The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-02-09 00:00:00

TUESDAY

MORNING, FEBRUARY 9, 1841

Lord Stanley must feel indebted to Lord Morpeth
for introducing a bill which, though intended to ob-
struct, can really produce no other effect than to faci-
litate the passing of his own. Lord Morpeth's device,
it strikes us, is just a true member of the thimble-rig
family ; and, like a flash watch, was got up for impo-
sition and show, but not at all for movement. If, in

addition to cutting a momentary dash, it should enable

him to spoil the sale of a genuine article, it would cer-
tainly prove a capital stop-watch.
The Secretary for Ireland, in moving for leave to
bring in his bill on Thursday, admitted and conceded
all that Lord Stanley could possibly wish for, as to the
necessity for the bill introduced by him, and much
more than he might have expected into the barg in.
Indeed the noble lord seemed anxious that Irish frauds
in registration should be proclaimed, as it were, in
letters patent, and upon the house tops, and made the
public avowal of them part of his own case. But, still
further to aid and assist the member for North Lanca-
shire, he went a considerable way with him even in
the mode advised and taken by him for the prevention
of such mal-practices. All this then is truly quite
gratifying and complimentary—indeed admirable. It
would make one imagine that the Whigs were abso-
lutely going to turn virtuous, and the friends of reform
in earnest. It looks quite charming—nothing can be
better ; but stop a moment—there is a postscript—ay,
a postscript to this delightful epistle, which dashes the
cup of enjoyment from our lips, and plainly shows
that the whole plan, from beginning to end, is nothing
but a sham .1 This is indeed an important " postscript,"
for we find that it amounts only to a new reform bill—
a new and a splendid magna charta for Popery in Ire-
land, and consequently for Popery every where.
The Irish Secretary gravely proposes to alter the
franchise of Irish electors from a ten pound holding to
a valuation under the poor law of £5, and a lease of
fourteen years—that is to say, to confer upon the Irish
a universal household suffrage. Rejoice, then, we say,
oh ye mud-cabin-holders of Ireland, with or without
the con-acre or the cabbage-garden, the pig, or the
hen-roost. Awake, oh ye ancient forty-shilling free-
holders, out of your trance, and arise hordes of miser-
ables far worse off; for now is your day coming—now
is great honour about to be thrust upon you—such
honour as the poor unenlightened Protestants of Eng•
land and Scotland have not dared to aspire to, nor been
thought worthy of! Such is Lord Morpeth's " defi-
nition" of the franchise, and such are the glorious con-
sequences which must follow if that definition be acted
upon. Such is the short whig method of clearing
doubts and composing differences. We take leave to
say, however, that it is merely a new tub to amuse the
whale, and that ministers do not expect, nor entertain
even the remotest notion, that this impudent '6 defini-
tion" project will pass.

Our readers will not fail to perceive that the proposi-
tion put forward by ministers, (doubtless under the
lash of their unfeeling and inflexible task-master, the
demagogue Repealer,) is only a new leaf in the history
of concession to Popery, and a new path opened up in
the onward and downward march of mob-hunting po-
pularity. The Papists of Ireland have had emancipa-
tion—reforms both municipal and parliamentary, the
same as England has had—and yet are still open-
mouthed with the horse-leech cry of " more, more,"
as unsatisfied as ever; and their big mendicant presents
their petitions, as usual, like the beggar in Gil Bias,
with a musket by his side, or a threat of rebellion's
pike and massacre, which may well stand, in his case,
for its equivalent. A servile ministry, obedient to their
call, now offers a new slice off the constitution to ap-
pease them ; and seriously we say it, if the principle
on which the Popish emancipation bill was granted be
maintained, we do not see how this new concession can
consistently be refused. It implies the granting of
privilege to a religious sect who are certainly numerous
enough. Let us only take numbers then, instead of
property, as our test in the bestowment of the elective
franchise, and we shall find that Lord Morpeth's sta-
tistics and those of his schoolmaster O'Connell are
good and true, and such as would carry the question
in their favour, if looked at irrespectively of other con-
siderations. We must look, however, beyond mere
numbers. The Protestants of the empire will not
permit the House of Commons to be swamped by Pa-
pists, and Protestantism to be borne down by Popery.
If mere numbers are to settle every thing, of a truth
the days of England's constitution are numbered. But
this audacious, reckless, and unprincipled scheme, with
regard to which Lord Morpeth has placed himself in
so prominent but unenviable a position, will, we confi-
dently expect, be kicked out with the ignominy that it
deserves. Let the conservative members of Parliament

in their places., and support Lord Stanley on every
division, and then with one long pull, strong pull, and
pull altogether, please God, we shall get rid of this vile
scheme of the whips, and its patrons along with it.

It will be interesting, no doubt, to those who admire
the system on which the Corporation Schools of Liver-
pool are conducted, to learn that his holiness the Pope,
after much consultation with the cardinals, and a long-
protracted deliberation, has fully approved of it. The
system was manifestly derived from a kindly and
liberal desire to please every body, without a too
rigid and troublesome inquiry into the exact rule of
right; and this being so, it clearly follows, that the
greater the number of the parties pleased, the merrier
should they be who have set it in motion.

Now to have pleased the Pope of Rome must appear
a great triumph to its patrons—so great, indeed, that
there remains little more for them to achieve.

With regard to the fact to which we advert, there
can be no doubt whatever of its occurrence. The in-

telligence comes to us in this way :—the system of na-
tional education in Ireland, which claims parentage to
that of the Liverpool Corporation Schools, has for
some time past been a s..bject of controversy between
two popish bishops in that country, namely, Drs.
IPHale and Murray. M`Hale objected to the system
as not going far enough for his views. He was scru-
pulous as to the adoption of a plan that had in it any
admixture of non-Catholic instruction that was
touched by heretical and profane hands; and he not
only laid it under ban in his own jurisdiction, but de-
nounced his brother-bishop Murray, and all others of
the fraternity who were so licentious as to contaminate
their sacred fingers by meddling with it. Poor
NPHale was no commissioner, like his hierarchal
brother Murray; he lived far away in the west, and
seldom attended levees at the castle; and being thus
remote from public strifes or court intrigue, the spirit
of the ecclesiastic ruled in him undisturbed. But with
the other it was different. Basking in the sunshine of
a deputy's favour, good things innumerable fell to his
lot. He was a constant guest at the vice-regal table,
and commissionerships, and clerkships, and various
other kinds of " ships," fell almost daily to his lot. In
short, lord Murray was an object of envy, and no
doubt much personal jealousy, pique, and spleen, in-
flamed the dispute which arose between the lordly pair.
They appealed at length to Rome, and thus the ques-
tion of national education, with all its ramifications,
was brought before the highest tribunal in the Romish
church for adjudication.

M`flale insisted that the system was not popish
enough, nay, that it was unsafe for the tender mind of
babes in Catholic doctrine. Murray maintained the
contrary ; and for some time the Vatican, with the
entire college of cardinals, was not a little agitated by
the dispute. But the affair was at length composed,
and sentence is now pronounced—to the effect, that
the national system of education propounded by
government for Ireland is good and proper ; and,
moreover, that Dr. M`Hale do henceforth hold his
tongue and be for ever silent concerning the same.
Such is the Pope's decree; and we do say, that
surely it must be highly gratifying to all Liberals to
learn that they may write over their universal, cosmo-
politan educational system, that with all the sectarian
and other approbation it has obtained, it is now pa-
tronised and sanctioned by his holiness the Pope.

The saying of the right honourable the member for
Tamworth, so often quoted—that the battle of the con-
stitution must be fought at the registries—resolves it-
self into this, or nearly so, namely, that the people,
who, we are told by authorities on the other side, are
the " source of all legitimate power," must take the
cause of the constitution into their own hands, and
show themselves zealous to defend, if they would pre-
serve it in that form and condition into which, after a
variety of mutations, it had at length been thrown—
and the proposition is so indisputable, indeed selfevi-
dent, that much is not required to be said in its be-
half. The only doubt to which, we do believe, its
statement has ever given rise, was as to whether the
people—the constitutionally minded people of the
country—would fight the battle in the desired way, and
whether, if they did, they. would win. These were
the only points on which any doubt could arise.

Well, as to one of them—namely, the disposition of
the people, a good deal of light has been thrown upon
it; as to the other—namely, the end, the result, the
people are yet in the wilderness—still going through
the ordeal chosen for their trial; and till another ge-
neral election take place, we cannot certainly say what
the issue will be. There are, however, certain signs of
the times—sundry favourable prognostics of which we
may take notice—which do strongly support the idea
that the consummation will be such as we would have
it.

But, before we go further, let us just ask who were
they that despaired of the constitution, or they who
supposed that it had been doctored past all recovery ?
They who entertained such views then, were either the
reforming doctors themselves, or conservatives who
had acquired but a very imperfect conception of their
own principles. The men of the movement said with-
in themselves, when they had carried the Popish
emancipation bill, the parliamentary and municipal
reform bills—Toryism is now prostrate, burked, and
extinguished for ever ! It was the creed and system
only of lords and country gentlemen ; upon the people
it had no hold ; and the people, seeing that it is de-
funct, will now be with us on every ulterior move or
change that we may desire to make.

Now the movement politician who thought thus,
and the despondent Conservative who nearly agreed in

his views, were both in utter error as to the true na-
ture and wide dissemination of Conservative princi-
ples, or that which is the element of them, through the
country. The Liberals had got so accustomed to the
sound of their own most sweet voices, and into the ha-
bit of talking so transcendently, that they succeeded at
last in mystifying and imposing upon others as well as
themselves. To hear them, one might suppose that
the thunders of Heaven were in their keeping. Bright
essences and harbingers of a system yet uncreate,
they—the morning stars of intellect—ridiculed poor
old Toryism as a bird of darkness and ill omen.—
Enlighten the people, said they, and it will be scared
away; cram them with "useful" information, and it
will evanish to the moles and to the bats. Let us edu-
cate and train them, and it will soon be impossible for
them to be Conservative either in principle or prac-
tice. Wherefore, as we raise the people in power and
knowledge, (which also is power,) Conservatism will
fall into decay, and Radiealism triumph.
The error of which we are now speaking was mani-,
festly twofold—first with regard to the extent to which
Conservative principles were cherished in the country,.
and, secondly, with regard to the true nature, bearing,
and influence of them. It was forgotten that the
CHURCH is the great conservator of Tory principles,
and that genuine Conservatism being based on the
truth and knowledge of the Divine records, there
could be no reason to apprehend that a Conservative
democracy, however privileged or enfranchised, would
abuse such advantages to the overthrow of that con-
stitution from which they derived them. The Radi-
cals made change after change in the constitution with
a view to augmenting the popular power; but they
were shallow statesmen after all, inasmuch as they
failed to perceive that a sound Conservatism might
reap the benefit of all their labours.

These observations are general, but they are readily
susceptible of application. Here, in this great town,
they have been verified. "In the town of Liverpool,"
said Mr. Ledson, in the judicious and eloquent speech
delivered by him at the operative meeting which we
had to report in our last number, " the anti-corn law
league may agitate ; the advocates of repeal may agi-
tate and agitate; but I am proud to say that it has al-
ways been the distinguished privilege of this town,
swarming as it does with a dense and industrious po-
pulation, to have exhibited to all England an example
of the greatest order and the greatest loyalty. Within
the walls of Liverpool the harangues of fanatical poli-
ticians have met with no sympathetic echo; and I re-
joice to say that when the voice of the people is heard
in the strife of the electoral battle, it is loudest and
strongest upon the side of Conservative principles."
Have we not here a proof that the
,people do range
themselves on the side of Conservatism; nay, that it
is susceptible of the most enthusiastic popularity ?
The people respect and love Conservatism, and Con-
servatism is not ungrateful or unkind; for it respects,
loves, and exalts them in return. Here we have a liv-