The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-06-23 00:00:00

EXHIBITION.

MECHANICS' INSTITUTION, MOUNT-STREET.
THE EXHIBITION is now open every day (Sundays
excepted) from Nine A.M. to Ten P.M.—lt consists of
a large and valuable Collection of PAINTINGS by Ancient
and Modern Artists ; STATUES, among which are many by
Canova Gibson, Wolff, Gott; MODELS of. Steamboats,
Locomotives, Mills, Buildings of all kinds; Specimens of
Manufactured Goods in their various stages ; Lathes ; Print-
ing, Lithographic, and Copperplate Presses ; Potters' Wheel;
Fringe-making Machine ; Canal with Fountains, Railway and
Arch ; Specimens of Natural History; Antiquities; part of
Dr. Raffles' Collection of Holographs, and General Curiousi-
ties : in all Fifteen Rooms being occupied by the different
departments of the Collection.
The processes cf Glass-blowing, Printing, Lithography,
Figure Casting, Weaving, Fringe Making, Copperplate Print-
ing, Paper-staining, and Earthenware Manufactory, are in
full operation.
The inteiestiug Acoustic Apparatus, called the INVISI-
BLE GIRL, may also be seen.
At ONE and EIGHT P.M. every day the OXY-HYDRO-
GEN MICROSPOPE, PHANTASMAGORIA, or inter-
esting Chemical Experiments are exhibited in the Lecture-
rooms. Magnetic and Electric Apparatus in operation all
day.
Single Admission ONE SHILLING from NINE to FOUR ;
SIXPENCE from FOUR to TEN. Season Ticket (not trans-
ferable) 2s. Gd.
W. B. HODGSON, Sec.

WEST INDIA ASSOCIATION.
THE ANNUAL MEETING of the WEST INDIA
ASSOCIATION at the Port of Liverpool, will be held,
in the Committee Room, No. 6, Brunswick-street, on
FRIDAY next, the 26th instant, at Eleven o'clock precisely.
to elect a Chairman and Deputy-Chairman for the year
ensuing, and to transact the Annual Business of the Associa-
tion. By order, PETER WRIGHT, Secretary.
Liverpool, 18th June, 1840.

ribt Etintimal 'tanbarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 23, 1840.

We have received a file of the Sydney Commercial
Journal and of the Sydney Gazette, to the 14th of
February, inclusive. The late hour at which they
came to hand precludes us from making any extended
extracts. They are chiefly occupied with speculations
respecting the neighbouring colony of New Zealand.
The general conclusion arrived at by the papers before
us is, that "New Zealand must become an absolute
possession of England, or remain as it has been." It
has hitherto been a sort of "No Man's Land"—a har-
bour for runaway convicts, dishonest debtors, and bold
and lawless adventurers.

The Commercial Journal publishes the following ex-
tract of a letter, dated Tahiti, December 13, respect-
ing the proceedings of the French buccaniers in the
South Sea :

"The French frigate which left here for the Sandwich Is-
lands in June last, has been there, and succeeded in getting
20,000 dollars. The captain threatened to commence hostili-
ties in three days, in case of non-compliance with his de-
mands, but offered protection to all foreigners as far as he
was able, except the protestant clergymen. The officers of
two American ships of war just arrived from Tahiti, drew up
a paper, and circulated 1000 copies, proclaiming disappro-
bation of the French captain's proceedings, and asserting that
the missionaries were entitled to equal protection with their
fellow citizens. It is probable that a memorial will be pre-
sented to the American government respecting such cruel and
arbitrary proceedings."

Wae prepared our readers on Friday for the dishonest
obstruction which, in defiance of the distinct pledge of
Lord John Russell, would on that evening be offered
to the progress of Lord Stanley's bill in committee.
The result has fully verified our anticipation; for
although the amendment moved by the Liston of the
administration, Lord Morpeth, was not literally upon
the motion for going into committee, yet it was one by
which the principle of the bill, which has already been
distinctly affirmed, and the whole of its details were
again subjected to discussion. It was an amendment
professing to respect only the first clause, yet admitted
by its mover to be justified only by objections enter-
tained towards subsequent clauses which have not yet
come before the committee ; and we cannot therefore
regard it as any other than a contemptible and dis-
graceful breach of faith on the part of ministers, in
which we are sorry, for the credit of the House of
Commons, that it has been but too ready to acquiesce.
In order to enable our readers to understand the
value and the effect of this temporary triumph of the
ministerial faction, we shall briefly state the meaning
of the first clause in Lord Stanley's bill, and the nature
of the amendment moved by Lord Morpeth.
The first clause in the Irish Registration Bill pro-
posed to enact that, after the first day of November,
no person should be entitled to vote at any election for
a member of parliament in Ireland, unless such per-
son should have been previously registered according
to the provisions of that bill. The whole of the clause
was adopted word for mord, with the exception of the
date, from the bills introduced by the present govern-
ment in 1835, and again in 1836, and one precisely
similar in effect was contained in another bill introduced
by a ministerial partisan in 1838. All these bills, bear-
ing on their front this same clause, were supported by
the Whig party in the House of Commons ; and it is

only now when transplanted into the measure of the
noble lord that the objectionable nature of the clause is
discovered. We are told now for the first time that it
is a " disfranchising clause," " an insult to Ireland,"
and an attack on the liberties and " vested rights" of the
people of that country.
To what a depth of infamy must a ministry or a party
be sunk who can submit to resort to so contemptible a
shuffle ! For with what decency can it be argued that
this clause, which destroys the existing register of
voters only after a new register shall have been com-
pleted, is a disfranchising clause, peculiarly oppressive
to the Irish people? What franchise does it take away?
Not any. The disfranchisement which it contemplates
is no more than what is yearly effected in England and
in Scotland, when the old are succeeded by the new