The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-03-21 00:00:00

THE PRESS AND THE PEERS.

Fon many years past the growing usefulness and
general integrity manifested by the conductors of the-
Newspaper Press in this country have won for the order•
to which they belong a high place in public estimation._
In proof of this, it is hardly necessary to do more than.
point to the sensitiveness with which men of every station.
regard the dicta of the press. Their right to such con-
sideration has been achieved by the dignity, the for-
bearance, and the rectitude by which their judgments and_
general conduct have been characterised; and it cannot
be necessary to do more than allude to the vigilance
industry, sagacity, and intelligence by which they have
formed those judgments and regulated that conduct—and,
which they have also brought to bear on all topics involv-
ing public or private morals, regulating the different
social relations, or tending to a due administration of the
affairs of this great empire. Individual exceptions to this
general rule may, no doubt, be pointed out, and differences
of opinion, as to the mode of carrying out particular
objects, exist to a considerable extent; but in relation to
all the objects above alluded to, the Public Press of Great
Britain has established for itself a character in which
power is tempered by mercy a persuasive influence,
guided •by calm judgment--a repressive energy or
stimulative strength, swayed. only by inflexible justice, and
an integrity proof against corruption. These attributes
are freely accorded to it by men of large decernment ; and
in numerous public instances it 1,:ls been the pride of men
not less remarkable for the extent and variety of their
accomplishments, than distinguished by their talents;
eminent from their social. position, and elevated by their
virtues, to acknowledge the deserved moral sway exercised
by the British Press. From-time to time, however, there
have been manifested towards it the impatient antipathies
of a petulant and narrow-minded jealousy. Men moving_
in an elevated sphere, upon whose sum of natural abilities
no small additional lustre has been conferred by the lens •
through which the press has directed the public eye to
look upon their deeds, do not scruple, so often as an oppor-
tunity is offered, to treat with saucy hauteur and simu- .
lated contempt that organ, without whose aid their public
existence would be a blank—their best exertions compara—
tively worthless. Foremost of these assailants stands the
valorous Earl of DERBY, who never allows an opportunity:.
to slip in which he can display his personal dislike at the
indisputable importance of this new power in the state ;
and in openly manifesting: his ingratitude- to that power -
from which he and they have derived deep and lasting
obligations, his lordship is cordially joined by many who
oppose him on every other ground, and whose antipathy
to him personally is probably only exceeded by that which
they bear in common towards an engine morally and intele
lectually greater than them both. It was but the other day .
that, in his place in Parliament, his lordship acknowledged
the obligations he owed to the Conservative , press of
Britain, by contumeliously repudiating dependence on, ,
connexion with, or influence over, any portion whatever
of its organization ; and his lordship's disclaimer was
characteristically, and with equal truth and good taste,
adopted by one Whig lord, repeated by a second, and re-
echoed by another, and"yet another, as to the self-sustain—
ing vigour of Liberal and coalition cabinets. Again, last
week, we find the ex-Premier endeavouring to fix upon
the press the odious imputation of surreptitiously obtain-
ing the possession of state secrets, through the subornation
'of official underlings. It is true, indeed, he made a show.
of fixing connivance on the present Ministry, and: rode his
tilt against the Times. That the Times has fully and
ably vindicated itself from the discreditable imputation, is
no more than was to be expected from the talent it always
displays, and from the jealous care with which it inva-
riably guards its own reputation and maintains the -
dignity of its order ;- small thanks. only are due• to the
Earl of Ersitur -for that achievement ; but, in the blind-
ness of his hostility to the press, his lordship- has, for-
tunately, furnished the antidote to his own _ungracious
attack. His averment was, that, through the employment.
of some improper and reprehensible agency, the Times
had acquired the information contained in some important
documents connected with the present Russian dispute,
and his insinuation was, that the press could only have
obtained such information by Raving remorse to discre-
ditable means ;_ while, singularly' enough, -he admitted:
that' he himself was likewise in possession of similar-in-
formation relative to the same documents. He thus de
facto argued that what could only be obtained by a
journalist through agenaies the basest and most nefarious,
might be acquired by a Peer of Parliament in a manner
at once- not only innocent but praiseworthy ! His lord-
ship knows full well the amount of honour belonging to
a peer, but hazards somewhat recklessly his opinions as
to the peccability of the press in the face of a discrediting
world. What, save unreasoning antipathy, could have

led to an assumption so monstrous and so insulting

His lordship feels that the press, with its multiform heads •.
and numberless eyes, is rapidly passing that poiht at
which he and his order can say to it with effect, `!hitherto
shalt thou come, and no further." Renee his dislike to
it, and hence, also, his hasty and frequent invectives to
its discredit.

Whoever casts his eye over the pages of our constitU:

tional history, will speedily perceive that the career of
British glory has led directly, though by leisurely steps
to the development of first one new power and then

another iu the state. From the chaos of feudal anarchy,
the principles of monarchy was first evolved to check the
egression of lawless might upon the feebler domain of
right. The progress of events, and the development of
constitutional liberty,next called intoexistence the banded
influence of the commons, as a third power in. the state;
and gradually the requirements of those three estates have
given rise• to the growth and recognition of a fourth,
whose power is as extensive and commanding as its in-
fluence is wholesome and• abiding. That fourth estate, it
is needless to aver, is the PIIESS. • It has risen as the
natural result of our free and self-adjusting institutions.
Its growth has no doubt been slow—its recognition tardy
—but not on these accounts is it now the less truly an
estate, or the less powerful. The vocation of the press is
a high, if not, indeed, a sacred one—its mission in matters
secular,is second only tothose of thehwgiver and the judge..
To oppose and baffle oppression—to protect the weak—to
unmask hypocricy—to display truth in its native beauty
—to uphold virtue—to disseminate knowledge, render-
ing the people wise as well as Itappy,iole-rant and just as
well as free. Such are a few, and only a few of the objects
in the pursuit of which the press can render itself-respect-
able and powerful, and in the steady cultivation-of which
it has arrived. at its present eminence and -growing
consideration. Its influence is derived from the high tone
of its morals and' its honour—the catholicity of its sym-
pathies. Truth and justice are its weapons—fearless
honesty,. unobtrusive self-respect, and uncompromising
independence constitute its citadel. By a fair and as-
siduous use of those advantages, it has won the position it
now occupies, and from that position it cannot be driven,
except by treason to itself. Strong in the possession of
such defences, and powerful in the use of such weapons,
the press may laugh at the puny attempts of Lord DERBY
and his unnatural allies to drive it back to that quiescent
attitude which it quitted in driving off the explode&
fiction, that reporting Parliamentary proceedings was a
breach of privilege, and any deviation from constrained
silence on political measures was a crime against the
state. In their denunciations of its influence, the Earl of
DERBY and his strange associates have borne strong,though
indirect as well as unintentional testimony to the purity
of motive which actuates the press. His lordship testified
in words, as he had often before made apparent by deeds,
that *e support afforded to his government by the Con-
servative press was disinterested and unbought. Can he
say as much and as truly for any other class of his sup.
porters ? The press, on his own showing, owes nothing to
his lordship. It has attained its present vigorous youth-
without aid from him—that promising adolescence in
ridding it of factitious trammels, confers on it full scope -
for the exercise of its intellectual power, and secures its
moral sway. The time may, not be so far distant as he
thinks, when Lord. DERBY, and those who join with
him in its condemnation, may again stand in need of that•
aid which the press alone can render. If such a time
should come, his lordship may find, to his own dismay;
that his perfect freedom of action will not be enrumbered
by any embarrassing assistance rendered by a vituvcrat&
and repudiated press.

A DREADFUL TRAGEDY was perpetrated on Saturday
at Birmingham. Samuel Speak shot his mother dead
with a pistol, loaded with slugs, and shortly afterwards
put an end to his own life by the same means.
ST. Jonfes CHORAL SOCIETY, BIREENHEAD.—On
Friday the members of this society, under the direction
of Mr. Edward Gunton, gave a selection of sacred and
secular music to a large and highly respectable audience,
who testified their approval of the performance by frequent
plaudits. At the conclusion contributions were received
in aid of the St. John's National School fund.
of
then flat, and her
k A HORRIBLE MEMBER was committed on Saturday,
near St. Luko's Church, London, by a mania
George Hennen, a mason, whose wife was foundC buvaino,e!
police in the back parlour of the house thev " the
hwaggith
lheder. head literally
the bedclothes were saturated with blood, deceased and
throat y b
u cut u at
ab
were scattered about the apartment and her brains
hatchet, with which the frightful , while a carpenter's
was lying near the person of the deed was committed,
lipteersit beaten ' occupied'
unfortunate woman..

OLD B__VGLAND.

TRIMS she sits in her Ist:And-home,
Peerless among her peers(
And Liberty oft to her arms doth come
To ease her poor heart of tears :
Old England still throbs With the muffled fire
Of a Past she can never forget ;
And still shall she banner the world up higher,
For there's life in the Old Land yet.
Hurrah
There's life in the Old Land yet.

The great Hero-Mother's not hoary yet,
There is sap in the Saxon tree,
And she lifLeth a bosom of glory yet,
Through her mists to the sun and the sea,
Fair as the Queen of Love fresh from the foam,
Or a Star in a dark cloud set ;
Ye may blazon her shame, ye may leap at her fame,
But there's life in the Old Land vet.
Hurrah!
There's life in the Old Land yet.

They would :scoff at her now, who of old look'd forth
In their fear, when they heard her afar;
Oh, but loud will your wail be, poor Kings of the Earth,
When the Old Land goes down to the war!
The avalanche tremb'es, half launch'd, and half riven,
Her voice shall in motion set :
Then ring out the tidings, ye winds of heaven,
There's life in the Oki Land yet.
Hurrah I
There's life in the Old Land yet.

Let the Storm burst, it will find the Old Land
Ready .ripe for a rough, red fray !
She will fight as she fought when she took her stand
For the Right in the olden day.
Ay, rouse the old royal soul! Europe's best hope
Is her sword-edge by Victory set !
She shall dash Freedom's foes adnwn Death's bloody slope
For there's life in the Old Land yet.
Hurrah !
There's life in the Old Land yet.