The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-01-04 00:00:00

cessors as difficult and embarrassing as might be.
The Conservative Government were no sooner
installed in unsolicited office, than their ingenuous
and straightforward predecessors addressed them-
selves to the congenial undertaking of making
things as unpleasant as possible in every depart-
ment of public affairs. But, to accomplish their
patriotic ends, Lord JOHN and his colleagues
deemed it necessary to invoke the aid of all the
guerilla chiefs, free-lances, and other skirmishers
of the House of Commons. And thence arose his
famous CHESHAM-PLACE CONSPIRACY, destined
to give the coup-de-grace to the " Liberal" party
and to Whiggery. Lord DERBY and his Govern-
ment, regardless of the onslaughts of this monstrous
Opposition, proceeded calmly and courageously in
the discharge of their responsible duties, looking
neither to the right nor the left, and, as we may
with all safety affirm, utterly careless whether in the
course of duty they retained or lost the offices to
which they had been called. One great subject of
controversy—not yet conclusively settled—they
determined to set at rest; undertaking to accept
the verdict of the country upon it as final. The
general election afforded that verdict. HER MA-
JESTY'S Government, at the opening of the new
Parliament, declared that they would no longer op-
pose the commercial policy adopted by the country
—whatever their theoretical belief with respect to
it—hut would use their most earnest endeavours to
carry out its principles in the fullest and most bene-
ficialnractical step in
manner. v. tai;.,, kuo 4r.f.
this direction, they are met by the old cabal Oppo-
sition ; and, being outvoted by a narrow majority
of all colours, they resigned into the hands of their
Sovereign the trust which, against such opposition,
they could not honestly and honourably discharge.
And how, and why, were they beaten ? They were
beaten by disappointed and jealous rivals, aided by
Democrats, and Papists, and conspirators, who have
made a vow against every Government which will
not concede their demands; they were beaten upon
a proposal which they submitted as a necessary
means for enabling them to carry out the policy
dictated to them by the country. In sober truth,
they were beater., because their opponents wanted a
raffle for place, and were afraid of supporting any fair
and just measure of taxation, which was obnoxious
to the lowest and most troublesome classes possess-
ing the electoral franchise.

So much for the year that is gone. The year
1853 opens upon a British Government unequalled
for the discordant inconsistency of its component
parts, even by the pretentious and despised Go-
vernment of "ALL THE TALENTS ;" a Government
so manifestly absurd on the face of it, that it can-
not be expected, with all its resources, to continue in
power for any length of time. Indeed, next to the
actual existence of a strong Conservative Govern-
ment, nothing can be more suggestive of hope and
cheerful anticipation to the great Conservative
party, than the formation of such a Cabinet as Lord
ABERDEEN'S. We believe, therefore, as we wish,
that 1853 will a happy year for the Conservative

cause.

MINISTERIAL EXPLANATIONS
THE NEW PREMIER.

WE were only enabled to give in a SECOND
EDITION, last Tuesday, the speeches of the Earl of
ABERDEEN and the Earl of DERBY, in which the
former professed to explain his position and policy,
and the latter commented on the unfair hostility to
which lie had been exposed. If the speech of the
Earl of ABERDEEN is to be taken as an exposition
of his sentiments, it neither does credit to his pre-
vious character, nor justifies his fitness for the office
which he has assumed. His assertion that the
foreign policy of this country for the last thirty
years had been marked by a respect for all inde-
pendent states, a desire to abstain as much as pos-
sible from the internal affairs of other countries,
and above all to secure the peace of Europe, was
positively untrue. Does he forget the army of
ragamuffins sent to help CHRISTINA'S daughter
to the throne of Spain,—the assistance twice given
to DONNA MARIA in Portugal,—the bullying of
Greece in the PACIFICO affair,—the truckling to
Russia in Captain BELL'S affair,—and the nume-
rous escapades which Lord PALMERSTON'S great
forte was to excuse or explain away ? His pro-
fession of zeal for Free Trade was a gratuitous
assumption, after the declarations made by the late
Ministry, and came with sorry grace from a man
who turned only when his late leader turned,
though he spoke with all the confidence of a man
whose life had been devoted to the cause. In his
remarks about National Education and Law Reform,
he merely re-echoed the sentiments of his prede-
cessors, and therefore could claim no ground for
preference ; but on the former subject we have a
right to question his power to do anything good,
considering the union of Radicalism, Infidelity,
and Romanism with which he has allied himself ;
and, on the latter subject, people will draw compa-
risons between Lord ST. LEONARDS and his suc-
cessor, not greatly in favour of the latter. His
statement respecting his alliance with Lord JOHN
RUSSELL is something worse than childish ; it is
either a positive attempt at deception, or it betrays
the senility which should have warned him of his
unfitness for the duties which he has undertaken.
" He should.not have thought of approaching Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, unless he had thought the latter
was a Conservative; and Lord JOHN would never
have associated himself with Lord ABERDEEN,
unless he bad thought him Liberal." Is there a
sane man, from Land's End to John o' Groat's,
who believes in the Conservatism of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, though the Liberalism of the new Pre-