The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-03-05 00:00:00

IV Polon ufilinly

Thin Am I tii,oght by my priest, and I ar

warranted

in inferring that you approve of his instruction, for
you endow that college wherein all our priests are

nursed." Na'

he may justl

!)r infer much more than

;, quite soothing to his own mind, and adverse, in

an eminent degree, to the interests of our church and

nation

But it is waste of time to offer any demonstration of
that which is intuitively perceptible. On the ground
of principle, the Maynooth grant is utterly indefensi-
ble; and as we hold that what is wrong can never be
expedient, so we do certainly aver that this grant is
fully as in-expedient as it is unprincipled.
• The original concession was made under the suppo-
sition that if the popish priests were educated at home
instead of abroad, the government, by catching them
young, and training them under its own eye, might
mitigate their ferocity, obtain some control over them,
instil into their savage breasts some small. modicum of
respect or regard for British institutions; but how
perfectly fallacious was the idea! The Maynooth-bred
priests have turned out ten times more savage and in-
tractable than those of the old school, and serve them
right who indulged in so delusive a dream concerning
their native dispositions. We can well believe that it
was from no love to popery, onto its priesthood, that
Maynooth was founded. It was felt, doubtless, that
popery was the master evil of Ireland, and the found-
ers most likely chose this method as one to mitigate it,

not considering that in pursuing the shadow, they
might endanger the substantial, and that in seeking to
conciliate, they were rendering the nation responsible
for nourishing and sustaining the monster itself, whose
very existence was its greatesst infliction.

There is nothing in the ostensible object of the meet

ing convened by the MAYOR for Monday next, " to
take into consideration the restrictions and prohibitions
of our commercial code, and to determine on all pro-
per measures for obtaining such alterations therein as
may appear expedient," that necessarily involves any
peculiar views or feeling of party.. We adverted to
this topic briefly in our last number, but as the subject
is one of very great niotnentand interest to all classes,
we may be excused for recurring to it in our present.

We have said that the removal of restrictions in our
commercial code is a matter in which all parties are
equally concerned—so far as that removal may be
really useful and beneficial to the community—and we
are not disposed to allow to, or assume for, any parti-
cular class a monopoly in a proper, national, and pa-
triotic feeling for the prosperity of British commerce
and manufactures. It is easy to raise a cry for free
trade, and do a tolerable share of business in that vo-
cation, whilst for any practical purpose the clamourers
might as well keep silent, or, rather, had much better
remain so. The cry is in general popular, and com-
mends to popularity. It promises low prices and in-
creased industry. It holds out expectations of novelty
and change—is experimental and exciting, and there-
fore has on its side all that is flattering and attractive.
But though the principle is excellent, the theory admi-
rable, yet when we come to carry it out into practice,
we find that it has so many difficulties to encounter,
that it can be acted on only to a limited extent. Much
circumspection is especially required in applying it in
a country where commercial and financial relations are
so complicated as they are in ours.

We grant that popular feeling may be legitimately
called into exercise on questions in which the principle
is involved; but it is unwise on the part of statesmen
to foment a mania of this description, and still worse
that they should be compelled to give way, contrary to
their better judgment, before its impulse. We should
remember the Penny Post—age. It is a fresh and me-
morable example to cool our ardour and assist our

judgment. We had, in that instance, free trade—in
letters, the removal of restrictions, and, popular solicita-
tion combined in the happiest amalgamation. The
theory was beautiful : correspondence was to be cheap,
and the revenue was not to suffer. " Cheap, uniform,
and productive"--that was the thing ; and everybody
exclaimed that if " Heaven first taught letters for some
wretch's aid,'? it was something little short of inspira-
. tion which suggested to' Mr. Rowland Hill the idea of
sending them through the postoffice for a penny. The
project was carried, as it were, by storm; but what has
been the consequence to the revenue ? Why the loss
of upwards of one million sterling per annum !—a loss
by no means trifling at any time, but really serious and
important at a time when Whig management has
brought our annual expenditure so much beyond in-
come. Hence the inference is plain, that pop:ilar feel-
ing is no safe guide in these matters.

The clamour for free trade in corn is another tolera-
bly clear proof that commercial regulation is not ex-
actly an affair to be entrusted to the collective wisdom
of popular assemblies. When aldermen and town-
councillors broach such monstrous doctrines on this
head, nothing that comes from factory operatives, or
the corn-law league, ought to give us the least surprise.
In the course of last week we have had the advantage
of hearing that profound statesman and prodigious
orator, Sir Joshua Walmsley, expatiating on this topic
as chairman of the Tradesmen's Reform Association;
and, as he, professed to base his arguments on scrip-
tural grounds, we were the more struck by the nice
regard to truth arid logic which he evinced in raising
his superstructur9. He told the associated tradesmen
" that they saw the common necessaries of life—the
food 9f man—the bread, the beef, the pork, the coffee,
the sugar, all the most necessary commodities of life,
denied admittance into the country, unless at famine
prices. And they -saw those who were the producers
of wealth, upon whom the rich and affluent depended
for all their comforts, sweating and toiling all day, and
condemned to eat the lowest food produced." Under
the vehement persuasion of such a spokesman, we
make no doubt that the auditory saw all this at the
moment in their " mind's eye," and would have seen
almost anything with the aid of a trifing modicum of
that potent conjurer which sometimes makes men "see
double," had the eloquent chairman thought proper to
lay any further contribution on their optical powers;
but the statement is nevertheless' a most reckless and
unwarrantable exaggeration. He next proceeded to
quote Scripture to his purpose :--" It was written in
the Divine law, He that withholdeth corn, the people
shall curse him;' and a learned and pious divine, of
the present day, had added, Yea, and God shall curse
him too, both in time and eternity.'" At this there
were vehement " cheers," and the speaker rioted,
doubtless, in all the luxury of applause. This "learned
and pious divine", must, we should think, have for•
gotten the - Scripture which says, " hies-s, and curse
not;" at all events his amen to the saying of the wise
king, and the entire quotation, is utterly destitute of.
the smallest relation to a protecting duty upon corn
"He that withholdeth corn"—that is the letter; but
the spirit of the passage is, " He that shutteth it up
unnecessarily--be that denieth it altogether," and it is
put in opposition to the remainder of the sentence—

" but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth
it." Having set his oratorshiP right in this little mat-
ter, we shall now give the conclusion of his argument,
which will show in what an excellent and honest spirit
the whole was conceived :
" But what said the landed aristocracy ? You shall buy
your corn from our estates, and at our own prices ; and, not
content with all the luxuries they now enjoy, they deprive
the poor man of the common necessaries of life, by denying
him that which is the unalienable right of every man—the
free exchange of his manual productions for as much food as
he can eat. (Hear, bear.) It was to change such laws as
these they were united, and it was a source of regret to him
that the association was not better supported, in the manner,
it formerly was."

Lord Melbourne, we have no doubt, would say of
this gentleman—.,Though he's my friend, I must tell
you—but softly, the truth is, he's a little touched in
his upper.story; he has been taken with the anti-corn-
law fever, and is labouring under its usual effects."
But if the chairman of these reformers of our corn..
mercial code—these wholesale reducers of duties on
imports—was thus extravagant, it is natural to suppose
of the association were still
that the ordinary members'
more rapid; and the fact was just so. The chairman
only insinuated dislike; but others, taking the cue
from his worship, spoke out plainly; as for instance
Mr. Charles Holland, in tire following passage :----

" He would advise their ari:itocratic opponents not to draw
the attention of the people to the tenure by which they hold
their lands. (Hear, hear.) If they denied the people the
free right of exchanging their labour, let the people ask them
by what right do you bold your lands ? by what parchment
title is it 1' how did you obtain this right? whence came the

t

na the Goc4ition was, that the

supply all the 'military force of the country, and that they
were bound to find all the revenues and taxes by which the
state is supported. It would be found that there is no pre-

scriptive rights

Mr. ALDEIUMAN SHELL •nest rose, and declared
that "after the eloquent address of Mr. Holland, there
remained little for him to say." However, the mouse
came forth, and it was just as knowing a one in all
respects as its little brother that preceded it on the
stage. We shall not stop, however, to anatomise him.
We have merely adverted to the business in order to

show how utterly unfit such persons would be to un-
dertake the reform of our commercial code, and to
suggest a caution to those who may be willing, and

very properly so, to support a charige in our existing
tariff, but entertain a determined hostility to all such

extreme—such revolutionary and destructive bouleverse-
ments, as these self-styled reformers seek to effect.
There are some whose favourite policy seems to be
to separate the different classes of society, and to per-
suade them that they have different interests. They
cry, " Success to commerce and manufactures," but
"God speed the plough" sticks in their throat, and
they uevcr can utter it.

With such reformers we have no sympathy ; we pray,
rather, a good deliverance out of their hands. It
would be well' if sensible and moderate men would
come forward, -not for the purpose of thwarting the
movement now likely to be commenced for the revisal
of our commercial system, but for the purpose of
taking it out of the hands of these extreme gentlemen,
and giving it a safe and proper direction.

It. is rarely that an increase of the estimates affords
Matter of congratulation or is likely to prove agreeable
intelligence to the country; yet'we pretend to say, that
the augmentation of the navy estimates for this year by
the sum of £729,623; and the proposal to strengthen
the service with an accession of 5,835 additional sea-
men, will be well received throughout the kingdom.
Ministers have too long most shamefully neglected the
glorious wooden walls of Old England ; and while we
may regret that there should be a cause for this in-
creased expenditure, we must rejoice that the govern-
ment of the country has been at length roused to a
proper sense of the necessity of setting the nation's
right arm at liberty, and preserving it in a suitable
state of health, strength, and vigour.

The committal of Lord Morpeth's registration bill
has been postponed to the 23d of April. The bubble
could keep no longer than Monday last, and then it
burst, Lord John Russell having kindly undertaken
the task of communicating to th 4 house that the sequel
of the piece (farce we should sayr was put off till after
Easter—or, perhaps, the Greek Kalends. Bravo, Lord
John ! A capital manager, thou certainly art, of as
prime a set of jugglers as ever exhibited. But it is
their " vocation ;" and they reckon probably with the
immortal "fat knight," that it is no dishonour to them
to " labour in their vocation." Certes, there is no
trick too mean, no strategy too contemptible for them
to resort to, if it only promise the sweets of yet another
quarter day. What a confession have they not made,
in the entire of this business, that Loid Stanley's was
a bill which they could not resist at all by fair means.
Of this fact they learned enough last session, and still
worse were their prospects in this, if no ingenious de-
vice could be hit upon to get rid of that measure by a
side-wind. For this purpose, and this only, Lord
Morpeth's bill was concocted, and having answered
its obstructive end, it is now thrown by " till after
Easter." Well, now, as Sam Slick would say, "aynt
they clever chaps, these same ministers—capital hands
for doing it on the sly?" With regard to this particular
feat, it is remarked that they perform it in a more
finished style than others, inasmuch as they have been
practising it a good while. It was first brought out in

the affair of the Irish tithe bill, when they came in upon
a clause of "appropriation," which they never had the
slightest hope or expectation of carrying. So with

their £5 franchise bill. It was never meant to be
passed; it was, only designed to obstruct a good mea-
sure, and "keep out the Tories." The Irif,h agitator,
depend upon it, will make no complaint of this delay ;
it is highly probable that the proposition, nay the en-
tire ruse, originated with him. Ministerial patronage
is the master-key to all this worthy associate's move-

Threaten him with turning out the Whigs,

and the consequent loss of mnch advantage to himself,
and you will have him singing out for more enfran-
chisement, more church property, more everything, till
he get his dear ministerial friends out of their hobble.
Secure him in that point and you will find him bearing
his disappointment as to all other objects with perfect
complacency. You might set all his cries to the one
tune of " Keep out the Tories." What an invaluable
support to the Melbourne ministry ! Surely they only
exist by his permission, and would perish in an instant
beneath his frown.

We have only time to refer our readers to the report
of the speeches delivered on Wednesday evening against
the proposed abstraction of the ecclesiastical revenues
of North Wales. The remarks of the Rev. R. Davies
and the Rev. D. Jamei are especially worthy of perusal
and most serious consideration. These gentlemen
prove, by the most irrefragable arguments, the impolicy
and inexpediency of reducing the number of Bishops
in the Principality, as well as the crying evil of attempt-
ing to abstract any of the revenues from a church, the
livings of which, as cleaily established by the respec-
tive speakers, are already disgracefully impoverished.
But we shall have other opportunities of adverting to
this subject.