The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-05-22 00:00:00

are the exponents of the

gs of Li-
No,.n o.") I wish Sir James
Graham was here to hear-you. (Laughter.) But the fact
is, he has turned his coat so, very often, and has said one
thing one day and another the next, so that little itnnor-
- -

ud cries of "

. -
ched to his words. I believe Mr. Card-
he said to Be. a pair, for our hon. member

s one way and rows another.—(Loud laughter.) But,
sir, I more than ever regret that the vote of that venerable
and aged warrior who planted the British standard in

Spain, and carried it over many a well-fought field, till he
won the battle of Waterloo,—} regret to find that, in his
latter days, the Duke of Wellington, for the purpose of
preventing the Queen being. left without a government.
should have given his consent to the bill.—k Applause.)
We must take care that when• au opportunity is given us,
that we send to parliament men who will not be found in
opposition to their constituents on a great and important
question, vitally affecting the interests of the community
they represent.—(Applausc.)t Let us not be split into

parties, but become united and throw aside some of those
feelings which prevailed at the-last election, and then we
shall become irresistible, with one mind, heart and soul,
then there will be no mistake about the way in which our
members will vote.—(Applause.) I believe that if both
our members had been good conservatives, if they had
stood up in their places and said "You must not pass this
bill," and supplied good arguments for it—the bill, if it
passed the Commons,would never have got into the House
of Lords.—( Hear.) Where would the Duke and the gal-
lant men who fought with him in the peninsula have been,
if it had not been for our navy ? And why should the
navy be neglected, the right arm of our service, when to
it we are indebted for the preservation of our colonial em-
pire ? Sir, Europe is on the eve, I verily believe, of that
war of opinions to which Canning alluded ; and yet -
nessi.

rig the lowering tempest we see around us on all sides

J •,l .f.r•G UCUII 1 'A...et,
by acts of parliament;" yet, in the face of this, we are
going to destroy our navy. And Ireland too,—an integ-
ral part of the kingdom, accessible by sea on all sides, pos.

sessing within her a number of traitors who are ready to
sever her connection with England,—she cannot be de-
pended upon like our own population. She can only be
defended by sea, yet we are going to destroy the navy of
England. Then there are, Its Mr. Horsfall showed, 80,000
men employed in shipbuilding in this country. We are
going to transfer their employment to a foreign land ; and,
overburdened as our shopkeepers are, we are going, by in-
creasing pauperism, to add to their distress._ Now, let
the peers pause ere it be-too late. Far

say we are not to pr?gress.

)e it from me to
I indignantly repel the idea

J unn waustone, that we are the real reformers. But we
must reform in the right direction. 'We may "progress "
in evil as well as in good. Let the vital principle of the
navigation laws be maintained, and if there are defects
(and in what human institution is there not ?) let them be
remedied by an alteration in the customs' laws, or by an
order in council. But preserve intact the principle of
these laws, identified as they are with the welfare of the
community at large. Why, if a splendid castle needed
repair, I would repair it,
to bring it to the ground

but not sap the foundation so as
;—if a tree need pruning, prune
o not tear it up by the roots. If the light at the
entrance of our harbour became dim, would we destroy
the'lighthouse ?—( Hear, and applause.) No, but we would
repair the light. And in like manner I say, let the alter-

be made in

he navi,tration,

laws, but never let our senators destroy their vital princi-
ple, because if they di), they destroy the vitality of England:
Sir, I have only two or three more remarks to make.

was twitted the other day in council by a gentleman who
calls himself a Conservative, that whenever Mr. Holnae
brought a subject of this sort forward, he always lugged
in the distress of the working classes of England. Sir.

are we cc
. .
behalf of the operative classes is a crime? Have we
arrived at such a state of things, that when we petition

;uch a pass

t one's voice on

• . i
parliament, a minister of the crown can state that it s a
petition of paupers ?'-(Applause.) I for one will never
consent to leave out of the category in advocating this
•..

tes.upon al

us who.possess

the power to protect those givut,
the pyramid of society, because if you injure the base,
you destroy the whole pyramid (a voice—" give us uni-
versal suffrage"). Yes. I tell you the next thing Mr.
Cobden will do ; finding that free trade won't go down,
will be to try to throw dust in your eyes, by going for
universal suffrago.—(Hear.) Give me that form of con-
stitution which gives the greatest amount of happiness
and freedom to a country.—(Applause.) You ask Mr.
Cobden for bread, and lie will give you a stone; you ask
him for a fish, and he gives you a serpent. Sir, I say,
and it is not inconsistent in me to say it in this place, it
is our interest to protect all classes, for we have the words
of sacred writ, " he that provideth not for his own house-
hold bath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."
I trust that the spirit of England will be awakened, and
rise like a giant in favour of protection ; and I trust that
any ministry invading the sacred ark of the navigation
laws will be hurled from their posts by the lightning in-
dignation and awakened anger of the English people.—
(Applause.) Now, I have just got a nut to crack before
I sit down. I hold in my hand a report of the hole-and-
corner meeting to which Mr. Horsfall has alluded, and I
find that the resolutions have been moved and seconded
by ten gentlemen. They are men in their private capacity
I honour, but I think them bad guides to take in public
proceedings.—(Laughter and applause.) Now, what do
I find ? It is a very easy thing for gentlemen to make
ducks and drakes of other people's property, which costs
them nothing. I find that out of the ten persons, seven
do not possess a single vessel; one has one ship, and the
member of a firm, with which another is connected, has
declared that if the bill pass.he will buy a Prussian vessel
and naturalise her.—(Hear, hear, and applause.) These
are the gentlemen who have not the manliness to come
here and meet us in free discussion ; these are the gentle-
men who wish to legislate on other people's property.—
(Laughter.) I sincerely trust that He, the Great Author
of us all, in whose hand is the heart of kings and the
destinies of nations, will so guide our senators in this
matter, that, instead of being a visitation upon the
country, it will prove a blessing ; and that we may not be
visited for our non-improvement of our national privileges,
as well as national mercies. (Loud applause.) Mr.
Holme concluded by moving the second resolution.
Mr. JOHN ABRAHAM TINNE (councillor) seconded the
motion. He said, in common with all the preceding
speakers, I cannot but express my surprise at the reck-
less conduct of her Majesty's government in proceeding
with a measure against the all but unanimous voice of the
nation. (Cheers.) If there was no other motive to actu-
ate us in meeting here to-day, shall we not have one in
the taunts which have been levelled at the former meeting
held in this town, not only in the Commons, but in the