The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-12-29 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS

DEATHS OF CHILDREN FROM THE INJUDICIOUS ADMI-
NISTRATION OF OPIATES.—In our report of an important
case of the death of a child, in our last publication, it was
inadvertently stated in effect, that thecoroner, Mr. Curry,
in his remarks to the jury, had condemned the practice of
mere druggists " dispensing medicines." The mistake
would doubtless be apparent to most of our readers, inas-
much as all druggists arc dispense's of medicines. It
should have been reported in the strong language of the
coroner, that " prescribing druggists were a pest to
society."
In the letter of " Pacianus," inserted in our last there were
two typographical errors. Instead of " such as reading
the seven penitentiEe psalms," read " such as reading the
seven penitential psalms ;" and instead of " the penitent
paying by his links," rea " the penitent paying by his
works."
We have received the sum of ss. from the Rev. Mr. Bates
towards the " Ccse of Distress" recently advertised in
this paper.

ne Zibrrpool `xtranbatt.

TUESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 29, 1840

'Whatever difference of opinion may exist upon Lord
Palmerston's foreign policy, it is not disputed by any
party that the Whigs have enjoyed a large share of
luck. They have had it in India, in Syria, in China,
in Canada—abroad more than at home, but everywhere
a little—and the year " eighteen hundred and forty"—
an annus mirabilis of good fortung in their annals—is
now about to terminate, leaving them in possession of
all the honours and all the emoluments of their posi-
tion. There is something, however, in this universal
and unanimous ascription of luck which must propor-
tionably substract from the "absolute wisdom" of
their administration. People may rejoice to find them-
selves happily delivered from dangers and perils which
put them in some alarm, and bless their stars that they
had a "lucky" ministry at the helm, who, if entitled
to little credit for nautical science, have evidently shewn
that there is a providence which, under peculiar cir-
cumstances, supplies what is wanting in the feeble and
incapable, or corrects the blunders of the rash and ob-
stinate. Success is certainly an admirable cloak for
error, and, like charity, doth cover " the multitude of
sins," At the same time we do not travel with those
who dwell with excessive complacency on the aspect of
our foreign relations. The amount of success attribu-
ted to the administration of that department seems to
us to be exaggeratetryana whatever gootriurri
attended it, we attribute, not to the sagacity of Lord
Palmerston, or the foresight and preparedness of mi-
nisters, but to the reliquia of those institutions, and of
that admirable system which has long since raised this
country to that proud elevation which she holds in the
world—the first and foremost amongst the nations of
the earth. It is not to the men whose unpardonable
neglect of the Navy would have placed us in jeopardy,
had a war suddenly commenced, that we shall ascribe
the glory of a great naval achievement. Let Napier
wear the laurels which he has fairly won. Assuredly
we shall not bind them upon the brow of Lord Pal-
merston. But is the Syrian question definitively set-
tled ? Is the decheanee of Mehemet Ali indeed recalled
by the Sultan ? or would the most satisfactory ar-
rangement of the whole matter in dispute remove from
us the hazard of that "incident" to the affair which
was the only one of real consequence throughout—
namely, a collision with the French ? The collision,
indeed, has been avoided hitherto on our part happily
in such a manner as not to tarnish, in the slightest de-
gree, but to add fresh lustre to the glory of old Eng-
land; but surely it would be monstrous to tie up in
one bundle all the grand characteristics of the nation,
to which, under Providence, we may rightfully attri-
bute the avoidance in question, and ley them at the
feet of Lord Palmerston as an appropriation due only
to himself ! We know not what may be the precise
amount of influence which his lordship possesses over
the Press, or whether there be any more than the one
evening paper in the metropolis under the slightest ob-
ligation to laud his wisdom or extol his measures ; but
there can be no mistake on this point—namely, that
the tone taken almost universally by the English jour-
nals with respect to the bullying menaces and fanfar-
ronade of the French, came very powerfully in aid of
other demonstrations of British power, and that this
tone could not have been communicated to the Press
by any one member of the Cabinet, or the whole of
them together. How came the Press then to hit it so
nicely, and to adopt it so uniformly ? Very obviously
from this cause—that the Press consulted the feelings
of the nation, and faithfully and correctly expressed
them. Its conductors and writers might possibly have
consulted only their own feelings, and have spoken but
their own spontaneous sentiments; but they are Eng-
lishmen accustomed to think and feel as Englishmen
upon all great national questions which concern the
exterior relations of-the kingdom; and when they
treated the pompous preparations, and all the noise
and bluster of the French with quiet disregard—when
they pursued the even tenour of their way undisturbed
by the furies of M. Thiers, and all that costly spectacle
which he was exhibiting before the eyes of astonishtd
Europe, they could not but be identified with, and
speak as the organs of the universal English people.
In fact, let us only weigh the foreign minister fairly
amid exactly in the balance, and instead of bringing
down the scales clanking to the ground with the pon-
derous load of his virtues, we shall find him actually
kicking the beam from a marvellous lack in the most
essential qualities of a British statesman. We grant
him fortunate ; but there is no prestige accompanying
the individual : his good fortune is the mere accident
of his position. It is the eminent domestic virtues of
the people of England that constitute the strength of
their foreign policy. Brilliant victories and territorial
conquests, or even the most successful course of di-
plomacy, are not the true criterion of national great-
ness properly understood; and no rulers with whom
the cultivation and maintenance of the domestic cha-

racter is not a paramount and primary concern—
whatever " luck" may attend them in the administra-
tion of exterior concerns—are worthy of their posts.
Now in this respect, we submit that the Whigs have
not only a character to make, but a character to Lose.

The world lays all before them " where to choose their

place of rest ;" the ground has to be cleared for their

exhibition; everything remains yet to be done; their
very "schoolmaster" is "abroad." The tastes which

heretofore they have exhibited are anything but na-
tional ; the education which they would impart to the
people is, as We have hinted, of foreign extraction, and
their very supplement to its deficiencies is the espio-
nage of a universal police system, copied also, we need

not say, from abroad. Are we to ascribe, then, to the
liberalism of Whiggery, what has been fairly earned