The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1832-12-11 00:00:00

THE MAGAZINES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL ST✓INDARD.
SIR,--I was over in Cheshire the other day, and walked down
to the Magazine, where the late fire of Mr. Norcliff's Hotel
had taken place. You and the public at large may judge of
my great surprise, when I was told there were not fewer than
ten thousand barrels of gunpowder stored within one hundred
yards of the hotel. This quantity of gunpowder is placed in
sheds with large doors, and only covered over with slates. Had
the wind been from the fire to the direction of these depots, a
single spark might have blown the country up for miles, de-
stroyed all the vessels in the river, and perhaps shook half of
Liverpool down. Surely such a place as this should not be
permitted so near so many houses, and so open and unprotected
as it is.--Yours, &c. A CONSTANT READER.

THE FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE !

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL ST./INDARD.
SlR,—Will you permit me to refer the respectable Shop-
keepers of Liverpool, to Mr. Canning's story of the "needy
knife grinder" in the Anti-Jacobin.
"A friend of the people (say Mr. Thornely or his chairman)
meets a knife-grinder with a great hole in his breeches. Feel-
ing, indignant at such an emblem of poverty under a represent-
ative government, he asks him to relate his pitiful story, and
tell by what acts of regal tyranny and aristocratic oppression his
clothes were so unworthy of a free Briton. The knife-grinder
replies in Sapphic metre,—
" Story God bless you! I have none to tell you :
But last night a drinking at the checquers
This old hat and breeches as you see, were
Torn in a scuffle.
And then concludes as follows :
" I should be glad to drink your honour's health in
A pot of beer if you would give me sixpence,
But for my part I never love to meddle
with Politics Sir."

The result is, that the "friend of the people " abuses the
"knife-grinder," calls him a " spiritless outcast," kicks over
his wheel, and makes his exit in a transport of philanthropy.
The moral, however,. is contained in the grinder's concluding
lines :

" But for my- part I never love to meddle
with Polities Sir."
I am Sir, &c. ATTICUS.

THE "JOURNAL? AND THE ,WHIG MINISTRY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL ST4NDARD.

SlR,—Have you read the leading article, as it is called, of
the Journal of last Saturday ? If not, do so :.it is interesting.
You will perceive that the writer, although he may have a more
immediate party to serve, that would prefei• the union of its own
church to the state, in preference to the existing establishment,
is a champion of and one of a party, the views of some of the
members of which are so ill defined, that neither he nor they
know what they would be at, while the implied and admitted
object of others, is the destruction of the best institutions of this
country, begins to fear that the present ministry suspect them,
and are wishful to frustrate their intentions. Suspicion gene-
rally begets suspicion, and the members of this party of the
people begin to suspect that the ministers are not such fools
and knaves as they took them to be; they find that the minis-
ters are not prepared to go quite so far as they would wish ;
that they are not prepared to separate the church from the
state; that they are not yet prepared to do unholy deeds; not
yet prepared to vote as useless the second branch of the legisla-
ture, nor to annihilate the monarchy. As it was to have been
expected of this party, these ministers who were chosen by his
Majesty to preside over the destinies of this country, in an evil
hour, because they will no longer lend themselves to its doings,
are to be mistrusted by it, although they have achieved that
" popular measure" of reform. "We are," says the writer,
"sometimes inclined to suppose, that the reform, after all, was
but a happy accident. The whigs, to retain power, were obliged
to patronize it, and that very extension for which it has been
praised was, in a great measure, necessary to the security in
office of its framers." What that honest ministry accused by
implication,—and that, too, by its partisans,—of patronizing
reform for the sole purpose of retaining power and office ! that
they were obliged to patronize it!—in other 4vords, that sooner
than forego the sweets of office, from which the good sense of
the nation had so long withheld them, they didpatronize, frame,
and carry' so extensive a measure of reform! Yes, Mr. Journal,
and let me add, that that measure was managed throughout
and, at last, carried in such a way, that the impartial historian
of a future day may stigmatize the managers of it in no very
agreeable terms. Those ministers who were borne on the shoul-
ders of their party to their seats again, are likely to meet with
popular reward, and will have occasion to say to this same party,
" You are no surer, no,
Than is the coal of fire upon the ice,
Or hailstone in the sun." • •
Who deserves greatness
Deserves your hate : and your affections are
A sick man's appetite, who desires most that
Which would increase his evil. He that depends
Upon your favours, swims with fins of lead,
And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye !
Trust ye!
With every minute you do change a mind ;
And call him noble, that was now your hate,
Him vile, that was your garland. What's the matter,
That in the several places of the city
You cry against the noble senate, who,
Under the gods, keep you in awe, which else
Would feed on one another ?"

T o proceed. " The public will hesitate to think harshly of men,
whatever was their object, who have given them the reform."
Ah ! Mr. Journal, where is your political honesty ? " Little in-
cidents occur now and then, nearer home, to indicate that many
of our patriots counted on the people,"—faction you mean,—
" when the people were useful to them," to enable them to re-
tain power and place. Very pretty, truly ! "It is safer to
distrust than confide implicitly in public men,"—" The people
must urge them on, if they are inclined to stand still;" and,
verily, Mr. Journal, I believe they are very much inclined to
stanu still; for the people, as you call them, appear inclined to
urge them past their speed; and, "although they are promise-
crammed," by faction, they do not wish themselves and the na-
tion to be urged to destruction; "they, the people, can do so
effectually," only "by sending men of known character and li-
beral principles." A very significant sentence indeed. Men of
"known character"—i. e. agreeable to your standard, Mr.
Journal, I suppose, Men who will pledge themselves, through
thick and thin, to do you and your party's bidding,—levellers
to an extent sufficient to admit the men of various creeds room
for their own particular experiments, and, therefore, acquire for
themselves, in these days of popular virtue, the appellation of
liberals. "These, if properly selected, will soon compel govern-
ment to free public offices from the incumbrance of tory crea-
tures, and, most certainly, will constrain them to give the new
principles fair play. Ministers should have done this .before,
but they act differently." The reason is very obvious, Mr.
Journal, why they do act differently; because, as a government,
they are placed to govern ; not as the tools of and by the com-
pulsion of a faction, but as the servants of their King, with cer-
tain powers and under certain restrictions. But it; 'for the
sole purpose of retaining office or power," they sacrifice the
interests of their country to popular clamour, they become trai-
tors both to their King and country. They are not selected by
their King to introduce the visionary theory of any set of men,
or to act by popular volition on new and untried principles;
they are placed, as a government, to govern in conformity with
the constitution as by law laid down, to see that the laws are
justly administered, and to protect the country from foreign ag-
gression and internal discord. When they act discreetly, Mr.
Journal, we claim them as the leaders of our party—" the conser-
vatives" of the country. 1 verily believe, Mr. Journal, that, if

you could succeed (which, God be praised, is not likely) i°
Sending up men of what you call "known character" his Ma'
jesty would have some difficulty in selecting his ministers frou`
the House of Commons, and if, knowing the incapacity of the
On
Commons to supply suitable men to govern, he was comirlie
to look and select from the House of Lords, your new print''
pies would, doubtless, be brought into full play, the constitufiq
of England would be absorbed by a democracy, with its sangui-
nary train of evils, not because of the selection made by bli
Majesty, of men of integrity and ability, but because that spit'
which a part of the press does infuse into the public mind nog!';'
operate on such a House of Commons,—that spirit which, ,
fact, teaches man that he has no superiors, and that talent, 1f
~
united to wealth and rank, is dangerous; but such is not tb`,
spirit of the people of England: it is the spirit of a diseased
part, which would, if it were possible, innoculate the w i
ho'
Mr. Editor, I am aware I am trespassing on your space. ll
claim your indulgence; but these times have urged me to c%
your attention to what I conceive and hope is a dying note 9I
black swan. J. Is"
Liverpool, sth Dec., 1832.