The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1832-11-30 00:00:00

rbt Eiberpool .ttanbarb.

FRIDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 30, 1832.

We are still without intelligence of the actual com-
mencement of hostilities against.the Dutch, in any other
way than. by capturing their defenceless merchantmen—
and if the reports in the French papers are to be believed,
obstacles of a new and unexpected nature are present-:
ing themselves; difficulties of a- serious nature are said
to -have arisen between Marshal Gerard and King Leo.:
Dold ; and Baron Osy, Member .of . the Chamber and
irector of the Bank of Antwerp, made a motion, which
was acceded to, that the citadel should not in any case
be attacked from the city. It is added that letters, which
had been received by expressiannounCe and.d,eclare.that
if the proposal. of M. Osy had not been acceded to, the
citizens of Antwerp and the Belgian troops (12,000 men)
wound have hoisted, the Orange , colours, preferring a
counter-re-volution to the plunder and conflagration of
the city ! What a felicitous -exposition of the wisdom
of our foreign pOlicy. it wiild: be; to find' the people,
for whose cause we are about to sacrifice our national
honour; turn round and join with the Dutch to repel our
frien:dly hostility. Nothing, ' certainly, could be more
for the interests of Belgium than. to be reunited to Hol-
land, and for both parties to forget and forgive the oecur-
rences 'of the last 'tWo years ; and if our sagacious poli-
ticians should have' happily-blundered into measures
which shall produce this desirable result, we shall be
-tempted to bless their stupidity. • • •
Fi•oin. Oporto the accounts corroborate and follow up
those previously received. . 'Don' Miguel has got the
command of the river between that city and the sea, in
cousepferice of which, three Vessels, one of them with a.
supply of men fOr Don Pedr6, have been forced to return
witnout discharging their Cargoes. Another vessel with
recruits, the Swallow cutter, has been wrecked off the
eoast of DevonShirei but ail on board were fortunately
saved. Many of the poor fellows had found their way to.
London, in the most pitiable condition, and perfectly
cured of the Pedroite mania.

'Tut DUTCH WAlL—However engrossing may be the
topics of domestic and colonial policy now in agitation,—
however stirring the excitement .of .an impending local
struggle,—we' feel it a duty of the most imperative cha-
racter again to plead before the 13ritish public the cause
of Holland, as involving not only our commercial and
financial interests,—not only the Protestantism which is
still dear to the people of this country—but the most sa-
(red principles of justice, and the most undisputed max-
ims of international law.

The sentiments of those classes ,of persons in Liver-
pool, who alone are in the habit of entering upon ques-
tions of foreign policy, have already been unequivocally
declared. On no occasion since the peace has any such
question taken such speedy and extensive hold upon the
feelings-of the British public. We may name, among
those portions of the country where opinion has already
been audibly and formally expreised, East Kent, Hert-
firdshire; Essex, the Forest of. Rossendale; -the cities of
London, Dublin, Edinburgh, and Norwich; the towns of
Liverpool, Nottingham, .Newcastle-upon=Tyne, Leeds,
Rochdale, Colchester, Dudley, and the list is rapidly in-
creasing.
• In the meantime, what have been the demonstrations
of public approbation accorded to the war? Doubtless
14ere have been voices which have modestly requested us
to hope against hope, to believe against evidence, to rea-
son against facts. . The ministerial press in the capital
has brayed its loudest to terrify the independent public
into silence. But what then ? Has the country obeyed
its mandate ? No : even where the supporters of minis-
ters have mustered strongest, they have only dared to
misrepresent and slander the opponents of the Dutch
war, or to depreciate the importance of their efforts: ac-
tive approbation, with one partiatexception, (Leeds) has
no-where been expressed : the words which were to con-
vey it, it would cline an Englishman to utter. Our. fleet
has set sail in undiminished grandeur, its sailors have
obeyed the royal command with valour unimpaired, but
no man said, -"
God speed them ;" they have neither ex-
hilaration from a righteous cause nor sympathy from an
indignant people.
TUe.facts of this case are few, and should be remem-
bered. We waive the circumstance that Belgium was the
first to demur to the awards of the Conference ; we grant,
for argument's sake, and for argument's sake alone, that
the Conference had all manner of grounds of com-
plaint against Holland ; yet we: maintain that a body,
whlch. was called in for pacific mediation only, and
which declared itself called in - for pacific mediation
only, by the mouths of the
.p.uke of Wellington,
as Prime Minister to the King of England, and of
General Sebastiani, as Foreign Minister to the King
•of the French, could not, by any • legitimate process,
extend its own functions beyond the boundaries assignee
them by the partieg from whose invitation they derived
their authority to act. Whenever such arbitrators, either
in. public or private, outstep those boundaries, they are
arbitrators no longer. We should deem it an insult to
the commercial classes, who are . necessarily intimate
witlythe essential character of kind of intervention,
to argue this point farther.
It would have been a gross injustice then, in the Con-
ference, to interfere by force of arms.
But,.if it would have been injustice in the Conference
thils.t6 interfere,.what is it in those who are not the Con-
ference ? unjust in the Conference, which, nearly corn=
prehending the effettive -povsieruf Europe; might, though
• after a questionable manner, appear to be vested with a
',kind of discretionary authority in the last -resort, as re=
presenting the sum of the civilized world, then what is it
in England, and France,7—a minority of the Conference;
and, therefore, Wholly denuded of authority,-.which it pos-
sessed 'sorely and exclusively while •acting in its collect-
ive capacity ? . . . •
England and'France were menbers of a body; indivi-
dual.power, we should rather Say—individual authority
tlierhad; and could have, none, ;They .stood in the si-
tuation of a minority in one of ourHousesuf Parliament.
Tile House of Commons: passed the- eform bill, but two.:
fifths of its niernbeis were opposed to it.. The. Confe-
rence decreed against, positively. against, coercion; but
two-fifth's&lts niethbers'were in its favour. We live in.
timeA of strange audacity, when men.can be found to de-
clare, in a ministerial document, that• England and France
are* " the executive agents of fhe Conterence"'—that A'
appoints B his agent, by:protesting:fOrinany-igainst his;
acting • tbnt. of stranger cielusiOni •if men can be found,
who will accept' such asseverations in the teeth of com-
mon sense.

Butnwk there is one dear a,nd cherished argurdont
• of a portion of the Ministetialists, Which:we must not for-'
get. "DO not," say they,--and nowhere has this feeling
been more disgracefully exhibited than in this town--" do
-ritit petition against the Dutch war, because you will be
I;4i-warding:the views of the conservatives." • . •
Is then the conservative so essentially vile, that he pol-
lutes every opinion•he adOpts-?' Cati his adoption of it
ciningteit's essential nature of good or evil? Justice is
justice—a plain proposition; but the moment it is ut-,
tered from his mouth, it is reversed,and injustice is jus;
Lice. So far do these persons now carry their principle.
"exclusiveci dealing," that they will not even hold an
opinitinin Common with an:anti7refornier. In short, our
tltaire inquiries after truth will be materially shortened,
• Scar the 01l rial flnler.o ( Baron &fain, 'Minister at War to the King
of the Belgians, just put.ll,heti.