The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-02-06 00:00:00

LOrd STANLEY could not I
of judgment which +l--

ing on the want
ayed in concoct-
ch scarce a singie paragraph was not
:icism. In the first place, there was
great exaggeration as to the increased prosperity of the
country, which, after all, had shown as yet very slight
symptoms of revival. Again, for the first time in his par-
liamentary experience, her Majesty was unable to say,
" that she continued to receive from all foreign powers
assurances of their friendly relations," what the speech was
able to say was, that it was her Majesty's constant desire
to maintain the most friendly relations with all foreign
states. He was glad to hear that such was the desire of
the govevnment, for he had hitherto thought that the
constant desire of her Majesty's advisers had been to
embroil us in the affairs of every foreign state. In Spain
a British Envoy intermeddled, and was expelled with
insult. Austria was so disgusted at the unfriendly attitude
of England that she had not thought it worth while to
signify by a special Envoy to the Court of St. James the
accession of her new emperor. In Italy we had interfered,
and the consequence had been aprolonged civil war between
the King of Naples and his revolted subjects in Sicily,
when, if we had not plagued that monarch with our advice
and assistance, the quarrel would have been long since
settled. In short, the state of our relations with almost
every European power was unsatisfactory, if not unfriendly.
There was, it was true, one great exception, and that was
France, but the reason why we were on good terms with
that country was simply because we had abstained from
meddling with her internal affairs. As for the Punjaub,
the state of our arms in that part of India was not such as
to entitle us to look forward to being able to reduce our
military establishment. The temper of Ireland was any-
thing but satisfactory, and a long course of colonial
oppression had converted some of the most loyal into the
most disaffected subjects of the British Crown. In the
face of all these causes for alarm, he was astounded at the
audacity with which the ministers had made her Majesty
declare that the aspect of affairs was such as to enable
them to effect large reductions in the estimates. If reduc-
tions could be accomplished, in God's name let them be
made ; but he would never concur with those who,
for the sake of economy, would largely diminish the
strength of the country. The noble lord then proceeded
to criticise other portions of the ministerial policy,
and, adverting to the total repeal of the duties on
corn, expressed his unaltered opinion of the injustice
of the measure, as well as his firm conviction that the
country must return to a moderate import duty. He
then concluded his speech by moving the insertion at the
end of the paragraph in her Majesty's speech which says
that " the state of the revenue is one of progressive im-
provement," of the following words :—" We regret, how-
ever; to be compelled humbly to represent to your Ma-
jesty that neither your Majesty's relations with foreign
powers, nor the state of the revenue, nor the condition of
the commercial and manufacturing interests, are such as
to entitle us to address you in the language of congratu-
lation ; and that a large portion of the agricultural and
colonial interests of the empire are labouring under a
state of progressive depression calculated to excite serious
apprehension and anxiety."

Lielp rent

ing a speech in w

open to hostile c

The Marquis of LANsjnowNE, in a speech of consider-
able length, defended the ministerial policy, which was
again warmly attacked by the Duke of RICHMOND.
Their lordships then divided on the amendment of
Lord Stanley, when the numbers were—for the amend-
ment, 50; against it, 52: majority for ministers, 2.