursued in one section of the empire will
long avail to avert the ruin which the suicidical policy of
ministers, regarding the permanent and universal interests
of the empire in general has a tendency to effect; but minis-
ters are attacked by their opponents, not for neglecting the
permanent and universal interests of the empire in general,
but for having administered one section of the empire in such
a way as to promote its peace and tranquillity. Irish reform-
ers, with the very best disposition to assist the reformers of
England and Scotland in their views, will be at a loss to un-
derstand why, as a preliminary to their moving in concert,
Ireland should be sacrificed to a faction. Had ministers not
pursued a generous policy towards Ireland the rest of the
empire might now be in a perilous condition. We once
more impress on all liberal members the importance of not
separating themselves on this occasion from the Irish libe-
rals. A whole people have, as one man, pledged themselves
to assist in repelling this attack on ministers. To refuse to
join the Irish members would almost amount to a declara-
tion that, on a consideration of the policy which ought to be
pursued to the empire in general, it was immaterial what
course should be pursued towards Ireland.

RAILWAY FROM CARLISLE TO GLASGOW AND
EDINBURGH.

The committee of subscribers to the survey of the pro-
posed line of railway from Carlisle, by Beattock and Biggar,
to Glasgow and Edinburgh, have put forth a well-written
minute of the proceedings of a meeting of their body held
at Lockerbie on the 26th of March last, under the presi-
dency of Sir Wm. Jardine. The object of this document is
to show the superiority of the direct line by Beattock over
the circuitous line by Nithsdale, which appears to us to be
effectually done in the following extracts
"Although there are yet no accurate measurements, it is
certain that the direct line by Beattock and Lanark, from
Carlisle, is under one hundred miles ; while the circuitous
route by Kilmarnock, Beith, and Paisley, will be upwards of
one hundred and thirty miles, or from thirty to thirty-five
miles longer. As affording the best communication from
the interior to Glasgow, it is to be noticed that already the
Ayrshire railway opens to Glasgow the towns of Kilmarnock
Irvine, Ayr, Ardrossan, &c., or, in short, all the portion of
the county of Ayr with which any material intercourse can
take place, so that the extension of the line to Cumnock, &c.
brings with it a very small and unimportant increase of traffic.
On the other hand, the Beattock line opens to Glasgow the
whole vale of the Clyde, the towns of Hamilton and Lanark,
and for thirty miles it has on each side of it a country rich in
mineral and agricultural produce ; and likewise, it brings
within the reach of Glasgow a large portion of Peebles-shire,
and the central district of the south of Scotland. The Beat-
tock, equally with the Nithsdale line, opens to Glasgow the
county of Dumfries, with the advantage of proximity by the
former line. The Obstacle of theascent of the Evan Water
is the point deserving most material consideration. The sur-
veys made are not so minute and elaborate as to ascertain
particularly and positively that the rate of ascent cannot be
much lessened. But assuming that, for seven miles, the rate
is one in 106, the question rests, whether the difficulty of
these seven miles can be fairly set off against forty miles of
railway, on ordinary gradients ? The committee confidently
anticipate the opinion of any engineer on the point—viz. that
it is impossible the expense of capital, of annual tear and
wear of travel, or the delay of time of the seven miles, can
be equal to the forty, or even one half of it.
The Glasgow Committee are no doubt aware that, by the
diverging line from Biggar of about twenty-five miles, the
distance between Edinburgh and Carlisle will be under one
hundred miles ; and thus Edinburgh is brought by a shorter
line, by Carlisle and Preston, to London than it could by
Newcastle, Leeds, and Birmingham. Ediubpro, th,..
nearer to Manchester and by seventy or
eighty
.3 X., kr Newcastle and Carlisle nn
the one hand, or Glasgow and Kilmarnock on the other.
Glasgow is, as stated, brought nearer by thirty or thirty-five
miles to England by this line than by any other. And thus,
by making 120 or 130 miles of railway, the whole objects of
Scotland are attained more completely than they could be
even by two lines of more than double the extent—viz., by
both the Kilmarnock and Berwick lines.
In conclusion, it may be proper for the Beattock commit-
tee to state that the list of subscribers to the survey made by
Mr. Locke, represented by this committee, includes almost
every proprietor from the Scots border, for fifty-five miles
northward on the line ; and indeed it may be said they are
the owners of nineteen-twentieths of the land through which
it passes.—Carlisle Patriot.

THE CRISIS-SIR ROBT 7. PEEL'S AMENDMENT.

(F the Duin in Mail.)
We have oftenrom
said, as we have Even
often had occasion to say,
that we are proud of the leaders of our party. Now, that the
struggle has come—when the battle has begun in good earnest,
we shall have other and more striking opportunities of ex-
hibiting the contrast between sordidand unprincipled selfish-
ness, submitting to every species of personal and moral de-
gradation for the sake of salary, and the proud and honour-
able tone of unpurchased patriotism and conscious rectitude,
never succumbing, in the gloomiest times, to popular invec-
tive, nor swerving in the slightest degree from its straight-
forward course, when apparently about to receive, at a na-
tion's hands, the reward due to its merits.
This day we have it in our power to furnish two specimens
of this happy contrast—the first, in the conduct of Lord J.
Russell and Sir R. Peel, respectively, in regard to the pro-
ceedings of Monday next—and the second, in that pattern of
pure and disinterested Whiggery, Richard Lalor Sheil.
It appears from the following interesting letter from our
private correspondent, that Sir Robert Peel and his friends
are about to adopt a'course, in the present crisis, every way
worthy of their reputation and their cause. Instead of any
quibbling amendment—any hesitating half-measure—any
double-sense terms by which a vote can be entrapped, or
through which a false friend may escape, the chief of our
party will come forward and compel the representatives of
the people to say, in terms that cannot be misunderstood,
whether the House of Lords have the right, since the reform
bill, of inquiring into the oppressions of the people—whether
they are to have the liberty of exercising that right, upon the
people's prayer and supplication, without subjecting them-
selves to the censure of the British nation, enunciated through
that constitutional organ, the Tail of Mr. Daniel O'Connell.
This is the question he will ask, and which must be answered.
And what that answer may be from a Radical majority we
care not one farthing—it is already replied to by the voice of
all good men.
With respect to Mr. Sheil, we confess that we, in common
with every human being that calls himself Irishman, were
overwhelmed with wonderment at the authorised announce-
ment that he had resigned Greenwich and his pension, and
had decided upon falling with his falling friends. There was
something so generous in this—so like a touch of true pa-
triotism—it resembled so strongly the honourable devotion of
pure men to a good cause, that we puzzled our brains for two
whole days in trying to discover whether Mr. Sheil had given
up Whiggery or not. Behold our correspondent has given as
the solution—Richard Sheil held Greenwich not for life but
during pleasure.