The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-01-17 00:00:00

WOOLLEN GOODS

lt of PLAIN FANCY CASSIMERE

Al and DOESKINS, fro

:AD 2s. Gd. to Gs. Gi

Colours, from 7s. to I2s
LUSEIINGS. BEAVERS, PILOTS, &c., fro

ND CLOTHS, in

:Illy cheap, and well deserving atten-

tion from the I

Farnilie
I;LOTE

ABLISHMENT

99, LORD-STREET

BANKRUPT'S

TOCK OF WOOL
SELLING OFF

"ALEN DRAPERY

ENORMOUS SACRIFICE!

AT THE SHOP LATELY OCCUPIED BY
H. CLAPHAM, BANKRUPT,
No. 2, PARADISE STREET,
CORNER OF CHURCH-STREET, LIVERPOOL,
Consisting of Broad and Narrow Woollen Cloths, Ker
Pilots, Beavers, Cloakings, &c., and an endless variety o
Waistcoatings, Tailors' Trimmings, and every other artich
connected with the Woollen Trade, at 50 per Cent. under

lanufacturers' Pri

THE BEST HAT THAT CAN BE MADE,
SIXTEEN SHILLINGS,
AT FISHER and OLLERENSHATr S,
45, BOLD-STREET.
of the Article they offer, and
_ pensive system of Shopkeeping,
led to Sell at the above Price; and
Extensive Patronage by which
e principles they have adopted.
HILLINGS.

BEING Nlanufactu

usual e

Advertisers are e

trust to re

ye that

ey can carry of

All ott

a of flat

at proportionately Low

er descr

Prices

SELLING
FOR

BARGAINS!!!

;A' PRIVATE TREATY,
k FEW DAYS LONGER,

AT GLASGOW Sp,
Woo field's celebrated Ladies' Work Boxes, Dressing Cases,
portable Desks, Tea Caddies, Glass Lustres, Fancy Goods,
• Cases, Roll-up-Pouches, Envelope and Paper Cases,
"rnwn-made articles,) splendid Lustres

H 0 L

Dressir
(the ahoy(

and Ch
Mache Wort
Caddies, Env2
third the usual prices

nev Ornaments ; a splendid Assortment of Papie
Hand Screens, Card Racks, Portfolios, Te
;lope Cases, Inkstands, &c. &c., at least one
Splendid Tortoiseshell Tea Caddies

A.thrrpool -7iptanban.

TUESDAY MORNING, JANUARY 17, 1343

There are just now two important questions, antici-
patory of the coming session of Parliament, of which
we should be glad to he furnished with a solution,—
viz.: who is to be the leader of the opposition to Sir
Robert Peel's government ? and upon what great

question is that opposition to take its stand ? An un-
reflecting world, by the way, may say that the last

question ought to be the first—that the ground of
opposition should be first ascertained before we have

a chance of arriving at the man most likely to lead it.
But the world is wrong in this, as, indeed, it is in
many affairs of every day. Your true Whig, your
liberal, or your radical, is not a character at all dis-

posed to doubt his capability to argue any question, or
any side of any question, which may be propounded
to him, at a moment's warning ; and there is more

than one whip; in the House of Commons of whom it
may be said, with the same justice as of Lord John
Russell, that he would "undertake to deliver a pastoral
charge, lead a forlorn hope, or perform the operation
for the stone, with equal nonchalance." We adhere,
therefore, with due' submission to the world r.t large,
to our own arrangement of the order of enquiry.
Who, then, is to be the Whig leader ? The first
name which presents itself, in reply, is, naturally, that
of Lord John Russell himself. An admirable tactician
his lordship has approved himself ; unequalled in
stratagy and, withal, bold even to rashness. His own
opinion of his capabilities is on record, in the graphic
description, by Lord Brougham, above quoted. But,
somehow it strikes us that Lord John bolted the
course long before the close of last session, and, as
Palmerston might sentimentally exclaim,—

" Left the world to darkness and to ME !"

His lordship sounded the note of onset most valiantly;
but he left his juvenile companion in defeat to sing the
dirge for the fallen. In good sooth, it strikes us that
it requires a peculiar talent—which we shall attempt to
point out—to enable any one man to lead an opposition
against a Conservative government in the present
House of Commons. , Reader, you have perhaps occa-
sionally watched with interest—admiration ought to
have been the feeling—the patience and perseverance,
and we know not how many other attributes, with
which some frieze-coated native of the emerald isle
has handled a drove of porkers from the Clarence
Dock to the railway station in Wapping. What
winning suavity of manner you have seen ! what
coaxing tones you have heard ! and when some adven-
turous grunter has rushed up some side street, smell-
ing an adjacent brewery or stabling, what an instanta-
neous perception of the exact spot, at which he might
be advantageously confronted and persuaded to return
once more to the paternal supervision ! Anon, the
snouts and the tails of the drove have pointed in as
many different directions as are marked by the signs
of the zodiac; and then, with what energy Terence, or
Murphy, or Paddy, has danced round them, now
plying his whip, and now all the tones of his mellifluous
brogue—wheedling, whistling, and swearing by turns
—until at length 6' eyes in front," and the yard is
gained, and the long-legged and long-eared rascals are
boxed up as snug as beggars in a lodging-house, and
about as throng ! There was never an Irishman,
we believe, who lost a pig under similar circumstances.
Now it strikes us very forcibly that it is the very
talent displayed so conspicuously by our industrious
brethren in the frieze coats, or apologies for the same,
which is required in a leader of the whig opposition in
the approaching session; and that unless Lord John
is equal to the task of driving a score or two of pigs,
of independent habits and feelings, he may as well
attempt to whistle down the cross on the top of St.
Paul's, as lead, with any hope of success, that opposi-
tion. Of the herd of strange animals which he would
have there to drive, some crotchetty member, bearing a
remarkable likeness, in the length of ear and other
peculiarities, to Mr. Joseph Hume, would he darting
up an alley leading to " penny wisdom and pound
foolishness ;" some cadaverous-looking porker, in fea-
ture and leanness resembling the great Cobden, would
be off, grunting out " free trade and down with the
landlords ;" the tails and snouts of the whole drove
would continually be pointing a hundred ways, instead
of a dozen ; and in place of landing the whole in any
given spot, the unhappy drover would perchance find
himself some day, not a month after the commence-
ment of his adventurous exploit, pleasantly seated in
the " verdant mud," having been brought low by his
capricious charge mistaking the capacity of his legs to
serve as an arched gateway

Lord John Russell, then, we pass by. He is not
the man of whom we are in search. His lordship,
though unscrupulous as a politician, has yet some
noble blood in his veins. He has some little of the
chivalrous spirit of his race in his composition ; and
the man, who must lead the " all denominations," in
the present House of Commons, will have to do and
submit to things, of which we honestly believe his
lordship to be incapable.
Who's next, then ?
Our judgment points, next in order, to Lord Pal-
merston. This venerable personage would not be
likely to indulge in any of the refinements of feeling
and taste, which might deter the ex-secrctary for the
home department from undertaking an office so
onerous and perplexing. But, then, the foreign policy
of poor Palmerston
; how it has been cut and hacked
by every witling of the pack he would have to lead ;
denounced at League meetings ; made matter for
laughter at tea and toast gatherings—for laughter,
liorrescimus referentes, which has rung from the lips o
the gentler sex, young and old, the objects of its
author's fondest idolatry ! Besides, though " fallen
upon evil days," yet the necessity of some little con-
sistency and character, in one who aspires to the office
of their leader, may
still be deemed, even by the whig
and radical opposition, to be desirable; and if this be
so, the chance of his lordship is out.
Mr. Richard Cobden has graciously assured us that
he does not aspire to become prime minister, com-
mander-in-chief, chancellor, or to fill any other official
dignity, as the result of his virtuous labours. He
might, it is true, patriotically throw the shield of his
great name over his disorganised party, in the capa-
city of leader of the opposition; but then unfortunately
the poor man has only one idea ! Take him off the
subject of the corn laws, and he would soon be as far
at sea as a reasonable being could wish to he. A
number of minor names suggest themselves to our
notice—of men who would be great indeed at a free
trade festival, an anti-monopoly meeting, or a chartist
soiree; but in the presence of such statesmen and
masters of debate as Peel, Stanley, Gladstone, Graham,
and the host of talent which rallies round the Con-
servative benches, they may, indeed, " pale their in-
effectual fires," and retire from the arena.

This question is beyond us, then; but in the next
which we have proposed, viz. : " what is to be the
great opposition question," we may have better fortune.
It will not be the unfortunate budget of Lord Mel-