The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-03-12 00:00:00

trvmen who maintain that the Conservative v

I con-

stitutional party are gaining strength—moral and per-
manent strength—by delay. On the contrary,
firmly of opinion, that during the present sessio
notwithstanding the little progress made in the

of Liberalism within the walls of Parliament, the Minis-
terial party have \tucceeded—and their attempts have
been artfully directed to this very object—in laying the
fOundation of a fresh career of agitation ,c:out of doors,
the result:Of which may be to fasten upon the country
for years to come the evils of a mob-directed govern-
b the finality of measures which but
yesterday were considered as settled portions of the

ment—to distu

constitution, and to scatter the seeds of disruption
amongst institutions and principles which the hand of
the leveller and the democrat had not hither dared to

touch

As a proof of the justice of this opinion, let us exa-
mine only two questions which have been introduced
by government during the present session—which have
been brought forward, not with the most remote ex-
pectation of their being passed into a law, but with a
view simply of their being thrown upon the turbid
waters of democracy, to excite and to madden with
wild hopes those restless and reckless agitators whom
the settlement of the great measures of parliamentary
and municipal reform had reduced into a state of tem-
porary quiescence. With respect to the first of these
—the bill of Lord Morpeth--will any man have the
hardihood to maintain that such a bill—a bill which
engrafts upon the representative system in Ireland a
franchise little removed from universal suffrage—was
demanded, or even dreamt of, by any considerable por-
tion of thekv• eople ? -Assuredly not. For what object,
then, was so open a breach in the finality of the Re-
form Bill proposed, if not to be carried into execution?
For this, we reply : to give an impetus to agitation for
a similar boon to be extended to the constituencies of
the entire kingdom—to enlist under the banners of the
Melbourne administration, or of an administration to
succeed it formed of still more ultra materials, the ac-
tive sympathies' of the whole body of democratic re-
formers; and to throw insuperable difficulties in the
way of a practical and common sense administration of
the existing constitution of the kingdom by any other
hands.

Again, with respect to another bill, which has been
too little noticed by the public and the press—viz., the
bill to amend the system of registration in England and
Wales—will it be maintained that the enactments con-
tained in that bill—the abolition of the rate-paying
clauses of the Reform Act, the shortening of the period
for which a voter must have been in occupation before
registry, and other provisions of a similar nature—
have been loudly demanded, or are necessary ? It will
not. The entire measure has been introduced solely
to unsettle what was previously settled—to bewilder
the public mind, and to call the attention of the people
of Great Britain to a comparison between the system
of registration and the franchise in this country, and
those proposed to be introduced into the sister king-
dom; and we defy any man, no matter of what party,
to produce a satisfactory reason why the boon which
such a comparison would spew was about being con-
ferred upon Ireland, should not be extended to the
people of England and Scotland. •

The country at large, it is notorious, is dissatisfied
so far with the working of the Reform Bill-and with
reason. That measure has confessedly disappointed
the expectation's of even the most sober-minded of its
promoters, and will continue to do so, so long as the
government is administered by a faction which is nei-
ther able nor willing to legislate for the practical ad-
vantages of the community. Is it wise, then, we ask,
for the Conservative party to allow the present race of
incapablei to turn against the. constitution itself, as
settled by the Reform Bill, the dissatisfaction which is
due to their own incapacity and to their own dishonesty
alone ? We humbly think not; and we would im-
press upon the consideration of Sir Robert Peel and
the Conservatives the fact, which we believe to be un-
deniable, that every hour in which the Melbourne ad-
ministration is allowed to usurp the seat of government
is pregnant with danger to the best interests of the
country.

We might have adduced, in corroboration of our
views upon this subject, other and perhaps more im-
portant evidence contained in the proceedings of party
out of doors, acting doubtless upon the prompting of
government and its satellites. At present, however, we
are obliged to be satisfied with merely glancing at dan-
gers which we cannot but fear are approaching the
constitution; and which—unless arrested by a timely
intervention on the part of Conservatism, and a return
to sound principles of government—will shortly assume
a more startling aspect. On a future occasion, how-
ever, we may be tempted to treat the subject more at
length than our space at present allows us.

It may be well to repeat, that at the meeting on im-
port duties, • held on :Monday, it was understood
that the corn laws should not be discussed, and that
many gentlemen, decidedly opposed to the repeal of
those laws, were induced to take part in the proceed-
ings, or to permit their names to be mixed up with
them, expressly on this condition. This is necessary
to be borne in mind, because if the resolutions alone
were looked at, it might be inferred that the, meeting
included the corn duties in that tariff whose revision
they were seeking for. Such an inference would, be
warrantable from the general terms in which the resol
lutions were couched ; but the meeting took place ex-
pressly upon an agreement. It was thought desirable
to collect gentlemen of all shades of politics ; and in
order to insure this object, it was stipulated, and gene-
rally concurred in, that the corn duties should not be
alluded tO, nor in any wise included in the topics dis-
cussed. The resolutions are, therefore, to be read
with this understood reservation. This is the key to
their facile adoption, and it must be seen that the con-
dition " corn duties
.excepted," though not expressed,
does as truly belong to them as if the words were set
forth at length, by way of superscription or postscript.
They were " in the hand" previously executed, and
we are bound to look at the execution of the treaty by
the light of the preceding stipulation. This view of
the business is,confirmed by what took place at the
Court-house. There Mr. Charles Holland, who is a
great anti-corn man, felt the temptation so strong upon
him to wander into his favourite pastureS, that at last
he fairly leapt the hedge, and took a small nibble just
along the boundary. But the trespass being so mani-
fest a violation of the articles, did not pass unnoticed,
and our excursionist got immediately pulled up for the
same by a gentleman, of whom it may suffice to say
that he is no member of the "Anti-corn Law League."

This is a pretty strong proof of the existence of the
treaty of which we have been speaking, and of the
strict enforcement of it that was looked for, and, we

may say, insisted'upon

But there was more evidence of this kind; for ano-
ther great anti-corn law man, Mr. Duffey, the tailor,
one of the " giants" of Clayton-square, having, in the
same way, broken loose from the trammels of law and

equity, and shewn an evident disposition to give his

goose an airing on the common, got very properly
checked by his worship the Mayor, who presided.
The Irish tailor actually began to reproach the mer-
chants, of Liverpool with having entered into such a

compact, and with keeping their pledge. He said it
was •" shameful." The merchants of Liverpool, how-
ever, have not, in general, had the benefit of a May-
unfortu-
nately for Mr. Dutfey—under .an obligation, both of
hormur and conscience, to keep faith with all parties,
1 circumstances, even though it should be
to their own loss, when once they have passed their
Mr. Rosson, indeed, attempted to pacify this
valiant knight of
.the thimble, by a jesuitical gloss on

nooth education, and conceive themselve

nd under

the resolutions. He said that nobody who heard them
could suppose for a moment that they did not include
the corn duties—and he begged the angry artist to
smooth his ruffled feathers, and console himself with
this assurance. Two or three other gentlemen of the
liberal school also adverted to the matter, with obser-
vations of nearly similar import ;—from all which we

draw. the obvious and indeed necessary inference, that
the party would convert this meeting—which was de-
signed to be a perfectly open one, and one in which
the dismission of the corn question was distinctly pro-
hibited—into one at which the repeal or modification
of the duties was directly or inferentially recommended !
Now we say that this is unfair, and, moreover, a
breach of faith. It is a mere " keeping of the word of
promise to the ear"—and scarcely that—but a " break-
ing of it to the sense"—and calls for reprehension.
We do not mean to charge all the whip gentlemen
with so insidious a policy; but it is manifest that some
have practised it, and that their acts, therefore, tend to
the discouragement of• meetings convened under con-
ditions such as were Pnnexed to the one in question.

Our look-out abroad is by no means comfortable
this week, and is such as leads us to fear that the luck
of the Whigs. is nearly run out. We regret this, we
need scarcely say, not so much for the sake of our ca-
binet directors, as on account of our beloved country.

The China expedition proves to be something very
like, if not in reality and altogether, a failure. We
have been humbugged, grossly humbugged, by the
Longtails—that's the truth of it. The fellows might
have been brought to their senses easily at the first;
but a spirit of conciliation—a beSetting sin with the
Whigs—came over our commander, and the mandarins
completely got round him with
,their palaver. 'What
is the consequence? 'Why,', that our expedition
,is
treated with contempt, and.no longer feared—that our
i.oldiers are dying off by hUndreds at Chusan—and
that nuprogress.whatever 'has been made with the ne-
gociations. Nay, it is an incident among the latest
events of which we have tidings, that the Queen
steamer was fired at from the battery when entering
the Bogue, having the Captain Plenipo Elliott on
board, bearing .a diplomatic chop for the Emperor's
high commissioner. It is true some apology was af-
terwards made for this, as a mere inadvertence; but
the occurrence, trifling as it may seem, leads us exactly
to the same conclusion with that drawn by a writer on
the spot, who .says,• I • have always been of opinion
that we, Vegan. at the wrong end. ,We should have
well cudgelled .the Longtails at first, and reasoned
.(treated) with themlfterwards."

Admiral Elliott has resigned his command to Sir
J. Gordon Bremer, and set sail for England, on board
the Volage, on the 29th of. November. It remained a
matter of the utmost uncertainty whether our " com-
plications" with this extraordinary people Would be
settled by negotiation, or whether their movements
would noihave tO be quickened at last by active mea-

The Egyptian news is also in a slight degree embar-
rassing. The Pasha vows that he will never submit to
have the hereditary successor to the government ap-
pointed by, the Sultan—a nomination which the Em-
peror' seeks to retain in his own hands. And in this
we think the Pasha only insists on what is reasonable.
If his pashalic is to be hereditary, it would be a strange
and unnatural power to give the Sultan, to select such
member of the Pasha's family as he might choose to
prefer to the government.

As to our western complications, they get more and
more perplexed and perplexing, and leave us nothing
but to prepare for the worst. The hopes of the French
war party have been revived by this business, which
perhaps may be owing to an influence exerted by them
in the States. The Sikqe of Monday gives the first in-
timation of their hopes, and contends that France
ought to be more than ever cautious in signing any
treaty, as it was evident, from the late debate in the
House of COmmons, that the friendly language used
towards -France was induced by apprehension of a war
between Great Britain and America.

It is pretty plain, then, that we are surrounded by
enemies willing and anxious to find an occasion of quar-
relling with' us.

'The popish agitator in the House of Commons—our
great domestic' foe—does not fail to take advantage of
these signs of the times. All his demands are now
made, not as favours that he hopes to win, but as con-
cessions that we should tremble to deny. The act of
'29 is forgotten. He is still as much as ever the Papi-
neau of Ireland, but a far more cautious and skilful
hero of the school.

On last Sunday evening he reviewed his male troops
in a repeal gathering at some place in Theobald's road,
London, and told the assembled Patlanders that on that
day week he would review a hundred thousand of them
on the Curragli Gf Kildare, in Ireland. Can miscreant,
treasonable audacity go further ? But let not Eng-
land be alarmed. She has One above to protect her;
and with a just cause, she will, if it please God, fear
none of her foes.

We are sorry that the length of our report precludes
us making any observalions upon the speeches deli-
vered, yesterday, at the meeting convened for the pur-
pose of preventing the infliction of the grinding
tyranny of the bashaws of Somerset House, upon the
poor of Liverpool. The petulant outbreaks of Mr.
Earle, under the rebukes which were administered to
him for his foolish exposure of himself and party, and
for his second-hand misrepresentations of the working
of the new poor-law, will afford us a little amusement
for an idle hour before Tuesday, whilst the taking up
of the subject by the public will afford us an oppor-
tunity of showing the real principles and working of
this abominable, unchristian, un-English, devilish
measure. In the meantime we recommend the perusal
of the speeches which will be found in other columns,
together with the letter from a correspondent on the
same subject. We must, however, offer up our hearty
prayers that the objects of the deputation will be
realised, and the poor thus saved from the bloWs aimed
at their comforts, their religious scruples, and their

moral feeling

MELANCHOLY Loss OF THE BARQUE HECTOR.—WC
deeply regret to state that intelligence was yesterday received
by the schooner Flora, Captain Warren, from Terceira, of
the total loss of the barque Hector, East Indiaman, of this
port, off that island on the 17th of February, and of the cap-
tain, the mate, and another man. The Hector recently un-
derwent a thorough repair here, and was considered equal to
a new ship. On her homeward voyage from Calcutta, with
a cargo of sugar, she touched at the island of St. Helena, and
afterwards encountered a, gale of wind, which induced the
captain, as she had become leaky, to make for the island of
Terceira, in the Azores. She came to anchor off the island
on the 15th February. The gale continued violent, and as
the leak increased, the crew abandoned the vessel next day,
in the long-boat. leaVing on board the captain and the mate,
and, it is supposed, the steward, both of whom were much
attached to him, and resolved to remain with him to the last.
The leak at length defied all their exertions, and the ship be-
came in a sinking state. They did not, however, leave her until
the water had reached the deck, and there was no longer a hope
of saving her. They then took to the remaining small boat,
and the vessel went down in 50 fathoms of water, at her an-
chors. The distance to the shore was but short, but the gale
was still severe, and the sea running high, and, lamentable
to relate ! the boat swamped, and the three faithful fellows
found a watery grave together. , Capt. John Johnson was a
man highly respected by all wbo lenew him, and much be-
layed by his friends and intimate acquaintance, for his manly
disposition and general good qualities. He was but 38 years
of age, born in England, and was an admirable and fearless
man. His father is an interpreter of this town, a respectable
old man ; and his distress on learning the melancholy fate of
his son, as may well be conceived, is most poignant. He
has left four sisters, two of whom kept his house here, and
two others are resident in Dantzig, the birth-place of his
father. His memory will long be affectionately cherished by
a large circle of friends, who were strongly attached to him
as an excellent man, and a cheerful and engaging companion.
The Hector was a vessel of 395 tons burden, th property of
Mr. Close, of Nottingham, whose agent here is Mr. James
Aikin. We have not been enabled to ascertain the names of
the mate and steward, who perished with their gallant com-
mander.

THE BILITIstt QUEEN.—This vessel left London on the
10th instant as advertised, but we understand orders have
been despatched from the Foreign Office to detain her at
Portsmouth for a short time, in order, we presume, that she
may carry out the despatches of Lord Palmerston's inten-
tions, with reference to the important and warlike intelligence
recently received from America. The British Queen carries
out nearly seventy persons, and an extensive and valuable
cargo of merchandise, and upwards of fifteen thousand let-
ters and newspapers, which will acquaint Brother Jonathan
of the feelings entertained by Englishmen of his war brag-
gadocia.

PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMENT

(From our London Correspondent)
LONDON, WEDNESDAY NIGHT

The proceedings in parliament on Monday and Tuesday
evenings present nothing particularly worthy of comment,
with the exception, perhaps, of the announcement made in
the House of Commons on Monday, by Lord John Russell'
of his intention to modify the terms of his new poor-lawt

measure: The public were, however, to some extent pre-
pared for an abatement of the ministerial demands upon this
question, by a leader in the Morning Chroniclelast week, the
Writer of which professes to have discovered that many fea-
tures of the existing system, as administered by the Somerse
House officials, are " distasteful" to the feelings of the grea
mass of the people, and are too grinding to be endured with

patience—a discovery which nine out of every ten men, who
are not either malthusians or images of stone, have made
many years ago, and which, I imagine, the ministerial writer
has only made " upon compulsion" at last.
The concessions in question do not after all amount to
much, but, I suppose, we must be thankful for what we can
get. It is no easy matter to screw humanity out of a whig.
The duration of the poor-law commission is limited, in com-
pliance with the suggestion of Sir Robert Peel, to five years
instead of ten, the period fixed in the original draft of the
bill. An English pauper, too, is to be allowed Christian
burial beneath the shadow of the church in which, perhaps,
he may have worshipped in the better days of his existence,
and not, as at first proposed by this tenderhearted faction, to
be interred like a dog, in some hole attached to the bastile in
which he has breathed out the last hours of his miserable
life. It will be scarcely credited, perhaps—it is indeed as-
tounding—that such a proposition could have been seriously
made in a Christian age by the government of a Christian
—that a portion of the sentence inflicted by our
criminal law upon a convicted felon after execution—viz., the
burial of his body within the walls of his prison, should be
attempted to be forced upon the wretched victims of poverty,
age, and disease, who crowd the union workhouses. Yet
such is, or rather was, the case. The bill of Lord John
Russell propoSed to enact this monstrosity—to deprive the
surviving relatives of the unfortunate pauper of the trifling
consolation of following the ashes of their father, their mo-
ther, their brother, or their sister, to their last resting-place
in that spot of consecrated ground where they have hoped
through life to take their last sleep—by proposing that the
union workhouses should be provided with grave-yards—
(having been already well supplied with pork broth and cheap
doctors)—in which' the punishment and degradation, awarded
to poverty during life, might be extended beyond that period
where all earthly punishments and distinctions should ter-
Anil, it is a concession (I) we are told, that such
a provision—so devilish and' harrowing in its position—is not
persisted in by " the friends of the people—the libel ty-loving
whigs !

countr

urinate

It will be observed in addition, that the bill is not as yet to
be extended to those towns which already possess local acts

for the government of their poor—in which category, I pre-
sume, Liverpool will be included—a fact which, I have no
doubt, will b.; hailed with satisfaction by your comtn unity,

and for which their thanks are due, above ad, to the conservq-
live press throughout the kingdom, which has so unceasingly
protested against the entire principle of this inhuman and

wicked measure

The arrival, last night, of the overland mail from Egypt
and India, has dashed the cup of hope and exultation from
the lip of Whig-radicalism most effectually. But a few hours
ago did any daring night presume to doubt the sagacity of
whig statesmen—to imptign their principles—to impeach
their honesty, or to question their success, he was told forth-
with by the " uppish" and stilted supporters of the faction
to admire the superhuman genius displayed in their foreign
policy. " Have we not settled the Syrian question ?"
mere asked—

" Have we not got over our 'misunderstanding

with France? Have we not frightened his sublimity, the
brother\ of the sun and moon, out of his seven senses,
dum-foundered all his mandarins, scattered his great warriors,
and planted the British flag triumphantly upon the walls of
the capital of Chusan." Alai for the mighty ! Alas for
whig-radicalism. The boasted settlement of the affairs of
Syria is found at length to be no settlement at all. Lord
Palmerston's Egyptian acquaintance has still a lingering
fancy for a kick up ; and has provided as pretty a ground
for the interference of French bobadilism as could be wished
for. His 'sublime highness, after our indulging him with the
sight of a British man of war, within the waters of Pekin.
is not frightened at all: His mandarins are laughing until
their very tails shake, to see " the barbarian islanders"
dying like sheep in a murrain amongst the swamps and mias-
mata of their magnificent conquest, the island of Chusan,
whilst commissioner Ke.shin is amusing them with " chops."
Admiral Elliott has got the heart-ache ; and is coming home
to narrate the story of a British steamer being fired upon
whilst conveying his own " chop " to Canton, and to publish,
perhaps, the written apology which was " promptly {Wade"
by this conquered and humbled people for the commission of
such an indignity. Altogether as pretty an assortment of
glorious news as ever blessed the eyes of a cabinet minister
is, by this time, in the possessiiin of the guardian-genius of
the foreign office ; and Lord Palmerston is, I have no doubt,
as heartily sick of himself and his " genius" (t) as the
people of Great Britain have been of the same valuable