The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-10-12 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS

" We agree with the sentiments of " An Irishman," but we
cannot see that the publication of his letter would be of
any service.

Ebe Eibtrpool &tantiarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 12, 1841

The brilliant buccaneering exploit of Mr. Charles
Elliott has fallen like a wet blanket upon the dawning
hopes of the Whig faction. But a brief week ago the
plucked and well nigh plumeless members of that
faction might occasionally be met with in dark and
nameless localities, hurrying along with memorials in
each hand, and quills behind each ear, looking unut-
terable things, and croaking, ever and anon, like Barna-
by's raven, their monotonous " never say die ;" they
were to be seen at pothouse gatherings and amphi-
theatre displays, "frighting the isle from its propriety,"
with dismal and horrific tales of starving weavers,
empty looms, grassgrown streets, factories stopped,
and banks and bank-shares at most lamentable dis-
counts. But, oh ! Charley Elliott ! most unfortunate
of plenipotentiaries ! thy ill-timed farce has prepared
the way for the damnation of as pretty and touching a
melodrama as ever was got up by mortal players ; and
" not all the blood of the Elliott's" could suffice to pay
for the now useless scenery, the goblins, the "spectres
and chimeras dire," and the stage thunder and blue
fire which must be utterly and lamentably wasted !
The cause of Whiggery and Free Trade," can no
longer be agitated together ; for the absolute lack of
grave faces, to look without laughing upon so prepos-
terously ridiculous an association of things incongru-
ous ; and the Cobdens and the Gibbons must, for the
future, vend their "cheap bread" under another banner,
and seek other partners in their firm,—,who, are not so
" discreditably known" to the. people whom they seek
to (lupe.

Seriously, we believe that ,there is not one man,
woman, or child throughout her Majesty's dominions

citsn fK nro-, tiy tiortitighly
this Whig Chirtoiiii 4iliaiT6l, end utterly ainageut at tlio
mingled folly, indecision, and cowardice which has so
fat, marked its progress„ There is no rightminded
Englishman whip does not at this moment blush for
the infamy which it has brought down upon the name
and character of British diplomacy. It was a sozug-
gler's quarrel in the outset; and has been conducted in
the spirit of a buccaneer. But let us not, however,
allow the reputation of British arms to be tainted
by that of its diplomacy. Even in the waters of China
the valour and discipline of our soldiers and sailors
have shone out proudly pre-eminent. These qualities,
not even the wretched imbecility of the Whig " pleni-
potentiary"—who stopped them when in their mid
career of glory and triumph, and snatched from before
their eyes the laurel which they had already won,
whilst he drove his own huxtering bargain, and sold
their blood for a paltry number of dollars—can either
obscure or diminish. As a nation, proud of its naval
and military renown, we have reason to be satisfied
with the achievements of our gallant brethren in arms,
even as evinced in the paltry and sordid quarrels into
which Whig imbecility and meddling have dragged
them. But oh ! in mercy save us—is the universal
cry of England—from the infamy of witnessing their
noble energies wasted and their spirits crushed in the
very hour of struggle, by the incubus of an Elliott in
the field, or the spirit of a chandler's shopkeeper in
the council by which those energies are directed!

The quarrel—such it was—with China was within
a few hours of being terminated at a blow. A handful
of British men had already within their reach the power
of coercing into reason and decency the emperor and
people of the most populous empire in the world.
Canton lay at the mercy of the British arms ; the gate
of her vast markets lay open to the industry of the suf-
fering artizans of our manufacturing districts, and to
the enterprise of our merchants; and yet ! hear it ye
clamorous dupes of Whig agitation ! Let it be sounded
throughout your mob gatherings and heard amid your
amphitheatrical displays !—the treachery and avarice
of a Whig official deliberately sold this advantageous
position—bartered the prospect of these advantages
which British valour had achieved—for a paltry sum
of six million dollars, to be doled out amongst the opium
dealers of our Indian Empire, whose puppet and tool
he is. Our quarrel with China is at this moment just
where it was twelve months ago. The flower of a gal-
lant armament has sunk beneath exertions which have
been frustrated as soon as they have been achieved.
We have incurred, and justly, the reproach of every
civilized people, as a nation of freebooters. And as
the price of all this disgrace and loss of life and money,
we can reflect only that five millions of dollars have
passed through the "itching palm" of the Whig re-
presentative of the sovereign in China! We have the
whole fight to fight over again,---thanks to the illus-
trious House of Minto and to the " government with-
out patronage" of Lords Melbourne, Palmerston,
Russell, and Company !
The close of the parliamentary session has enabled
those noble personages to crawl away from beneath
the public observation into their various rural obscuri-
ties. They have slunk off, glad and thankful that their
factious outcry for inquiry into distress, produced by
their own reckless dishonesty, has, in mercy, been
visited only with contempt. But the public indigna-
tion excited by this disgraceful Chinese affair will dog
them to their hiding places. The memory of a gallant
British admiral, sinking on board his ship,—in pure
shame that he had not laid his bones beneath an ene-
my's walls before so irreparable a spot had tarnished
the honour of his country,—will, we devoutly trust,
haunt them in their very dreams ; and the boys in our
streets will never pass them without shouting in their
ears the words of Brutus—

"By heavens, I'd rather coin my blood fur drachmas,
Than wring from the hands of peasants their vile trash

By any misdirection 1"
So gross, at least, as that of the Whig "Plenipoten-
tiary," who sold his nation's honour and the blood of
its soldiers and sailors for a buccaneer's ransom !

To be an " anti-corn-law man" implies such a
number of bad things, that we venture to predict all
persons who have any regard for their reputation will,
after a while, be careful to eschew such acts as would
be likely to entail the distinction upon them. It
implies that the individual keeps bad company, takes
some " reverend" of the dissenting convention for his
father confessor, goes to Saturday-night edifications at
which cobblers and porters are the chief spokesmen ;
and that here in Liverpool, for instance, he reads the
Mercury, and swallows with implicit belief all what
that most profound and veracious oracle may be pleased
to enounce. We know a man by the company he keeps;
we may know him also by the journals he reads ;
and if we can convict his associates or his favourite
paper of habitual disregard to truth, it is another very
serious inference which we draw against himself, that
he is a dealer in delusions, and loves to dwell in
them.

The party have lately been making much ado about
certain answers given by Lord Stanley to a Mr. Brooks,
who attended at the hustings, at Lancaster, on the oc-
casion of his lordship's last election. These answers
they call " admissions;" and, taking just so much of
them as suits their purpose, they parade them forth in
speeches and resolutions as an immense accession to
their stock ratiocinative, which, as everybody knows,
is rather slender and, unquestionably, susceptible of
improvement. The garbling practised in this matter
is of the grossest description. his lordship was asked
by his catechist, Mr. Brooks, "Is not bread dearer
here, in this country, than in any other, on the
average ?" and his answer was as follows :

" Lord Stanley, I have stated, that the policy of this
country has been to establish such a price as to give a profit-
able employment to the cultivation of a large portion of the
landlords of this country. The policy has been, no doubt, to
a certain extent, to raise the price of corn above its natural
level, but, at the same time that it raises it above its natural
level, I believe the result to be, that it keeps it from those
extraordinary fluctuations which are to be found in other
countries, and to give that which is much more essential to
all classes of the community—steadiness of price, rather than
lowness of price."

On the first portion of this answer the anti-corn-law
gentry immediately seize, and turn it to much ac-
count. It is an " admission," say they—a palpable
" ad mission ;" and, suppressing all that is explana-
tory, they hawk it about from place to place as a tri-
umphant corroboration of their doctrines, even from
the mouth of Lord Stanley. Acting upon the same
dishonest system, they convert his lordship into a
seeming witness in their behalf on other points; and
thus it was that they made up the mess which figured
last week in the radical journals as one of the " reso-
lutions" agreed to at the Saturday-night gathering,
held in this town, to which we adverted in our last,
and which [resolution] runs thus

" That we fully concur in the admissions made by Lord
Stanley, the present secretary for the colonies, at his re-elec-
tion for North Lancashire, that the operation of the corn-
laws is, Ist, to raise the price of food above its natural level ;
2nd, to increase the rent paid to the landlord proportionally
to that price ; and, 3d, that the price of food has no effect on
the rise and fall of wages ; and from these admissions we are
confirmed in our opinion that," &c. &c.

Now what designation can we give that will pro-
perly denote this mutilating, falsifying process, if we
forbear to call it downright LYING ? It is something
more than equivocation or quibbling ; it is an attempt,
by gross misrepresentation, to create a directly false
impression, and to give authority to propositions to
which, in the naked form in which they appear here,
Lord Stanley never assented at all ! Lord Stanley
broadly defended the corn laws in his speech at Lan-
caster, and never made any "admissions," in the sense
which that term is used, which could in the smallest
degree compromise his opinions or invalidate the force
of his arguments. True, he did say that " to a cer-
tain extent" the protective duty on corn did " raise
the price;" but is that what should be called an "ad-
mission," or reluctant confession of a fact which he
would rather suppress ? Of course such is the effect
produced by the duty ; it is for that purpose the duty
is laid on ; prohibition is to exclude—protection to
raise the price ; everybody knows that ; and the
leaguers are welcome to the prodigious "admission"
which they have obtained, coupled with the explanation
which formed part of Lord Stanley's answer—namely,
that "while the corn laws raise the price of corn above
its natural level, the result is to give that which is
much more essential to all classes, steadiness, rather
than lowness of price." With regard to the third
point, his lordship did indeed say that wages do
not depend [immediately or directly] on the price of
food; but his accompanying- explanations clearly show
that they do so indirectly and consequentially. We
shall give the whole of his answer :
" I am asked whether wages rise or fall in consequence of

A lika Is tho *toga mai? I oil y Oa, OM/ sw 044,
c4t,Rwi4 divand spinkiao ett ttto Otto
Or Goni, one w4y or the othr,r but that thoy do tiepond ii on
the Proportion which the labour to be given bears to the
number of persons applying for that labour ; and that, if a
somewhat higher price of corn led to a more expensive and
extensive cultivation of the soil, the result would be that a
much larger proportion of the community would be called
into employment, and consequently a much less proportion
between the number of people seeking employment and the
amount of labour to be given to them; and, if that cultiva-
tion were materially diminished, the consequence would be,
that, a number of hands being thrown out of employment,
the Competition for labour and employment would lower the
wages of labour, which are kept up in consequence of the
more extensive cultivation enabled to be carried on in con-
sequence of the duty on corn."

Thus does he showthati though in •the first instance
it is the relations of demand and supply which regulate
Wages, they would eventually he affected by the price
of food. Abolish the protecting duties, and reduce
the price of bread, and wages perhaps may not be im-
mediately affected, hut, ultimately, they will and must
be lowered; for the demand for agricultural labburers
will tikliiie,lihe,-Ysupply. in.: the 'Market will be execs-
sive,,gnd on.this principle ,wages must come down.
The agricultural labourers will be driven,;into..the
•
towns, and in a short time the wages of mechanics and
manufacturers must also decline ; so that it is obvious
from the entire .of the .noble lord's reply that.lie..could
only have alluded to the immediate, and not the conse-
quential effects of food on wages, when he said that
the latter were not dependent on the price of the for-
mer. So perfectly satisfaCtory and conclusive were all
his replies to Mr. Catechist Brooks that the poor man
was absolutely overwhelmed, and sat down amidst the
jeers of all the assembly. On the whole, the right
honourable member for North Lancashire never made
a more happy and successful display than lie did on
this occasion. His eloquent and beautiful speech may
be usefully referred to at any time as a perfect manual
on the subject of the corn duties ; dealing not in te-
dious and minute details, but in all the commanding
principles which enter into the question.
We were led to a re-perusal of this speech by some
recent attacks made upon his lordship 'by the chop-
fallen leaguers, and we have to thank the witless venom
of some of these unconscious blockheads for directing
us to so gratifying a labour. We shall notice one or
two specimens of the malignant dulness of the faction
from a leading article in the Mercury of Friday.

" 'We hardly know whether the new Colonial Secretary, in
his speech at Lancaster, was less fortunate in his defence of
himself; or in his vindication of the order of landlords to
which he belongs. First, with regard to himself, as doubt-
less the question of greatest importance, at least in his own
estimation. The epithets " turn-coat" and " apostate"
have clearly stuck in his proud stomach ; bat he by no means
proved that they were not justly applied."

" By no Means proved that he did not deserve the
epithets apostate and turn-coat !" Such is the judg-
ment of this Second Daniel who sits as chief in the
court of intellectual Whiggery in this town. Lord
Stanley did not prove that he was not an apostate ! An
apostate is one who falls away from his principles ;
Lord Stanley was to prove that, in seceding from the
-Whigs in 184, he had not fallen away from his; and
it certainly did happen that lie was able to adduce the
most curiously, and as it would seem, providentially,
conclusive evidence that such was the fact. It was
really a subject of admiration to every body. Here
testimony so perfectly demonstrative and irrefragable
came to be at hand at the very moment there was any
need of it. Lord Stanley withdrew from the Whigs
originally—not because he deserted his principles, but
because he would not do so; and not only was the fact
so, but it did so occur, that long before the circum-
stance took place, his lordship declared that, if the
'Whigs, with whom he was then acting, should ever
carry their liberalism so far as to attempt subverting
the church, be would leave them;—and this he proved
by the unsolicited and unlooked-for evidence of a
French gentleman, (a Member of the Chamber of De-
puties, and an extreme Liberal,) who happened to be
in this country in 1826, and who heard his declarations
to this effect. Could there be a more remarkable case
of predetermined consistency, and of unforeseen testi-
mony, to bring that consistency to light ? And yet,
in this town, a dull plodder in the dull round of Radi-
cal misinterpretative vituperation and perversion has
the hardihood and recklessness to talk of his lordship's

" apostacy" !
Did we not say well in the beginning of this article
that the very name of " anti-corn-law man" must soon
become disreputable—and that there is a species of
contamination implied in being a reader of their jour-
nals

But it is not enough that the noble lord should have
thus triumphantly refuted the groundless imputation
of hie adversaries, and shewn that, let who might wince
under it, as against him it must prove impotent and
harmless; they have another charge in reserve ; "if
not an apostate" say they, "he is surely a turn .coat,
or why is be joined in the ministry of Sir Robert Peel?"
°r to put the charge in the words of the Mercury—
" How come they now to be colleagues ? One or other
Must be a turn-coat and apostate, and, galling as it
may be, Lord Stanley must, in his heart, confess that
he is the man."
The real complaint—yea, the sore grievance in this
case is, that Lord Stanley has not fallen in the mire
with the disgraced and the degraded Whigs, and that
he has risen to high honour and great power whilst
they are sunk for ever in perdition. However, we
think the great oracle, the Magnus Apollo, the Jupiter
tonans of Whiggery in this town, even the ex-minis-
terial Mercury, ought to be answered, and as to an-
swer so awful a thunderer would be a task quite beyond
our poor abilities, we shall refer the matter to Lord
Stanley himself, and e'en let the minister of state satisfy
hitn. The passage of his lordship's speech which
seems to apply specifically to this head is as follows.
We take it from the report of the Manchester Guardian,
a hostile print :

" I refused in the year 1834 to form part of the admini-
stration of Sir Robert Peel, and I assent in 1841 to form part
of the administration of Sir Robert Peel. Is there not any
inconsistency in that course ? I say there is none. I say
that in 1834 I had just separated from a Whig cabinet, with
Whom, upon many grounds, I cordially concurred. I was
asked to join an administration formed of gentlemen politi-
cally opposed to me and my friends. I could not feel suffi-
cient confidence in them to join their administration. I de-
clined office, and I watched the course of events, determined
whether in office or out of office, to maintain and adhere to
thy own principles. (Hear, and applause.) From that time
to this, I have been in close, uninterrupted, and confidential
intercourse with Sir Robert Peel. In opposition, no great
Measure has been taken by the party acting under the direc-
tion of Sir Robert Peel without my cordial concurrence and
cordial sanction ; upon all subjects I have been admitted by
him to the most frank and unreserved communication of opi-
nion ; upon all subjects of past policy I have cordially been
able to agree with him ; upon a full discussion of the course
Which her majesty's present government will pursue, I have
no reason to anticipate any the slightest difference between
the views of Sir Robert Peel and my own. And in that
state of things, after having sat by his side for the last seven
Years, having luring that time shared his councils and fought
his parliamentary battles with him, why, if at the end of
tkat time, when our efforts had succeeded in displacing the
administration of the day, I had refused to form part of that
iidwinistration, which I was assisting to bring into power,
so far from being able to plume myself on my consistency, I
think you, and I think the country, would have told me with
justice, that I was a most intolerable blockhead to dabble in
Political matters. (Laughter.) You may believe me, and,
electors of Lancashire, I think you will believe me, when I
say to you that I have no sordid or private objects to induce
me to accept office. To me the emoluments of office are
worthless ; to
me the patronage of office is a matter of con-
tempt ; to me the labour, and the responsibility, and the
Power which attach to office, have no charm. (" Then
Why do you accept it ?") I'll tell you. Because, by accept-
ing those labours and that responsibility—because, by de-
voting days and nights of unremitting and thankless toil,—l
believe, by so applying the energies of my mind and body,
and the best faculties with which I have been gifted, I am
Performing that which, in the position in which I have been
Placed, is not a pleasure to myself, but is a sacred duty which
I owe to my country. (Cheers.)
We shall not add a word lest we should weaken the
impression which this most splendid and beautiful
piece of true eloquence is calculated to make on the
mind ; we shall also leave it to the Mercury and other
" swift messengers of the gods " to digest it with what
appetite they may. In our next we shall endeavour to
shew that Lord Stanley has been quite as successful in
his vindication of the "order of landlords to which he
belongs" as he has been in the vindication of " himself."
Our readers, we confidently expect, will not find the
discussion in any degree tedious.

The large assembly who were present at the last an-
niversary meeting of our Protestant Association took
in good part the " boasting" of the Rev. Hugh
Stowell thitt the Manchester Association was " not a
sixpence in debt," and that Manchester had turned
out a considerably " larger total of signatures against
the Maynooth endowment than Liverpool ;" because
it was evidently done with a view to stimulate, and not
repress a spirit of generous emulation in this quarter.
On this head there could be no 'mistake at all, and
there was none. We should be ashamed indeed of
our town, and of a Protestant assembly met in it, if a
proceeding could have been misunderstood by them,
and much more if such a misunderstanding had oc-
curred in a case where Mr. Stowell, the able and well-
known champion of our common cause at Manchester,

Wtil ditmovel it‘nlitter nt Attr ehotioh, Wee the
pay rnitaintioratoo4 ; but tbovti wiv no ouch ignorant
miceoneeption. Mr. Stowell's objcgt `vac at once cor-
rectly seen, and his motive duly respected. A rivalry
such as he would seek to establish between Manchester
and Liverpool, is fair and honourable; and we shall
not be at all sorry if his taunting comparison shall
have the effect of bringing in sufficient funds to our
Protestant Association to pay off all debts, and leave
a balance in the treasurer's hands, and also of greatly
increasing our list of signatures against the grant for
maintaining a Popish College in Ireland.

In some other passages of his speech, our excellent
,friend-7if we may be permitted to use the expression—
was not *so happy, although we utterly disclaim the
slightest fe'eling of anger towards him on this account.
We did not take it well of him, for instance, that he
should have thrown out any insinuation of doubt as to
the sterling Protestantism of our esteemed representa-
tives, Lord Sandon and Mr. Cresswell. On this head
we are compelled to say that he spoke without due
inquiry. It was quite a mistake, in point of fact, on
his part, to say that there was no reference to Protes-
tantism in their addresses; the reverse was the case;
and even in the short joint address which they issued,
and which appeared in the STANDARD of the 20th of
June, there was the following passage :

" More deeply disgusted by ill; constant degrading and
dependent alliance which the Ministers of the Crown have
formed with the avowed foes of our Protestant church and of
sound religious education, with the disturbers of the public
peace, and tiie enemies of the integrity of the Empire, we
find the Householders more tha❑ ever mindful that they
must protect, by their votes, that stake in the country which
they possess ; the freemen," &c.
But even had there been no assurance in words to
the effect alluded to, it would not have afforded any
sufficient ground for raising such a question as that
suggested by Mr. Stowell. The question immediately
and directly at issue at the last election, was one be-
tween a Radical and a Conservative administration;
the candidates before us were Radicals on the one
hand, and known Conservatives on the other; and the
result was, that we carried the election of the Conser-
vatives gloriously, and beat the Radicals to their heart's
content. Therefore it is, that in Liverpool "we trust we
have a good conscience," and flatter ourselves that we
have both done our duty, and the state some service, by
re-electing our present members. We are only sorry
that Mr. Stowell and his good men of Manchester
were not able to do so much. We are persuaded of
their good dispositions, and in time we hope that they
will be able to boast, not only of the instrumentalities
they have used, but of the successful results achieved
by them.

There was another topic of a kindred nature to
which Mr. Stowell alluded, and on which, if we rightly
understood him, we are compelled to say that we do
not concur with him. The impression left on our
mind by. Mr. Stowell's observations was, that the pre-
sent administration was not, in his opinion, entitled to
our entire confidence; that although "there was much
at the present epoch to call for thankfulness to God,
and congratulations to each other," yet that there were
reminiscences connected with the leading men now in
power, which should make us cautious and reserved in
confiding the ark of the covenant into their hands.

Now, with regard to such an opinion, and the policy
to which it would probably lead, we must declare our
dissent. It is our opinion that under present circum-
stances we could not have a better ministry, and that
they ought to receive the zealous and unanimous sup-
port of all the Conservative party throughout the king-
dom. To carry forward this purpose, it will be very
desirable to avoid the introduction of any useless ques-
tions and vain janglings, calculated to cause division.
There is ample scope for the exercise of Protestant
zeal, both of a religious and political kind, without
doing so.

With regard to the articles which appeared a short
time since in the Times, casting slanders on our Pro-
testant associations, we hold them very cheap indeed,
as we know no reason for the supposition that that
most wayward and inconsistent journal is, with all its
vast circulation, the organ of Sir Robert Peel's govern-
ment. We believe, on the contrary, that it enjoys no
such confidence, and therefore that its remarks are
entitled to no more weight—as an indication of minis-
terial sentiment—than if they appeared in the Liverpool

3,7ercury.

,When next Mr. Stowell shall do us the favour to
appear on our Protestant platform at Liverpool, we
trust he will have more maturely weighed these several
matters, and that in the meantime additional evidences
will have appeared that the Ministry of Sir Robert Peel
is entitled to all our confidence, and has made great
advances in the attainment of it.