The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-01-30 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

EXTRAORDINA Y MANGUVRE.
(From the Standard of Saturday.)
The committee of the whole house stood adjourned to
twelve o'clock this day, to tike into consideralion the
amendments to the Canada Bill proposed by Sir William
Follett and other members. At twelve, however, and
subsequently through the whole day, the reporters' gal-
lery remained closed; but at half-past twelve the re-
porters were informed that the house had adjourned, hav-
ing adopted all the amendments. The arrangement and
purpose of this trick are quite intelligible. Ministers
having had quite enough of discussion, smuggled down
enough of their members to constitute a committee, and
then hurried over their distasteful work in secret.

THE WHIG MINISTRY AND SIR ROBT. PEEL.
(From the Morning Herald.)
The debate of last night unfolds to the country one of
those scenes of official meanness—of political self-
abasement—to which the history of no party, but the
party now in power, affords a parallel !
Lord John Russell having intimated in his place in
the House of Commons—(after Sir Robert Peel had
given notice a few days ago, that be would move certain
amendments on the whig bill for the government of Ca-
nada)—that the Qacen's ministers would abide by their
original measure ; and having, last night, intimated

again, that to adopt the suggested amendments, would
be to admit that the measure proposed by ministers had
been condemned by the House of Commons :—after
these repeated declarations, that they would stand or fall
by the course which they had deliberately adopted— the
present occupants of office calmly kissed the conservative
rod, and most submissively adopted every one of Sir
Robert Peel's amendments I

After seven years' experience of whig rule,—no, rule
is not the phrase; the whigs have not courage enough
to rule;—but after seven years experience of whir!, te-
nacity of place, it is, of course, too late to express sur-
prise at any manifestation of want of spirit, or want of
principle, on the part of Lord John Russell and his col-
leagues. It is want of spirit—it is want of principle—
that sustains them in office. The specific gravity of one
honestly avowed opinion would sink them fur ever: they
float like corks on the surface of the ocean of politics,
because, cork like, they are lighter than the very froth
of public opinion. The whigs have no pride, no elm-
rauter, no decided tendency to anything but to place and
pay. They are subject to " the skiey iufluences" like
the veriest pool of stagnant water. They will freeze
under the influence of O'Connell, or evaporate under
the influence of Sir Robert Peel—happy all the while in
the physical fact, that it is the nature of ice to be at the
top, and that it is the nature of vapour to a.scend. The
whigs are content to be shuttlecock to the battledores of
the conservative leaders, and of the Irish agitators. The
more fiercely contested is the game, the longer (as they
know) will the shuttlecock be kept up. The whigs seem
to partake of the nature of a foot-ball—a thing made
only to be kicked—and which, after being kicked, during
the longest day, retains all its original elasticity and
emptiness—all the qualities, in short, which render it lit
to be kicked on the next suitable occasion.

It was observed, in ancient times, in regard to the Dy-
rarnids, that their summits were to be reached only by
eagles and creeping things. The same observation is
susceptible of application to the high places of political
life. The Whigs have attained these high places, simply,
because it is the nature of whiggery to creep. " Dust
shalt thou eat" is the doom of every whig ; and so long
as the dust is gold dust—the dust of otlice—every whig
is satisfied with his sentence.

Who has forgotten the conduct of the present fiCell-
pants of office towards Sir Robert Peel, hut three short
years ago? Who has forgotten their refusal of " a fair
trial" to the minister, in whom the King had expressed
a confidence, which be could not extend to Lord Mel-
bourne and his associates? Who has forgotten the con-
duct of the whip, in regard to the " appropriation
clause"—the alacrity with which, in that matter, minis-
terialists and "philosophic radicals" voted "black white,"
iris order to exclude the conservative party from power?
The conduct of the whigs, last night, was in admirable
harmony with their conduct on those memorable occa-
sions. Sir Robert Peel was avenged, when Lord John
Russell, with the look of Mawworm, and with something
of the style of Cantwell, prostrated himself before the •
man whom he had supplanted, by arts to which no inge-
nuous spirit could stoop ! There needed not Sir Ro-
bert's own terrible sarcasms; there needed not his wi-
thering criticism on the whig instructions to Lord Dur-
ham, nor his awful predictions that those instructions
would he withdrawn, to complete his triumph ! Sir Ro-
bert co uld not add to the depth of the unsolicited whig
descent ! Lord John chose a horizontal position in the
kennel, as the attitude and locality most appropriate for
his colleagues and himself ! Rad there. been a lower
depth still, Lord John would, no doubt, have selected it ;
and yet, even in that moment of intense voluntary self-
abasement, Lord John could repudiate the " low mora-
lity" which connected the merits of a rebellion with its
success, and could affect to draw nice distinctions between
Jack Cade and Hampden—between Masaniello and Al-
gernon Sydney. Whatever might be the faults of Jack
Cade and Masaniello, both were brave men. It is need-
less to add that neither was a whig !
When we see the present cabinet content to owe its
existence one day to the support of O'Connell, and the
next- to the contemptuous forbearance of Sir Robert
Peel, it i.: not difficult to guess the deportment which
ministers would have worn to Papineau, had Papinean
been successful ; it is not difficult to guess the attitude
which they would assume, if the Autocrat of Russia or
the President of the United States were to require a sa-
crifice of the honour or the interests of England ! Happy
the country which is blessed with such rulers !