The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-04-13 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 1852.

cies, and other circumstances, which have occurred
since their names were placed on the register; and
that their votes, if tendered, would be struck off

tion press, they might earn the inestimable favour
of the Anti-Corn-Law League and its organs ; and
enjoy the advantage of having "their enemies
praise them."
The Ministerial party, however, do not sufficiently
appreciate the advantage of the praises of the
League. They are determined to meet the pressing
difficulties of the present position of the State. In
the words of our French neighbours—they " accept
the situation of affairs"—and are resolved to deal

on a scrutiny.
In the Northern Division we are glad to observe
that the initiatory steps have already been taken;
and that a requisition has been prepared to be pre-
sented to Lord STANLEY, urging him to come for-
ward as a candidate. It is a most gratifying fact
that this has been the spontaneous act of the tenant
farmers themselves; and a greater compliment was
perhaps never paid than is contained in the lan-
guage, and in the tone altogether, of the document
itself. Our North Lancashire brethren fully recog-
nize the important results to the country which
must follow the action of the constituencies at the
coming election; and having declared their here-
ditary affection to the noble house of STANLEY,
they state :

with it as may seem most conducive to public
Those who believe that the Earl of

prosperity.

DERBY is equal to his great position—the greatest
position enjoyed by any man in Christendom—
cannot sacrifice the interests of good government,
both civil and religious, for the reward of being
told by the enemies of nationality and order that
they approve the policy that serves their ends.
The course taken must be adopted with prudence,
patience, and sagacity. The chief necessity is,
that the reckless career of those " who are given
to change"—the tide, in fact, of revolution—should
be arrested; that the remaining defences of the
constitution be maintained; and that the just
rights of every order, from the peer to the peasant,
be kept safe from the perpetual agitation of pro-
fessional demagogues. This course Lord DERBY
will adopt ; and every man who regards the
national prosperity is bound to maintain a
Government who will uphold the cause of peace
and order.

" This name, borne by your honoured ancestors, has
led the hardy sons of the soil and gallant men of Lanca-
shire, in days gone by, to the field of action, when the
interests and liberties of our forefathers were threatened
and attacked; and at this eventful crisis, their posterity
desire to fight under the same banner, and be led by the
descendant of the same chiefs who preserved to us our
liberties, our hearths, our property, and our glorious
institutions.
" We do not ask you, my lord, to pledge yourself to
any men, or to any particular public measure ; we have
sufficient confidence in your conduct and character to
feel assured that in applying yourself to the development
of the true resources, and to the promotion of the general
weal of the country, our prosperity and welfare will
equally be the object of your exertions and solicitude.
" We tale this step uninfluenced, unassisted, and un-
controlled by any body or party. We desire only to
exercise our suffrages for one in whom we have confidence ;
and by giving us an opportunity of so recording our votes
in your favour, it will alike prove to your lordship and the
country that we are neither few in number, unimportant
in influence, nor undecided in our opinions and determi-
nation."

THE LOSS OF THE BIRKENHEAD STEAM

FRIGATE.

" Toll for the brave,
The brave that are no more."

This is not the language of what the Free Trade

Liberals delight in terming the "ignorant serfs of

ONE of the saddest events with which the sympa-
thies of the country hare been excited for several
years, is recorded in our columns to-day. The
large and beautiful steamer Birkenhead, which re-
ceived her name and existence in our own imme-
diate neighbourhood, is numbered with many ano-
ther wreck near the Cape of Storms; and nearly
500 gallant men who sailed in her to fight the
battles of their country have found a premature
grave. We had scarcely ceased to think of the
ill-fated Amazon, when this intelligence, still more
heart-rending, reaches us; and it is aggravated by
the fact that the whole calamity was avoidable by
the exercise of common prudence. Our grief is not
diminished by the fact, that the many brave men
who suffered exhibited a degree of discipline and
heroism which could not have been expected from
untrained civilians. Death in the battle-field is
honourable as well as professional; it is calculated
on as a near contingency, and besides, there is the
knowledge that in the most disastrous engagements
only a small percentage of the combatants must
die. But the forbearance which permitted and
assisted the escape of the weak, whether from sex
or age, forms so noble a contrast to the conduct
of the assistant-surgeon, who assisted no one in
his selfish attempt to secure individual safety, that
it merits a more lasting memorial than a newspaper
record, were it only to incite others to " do like-

a territorial aristocracy," but of loyal and patriotic
Englishmen, who, seeing their country's true inter-
ests and their own liberties perilled by a revolution-
ary faction, are ready, as their fathers were, to
stand forward in their defence under the leadership
of a man of birth and honour.

RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF THE PRESENT
POLITICAL CONTEST.
WE are nominally divided on politics; but he knows
little of the state of public feeling, who fancies that
that is the only difference. The politicel watch-
words have of late years been felling fainter and
more faintly on the ear, until we have seen Whigs
advocate Tory measures, and 'lbises, in name at
least, cagy Whig measures successfully through
Parliament. At the present moment, an anomaly
of this kind fills our newspapers, covers our walls in
the form of placards and addresses, and is heard
from a hundred platforms. The man who calls
himself a Free-trader gives the lie to his own profes-
sions, for he advocates the maintenance of that bas-
tard system which sets class against class in our
own countiy, and would bring justice and equality
to none in their national capacity. On the contrary,
those who ere honoured or stigmatised by the name
of Protectionists are, in one sense, the only Free-
traders ; for they would do to others as they do to
us, and prevent selfish manufacturers from grinding
the faces of husbandmen. They would give a clear
stage to all, not to one only or to several; they
would make a bargain advantageous to both con-
tracting parties; for they cannot see that the balance
is equally adjusted when the weight is only in one
scale.

wise."

When the Royal George was overset at Spithead
in 1782, exactly 70 years ago, the calamity was one
which was unforeseen, and no blame was attributa-
ble to any one concerned. The brave KEMPEN-
FELT himself was drowned, and nearly 800 of the
crew, and the sympathy of all Europe and America
was deeply moved ; yet the calamity, in all its
bearings, was scarcely greater than that which has
just occurred. A more horrible event than either
was that which happened to the veterans of the
Peninsula in Dublin Bay, for it was marked by
cold-blooded treachery and murder. When the
captain and crew found that the destruction of the
ship was certain, they deserted her in the boats ;
and the entire troops, under fastened hatches, were
drowned as the ship opened, without even the poor
satisfaction of a struggle on the part of the swim-
mer. It is impossible to exaggerate the indignant
sorrow of a humane community when this dreadful
deed became known. There is a story told of an
empirical commander, who could not find a dan-
gerous rock alleged to be in the Mediterranean ;
but an officer who had sailed under himself after-
wards discovered it and laid it down upon the charts.
In his foolhardiness, however, the former would
not admit of its existence, and sailing designedly
over the very spot, he met with the fate that he had
so recklessly dared. But the example most similar
to the wreck of the Birkenhead, in all but the ex-
tent of the disaster, is the fate of the Orion. In a
well-known part of the channel, where every spot
of the neighbouring shore was visible, and the
water calm as a mill-pond, the vessel was torn to
pieces on an adjoining rock.

These and similar questions, however, seem to
give place to weightier ones. The question of
Monarchy or Democracy is openly discussed, and
the Manchester men seem to have made up their
minds that all present concessions are as means to
an end. They will, no doubt, declare, as the Ro-
man Catholics did in 1829, that every great mea-
sure is a final one; but it will soon be found that
each additional concession is only driving home the
wedge a little more closely. Mr. CHEETHAM—in
whose name there is a sound of truth—is a candi-
date for the representation of part of this county,
and his creed is household suffrage, vote by ballot,
triennial parliaments, and direct taxation ! A pro-
mising man for Lancashire.
The Roman Catholics of 1852 have taken courage
and spoken out. The Stonyhurst tactics are use-
less now ; and besides, there is no use in dissembling
if the truth will answer as well. The question with
them is, Protestant Ascendancy or Roman Catholic
Ascendancy. The men who have for years been
declaring that religion had nothing to do with good
government, that civil rights and liberties were all
that they sought for, that it was libellous to accuse
them even of confounding the temporal with the
spiritual, now openly avow that they will vote for
no man, however orthodox his political creed may
be, unless he is favourable to Popery. The liberals
of every grade have been fighting their battles for
more than half a century, under the guise of liberty,
equality, fraternity ; they now learn that the ladder
is to be kicked away or trampled on, unless it can
he used for mounting still higher. It is said that
before one of the decisive battles of 1798, the
Roman Catholic leader exclaimed, "To-morrow
will decide whether we are to have a Roman Ca-
tholic king in Ireland." "Oh !" said General
Munro (a presbyterian), "had I known that that was
what you were fighting for, I would not have been
here to-day."
When we see a few hundred Roman Catholic
electors boasting that they are tw ice as many, and
declaring that they will not promise their support
even to the faithless CARDWELL, as he is not suffi-
ciently ultra-montane, is it any wonder that the Anti-
Maynooth feeling is spreading ? When we see even
the traditions and customs of established loyalty
outraged at their symposia, and the Pope toasted
with three times three, while Queen VICTORIA is
scarcely named, is it surprising that men of mode-
rate party feelings, and hitherto unmarked in their
leanings, should choose their sides with zeal and
sincerity ? When the Romanist is ready to sacrifice
political liberty and civil benefits, that he may exalt
his creed, shall Protestants not merge their differ-
ences too, and show that they value the institutions
under which they live.? The religious Dissenter
finds that it is now more needful than ever to fight
in the battle of the Established Church ; but the
political Dissenter, however he may prate about
spirituality, casts his lot with Rome. It is humi-
liating, but not surprising, to see the libertine free-
thinker, who denies everything, and the blind votary
of superstition who believes everything, ranging
themselves on one side. It is an illustration of the
principle that extremes meet ; it is a practical com-
mentary on one of the lessons of the season, which
tells us that HEROD and PONTIUS PILATE were
made friends together. The bond of union is
hatred to our venerable eetablishment, which keeps
the lamp of truth burning, without either adultera-
ting or diminishing the oil. While Rome represents
one of these parties, and the neologists of Germany
the other, their union is s3-mholisei by France,
where the acknowledged deism of the people is
dressed up in the trappings of superstition.

There is no man to whose skill and integrity we
resign ourselves with such unbounded confidence,
as the commander of an ordinary ship or
steamer, or the engineer of a railway train.
The passenger abandons care for the time,
rolls the responsibility for his life and pro-
perLy upon another, and turns into his berth as
carelessly as he is accustomed to close the door of
his own chamber. When a calamity occurs, there-
fore, it is terrific in its effects; and, surely, either
high security should be required from those in
command, or heavy punishment should follow
their delinquency. The wretched mother who
destroys her speechless babe, in the vain hope of
saving her own reputation, forfeits her life to the
outraged laws of her country; and shall no
punishment, or even a light one, await him whose
weakness, or wickedness, numbers his victims not
merely by tens but by hundreds. In the present
case, the primitive geographer spoke from the
grave when he called out " Danger Point ;" but
Captain SALMOND listened to him as the " deaf
adder" does.

This terrible disaster to life and property may
also be associated with the results of the Caffre
war. Almost the whole of the 454 who were
drowned formed part of the auxiliaries to our
army at the Cape; and every campaigner knows
that the morale of an event is often of far greater
importance than its physical weight. The Caffres,
who were sufficiently insolent before, will take
courage ; and the dissatisfaction, which is widely
spreading among both the British and Dutch
colonists, will be increased. The war has at
length assumed a very serious aspect. The native
tribes have decided on a continuance of hostilities,
and have taken precautions accordingly. The
struggling farmer finds it almost useless to rear
his flocks and herds, unless he is to regard him-
self merely as a herdsman for Caffre accommoda-
The mercy and forbearance of a great nation
were naturally mistaken for cowardice by those to
whom the lower qualities only are known ; the
policy which is miscalled humane, but which is
more nearly idiotic, has already destroyed the
prestige of our power; and at this moment the
protection of our own people, inadequate as it
undoubtedly 19, costs us £5 per head, for colonists
young and old. Now, the history of the world
has shown that, as the elephant must be caught or
the steed broken, so the savage must be conquered
before he can be civilised. But, if we commence
with assuming that he is already on an equality
with ourselves, he will endeavour to step from that
platform to a higher elevation. The colonists
cannot now defend themselves, though aided by
10,000 soldiers ; yet they would have little to fear
if left quite alone ! In the days of the Caffre
" commandoes," it is true that great cruelties were
permitted and practised ; but if we must decide
between the robbery and slaughter of Englishmen
and that of an equal number of Caffres, we have
no hesitation in saying that we prefer the latter.

THE " CONSISTENCY" CRY.

THE heathen philosopher showed much judgment
who said "cursed art thou when thine enemies
praise thee." Such is the condition into which
the motley Opposition desire to bring the supporters
of the Earl of DERBY. How excessively and
acutely anxious they are, that all who adhere to

ministers should carry out every constructive mean-
ing of all their previous words, however forced
may be, which they choose to