The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-07-21 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS,

O'CONNELL AND THE REPEAL FARCE.
(From the Morning Herald.)
The Irish agitator to whom the Queen's ministers
render suit and service for his parliamentary support,
is again playing his favourite part of chief mountebank
in the farce of "THE REPEAL."
The mountebank himself, and "my dear Ray," his
scene-shifter, candle-snuffer, trumpeter, and property
man, seem to have been, at the revived presentation of
this farce on-the boards of the Corn Exchange theatre,
the principal performers. Whether "new dresses and
decorations" were introduced we are not told. Those
already in use, like the apparel of a large portion of the
audience, have long been worn threadbare. A pano-
ramic view of the " Emerald Isle " from " the Giant's
Causeway to Cape Clear," with the waves of the
"mighty Atlantic-rolling unbroken on the coast of
Cunnemara from the shores of Labrador," constituted
as in former days the chief scenery of the piece, upon
which-aim refreshing touches of the pound-brushl
and paint-pot had been recently expended.
The legend over the stage answering to the " Veluti
in speculum" of the regular drama, was the well-known
" Great, glorious, and free,
First flower of the earth and first gem of the sea."
These words were emblazoned in large gold letters on
a green ground, but the painter, who probably had not
yet taken the temperance pledge, and certainly was
more of a painter than a poet, had unfortunately tran-
sposed the flower and the gem, so as to give the latter
to the earth and plant the former in the sea. The line
then stood thus :

" First gem of the earth and firstifower of the sea."
But perhaps it was only the more Irish for all that.
The performance of the mountebank contained no-
thing new, with the exception of a prologue delivered
by himself, in solemn mockery of an oath, in the fol-
lowing form :—" I don't use the profaneness of an oath,
but I speak as if I were upon that oath, and I make this
pledge with all the solemnity of an oath, never to look
for anything but a repeal of the union."
This oath will doubtlessly be as faithfully observed
as his equally solemn oath in reference to the Protestant
Church Establishment, and various voluntary assevera-
tions enforced by an appeal to Heaven, which Mr.
O'Connell has put forth in the course of his political

career.
In order, we suppose, to give a more solemn charac-
ter to this theatrical exhibition, it was held on the
Christian Sabbath, but the reporters of the Dublin
press, not being quite so religious as the mountebank
and his man Ray, refused to attend, in consequence of
which " dear Ray" had to add to his other manifold
accomplishments, that of note-taker to the concern.
This very useful and handy " man of all work" is in-
deed the Caleb Quotern of repeal."
O'Connell assured his audience that he commenced
his performance " with a full sense of the solemnity
and awfulness of the undertaking and of the occasion."
We have no doubt that to him the occasion is most
important, for it concerns the replenishing of his " wal-
lets," which begin to run rather low. Repeal, speak-
ing in the voice of the mendicant " patriot," like the
horse leech's daughter, cries eternally, "give, give."
Accordingly we are told as the most important—infi-
nitely the most important part of the proceedings of the
day—that the " repeal rent amounted to £7B 65." It
is necessary once more to put on the steam of agita-
tion to raise that rent.
O'Connell is, in some respects, a diverting mob ac-
tor, but not half so diverting as Punch, and nothing
like so honest. Punch sends round " the hat" fairly
to collect the pence of his ragged audience, and does
not pretend it is wanted for any other purposes than to
" boil the pot" of the performer in return for the
amusement afforded to the people. But O'Connell
pretends "repeal," or any other political fiction, while
he is grasping at the pelf.
. . .

As to his performance on this last occasion, it is so
much of a mere repetition of his former exhibitions
that it would seem as if the stock of melo-dramatic
invention of the old juggler is quite worn out. His
speeches consisted of a string of vapouring and de-
clamatory phrases, varying in all possible ways, the
jingling of the catch-words "justice to Ireland,' " do-
mestic legislature," " agitation," and " repeal," with a
few interjected allusions to scorpion Stanley and his
bill, to give point and sting to the mountebank's de-
clamation.
And it is such a worn-out old deceiver of the people
as this on whom the Melbourne Administration mainly
relies for support ! That Administration having lost
the confidence of the country and Parliament, if it ever
had it, drags along an existence protracted through
every varying phase of agitation, by keeping a despe-
rate hold of the apron-strings of the ladies of the bed-
chamber, and of the repeal agitator's voluminous
tail." To such degradation were the destinies of
England never reduced before, and we trust never will
be again.

THE WEST INDIES.
(From the Bristol Journal.)
Nothing, except the disgrace of the fact, can be more
deplorable than the apathy of-the public to thopresnt
state of our West Indian Colonies. It is certain that
a few more years such as the last two 'or three must
convert the territory, which once was a main source of
our great bulwark " Ships, Colonies, and Commerce,"
into a desert. The importance of averting such an
event is, on every ground, so manifest, that to enforce
it were mere repetition of truisms ; while every party,
professing any national object, into which our vast
community is divided, has alike a direct interest in
promoting the means by which colonial prosperity may
be restored.
That which lies at the root of the declining state of
the West Indies, is the want of that fair and adequate
supply of free labour, which, in all other parts of the
British Empire, is abundantly found in the progress of
population. For this the remedy is Immigration, upon
terms of perfect freedom, of a population suited by
nature to the climate. This the present Government
are willing to permit to the Mauritius, a young colony
in the East, and in which capital, comparatively, is
nothing :—to the West, where 140 millions sterling is
vested in the requisites for rendering their industry
productive, it is prohibited. Thus in their wisdom
would British Ministers send masses to perish among
" redundant population," and " stop the works" of
accumulated capital and skill !
After the sacrifice, made unanimously by the British
people, ofTwenty Millions for the extinction of Slavery,
we find, as the result, the infernal traffic not only con-
tinued, but doubled in magnitude and quadrupled in
crime, by foreign states. The motive to this enormity
is cheap production ; their success in competition the
effect of deficiency of free labour. The friends of the
African, the Emancipators of the negro race, must feel
as one man upon these facts. They must, if they are
sincere, strain their energies (and we know what they
are) not only against the consumption of slave-grown
produce, but for that supply of industrious free popu-
lation, which alone can counteract the rivalry of their
declared opponents.
Already the public begin to experience the results;
which were predicted by those who conceived the pre-
sent system premature, in the rapid decrease of colo-
nial produce, and its consequent high price. Ere long
sugar will probably be a luxury above the reach of the
working classes ; such is the price, that the preserving
of fruit, usual at this season, has declined to perhaps
one-third of its average amount. What is the cause
of this ? Manifestly the scarcity of produce from the
want of labour. If the public desire the supply of an
article which custom has now rendered one of the ne-
cessaries of life, they will, not only from humanity and
duty, but from interest, bestir themselves that a fair
supply of free labour shall be afforded.
We might go through every class in society, and
every party associated for any national object, and prove
that they have collectively, and each individual of them
singly, a direct interest in promoting this object. To
dwell upon the great political importance of preserving
in strength and prosperity our important West Indian
territory, were waste of words : but we have another
duty, for which we are responsible before a Judge who
cannot err, in this matter. The Colonies belong to
England by right of conquest: that right-is unques-
tionable ; but it is unquestionable because it is a right
entailing reciprocal duties of "Allegiance and Pro-
tection," and the great contract that the ruling State
shall confer on its province the knowledge, the civiliza-
tion, and the arts by which it was enabled to make its
conquest. England has conquered, either the barbar-
ous aborigines, or the subsequent colonists of these
islands; she has derived from them hundreds of millions
by her commerce : she is blessed with the only Esta-
blishment in the world for teaching pure Christianity :
she is beyond competition in arts, in knowledge, and
in civil institutions : and the duty rests on her, not only
to her subjects in the West, but to her God, to preserve
this territory, to raise it to prosperity, and to her own
moral and intellectual standard.
We see, with mingled pleasure and regret, that a pe-
tition, distinctly for effecting Immigration of the Hill
Coolies to the West Indies, has been passed unani-
mously by the Town Council of Northampton. We
see this, we say, with mingled pleasure—that it is done
at all, and done too from an inland town in the very
heart of England—and regret, that Bristol did not take
the lead in this national movement. A powerful con-
temporary, the Liverpool Standard, has also had the
start of us in urging this duty, and enforcing it by the
example, among that large constituency. The sug-
gestion, unquestionably, will be successful there, and
not less adopted throughout England; and we hope
that Bristol will at least not be in the rear of the hun-
dreds of communities which will speak out upon the
subject.

POSTAGE REDUCED TO THREE FARTHINGS !—The postage
covers are now to be had for ninepence per dozen. This has
been effected by the novel plan adopted by some of our en-
terprising publishing booksellers of using the post-office penny
covers as a medium for issuing general advertisements, as
well as notices of publications connected with the trade.
The profit on the advertisements, together with the advantage
of an increased publicity to the books issued by the publisher,
afford an adequate compensation to the vender. In this way
the public are gainers to the extent of twenty-five per cent.
on the Government price of the stamps. The plan has been
as yet only partially tried, but in the event of its more gene-
ral adoption—a result which seems all but certain—a gratui-
tous circulation of the penny postage covers may reasonably
be anticipated as the effect of increased competition. The
penny postage scheme of Rowland Hill will thus be turned
into a universal free postage ! What next?—Scottish Pilot.

EMIGRATION TO BRITISH GUIANA AND

TRINIDAD

REPORT OF MESSRS. rg,qc AND PRICE, WED WERE AP-

POINTED AT A MEETING OF THE FREE COLORED PEOPLE
OF BALTIMORE, HELP ON THE 25TH NOVEMBER. 1839,
DELEGATES TO VISIT BRITISH GUIANA, AND THE ISLAND

OF TRINIDAD; FOR THE PURPOSE OF ASCERTAINING THE

ADVANTAGES TO DE DERIVED BY COLORED PEOPLE MI-

GRATING TO THOSE PLACES.
( Concluded from our last.)

THE SOIL

The soil is a rich alluvial deposit and is the same to any
depth, which requires no manuring, and every thing of vege-
table nature grows with the greatest luxuriance. Sugar and
coffee being the principal articles raised for exportation, pay-
ing exceedingly well at the prices they now bring in the
British market, it is not to be wondered at that the whole
resources of the colony are directed to theM alone.