The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-06-12 00:00:00

THEATRE-ROYAL, LIVERPOOL.

FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR. KEELEY,
And the Last Night but Five of the engagement of Mr.
YATES, Mr. and Mrs. KEELEY, and Mr. PAUL
BEDFORD. JACK SHEPPARD will be repeated eve!),
Evening. The engagement of the above Performers will
positively terminate on FRIDAY, June 19th.
THIS present FRIDAY, June 12, 1840, will be per-
formed, for the tenth time at this Theatre, an entirely
New Romantic and Historical Drama, in Four Parts, with
new Music, Scenery, Dresses, and Decorations, called

JACK SHEPPARD.
The Drama produced under the immediate Direction of

Mr. YATES.
Abram Mendez Mr. Yates.
Jack Sheppard Mrs. Keeley.
Joe Blueskin Mr. Paul Bedford.
(As originally performed by them in London.)
After which will be produced, for the first time here, a new
Farce, written by J. R. Planche, Esq., called
A PECULIAR POSITION.
Champignon Mr. Keeley.
To conclude with the Operetta of the
LOAN OF A LOVER.
Peter Spyk .... (his original character) .... Mr. Keeley.
Gertrude Mrs. Keeley.
, On MONDAY, June 15, the popular Drama of JACK
OHEPPARD. To conclude with the new Drama of THE
DEVIL IN LONDON. *** **** *, Mr. Yates ; Me-
thistophiles, Mr. Paul Bedford; Mr. John, Mr. Keeley;
Peggy Paragon, Mrs. Keeley.

ANATOMICAL VENUS.
IT has already been announced, that TUESDAY and FRI-
DAYS are exclusively for LADIES. A wish having been
expressed by several Ladies, for a longer explanation of this
truly wonderful production of Art, the Proprietor announces,
that a competent person will deliver a LECTURE, provided
he obtains a sufficient number of names for the purpose, on
ItIDAY next, June 12th. The Lecture commences (for
Ladies only) precisely at Half-past Seven.
Admittance, as usual, ls. ; for the Lecture, 2s. 6d.
53, Bold-street.

`_._:

ebt Zibtrpoot cttanbarti.

FRIDAY MORNING, JUNE 12, 1840.

We are sorry this day to have to lay before our rea-
ders the particulars, so far as they have transpired, of
an atrocious attempt to assassinate our gracious Queen
and her illustrious Consort. A merciful Providence
has happily averted the calamity which the success of
this meditated crime would have brought down upon
our country ; and to that over-ruling power it is the
bounden duty of every British subject to offer up the
grateful homage of a thankful and adoring spirit.
We have at present no clue to the motives which
have impelled the assassin to the perpetration of the
foul deed which he has unsuccessfully attempted.
From his age and his station in life, he could have no
Personal enmity to the illustrious objects against whom
he has raised his hand; and we would fain hope that
the inciting motives will be found to spring from no
deeper a source than the perverted feelings of a male-
volent disposition, at war for the moment with all that
is great and good in human nature, or from the diseased
Promptings of incipient madness, attracting to crime
of the deepest die as likely to confer the most lasting
notoriety.
Whilst this attempt is fresh upon the minds of
the
-Royal Pair, we trust that some sincerer friend of
the monarchy, and of her in whom its powers are con-
centrated, than can be found amongst the greedy
sYcophants who surround the Court, will impress
upon the mind of the Queen` the danger to which she
is daily presenting her Royal person by her too fre-
quent appearance in the crowded thoroughfares of the
metropolis unattended by the usual appendages of her '1
regal state.. We admire the feeling which prompts
our Sovereign to rely for protection upon the affection
°1 her people. But there is n limit beyOnd which such
trust should not be extended. Her Majesty pos-
sesses, we have no doubt, the fearless and chivalrous
character of her race, as her undisturbed demeanour
°ll this lamentable occasion sufficiently evinces; but,
although in her bosom when amongst her people, fear
i 6 a stranger, yet it is the duty of her ministers to pre-
vent the frequent exposure of the Royal person in
Places.of. indiscriminate resort, and to check the too
confiding spirit of a young and joyous heart, whose
heating,.the weapon-of a traitor or a madman, might
in an unhappy moment be enabled to still for ever !

We have received a file of the St. John's (N. 8.)
Meekly' Chronicle to the sth of May, inclusive. We
4 0 not find in any of them a single paragraph contain-
ing any news of importance.

In another column we republish from our second
edition of Tuesday the most interesting portions of
the news brought from China and the East Indies, by •
the overland mail. It will be seen that the Chinese
had made two attempts to burn the British fleet in
li°ngkoo Bay. Both these attempts were, we are
happy to say, unsuccessful. They would serve, no
doubt, as cautions to the officers and crews of the se-
t'eral vessels stationed in the Bay to be more on their
guard.

A memorial had hem addressed to the Emperor by
irsang Wang-yen, recommending the total stoppage of
the foreign trade, and suggesting a general massacre of
the British. The preamble of this document says—
seeing that the disposition of foreigners is fickle and
wavering-, 1 beg hereby to propose that the ports be
shut
.against them—that egress from our shores be
Prohibited—and that a plan be laid for the utter ex-
termination of offenders ; thereby to cut off the greedy
Ilews of foreigners, and cleanse the impure fountain
evil." One of the suggestions contained in this
extraordinary memorial is, that the Chinese war
cruisers should entice the " barbarian" enemies to
enter the inner waters, and that, in the mean time
several hundreds of the people living on the sea coast
should be got ready—those who are the stoutest and
bravest, and the best swimmers and divers—and that
these . should be divided into groups to go diving
straight on board the foreign ships, and taking the
said foreigners unawares, massacre every individual
ginouy them. A very cool proposition, truly ! but
somewhat more difficult of performance than this
fu►rctionary would seem to imagine. Another of his
Propositions is, that several hundreds of fire-ships
should be fitted up, and sent among the shipping of
the foreigners.

Another document from the same officer suggests
the propriety of placing additional restrictions on the
trade with the Portuguese at Macao, compelling them
to become security for all the other foreigners.
It Will be seen that a spirit of discontent and re-
bellion had become very prevalent among the inhabi-
tants of Pekin and Moukden. An imperial edict had
,leen issued in consequence, advising increased vigi-
lance on the part of the magistrates,

From India we learn that the preparations for the
expedition to China had been carried on with great
activity. Most of the vessels destined for this service
bad sailed, and the remainder would follow in a few
days.
From letters which had been received from Sir Alex-
ander Burnes it would appear that a Russian army of
24,000 men, infantry and cavalry, with 70 pieces of
artillery had reached Khiva. Another account states
that the Russian forces were only on their march
thither, with the intention of further advancing on
ilokhara., and that the cholera had broken out in the
Russian camp.

At the time when the various government registra-
tion bills were introduced, we denounced them as
forming part of the tricky manteuvres by which Lord
Melbourne's shabby administration were attempting to
defeat the measure framed by Lord Stanley to purify
registries of Ireland. For taking this view of the
ease we had the very best authority—viz., that of the
greatest scoundrel of the Whig party, who, in one of
his truculent harangues, delivered at the Corn Ex-
change in Dublin on the 14th of April last, aud—mark
this, reader—pre.viouslg to any public intimation as to
14e nature of the bills in question—congratulated the
People of Ireland, the John Alalonys and Tom Cas-
idys, that they " had the government them on
the subject of the registry," and that Lord John Rus-
-sell, the most contemptible lickspittle that ever bowed
his venal person before the menace of a briny, had in-
troduced a sham bill for England, which we uld " give
the house the legitimate excuse of postponing the Irish
Lrll until the English one was settled." Such a post-
Ponetnent, the mendicant well knew, was one likely to
extend to a sufficiently distant period. O'Connell him-
doubtless, sat at the council board at which the
Rovernment measures were framed—not in his own ob-
scene person, perhaps, but in the form of the serpent
tvhich of old" squatted like a toad" at the ear of our
first mother; arid the impostor was perfectly aware
that the poison which he had infused into them was
tinite sufficient to ensure their rejection by the people
411 d the parliament of England.
We have since been confirmed in our opinion by the

further proceedings of the ministry with respect to
these SHAM BILLS--these "obstructing" measures.
A few days only before the adjournment of the house
for the Whitsuntide vacation Mr. Pigot obtained leave
to bring in his two bills on the subject of Irish regis-
tration, with the view, avowed by Lord John Russell,
of taking the sense of the house upon the comparative
merits of Lord Stanley's and his own measures. We
will for a moment suppose, in the teeth of all proba-
bility, that such was the sincere object of ministers ;
that they had at the time a bill framed to meet the oh-
, jects contemplated by Lord Stanley's bill ; that, in
short, they were, for once in their lives, bent upon ho-
nestly consulting the true interests of their country,
and not merely seeking by a subterfuge to postpone
altogether the consideration of the question, and to
leave untouched the perjuries and measureless frauds
upon which their existence as a ministry is solely de-
pendent. In such a case what would have been their
anxious endeavour ? Already the principle of Lord
Stanley's bill had been twice affirmed, and, on the last
occasion, by a house unprecedentedly numerous, and
after one of the most strenuously fought contests since
the passing of the reform bill. Already the principle
and the details of Lord Stanley's bill had been fully
discussed in parliament and throughout the country.
Ought it not then to have been the anxious study of
ministers to allow parliament and the public the fullest
time and opportunity, previous to the renewed discus-
sion and division, threatened to prevent the measure of
Lord Stanley from proceeding in committee, of exa-
mining carefully the principles and provisions of those
measures which were then to be placed in competition
with that of his lordship;—with that measure which had
twice received the sanction of the House of Com-
mons ?

An honest ministry, seeking an honest object, would
undoubtedly have courted the full light of day upon
their proceedings and their measures ; but the ministry
of Lord Melbourne is not permitted by the demagogue
whose tools .and slaves they are to pursue so honest and
so manly a course. The weapons of a British states-
man—truth and fair discussion—are not those in favour
with the perjured assassin of his country's weal. The
stab in the dark or the bullet fired from behind a pro-
jecting hedge are the modes of warfare by which the
traitorous projects of that licensed ruffian are worked
out. The supporters of Lord Stanley's bill, will, there-
fore, have to grope blindfold for their antagonist ; to
seek in the vague generalities, with which whig crafti-
ness and fraud contrive to fling into their diatribes, the
features, the form, and the power of the enemy with
which they will have to grapple during the next furious
onset which perjury and fraud are preparing to make
upon constitutional liberty and truth !
Yes, such is, in effect, the position in which this
contemptible faction have, studiously and dishonestly,
placed Lord Stanley and his supporters. The compet-
ing measure of the Solicitor-General for Ireland is
divided into two bills ; the one restricted to the mode
of registration, and the other defining the franchise.
Yet, although the motion for going into committee
upon Lord Stanley's bill is fixed for this evening, (we
write on Thursday,) the first has only been printed a
few days, and can be but imperfectly known to a great
portion of the House of Commons, whilst the second—
that which defines the franchise, and which, judging
from past experience, is the most important of the two
—was only printed on Tuesday last, during a recess,
and delivered to members so as not to allow above
a few hours for perusal, previous to the house being
called upon to discuss and decide upon its princi-
ples ! The bill declaring the mode of registry, which,
after all the cavilling of the whig faction, is not
very essentially different in its provisions from Lord
Stanley's bill, has been allowed to be a few days before
the members of the House of Commons and the public ;
but the vital part of the measure, the declaratory bill
by which the franchise is to be virtually lowered, the
decision of the judges of the land to be fraudulently
reversed, and the suffrage in Ireland to be approached,
as near as an accommodating conscience can bring it,
to a household suffrage, is craftily kept in the back-
ground until the last possible moment, although deemed
such an indispensable portion of any change, that no
measure will be allowed to pass which is not accompa-
nied by such an enactment !

We have all along maintained that the true whig ob-
jection to Lord Stanley's measure was, its honesty. It
was framed to effect the object which it professis to
have in view. The measure of the Irish government, on
the contrary, only throws a veil over the external evil,
whilst it opens fresh ground for corruption to work
upon. The measure of Lord Stanley cauterizes and
eradicates the malady. That of ministers only skims
over the outward and revolting sore, and allows the
malady to fester more deeply into the vitals, and to
gather added strength in its more hidden workings.
The acknowledged evil of personation of voters, and
its consequent perjury, arising from the eight years'
registry and the certificate system, is alike attempted to
be remedied by both parties ; but the government pro-
poses to substitute for this another and a greater evil,
because not so capable of detection ; and to open a
new source of perjury and fraud, by allowing the
claimant to put his own estimate of value upon the
qualification which is to entitle him to a vote !
We have no fear that this contemptible trick will
succeed, or that the House of Commons will so far
defy and outrage public opinion, as to allow themselves
to be dragooned into a blind submission to so groSs a
fraud. The short period which has elapsed since the
last division upon this vital question, has added two
staunch supporters to its noble . champion, from the
filling up of vacancies in Ludlow and Cambridge.
Before another division Radnorshire will have re-
turned a Conservative in the place of a ministerialist,
and the glorious majority of three be thus converted
into a still more decisive majority of seven. To a man
we trust to see the Conservative party at their posts ;
and, although it is evident that the whip, and that
alone, is the weapon with which ministers hope to
convert past defeats into victory, we cannot think that
their supporters—hitherto servile enough it is true—
are very well satisfied that on this question their con-
stituents are prepared to sanction their degraded sub-
mission to the detestable ruffian in whose behalf it is
to be put in requisition.
Readers, Electors of Liverpool, Conservatives,
PREPARE FOR A DISSOLUTION ! The whig party
never resign anything, and least of all their places.
They will not Go OUT; be prepared to KICK THEM
OUT ! YOUR SONS AND YOUR SONS' SONS WILL