The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-01-26 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS

The letters from " W. H. H.," " A Member of St. Jude's
Congregation," " Gubernator," and " J. C.," were in
our printers' hands, but we were obliged to withdraw them
to make room for the account of the conservative meet-
ing last night.

Eibtrpool &taittiarb.

TUESDAY

MORNING, JANUARY 26, 1841

On this day will commence the parliamentary ses-
sion of 1841. On this day the usual speech will be
delivered from royal lips; and in common with nine-
teen-twentieths bf her Majesty's loyal subjects, we are
at a loss to conceive upon what topic her ministers
can have the shamelessness to allow their youthful
sovereign to dilate, with the satisfaction which is the
usual staple of such productions. Does her Majesty
" continue to receive the most friendly assurances froin
foreign powers" ? We imagine not. Are we at peace
with all the world ? Is our commerce flourishing ?
Is the revenue in a state of prosperity ? Are her sub-
jects contented and happy ? Alas, upon none of these
things can her Majesty flatter her assembled lords and
commons ! If truth must be told—if a "plain, un-
varnished tale" can by any chance find its way into a
royal speech, prepared by a Whig-radical ministry, we
fear that it will fall upon the ear in tones of bitter and
humbling mortification, rather than of glad congratu-
lation—that it will resemble more a dirge sounded over
the fallen glorieS of England than the Io pcean of vic-
tory, to which from such lips we would so gladly listen.

We have not a doubt that the utmost will be made
of the few subjects upon which Whig-radical pretension
dares to assume a merit. We shall be told of St. Jean
d'Acre, of the capture of Chusan—the capture of a
teapot would be equally "germane to the matter"—

and her Majesty's subjects will be assured that, if re-
quired, her fleet could just as easily have battered down
Pekin itself, and hung up the august " brother to the
sun and moon," at the yard-arm of one of their seventy-

fours. Her subjects, perhaps, may ask in reply to
these Bobadilisms the simple question, " Cui bono ?"
and her Majesty's ministers, we opine, will be at no
small difficulty to furnish a satisfactory answer. •

It has always been understood that the true object of
a speech from the throne at the commencement of the
session of parliament was to direct the attention of the
legislature to the various subjects requiring their con-
sideration. What these subjects may be in the opinion
of Lord Melbourne and his colleagues we have at pre-

sent no conception, further than that we are told that
the subject of a decimal coinage has received the con-
sideration of some eminent wiseacres, and that in future

shillings are to be tenpennies measure, we sup-
pose, preparatory to a Repeal of the Union. We are
told also that an immense saving is to be effected by
collecting the worn-out pens in the various public
offices and selling them for the benefit of the revenue,
and that almanack frames are to last for seven years
instead of being burnt for firewood as heretofore. But
after all, we fear that the most important subjects re-
quiring the consideration of parliament will be precisely
those which will be most anxiously kept in the back
ground. We shall not be told, for instance, how soon
her Majesty's ministers will require parliament seriously
to consider the propriety of kicking out, as dangerous
nuisances, their own proper selves. We shall not be
told to inquire why a traitor, who would be a rebel if he
had the courage, should not at once be saved from the
prospect of a gibbet, by being humanely lodged in bed-
lam, or sent out as a fellow-clerk to John Frost. We
shall be told nothing of these things, and yet they are
precisely those upon which her Majesty's loyal subjects
entertain the greatest amount of curiosity.
Altogether we are—and we doubt not many of our
readers are also—in a most uncomfortable state of per-
plexity and wonder, which, we suppose, we must put
up with for another twenty-four hours, until the enigma
shall be solved by the production of the forthcoming
last effort of Whig-radicalism in the" art and mystery"
of royal speech making !

In suggesting, in a late publication, the extreme de-
sirableness of abolishing the stamp duties upon policies
of marine insurance, we had no wish to put in an ex-
clusive claim for the shipping and commercial interests,
in pre'

rence to that of other classes of the commu-
nity. We regard this particular duty as objectionable,
upon whomsoever levied, as being a discouragement
thrown in the way of the exercise of a measure of pre-
' t those calamities to which every de-
ription of property is liable ; and our principal rea-
son for particularising its pressure upon marine insu-
rances is because it is, as respects these, not only ex-
tremely prejudicial to British underwriters, merchants,
and shipowners, but almost unproductive to the reve-

caution

We regret that we have no means of determining
the exact proportion of the produce of this tax, which
is paid upon marine insurances, as compared with that
arising from fire and life insurance. That it ought to
be considerable, judging from the value of our annual
exports and imports, there is no doubt ; and yet we
firmly believe that, in reality, it is not one quarter the