The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-09-13 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

Somebody of the Ministry has been engaged to blow
`a penny trumpet in favour of their great doings at home
and abroad; and the sound of the tiny instrument has
been swelled into as muca importance as possible by the
regular wind-instrument performers-- of the ministerial
press. The book is called The Reformed Ministry and
the Reformed Parliament ; and we shall do it the justice
I of saying that it is perfectly worthy of both, being frau-
dulent, stupid, and false.,
We are, however, puzzled how to review it, because
it is little more than a repetition, in a more extended
form, of the arguments and statements which were put
into the King's mouth last week by his Ministers. There
is the same praise of the peddling sham economy—of the
miserable humbug reforms in the law—of the sacrifice of
the Irish church—of the ruin of the West India Islands—
of the mischievous meddling with the charters of the In-
dia Company and the Bank—in domestic matters; and
in foreign affairs, we find both the pamphlet and the
Speech huzzaing over the settlement of Belgium—the
pacification of Portugal—the excellent arrangement of
the affairs of Turkey—and other triumphs of Whig di-
plomacy.

"To name Russia is to think of Poland ; but, alas! what
have we to say about that ill-fated and devoted country ? It lies
prostrate at the feet of its conqueror, enduring all the miseries
which exulting revenge can inflict upon a subdued and no
longer resisting antagonist. Arc the statements which have
been made on this matter exaggerated?? For the honour of
humanity, we wish they may prove so; but if they are, why
have they not been refuted ? But, indeed, the published acts
of the Russian Government speak for themselves. Have not
those acts been calculated to crush national spirit and extin-
guish national feeling, to wound the hearts of individuals, and
to add private affliction to public calamity ? Could England
have prevented all this? That is the question which belongs
to our present inquiry. We fear we must answer in the nega-
tive; at least we believe that if England and France had at-
tempted to throw their shield over Poland, the certain and im-
mediate consequence would have been a general war in Europe,
while Polish deliverance would have been a doubtful result.

"The kingdom of Poland has no sea-port with which Eng-
land can communicate; and it is separated from France by the
interposition of half of Germany. Austria and Prussia were
ready to have supported Russia, and each had an army of
100,000 men on the Polish frontier, ready to march at a mo-
ment's notice. If we had declared war against Russia, on behalf
of Poland, we should have had to wage that war against Austria
'and Prussia also. But what would- thope three -Powers have
done ? They would all have united to crush the Poles, which,
as their armies were placed, would have been but the work of
a fortnight; and then we should have had to wage a general
war in Europe, nut to save the Poles, but only to avenge their
fall. The war, too, would necessarily have been a war of poli-
tical principle, at a moment when the recent events in France
and-Belgium had excited, to the highest pitch, the passions of
mankind, and had brought into active conflict the most ex-
treme opinions. We baieve our government judged wisely.
But the Polish nation sleeps, and is not dead .Some day or
other it may still awake: we trust that the brighter day which
must await it will be prepared first by a milder and juster, and
therefore wiser policy on the part of Russia, and will not be
preceded by a renewal of violence and bloodshed. But no
administrative ingenuity can extinguish a great people, and no
physical force can permanently keep such a people down. in
misery and bondage."
There is much bad writing here. "To name Russia,
is to think of Poland." What does this mean ? To
name Lord Grey, is to think of quartering relatives on
the public; to name Lord Brougham, is to think of the
beefsteaks ; to name Lord Althorp, is to think of stupi-
dity ; to name Lord Palmerston, is to think of joint
stocks and Jack Wilks; to name Lord Melbourne, is to
think of Lady Caroline; to name Lord Ripon, is to
think of Goose Goderich ; to name Spring Rice, is to
think of affidavits—and so forth. But why should the
name of Russia suggest nothing but the idea of Poland ?
It ought, in the mind of an English minister, much
rather to excite the idea of Turkey. —We agree with the
pamphleteer—we could not do any thing for the Poles.
They touch not us. But still more the violation of the
treaty of Vienna, in the case of Belgium, left us no
diplomatic right to interfere for the Poles. With what
face could we invoke that treaty, when the Emperor had
it in his power to say, " Restore the kingdom of the
Netherlands, and then I'll restore the kingdom of Poland."
For the coward Belgians the Poles were sacrificed, who,
all scoundrels as they are, are nevertheless not cowardly
scoundrels. We acted most prudently therefore, in every
-point of view, in not coming forward. The humbug
of liberalism is a sensible -humbug in many particulars.
As we have already said, the Dutch are robbed without
ceremony because they are weak ; the Turks are robbed
'because they are weak; the Planters are robbed because
they are weak; but the Emperor of Russia, though
much denounced, is not robbed, because lie is stron,.
The valour of our ministers is the valour of a pickpocket.
It is "hoped and trusted" that the Emperor will be
more mild, just, &c. &c. to the Poles. Hoped—trusted!
—have we come to these beggar words at last ? Do we
crouch the knee and extend the palm ? It is a new atti-
tude for England. But we hope and trust in vain—we
have
turned, beggar-men to no purpose. The whole
Russian nation is with their Emperor, and the Poles must
be contented to suffer the lot which has ever been, and,
will ever be, the lot of unsuccessful rebels. So far, how-
ever, from agreeing with the numskull pamphlet that the
separation of Poland from Russia would be a source of
weakness to the latter, we know that it would be a
source of strength. As it is now, Russia must hold it by
immense garrisons and armies, and she dare not advance
into Europe without the fear of an insurrection in her
rear. Even in the Turkish war, this dread paralyzed
many of the Russian operations. In a French war it
would be a most serious and vital hindrance to any ex-
tended plan of campaign. Revive the humbug kingdom
of Poland, and put a Stanislaus Poniatowski on the
throne—soothe the base priesthood and the beggarly
nobles by throwing them the serfs to eat as in old times,
and Poland will be no longer a hindrance to the move-
ments of Russian ambition. This, however, is a point o
view too elevated for the blinkards of the pamphlet.
Weihave already far exceeded our usual limits—but we
have torn one of the brightest passages of our foreign
diplomacy to pieces. Let our readers take our word for
it that the parts we have not noticed are as false, as
flimsy, and as shallow, as absurd in reasoning and as
paltry in writing, as those which we have laid before
them. One word before we part.
The pamphlet assures us that the reformed House of
Commons is an assembly of gentlemen !
Knock bin' down, Jack Gully, knock him down ! It is
libelling the great majority of the body to which you be-
long.
An assembly of gentlemen !—lt would make a troop of
dragoons, horses and all, burst into a fit of uncontrollable
laughter.
„* Since the above was written, we have learned
that this pamphlet is a quadrupartite concern—the four
fathers being Spring Rice, Powlett Thomson, Ned
Ellice,!and Palmerston, whose average English or Irish
was put:into somewhat intelligible language by a treasury
hack belonging to the Globe. It is a glorious specimen
of the division of labour.—Age.

A Committee was appointed during the last session of
Parliament to inquire into the present state of agricul-
ture, and of persons employed in agriculture in the
United Kingdom. The Committee made a report at the
beginning of August, which has since been published.
The report, we are sorry to observe, describes the con-
dition of the farmers generally to be retrograding. It
is stated that during the last ten years especially, they
have become more and more distressed, the value of
their stock has been reduced lower and lower, their capi-
tal has been diminishing, and their land has been ra-
pidly deteriorating in productiveness, their produce be-
ing neither so much in quantity nor so good in quality.
The poor lands are in many places entirely gone out of
cultivation. Of a few counties the report speaks more
favourably. In Shropshire, Cheshire, Wiltshire, and the
Isle of Thanet, the cultivation of the land is said to be
rather improyet4.big .gYen. in those districts the con-
dition of the tenantry is stated to be far from prosperous.
The effect of this state of things, and of unfavourable
seasons,- is, that for some years the stock on hand, on
the arrival of harvest, has not exceeded a month's con-
sumption.
In 1816, there was a stock of old corn on
hand, equal to six months' consumption ; but since that
period it has been gradually decreasing; and Mr. Jacobs,
a gentleman whose opinion on this subject is entitled to
particular consideration, says, that " if we were to di-
minish the growth of English wheat by one-tenth part
of that now produced, we should not be in a safe state
in case of a deficient harvest, for all the world could not
'make up the dyiciency." The evidence of the witnesses
generally attributes the decreased productiveness of the
soil to the diminished means of the farmer. Their dis-
tress is the consequence the low price of produce, of
,high rents, poor rates, and the wages of labour. Though
it is the fashion amongst those who are loudest in
their abuse of the landed interest, to attribute the dis-
tress of the farmer to the pressure of high rents alone,
it appears from the evidence that the other causes act
with at least equal eiThet upon his resources. It is stated
by several witnesses, that the condition of the agricul-
tural labourers, generally speaking, is not worse than
it was eight or ten years ago. Their wages have not
been reduced in the same proportion as the necessaries
of life ; and, in some districts, it is affirmed, their mo-
ney wages are as high at this moment as at the conclu-
sion of the war. It is stated, however, that the present
rate of farm wages, though not more than the labourer
ought to receive, is higher than the farmer, from the fall
in prices of farm produce, can afford to pay ; and that it
has been obtained not
.by the regular process of supply
and demand, but by intimidation. This is a circum-
stance which, independent of its effect upon the agricul-
tural interest, involves a principle which, if carried into
general operation, would be destructive of all property,
and in the end increase the distress of the labourers
themselves. We shall not, at present, however, say all
' that our view of the consequences likely to result from
such a state of things suggests. The effect, at present,
is to increase the difficulties and embarrassments of the
farmer.

We need scarcely observe, that the impression pro-
duced on our minds by the perusal of the evidence, is
to strengthen our conviction of the necessity of support-

ing, by protecting duties, the interests of the British
farmer. Such support is necessary, not merely to ena-
ble him to pay his rents and to maintain his labourers,
but to secure a due supply of the chief necessary of life.
The whole of the evidence goes to show that it would he
an infatuation little short of madness to throw this
country upon the chance of foreign supplies ; and that
if we once commit ourselves to the chances of free trade,
and thereby throw out of cultivation the inferior soils,
(amounting, according to the evidence, to one-third,)
we shall put to hazard not only the comfort and pros-
perity of a large and important portion of the commu-
nity, but the subsistence of the whole people.—ilan-
chester Herald.

CLOSE OF THE BILKING PARLIAMENT.—Some days
since a proof-sheet was sent us for correction, in . which
Lord Althorp's bill for the commutation of English tithes
was ingeniously printed Lord Althorp's bilk. The letter
was wrong, but the spirit so exquisitely correct, that
there was reluctance to turn the honest word into what
his lordship intended the public should read it. It has
been a complete session of bilks, where everybody has
been bilking everybody—bilker or bilkee in turn. First,
we had the great bilk, by which the Irish nation long al-
ternately praying and fighting for justice, got the coer-
cion bill. Then there was the bilk of retrenchment, the
bilk of the abolition of pensions and sinecure places, the
bilk of the assessed taxes abolition, when so many pledged
members openly and barefacedly bilked their constituents
and will try it again, if they give them opportunity. We
have since had the bank charter bilk, and the corn laws'
bilk. The nation has beets bilked out of a million to the
Irish parsons, and of twenty millions to the West Indian
slaveholders. But the grand bilk of the session, juggle
and bilk together, and deeper villany, a mystery of ini-
quity we may yet unfold, is the Irish church bill bilk,
where Tories bilked Whigs and Whigs bilked Tories,
and where Tory and Tory and Whig and Whig tried in
the dark to bilk each other ' • Sir R. Peel, Tory, conniv-
ing with Mr. E. Stanley, Whig, handy-dandy, to bubble
and bilk such simple good men as Lord Althorp,
and Sir Robert Inglis, Tory. The Irish church bill is,
indeed, the grand bilk of bilks—the crowning bilk of the
first bilking session of a reformed Parliament. Whether
Tories or Whigs shall be the successful bilkers before
Christmas-day is yet a puzzle ; the latter have, with all
their might, worked hard and sweated, rising ere it was
morning, to make smooth and easy the way of return to
the sweets of (ace to their opponents, and trusting to ac-
company them in single file or by small divisions. Lat-
terly, the Whigs have appeared rather desirous of leaving
some small obstruction—a few Macadam bars across the
path; but if the West India bilk is completed before the
prorogation, the Tories will not strain hard at any thing
else. Unless the people are " wide awake," the second
bilking session will be triumphantly opened by the To-
ries.—Tait's Magazine.

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