The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-02-12 00:00:00

tration project

This bill proposes a totally new description of elec-
toral qualification, and, if it were to be adopted, would
extend the power of the Popish priesthood in Ireland
to the utmost limit to which, with the existing popula-
tion of the country, that tremendously mischievous
and detestable domination could be carried. Under
the law as it exists at present, we have learned some-
thing of that barbarising and unchristian influence.
We have learned it from its modus operandi, and from
the effects which all have seen it produce. We know
that, in the former respect, it operates to enslave and
degrade the people. Give an elective franchise with a
low qualification to persons in the condition of the Ro-
manist Irish, and you compel Popery to put on its
steam ; you incite its priesthood to exercise all their
unhallowed power to make the multitude obedient to
their will; you make the people worth hunting down,
and, at the same instant, set the priests at them, who,
scenting their prey afar off, undertake the task with a
greedy and fanatical voracity. To enfranchise such a
rabble is, in short, directly to encourage Popery, and
stimulate its merchandise by a bounty.
In a religious point of view, therefore, the scheme
developed by Lord Morpeth's bill is perfectly mon-
strous, and, coming from a Protestant government, un-
conscientious and unprincipled. But analysise the
process still further, and you find, that what is mani-
festly wrong in principle,
is absolutely disgusting and
abominable in detail.

An experimental acquaintance- with the working of

existing laws has taught us, that the elective franehlge
is of little value to the devoted slaves of priestcraft,
and a curse rather than a blessing to many of them,—
distracted as they are by the fear of the priest on the
one hand, anti a just regard for their more immediate
interest on the other. The priest, in order to effectu-
ate his purposes of tyranny and selfishness, is perfectly
unscrupulous as to means. He threatens his misera-
ble dupe with everlasting ruin in the next world if he
does not obey his commands, and cares not what con-
sequences may come upon him in this, if he does.
His tyranny is almost always successful—its victims
are past counting. Well, and Lord Morpeth, by his
bill, proposes—to curb or restrain ?—no, but to diffuse
this evil, and give this tyranny a range hitherto un-
thought of even in Ireland ! We are astonished that
the noble lord could have so betrayed himself to a
faction as to bring forward a scheme, religiously con-
sidered, so replete with evil as this. He cannot ima-
gine that the pauper whom he would enfranchise would
have any will or mind of his own in the use of the
privilege that he would confer upon him. As
well might you think of feeding mice with new
milk in the presence of a tom-cat—as of giving elec-
toral power to a Papist pauper which the priest would
not seize upon. It does amuse us then, we say, to
think that Lord Morpeth—a man who is said to speak
reverentially of sacred 'things—should have proposed
this new law—a law which might justly be described
as one for extending and confirming the power of Ro-
mish priests in Ireland, and rendering for ever domi-
nant that superstitious influence which is the blight,
mildew, and curse of that country.
So much as to the immediate effect of the bill in the
locality where its operation is to commence. But we
have another cause of interest in it; we are interested
in it not only for the purpose of defeating a scheme so
exceedingly unpropitious for Ireland, but for the pur-
pose of guarding this country also against the evils
which it would necessarily entail upon it. Few per-
sons in England arc curious or anxious to behold an
Irish demagogue coming over every session of parlia-
ment, carrying after him a tail of forty joints, and put-
ting down as well as setting up administrations by
means of this formidable appendage. Still fewer, we
suspect, feel any desire to add more links to it, in order
to make the sight more wonder-moving, or to unite it
more firmly to his person. In short, the majority are
decidedly for docking it rather, or ridding them altoge-
ther of both master and men. But Lord Morpeth's
bill would most effectually do that very mischief which
we desire to undo, and would tend, in every way, to
establish and perpetuate the nuisance which we wish to
get rid of. There cannot be a stronger proof of the
foregone conclusion of " bargain and sale" existing
between ministers and their Irish Mephistopheles than
the issuing forth of such a production. Without some
most stringent and mysterious compact secretly ex-
isting between them, it is inconceivable that they would
patronise it.

With regard to a low property qualification, per se,
we are not opposed to it. We should wish to extend
electoral privilege as widely as moral and religious qua-
lifications would permit. The possession of property
is but a secondary means of ascertaining a moral fit-
ness. If ministers will only have the kindness to bring
in a bill reviving the test acts against Popery cotempo-
raneously with this £5 household suffrage scheme, our
opposition to it will certainly be greatly mitigated, if
not altogether removed. As it is, this wretched bill
stands forth a proof of unsoundness, recklessness, and
unprincipledness in public men, such as we have rarely
had exhibited.

It was not with much astonishment, but certainly
with great disgust, that we read the report of the pro-
ceedings at the election of a representative for the bo-
rough of St. Alban's on Tuesday last. Our readers
will perceive, from a reference to the facts stated in
another part of our paper, that the most barefaced
bribery and lavish expenditure of Treasury gold have
been resorted to in order to secure the return of the
Whig-Radical candidate ; and the only marvel is, that
with such unwarrantable expedients, the majority is not
greater. Every day brings fresh proofs of the daring
profligacy and unblushing extravagance of the men
who at present hold the reins of government; and, as
the day of retribution .approachee...they aeem.mornad
more reckless of the means they employ to prolong
their continuance in office.

We are glad to see, however, that the return of the
Earl of Listowel will be petitioned against, with every
prospect of success ; and we feel persuaded that Mr.
Cabbell, in a short time, will, according to his own
prediction, be the sitting member for St. Alban's.
We have had sufficient proofs that the people, if left
to themselves, know well how to exercise the franchise;
and the interference of any members of the household
is disgraceful to themselves and an insult to the elec-
tors.

The case of Mr. M'Cleod, which has this week ex-
cited so much attention and caused so much just in-
dignation, furnishes clear proof that the laissez passer
system, in which Lord Melbourne delights, will not
answer always. His lordship and company have had
more success with it than usually falls to the lot of
mortals ; but the tide will turn at last ; the pitcher
that goes too often to the well will not always escape ;
nor are your federalist republicans and border pirates
a description of people in dealing with whom it is at
all safe to " go sleep."

A British subject is now incarcerated in the state of
New York, and not altogether free from danger for his
very life, owing in a good measure to this let-drive,
live-to-day system ; and ministers, when called to ac-
count, have evinced that sort of drawling, diplomatic,
and dilatory indifference respecting the matter, which
one might expect from persons who act in ordinary
upon their miserable, make-shift principle.
Fortunately, however, there has been no act done by
which the Crown is implicated in their lathes. The
case of Mr. M'Cleod stands unaffected by ministerial
supineness,—and the British government, whoever
may be minister, is free to demand his liberation with
every necessary ingredient and circumstance of justice
on its side, notwithstanding any delay that has yet oc-
curred in making the demand. The seizing and burn-
ing of the piratical steamer Caroline which has been
well described as " one of the most righteous, prompt,
and brilliant transactions of the stormy but brief cam-
paign of Upper Canada," remains, as at the first, an
act perfectly justified by the force of circumstances,
and one in which the agents, if they disregarded the
precise line of territorial boundary, are excusable, not-
withstanding any rule of inter-national law which can
be applied to the case. The act has been properly de-
fended, and approved of by our government; but that
which is to be lamented is, that as it was made a sub-
ject of complaint by the Americans, the case was per-
mitted to grow into one of protracted negotiation, and
to remain over unsettled up to the present time. They
are now availing themselves of our indecision, and in-
sulting what they suppose to he our weakness. Treat-
ing the burning of the Caroline as a wrong which we
have not denied with sufficient explicitness, or energy,
they have seized Mr. M•Cleod as a wrong-doer in the
transaction whom we might not be disposed to protect,
and have perhaps by this time brought him to trial as
a felon whom we might abandon to his fate. True,
that the Americans are thus committing a gross, and
palpable, and unendurable outrage ; true, that the kid-
napping of Mr. M'Cleod so long after the date of the

transaction complained of, is a mean and dastardly pro-
ceeding ; yet is it not to be regretted that they should
have been supplied with even the slightest pretext for
the act by some complimentary equivocation or official
tameness on the part of our ministers ?
The pretext alluded to is contemptible enough; but
the whole affair, viewed merely in its American lights
and shadows, is damnatory—we will not say of the
Americans as a nation—but certainly of " federalism"
and " republicanism," as they present themselves to.
our optics. The beauty and advantages of federalism
are exhibited in this, that when our minister at 'Wash-
ington presents his remonstrance to the President of
the States against the imprisonment of Mr. M'Cleod,
he is turned over to seek for redreis elsewhere, in
strict conformity with the laws of the Union. Go to
the local government, says the august President; I
cannot interfere with the administration of law in the
State of New York. And thus the minister of a fo-
reign power may be fobbed off, and bandied about
from state to state, whilst the general government re-
mains safe from all responsibility. This may be con-
sidered as an advantage; but such trickery may also'
be regarded as evidence of weakness in the executive,