The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-03-13 00:00:00

him was 34, and that, on several subsequent divisions,
the whig-radical ministry had majorities as large as 70
or 80, and those on 'questions which did trot necessarily.
involve the the rata or the cabinet. These majorities
were obtai►ied, it should he borne in mind, in a parlia-
ment returned when the conservatives were in office.

What is the position of the ministry at present ? They
have been three years in power—have realised all those
benefits Which the most unscrupulous exercise of pa-
tronage could command—have had all the court influ-
ence in their favour for the last nine months—have had
the advantage of a dissolution of Parliament under these
auspicious circumstances—and have enjoyed the well-
known benefit of securing the return of a majority in
favour of their own principles. And what is the actual
position of the ministers, as shown by the recent divi-
sion ? On a question which was of the most vital cha-
racter—which literally involved the fate of the cabinet—
and in a house composed of six hundred and eight mem-
bers, including the tellers and the speaker, they have
obtained a majority of twenty-nine! This must he
ta-
ken as a satisfactory test of the actual strength of par-
' ties in the house, inasmuch as the principles of the ab-
sentees on both sides are, fortunately, well ascertained.
The liberal and radical absentees were—
' Mr. Bainbridge,
Mr. Bannerman,
Sir M. L. Chapman,
Lord Albert Conyngham,
Colonel Edwardes,
Mr. Erle,
Mr: J. Fielden,
Mr. Grote,
Mr. Hector,
• Sir Robert Heron,
Mr. Jervis,
General Johnson,
•Mr. Leader
•
,
Mr. T. Martin,
W.
Sir Molesworth,
Mr: A. H. Moreton,
Mr. Phillpotts,
Mr. Potter,
Mr. Pryse,
Mr. Sergeant Talfourd,
Colonel White,
Mr. Wilkins.
Twenty-two, and with the Speaker 23
Add the liberals in the House, (tellers included) 318

Total of Whigs and Radicals 341
The Conservative absentees were—
Mr. Archdall,
Mr. J. Bailey,
Sir E. Barnes,
Mr. Blakemore,
Sir F. Burdett,
Mr. Cartwright,
Lord Clive,
Mr. E. J. Cooper,
Mr. Cresswell,
Mr. Dngdale, •
Mr. Lane Fox,
Mr. W. 0. Gore.
Sir G. Heathcote,
Mr. Ingham,
Mr. Kelly,
Mr. Ker, V
Lord Lowther,
H. Lowther,
Sir J. Owen,
Sir F. Pollock,
Sir W. Rae,
Lord Ramsey,
Lord Stormont,
Sir G. Tyrrell,
Mr. G. H.. Vernon,
Mr. Wall,
Sir Eardley Wilmot, -
Rutland vacant, but to be filled by a conservative.
Conservatives absent
Ditto voted, (tellers included,) 289--317

Whig-Radical majority

These numberssepresent the relative strength of par-

ties on the night of the division. Since Pen the con.
servatives have gained two votes by the substitution o
Mr. Emerson 'Velment and Mr, Dunbar for Lord Belfas
and Mr. Gibson, as members for Belfast; and, on the
other hand, they have lost one vote by the substitution of
Mr. Maurice O'Connell for Mr. Bateman, as member
for Tralee. These changes will reduce the above ma-
jority to twenty-two.
But we must not stop here. On all questions which
affect the interests of the Church, as well as upon other
questions of vital importance, there are several members
who would undoubtedly vote against ministers, but who
have, on the recent occasion, voted for them. Among
these we may confidently enumerate the following :
Lord' J. G. Lennox,
Lord Arthur Lennox,
Sir Charles Lemon,
Mr. Walter Long,
Sir Charles Grey,
Mr. Goring,
Mr. Gilbert Heathcote,
Sir Robert Ferguson.

Here are eight Whigs who will not vote for any TM a-
sure for despoiling the church of its revenues—in short.
for any measure which obtains the sanction of O'Connell
and his tail. If we deduct these from the liberal majority
of twenty-two, and count their votes with the Conserva-
tive minority, we shall find that the real majority of nil

nisters, on those questions to which they are irrevocably
pledged by the Litchfield House compact, is only Six !
or, if we deduct the Speaker, only FIVE In other
words, on the resolution, which the Whigs carried against
Sir Robert Peel, for the alienation of a fancied surplus of
the revenues belonging to the Irish Church—which rest).
lution threw the Conservatives out of office—we should
find the following division, supposing the whole House to
be counted out :
Whig-radicals 331

326
Conservatives

Majority

After these statements, we venture to ask why Dirt
radical contemporaries indulge in such immoderate ex-
ultation while contemplating the result of the late divi-
sion ? To whom is it the most mortifying—to the
ministers, or to the opposition ?

Before we quit this subject, we solicit the attention of
our readers to the following reflections, which occur to
us in reviewing the nature and examining the conse-
quences of the recent struggle:—

1. That the ministers could not have secured the ma-
jority which they obtained without a compromise of
principle on the part .of the radicals. The latter have
been loud in their denunciations of the former. They
have ridiculed their general policy, described their mea-
sures as tyrannical and oppressive, and declared them to.,
he unworthy of public confidence. And yet they have
voted for them in their extremity ! This inconsistent
conduct has condemned the radicals in the estimation of
the British public. Some degree of credit was formerly
given to them for sturdy honesty of purpose, and consci-
entious adherence to their principles. They are nog'
fully convicted of the meanest dishonesty and hypocrisy,
the most truckling and slavish subserviency, and the
most cowardly desertion of avowed principles. As a
party, they have rendered themselves insignificant, des-
picable, infamous. Ovec the abject humiliation of this
'noisy and turbulent faction every true Protestautevery
sincere patriot must unfeignedly rejoice.

2. That the conduct of the conservatives in the late
Contest was unstained by the slightest dishonour. They
might have left the ministry in a minority if they had
been so unscrupulous as to compromise their principles
for the sake of obtaining a party triumph—if they had
been as reckless as the present cabinet and their sop-
porters when they supplanted Sir Robert Peel. The
conservatives, to use the language of the radical SipeOa-

" had taken especial care to place themselves in a
minority, though one sufficiently numerons to demonstrate
their strength." They were taunted by tl►e ministerial
speakers with their " allince with the radicals." What