The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-04-23 00:00:00

but fron

Now, wI

re such deeds occur, and such things are,
there, we say, there is a state of society utterly tainted
and vi&ous, and actual crime is far from being the
worst thing in it. Its very tranquillity is but the tran-
quillity of the grave. Will Mr. Hume, or any other
employs and agent of the Popish priesthood of Ireland,
have the effrontery to tell us that there is any thing re-
sembling this to be found in England
glad of the inquiry; we really rejoice at such an in-
vestigation being set on foot;' for it is of the highest
importance to both countries, that the true cause of
the crimes and wretchedness of Ireland should be

But we are

probed to the very bottom. Ribandism has, doubt-
less, a great deal to answer for; but what is Riband-
ism ? Is it, or is it not, an emanation of Popery ?
For our part we never had a doubt as to the solution
of this question ; but we shall be glad of any circum-
stance that may lead others into the necessary inquiry,
and the same conclusion that we have drawn.

We perceive, by Mr. Macaulay's statement in the
House of Commons on Tuesday, that there was but
too much foundation for the revolting narrative circu-
lated a short time since, as to the punishment of a
soldier of the 11th Hussars at Hounslow, in presence
of his regiment, immediately afterdivine service on the
Sabbath-day. Mr. Macaulay's version of the affair
differs in no material point from the original history,
and offers no mitigation whatever of-the offence. It is
true that the flogging did take place on the Sabbath-
day, and in the manner, though not exactly at the time,
mentioned; and what more is necessary to raise a feel-

ing of the strongest disgust in the mind of every one
who has a due respect for the sacredness and hallowed
rest of the. day. Flogging, it is said, has been rare
in the nth Hussars; nor was Lord Cardigan the

author, or cause of the punishment in this instance; it
was the award of a court martial, and he but gave
effect to its sentence. But the offence complained of
is the execution of it on a Sunday ; and for this we un-
derstand, from Mr. Macaulay, that Lord Cardigan is
alone responsible. His lordship selected that day for
the, soldier's punishment, and by his orders it was on
that day inflicted.

We hear of late a great deal about the abolition of
capital punishment, and of the necessity of mitigating
the severity of our penal code; but in our opinion the
practice of flogging in the army, in a time of profound
peace, and in regiments quartered at home, is far more
objectionable. It is a species of torture, nay, it is tor-
ture itself of the severest kind, worthy only of a bar-
barous age. We conceive that in a well disciplined
regiment it would be quite needless; but the abuse of

the Sabbath to so vile a purpose—the conversion of
hours which should be devoted to tranquil enjoyment
into a time of disquiet, anxiety, or even agony—is a
proceeding calculated only to disgust men with the ser-
vice, and is moreover a scandalous violation, as well
of the spirit as of the letter of the divine command-
ment. Lord Cardigan's military career has been an
unfortunate one, and it is, we think, high time for him
to bring it to an end. He came into the world a little
too late to obtain that honourable distinction which
might have been his lot under different circumstances ;
for whether it convey a compliment, or otherwise, we
certainly think that he would have been much more
likely to have been serviceable to the
burly, bellicose period, than he hi..
be, in these piping times of peace

state in some

as been, or is likely to

Our " Conservative democracy" of Liverpool is
quite a puzzle to philosophers of the Whig school. It
is, says a writer in the Chronicle of Saturday, an " ano-

maly in politics." But we submit that the anomaly is
altogether a figment of his own mind.
By a Conservative democracy is meant; we presume,
a people attached to the existing order of things in all
essential respects; and what, may we ask, is there ano-
malous in that ? But, the truth of the matter is, that

before the parliamentary and Municipal reform bill:
had passed, or been sufficiently tried, the Whigs ima-

.Tined that the people were as gullible as they wished
them to be, and, that if they possessed more power in
the state, they would throw it all into the scale of Li-

beralism. In that expectation they now find them-
selves mistaken ; and, like that great medical theorist
who, when his patients died under his hands, used to
exclaim that by every rule of art they ought not to have
done so, and that it was a great error on their part, so
these doctors of the Whig academy cry out that a Con-

servative democracy, so far from gaining strength,
ought to have been completely extinguished under their
treatment, and that it is quite an anomaly in politics
that the case has not so turned out.

It is laughable to hear the laments of the Whigs on
this head, and interesting to discover that, soured by
disappointment and hopeless of remedy, they are at
present in the best possible condition and disposition
to quarrel with each other.

" I cannot help thinking," says the writer above referred
to, " that the reformers are losing the mastery of the Town
Council, from having aped the very practice of the tories
the very moment they got possession of it. We fought
for it as for a prize in which all were to nave a
share, and yet one of our first occupations, when it was
within our grasp, was to draw broad lines of distinction
between those who might and those who might not be

admitted into the number of our municipal rulers. In
the first burst of our enthusiasm we carried the Town-hall
by storm ; but the revolution arrived at made known that
democracy had made no advance, and that the kid glove and
currant jelly dynasty was still to be supreme, even hi the
very hour of our party's triumph. It chilled the hearts of
hundreds of true reformers—it sent them home in disgust
and grief—and behold the end—The second race of aristo-
cratic Council Kings is, unless we make a strong effort, coat-
ing to a close."

" The second race of aristocratic kings," says our
authority, "is coming to a close," and there will be
nobody, it seems, to regret their fall. The Tories, of
course, will not blear their eyes with weeping for them,
and we have had some good reasons assigned here
why the Whig democracy should not either. The Re-
formers made a rush for the Council, and gained it
but the possession only disclosed to them tl

einptines:

and vanity of reform promises. Their aristocracy,
who formerly doffed the bonnet in such lowly guise to

the most worshipful people, assumed lofty airs, and,
taking incontinently to " kid gloves and currant jelly,"
would scarcely deign to recognise the poor fellows on
whose shoulders they bad climbed to this perilous
height. They began to draw " lines of distinction,"
became exclusive, and thought of turning the Council
into a sort of Almack's, into which none should be
admitted who could not pass the scrutinizing ordeal of
the " kid gloves and currant jelly." flow painful it
must have been to witness such airs on the part of men
who affected, of all things, to despise the trappings of
place and distinctions of rank in the world. "It
chilled the hearts of hundreds of hue Reformers," says

our informant; "it sent them home in disgust and
grief;" and no wonder. It was like waking from a
pleasant dream full of delightful fantasies, to all the
flat realities of existence. It was like the bursting of
a very beautiful bubble, and lo! nothing remains but
the painful consciousness that we have been pursuing
a phantom and victimised by a humbug. But there
are some men so enamoured of deception that no ex-
perience, however bitter, can cure them of still ven-
turing on in the same unhappy career. Thus we find

this very correspondent of the Chronicle, after making
these painful confessions, instead of abandoning the
affair as a bad job, as he should do, still exercising his

ngE.nuity with a desperate fidelity worthy of a better

cause, in the forlorn hope of discovering some expe-
diezt to redeem the rapidly sinking fortunes of his

We do not mean to follow him through all the de-
tail of local interests and influences which he disserts
upon so learnedly ; but we collect that he relies, as
upon a last resource, upon some new shuffle of wards
and candidates which may give his party a better
chance. In some wards, he calculates, the counting-
home interest is in the ascendant—in others, the coun-
ter
.; to this point, he Thinks, the Whigs have not paid
sufficient attention ; " a candidate should be chosen

gaining a council election

t will be much

f they can win by ti

,heir interest to study the adjust-

ment ; but if not, we wish them to swallow the pills,

e-rig away with the coun-

,er and counting-house 'as long and

inch as they

please; we shall be quite content to meet them in a
the wards with no other aid than that of a good, soum:

and straightforward Conservative demoeracy

In a leading artk

of the sa

that the "Tories have been so ea

?aper we are told

to find fault, tha

they have not studied the bearings of the case set b

fore them by Alderman Evans

.t they have b

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Mveg Theatre. Mr

deceives people with their

is ventriloquism

las been so far well supported

Dn Tuesday an inquest was held at Lydiate, on the body
a child named John Whitehead, one year and nine months
1. The deceased was found by his father floating in the
ter, which was about three feet deep. It is supposed that
ceased was running after the cat when he fell in. Verdict
accidental death.

TON V. (.:11AFI

s an action tried at the

verdict was returned for the
)r a criminal intercourse al-

to have taken place betty

.t of Q

;ranted a ru:

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