The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-08-10 00:00:00

o their Conservative successors in office--a war, by
he way, which would have been easily avoided had a

timely demonstration been made, that our countryman
must neither be unjustly . put to death, nor kept in
prison. Wars of all sorts are detestable, and a war
with America would be of all wars the most foolish
and unnatural ; but submitting to such outrageous
conduct as we have endured from the republicans in
the person of APLeod, is not the way to avoid a war,
but the way to bring it on. Since the Americans are
so anxious for a scrimmage, it would be advisable to
help them to it early; we shall certainly be rather late
with our demonstrations, either when our countryman
is hanged, or the republicans have had time to prepare
themselves. Defend us from Republicanism, and a
State without a Church, say we. America is surely
at this momenta fine specimen of its working! Great
energy there may be indeed under such a government,
but it affords no security for national truthfulness,
honour, or fidelity ; and, however some may prosper
who live under it, it is by no means so desirable for
other States to come in contact, or so easy for them to
hold relation, with it.

The Protestant Association of London has origi-
nated a petition to Parliament for inquiry into the
abominable outrages committed in Ireland at the late
elections, and we hope to see a similar petition from
Liverpool, and indeed every good conservative town
and place in the kingdom. The popery of Ireland is
a reproach to England—its execrable licentiousness
our standing disgrace. Nothing has been done to
curb, but every thing to pamper and indulge it of
late, and the first moment of trial at once developes

ruinous consequences of so mistaken a policy

The people of England must take up this matter, and
not leave it discretionary with any ministry to act upon
a system so cruelly injurious to Ireland, and so dange-
rous and detrimental to the empire. The civilization
of Ireland is not to be effected by falling in with the

views of popish priests; that method has been fully
tried by the Whigs, and its only result is, to make the
people more brutal and barbarous than ever. W(
shall soon have a change of administration, let us be
certain of having a complete change of government
at the same time.

The agitator is making good use of his time, well
knowing that the days of his bad eminence are num-
bered. Certainly he makes no mystery of his trea-
sonable intents ; while the nominal Chief-Governor
dares not say a word, and Lord Morpeth dines in
company with him, nay, condescends to go on visits
specially to meet him. Is it any wonder then that
treason gathers strength, and that the plot which is to
sever Ireland from England thickens ? American
sympathizers have been sending money to aid the in-
surgent cause, and hasten the Irish declaration of in-
dependence—and O'Connell rejoices that, thanks to
steaming, Ireland is now but a ten days voyage from
New York—a fortunate circumstance indeed, if it could
induce himself and a very large train of his followers
to make the transatlantic trip, and repeal the union
between themselves and the " bright gem of the sea"
for ever—but not at all an unfortunate one as regards
the integrity of our empire. This steaming is a game
that two can play at, and if it be begun, all we shall
say is, that we back Old England against the world.
But we desire to make no boast on this head; a great
deal of mischief might be done before steaming, with
all its wonders, could be made available to arrest its
progress; what we desire to see is, the sister country
judiciously and wisely, but effectively governed ; for
this is a point in which every British subject has an
interest.

The Whigs are a cunning race ; but the Whigs of
our Town Council seem to possess a perfectly diame-
trical character, and to be afflicted with that unerring
sign of approaching fall which the poet alluded to,
when he wrote—" quos Deus vult perdere prius de-
mentat." Can any of our " townsmen have read our
report of the proceedings of the last council meeting,
without being perfectly amazed at the folly which
could prompt the " liberal" and reforming portion of
that body to sneer at the above mention of " economy
in the Town Hall Estabiishment,"—a theme upon
which so many of them have been eloquent in days
gone by.' Can we help wondering at the blindness
which cannot see that the day is coming when such
eloquence may again be found serviceable—when, ex-
cluded from civic banquets, and shut out from the
likelihood of riding to conventicle or mass-house in a
mayor's coach, it may become patriotic and convenient
to assert with Mr. Yates the propriety of a civic
functionary " entertaining his private friends out of
his private purse, rather than out of that of the
public," and the benefit to his health to be derived
from walking instead of riding "
Posterity, we fear, will scarcely credit that a party
so liberal, so self-denying, and so virtuous, could for a
moment hesitate to sacrifice the tinsel and state which
belong to office, to purchase a boon so great, as the
enlightened councillor for Toxteth sheaved the possi-
bility of attaining, by substituting biscuits and veal-
pies for the Town Hall turtle, and a walking-stick and
strong shoes for the mayor's coach.
We are heartily sorry that Mr. Yates did, not, by the

proposal of a substantive resolution on the subject,
place on record the names of those " liberal" and re-
forming councillors who are so flagitiously in love with
Town-hall dinners, and so unmindful of their health
as to walk when they may ride in state. We must
confess we have met few Whigs who would do any
thing of this kind when put to the test, however loud
may be their professions of single-minded patriotism
when on the shady side of office. Our wonder is not
therefore that Mr. William Earle and other similar

jokers of his party were disposed to laugh down the
proposition in question—being for the present in the
sun,—but that they are so blind as not to perceive
that their sun is about to shine on another side of the
Council-room. In the mean time, Mr. J. B. Yates is
a perfect paradox to us, and ought, positively, to be
the next mayor, were it only for the novelty of seeing a
Whig pay over his allowance to the Corporate Fund,
give good dinners out of his own pocket, and lay up the
state coach in lavender ! There is no necessity for
" pawning it," as suggested by the cynic philosopher
of the Council-room.

We cannot undertake to follow our Liverpool contempoary
the Journal, in his ramblings ; we shall only say that it is no
fault of ours that he has been so discursive, for it has not
been in following, but in wandering away from the theme
with which we supplied him, that he has performed so many
escapades. We shall take up a few of his positions just to
shew what an exceedingly inapprehensive and illogical race
of people these free-trade blowers almost universally are.

The first question he asks is, " What do we mean by na-
tional self-support ?" One would think it was not so diffi-
cult to understand the meaning of these words ; we would
be understood as using them in their obvious sense, and as
we could not hope to make that more plain by any further
description, we leave our contemporary to the use of his
dictionary, and the exercise of his own ingenuity for its
discovery. " Nearly three millions of our population," he
proceeds, " are at present dependent on foreign trade for
their daily bread ; would our independence, as a nation, be
weakened or strengthened by the extension of that trade ?"
Now, let us answer this question which way we will, the

answer is not of the smallest moment to the question of a
foreign trade in foreign corn ; it has not the slightest bear
ing upon, or relation to it. Our objection is of course not
to foreign trade generally, but to foreign trade in an article
with which it is in our power to supply ourselves ; to dis-
placing our own labourers, and depressing our own farmers
for the advantage only of foreigners.

Our contemporary's next elucidation of the subject is as
follows :—" Here lies the gist of the whole question at issue
between us and the Standard. We contend that there were
the English hand-loom weaver permitted to exchange his
own piece of calico, the produce of his own toil, for two
bushels of Polish wheat, he would be a more independent
man than the weaver who, on account of our corn laws, is
forced to give one piece of calico for one bushel of English
?cheat."

So this is the gist of the question, in our contemporary's
opinion ; in ours it is not at all the gist of the question,
but exceedingly wide of it. The question is, what would he
the effect of admitting foreign corn at a low duty, or without

Now how

any duty, into our ports ; that is the question
are we aided in the solution of this question, by a proposition
to the effect, that the "English weaver permitted to e2'•
change his one piece of calico for two bushels of polish
wheat, would be more independent than the weaver who is
forced to give one piece of calico for one bushel of English
wheat?" Why this latter proposition might be quite true in
the abstract, and yet we should be no nearer in our ratiocina-
tion to a repeal of the corn laws, by reason of our admitting
it; but the propounder alleges in addition, that this happy
consummation is hindered only by the corn laws. The pri.
vation endured by the weaver takes place, be says, " on ac-
count of the corn laws." Now if this were true, the corn
laws would be indeed a severe infliction on the poor weaver,
and a great hindrance to his prospects of independence ; but