The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-05-03 00:00:00

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on pasSivelyina kg.ppt, 6;*.nlrTain 11, the course of sys:
ethatic swindling!. fur auclac.ions robfury which bas pre-
wailed for years ; if they suffer,fvf.tbeir apathy. and.
imprudence, Why, ail‘that can be they richly de-
serve it. .`.
We have no object .oittltyo: to the proposed re-
duction of the stamp dot must protest against.
the mean, personal,, and invidious nature of the reduc.,
thin. The scheme pro Pounded by Mr. SPRING RICE 13 e
disgraceful to' the character of a British minister. It is .
levelled at the property of one class of persons obvi-
onsly to bolster the declining fortunes of some of the
ministerial journals. The Chancellor of the Exchequer.
is evidently following up the threats of Lord BROUGHAM
against the Times.,: The Morning ChrOnicle is too im-,
potent to render any essential •service to the•ministry,
but the Times is a thorn in their flesh, which they foot-
ishly imagine they can remove, or,at least subdue, by,
counteraction. They never committed a greater mis-,
take. They may confer more power upon the Chronicle,
but they will augment, that of the Times in a much more ,
increased ratio. They may ruin some of the whigjour-:
nals—they may pamper a new ally at the expense of art
old one—but they cannot detract, in any possible way,'
from the force and influence of theconse.ivative pres.
TheY do.not mean it—anew do not ,fotes6e the effects of,
their own measure-=but in reality-they. are giving to our
party an extended lever which we shall employ against
them. ,

,There are some people who sneer at the power of the"
press,4nd some so obtuse as to fear that an extension of
its influence tvill be favourable only to.the designs of the;
revolutionary faOod: Phis,. is a, great mistake. The
people of this countryase,a *risible And reflecting pen
ple. They can he misled—they can be htembugged—,
they can be worked up to-frenzy :about ideal wrongs;
but these feelings seldom endure 10ng.., Common sense :
uniforthly comes to their relief, and they then take sig...
nal vengeance on those who by deceiving have oppressed,'
them. The state of public opinion,at this tooment,when
whiggery is in the ascendant, and a rampant popisls •
priesthood dictate to the King's ministers, is a proof that
a systenciit imposture propped by wholesale lying can-
not be tolerated long in England. If the country were
polled from one end to the other we should find two-.
thirds of the people decidedly opposed to all he views
and schemes of the present government. It is only
amongst the vilest of the political dissenters--=among the
quakers, baptists and unitarians, in alliance with the.
Irish rabble of priests and laves—that any rancorous'
opposition to conservative principles prevails. The
great mass of our countrymen—almost all the respecti--,
ble, intelligent, and religious classes—abhor the present
confederacy, at the head of which is DANIEL O'CONNELL
as a sort of father confessor to Lord MELBOURNE and
Lord JOAN RUSSELL. The corporation- reform job is
now fully understood. The people see What local pa-
triotism is. The deelaitners against corruption, family
influence, and family patronage, are now in office and
authority all over the land ; and the way in which they
eutploy that patronage, and dispense corporation favours,
for sinister porposes, without the slightest regard for ca-
pabili'y or talent, is too marked, too barefaced, and too
odioits to be misunderstood or overlooked:
But what has this; tot With the press? Every thing.
The press is the mirror of society. . On its integrity and
.vigilance depends whether the malversations, the cor-
rupt practices, and the selfish innovations of public men
are to be concealed,or exposed, censured or -encouraged:::
We care not w-ho are the conductors of the press. In the,
multiplicity of sentinels there is the better chanCe for
nesty and truth. Each is a spy. upon the other.. Com-
petition may, encourage gambling, but it is a protection
against fraud. In this the sliopkeeping principle holds
good—he who vends the best article will command the'
best support arid the largest number of customers. Re-
move the
.impediment favourable to monopoly and you
secure the best staple production at the lowest price.,,
The, more heavily a necessary or luxury is taxed the
more encouragement is given to the contraband trader.
It is for these reasons, and on these considet'ations that'
we enter most cheerfully intCr the -general views-of ate,
:Chancellor of the Exchequer, and declare ourselves-
ready to make the.LisEnPoot. STANDARD.a -competitor
Tor public patronage .with whatever rival may take" the
field. •

But it must not be forgotten that the present is a dif-
ficult if not a critical experiment. The country will-for.
sonic time, and so long as the rage for speculation con--'•-
tinues, be deluged with eplu-moral and rabid publica-
tions. The radical will most unquestionably destroy thel
whig.press. One set of revolutionists will prey ui3orr
another. The lean kine will swallow up the more ro-
bust.• The race of twaddlers, and the gentry of the;
hoop, spinning top, and corl, floating tutyt
philosophers—the cigar and tobacco-pipe poets-.--in short'
the washerwomen of the press will be swept away. Ta-
lent alone will bear a premium in the market. Wooden,'
nuttneg-ss.must disappear; and making every allowance"
for whiggery and quackery none but those - who speaki
out plainly, write honestly, and regard consistency will!
have a chance- of success. The present is the greatest
revolution that has been attetorted or perfected since the
revolution of 1685. It is of far more importance tbatt''
the reform bill. Mr. SPRING RICE gives more power to,
the press than ever it possessed before, He does: ,not";
know exactly' what he is doing; but ,that is
why we should be IeSS thankful. —We have ever, been
anxious that political opinions, and the views of men op-.
posed to each other should be submitted to all classes -ot
our countrymen, as if to a-jury sworn to decide accord-,
ing to the evidence. We have nothing- to fear from such,
an appeal to such a tribunal. We willingly join issue
with our hostile contemporaries and wait the result.,
nut we must take leave to tell our conservative, friends
that they, also, at this crisis have an important duty to
discharge. There are many towns in England and Scot-
land where there is no tory journal of any spirit or pre,j,,
tension to talent. They have too long suffered their-
press to languish for want of support.
,They have thi
means of correcting this error, and if they do not now
they will ere long have cause bitterly to lament their
folly. If they require an example of success, and the:
utility of exertion, we refer them to the short history of
this journal, the most satisfactory and complete ever ad-
ventured upon for their benefit. Three. years ago it,
could hardly be said that there was a truly conservative
journal in Liverpool. We were then called a fallen
and defunct factiOn. Every wiseacre of
.a shop philo-
sopher, who could coin a paragraph, steal a report, or,
bray vulgar balderdash about " reform," had the
dacity to twit us with being powerless and helpless.
They even had the rresumption to count our loss_
es, measure the duration of our existence, and pre-?:
diet our inevitable dOom! We have ridden over the
heads of these scurvy calculators, and we have tauglit
them that they necer evinced more ignorance than when
they prophesied the ruin of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
It is now one of the most extensively- read and hest
vertised papers in England. Vi e hope and trust that.
these remarks will tend to encourage in other
establishment of conservative journals.
. .

We perceive that a meeting has been called by the,
MAYOR for the purpose of "taking into Consideration the,
present critical position of the Irish municipal reforni
bill, and the propriety of addressing tile-JONG and the
House of Commons thereon.". The meeting is to take
place in the Sessions-house on Friday next. • .
There is something so glaringly' indecent In this pro-
position that we.regret to ,see the name of the MAYOR
attached to it. The Irish :municipal bill Is at present
uncle!: the. con§iderittio4:of the House of Lords, and in-
asmuch as it has pasied tlie Commons, theit lordship:s
are the. O per
pFbions to address on the subject.
they,
they, however, are passed over by the magnificent
lender,
of the Liverpool towndtall rump, we • •- - ' -'. )tt: .
mp, we Iclier that .antiget
piece of vulgar impertinence is ah •
out to bed pdTpetrifte"
insulting to the independence ' ' a..A-A" '''
of the.peers,.... ‘..tarepect-
ful to the throne itself. - . . - • - ''' . ''''

The MAYOR states that the sigtiat tnes to the requisition
are " respectable ;" and we doubt. noebut that his• wor-
ship would be bound to say as much if the document were
only signed by some half .dozen members of the Com-
mon Council ; but will the MAYOR be good enough to