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

Prices of Admission
Pit, 25..6d. ; Gallery,
Doors to

opened at Half-r

to commence at Seven.
The Box-office will be opened daily, when Places in the
Boxes may be taken of Mr. MINSTER, from Ten until Three.
A limited number of Season Tickets to be disposed of.—
Application to. be made at the Box-office.

The nevz7 Farce now performing with great success at the
Theatre-Royal, Haymarket, called 808 SHORT, in which
Mr. J. S. Balls will sustain the character of Bob Short, will
be traduced on MONDAY next.
In addition to the list of auxiliaries already announced, an
arrangement has been made with the popular performer, Mr.
JAMES WALLACE, of the Theatres-Royal, Drury-Lane
and Haymarket, who will commence an engagement for a
limited number of nights immediately upon the close of the
Ilaymarket Theatre, being his first appearance here since
his return from America.

Ebe LtbetpoOt &tanbari).

FRIDAY

ORNING;

LARCH 12, 1841

The Secretary for Ireland made use of an argument
in the debate on Mr. Colquhoun's motion, but not then
for the first time, which we think deserving of atten-
tion. He contended that it was of no use to say any
thing on the doctrines taught in the College of May-
nooth, unless it would be shewn that they were some-
thing extra—something contrary to those tenets which
it was understood would be taught there when the col-
lege was founded. This argument has been treated
with contempt by some of our brethren of the press ;
but, we think, erroneously and undeservedly so. To
us it appears to be a fair, legitimate, and proper argu-
ment, which ought to be answered, not with railing or
contumely, but with substantial and solid reasoning.
His lordship says, " talk not to me of the class
books of the college—of Builly and Antoine, of Me-
nochius and Devot6, of Reinfenstuel, of Maldonatus,
or Thomas Aquinas—or their morals ;be they as false
and as foul as the arch fiend himself could make them,
I have nothing to do with them, unless you prove to
me that they inculcate dogmas which the Church of
Rome.does not sanction and approve . of. These ex-
pounders of Romanism are no new teachers—their
names were known when •. Lord Castlereagh_ and Mr.
Perceval voted the annual grant—and, indeed, with re-
gard to Popery itself, which boasts of being semper
idem, we have nothing new to learn. The sum of the

matter then is this—you have endowed a Popish col-
lege, and, having done so, you have nothing to do with
what the professors in it teach, provided it be good
Popery—proVided it be not repugnant to the spirit and
genius of the Roman Catholic religion, or what you
had a right to expect they would teach as professors of
that religion for whose support and encouragement
you instituted the college." _

- -
Such is .the substance of the argument of Lord
Morpeth; and the reply which it demands, it strikes
" We seek to withdraw

us, should tie to this effect

he`annual grant from

any recent discoveries wit

.h. regard to its class books—

reason

Again, with respect to another bill, which has been
oo 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
Maynooth, not on account of I 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 comparisou 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 shew 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
That measure has confeisedly disappointed
the expectations 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
incapables 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 reso-
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