The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-05-21 00:00:00

PROM THE GUARDIAN AND PUBIC LEDGER.

I t has been our duty, as it was our inclination, to pe-
ruse with attention the speech which Mr. Stanley made
on Tuesday night upon the most important question that
has been discussed in the House of Commons since the
oldest member first took his seat within its walls. We
had yesterday hopes—faint ones, it is true, but still we had
hopes, that when this question came to be discussed by
the legislature, the minister whose duty it might be to
bring it forward, would do his duty as a member of the
executive, with calmness and with discretion. Admit-
ting, as we do, the great talents for oratory of the indivi-
dual who now holds the office of Colonial. Secretary, our
hope has been stronger, since his accession to that parti-
cular office, that when this momentous question might be
introduced, it would be treated with discretion and with
temper. In proportion as our hope was created, in that
proportion, or, to speak our sentiments more unequivo-
cally, in an infinitely greater degree has been. our disap-
pointment at the course which the right honourable
gentleman took on Tuesday night. That he discussed
the question in eloquent strains, no man will venture to
deny ; that he discussed it with the temper and wisdom
which the importance of the subject demanded, no man,
we think, will be bold enough to contend. If any one
declare his opinion to that effect, with that person, be he
whom he may, we declare ourselves at issue. We assert
with a firmness which a second perusal of the language
employed by Mr. Stanley has only rendered more de-
cided, that, of all modes of treating a question of such
paramount importance as that which he had in his hands
on Tuesday, the mode which he adopted was the least
likely to effect his objects, if any one of those objects was
the reconcilement of conflicting opinions, or a soothing
down of irritated feelings. His speech had pathos, too
frequently resting on false or exaggerated statements--
it had force, but, in many parts, it wanted the force of
truth, and was, throughout, full of exaggeration; it
mounted high in eloquence, but, in proportion as it rose
in that commanding and, not unfrequently, misleading
quality, it sank in that more powerful, more essential
quality, wisdom. In this effort of the right honourable
gentleman it may be truly said that there was
" Satis eloquentiae, sapientin parum."
Was it wise, we ask, in the right honourable gentleman,
to open upon the whole body of the colonists, almost
from the first sentence in his speech, in a tirade, the
equal of which we have scarcely ever heard or read of in
the most infuriated address of the blindest zealot in the
cause of abolition; and to continue that course, with
little interruption, through considerably more than half
a speech occupying some hours in delivery ? Was it
wise, when " it devolved upon him, in the discharge of
his official duty, to bring under the consideration of Par-
liament a question of unparalleled magnitude and im-
,portance, involving greater interest perhaps than any
question which had for many years been submitted to the
legislature—a question surrounded with difficulties of a
peculiar nature, owing to the time at which it was
brought forward—in the safe and satisfactory solution
of winch were involved not only a maritime commerce
amounting to 250,000 tons of shipping annually, and a
revenue of between five and six millions—not only the
interest of a vast body of proprietors resident in the
Colonies and this country, whose very existence de-
pended upon the issue of the question, but also the tem-
poral interests of between 700,000 and 800,000 of our
fellow subjects, and of their descendants throughout
ge-
nerations yet unborn—not only this, but it was impossi-
ble not to perceive the influence which the successful
or unsuccessful issue of the mighty experiment now
about to be tried must have upon millions of foreign
subjects—difficulties enough to appal any man who ven-
tured to bring the subject forward :"—w as it wise, when
the right honourable gentleman introduced his subject
by these sentiments, containing admissions which were
exceedingly understated in many of their details, and
where omissions were made of other interests of equal
or greater importance—admissions of the prepondera-
ting weight and magnitude of the question—admissions
of probable ruin to our shipping—of ruin to the reve-
nue—of ruin to proprietors resident and non-resident—
of ruin to hundreds of thousands of our fellow subjects
—and of ruin to millions of foreign subjects—with all
these admissions upon his lips, hanging upon a single
contingency, which lie is pleased to describe as " the
successful or unsuccessful issue of the mighty experi-
ment about to be tried,"—was it, we again ask, wise in
Mr. Stanley to make such language as this the mere pre-
lude to an almost unbroken mass of vituperation against
those whose melancholy position he thus forcibly de-
picted ? We think, if Mr. Stanley had questioned him-
self, as he rose yesterday morning from his pillow, as to
what was the predominating characteristic of such lan-
guage, the last term that lie would have ventured to ap-
ply to it would have been—wisdom. If Mr. Stanley do
not tb.ink_sc,, we. tell him plainly, that sensible, .re&ct-