The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-05-24 00:00:00

practicable, to remove Lord Hill. The whip have al-
ready tampered with the Queen, and they are now
seeking to tamper with the army. Let them try. Of
one thing, however, we can inform them—that the
country will not be tampered with.

Electioneering movements are still the order of the
day. Candidates, of both sides of politics, are in the
field in almost every town and county in the kingdom.
Committees are being formed, and an active canvass
is carried on in most places, especially among the
friends of the constitution, whose enthusiasm, in most
instances, reflects the highest credit upon their profes-
sions. But in the midst of all this bustling activity—
this eager preparation for " the tug of war," what are
our conservative friends in Liverpool doing ? We hear
of no committees being formed, or any other arrange-
ments entered into, for the purpose of supporting the
conservative character of the town. A general election
seems inevitable at the present moment. The " shab-
bies" cannot possibly carry on the government with
the present House of Commons; and if Sir Robert
Peel should be again called upon (as he will be at no
distant period) to form an administration, a dissolution
would be still more probable : and yet every man in
Liverpool is forced to ask his neighbour, " What are
the leaders of the conservative party about ?" We
need not say that the radicals are actively engaged in
the work of preparation. We therefore call upon the
conservatives of Liverpool to arouse themselves from
their apathy, and to show their determination to take
their share in the noble enterprise of effecting the sal-
vation of their country from whig tyranny and misrule.

When our country is in danger, a morbid love of
ease and retirement is criminal in the highest degree.
This country is in danger, in imminent danger, at the
present moment. All its mighty, and multiplied inte-
rests are in the greatest peril. At home the chartist
masses threaten us with a revolution;-abroad our
influence is daily diminishing, and our commerce is
suffering in consequence ;—our colonies are only held
by the slenderest thread—a breath is almost sufficient
to sever the connection. And what is the cause of all
this ? The only answer that can be given to this
question is, that England has a government impotent
for good, but powerful for evil. We firmly believe
that this is the response which nine-tenths• of the po-
pulation of Great Britain would give to the question :
and yet the nation contents itself with calmly contem-
plating the dangers by which we are surrounded,
without making any adequate effort to overcome them !
It has been said that "the strength of a nation is
perceived in its silence." We confess that we hid
much rather see the strength of the people of England
putting forth its active energies than patiently watching
" the tide of affairs." If this country is cursed with
a government potent only for mischief, let that govern-
ment be removed, and superseded by a better, before

it has time to inflict more harm. If the Queen is
really enthralled by a destructive faction, let the people
of England unite to release her from the abject capti-
vity in which she is placed.
We confess ourselves to be heartily tired of the Fa-
bian policy hitherto acted upon by the conservative
leaders, and still recommended by many good friends
to the cause. The welfare of the country is a matter
too momentous to be trifled with any longer.
We are glad to find that this policy is not univer-
sally acted upon. Norwich, Ipswich, Brighton, Bris-
tol, Shrewsbury, and other places, have had their
meetings to petition her Majesty to dismiss from her
councils the present reckless administration, and to
summon to her assistance men who will defend her

throne and protect her subjects—men who, while they
will give us wholesome and necessary reforms, will not
suffer the rude hand of the republican and the leveller
to touch the citadel of our constitution—men who will
strenuously maintain, in unimpaired integrity and in
undiminished usefulness, the Protestant Church of
England---.-that church. which is at once the security of

the British throne and the glory of the British nation.
The inhabitants of the places which we have mentioned
are anxious that the Queen should call to her assist-
ance men of constitutional principle, of disintereSted
honesty, and of genuine and unsuspected loyally ; and
they very consistently pray that she would dismiss
Lord Melbourne and his associates, and place Sir
Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington in power.
Why are the conservatives of Liverpool silent on
this matter ? The " shabbies'.' have hild their meeting
in Clayton-square—the chartists have also had their
meeting in Queen-square—but what have our conser-
vative friends done ? Why do they not show, by a
demonstration of the most unequivocal character, that
there are loyalists as well as liberals and chartists in
Liverpool ? How can the Queen know the dangers of
her position, or ascertain the feelings of her subjects,
unless by means of loyal conservative addresses ?

[The following observations were written, and partly
in type, for our last publication, but were excluded for
want of space.]
The jesuitical policy of the whigs is, like popery

itself, unchanged and unchangeable. There is nothing
which they more dislike than a plain, honest, and
straight-forward mode of carrying their plans into ex-
ecution : there is nothing to which they are more prone
than a shuffling, underhand, and stratagetical line of
proceeding. The reason of this preference is, undoubt-
edly, that their measures will not generally bear any
scrutiny. They love the dark, because their deeds are
dark. They follow a crooked, unfair, and ambiguous
course, because their policy is precisely of the same
character. They practise trickery, because they dare
not avow the plain bearings of many of their nefarious
schemes.

We have been led to make these remarks on seeing
the wily expedient resorted to by Lord John Russell
for the purpose of introducing into England the Irish
system of education. The last notice which he gave
before the adjournment of the House of Commons was
the following—that on the 31st instant he would move a
grant of £30,000 for the unprincipled scheme of Na-
tional Education which has been recently developed.
The primary object of this sudden and' unexpected an-
nouncement was, no doubt, to take the country and
the House of Commons by surprise, and thus accom-
plish the objects of the vile popish and infidel factions
that are seeking to unchristianize the nation. Ano-
ther end in view was, to conciliate the radicals, who
have a mortal hatred of every system of education
based upon the Holy Scriptures.
It appears that an extraordinary meeting of the
friends of scriptural education, at which the Archbishop
of Canterbury will preside, is to take place on the 28th
instant. Dreading the moral effects likely to result
from this great protestant demonstration, Lord John
Russell has cunningly fixed his motion for the 31st.,
thus precluding the possibility of any extended efforts
to frustrate the infidel plans of the education-mongers.
He knew full well that if he allowed a longer period to
elapse, the table of the House of Commons would
groan under the load of the petitions which would be
sent by our universities, our clergy, and the great mass
of the protestant population of England. Conscious
and apprehensive of this, he has recourse, most eon-
sistently we allow, to a base trick, for the sake of secu-
ring his object. But, thank God, there is yet time to
frustrate this " knavish trick." The metropolitian
press has already sounded the tocsin of alarm; and we
sincerely hope that, short as the time is, Lord John
Russell and his popish allies may have cause to know
that the protestants of England are not to be over-
reached by his jesuitical cunning. Petitions must be
forthwith got up in every town and hamlet against this
novel scheme of national education. There is no time
to be lost. We have elsewhere given the form of a
petition which will serve for the purpose. Let Liver-
pool be one of the first places to stir in this matter.

The people of Liverpool have had the first experience
of the Trish system—they have hitherto protested most
nobly against it—let them once more show that they
hold it in utter detestation. The clergy of the town
are bound by every motive of consistency—of duty to
their flocks—of regard to the welfare of this nation—
and of allegiance for their Great Master, to enter their
solemn protest against this infidel scheme. We con-
jure them to come forward, boldly and manfully, to
head the Protestants of Liverpool in opposing the pro-
posed grant.

We would also entreat our brethren of the conser-
vative press throughout the country to devote their en-
ergies to the agitation of this important question. They
cannot employ their pens in advocating a more worthy
cause than that of scriptural education. We look upon
this question as one of paramount and oven helming