The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-02-21 00:00:00

THE PRIVILEGE QUESTION.—TYRANNY OF
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
(From the Morning Herald of Tuesday.)
The House of Commons has, in the plenitude of its
wisdom, resolved, that all sheriffs and under sheriffs,
" and others," who shall aid Stockdale in carrying on
his fresh actions against the printers of the house, shall
be deemed guilty of a contempt, and of a violation of
the privileges of the house.
The sheriffs, under-sheriffs, " and others" alluded
to, will, of course, treat with the scorn which it merits
this new resolution of the "tyrant majority."
The Attorney-General, moreover, moved that the
son of Stockdale's attorney, and a clerk of the same
gentleman, should, for the offence of serving certain
botices on Messrs. Hansard, be, to-night. (Tuesday,)
brought to the bar of the house. The motion was
carried; and the son and clerk of Mr. Howard will,
of course, be committed to Netvgate.
Lord Howick remarked that the best mode of sub-
duing the contumacy of Stockdale and of his attor-
ney, would be found in adding to the severity of their
imprisonment—in debarring these persons, in short,
from all intercourse with their friends!
The House of Commons is labouring hard to ren-
der itself utterly odious and despicable. It is gratify-
ing to reflect, that in the impending struggle, the as-
serters of "privilege" must, assuredly, be discomfit- .
ted. •
How pitifully malevolent was the suggestion of Lord.
Howick—how exquisitely characteristic of that feeble
and waspish pretender to statesmanship ! Why did:
not this magnanimous personage pro Pose, -at once,
the commitment of Lord Chief Justice• Denman ?
Stockdale and Howard can effect nothing towards, the-
annoyance of that house, of which Lord Howick is a
worthy member, excepting through the agency of the
law, and of the oracles of the-law. Why, then, does
not Lord Howick attempt openly, and at once, to si-
lence those oracles ?
Sir John Campbell, too, means to commit Mr.
Howard's. clerks !- Well, what then ? .Is-he prepared
to commit all the clerks in London ? When does he
propose that this unseemly ,exhibitiOn on the part of
the House of Cominons shall rertniriate ?
What, moreover, do Lord John Russell and the Al-: ,t
torney-General mean by • the words- ana others,"
which occur in their resolution of last night ? The
reolution is addressed to the "sheriffs, under-she-
riffs, and others." Does the phrase "others" com-
prehend the jury ? Does it comprehend the bar ?
Does it comprehend the judges ? Sir Edward Sugden
asked an explanation on these points from Lord John
Russell, but the Colonial Secretary appeared exceed-
ingly unwilling to grant the required information.
The whole affair is infinitely disgusting. Colonel
Sibthorp stated that, at a dinner amongst his constitu-
ents, he proposed the health of the sheriffs, and that
the toast was received with three cheers, The-feeling
exhibited by the entertainers of the gallant colonel is,
we will venture to say, the feeling of universal Eng-
and. •
To men who love our old institutions; if must afford
unmixed delight to perceive the democratic branch of.
the Legislature covering itself with Contempt. The
House of Commons has, for a long time, been, in its
collective capacity, a body of revolutionists.. The
House of Commons first rose into importance by op-
posing certain acts of royal tyranny. For a long time
past, the tyranny of the house has exceeded any other
tyranny on record. The House of Commons has
swallowed up all the substantial power that used to re-
side in the monarchy. The HouSe of Commons has;
recently, sought to annihilate the function's of the aris-
tocratic branch of the Legislature. In every‘snovemeot •
of the lower house, may be traced a grasping, mono-
polising, tyrannical spirit. .
But the House of Commons,. it: may-be urged, is the
custodial. of the rights of the people; and for the main
tenance of these rights, the "privilege" claimed is.re-
quisite."
The rights of the people ! Of what rights of the.
people has the House of Commons-approved itself the
guardian ? The House of Commons is not more hos-
tile to the Crown and to the House of Lords, than it is
to the best rights of the people of England. The House
of Commons has, for a quarter of a century, laboured
to deprive the industry of England of all protection.
The House of Commons has ruthlessly consigned
nearly a million of hand-loom weavers to semi-starva-
tion—has doubled, by the act of 1'319, the power of
money over labour—has deprived tens of thousands
of labourers of employment, by means of free-trade--
and, then by robbing the \vhole body of the labourers
of England of their constitutional rights—rights gua-
ranteed by the 43d of Elizabeth—has placed in peril the
whole of our social fabric ! The rights of the people
were never subjected to 'hostility so unrelenting, as that
to which they have been exposed on the part of the
House of Commons.
The democratic part of the Legislature once voted
the
n_ House of Lords' " useless." The country is not
likely soon to vote the House of Commons " a nui-
sance."
this' ro Sir Robert Peel the part which he has played in
infinitely h e
avyda:cdreddisgbe disgusting farce of PRIVILEGE" is
The views of such vulgar-
minded persons aslt Lord Howick and Sir 'John Camp-
bell are not view. which it befits any man aspiring to.
lead the conservatives of England, to entertain.

THE WEST INDIES.
(From the Morning Herald.)
In another portion
of our paper, tO-day, will be found'
an exceedingly interesting document on the growing de-
ficiency of the returnmselaiii-ngoim()or West Indian posiesions,
as well as on the
•Which exist for directing into
those valuable colonies a.co 1:1,,, streami of free labour.
The capabilities of our -‘,l
of
colonies are very
great. Those islands are spokenyield in the document, be
fore us, as being N v ell fitted to
s of wheat
crop
in each year ; and, more important still, they h
to be adapted to the cultivation of cotton, of
are declared
indigo, of rice, and of tea. For tea, for cotton, and
of
, and for
tobacco, we are now dependent on rival, or
on
states ; and it much concerns the prosperity of
Great hostile
Bri-
tain, in the present condition of the world, to depend amuch as possible on her own resources, and on those asf
her colonies, and as little as possible on the continuance
of goodwill on the part of foreigners—inasmuch as the
vast majority of the foreigners with whom we deal, look
to the subversion of the power of England, as to the con-
summation of their most dearly-cherished schemes.

-...w►--

PROGRESS OF POPERY IN EDINBURGH.
(From the Scottish Standard.) .
We are ashamed to say it, but it is probable, that in no
part of the British dominions are greater exertions being
~,,Tkiijult now for the spread of Popery than in Edin-
burgh, last, a newspaper was started in
thisgci.typ,:iorwye;dly for the purpose of upholding and pro-
moting
that it is the first. and and it is. boasted of by its proprietors,
enviable distinction
newspaper established in Great
Britain—a most envia
'for "Modern Athens,"
certainly ! We understa
pu. i!cloo,.that a plot of ground,
about five acres, hasbeen
a*;-I.'o
d near In verleith-place,
upon which is to be erected a '
Catholic college.
There is already a convent in Ediebrnan
uh, which is repre-
sented'io be-in a very flourishing state,
tlt, may lie re-
launpt uca. day,
marked; moreover, as a pretty signift
times," that, on Monday last, the Queen's Yign of the
the
eholi
Divine Service was performed in the Rom
chapel, Broughton-street, "for the purpa,,e,.,
as
ad_
tn vertiseent expressed it, "of imploring the
blessing c
HEAvvi on her Majesty's marriage." Who ever before'
heard bf `'the blessing of ITEAvEs" being " implored"
by the church of Rome upon a sovereign whom that church
regards- as a "damnable heretic ?" Depend upon it,
" there is more in this than meets the eye." And, really,
loooking at it all in sober seriousness, we are constrained,
however.himiliating it may be, to think that there is some
truth in the boast of the Popish bishop, Dr. WHale, that
" Scotland is beginning to revere the memory of St. Co-
lumbkill, the founder of its religion, rather than that of
John Knox, who was its ruthless destroyer. . •
--........___.

NATIONAL EDI:CATION—PAPAL INTERFER-
ENCE.
(From the Dublin Evening Mail.)
There is now raging in the bosom of the Romon Ca-
tholic Church in Ireland, a controversy formidable and
fierce 'enough to terminate in schism, and, if both the
parties be in earnest, to eliminate one of the dissentient
bodies from the orbit in which, hitherto, it has moved
round the centre of unity and community of doctrine.
The National Board is the bone of contention. SL: teen
of th e-
TitTtlar Prelates of Ireland have
given inheir adhesion to the plan of NatiOrial tdUcation,
as suf4ciently Popish for the purpose—whilst ten of them
denounce it as not Popish enough by many degrees. At
the head of the majority stands Du. MURRAY, 804:-diSant
Archbishop of Dublin. Doctor Mac , —ALE the 3oi-disant
Archbishop of Tuatn, is the leader of the vigorous min.

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