The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-10-17 00:00:00

and cur traders—in the universal confidence with

winch an en
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xcention only of

n►blers)

AS coin(

still look up, to that stateaman and his culitag tic,: 44

o men in whose hands the destinies of this grey

nary will not, on the one hand, be perilled t

rowth in power retarded by an over-

itnid obseiv-

ance of exploded theories, and an over-anxious
clinging to opinions which, however sound they
may have been in other days, and under different
circumstances, are no longer those which should

guide the government of ENGLAND AS SHE IS.
It may be for good or it may be for evil, that we

lre now placed in the position that, as a nation, we
As a nation, we are now irretriev-
ably embarked upon a course the end of which is

must progress

discernible by few—is, in fact, an indistinct vision I

and its sudden prostration, from the very weight
and vastness of the elements of which it is com-
posed ;—hut this we know : there is no receding
We must fulfil our destiny. We must go

on in that race for commercial supremacy over the
nations of the world, in which we have already pe-
rilled so large an amount of our social happiness
and security; we must go on extending those mag-
nificent possessions, which already compose an em-
pire greater than the world has yet known ; we
must go on, alas ! devoting our industrious millions
at home to the wear and tear, the toil and privation,
which, we fear, are inseparable from such a struggle;
and to guide us safely through such a course—to
ward off a premature explosion—it is not the rash
nd reckless theorist—it is not either the old-world
advocate of obstructive and backward policy—to
whom must be committed the charge of interests so
mighty, involving, in effect, the destinies of the
world; but to the prudent statesman, who, knowing
and feeling his position, and the dangers which me-
nace his country on every side, from without and
from within, will not be turned from that position
by insidious temptations or open menace. Such a
man, we fondly hope, experience, to which we have
pointed, has shown that we possess in Sir Robert
Peel. He may disappoint our wishes upon some
points—points, too, which we think material—but
" take him for all in all" there is no man in the pre-
sent day by whom we would willingly see him re-
, placed in his present station at the head of England's
government.

A fortnight ago, we told the government of Sir
Robert Peel that, to win the hearts of the sound
portion of the British people, to strengthen the con-
servative part/ throughout the empire, and, Indeed,
to preserve it from utter and almost irremodiable
prostration, their poliay must be based upon strictly
conservative and protestant principles. Conserva-
tism, not only in the government but throughout
the land, must be true to itself ; it must cease to
court the treacherous applause of opponents, and
grieve the hearts and trifle with the hopes of friends;
it must desert the crooked paths of expediendy, and
adopt and pursue the straightforward and manly
course by which alone the truth can be safely
reached, and the respect and affection of right-
hearted Englishmen can be secured. Were we

wrong in saying this? We were not. The events
of the past week have proved that we were not. Ten
days ago there were thousands of loyal conserva-
tives throughout Great Britain, who distrusted the
government of their choice—who feared for their
country and her institutions, cummitted to such
keeping. One step in the right direetion—one de-
cided manifestation of a determination to maintain,
untouched and unsullied, the protestant faith and
the integrity of the empire—one overt act, as the
evidence of the resolve of England's government to
put down the treasonable agitation, by which these
were insultingly menaced—have gained, for Sir
Robert Peel and his colleagues, the confidence of
thousands—aye of millions—who, then fainting and
alienated, are now ready to rally to their aid, and to
bear them safely through even rebellion itself.
Can Sir Robert Peel, or any portion of his admi-
nistration, entertain a doubt that such has been the
result of their recent Irish policy ? If they do so
doubt, we only ask them to present themselves, at

this moment, before any assembly of their conser-

vative fellow countrymen, and to mark the warmth
of feeling with which they will be greeted, even in
quarters and from men who, a week ago, could
have received their very names with coldness and
ill-concealed dislike. We ask them even to mingle
with the world, and to see the looks of confidence
and satisfaction with which conservative now meets
conservative, as they discourse together on the oc-
currences which are agitating the minds of the en-
tire community. Would that they could have felt
the beat of the heart of universal England, as, for
the first time for years past, she knew that she was
no longer dishonoured amongst nations—that for
the first time she was no longer the mark against
which republicanism and popery could direct their
poison unrepelled—that for the first time for years
she had ceased to be held up to the ridicule of the
world, as a nation powerless to crush A REPTILE—
the meanest that ever crawled from the mud of a
hog or a ditch, and was nursed and bloated by the
warm sun to exhale its noxious odours upon the
air, and to insult the pure eye of heaven with its
obscenity. Such experiences—such objects—would
convince the coldest of the followers of expediency
that Englishmen have feelings, to be won and to be

offended, and that the path to the securing of those
feelings in their favour is the straightforward path
of consistent and bold honesty.
We could point to abundance of written and oral
evidence of the truth of the position which we have
taken, if such were wanted. It is not so however,
and yet we cannot refrain from giving the following
remarks, uttered at a meeting of what some conser-
vatives have treated as an impracticable body of
men—the Operative Protestant Conservatives of
Dublin. The same opinion, we may state, has been
given of the same body in our own town.

" Sir Robert Peel, indeed," observed the speaker at
the meeting in question, " had well atoned for his long
inaction by the well-timed step which he had now
adopted—a step no less unexpected than it was com-
pletely successful. The Protestants of Ireland—their
patience almost exhausted, and their forbearance ia-
suited by the parade of the repealers—had, perhaps,
been in the habit of speaking too harshly of Sir Robert,
but he had now regained their confidence (hear, hear)—
he had shown that his moderation was not cowardice,
and that his delay was not hesitation. (Hear, hear.)
He resembled a great minister in another age—one of
eloquence unrivalled and sagacity the most penetrating
—one who had all the difficulties and all the dangers to
meet that Sir Robert Peel had now to encounter. His
policy was the very same. At a time when a dangerous
demagogue gathered around him the profligate, the
abandoned, the desperate, and the knave, and the safety
of the Roman empire itself was perilled by the conspi-
^v—at that time at the helm of affairs sat the cautious
,rudent Cicero—he suffered the conspiracy to gather
.'eUgth, the leader to vaunt himself, and the blister of
sedition to come to a head. Many blamed him, but the
issue proved his wisdom. May Sir Robert Peel, as he
has imitated Cicero's caution, imitate his firmness.
(Hear.)"

Such sentiments, we can inform Sir Robert Peel,
and his colleagues, are not confined to the operative
conservatives of Dublin or of the empire, although
to that body we give the credit of, most firmly, and

tenaciously, and consistently, keeping them alive in
the hearts of the protestant communiy. They are

the opinions of the conservative public of these realms;
they have even manifested themselves upon that

touchstone of public opinion, the Stock Exchange

ians of

; and most fer
Lich they teach

THE LIVERP

not 1 e lost upon a ministry to whom is co in

3, we do not, hesit

at the presen

rel, and the civilzation and the peace of the

world

We have abstained hitherto from referring to the
cm troversy raised by the attempt of a few indiscreet
admirers of Mr. William Rathbone, to foist upon
the acceptance of the Council, or rather, perhaps, to
throw upon it the ungracious task of refusing a por-
trait of that gentleman to be placed in the Council
Chamber. We had no wish to enter upon an exa-
mination of Mr. Rathbone's claims to such an ho-
nour ; and we trusted that his friends would see the
propriety of withdrawing a proposal, the only result
of which must be to generate party and even per-
sonal bitterness. To such a course, however, they
have not been induced to submit. On the contrary,
at the Council meeting of Saturday last the question
was pressed to a division, and the portrait was re-
jected by a majority of 17 to 18.
And such, we are satisfied, ought to have been
the fate of a proposition to glorify an extinct politi-
cal partisan, who, whatever may be his private amia-
bility of character, is, at all events, the man of the
entire Whig par y in Liverpool, who has struggled
for years to earn, and has succeeded in earning, un-
popularity amongst the Conservative majority of his
fellow townsmen. If the admission of his portrait
was asked as a tribute of respect for his public cha-
racter, with what consistency could a Conservative
council, who viewed that character with dislike, ra-
ther than respect or love, grant such a demand. If
the portrait was to be admitted as a work of art
merely, the same request might have been made for
a clever portrait of any other man, however disre-
putable his character or humble his station. The
council room is not a picture gallery; and if its walls
are bare of adornment, we do not think that the
portrait of William Rathbone, however splendid the
robes of mayoralty in which he is painted, and how-
ever magnificent the gilding of its frame, would be
very generally considered an ornamental feature in
that locality. Some people even might go so far as
to think there is already acidity enough in the com-
position and the debates of the council itself, with-
out having an impersonation of vinegar upon its
walls.

Mr. Blackburn, we find, contends that the por-
trait ought to have been received, " not because of
Mr. Rathbone's general character, but because of
his personal worth and high honour whilst filling
the civic chair." We have nothing to say against
his personal worth; we have as little to say against
his " high honour whilst filing the civic chair." We
don't know that the chair in question sustained any
lustre in the eyes of the world from its occupation
by the ex member for we don't remember how many
wards. But even Mr. Blackburn's argument does
not satisfy us that the council was wrong in the
course which it pursued ; for how many of its mem-
bers were witnesses of the high honour in ques-
tion ? Of the sixty-three members now com-
posing the Council no less than forty never
enjoyed that gratification ; and it is scarcely to he
supposed that these gentlemen would trouble them-
selves to run up and down the borough, to pick up,
from the rejected of the last three or four years,
their notions of Mr. Rathbone's " high honour,"
or any other of his assum:d or real virtues.
The fact is, the whole affair was a party move,
and, as such, it was very properly defeated by the
conservative majority of the council.
Besides, if the testimonial originated in a desire
to express gratification at the manner in which Mr.
Rathbone discharged the duties imposed upon him
as chief magistrate, how happens it. that the matter
has been suffered to remain dormant for five years,
and is now only mooted on the eve of a municipal
election ?

The latest particulars connected with the present
important proceedings in Ireland, will be found de-
tailed in our third page. We shall receive this
morning, by the first mail, a narrative of what
transpired yesterday in Dublin, which we shall give
in an early second edition.

CONNEXION BETWEEN THE PRICE OF FOOD
AND OF LABOUR.-Our contemporary, the Ner-
cury, in one of his wise replies to correspondents,
remarks that the above question " lies in a nutshell."
There are nuts, however, which it is not every body
has strength enough to crack; and in his attempt
upon this shell, our contettlporary must take care
that he does not break his teeth. It has puzzled
stronger-headed people thAn himself, and will pro-
bably puzzle many more. In his own flippant way,
he remarks, in the paragraph before us, " Not only
have we seen high wages when food has been cheap,
and low wages when food has been dear, but there is
no getting over the. fact that, if large supplies of
foreign food were obtained, in addition to all that is
raised at home, it must be paid for in goods of some
kind. To produce these, extra labour must be had—
if extra labour, more constant employmtnt, would
first arise, and then higher wages, so that every work-
man would be in better circumstances." It would take
a tolerably large nutshell to hold the proof of this
very off-hand tissue of assertion, supposition, and
illogical conclusion. We shall not, however, re-
quire such proof at the hands of the Mercury, for
the very obvious reason that he knows as much
only of the subject as the goose or the wood and
iron that furnished him his pen. To one question,
however, he may, perhaps, have brains enough to
furnish us an answer, and we give him that question
in unmistakeable type. IF A LOW PRICE OF FOOD
WILL GIVE TO THE LABOURER BETTER WAGES,
AND CONSEQUENTLY INCREASE THE COST OF

ALL GOODS OF WHICH LABOUR IS A COMPONENT

PART, HOW IS THE MANUFACTURER TO BE
ENABLED TO COMPETE WITH THE FOREIGNER ?
Of course, we only expect, in reply, A QUIBBLE.

We understand that Robert Henderson, Esq., wilt
become the conservative candidate for St. Peter's Ward.

" ST. JUDE'S MATIN BELL."—Under this "ominous"
head the Mercury of Friday elaborates the following
paragraph :—" `One within Sound of the Bell' complains,
in sensitive, but gentlemanly terms, of the disturbance of
his morning slumbers by the long continued tolling of St.
Jude's prayer bell, before six o'clock in the morning; and
he feelingly appeals to the parties concerned to abate a
nuisance by no means necessary in a town of clocks and
watches. He thinks, moreover, that though people have,
of course, a right to attend prayers at any hour they please,
they are hardly justified in thus loudly proclaiming their
zealous piety, to the annoyance of others who are most in
need of