The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-08 00:00:00

tion which, in the the pursuit of place and pay, has not
hesitated even TO ALLY ITSELF WITT' TREASON, AND

TO FEED THE FLAME OF REBELLION.

There are few places in this world of ours which are
not pestered with one, two, or perhaps half-a-dozen
meddling and inflated individuals, Whom, according to
Mr. Samuel Weller, it would be a very losing specu-
lation to buy at their own estimation, and to sell again
at that which the public would put upon them. These
luminaries are each furnished with a tail, longer or
shorter in proportion to the brilliancy of the body
from which it radiates ; and every individual atom or
corruscation of which is of itself, and in its own opi-
nion, a star of no ordinary magnitude.
Amongst this class of persons we have always been

accustomed to find the spouters at our public meet-
ings—our anti-church and anti-corn-law agitators—
and, amongst the "lesser lights," the correspondents
which, in some provincial Chronicle or Mercury, weekly
illumine the world under the various signatures of
Junius, Brutus, Verax, or—that terror of editors—a
Constant Reader. But, alas ! the policy of late years,
and—monstrous ingratitude !—of a Whig administra-
tion, has sadly diminished the number and the impor-
tance of these phosphuretted bipeds ; and in no place
more than in our own town of Liverpool has this la-
mentable result, this " darkening of the world," been
manifested.

The reform—Heaven help us !—of our Corporation
was the downfal of Whiggery in Liverpool. It has
been said by some one that

" A very small man as a Tory
Is a very great man as a Whig ;"

but the change effected by municipal reform has ex-
hibited a result diametrically opposite, and has shewn
how much easier it is to declaim against the policy of
others than to amend it by our own-7-that a very bril-
liant light in a corner is only the glimmer of a farthing
rushlight when exhibited in the face of day. The
Rathbortes, Curries, and Sheils, the small fry of
Whiggery, who have contrived to scramble into seats
once occupied by better men, have lost character by
the change. They have been placed on high, and
examined. The public—to use the expression of Lu-
cian—have had an opportunity of " inspecting the
pegs and screws which move the image of the Jupiter
men worship," and the natural result has followed in
the loss of popular respect and the diminution of their
power over the minds of their former admirers. From
henceforth the established mode of annihilating a little
great man will be to make him an alderman or a
councillor, upon the same principle that we ascertain
a forged bank-note by holding it up before the light.
To the consciousness of this lamentable decline we may
attribute a portion of that evident soreness which our
Whig-radical Solons display whenever they are permit-
ted to obtrude themselves upon the public, or, which

is the same thing in their eyes, upon a mob of their
own gathering. To this consciousness we may attri-
bute the mouthing exhibition of Mr. W. Rathbone,
the scolding of Shiel, and the bluster of that smallest
of all small men, James Aitken, at the meeting on
Monday last. But to what we must attribute the dis-
play of vulgar insolence which characterised the dia-

tribe of Mr. James Mulleneux, we must confess we
cannot explain. Mr. Mulleneux never, that we remem-
ber, held any very high place in public estimation, and
cannot therefore have any fall to lament. Ibis best
quality as a public man is that he can roar like " the
wild bulls of Bashan," and we are not aware that he
has lost his voice or weakened his power of lungs.
What, then, could be the motive of his vulgar abuse
of Lord Stanley, conveyed in the following language—
language, we can assure Mr. Mulleueux, as unbefitting
for a gentleman to utter, as it was evidently suited to
the class of persons to whom it was addressed ?
" Lord Stanley," said Mr. Mulleneux, " was a
man
,steeped to the eyes in insolence, pride, and
arrogance ; and why ? Was it because of his fan-
cied superiority ? He was but the accident of an ac-
cident." We shall not pretend to misunderstand
Mr. Mulleneux's meaning, although some of his hear-
ers might and did. It was but an ebullition of that
venom which vulgar men ever feel towards those who
happen to be their superiors. Lord Stanley is a noble-
man of great worth and of illustrious descent ; Mr.
Mulleneux has not, perhaps, sprung from so noble a
stuck, and hence the -hatred' and contempt with
which this self-satisfied gentleman affects to regard his
lordship. In a man who by some exertion of lofty
genius or commanding talent, had raised himself to
eminence, we could pardon a little jealousy entertained
against the pretensions of mere rank and title; but
when such a feeling is exhibited by a man, who, what-
ever may have been his industry or his success in the
world, has certainly not risen by the most ennobling
path, we are only disgusted with the insolence and
innate vulgarity which prompt its display, and ashamed
of the audience which could tolerate and applaud its
expression.

Most kind reader, hast thou ever seen a peacock
whom some mischievous boy has deprived of his tail,
a disconsolate gander, whose flock of young gabblers
have been swept away to feed the craving orifices of
Michaelmas Cockneys, or a hen whose brood of duck-
lings have taken to the pond ? In any one of these
interesting objects, thou hast the image of a Whig
Magnifico, as reduced to his proper and legitimate
proportions. That peacock might typify the lachrymose
aspect of William Wallace Currie, as exhibited on a
recent occasion; that disconsolate bird, of a species
venerated in ancient Rome, might, except in its useful-
ness and patriotism, be mistaken for one who has not
unfortunately either " the voice, the language," or the
" temper of an angel;" and that hen may, with the
greatest truth, be said to represent the entire Whig
tribe, great and small, of the present generation.
Alas—how are the mighty fallen !

The old proverb says, that "when rogues fall out,
honest men have a chance of getting their due." This
adage is exceedingly applicable to the recent attacks
of the Dublin Pilot—O'Connell's own paper, and edited
by " my dear Barrett"—upon the Irish Government.
We certainly must look upon this change in the tone
of the Arch-agitator's organ as " a sign of the times,"
which is pregnant with meaning. Of all men living
there is no one that has been so lavish in his praise of
the Melbourne administration as O'Connell. He has
been most indefatigable in his efforts to prop up the
Ministry, and mostly so, whenever its speedy annihi-
lation appeared to be inevitable. We do not mean to
insinuate that O'Connell's exertions on behalf of Lord
Melbourne and his associates were prompted by any
feeling of affection or respect. Oh no. His support
of the Ministry may be traced to a very different origin.
It arose from sheer selfishness. O'Connell found Lord
Melbourne, and the rest of the imbeciles, convenient
tools for working out his own purposes. As the price
of his support, and that of his tail, he had the entire
and undisputed controul of the patronage of the Irish
Government; and, in addition to this, he has been
assisted and abetted, by his despicable minions in the
Cabinet, in his assaults upon the Protestant Established
Church. These were the true grounds of O'Connell's
support of the Ministry; and the motives which regu-
lated the tone of the Dublin Pilot were perfectly iden-
tical with those of the Arch-mendicant.
A change, however, and that of an unaccountable cha-
racter, has just taken place in the language of the Pilot.
It seems to have bid adieu to the " strainadulatory,"
and to have betaken itself to strong invective and
abuse. Instead of loading the Irish executive with its
praises, as heretofore, it is now beginning to fulminate
its anathemas upon the devoted heads of its former
proteges. In a recent number of the O'Connell organ
it is broadly asserted that "timidity in the doing of
good, hesitation, doubt, apprehension of giving offence
to those who are working heaven and earth to insure

its downfall, appear to be the fixed principles of this
weak and infirm administration." We shall not stop
here to remark upon the absurdity of attributing any
fixed principles to such an administration as that which

Le Pilot so graphically describes. Such blunders are

indigenous to the brain of an Irishman. If there be
any " fixed principle" by which Lord Melbourne and
his menagerie of non-descripts are actuated, it is of the
same character as that which induces a certain species
of insect to adhere with such tenacity to "the finest

pisantry on the face of the earth"---an unconquerable
love of place. The Pilot accuses the Ministry of " timi-
dity in the doing of good." Never were these mischief-
loving and mischief-making mercenaries more happily
characterised. They are, indeed, timid in the doing of
good. There is nothing from which they shrink with

More instinctive horror than from a good action or an
ennobling pursuit. They have no taste for anything of
the kind. In the doing of evil, however, they are bold
enough. If they are called upon to deal " heavy
blows," or to give " great discouragement" to the
Protestant religion—if they are prompted to plunder
the Established Church of its revenues, to suppress
half a dozen bishoprics, or to degrade and trample upon
the clergy—if they are tempted to sacrifice the interests
of Great Britain, national or commercial, at the shrine
of foreign cupidity and ambition—if they are advised
to consign our colonial empire to destruction—if, in
short, any scheme is submitted to them which is
calculated to injure and degrade us as a nation—
Lord Melbourne's administration cast timidity to
the winds, and enter upon their congenial task
with courageous avidity. In a bad cause the pre-
sent Ministers show neither " hesitation, doubt, nor
apprehension," unless it be the apprehension of losing
their places as a punishment for their dereliction of
principle. We defy any one to point out a single
instance in which the present Ministers have done any
good, until they have been reluctantly driven to it by
.the unequivocal and overwhelming force of public
opinion, or by a fear of losing the sweets of office.
Their very element is mischief. The "doing of evil"
is the pabulum of their existence.
The Pilot proceeds—" The question with it (the
administration) is, when it hesitates how to act, not what
good it may effect for its friends, but what censure or
praise it is likely to earn from its enemies. To fear is
the essence of its conduct ; to sink under difficulties its
energy ; to do injustice to its best and most disinterested
adherents its gratitude." This is strange language to
proceed from O'Connell's selected organ. Ingratitude
appears to be the very climax of Ministerial iniquity.
Ingratitude to whom ? To O'Connell and his multi-
tudinous relatives, who have been most liberally pro-
vided with snug sinecures, fat 'commissionerships,
or highly salaried situations under Government—to
O'Connell, who has been allowed to controul the ex-
ercise of patronage, in England as well as in Ireland,
to suit his own nefarious and rebellious designs—to
O'Connell, in obedience to whose will the Ministers
have shaped all their measures and regulated all their
votes—to O'Connell, whom the present degraded crew
in office have assisted in his efforts to make a pocket-
borough of all Ireland. Surely, Lord Melbourne's
administration ought not, after doing all this, to be
accused of ingratitude. Such, however, is the charge
brought forward by the Pilot. Is it because there is
nothing left to give away, no fresh patronage to be
disposed of, no new favour that can be conferred ?
We confess ourselves utterly at a loss to imagine in
what way O'Connell can be more fully requited for his
" adherence" to the present administration, unless,
indeed, recourse should be had to the alternative of
plucking the crown from the head of the Queen, and
placing it on that of the " Prince of Beggars."
The next passage which we shall quote from the
Pilot contains an edifying comment upon the concen-
trated selfishness of the present administration. We
especially recommend it to the notice of such of our
"liberal" readers as may still have a lingering feeling of
attachment towards Lord Melbourne and his associates.
It runs thus—" Oh ! we fear it is a most weak thing,
this our Irish executive ; and now that death has taken
away its master-mind, we tremble for the consequences.
Be it so. The country has, of late, beyond all doubt,
more than commenced to weigh the relative advantages
of running the hazard of a Tory interregnum, such as
that of 1835, with the evils likely to be entailed upon
it by continuing to uphold a Government which has
done but little practical good, and which does not ap-
pear over anxious to extend its benefits beyond itself. It
is not difficult to guess at the object of this attack of
the Pilot upon the.administration. The "squeezeable"
materials of which the present Cabinet is composed
are too well known to leave us at a loss to account for
the motive which prompted this assault. It is intended
as a hint to the Government that it should "extend
its benefits beyond itself," and we have no doubt that
it will be duly and promptly attended to.
Englishmen ! we beseech you attentively to consider
the opinion formed of the present administration even
by its warmest adherents. Are you willing any longer
to be governed by these contemptible minions of a
lying mendicant, who, while he compels them to toil
through every dirty task which he assigns them, re-
wards their obsequious servility with the venom of his
abuse ? For the honour of your country join in a
simultaneous effort to drive these base and subservient
tools of a Popish faction to their native obscurity, from
which it is a scandal to you that you should have ever
permitted them to emerge.

ME SHIP-MASTERS' ASSOCIATION.—We directattention
to a report, in another column, of an interesting meeting of
this newly-formed society, which has already received the
patronage and support of many gentlemen of distinction.
The objects are to disseminate amongst shipmasters useful,
nautical, and general information, by the establishment of
a news-room and coffee-room, a library, museum, and chart-
room, in one building ; the surplus fund to be appropriated
for the benefit of ship-masters, and distressed stamen,—at the
discretion of the committee. The association is open to the
admission of persons not nautical men, to whom it will be
valuable from the priority of shipping and foreign intelligence
which it will afford. Lectures on nautical science, astrono-
my, and geography, are also to be attached ; and from a
commencement so auspicious, we cannot but augur the most
gratifying results. The committee have received a letter
from Capt. Beaufort, who is at the head of the hydrographic
department of the admiralty, in which he expresses his plea-
sure in becoming, at their request, a vice-president of the
association ; and adds, that he will, from time to time, trans-
mit to it any charts that may be interesting. The members
for the borough are the patrons.

CAUTION AGAINST AN IMPOSTOR.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SIR,—I shall esteem it a favour if you will have the kind-
ness to insert this letter in your paper to-morrow, in order
that the public may be on their guard against a man of the
name of Moses Solomon, who represents himself as a Jew
inquiring into the truths of Christianity, and is making our
holy religion a garb to impose on the charitable disposition
of the friends of God's ancient people of the house of Israel.
He has been in our Jewish Institution, but is not baptized.
I remain, Sir, your's very respectfully,
H. S. JOSEPH.
26, Great Newton-street, Liverpool, 7th May, 1840.

THE NEW ASSIZE COURTS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SIR,---I was much surprised on reading the council report
of yesterday, to find that the decision of the committee ap-
pointed to select the best designs for the proposed Courts,
has not given satisfaction. I had before heard from indivi-
duals who were capable of judging well as to the merits of
the internal arrangements, that the designs of our townsmen,
Messrs. Cunningham and Holme, were superior to any other ;
but I was not prepared to learn that the committee them-
selves, also approved of them, and that they were set aside
merely because they occupied more space than was laid down
by the council. This is indeed a startling fact, and one
which deserves inquiry. Are we to be deprived of superior
accommodation in our Courts, because the council ignorantly
limited the architects to a certain line, beyond which they
were not allowed to pass ? Or is the sum of £50,000. to be
expended on a building, which may not after all, be well
adapted to the large and increasing business of the county ?
As a matter of justice then to our townsmen, and as the
trustees of public money, the committee can not do less than
report, whether the calculations and statements made are
correct or false, and if the former, it is clearly the duty of
the council to make the only reparation in their power, by
awarding a premium to those gentlemen, whose talents have
been acknowledged not only by the committee, but also by
many barristers and attorneys, who, I imagine, are better
able to judge of the conveniences necessary, than any mem-
ber of the council.