The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-12-24 00:00:00

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ch may be justly cisimed
ng, and conceded without unfairnc

leeesaary to tit
to th

fka;ner's well-be

rest of tiro porn munity. And this, or something like this, he
proposes to secure, by affixing a Ininintron duty of ss. per
quarter on wheat, when the averages amount to or exceed the
sum of 655. ; arid then, as prices decrease, increasing the duty
(at what rate it does not mention) till it arrives at its maximum
of at least 205., or at most 30s. For ourselves we could scarce
suppose that Sir Robert Peel would suggest even' the least of
these sums—an anticipation which would not he weakened by
considering the body to whose tastes Mr. Christopher was
adapting his proposal;. But taking it at 205., it must be
allowed that this would be a very material change. As the
scale at present stands, the duty on wheat when selling at 655.
per quarter is 21s. Bd. ; when at 505., is 365. Bd. ; when at
365. per quarter, it mounts to the absurd height of 535. Bd.
A concession which substitutes ss. for 215., and 20s. for 535.,
is certainly no inconsiderable abatement of the claims of the
agriculturists, and we may probably consider Mr. Christopher
in a great measure as speaking in the character of their repre-
sentative."

The administration of the Whigs was luxuriant in
promise, fertile in changes, and unsparing in bold
attempts; but the conclusion was lame and impotent
to a most extraordinary degree—and they departed,
leaving to their successors a splendid legacy of false
moves to be recalled—intricate and dangerous entan-
glements to be removed—ill-founded expectations to
he set at rest, and financial deficiences to he made
good. It is no wonder that a minister of sound judg-
ment, integrity, and talent on whom it devolved to
assume the government of the country after such men,
should declare that he would not be in any haste to in-
timate what his plans should be ; feeling, we say, that
it would take some time to ascertain the full extent of
the complications bequeathed to him, it is not surpri-
sing that he should impose upon himself the necessity
of silence till he had sounded the depths of that dark
mystery. Meanwhile, without any great flourish of
trumpets having preceded, events and circumstances
have come to pass, which disclose in a most favourable
light the actual and efficient operations of the new go-
vernment, and give assurance that under its direction
the most effective steps are steadily but unostentati-
ously being taken to repair the errors, blunders, and
omissions which in a long and calamitous series marked
the career of the degraded Whigs. On last Monday
a convention was signed at London by the ministers of
the five great powers of Europe, namely, Great Bri-
tain, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, which may,
for various reasons, be regarded as of the first import-
ance at the present moment. This convention at
length fulfils the stipulations entered into at the Con-
gress of Vienna twenti-six years ago, and makes the
slave-trade, so far as Europe is concerned, piracy—a
crime of the deepest dye by the law of nations.
France, by becoming a party to the compact, does not
indeed give any new or unexpected proof of her sin-
cerity in desiring to put an end to this greatest of na-
tional crimes ; but, in addition to her late disarma-
ment on a scale which divests the act of all grounds of
suspicion, she does, by her accession to this treaty,
give an assurance of her pacific intentions, and of her
willingness to resume her relations of friendly compact
and alliance with the other great European powers.
The convention acquires some incidental importance
and interest from this circumstance; but it is on its
own account, and for the favourable results which it is
calculated to work out in behalf of the unhappy
African race, a deed of the highest moment. The
great European states are now as one united family
respecting the tyrannous user of a portion of our
fellow creatures on no other ground than that they are
black and defenceless—and those powers known as the
mutual right of search, they fully and freely concede
or conform to each other. It is a source of just pride
to every enlightened Englishman, that Great Britain
has ever led the way towards the redemption of Afri-
cans from the cruel degradation to which the cupidity
of white men has subjected them,—and to those who
confidently look to the administration of Sir Robert
Peel for that pilotage of the state which shall have the
tendency to render the country prosperous at home,
and respected abroad, the execution of this treaty
affords an earnest, and pledge that their hopes bid fair
to be in due time accomplished. The Conservative
Foreign Minister has in a short period succeeded in
doing most effectually that which his Whig prede-
cessor, with ample space for performing it in, left un-
done,—and to the Earl of Aberdeen the highest credit
is due. It will not fail to be remarked then, and we
expect remembered, that since Lord Palmerston has
had leisure to visit his estates, and reply to an ncldreas
of congratulation, (for alas, there was but one,) and
the noble Earl has filled his place, France has thrown
off her hostile guise—proceeded to reduce her armies
by a fifth portion, and entered into the convention of
which we are now speaking, which unites Europe in a
firm, and, we might almost Say, indissoluble compact
for the high and holy purpose of putting down the
African slave-trade. .

But there is yet another aspect, and by no means
the least important, in which he may view this happy
effort of Lord Aberdeen's diplomacy—we mean that in
which it is so well calculated to discourage, and dimi-
nish, if not altogether extinguish the fractious and in-
subordinate airs of the Yankee republicans. They
will not forsooth permit us to search their vessels when
presenting themselves under suspicious circumstances
on the African coast, or elsewhere; it is a pretension
on our part which they cannot submit to, and it would
be a confession of inferiority on their part intolerable
to their national pride. Such has been the language
of some of their leading journalists—speaking the
voice, doubtless, of a strong and influential party—for
some time, and war, war, was glibly talked of, unless
England, by a prudent abandonment of her claims and
practices, desisted from annoying the national flag, and
affronting Americans by suspecting them of dealing in
negroes. This matter, then, has formed a very im-
portant ingredient in what we may call our western
complications, and its removal cannot but tend in a
very essential degree to bring our relations with the
States to an even and satisfactory adjustment. They
cannot declare war with all Europe, in order to pre-
serve to themselves a privilege which the great Euro-
pean powers have freely conceded to each other. If
they war with England on this score, they war also
with France, and Russia, and the other allied powers.
In short, there is an end to the dispute ; the conven-
tion signed on Monday is a fatal blow to Yankee in-
subordination, and with whatever grace she may stoop,
their stiff and haughty assumption of independence
must be given up. This is another important circum-
stance favourable to the general relations of peace and
amity which we hope to enjoy under a Conservative
government, and it is also one which bodes good to
the unhappy victims of legalised thraldom and cruelty
in the west. Young America will at last be shamed
out of the foulest blot by which the institutions of any
country could be contaminated, and which in an espe•
cial manner affixes opprobrium and disgrace upon her.
At all events she will not be permitted to play the
pirate. A pirate, says Sir Edward Coke, is hostis
huntani generis—the enemy of the human race, and old
Europe has declared that in this character she cannot
by any means be permitted to perform.