The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-08-12 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

We have nothing of much moment to announce from
1
the seat of war in Spain, except that General Cordovais
displaced from his command, to be succeeded by General
Saarsfield. Much has been said of the treachery or in-
capacity of Cordova. As to his treachery, we do not be-
lieve it—he had no possible motive for not exerting him-
self heart and soul in the cause of the Queen ; and we
are certain that the reports of his disaffection came from
quarters in which prevailed an anxiety that their own
ignorance or cowardice should be covered by throwing
the blame upon the Spanish general. He ce.rtainly did
not show any of the great points of a general in his cam-
paigns, but he was not less unlucky than Saarsfield, who
displaces him. The British Auxiliary Legion has been
a great misfortune to the cause of the Queen. It has
excited the jealousy of the natives, and its exertions
in the field have not promoted the objects of the war. At
present it appears to be in a state of utter disorganisa-
tion. Some of the regiments ordered to embark for San-
tander mutinied, and refused to stir until they had re-
ceived their due arrears of pay. The correspondent of
the Morning Chronicle is very angry about this: lie
says—
They doggedly refused to move. They were not insolent,
but coolly argued the point, and declared that they hag been
too often deceived by promises to rely on them now. Whatever
right the men may have had to complain of having been so long
kept in arrear, it was revolting to see them so perfectly callous
to every consideration by which the feelings of soldiers may
generally be wrought upon. This state of things lasted for-
some time; a part of the regiment at length was induced to
march on to the Mole; but there they stopped short."
. If we consider the word soldier etymologically, they
did what those who first used them calculated upon their
doing—if, without going so far, we consider the position
of the men of this Legion, we cannot fairly blame, them
for demanding, as a right, that which could have been
their sole inducement to enter a service which in no way
concerned them or their country. Things speedily be-
came worse in this Legion—we again quote the cor-
respondence of the Morning Chronicle:—
"On Sunday a very unpleasant business occurred. The 6th
belongs to Brigadier t'itzgerald's brigade : that officer had all
the troops under his command drawn up on Sunday; and having
had three or four of the known ringleaders in the late undiscip-
lined scenes tried by regimental court martial, by which they
were sentenced to receive a certain number of lashes each, the
drummers upon being ordered to inflict the punishment refused.
Col. Fitzgerald then addressing the commanding officer of the
3d, or Westminster Grenadiers, asked if he could depend upon
his men; and upon receiving an answer in the affirmative, he
gave the word to the 3d to prime and load: the men of the 6th
looked rather crest-fallen at this, but recovered at seeing that
the 3d did not obey the order, which was peremptorily repeated
without effect; the 6th then set up an insulting laugh !. and
Colonel Fitzgerald retired."

All this is very well among men who maintain that
military discipline can be kept up without corporal
punishment; but it surely masks that the army cannot be
depended upon. We do not wonder that Col. Evans is
indisposed. Massacres have taken place at Malaga and
other towns. Horrors of every kind seem to be the or-
der of the day in Spain.—Standard.

We copy the following passage from an Irish Roman
Catholic newspaper, the Waterford Chronicle :
"It is unnecessary to call attention to the letter of Mr.
'Connell, every line of it will be perused, not only in this
country and in England, but in every part of the globe where
the English language is spoken. The hideous, the intolerable
tyranny, which has endowed with more than regal wealth a
churchkof a mere fraction of the people, must be denounced
and iuveiehed against with determination and perseverance,
till, witlitheapprobation of all right•minded men, it be removed
from the land which it has so long rendered a prey to anarchy,
and deluged with blood."
This is tolerably illustrative of the spirit of the party.
The following extract from the same journal will supply
a light as to its practices:—
"On Wednesday evening last five nuns from Warren Mount
Convent, Dublin, arrived here on a short visit to the ladies of
the Ursuline House, before they proceed to Tallow, in the west
of this county, where we understand the Rev E. Condon, P.P.,
who accompanies them, has prepared for them a respectable
Convent House, to which are attached large free schools,under the
superintendence of the Board of Education."
The connection of the Ursuline Convent with the
Board of Education is not described in any Encylical,
genuine or parody; and, therefore, we presume the mem-
bers of the board will think it deserving of an explana-
tion.—Standard.

We have good reason to believe that Lord Melbourne
and more than one of his colleagues have for some time
felt the state of disreputable bondage in which they are
kept by Ireland's bane and England's curse. That such
is likewise the opinion of "many of the respectable of the
whig party—we Mean those whigs who remember the
names and the times of Lord Rockingham and Mr. Fox,
and who know that those two statesmen would have
spurned with indignation the disgraceful union which is
now thrust upon their successors—is, be believe, equally
undeniable. There are those, too, among the latter, who
make no secret of their conviction, that were Lord Mel-
bourne's government to cast off this disgraceful incubus,
they would acquire aid from other quarters more than
equal to the numerical loss which they would sustain.—
This latter conjecture, however, does not appear so pro-
bable. Taking Mr. O'Connell's votes at 36, and assum
ing that they would all follow the defection of their leader,
in the event of the administration breaking with him, we
see no quarter from which such a loss could be repaired.
But there is another view of the matter which the go-
vernment, we should think, might safely take, and that is
comprised in the question, what would become of this
section of the house, and of their votes, were Lord Mel-
bourne to rid his government of the degrading tyranny
of their leader ? To us it appears that they would have
but three alternatives before them,—either to secede from
the house altogether, to go over to the conservatives,
or to continue to vote with the government. There are
abundant reasons why the first of these suggestions could
not be resorted to ; and, as to the second, besides the non
tali auxzlzo of the conservatives themselves, the deser-
tion and inconsistency would be too palpable and degrad-
ing even for the tail ttself to resort to ; and, therefore,
mortifying as such a state of things might be, and how-
ever hollow the attachment, they would have apparently,
no choice as to still continuing to serve those whom they
have hitherto ruled. But what, demands the radical press,
would be the state of Ireland, were ministers to let go
the sheet anchor which now secures its tranquillity ?
reply to this we have a panacea ready at hand. Let mi-
nisters, whoever they may be, do justice to Ireland—jus-
tice in its true and essential character, not the one-sided
justice of which Mr. O'Connell is the advocate—and not
only the same, but a much greater state of tranquillity
than now reigns in Ireland, would be the speedy, certain
consequence. There are no people on the face of the
earth more quick-sighted or susceptible of gratitude than
the Irish; while those very qualities lay them open to be
the readily excited dupes of the demagogue and professing
friend, more especially when priestly influence is brought
in aid of the deception. But what has the whig government
done to draw aside the veil, or to undeceive the Irish peo-
ple? Have they not grossly aided the deception, by lending
themselves to fallacious grievances while passing- over real
ones ? We ask again, as we have repeatedly before done,
what has O'Connell and what has the government at his
beck and call done, to benefit the great mass of the peo-
ple of Ireland ? Do municipal reform, or church reform,
important and valuable as they may be in themselves,
constitute the real wants of Ireland ? Is the much-ban-
died appropriation clause a matter about which, if rightly
informed, the people of Ireland can care one farthing ?
No—it is the residence of the absent landowner, relief
from destitution and misery, ample employment at home,
the introduction of capital, and these accompanied by a
general and enligntened system of education, that Con-
stitute the real wants of Ireland. How these have been
attended to by Ireland's self-appointed champion and
all-professing friend, it is needless to inquire. But let
Lord Melbourne's government,
in the
any government, look
the real state of Ireland fairly the face, and apply its
anxious and prompt aid to the removal of the real evils
under which Ireland labours, and Mr. O'Connell, backed
by his parliamentary strength, would soon become com-
paratively powerless, and the people themselves as in-
different to his aid, as they are now unfortunately blinded
into a belief of its importance.—Morning Herald.

OUR NOBLE SELVES.—The following is a list of the
worthies who recorded, by their votes of Tuesday night,
the perfect confidence which they entertained of the wis-
dom and virtue of their own conduct:—
Lord J. Russell Mr. Labouchere

Mr. T. S. Rice
Lord Palmerston
Sir J. C. Hobhouse
Lord Howick
Mr. C. P. Thomson

Lord Morpeth
Sir R. Donkin
Mr. It. C. Fergusson
Sir J. Campbell
Sir It. M. Rolfe

Lord Seymour Mr. F. Baring
Sir George Grey Mr. E. J. Stanley
• Mr. R. Steuart Sir E. T. Troubrulge
Mr. R. M. O'Ferrall Mr. C. Wood
Lord Dolmen y Colonel Anson
Mr. J. A. Murray
Colonel Leith Hay Mr.
Mr. R. Gordon
Mr. O'Loghlin
Sir C. Adam
Mr. Fox Maule
Lord C. Fitzroy lion. G. Byng
Sir IL Parnell
Here are thirty-one modest personages whose votes
counted in the majority, and yet the balance in favour of
the majority was only 29. Who can doubt, after well
considering this matter, that the administration is very
strong ? It is true that in the House of Lords there is a
majority of four to One against it, but then the House of
Commons yes, in the House of Commons—they are
only in a minority of two, when their own votes are ex-
cluded, and they may vote for themselves whenever they
please.—Weekly Post.

CURRENTS OF THE OctaN .1,
Publication, It will be
periment to ascertain the direction of tft"ing account of an ex-
Atlantic has been forwarded to us for currents in the South
a bottle, cast
seen that it consists of an inscription jot=
()int to which
on shore iu the Brazils, and of a statement oifutsdep
the bottle was carried :—" This bottle was thrown overboard
Dar_
from the Forte,cue, of Dublin, in latitude V 10.
tude 27° 10' west, on the 3d November, 1835, Benjamin longi-
lev. This is intended to ascertain the current; ,e1),:n"!"
it up is requested to acknowledge it by publication." 7ri r,
Pivki
The bo '
tie was found on the beach, five leagues N. W. Ceara, 7th De-
cember, 1835•

Imperial Parliament.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-MONDAY.
STAMP DUTIES (NEWSPAPERS) BILL.

Viscount MELBOURNE, in rising to move that the newspaper
stamp duties bill be committed, said he felt it proper briefly to
call their lordships' attention to the principal objects and pro.
visions of this measure, to the reasons which rendered it neces-
sary to bring the bill forward, and to the very great importance
of the subject to which it related. The object of the bill was,

in the first instance, greatly to reduce the duty on newspaper
stamps. 'Ehe duty had hitherto been 4d. on each paper, with a
discount of 20 per cent., making a real charge of 31 and the
one-fifth of a penny, which it was proposed at once to reduce
to Id. The duty at present produced about 1:450,0(X) per
annum. T here would, of course, in consequence of this alter-
ation, be a loss to the revenue of upwards of £300,000. But
when they considered the increase of revenue which would be
derived from the additional number of newspapers that Would
be sold—when they considered the increase of duty on the en-
larged quantity of paper that would be consumed—and further,
when they considered the increase of the duty on advertise-
ments, it would be found that the loss to which he had adverted
would be in a great measure covered. Their lordships would,
he was sure, feel, looking to the great power of the press—look-
ing to its extensive influence—looking to the effect which it was
calculated to produde on the morals, temper, and character of
the people, that there were many other considerations connect-
ed with this subject of a far higher and graver description than
that which was merely of a pecuniary nature. In the fist
place, by making the proposed reduction, they would facilitate
the general dissemination of knowledge throughout the coun-
try by means of the public press, and they would give an ex-
tension of liberty to the press which had never before been en-,
j oyed by this or any other country. There was another most
important object which he trusted would be effected by this
measure. It would, he had every reason to believe, put an end
to that contraband trade in newspapers which had been going
on for a considerable time. Individuals perfectly conversant
with the subject, were decidedly of opinion that the sale of
those unstamped publications had increased from 50,000 to
250,000 a-week within. the last month. When the officers went
to Cleave's printing:office, which they had a right to do, as they
were informed that a press not regularly registered was in full
employment, they found- 40,000 copies of his paper already
printed, and the press was in the act of being employed in
throwing off between 200 and 300 copies an hour. Now, the
present measure was intended to put an end to such a state of
things. By diminishing the stamp duty they would diminish
the temptation to violate the law, which arose entirely from the
profit which, under the existing system, was realized, at the
same time that all the power necessary for the protection of this
large branch of revenue was provided and secured. The bill
gave authority to the magistrates to empower the officers to en-
ter the premises of those relative to whom they had received in-
formation—even to break open doors, and at once to seize those
illegal publications. The provisions of this bill did away with
the existing temptation; it armed the revenue with sufficient
power to put down the evil which had been so much complain-
ed of, and it gave ample protection to the fair and honest
trader. His lordship concluded by moving that the house re-
solve itself into a committee on the bill.
In committee, the ten first clauses were agreed to without ob-
servation.
On the 11th clause (which enacts that a return of all the pro-
prietors of newspapers shall he made to the Stamp-office (half-
yearly) being read,
Lord LYNDHURST said he admitted to the fullest extent the
importance of this measure, which had for one of its objects the
putting an end to the unstamped press, and the giving just se-
curity to the fair and honest trader. He admitted that it was
the bounden duty of their lordships to prevent that violation of
the law which the noble viscount had adverted to, and which
had continued for too long a time. He did not rise to oppose
that part of the bill which was calculated to put a stop to such
illegal proceedings, but the noble viscount would recollect that
he had some time since stated his insuperable objection to the
clause which they were now called on to consider, and it was
his intention to move that it should be expunged from the bill.
His objection extended also to the following clause, and to
schedule B, annexed to the bill, all relating to the same subject
—the registration of all the proprietors of a newspaper at the
Stamp-office half-yearly. He should state in a few words what
was the effect of these clauses. By them it was enacted that

the name of every proprietor of a newspaper, however numerous
those proprietors might be, together with his occupation, in ad-
dition, and his place of residence, should be registered at the
Stamp-elfice. Not only should his name be registered at the
Stamp-office, but his share and interest in the newspaper must
also he stated. And these clauses further provided, that in case
of any transfer of a share, or of the transfer of any part of a
share, such transfer should be notified at each registration half-
yearly. Now a system more arbitrary, more inquisitorial,
more unjust, or more unnecessary was never resorted to than
that which was countenanced by this bill, a proposition of the truth
of which he was sure he should be able to convince their lord-
ships before he sat down. The act of 38 George 111., passed in
the year 1798, required the registration of the printer and pub-
lisher, and of two proprietors bolding as large shares as any
other proprietor. That law had been in operation neatly forty
years; it had been uniformly found effective; no instance could
be adduced in which it had failed to reach substantial defen-
dants. A still further safeguard, however, had been given in
1830, which required that security should be given to the amount
of £4OO by parties
. setting up a newspaper, in order to meet a
verdict ()thorned in a civil action, or penalties following a cri-
minal prosecution. Such was the law at present; and it was
evident that the government thought it gave security enough,
because the government had contented themselves with simply
re-enacting it in the bill before their lordships. The clauses to
which he objected were not clauses of the government, but had
been forced upon them in the last stage of the measure. The
whigs, he observed, had been most clamorous in their opposition
even to the act of 1798. It was true the whigs were then candi-
dates for what they now had got—place. (Laughter.) In
consequence of this opposition, many alterations were made in
the ministerial measure. The then Attorney-General (Lord
Eldon) wished to have the names of three proprietors register-
ed; but the Speaker (Mr. Addington) considered that that was
going too far—that it was asking for more than was necessary
for the object which the bill had in view, and in consequence
two ytuyrietors were eitAstituted for three. Such was the pro
ceeding in 1798; such the conduct of the whigs at that time;
and the act had remained in force from that time to the present.
Its provisions were absolutely in the first instance embodied in
the bill now before their lordships. But see what the more
modern whigs had been brought to do now. They would have
their lordships register every proprietor of a newspaper, his
residence, his condition, all circumstances connected with him—
the amount of his share, the transfer of that share, or of any
portion of it. If this proposition came from the quarter which
he understood it did proceed from, it only afforded one more
instance that persons who were most clamorous about liberty,
who talked most loudly about the 'freedom of the press, who
were radical and root-and-branch men, were always found,
when they had any selfish object in view, to be more arbitrary,
more grinding, more unsparing, and more searching in their
tyranny than any other set of individuals whatever. (Cheers.)
The bill contained the clauses in question iu addition to the mo-
ney clauses; and were they to be told, that leaving the money
clauses unnoticed, not objecting to them in the slightest degree,
they had no right to touch those regulation clauses? If they
were told that they could not alter clauses of this nature—that
they could not in any way interfere with them because they
formed part of a money bill, then he would say that they were
deprived of a great part of their most important privileges, and
the sooner they came to a right understanding on the question
the better. He was not at all averse to the rest of the bill,-and
if it were insisted that these were money clauses, and that any
alteration of them would be an infringement of the privileges
of the House of Commons, there was still a remedy to his Ma-
jesty's government. Let them send up another bill in the same
form as the present, omitting these objectionable clauses, and
that the bill might be passed; or they might do better, by send-
ing up a bill taking off the duty altogether, and not keeping up
this complicated machinery and the extensive establishment
necessary for levying the paltry tax of Id. on each newspaper.
He contended, however, that the house was en titled to reject these
clauses. They had nothing whatever to do with the money
clauses,—they were mere clauses of regulation and of police,
and were contrary to every principle justice—contrary to
the principle recognised and adopted in the year 1798—con-
trary to the policy of his majesty's government itself, and they
had found their way into the bill in consquence of the weakness
of his majesty's ministers, in listening to the dictation of others
in the Commons' House of Parliament.
The clauses were defended by the Lord -Chancellor, Lord
Melbourne, and the Marquis of Lansdown ; and opposed by
Lord Wynford, and the Duke of Wellington.
Their lordships then divided—
For the clauses (content) 4O
Against them (not content) 6l
Majority
The remaining clauses of the bill were agreed to, the dial,-
man reported progress, and the report was ordered to be re-
ceived to morrow.
The several bills on the table were forwarded a stage, and the
house adjourned at eight o'clock.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—MoNnAy.
The Trinity harbour bill was thrown out by a majority of I,
there being for the second reading, 29; against, 30.
REGISTRATION OF VOTERS' BILL.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL moved the third reading of this bill.
Mr. PRAED having, moved an amendment,
The house divided on the motio❑ that the bill do pass—
Ayes... BO
N-oes 23
Majority
•
The post4iffice bill was then passed.
The slave-owners compensatio❑ bill was read a second time,
and the common law courts' bill it third time, and passed.
The house then went into committee of supply, and several
votes were agreed to.
On the vote for a grant of I.:38,500 for the advancement of
education iu Ireland,
Mr. Serjeant JACKSON said he would not divide the house
upon this vote, but he must say, that instead of this being a
grant to support a system of united education, it was, on the
contrary, for a system white had turned out to be exclusively
Roman catholic. It was a well-known fact that 24 of the new
schools in Ireland had been under the superintendence of monks
and nuns. (Hear.) So exclusively Homan catholic were these
schools in their character that they were called priests' schools,
and he complained of that state of the new system of education,
because the protestants of the country ought to be more re-
garded. The protestants of Ireland had been considerably un-
derrated, but he had not the least doubt that they amounted to
2,000,0(X). (Laughter from the ministerial benches.) Hon.
gentlemen might laugh, but he had data to prove that to be
nearly the actual number. But, at all events, the protestants of
Ireland were a body sufficient to demand respect, and he trusted
their interests would not be wholly slighted.
The vote was agreed to without a division.
On the vote for £8,928 for the Roman catholic college at
Maynooth being put,
Mr. A. TitEvon said he would take the sense of the house on
the question.
A short discussion ensued, and then the house divided.
Ayes, 51; noes, 10; majority, 11.
The house adjourned at two o'clock.