The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-06-08 00:00:00

nay, he could not believJ it possible, he said—'

" that

. _
the house would pass a vote of censure upon the
Ministry through whose agency the present reformed

House of Commons had been called into existence

Yet—oh, dreaded result! oh, horrible catastrophe !
oh, unnatural offspring !—a reformed House of Coin-

mons has pronounced its reformatory parents unwor-
thy of any confidence ;—and not only this, but the
very house convened under their auspices is the author
of this very damning resolution against them ! Will
not this suffice, " most forcible feeble ?"
Will the Whigs resign now:' That is a question
which remains to be ascertained. Last night Lord J.
Russell was to inform the house what they intended to
do. One thing is at all events rendered certain—the
corn-law proposition is abandoned, and a dissolution
of parliament must take place instanter. The success-
ful tactique of Sir R. Peel has gained these two impor-
tant advantages. Our readers must have observed,
that although Ministerialists talked of a dissolution,
the actual members of the Government spoke of .vari-
ous debates which might endure an indefinite length
of time, and seemed quite agreed to do all sorts of
business at their leisure. To put an end to such im-
pudent swagger, the want-of-confidence motion was
in a great measure intended ; and that motion having
been gloriously carried, dissolution can no longer be
made sport with, and must take place immediately—
under Whig auspices indeed, if the Whigs have still
hardihood enough to retain office ; but, under what-
ever auspices, it must take place. With respect to the
budget corn duty, the Colonial Secretary has had the
decency to announce that they gave it up.
Here then, we repeat, a great victory has been gained;
and if the present Ministers dissolve Parliament, and
appeal to the country, they must appear before the
electors as the meanest and most sordid creatures that
ever existed. It would hardly be thought possible
that, after being defeated by a majority of thirty-six
on the first item of their budget, they would still think
of remaining in office ; yet it would seem that they

had every idea of it, and had even framed for them-

selves an argument—certainly a novel one—by which
they would endeavour to justify the procedure
said they, we have proposed measures of legislation
which have been negatived, and which we can never
hope to carry ; hut it is not as legislators, but as mi-
nisters, you Nava a right to put us in the dock. You
don't like our sugar, our timber, or our corn bills;
well, what of that ? We shall withdraw them, and
bring in others that may please you better. That 's
only " legislation" ; look at us administratively ; look
at our foreign policy—our Syrian, our China expedi-
tions ; observe our domestic operations in general—
our innumerable and untiring commissioners and
commissionerships, all labouring so nobly and disin-
terestedly for their country's good. Try us in this
way, and you will find us to be choice spirits—perfect
nonpareils; but do not be so invidious as to turn us
off for breaking down merely as "legislators."
We submit that the argument scarcely deserves an
answer, for it really amounts to this—that the Oppo-
sition should do the work, and that Ministers should
receive the pay; and that the nation ought to place
confidence in men who have neither skill nor judg-
ment enough to originate measures indispensable to
the safety or advantage of the kingdom, or influence
or credit enough to pass them if they had. Necessity
is inventive ; but this attempt to separate the legisla-
tive from the administrative functions of government
is a wretched subterfuge. Come, then, gentlemen, if
you have, nothing more or better to say, we shall just
ring the bell, and commend you to the porter; and
pray " stand not upon the order of your going." We
sire not whether you depart " administratively'' or
" legislatively"; we are not punctilious in that re-
spect ; only " go at once," and you will gratify the
whole kingdom in general, and your humble servants
in particular.

True,

" It is the object of the Anti-Corn-Law League;
says Mr. Oastler in one of his Fleet Papers, "

-
transform this country into one great workshop, there-
in to work the poor to death, and thus to enrich the
immense capitalists—levelling every rank between."
Such at all events would be the direct tendency of their
schemes. The plausibility in which they deal, and of
which they take every advantage, is altogether upon
the surface. Remove only a little of that deceptions
superficies, and you soon perceive the rottenness which
it covers.

" The people want employment, and those who a'
employed require to be placed in better circumstance:

and eve," say they,

" want markets. You cant

deny all this ; how then can you deny that free trade
and cheap corn, which is all we ask, would be a most
fit and proper thing to concede to us We answer
this by denying that this free trade and cheap corn
would produce the effect anticipated ; and, secondly,
by sheaving that even if they did do so, they would
afford but a momentary relief, and would not be the
most suitable remedy for the evil complained of.
There is no term in the English language more Brat.
ing to the ears of the factory lords than that one won:
" over-production." They cannot bear to hear it pro•
nounced, or to see it in type.
When we charge them with "over-production,'
they lose all patience, and ask, with an air of triumph
ant mockery, " if we produce less, will not the distress
of the
People and of the country be immeasurably in-
creased ?" Everything of prosperity connects itself in
their mind with the nothing beyond
mill ; they know of
it; they can conceive of nothing great without it. How-
ever, there are others who not being mill-ridden to
this extent, can"l' has gone
- c.early perceive that i
too fast--that the • mill population has increased toe
fast—and that the
"n
ly fair and safe way to remedy the
evil, is not to stimulat
--e, or attempt to stimulate, their
drain powers, but to
off the population and employ
them in some new channel. This will be the more
readily admitted to be just • ,if we can show that the re-
medy proposed by the mill
party is altogether a decep-
This can be done by • showing that the importa-
tion of corn from Poland or Germany would create
no new market for our manufactures—that foreign
grain could not he imported • h wit out displacing an
equal quantity of home growth, and h t ereby creating