The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-06-02 00:00:00

worts to sink down the poor of this country still deeper
in the mire of poverty and distress.
The anti-corn law agitators have resolved henceforth
to " dissociate themselves altogether from political
parties, and to adopt the test of a man's promise to
support the total repeal of the corn-laws as the criterion
of his fitness to be supported as a political candidate."
We hope they will act on this resolution. They could
not have hit upon a better expedient for defeating their
own ends.

The Stephen Whitney, Captain W. C. Thompson,
Which arrived here yesterday, has brought New :York
Papers to the 13th ultimo, being one day later than
those brought by the Hibernia. We have been politely
favoured with copies of the Morning Herald and the
Daily Express of May 13. We learn that the mercantile
affairs of New York showed no symptoms of im-
provement when the Stephen Whitney sailed. The
abuse of the credit system was fast producing its
opposite extreme, and business was confined to the
limited circle of those who possessed a cash capital.
The licentious conduct of the insolvent banks and
merchants was fast putting an end to the remnant of
that credit which, but a few years since, was enjoyed
almost universally. Trade was consequently decaying,
and the interest of money falling. Very little was
doing in the stock market. The shares of the United
States Bank exhibited a' trifling improvement ; but the
transactions in the market were of the most limited
character. The cotton market also evinced small ope-
rations withoutrany important changes in rates. The
rate of exchange on England was at 108 per cent.
In flour- the market was dull at New York. The
receipts had not been large since the opening of the
Canal, but the price was drooping. The rate of freight
was'rather declining, which favoured the market.
The Montreal Herald of May 8 states that there had
,
"een a report prevailing for some days that the Special
Council had thrimn" out the bill for regulating -the cur-
rency betiieen the Upper and Lower Province's; and
as the Bank of Montreal had, on the previous day,
declined taking. Upper Canada hank notes in toto, it
Was presumed that the report was too well founded.
Bank drafts On New York were quoted at 21-, and on
London at 10 per cent. premium.

Intelligence had reached New York of fresh outrages
in Florida, on the part of the L►dians. A large party
of them had attacked Capt. Rains, of the 7th infantry,
Who was returning, with eighteen men, from a scout.
Four of his men were killed, and five wounded, Capt.
Rains himself having also been severely wounded.

. -
Several other attacks had been made by the Indians,
Who, in many cases, had destroyed much valuable pro-
PertY. There appeared to be every probability that
Florida would suffer for some time longer from the
predatory incursions of the aborigines. This is not to
be wondered at, considering the efforts made tv exter-
minate them.

The Baltimore American says that a well-founded
rumour was in circulation at Washington, that Mr.
Kendall, the Postmaster-general, had tendered his re-
mgnation to the President. It was also rumoured
that Mr. Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury, and
Mr. Forsyth, Secretary of State, had likewise resigned
their offices.
In the Northern States the season is described as
exceedingly forward. There was every promise of an
abundant harvest. In Ohio there had been a consi-
derable flood, greater than any that had been witnessed
since that of 1832.

Van Rensselaer, who was sentenced to six months'
Imprisonment, and fined 250 dollars, to remain in pri-
son until the fine was paid, for his violation of the neu-
rality law, has had the fine remitted by the President.
William Lyon Mackenzie, who was sentenced to 18
months' imprisonment, from the 20th of June last, has
also, it is stated, had the residue of his punishment re-
mitted.

At length—at the last hour—we are enabled to
gather the sentiments of Government with respect to
the important subject of Irish Registration. On
Thursday evening, Mr. Pigot, the O'Connellite Soli-
citor-General, brought in 'a Bill, " to remove doubts
With respect to the qualification of voters in Ireland,"
and to create a court of appeal in cases of disputed
decisions. Bearing in mind the object for which alone
this bill was brought in—via., to obstruct the passing
of LOrd Stanley's m-easure—we weiepripared to ex-
pect dishonesty in its framing, and that it would; either
directly or indirectly, leave untouched the evil of which
it professes to be a remedy. In this expectation we
are not doomed to he disappointed. The bill of Minis-
ters is purposely framed so as to ensure its rejection by
the Upper House of Parliament, if ever it arrives there,
as well as to leave open, should it become a law, seve-
ral fertile sources of the demoralization and perjury in
operation under the present system.
_

We shall not at present enter in a comparison of the
relative merits of the two bills. The one—that of Lord
Stanley—merely affects the mode of registration, and
leaves the question of the franchiSe untouched ; that
of the Solicitor-General for Ireland affects also the
mode of registration, and deals—tenderly, it is true—
with some of the evils of the present system. But,
With true Whig cunning, the measure of the learned
Precursor includes a clause, insidiously introduced,
by which, under the pretence of " *loving doubts"
as to the qualification required under the Reform Act,
the true construction of that act is to be declared in
direct opposition to the decision of the Judges—the
franchise to be virtually lowered—and the door to
fraud and perjury propped opeiz, by an express enact-
ment, to all whose pliable or seared consciences will
permit them to enter.

The clause in question allows the term " beneficia
interest" to be interpreted, by the voter and the assis•
tart barrister, to be the value which the premises,
after deducting rent, can be proved to be of to the
claimant himself ; not, as at present ruled by the
Judges, the value which any other party would give
over and above the rent reserved. It will be evident
that such ample room would be given, by this interpre-
tation, to bard swearing as to imaginary value, that
one of the greatest evils of the present system—its
reckless perjury—would be increased by being thus, in
effect, legalised. A man has only to swear that the mud
hovel which he occupies on lease is, together with his
own labour bestowed on its patch of potatoe ground,
producing him £lO per annum, after paying his rent—
that his labour, in fact, is worth £lO a),ear—and he
becomes qualified to be on the register as a county or
a borough voter! Can such an astounding proposi-
tion, which is neither more nor less than an approach
to universal suffrage, be listened to for a moment ?
Of course it cannot ; its authors know that it cannot.
And yet, without this dishonest clause—which is the
twin brother of the celebrated appropriation clause—
no measure for the correction of the gigantic evil,
which demoralizes and degrades Ireland, will be al-
lowed by the Whig Government and the Romish
priesthood to pass into a law !
If it be the fact,.as it evidently is in the opinions of
Government, that a £lO franchise in Ireland is too
high, let it be lowered; let us have, in Ireland at least,
a franchise which is not expansive according as the
conscience of the claimant is more or less pliable. Let
what is insidiously, or in the Whig-Radical phrase,
virtually lowered, be done by an express enactment, so
that honest men may by law enjoy the privileges which
false knaves are now allowed to snatch. Let the evils
of the registration system be corrected at all hazards,
and then deal with the franchise. But no—listen, reader,
to the avowal of a Whig Minister ! Listen to Lord
John Russell. "If he could see that Parliament would
be disposed without reference to party to establish the
franchise on fair grounds, so as neither to diminish
nor abridge the franchise which it was the design of
the Reform Bill to grant, be would assist in framing
a measure for that purpose." If he could lower the
franchise he would do so ; and what is his alternative ?
,He fears that he cannot, and he is ready to allow the
claimant to achieve by fraud what he does not possess
by law ! He fears he cannot get a low franchise
accurately laid down, and therefore, is not able to
" recommend his honourable and learned friend to go
any further than he now proposes to do." " Evil, be
thou my good !"
It must be obvious that such a bill is a mere weapon
wherewith to fight Lord Stanley out of committee.
We think the attempt will not be successful ; yet,
should this trick fail, the game will be played out of
doors which has already failed within the walls of
Parliament; and it shall be our care that the electors
of Liverpool at least are not misled. Perjury and
fraud in Ireland are the acknowledged aids upon which