The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-12-28 00:00:00

being a step in a wrong direction. It was impoli-
tic, because it substituted that which could only he
felt as an oppression, for one the reduction of which
would confer no advantage on either the producer
or consumer. It was a needless hazard of one of
the most important sources of the national income,
for no possible benefit; and though its being pro-
posed might be a fair test of the want of sincerity
in Free Traders, who had always clamoured for
direct taxation, and opposed it because it touched
themselves, it was unjust towards that great por-
tion of the community who had always been loyal
to Constitutional principles. It has, however, been
rejected ; and although on this account it might
fairly be allowed to pass without further comment,
yet, as it ostensibly formed the turning point upon

which the DERBY Administration felt themselves
called upon to resign office, it is entitled to further

consideration

We stated last week our conviction that the Earl

of DERBY had acted somewhat precipitately, in

.bandoning

post upon the

st hostile rn

against him ; more particularly considering the
small numerical difference, the discordant nature
of the materials which had been thus hastily and
passionately drawn into unnatural combination,
and the certainty that the investigation of election

committees would have considerably thinned the
ranks of the Opposition. And the resignation thus
hurriedly decided upon was the more to be regretted,
as no party, or practical coalition of parties, existed
which possessed the remotest chance of being able
to carry on the government of the country. A s the
noble PREMIER had himself stated on a previous
occasion, the sole question at issue was between his
own party and a further stride downwards to demo-
cracy ; and nothing has since occurred to alter the
circumstances which presented so perilous an alter-
native. We have still the little Lord who prides
himself on being the father of the Reform Act,
anxious to do further mischief, for the sake of
place ; we have still the Manchester democrats,
priding themselves on their numbers, and deter-
mined to yield their support only for an extension
of the suffrage, and some other points of the
Charter; and we have still the Rot-Dish Brigade,
alike indispensable to a Parliamentary majority, who
would sell their country and her dearest interests at
the bidding of their priestly tyrants. Out of the
Opposition majority, what is there to oppose to all
this mass of political corruption, but the little knot
of the PEELITE section, the remnant who have
secured seats in Parliament, and who plume them-
selves on their personal talents and official experience
as sufficient to outweigh a host of adverse interests
to which they cannot succumb without political
suicide, and are powerless to govern or to reconcile.
With a knowledge of these facts, which are patent
to all the world, the reasons for the Earl of DERBY
continuing to hold office against such a combination
as that opposed to him on the Budget were far
more forcible than those which induced him to
undertake it in February last.
Our business at the present, however, is with the
position of those Conservative members of the
House of Commons who voted with the Govern-
ment on the late momentous division. The oppor-

tualit
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lolls opponents and lukewarm supporters to accuse
them of acting contrary to the interests of their
constituents. Our Radical contemporaries in Li-
verpool have not been slow to make the charge,
and even the walls have been placarded with repeti-
tions of it. Such a conclusion can, however, only
be arrived at from very imperfect information of the
question at issue. It is true that the question for-
mally put from the chair was to enable the Govern-
ment to increase and extend the area of the Inha-
bited House Duty, but the real point to be decided
was distinctly and avowedly the CONFIDENCE OF
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN THE DERBY AD-
MINISTRATION. The Government had pledged
themselves to obtain a decision of the new Parlia-
ment upon their Ministerial policy, and with a chi-
valrous daring, worthy of the great Conservative
cause, Mr. DISRAELI placed the most obnoxious
item of his Budget in the van. The battle was en-
tered upon with all the advantage to the Opposition

of ostensibly attacking a most unpopular impost;
but, before the House came to a vote, it was most
distinctly declared by the CHANCELLOR OF THE
EXCHEQUER that it was to be considered one of
approval or disapproval of the general policy of the
Government, and that EVERY MEMBER WHO DI-

VIDED WITH THE GOVERNMENT, SHOULD THEY

BE SUCCESSFUL, WAS PERFECTLY

AT LIBERTY

ON A FUTURE OCCASION, ON GOING INTO DE-

TAILS, TO OBJECT TO THE PARTICULAR PLAN, OR

INDEED TO ANY INCREASE OR EXTENSION OF
THE EXISTING HOUSE-TAX. It will thus be
clearly seen that whatever may be the individual
opinions of any Conservative member, it was his
bounden duty—a duty which he owed to his own
character, as well as to his constituents—to vote
with the Government on that momentous division
upon which depended the maintenance of those
principles which he was especially sent to Parlia-
ment to support. He would then have been in a
position to have opposed the extension or increase
of the House-tax, and the Budget would have been
modified in its details without any resort, as has
now been the case, to a resignation of office, with
the prospect of a chaos of parties. Let every elec-
tor, therefore, who voted for Conservative repre-
sentatives, clearly understand, that it was only a
necessary compliance with the forms and usages of
Parliament which declared the late division to be
taken on the question of the House-tax; that it
was virtually and really one of confidence in the
Ministry ; and that the dreaded impost would have
been in no degree nearer a realisation had the majo-
rity been the other way. The decision upon the
proposed increase of the House-duty was in fact
postponed until the time when the Committee
would have been called upon to fill up the blanks
in the schedule of duties to be levied.

THE BISHOP OF Cu ARTRES.—Mgr. Clausel de Montals
has resigned his Pastoral functions, and committed them
to his coadjutor. The Bishop, who is in his 84th, year.
and was consecrated in 1824, was one of the chief
champions of Ultramontanisrn in France, and "saluted by
the faithful as the Athanasius of the nineteeth century."

SHIPWRECK.—The sloop Thomas and Mary, of Bel

fast, sailed on Saturday, the 18th instant, from Lamlash,
in the island of Arran, for Belfast, haying a crew of three
hands and a general cargo. After passing the Castle Light
she sprang a leak, which, notwithstanding the utmost ex-
ertions, increased upon them. They hoisted all sail, and
ran before the wind, and when off the Point of Garron,
about half-past three o'clock that afternoon, she went
down. As she was sinking, the boat, which was on deck,
floated, and the three men sprang into her, having but
one oar, which they immediately lost, and were driven by
the wind and tide past Turnamona Head. In this fearful
extremity they tore up one of the seats of the boat, which
they endeavoured to guide her with. They were at length,
between six and seven o'clock, p.m., driven into a little
creek called Port Scally, when the boat swamped, and
they were all washed out. The night was dark, and the
surge raged about them, depriving them of every ray of
hope. The master, however, and one of the hands were
driven on shore in an exhausted state ; but the other poor
fellow, Denis M`Laughlin, of the Waterfoot, Red Bay,
was lost. His body was washed ashore the next day,
greatly bruised and disfigured by dashing against the rocks.