The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-12-29 00:00:00

When the mendicant impostor, who sways the coun-
cils of her Majesty's ministers, makes sale of his influ-
ence to any party or cause, in the transfer is included
not only a parliamentary tail of some forty-odd joints,
but an additional appendage of the same nature, and
of still more formidable length, which is not, however,
entitled to dangle from his most sweet person within
the walls of the House of Commons. The Roman
Catholic priesthood of Ireland—the reverend disciples
of Peter Dens and "John Tuam"—form the joints of
this auxiliary appendage ; and kvhilst Daniel and the
tail portable" are pursuing their virtuous occupa-
tions on the ministerial benches, tile supplementary
engine is left to work out the various engagements of

its proprietor in his own country—to wind its serpent
form over the face of unhappy Ireland, and to defile
with its impurities, or to goad with its venom, the
hearts of her wretched and debased population.

Amongst his other claims upon the consideration of
the weakheaded portion of the community, it will be
remembered that of late this shameless impostor has
paraded rather ostentatiously his connexion with the
Anti-Slavery Society, and expatiated loudly upon the
services which he has himself rendered to the cause of
Ahia.netzro,.
~Kpon _one , occasion, it is true, those ser-
vices were 'repudiated. The arch-agitator was not
allowed, on the occasion of introducing the African
colonisation scheme, to raise his voice in the presence
of the consort of royalty. But that temporary morti-
fication was afterwards abundantly rewarded, the suf-
ferer being received with open arms by the followers
of the Rev. Mr. Knibb, the persevering opponents of
our West Indian colonists. Sir Thos. Fowell Buxton
wanted the aid of moral influence and high personal
character to his colonisation scheme; and that aid Mr.
Daniel O'Connell, M.P. for Dublin, had not to confer.
The Anti-Slavery Society, on the contrary,—whose
professions, reduced to practice, do seem to us to con-
sist more in a bitter and deeply-rooted hostility to the
interests of the West Indian planters, than in any re-
gard to humanity in the abstract,—were satisfied even
with the advocacy of the betrayer of the factory chil-
dren (on an occasion and for a consideration which
Sir Thomas Potter, Knight, late sham Mayor of Man-
chester, could explain); and according the Member
for Dublin (for another valuable consideration doubt,
less) is now the active and honoured (?) organ of that
society.

In this character, at a late repeal meeting held at
the Corn Exchange, Dublin, the " impostor" was
taken with a fit of virtuous horror at the recognition
by Lord Palmerston of the independence of Texas—a
slave-holding and slave-trafficking country. With
this portion of his performance, however, we have at
present nothing to do, although it may perhaps be-
come a question hereafter whether the Texan republic
is not as worthy of our alliance as another slave-hold-
ing republic, not far from it, which is held up as a
model for even Great Britain to imitate. Our object
is only to shew the readiness with which he makes the
Irish priesthood—the supplementary tail of which we
have spoken—the agents and instruments of any
scheme upon the working out of which he has set his
mind, or for which he has " got his price."
It appears, then,—seipso testante,—that vessels are
at present being chartered from some of the ports of
Ireland, for the purpose of receiving emigrants to
Texas and to the island of Jamaica; and the " impos-
tor" is horrified at the prospect of his starving fellow-
countrymen venturing themselves to either of these
shocking places,—the former being cursed with the
actual presence of slavery, and the latter, although a
free British colony, being under the ban of Messrs.
Knibb and Co., and possessing in addition an un-
healthy climate—a climate, -by the way, in which the
same reverend gentleman and a number of his tribe
both live and grow fat, and which the present Gover-
nor Metcalfe, in his last address, describes as being
" in the highlands delightful and healthy for Europeans
and inhabitants of all countries." At any risk, how-
ever, emigration to proscribed Jamaica—we omit Texas,
for we do not think O'Connell cares a rush for it--
must be put a stop to; the Jamaica planters must not
be allowed to avail themselves of the supply of free
labour which might offer itself, and the securing of
which is admitted to be the only means to ward off
imminent ruin from the colony, and to prevent the
favourite measure of the colonists being an utter
failure. A committee is accordingly to be formed in
Ireland—a committee of repealers—" for watching all
sea-ports, so that when vessels should arrive in them
looking for emigrants to Jamaica, the Catholic clergy
should be instructed to warn the inhabitants of the dan-
ger and horrible consequences (I) of embarking in these
vessels" !

Here, then, the supplementary tail is at once set in
motion, to terrify the poor benighted bogtrotter with
the awful story of danger and "horrible consequences."
How coolly and dictatorially the various joints are to
"be instructed" ! In what a state of absolute bon-
dage must be these spiritual instructors of the people,
who can be thus peremptorily called upon to become
the blind agents of this man's unprincipled ambition !
Yet it is plain that their aid is part and parcel of the
contract, whether it be made with the enemies of the
West Indian body, or with the Lichfield-house con-
spirators—whether its object be to cast further obloquy
and further difficulty in the path of an already impo-
verished class of our fellow-countrymen, or to precipi-
tate another " Rathcormac," whose tale of blood may
furnish to Whig-Radicalism a theme for electioneering
controversy, and filthy and unprincipled personal
slander. Faugh ! the contemplation is sickening.

We are sorry to perceive, from the last number of
the Limerick Standard, that a public meeting was held
in that city, on Wednesday last, for the purpose of
dissuading emigrants from proceeding to Jamaica.
From the imperfect report which our contemporary
furnishes of the proceedings which took place on the
occasion, we infer that the good folks of Limerick
have been egregiously imposed upon by a Mr. Moore,
who is described as one of the delegates of the Anti-
Slavery Society. Who this individual may be it does
not concern us to inquire; with his statements, how-
ever, we shall deal as we find them. This individual
undertook to denounce the " iniquitous system of
emigration to Jamaica," forgetting that all the iniquity
of that system consists in the opposition of free labour
in our own colonies to the system of slave labour in
foreign countries. This is the simple object which the
Emigration Society seek to accomplish; and in the
accomplishment of this object they employ neither
falsehood, force, stratagem, nor any other unfair
means. The plans of the society are before the pub-
lic; and we defy any man of candour to point out
anything objectionable in those plans. They do not
involve anything which is in the slightest degree dis-
reputable. They do not contain any statements which
cannot be verified ; neither do they hold out any pro-
mises which may not be literally fulfilled.

The anti-slavery delegate proceeds to state that the
" whole weight of the guilt " of encouraging emigra-
tion from Ireland to Jamaica "lay upon the legislative
council of that island, with Sir Charles Metcalfe at
their head." That body is accused of holding out
inducements to the Irish peasantry to proceed to
•Jamaica, telling them that they will have to work but
nine hours in the day. This is true; but we cannot

discover any thing "iniquitous" in such a repre-
sentation. But the delegate roundly asserts that "it
would be impossible for an European to work in the
open air four hours m the climate of Jamaica, and
live." This assertion can only apply to some of the
lowlands in the island, and in those it was never in-
tended to locate the Irish emigrants. These are
wanted for the more elevated districts, where nine hours'
labour in the open air is scarcely half so severe as that
which the Irish peasantry undergo in England during
harvest time. The manner in which this veracious
delegate seeks to prove his assertion is so unique and
original, that we cannot resist the temptation to quote

by the essentially conservative character of Toryism
The "luck" of Whigs does not alter their character

and can never reconcile us to their principles. What-
ever they have had, we trace up to the sterling virtues
and righteous sentiments still prevalent in the country,

1.•
'which have stood firm against all the attempts of the
Whigs and their foreign-educated advisers—Popish
priests and Jesuits from Ireland included. We wish

to settle accounts at the close of the year, and, upon a
careful examination of the books, we are happy to find
that we owe them nothing. We set their domestic
against their foreign policy, and we take comfort in
discovering that the balance in their favour is just—
nil.