The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-25 00:00:00

which he winds up the whole is in these words s

" We trust that all who possess influence in Ireland, and
have the welfare of the established church at heart, will take
some decided way of marking their discountenance and dis-
approbation of such proceedings as these, and of such per-
sons as this Mr. Gregg. A contrary course might prove, in
its effect, a far heavier blow and greater discouragement to
true religion in that distracted country than it ever has been,
or ever will be, in the power of a Whig ministry to inflict."

For our part, the Moral with which we should point
the tale, would be simply this—" Beware of mother
abbesses !" Quarrels with such functionaries are, in
Ireland, anything 'but pleasant affvirs to have in hand,
especially when there are Popish magistrates on the
bench to adjudicate between them and mere heretics,
for whom a prison too good. Open collisions with
prime favourites of the government ought, in point of
prudence, we admit, to be eschewed, or very cautiously
conducted; but, nevertheless, we are far from thinking
that the individual who happens to love truth more
than his own convenience, and is willing to incur a
little annoyance for its sake, however unwise he may
be in the esteem of some, is one whose proceedings we
should mark, as this writer recommends, with " dis-
countenance and disapprobation"; and we are quite
sure that " all those who possess influence in Ireland"
will do nothing of the kind.

If an uncompromising opposition to the god that
rules in that distracted country, be calculated to inflict
a heavy blow and great discouragement on true reli-
gion, what may we expect to be the consequence of
aiding his divinity, submitting to his supremacy, and
diffusing his authority in every possible way ? Truly,
the Times seems much disposed to give him a
friendly hand. If mother abbesses are to be exalted,
and magistrates who deal out unrighteous judgment
to be defended—if those who prefer honesty to equi-
vocation, and truth to expediency, are to be hunted
down as " bigots" and " fanatics "—what hope can
we possibly entertain for " true religion " in the
country where such miserable expedients are recom-
mended ? But we sincerely hope
,that the writer in
the Times has no commission in this respect.

The Whigs having resolved, with what Lord Dar-
lington calls a " tenacity unparalleled in the history of
governments," to remain in office, it becomes every

man who values the constitution of his country and

the happiness of the people to try to defeat this most
flagitious attempt, and reward it as it deserves. The
question to be determined at the hustings will be this :

are such men—are men capable of committing such

acts as they stand convicted of—fit to be the advisers
of our youthful Sovereign—fit to hold in their hands

the administration of this great empire, and all its mo-
mentous interests ?- It is not the question which the

Whigs would like to put themselves; it is not the
question which their time-serving partisans do now, or
will hereafter put ; 'but it is, nevertheless, the question
which ought to be put, and which, we trust, the Con-

servatives will on every occasion submit to the electors

of the kingdom. Need we explain for what reason

the Whigs will shy it, or upon what account it would
be disagreeable to them ? The thing is too manifest ;

there is a " conscience which makes cowards " of all

men, even of Whigs ; their character won't bear exa-
mination ; their words and deeds are upon record, and
they tell with condemning energy against them. With
an increasing revenue they have been every year add-
ing to the burden of the public debt, and, during the
last five years, have contrived to increase it by the se-
rious amount of seven millions. Still there is a defi-
ciency, and they come forward, in despair of success
from every other resource, with a new plan to supply

the want and waste specially caused by their own ra-
pacity and extravagance.
With them then the queStion may very well be, whe-
ther or not the people approve of their plan ; but we
say that the people should; and will ask, whether such
vile managers ought to be any'longer entrusted with
the finances or government of the country in any shape
whatever. With- them the question may be the plan ;
but with us it must and ought to be the men.

It is true that the Conservatives have no fear to meet
them on any ground whatever ; but what we naturally

and fairly say is, that if their scheme were the very
best in the world, such acknowledged renegades are
not fit to be entrusted with the execution of it. Have
they not by anticipation frequently passed the strong-
est condemnation on it themselves ? To repeal the
corn duties—why it was in their eyes "madness"!
To encourage slavery—oh, it was unheard of villainy ;
and as to colOnial timber, it was a staple article
of trade which must not be touched. The same
mtn now come forward eating their leek, and
a: kin; the country not so much to smile upon their
abject and contemptible recantation, as to give them a
House of Commons that will basely support them in
whatever they choose to propose, and betray the nation
into their hands.

They care nothing for cheap corn, Baltic timber, or
slave sugar,—or the convenience and benefit of the
people in anything relating to such things ; these arti-
cles indeed form the staple of their "panic budget" ;

but what they really want, is, a subservient house to
agree to anything they may ask, to give them a work-
ing majority, and keep them " in place."
It is said that the Whigs were under pledges to
O'Connell not to resign.without an appeal to the coun-
try, and that when the affrighted animals seemed in-
clined to fly, (unmindful of the engagement to their
cruel, unrelenting keeper,) the " Irish pig-driver" flou-
rished his shillelah, and swore they should not budge
a foot till they had paid him
.the last farthing. The
animals huddled themselves into a corner, and held a
cabinet council ; the terms of the " compact " were
referred to; the " driver " threatened to expose them
if they refused obedience to his demand ; and, after a
long debate, they determined to yield. Out then came
the "panic budget" by the Irishman's orders, and into
his hands their affairs are now completely surren-
dered.

As to this story, we know not whether it be literally
true or not ; there is certainly a vraisemblance about
it ; but that there is substantial truth in it, we do most
potently and implicitly believe. We heard nothing of
the panic budget till Lord Morpeth's Irish universal
suffrage bill was kicked out : mark that. And who
more deeply concerned in that bill than Mr. Daniel
O'Connell ?—who more interested in keeping the
Whigs in, than that identical gentleman ? Ireland is
his price—her patronage his pay for supporting the
Whigs ; and he—who more ready ?—will of course
work heaven and earth to keep his useful tools just

where they are
We are decidedly of opinion that the agitation which
has' already commenced was entirely of this man's
suggesting, and that all who join in it will just be the
dupes of this crafty Jesuit. He has already had the
assurance to put himself forward as a leader in the
movement—to avow himself the champion of " free
trade" ; and he " assisted, " at a public meeting in
Covent Garden Market, on Thursday, in which this
was the theme. Mark this, then : a ministry which
has lost the confidence of a House of Commons of its
own calling—which has over and over again been
beaten, rejected, and condemned by it—takes the un-
constitutional course of remaining in office in defiance
of the most express " want of confidence " of that
house, and then appeals to the country to give it a new
one more favourable ;—this ministry, we say, comes
to the people, and sends—whom ? Mr. Daniel O'Con-
nell as its pioneer—yes, O'Connell—to agitate England
as he has agitated Ireland—and eventually serve the
English, doubtless, as he now serves his own country-
men. This base betrayer of his country calls for free
trade—free foreign trade in corn and provisions—in
almost the only articles in which the Irish people deal
—and expects, we suppose, tbat the people of England
will listen to him while he is thus attempting to con-
sign his country and countrymen to irretrievable ruin,
under the hypocritical pretence of, forsooth, disinte-
rested concern for English mill-owners and their ope-
ratives ! Faugh ; the thing is rank and abominable,
and " smells to heaven." 'Why, this Papist O'Connell
hates England and the English with a bigoted hatred
of which they have no conception ; and will they be-
lieve that he is now seeking to embroil them in this
free-trade agitation from any other motire but the love
he bears them ? Certainly not ; none at least but the
veriest flats will suppose anything of the sort,
O'Connell has virtually ruled England for some time
past, and all he wants now is to continue his reign ;
he would purchase it any price. He has never been
nything but the direst enemy to his own country; he
would readily sacrifice to insure his present do-
minion; but let the Conservatives of England be up