The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-21 00:00:00

ministration of the finances, they came forward and said,
" Year after year there has been a deficit, and at length it
amounts to £2,500,000. This is the state of the finances ;
this is the resnit of our administration ;" and instead of a
confession, as be would have expected of their own incapa-
city and mal-administration they represented themselves as
martyrs to the principles of free trade (hear, hear), and called
upon him to furnish them with a budget. (Loud cries of
" Hear, hear.") He was not surprised at their confidence.
(Hear, hear.) They recollected that when he left office in
1830 he had been connected with an administration which,
during the period of its management of the finances, had re-
duced the public debt by £20,000,000 of capital—had reduced
the charges of that debt by above £1,000,000 of annual in-
terest, and left a surplus of £2,400,000 of revenue over the
expenditure. (" No, no," from the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer.) How much, then was left? After a reduction of
£20,000,000 of the capital of the public debt—after a reduc-
tion to the amount he had stated of the annual interest, and

after a remission of taxes, they had contrived to leave a sur-

plus at the least of £1,606,0001 (Hear, hear.) All this, too,
under the difficulties of an unreformed parliament. (Loud
cheers.) The present government bad their own way for
five yers ; they had the benefit of cheap government. (Loud
cheers.) They had that superior advantage. They had had
the administration for ten years. Whilethose

leagues (pointing to Lord Stanley and Sir J. Graham) re-
mained with them they had a surplus of revenue. They got
rid of them in 1834, and the moment they were disembar-
rassed of them, the moment they had their own way, with
all the advantages of free trade, difficulties began to en-
compass them. (Loud cries of " Hear, hear.) Year
after year there was a deficit, until now it amounted to
£7,500,000 ; and then they clamoured, man after man, upon
him to favour them with a budget. (Loud cheers.) They
recollected, no • doubt, the aid he had given them on the
Jamaica question, when he rescued them from •the conse-
quences of their own evil ways (loud cheers); when he ena-
bled them to retain popular representative government—when
he prevented them disturbing the foundations of society in
every other colony which boasted of popular and representa-
tive government—when they were compelled to take his
advice, and afterwards had the manliness to admit that they
heartily rejoiced they had met such a counsellor. (Cheers.)
If the circumstances were the same, he would be tempted
to give them similar advice. He confessed he viewed with
pain and sympathy the position of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer. (Cheers and laughter.) It was said that a
good man struggling with adversity was a sight worthy of
the gods. -(A laugh.) He was sure that the right hon. gen-
tleman, with respect to the goodness of the man, and un•
doubtedly in the adversity of his circumstances, presented a
spectacle to the gods. (Loud cheers and laughter.) He
could not conceive a more lamentable position than that of
the right hon. gentleman—a Chancellor of the Exchequer,
seated on an empty chest, by the side of a bottomless defi-
ciency, fishing for a budget. .(Loud laughter.) He would
not bite (loud cheers and laughter); he would leave the
right hon. gentleman to return home with his pannier as
empty as his chest. (Renewed laughter.) He refused his
aid on this ground, that he could not conceive anything more
utterly unfitting, anything which would really so incapaci-
tate for the possession of public confidence, as that he out
of office, without the means of collecting information on
this financial crisis, should offer his budget in competition
with that of the right hon. gentleman. (Cheers.) There
might be some young member silly enough to suppose that
he would commit himself to the imposition of a property-
tax. or the revival of an additional rate of postage. He
fairly avowed he would bring forward no rival budget.
(Cheers.) He considered the vote to-night as a question
of confidence (loud cheers), and he would not seek confi-
by raising the expectation that he would bring forward
plans for the alleviation of the distresses of the country,
or encouraging the expectation of relief.

- -
We find ourselves much limited as to space ; but we
cannot leave the castigation in an unfinished state,
and, therefore, must make room just for what follows :
He wished not to speak, and he trusted he bad never
spoken, with any personal disrespect of any of the Ministers
of the Crown. He admitted their ability, and he might say,
without exception, that he entertained a high respect for
their character. But it was not for want of individnal ability
in their several departments that these evils had arisen, but
because, as a Government, they had been acting in violation
of the spirit of the constitution (great cheering,) and had re-
tained power when they were not possessed of that degree of
public confidence which would have enabled them to execute
the measures which they had decided upon. (Cheers.) But
it is not fair to the interests of a representative government
and of constitutional principles that these things should
continue ; it is not right that the House of Commons should
be exhibited to the world as withholding its confidence from
a Government, and yet not influencing its, fate ; it is not
advantageous to the monarchy that its servants should be
unable to earry measures which as confidential advisers of
the Crown they deem it their duty to recommend ; and it is
not for the interests of the measures you recommend, be-
cause the less grace and favour do they find in the public
eye, if they are believed not to spring from the deliberate,
full, and matured conviction of your own minds, but that
they are propositions made in order to prop your falling for-
tunes, and to conciliate the good will of the party by which
you may be opposed; and it is not, I believe, for the good
of your own characters as public men. (Cheers.) You
have made then great proposals; the public, I do not mean
to say the people to whose passions you have appealed, and
whose distresses you have described, but the intelligent and
well-judging majority of the public, hardly believe that you
proposed them in the confidence that you would carry them.
(Hear.) I do not deny the power you possess, I do not
deny that if you will use such appeals the position in which
you stand, and the authority with which you are invested,
may give to them an overwhelming effect. (Hear, hear.) I
admit that you may easily provoke the conflict of opposite
interests ; you can easily raise excited passions against what
you call class interests. (Hear, bear.) You may provoke
men to rise in resistance to those interests ; and it is possi-
ble, that amid that conflict of passions, arid that collision of
opposite interests, you may be able to gather up the frag-
ments of your strength ; but depend upon it 'such elements
of strength are unruly and uncontrollable instruments of
government ; depend upon it you will read this lesson to
the country, that when authority condescends to support
itself by alliance with agitation, it calls to its aid an ally
which will be its master, but which will not be its slave.
(Load and repeated cheers.)

The following circular has, we believe, been exten-
sively circulated in Liverpool within the last day or
two. It affords another proof of the active exertions
to which the friends of ministers are resorting, in a
vain endeavour to excite the country in their favour :
" is not the cause offaction, or of party, or of an indi-
vidual, but the common interest of every man in Britain.'
" JUNIUS.

" NATIONAL ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE

" Manchester, May 14th, 1841

" Stu,—l beg leave respectfully to invite you, as an Elec-
tor of Liverpool, to attend a Meeting which will be held at
the Amphitheatre, in Liverpool, on the 24th inst., at seven
o'clock, for the purpose of conferring with the following
deputation from the Council of the Nationpl Anti-Corn-Law
League

" Sir THOMAS POTTER, Knt.
Thomas Ashton, Esq., Hyde.
Samuel Ashton, Esq., Pole Bank.
Robert Ashton, Esq., Hyde.
Henry Ashworth, Esq., Bolton.
William Bayley, Esq., Stalybridge.
T. Bazley, jun., Esq., Manchester.
John Bright, Esq., Rochdale.
John Brooks, Esq., Manchester.
W. R. Callender, Esq., Manchester.
Richard Cobden, Esq., Manchester.
J. C. Dyer, Esq., Manchester.
William R. Greg, Esq., Manchester.
Holland Hoole, Esq., Manchester.
John Hyde, Esq., Dukinfield.
Nathan Lees, Esq., Dukinfield.
Watkin Lees, Esq., Dukinfield.
William Rawson, Esq., Manchester.
Alfred Reyner, Esq., Ashton.
J. B. Smith, Esq., Manchester.
George Wilson, Esq., Manchester.
" I have the honour to remain, Sir,
" Your most obedient servant,
" By order of the Council of the League,
" GEORGE WILSON, Chairman
" N.B.—This Circular will secure your admission."

It is well known that our precious Government are
at the bottom of this movement, and that the despica-
ble agitation is only employed for the purpose of bol-
stering up their tenure of office for a few days longer,
when, if their success be at all commensurate with
their efforts, a dissolution will immediately follow.
The Radicals know to a day when this will take place.
Already we see in many of the provincial papers ad-
dresses from candidates, and other symptoms of an
an approaching election. Conservatives of Liverpool,
be prepared for that event.

It will be seen, on reference to the Town-council
proceedings of Wednesday, that Mr. Alderman Evans
completely failed in his attempt to overturn the mea-
sures agreed to lie taken with reference to the inland
bonding bill. It was a very foolish attempt, and it
would have been still worse, if the Council had permit-
ted it to succeed. They have, however, rendered it
nugatory, and we congratulate them on the result.
Mr Evans's most potent argument on the occasion
was, that the Council was pledged not to oppose the
bill—and certainly that would have been a most potent,
nay an irresistable argument, if it were borne but by
facts; but we do not perceive that such was the case.
What was the pledge ? No more than this, according
to Alderman Evans's own statement, namely, that on
some former discussion of the question the council did
not think it expedient to move in the business ; but
did that pledge them not to do so at any future time ?
We should suppose not.
But certain gentlemen who were on a deputation to
London about the Liverpool dock bill, it seems, availed
themselves of this neutrality of the Council, and nego-
tiated upon it as if it gave an assurance that the Council
would not move thereafter on the subject. It this ne-
gotiation be in any way binding on the Council, then
we have done ; we would not have them by any means
break an engagement by which their honour or good
faith would be in the smallest degree compromised;
but the question is, had the deputation any right or
authority to interpret the then silence or neutrality of
the Council into a " pledge ;" or any power whatever
to bind the Council, or to enter into a negotiation by
which the Council would he, in fact, tied up with re-
gard to the inland bonding bill ? That is the question.
It would be a very extraordinary thing, truly, if a de-
putation sent to London on one particular business
could give a pledge for the conduct of the Council
with respect to another—without an express authority
to that effect—and traffic with that pledge as if it were
a real, substantial thing. Such conduct would, in our
opinion, be most reprehensible, and call loudly for
censure—and if it has taken place here,
it oughtnot
to be passed over. All we have to say at present s,
i
that there is no allegation that the Council gave any
sort of sanction to the negotiation in this case, or au-
thority to the negotiators to enter into it; and, conse-
quently, that they are now at perfect liberty to oppose
the inland bonding bill, if they think proper so to do.