The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-08-06 00:00:00

ate circle of his :upportero ; and with a deep corigi-
)rotiou for the dignity of the honourable Home of

a he is a member, he is more anxious - to have the
rtment of its chief officer properly filled, than that
r should be one selected from any particular
Many members might unquestionably be
d in the Conservative ranks fully as well qualified

charge the duties of Speaker, as Mr. Lefevre ;

and if the choice was one now to he made ab initio,
one resulting from a vacancy occasioned by some other
use than merely that of a parliamentary dissolution,
,e case would be daerent; the Conservative leader

certainly then be bound to take a different
course, in common justice to his own friends and
party. But Mr. Lefevre has now a qualified posses-
sion in the chair, and his conduct in it has hitherto
afforded no room for exception.
We say then, that it is liberal, disinterested, and
high-minded in the right honourable baronet to leave
the Whig-selected Speaker undisturbed in his occupa-

tion. A sacrifice indeed is made, but it is the sacrifice
of some individual only for the common good. A
Conservative is subjected to privation, debarred of a
dignified office, to which his party would easily have
helped him; but a saving is thereby effected for the
country, and the Conservatives, as a party, do not
murmur; they are content.

Thus it is that Conservatives commence their reign.
Contrast them with the Whigs, whose conduct you
find to be one continued job from first to last—from
Mr. Speaker Abercromby to plain John Campbell, ex-
Lord Chancellor of Ireland, with a pension, expect-
ant. The country will take this act of self-denial on
the part of the Conservatives, as a gratifying evidence
of the benefits to be expected from. this administration,
and we sincerely rejoice on this account that such a
course has been decided upon. Conservatism can re-
ally lose nothing by such generous disinterestedness;
it must gain by it. It will gain in the estimation of
' the country; it will gain by its own intrinsic gene-
rosity and patriotism; it will be contrasted by all men
with the voracious cupidity and selfishness of the
Whigs, and it will strike its roots downwards in the

respect and affection of the people. It is an admira-
ble commencement of the new order of things which

we now look for,

Upwards of two hundred ministers of religion, it is
said, have engaged to attend a conference at Manches-
ter, on the 17th instant ;—for what purpose does the
reader suppose ? For something religious perhaps ?
No, indeed; but on the subject of the corn-laws. It
is to be a sort of disssenting convocation, previous to
the meeting of parliament, and it is expected that so
great a company of preachers, if they enjoy no recog-
nised legal capacity in their ministrations of religion,
will be extremely impressive on a subject which they
probably understand equally well. We have always
observed that the lecturers of the Anti-Corn Law
League had rather a taste for something of the reli-
gious. Many of them are fond of quoting texts of

scripture, and introducing them, with whatever incon-
gruity or misapplication, into their harangues; and it
is probably from the piquant effect which they found
the practice to produce in their own exercises, that

they have been induced to collect such a number of
dissenting preachers at Manchester, and discharge the
whole battery at once on the 17th instant. By the
way, we are sorry to perceive that the Hon. and Rev.
Baptist Noel has been giving his aid to the cause, by a
brochure, which is called " A Plea for the Poor ;" but
begging his pardon, it is altogether begging the ques-
tion to designate an argument for the repeal of the corn

laws a plea for the poor. Mr. Noel, in his ignorance,
may sincerely think it to be such ; but that does not
alter the fact. In our opinion, such an argument is a
plea against our own people—a plea for the foreigner,
and consequently a plea against the poor of England,
instead of for them. We have looked over his pam-

hlet, and find it to be a very poor affair indeed ; but

intending to say something more on the subject at an-
other opportunity, we dismiss it with this hasty remark
for the present.

The letter of " Conservator" in the last number of
the STANDARD, was, we doubt not, perused by the
Protestant public with mingled feelings of gratification
and regret—rep-fat, because the evils which afflict the
sister country art, so great and multiplied—and grati-
fication, because there are still some master-minds
who can dive deeper than the surface of things, and
cannot only discover the nature of the grievances which
press so heavily on unhappy Ireland, but are able to
discover the most likely methods to alleviate or re-
move them. We feel honoured that an intelligent
correspondent has selected the STANDARD as the me-
dium of giving publicity to his sentiments, and
whilst we shall be honoured by receiving any further
communications, we are sure our readers will lie
equally delighted. Such writers as " Conservator"
are not met with every day.