The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-05-03 00:00:00

country, if her resources were properly developed
under Imperial Government. Experience has
proved that her industry has been fettered and her
revenue swallowed up in enormous expenditure
under the present system ; and yet, in the teeth of
such glaring facts, and that India has been used
merely as the mulch cow for the East India Com-
pany, and the innumerable nominees of the twenty-
four Directors, the Government have coolly pro-
posed to renew the present system for another
period of twenty years, with some partial modifica-
tions, just to appease the most forward clamourers
for redress. It is time to awaken to a sense of the
injustice committed, and the advantages from
which the commerce of England is debarred.
Manchester sees looming in the distance a source
of supply for raw Cotton which may render her
more independent of the slave-produced Cotton of
the United States. Liverpool may also see a
demand for her Shipping trade, which will render
even the acquisition of the Birkenhead Docks in-
sufficient for her requirements; and England may
look forward to a source of revenue which may
make the task of a future CHANCELLOR of the
ExcaEQuER one in which there will be all sun-
shine. The amount at stake is too important to be
left to Ministerial capacity or integrity, and an
India Reform Society has been established with a
view of bringing public opinion to bear on the Im-
perial Parliament, so as to obtain due attention to
the complaints and claims of the inhabitants of that
vast empire. The Society has not been slothful.
They have already published a pamphlet on "The
Government of India since 1534," another has just
appeared on "The Finances of India," and third
entitled " India, by Dr. MCIST," while a fourth is
announced on " The Native States of India ;" so
that want of information cannot be pleaded as an
excuse for supporting the Ministerial measure.
The East India Company has performed its task—
it has reaped a rich harvest, and provided for all its
kith and kin ; and it is now time that the country
at large shared in the advantages of the acquisition.

WHO ARE THE CONSERVATIVES ?
THERE was a time, and that not long since, when
the assembly of Constitutional Representatives of
the public voice presented a tangible distinction
between those who would preserve the principles of
our time-honoured institutions in Church and State,
and the party whose sole object was change, no
matter at what hazard. •It was said, and truly so,
that the battle of the Constitution was to be fought
in the Registration Courts ; and when we call to
mind the exertions which have been used, and the
sacrifices which have been made, we may fairly ask
for the fruits of the hard-fought contest. When
the Earl of DERBY was called upon to rescue the
country from the difficulties into which it had been
plunged through Whig-Radical incapacity, he made
an appeal to the country, and the response left no
doubt as to the result, if the professions of public
men were to be trusted. Alas ! for faith in politi-
cians. The PEELITE section, who had avowed
their Conservatism in everything but free trade in
corn, were ungratified in their personal ambition,
and, deeming it " better to reign in Hell than serve
in Heaven," revenged their mortification by going
over to their hereditary foes, and throwing all their
weight into the scale against a really able and con-
stitutional Ministry. Even then the Conservatives
presented a powerful minority, superior to any other
party in the House, and all but equal to the whole
of the factions combined. But where are they now,
that Lord JOHN RUSSELL should be able to com-
mand majorities even when the Romish Brigade,
who, like the Ishmaelites of old, have their hand
against every man, are no longer in league with
them ? There are too many who love to bask in
the sunshine of the powers that be, and salve their
consciences with looking only at Lord ABERDEEN'S
Conservative professions, while they blind them-
selves to his Radical acts. His policy has been
essentially one of Liberalism, and yet the plausible
Budget of his CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
receives the support of some pretended Conser-
vatives, as though they believed that the Cabinet
really contained " all the talents," and that the
Government of the country was impossible without
their continuance in office. It is this halting
between two opinions which constitutes the real
danger of the Empire, and its best and dearest
interests will be frittered away, because some few,
who owe their seats in Parliament to the votes of
Conservative electors, carry out their mere private
opinions on particular questions, instead of firmly
uniting with the party which they were sent into
the Legislature expressly to support. The great
object to be gained is not the success of this or that
particular measure, but the ascendancy of Conser-
vative principles, and success will not be achieved
unless those who profess these principles combine
as resolutely for a good cause as their opponents do
for a bad one. They might take a useful lesson
from the Radicals, who surrender individual
crotchets for the general advantage of their party;
but there are too many on the Conservative side
who seem as ready to vote for their foes as foy their
friends. Much of this has, no doubt, been induced
by the political treachery of the late Sir ROBERT
PEEL, which weakened confidence in public men;
but it is time that the Conservatives were aroused
to a sense of the danger, or -they may find., when
too late, that the whole political power has been
surrendered into the hands of those who will use it
for the subversion of all our constitutional safe-
guards against Democratic innovations, and for the
gratification of their own personal ambition.

MR. GLADSTONE AND THE PRESS.
THE more consideration is given to the proposal of
the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER to make but
a partial reduction of the Advertisement Duty, and
abolish the Stamp on Newspaper Supplements con-
taining only advertisements, the more glaring
appears its enormity. Whatever may be said about
Ministerial honour and the independence of the
Times, the transaction is clearly and unmistakeably
a purchase of the support of the latter to the pre-
sent mongrel Cabinet, and the bribe is earned in
the unblushing advocacy of Ministerial measures. It
is well known that the Times is the only paper which
publishes supplements containing only advertise-
ments, and for the simple reason that adrertisers, who
have a keen eye to their own interests, will not pay for
the insertion of their announcements in sheets which
Would seldom be read ; so that the Press generally
will be debarred from an advantage to be enjoyed
by the paper which already possesses the largest
amount. It has been computed that the pecuniary
benefits to the leading journal will amount to at
least £40,000 a-year, at a loss to the Revenue of
fully half that amount, after deducting the Adver-
tisement Duty retained. On the other hand, the
saving to the Revenue, by not repealing the whole
of the Advertisement Duty, will be £60,000 a-year ;
so that this latter sum is to remain as a charge upon
the whole Press of England, in order that one paper,
for its unscrupulous advocacy of the Government,
may receive to the extent of two-thirds of the
amount. This is not a question of individual
rivalry, but one in which the whole community
have an interest. It is practically the legalization of
a monopoly by those who are professing Free-trade,
and an alteration of this portion of the Budget
should be firmly insisted upon. The House of
Commons has already voted by a majority for the
repeal of the whole duty, and nothing less will
satisfy the justice of the case. The difference in
loss to the Revenue will be but £6o,ooo—a sum
too small to demand the continuance of a