The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-05-03 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, MAY 3, i 836.

A London ministerial paper intimates, with an autho-
ritative tone, that the KING of the French has resolved to
interfere more energetically than hitherto in favour of the
QUEEN of Spain. Ten thousand infantry are to be re-
cruited immediately and despatched to the seat of war.
These men are •to be commanded by French officers
selected from. the regular army. A number of horses
are to be furnished, and French ships are to be employed
in conveying them to Vittoria, where it is said the French
are to co-operate with the British mercenaries under
Colonel EvANs.

So far all this looks well ; but it is not stated at whose
expense these additional troops are to be maintained,
nor how they are to procure the means of subsistence.
Frenchmen, we believe, require food as well as English
men, but unless it be sent them from France or procured for
them from England, they run a sad chance of being starved
to death as many hundreds of EVANS'S men were during
the present winter, for although it be the month of May
we can hardly say that the winter is terminated. For-
merly the French were admitted to be more active and
successful pillagers than the English, but we question if
this can be said of the heroes Ivlio at present compose the
British legion in Spain. A vast portion of them were
professional pillagers before they embarked in the " high
and holy" cause of DONNA ISABELLA ; and yet with their
well tried abilities they did not succeed in obtaining the
necessary supplies. Whether this was owing to the
repeated and merciless floggings of their commander we
have no means of ascertaining, but sure we are they
have not left much in the vicinity of Bilboa and Vittoria
for the French to fatten upon. The weather may indeed
be more propitious when these latter troops arrive, but
it. is impossible to convert rocks into bread, or paving
stones into rations of beef or mutton.

But after all, is not this. mode of dealing with the con-
tending factions in Spain exceedingly disengenuous and
pitiful on the part of France and England ?. Why inter-
fere:at-all if an open interference be cnntrary to-111e faith
of treaties ? Why not interpose boldly and put an end
to the conflict promptly if it be deemed expedient or just
to interfere at all ? These questions have been asked
again and again, and yet we have not seen even an at-
tempt to answer them. The war lingers—our countrymen
perish—the whole.army of Spain. is motionless—DON
GARLOS threatens to march upon Madrid, and yet Lord
PALMERSTON takes-credit to himself for having induced
the KING of the French to permit ten thousand men to
be recruited in that country. What if the aspirant to the
Crown be in the capital before these French troops can
enter the kingdom ? Will they attempt to dethrone him
by means of a regular armament furnished by the con-
federate powers ? We Should think not, for that, in all
probability, would provoke an European war. The noble
secretary for foreign affairs cuts a very wretched figure
in the whole of these proceedings.

• The promised reduction of the newspaper stamp du-
ties has caused a kind of panic among the friends of
cheap knowledge, which, to say the least .of it, is not
very complimentary to the conductors of the whig and
radical press. Everywhere we hear of new journals, of
vast pretensions, being about to be established, and all
sorts of schemes are afloat for the purpose of raising the
necessary funds. Some of these are probably nothing
more than attempts of ingenious liberals upon the cre-
dulity of the public, the money part of the scheme and
its convenient appropriation being the chief object of the
projectors.

To us these "safe speculations" can only be matter
of amusement. It is delightful to see the pains taken
by the admirers of cheap knowledge to knock each other's
eyes out. If there be any want of newspapers on the
liberal side, it is strange that many of those so long es.
tablislied should have been so eminently unsuccessful,
and that the Chronicle should be the only London morn-
ing journal which supports O'CONNELL and his Majesty's
ministers. If it arise from lack of talent that is quite
another consideration, and involves a much more serious
charge. If a difference of twopence in the price of a
stamped sheet be a bounty in favour of highet talent on
the whig side, it is odd that the important discovery was
not made sooner, and that the EGERTON SMITH order of
welters were not written down more than three years
ago. But we do not admit this alleged want of talent,
seeing how little is necessary in conducting' a whig news-
paper. It is true that an increased ingenuity is requi-
siteat present, considering that the old claptraps of reform,
catholic emancipation, and the march of intellect, are
either obsolete or are only used by the venerable stagers
of the press who think as they thought thirty years 'ago,
and are unconscious that their stale senilities are now
only food for laughter. That more newspapers will be
sold at the reduced price of fivepence than at sevenpence
we are ready to believe; but that there can be any in-
ducement for bringing "six RICIIMONDS into the field,"
instead of one, we are not so willing to credit.

However, the work goes'on merrily ! iVe are to have
—so the advertisements proclaim—new joint stock com
panies of political journalists, editors elected by ballot,
broad sheets by scores of 3,000 solid inches of reading,
and premiums upon newspaper shares more Valuable than
those of the most profitable railway. We do not say
that this is swindling; but we are at a loss to conceive
how any journal can be successfully conducted upon such
republican principles. Those who embark iii such un-
dertakings may have a few pounds to spare; but it
strikes us that those who do embark in them will shortly.
convince the world that they have more money..than
brains. it is not for us to complain of the mania, be-
cause the more fools the more sport; but we should like
to know what our ministerial contemporaries think of it.
We are fortunately above the rage of the storm. The
whig press will have the whole benefit of the experi
ment; and if the new aspirants elbow the old actors off
the political stage the latter will have to blame only
themselves. They sought the change and they must
bear the consequences. They encouraged the HuAtE,'
ROEBUCK, BUCKINGHAM, and MOLESWORTH party—they
pitied the CLEAVES and HETHERINGTONS—they— looked