The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-18 00:00:00

than formerly to support the ministry. There does
not now seem such an improbability of a resignation as
existed a few weeks since. The entire failure of an

attempt to create a real excitement in the country seems
to render a dissolution worthy only of a set who are
plunged in a lower depth of infamy, if possible, than
the incapable crew who hold the reins of government.
The London Times of yesterday states, on the au-
thority of a correspondent, that, just before the budget
was introduced, Lord Melbourne complained to the
Queen that the time had come when the state of parties
in the house, and of public feeling out of it, made it ,
necessary that the ministers should resign. On this
her Majesty remonstrated. Lord Melbourne then said
that the only alternative course for the ministers was
to adopt some strong measure such as should be cal-
culated to make a popular ferment in their favour.
The Queen, with a wave of her hand, replied, " Any
measure !" Hence originated, it is added, the present
proposals of the ministry. We trust her Majesty
knows her duty to her people far too well for this ane
dote to be true. But she has been long associated
with those who would not hesitate to resort to this
dangerous expedient; and the schoolboy proverb says,
"evil communications corrupt good manners."
The Morning Chronicle declares its sentence to be
decidedly for dissolution ; and as that journal is sup-
posed to be very much in the secrets of the ministers,
we shall not be at all surprised to learn that, however
desperate the expedient, it will be that to which they
will have recourse.

Mr. Alderman Evans is a doctrinaire, if not a dia-
mond of the first water; and one of his favourite doc-
trines is, that the municipal body ought to have more

.
power. Now we have never contradicted the erudite
alderman on ibis point ; but we have reminded him
that one species of power, and a very important and
considerable one, is derived from men's acts. Cha-

racter in society is power; it is power in individuals,
and we see no reason why it should not be power also
in corporate bodies. Let our Council then, we say, no
matter whether consisting of Whigs or Tories, act well
and consistently, for the benefit of the town, and they
will acquire power—moral power; a greater power and
influence, in fact, than they could derive from any
mere act of parliament; but let it act in a dyferent
way, and it will have but a naked authority,—be con-
temptible in the eyes of the citizens, and become a
target for the shafts of ridicule and odium ; elevated,
in short, only to become obnoxious.
We make this remark because we understand our
" municipal Bentham" intends making an attempt in
the Council to-morrow to rescind the resolution lately
carried to oppose the inland bending bill. Now we
ask so great a stickler for municipal importance and
dignity, is this the way to promote the influence of, or
increase the respect of the people for the municipal
body ? Is it by repealing resolutions one day that
have been deliberately passed on another—is it by
stultifying itself after this fashion, that the corporation
will acquire weight or value in the popular mind ?

Alderman Evans, we are aware, was in a minority
on the last division ; but is it on this account that he
now seeks to disturb the determination agreed to ? If
so, then we must say that he evidently pays more re-
gard to his own wounded vanity, and exaggerated no-
tions of his self-importance, than he does to the cha-
racter of the body at large to which he belongs ; and
we respectfully but earnestly call on the members of
the Council to be punctual in their attendance at the
meeting tomorrow, if for no other reason, for this of
giving an effective negative to this repealing, and
self-stultifying project contemplated by Mr. Evans.
There is no occasion that we should now go over the

grounds on which we base the necessity of opposir
the inland bonding bill ; but this we will say, th
whatever error there may be in neglecting the bill,

suffering it to pass as if we had no concern with
;here can be none in paying due attention to our lo(
interests—none in the Council being alive to them.

none even in an excessive care and caution in guard-
ing against any proposition or measure calculated to
do the town an injury, no matter from what quarter it
may come. The Council, have, we may say, but just
come to a prudent resolution to this effect, and we ask
will they, at the instance of any individual member,
whether to gratify his spleen, or to restore his self-
complacency, or for any other equally insufficient
cause, agree to cancel this resolve ? Mr. Alderman
Evans appears to us to be acting the part neither of a
good corporator, nor of a good citizen, in this matter ;
and we earnestly call upon all other members of the
Council, of whatever creed or party, to defeat the
attempt.

CHURCH MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION MEETING.
—The speech (*f the Rev. Professor Scholefield at this
meeting yesterday will be found to repay perusal. It
is one of the many exemplifications met with by every
reading man, of the value of historical knowledge in
the elucidation of truth. The same may be said of
some of the speeches at the anniversary meeting of the
Pastoral Aid Society just held in London. We will
endeavour to make room for a condensed report on
Friday.
IMMO

LOCAL NEWS•

ROBERT HECTOR.—The sentence on Robert Hector, sur-
geon, who was convicted at the last Liverpool assizes, for
rape on a married woman, and against whom sentence of
death was recorded, has been commuted to twelve mouths'
imprisonment.
Among the passengers in the Columbia, were Mr. Mrs.
and Miss Vandenhoff and other members of the family.
Captain Miller of the Acadia, who was left behind ill, also
came in the Columbia, perfectly restored to health. He will
sail to-morrow, in command of the Acadia, for Halifax and
Boston.
DARING ATTEMPT AT ROBBERY IN THE STREET.—At
the Police-court, on Friday, a stout man, named John Mur-
ray, was placed at the bar under the following charge :—On
Thursday night, the prisoner and two other men were seen
to attack Mr. Gurnall, an elderly gentleman, in School-lane.
A policeman deposed to capturing the prisoner just as he was
pulling the watch out of Mr. Gurnall 's fob. The two others
ran away. The prisoner offered great resistance to the
officer, but was finally secured. Mr. Gurnall said he .was
attacked at the time stated, by three men, and received a
violent blow on the head. Two of them seized him by the
arms, and the prisoner put his flingers down his (witness's)
fob, and was in the act of pulling out his watch, when the
officer came up. The chain was pulled out, and the glass
broken. He was committed for trial at the sessions.

A DEAR NAP.—On Friday, a fine-looking little sailor
boy was brought before Mr. Rushton, amongst several others,
for sleeping on board a vessel during the watch-hours ; the
dock regulations requiring a watch to be kept for the two
hours before high water and two hours after it. The poor
fellow was tined 2s. 6d., with 2s. 6d. costs. On paying the
money he said, " Sir, it is too much to pay for an hour's
sleep. I was working hard all day ; I watched for two hours,
but was then so much fatigued that I fell asleep." Mr.
Rushton said, " Aye, it is too much certainly, to ask such
boys as you to keep watch after a hard day's work." Mas-
ters should. be more considerate, and not, for a mere paltry
saving, exact a duty from mere lads which they can scarcely
be expected to perform, however willing they may be to obey
their superiors.
SOCIALISM.—Amongst those who bad the honour of being
presented to her Majesty at the, Levee, on Wednesday last,
was John Brindley. Esq., the untiring opponent of Robert
Owen and the Socialists. That gentleman, with the Rev. J.
H. Woodward, the Rev. P. Young, and P. F. Aiken, Esq.
were appointed a deputation to present, through the Home
Secretary, the Bristol address to the Queen, complaining of
the evils of Socialism. It had 10,000 signatures, and was
headed with the name of the Lord Bishop of the Diocese. A
second address, from the female inhabitants of the same
place, contained 20,000 signatures. Petitions to both
houses were also sent in, each containing 10,000 names, with
occupation and residence.
THE ATLANTIC STEAMERS.—The Columbia and Great
Western, have both proved themselves first rate steamers.
The former accomplished her last passage from Boston to
this port in thirteen days and fourteen hours, having remained
at Halifax. several hours, and the latter performed the voyage
from New York to Bristol in thirteen days and six hours.
The Great Western reached Bristol on Friday evening at
eight o'clock, and the Columbia was off Holyhead on Satur-
day morning at six. The Great Western brought ninety-
seven passengers, and the Columbia fifty-five. The tide of
emigration still runs strongly towards the United States ;
350 passengers sailed for New York, on Sunday in the Ros-

CIUS.
NEW STEAM-BOAT ON THE BRIDGEWATER CAN AL.—On
Thursday, the 6th instant, a
.new
steam-boat was tried on
the Bridgewater Canal. She is built of iron, and worked by
a new description of propeller, or " revolving screw scullers,"
the invention of Mr. Petcr Taylor, of Hollinwood. The
arrangement consists of a series of oblique vanes or curved
blades, which are affixed upon two shafts or axis ; each set
is six feet in diameter : the vanes of one work between the
vanes of the other, in the same manner as the teeth or cogs
of wheels. By this arrangement the two sets, although six
feet each in diameter, are together contained in a paddle box,
only nine feet eight inches in width, the smallness of the
space occupied offering great convenience for passing locks
of canals. Time apparatus is well protected from the banks
and bottom of time canal, with neither of which it can come
in contact. The vessel started from Manchester on Thurs-
day morning with-a timber float, which she tugged up to
Preston Brook, and returned the same day, (the whole dist-
ance being about 50 miles,) tugging on her return three
loaded boats, belonging to the Bridgewater Trust.

THE BRITISH QUEEN STEAM-SHIP AND THE PRESI-
DENT.—The non-arrival of the President has, we regret to
hear, involved the families of her very numerous crew in the
deepest distress. On the supposition that she may have been
lost. the pay which they have been accustomed to receive has
been stopped, and the sudden deprivation of a source of in-
come which was necessary to their maintenance has left them
in the most unfortunate condition. The public cannot fail to
feel for their distresses, and will doubtless, alleviate them to
the extent of their power. In order to raise a fund for their
assistance, we perceive that the British Queen is to be open
for general Inspection, during to-day and to-morrow, at six-
pence per bead.