The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-02-21 00:00:00

THE PRIVILEGE QUESTION.—TYRANNY OF
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
(From the Morning Herald of Tuesday)
The House of .Commons has, in the plenitude of its
wisdom. resolved, that all sheriffs and under sheriffs,
" and others,' who shall aid Stockdale in carrying on
his fresh actions against the printers of the house, shall
be deemed guilty of a contempt, and of a violation of
the privileges of the house. • • • •
•-- - Uqient Ullwaßi.<4
to, will, of course, treat with the scorn which it merits
-this new resolution of the " tyrant majority."
The Attorney-General, moreover, moved that the
ion of Stockdale's attorney, and a clerk of the same
gentleman, should, for the offence .of serving certain
notices on Messrs. Hansard, 6e, to-night. (Tuesday,)
brought to the bar of the house. The motion was
carried ; and the son and" clerk of Mr. Howard will,
of course, be committed to Newgate.
Lord HOWick remarked that the best.mode of sub-
duing the contumacy of Stockdale and of his attor-
ney, would be found in adding to the severity of their
imprisonment—in debarring these persons, in short,
from all intercourse with their friends!
The Hbuse of Commons is. labouring hard to ren-
d,,-.i its=4 utterly odious and desPieable. .It is gratify-
::;i4 to reflect, that in the impending struggle, the as-
twrters of "privilege" must, assuredly, be discomfit-
1.

How pitiiuily malevolent was the suggestion of Lord
Howick—how exquisitelY Characteristic of that feeble
aid wa.pish mtender to statesmanship ! Why did
riot this inagnanimous personage propose, at once,
the. coinalittnem of Lord Chief. Justice Denman ?
Stockdale and Howard can effect nothing towards. the
annoyance of that house; of which Lord Howick is a
worthy member, excepting through the agency of the
law, and of the oracles of the law. Why, then, does
not
_Lord Howick attempt openly, and at once, to si-
lence those oracles ?
Sir John Campbell, too, • means to commit Mr.
Howard's clerks ! Well, what then ? Is he prepared
to commit all the clerks in London ? When dos 4 he
propose that this unseemly exhibition on the part of
the House of Commons shall terminate?
What, moreover, do Lord John Russell and the At-
torney-General mean by the Words- "and others,"
rAtifliftit/IY.:4ltakt night , The
resolution is addressed; to' the under-she-
riffs, and'others.!' Does the phrase "others"
prebend the jury ? Does it comprehend the bar ?
Does it comprehend the judges ? . Sir-Edward Sugden
asked an explanation on these
.points:from Lord John
Russell, but the Colonial 'Secretary. appeared .exceed-
ingly unwilling to grant the required information.
The whole affair is infinitely disgusting. Colonel
Sibthorp stated that, at a dinner amongst his constitu-
ents, he proposed the health of the sheriffs, and that
the toast was received with three cheers.. The feeling
exhibited by the entertainers of the-gallant colonel is,
we Will venture to say,- the feeling of universal Eng-
and.-

To men who love Our old institutions, it must afford
unmixed delight to perceive the democratic branch of
the Legislature covering itself with contempt. The
House of Commons has, for a long time, been, in its
collective capacity, .1 body of revolutionists. The
House of Commons first rose into importance by op-
posing certain acts of royal tyranny. For a long time
past, the tyranny of the house has exceeded any other
tyranny on record. The House of Commons has
swallowed up all the substantial power that used to re-
side in the monarchy. The House of Commons has,
recently-, sought to annihilate the functions of the aris-
tocratic branch of, the Legislature. In every movement
of .tliO .19Wer mey,hclraced a grasping, mono-
polising, tyrannical spirit..
liot the HoUse of Commons;it maybe urged, is the
=stonier of the rights•of the people; and for the main-
tenance of these rights, the " privilege" claimed is re-
.
quisite."
The rights of the peoPle),_ Qf what rights of the
people has the House of Commons approved itself the:
guardian ? The House of Commons is not more hos-
tile to the Crown and to.the House of Lords, thin it is
to the best rights of the people of England. The House'
of CointizOns has, for a quarter of a century, laboured
to deprive the industry of England of all protection.-
The House. of ,Commons has ruthlessly consigned
nearly a million of hand-loom weavers to semi-starva--
tion—has doubled, by the act of 18 19, the poWer of
ney over labour—has deprived tens of thousand's
of labourers of employment, by means of free-trade—
and, then, by robbing the whole body of the labourers
of England of their constitutional rights—rights gua-
r..nteed by the 43d of Elizabeth—has placed in peril the
hole of our social fabric! The rights of the people
s.;lljtectd to hos.ility so unrelenting, as that
- ' trAve been exposed on the part of the

,F

-.01, of the Legislature once voted
" useless." The country is not
: . ,•ute the House of Commons " a nui-

t..e part which he has played in
farce of " PRIVILEGE" is
ere . • The vitws of. such vulgar-
,: • s d Ilowick and Sir John Camp-
,s which •it befits any man aspiring to
v •iy,s of England,-to entertain.

• THE - WEST INDIES.
(From the Morning H erald
In another portion of our paper,
to-day, will be found
an exceedingly interesting
West
on the growing de-
4ciency of tbr returns .from our lndian possessions,
is well as On the means which e
:setxxst for directing into
t hose valuable colonies a c u
of free labour.
The capabilities of our Weit Indianr 6” are very
giest. Those islands are spoken of in the document be-
fo:e us, as being well fitted to yield two P
in each year ; and, more important still, arethey of wheat
bdaecelared
to be adapted to the cultivation of cotton, of to
indigo,:.of rice, and of tea. For tea, for cotton, aneod,f6orf
tohic..eo, i.-.'e are now dependent on rival, or on hostile
~
, states ;' and it much concerns the prosperity of Great BA.
tail, ill_ the present condition of the world, to depend as
much .is possibl= on her own resources, and on those of
her colonies, and as little as possible on the continuance
of goodwill on the part of foreigners—inasmuch as the
vast majority of the foreigners with whom we deal, look
to the subversion of the power of England, as to thecon-
summation of their most dearly-cherished schemes.

PROGRESS OF POPERY IN EDINBURGH._

We
(From .the Scottish Standard.)
w e artakilikaeskta7say it, butit is probable, that in no
part of the Bridals dominions are greater exertions being
made just now for the spread of Popery than in 'Edin-
burgh. - On Saturday last, a newspaper was started in
this city, avowedly for the purpose of upholding and pro-
moting *Popery ; and it is boasted of by its proprietors,
that it is the first and only newspaper established in Great
Britain-;--a most enviable distinction for " Modern Athens,"
certainly ! We understand, too, that a plot of ground,
about five acres, has been purchased near Inverleith-place,
upon which is to be erected a Roman Catholic college.
There is already a convent in Edinburgh, which is repre-
sented to he in a very flourishing state. It may be re-
marked, moreover, as a pretty significant sign of the
times," that, on Monday last, the Queen's nuptual day,
Divine Service was performed in the Roman Catholic
chapel, Broughton-street, " for the purpose," as the ad-
vertisement expressed it, "of imploring the hie„ing of
HEAVEN on her Majesty's marriage." Who ever before
heard of " the blessing of fir:AvEs" being " implored"
by the church of Rome upon a sovereign whom that church '
regards as a "damnable heretic ?" Depend upon it,
" there is more in this than meets the eye." And, really,
loooking at it all in roper seriousness, we are constrained,
however humiliating it may be, to think that there is some
truth in the boast of the Popish bishop, Dr. WHale, that
" Scotland is beginning to revere the memory of St. Co-
lumbkill, the founder of its religion, rather than that of
John Knox, who was its ruthless destroyer.

NATIONAL EDUCATION-PAPAL INTERFEIL

(From the Dublin Even• g Vail.)
bosom There is now raging in the bos "1
of the Romon Ca-
tholic Church in Ireland, a controversy ve formidable and
fierce enough to terminate in schism, and, if both the
parties be in earnest, to eliminate one ofn the dissentient
bodies from the orbit in which, hitherto, it has
round the centre of unity and community' of dpnerLed
The National Board is the bone of contention. sixte,e;.
Of the six-and-twenty Titular Prelates of Ireland Intie
given in their adhesion to the plan of National Educti.i4i—
as sufficiently Popish for the purpose—whilst.tessj4icc.iii
denounce it as not Popish enough by many degrees. At
the head of the majority stands DR. MURRAY, soi.disant
Archbishop of Dublin. • Doctor MAC HALE, the soi.disant
AgelbilluiV of Tuna, is the leader of the vigorous min-

ority. It were a matter of little avail, in the present
state of the question, to enumerate the extent and import-
ance of the differences between those conflicting bodies.
Suffice it to say, that if Doctor MACHALE, be willing to
maintain his own assertions, it is morally impossible that
he or his follower can conscientiously remain in commu-
nion with either the head or any portion of the Church,
maintaining opinions and sanctioning practices so diamet-
rically opposed (as he conceives and states them to be)
to either christian verity or the peculiar doctrines and
dicipline of the church of Rome. But such an inquiry is
now beyond our purpose ; and we turn from it to consider
-the quarrel as it stands at this moment.
;..
appear that both parties havetappealed to the
POPE tor his decision on their differene and each party,
in its turn; boasts that hiS Holiness -saiktions its peculiar
views. The Dublin Monitor is the; exponent of the
Murrayvians, the Freeman's Journal: is ;the aknowledged
organ of the MitellattAx§. In, the former—the Dublin
Monitor of Saturday, the 15tb-instant—we find the fol-
fowing annonncement respecting the Papal decision :
" The Catholic Prelates met in this city on Tuesday last,
and on Wednesday the final decision of the Pope arrived, and
was made known to them. And what is the Pope's decision ?
Exactly what we stated on the 10th of December, 18. T), it
would be—favourable to the principles of the Education
.Board. The Pope has rejected Doctor•MacHale's appeal!—
refused to entertain it !—and: has affirmed the decision of the
majority of the Catholic Prelates, who, in February, 1839,
by an overwhelming majority, declared that the Board was
entitled to, and did possess; the confidence of the Catholics of
Ireland! Thus is the question set at rest, we hope, for
ever."