The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-01-07 00:00:00

which the constitution vests in the three states con

jointly." As respects the people the question lies in a
nutshell : it involves the following point—whether the
representatives of the people have a right, by simply
passing a string of resolutions, to injure any one or
any number of their constituents " by abrogating both
common and statute law in the publication of de-
famatory matter." This is the matter at issue. Is
the House of Commons invested with authority to
abrogate lawS which they cannot make without

the concurrence of the House of Lords and the
Crown? Can they confer any privileges upon them-
selves withOtif. the acquiescence, implied or ex-

'pressed, 'Of their constituents i Can they consis-
tently exercise a privilege which, by their own acts,
they haveikeiared to he unlawful in the case of any
individual 'net"b. mimbee of the House ? Has the
.House of CoMinons the privilege of libelling people
at its.pleastire:, and of nullifying the laws of the realm?
If it has this privilege, it is incumbent upon the mem-
bers of tharflouse to skew how and when they were
invested with it by the people, and how and when it
was ratified by.the other branches of the legislature.
One of the most important features in the case of
" Stockaale versus Hansard" is, the collision which
has taken place between the House of Commons and
the judges of the land. If the House should persist
in the exercise of its tyrannical privilege, it will.dis-
,tinctly convey a warning to the judges that they are
not to presume to enforce the acts of the three estates
,of the realm, whenever such a course of proceeding
interferes with the self-arrogated privileges of the
'Commons.

It is impossible to reflect upon this question without
recurring to many similar acts of tyrannical interfe-
rence with the privileges of the subject exercised by
'the reformed House of Commons. The haughty de-
meanour of the majority of its members has, on many
occasions, extorted, even from the Radical press, the
confession that Liberals are not always the most con-
spicuous for liberality. The truth is, that your prating
Liberal, whose harangues on the hustings are all in
Savour of liberty, when he is invested with authority,
becomes the most arbitrary despot in existence. The
many inquisitorial proceedings, for which the reformed
House of Commons has obtained such an unenviable
ilegree Of notoriety, afford a striking illustration of the
truth ,of Our remark. If Joseph Hume and the " phi-
losophical IWiCals" had their own way, we should
soon be without any law but the irresponsibly exer-
cised will'of the House of Commons. Thanks to the
good sense of' the electors, the arrogant pretensiOns of
this class of legislators have already suffered an effec-
tual check. Another election will deprive them of all
remaining 'POwer to do mischief.

The events of each succeeding day serve to strengthen
the conviction that the Melbourne ministry are totter-
ing to their downfal. The rabid declamations of O'Con-
nell in Ireland contribute to fortify us in this belief.
He is evidently in a state of absolute desperation. His
creatures in the Cabinet are fast sinking under the ac-

cumulated load of infamy which they have brought
,upon themselves. Their unpopularity is the true secret
,of O'Connell's increased virulence and malignity. The
;language .:of, the Whig-Radical press in England
as anotherproof. of the approaching dissolution of the
present Cabinet. Finding that the prospects of their
employers are utterly and irretrievably hopeless, the
venal organs of the ministry have latterly had recourse
to the .most unblushing slanders—the most gross and
palpable.misrepresentations—and the most " enormous
lying" that ever-disgraced the most corrupt and liber-
tine press in .any age. or country. We venture to say
that if all the lying devices and slanderous charges of
,the Whig press, within the last twelve months, were
'collected together, they would form a volume to which
ino parallel could be furnished, which would be per-
tfectly unique in its atrocity, and which would leave the
ingenious, figments of Baron Munchausen at an im-
measurable distance in its contemptuous disregard of
facts. We do not, however, wonder that the ministe-
rial organs resort to such expedients. • They are the
only defence left the present degraded ministry, whose
very existence seems to depend upon the facility with
which the characters of their political opponents can
be blackened,.their motives misconstrued, and their
language tortured from its true and legitimate mean-

ing. : .
It is'afact no. less singular than instructive, that the
Whig-Radical papers haVe nothing of a positive cha-
racter to,sariudefenceuf .the present ministry. They
cannot,b.e.praiied. nu : account of either their foreign,
their colonial urtheirdotnestic policy. None of their
acts, if, narrowly scrutinised, can be alleged as consti-
tutinglt title :to. public rofifidenCe. Far from it. The
treasuErimikLarelbo.cunning to dwell upon the me-
rits of anititry...7oltiwa.ruucli -easier task to abuse
the Tories-7to describe them as disloyal subjects—to
impugn their motives—to garble their statements—