The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-10-04 00:00:00

CONTEMPORAI?Y PRES'.

lital.Ve learn at length, after a silence of some duration,
te the Dutch government has made a pause in the ca-
t,tc::.of sacrifices and humiliations, and that Baron Ver-
hicii4 Soelen, charged on a special mission to outbid
vs, Predecessor in offers for peace, has failed, as Baron
hignZnylen did before him, and has, like him, transported
prs chancery and himself to the Hague. The Treasury
i:s' which announces these striking results of the non-
onervention and peace-breathing policy of the Foreign
ce, in place of affording us some insight into the na-
0, e of the
recstinate provocations which may have stirred up his
Majesty of Holland to one other stand in de-
ner of national interests, real or supposed, finds it infi-
nitelyth more easy to retiump up its old charges against
e Monarch of feigning to negotiate only as a means of
extractingbites (swindling is clearly insinuated) from his
ifiLltes General a further vote of money, and still dream-
tg of recoriquering Belgium. These presumptions are
"ally charitable towards the head of a state late an
•y' as honourable to a minister who, conscious of the
Want's strength behind him, wantonly wields it with all
4iita,ln's consciousness, if not some small portion of his
still rich
Amsterdam, we are sapiently informed, is
411 rich florins. and therefore the Dutch are sneeringly
aoselled to aet the spendthrift and eschew the prudent
Part. There is another country too which is commonly
wl),.nted all over the world to pozsess more money than
Ivih, and the tradition still exists of the English traveller,
civilly after discharging the costly bill of his Belgian host,
rviv!.lY bode him in future not to mistake him for his sign—
thilc,h was that of the Golden Goose. Now, considering
Ore lavish manner in which the talents (such as they are)
on Ur foreign department are remunerated, and the
rleer°4B charge in the shape of fleets, secret service mo-
-1431' I°"
of national character, to say nothing of the ab-
aellon from public wealth by the loss of commerce, to
b c
for the sake of our Belgian neighbouis we have
lancrinitted and stillendure, it must be confessed that Eng-
ter. is in no'very imminent danger of forfeiting her char-
ti„ The position of our Belgian ally is, however, infi-
inteasnuic hIY In ore enviable than that of the lielgian landlord,
fro as the British minister he is leeching is yet far
ism,l having discovered, like the British traveller, that he
headed the part of the gilded, feathered, and addle-
biped. The Kin of the Netherlands, we are sa-
flg:ctilio‘Tlv told, ancies thgat a general war is inevitable;
to
oFiciore delays to conclude peace in order to be able
to 13 er his army to whichever party would help him back
rum.
of Holland rejoiced in such Ministers as
Mother King William that we know of, there is no tell-
abg ,what surpassing freaks of fancy he would astound the
orld with. He might, for instance, mistake the round-
instlit. and deceitful for the direct way to an object, and
ead of the more upright though losinc, game of man-
tus,fttention for the rights of 'his people, and the re-
-I,4tZit to contract- engagements which he was not reso-
atZ and honourably bent on fulfilling-, he would—
ullip
n, up a hollow peace, getting hold of Limburg,
xis enemies into a false security—at the very
It and auspicious moment, sword in hand and army
his Ett strike his own bargain and seize on Belgium
sD pre,
Such, we say, might be the policy and the
itee,.ited,
aon • Y of a Sovereign endowed with short-sighted,
is
and not over scrupulous councillors. Happy
lillilor a nation whose destinies are differently swayed,
p? under the cloud of temporary misfortune, the be-
"‘' of ancient friendship, and the heavy hand of the
Itiotie"nl oPpressor, remains unseduced into the commis-
spectq present wrong or immorality for the sake of pro-
th:7 e, advantage, and hesitates to sacrifice public
Philo N!lough amply indemnified according to that new
which PuY and Machiavelian construction of expediency,
teach that the end in all cases sanctifies the means.
urnardian and Public Ledger.

The
°yr Scotch have a song, of which the burden is,
ties !.17. woo' is ill to spin ;" but it is harder to spin arti-
tor la this vacant month. We cast our eyes over the
Pro'necti°ll of the newspapers of the week, and, with a sigh,
we I.:ft!'" them the very acme of dulness ; with a sigh,
tilay -b r 44 for we fear that something of the same kind
tnuat said of our Septembrizing labours. But still we
so on
The
write • big; at all events, are going on. What a
CO4 r vir
la Fraser's Magazine calls the Government by
panto signs, is in full activity. All our institutions are
paid ptthy
the crucible • and the chemists who operate are
handsomelyof for their pains. They are chosen,
tiaiPret rse, from the Whig set with the most amiable par-
k p;a•Y• The parties placed upon them," says the writer
Ser,
are one and all, men who have been long
woriall Ail their various minor departments in the political
'4l one. man we recqgnize a sub-editor of the
is tin another an assistant getter-up of the Examiner,
so o„°,_taer the runner of one of the Times reporters, and
Coni.° the end of the chapter. One whole Board of
tiesto,4sioners was formed, with scarcely three excefp-
jllr,.georn the committee who acted at Cambridge
the
phte:avendish's election." This is very well for
ratazd.estiising Whigs. As another writer in the same
the wllll.° says, "Coleridge must have had the advent of
1)43t f its in his prophetic eve when he described the re-
- ° the swine--

' Underneath a broad oak tree
There was of swine a huge company,
They grunted as they ate the mast,
It i 3 Which fell from its branches full and fast.' "
trei,44lPaquestionable that more patronage has been ex-
hou ''' In the three years of the Grey government—more
462 RTY People saturated with the public food—than in any
ent—more
deret,l Years of the reign of the Tories ;—and all donelun-
Ttile pretence ofdoing away with patronage altoget ler.
Ivii, 'l,e result of the labours of these roving commissioneis
cot: oe to upset every thing that is established in the
trittiritrY. and that for the almost unconcealed purpose of
rd. skSterring all power, general and local, from the hands
.11;1_ e gentry or aristocracy to the creatures of Whiggism.
fore Corporation Commission is particularly obnoxious,
to: that strikes directly at the root of all property. We
ofl not, perhaps, indulge in the gloomy apprehensions
tb.! e' Standard on this subject, but it is undeniable that
811 disclosures made by forcing corporations to produce
titles' eir legal papers and documents, will shake so many
„ that there will remain no way of remedying the
-,e.se•
7:e/lief except by a special act. And one mischief, at all
ilts, is glaring—viz., the upsetting of all feelings of
,rvcierence for the- local gentry in the minds of the lowest
posers• When they see change made merely for the pur-
v of change—when they find those whom they
here always accustomed to look up to with respect, ex-
rllsed to the taunts and insults of hired commissioners,
:4,0 often exercise their upstart functions in the most in-
-I°'ent and impertinent manner—it is impossible that the
levelling spirit should not take possession of their minds.
in IS easy to predict how this will eventually operate; but,
t- the meantime, the Whigs do not care about that. They
:cure their offices and pensions, and make hay while the
,1111 Shines, perfectly careless if t here be neither hay nor
utishine left for those who come after them.
4.,We intend, as soon as these travelling commissioners
ZFProach their close, to dissect all their operations, and to
ile some history of their members. What a nest of un-
b ushing jobbery of cradling meanness, will it not then
g
1. our task to drag into light I Nor shall we omit what,
grinthe Present times, it seems is the only object worth
thig about—the object for which we sacrifice every
or the
honourable, every thing that conduces to the glory
.-,R.e interest of the country—viz., the cost.
W e shall take care that the people must know how
•"uch I
to ,s. Ticney has been sacked by briefless barristers, cads
,0171 readable magazines or reviews, hack newspaper-
untagers, and the rest of that tribe ; but we must wait
r._, our means of information are more ample. Our
readers will find, by referring to an article on the Law
weTornissions which we publish in another column, that
u already know something b t
.....4ge.
a ou some of the worthies.
We adverted -------
ts„c_. a few days ago to the re-appearance in
ujildhot- Sir John Key, in the capacity of a maistrate at
'person's It
tion
might fairly have been presumes' that that
a ~__ s resump
of the magisterial office was merely
ztardous trial of his
u"Perate experiment upon the public. temper—a ha-
style. We ground—a venture in the forlorn-hope
,v,
ouid
have
beencould hardly have supposed that the attempt
John by repeated. But we were judging Sir
brazenness or tests, and measuring his amount of
te by the vulgar standard of every-day effron-
extraerd• e forgot that certain signs " had marked him
roil
_..e inary,.• and that lie " was not in the common
of
a."1,11'.e.n.' We had not calculated upon the possibility
41_
.nually drive to Guildhall—a public sitting every
t,._`7ll,ag of the week, in the character of a city magis-
Ow_ metropolitan dispenser of justice. We had seen
itync.„"_wyar ills impudence would carry him;, bqt one step be-
-1.1(T‘l
.that of a single trial of public patience, in present-
e,chimself to notice upon the Guildhall bench, we had
eiv/.1 our
it simplicossiblity and want %of a fine imagination,
"r 1 ed pe for him to go.

Yet such, we understand, is the case. Sir John Key
Dias appeared almost every morning during the week, in
his "accustomed haunt ;" occupying the seat of justice,
as if it had no terrors for him ; sentencing petty larceny
practisers, as if he had no sympathy with them ; eliciting
the truth, as if he loved it, and were incapable of trading
in deliberate falsehood.
Had Sir John Key been content to regard himself situ
ply as a tradesman, we repeat that we should have left his
tarnished character to brighten itself as it might, and
only have noticed him whenever he might have chanced
to stand in Guildhall in an opposite character to that of a
punisher of fraud and a dispenser of the penalties of jus-
tice. We should•have wished his customers full quires,
and, though doubtful, have been mute. But his tena-
cious grasp of the chair of justice itself renders it as much
a duty, as in the other case silence would have been a
charity, to assail his knuckles occasionally with the sharp
point of our pen. We have no wish to wound him, and
he has shown us, by an extraordinary hardness of charac-
ter, that it is rather a difficulty to do so;—but—he must
let go his hold of the chair. Let him take away his
hand from among the sacret symbols of truth and mora-
lity, if he would have his fellow-citizens cease to remem-
ber the foul spots that are upon it, and that render its
least touch polluting.— True Sun.

Among thealarming symptoms of the present distem-
pered time, it is not least that there is, as we have
but too often had occasion to remark, a prevailing dispo-
sition to scorn and trample down, under the name of old
abuses, whatever is ancient and venerable among us, for
no other reason than because it is sanctioned by the pre-
cedents of antiquity and the experience of ages. Empti-
tress and vanity generally go together. Indeed, were it
not that the present state of popular knowledge is, per-
haps, a necessary part of the progress of society in its
advance toward something better, it might reasonably be
questioned whether the misinformation of these times be
not worse than the ignorance of former ages. Common
sense, and that moral sense with which God has endowed
us, will often enable men to judge rightly, because ho-
nestly, without much instruction. But there is a kind
of half-knowledge, a scrambling acquaintance with odds
and ends, picked up here and there, which seems to dis-
able men from judging justly, even of the facts that
come before them. It seems to produce a sort of squint
or jaundice in the eye of their mind, by which all objects
are distorted, or take the peculiar hue of the diseased
organ. Give men a vattering of law, and they are sure to
grow litigious; make them a "little learned" in physic,
and they become hypochondriacs or quacks; teach them
some random lessons in politics and morality, by the help
of the flying-stationer, and expect to find them rob-
bing or slandering their neighbour, and making love
to their neighbour's wife. Two years ago the people of
one idea referred all the possible and impossible evils
of England to the corrupt state of the representation,
and called for a reform in Parliament as the triumphant
and infallible remedy of all our woes. On that head we
believe we may already safely appeal to Philip sober,
without much doubt of a reversal of the drunken deci-
sion. The new specific seems to be, like that of the
two maudlin schoolboys, " to strike an eternal .friend-
ship" with France. We are ourselves indeed most wil-
ling to make with France the chapman's covenant of
" let alone for let alone ;" but we cannot so conveniently
as some of our present rulers shut their eyes to what
experience has taught us to be the real disposition of the
French power and people towards us. We know that
the last William, of glorious memory, was the Monarch
who first effectually checked the ambitious projects of
their darling Grand Monarque, and that this wound of
their national vanity continued so to rankle in the hearts
of them that hate us, even to the third and fourth gene-
ration, and the thirst of vain glory so to prevail, that
Louis XVI., by far the best and most conscientious of
the Bourbon kings (he of the barricades not excepted),
engaged in hostilities against this country for no other
reason than that the contest in America offered an
opportunity for aggrandising France by weakening Eng-
land. And when by a just rettibution, the revolutionary
mania imbibed in consequence of intermeddling be-
tween us aod our revolted subjects, led to the disorgani-
sation of France itself, and after ten years of foreign
war, as well as civil slaughter, the spirit of Jacobinism
was burnt out, and, according to the regular progress of
revolutions, a military despotism had trodden out every
spark of liberty,—when the people was grown sick to
death of the bloody and miserable anarchy was first estab-
lished upon the wreck of principles and institutions,—
when the " eternal Republic " had passed from the ty-
ranny of the mob to the tyranny of the despot, we
scarcely need repeat the sentiments of the Grand First
Consul respecting England, or the famous, or rather
infamous, advice of Lord Palmerston's friend and pre-
ceptor, the Prince Bishop de Talleyrand, as to the mo-
tives for leaving England at peace. And thinks the pene-
trating Palmerston, or the monarchical and order-support-
ing Earl Grey, that France and her minions have for-
gotten " the story of Waterloo," as they have, or for-
given
the triumph of that glorious day? Foiled ambition
and wounded vanity are mot so easily lulled to rest.—
Tinsel and the rattle of their golden chains may amuse
them for a time, but the nation upon which a practical
lesson in revolutions which might have sufficed to unZik) ,
ceive them and all mankind even to the crack of doom
has been thrown away and lost, will hardly be taught
wisdom or forbearance by the paper pellets, of kid-glove
diplomacy, or the blandest smiles of the best-dressed
statesman.-441bion and Star.

That portion of the middle and working classes who
were induced, prior to the late election, to join chorus in
the delusive ti 4 big cry of economy, retrenchment, and re-
form, little thought of the interest which they then pos-
sessed in maintaining the prevailing state of things.
They are now however beginning to discover, and much
we fear to their cost, that retrenchment is not invariably
economy in the end; and that a parsimonious, penny-
wise, proud-foolish government, sets an example com-
pletely at variance with the general welfare of the
people. A fair remunerating price for the labour of the
working man is, in our opinion, one of the most impor-
tant objects to which a paternal ,crovernment can possibly
attend; it is so closely identified in every respect with
the prosperity and happiness of the state. As long as
the working man is paid liberally for his labour, we nei-
ther hear of distress nor indulge in complaintS ; but the
moment the machinery of the Whig political economist—
who regards the working man as a machine—is brought
into play, confusion and difficulties ensue. It has been
said, and with much truth, that the working orders, who
possess no real property, are but scramblers in society :
if the fund of recompense be large they fare well ; if it be
small they suffer in reverse ; and the difference in the
two amounts either swells the poor-leys, or finds its way
into the pockets of those who need it least. A govern-
ment therefore ought not to yield to the senseless clamour
of a mob about economy, retrenchment, and reform; but
endeavour to set an example by a liberal recompense of
its servants to the capitalists and monied men of the king-
dom, and by that means diffuse the blessing of comfort
and plenty among those who need it most.
We have been led to these remarks by the recent con-
duct of the whigs towards the mechanics in the dock-
yards ; affording, as it does, a noble specimen of what
the working classes may expect to derive when the whigs
have carried their economy and retrenchment into effect.
The artificers and workmen formerly received 28s. per
week. They are now classified, as the whigs call it, ac-
cording to an improved system, into two divisions; the
men in one receive 17s. 6d., in the other 20s. each, per
week. The Board of Admiralty visited 'Plymouth Dock
the other day to witness the saving effects of their new
arrangements, and doubtless expected a very hearty re-
ception with cheers. They must, however, have been
sadly disappointed and chagrined ; for the workmen in a
body presented a petition to them, complaining of the
new regulations, particularly of the system of classifica-
tion, which they said depressed the feelings of the work •
men, who felt degraded by the distinction, and of the re-
duction in their wages since July last. The report in the
newspapers also states that the " petition contained a
table, by which it appears that after the payment of house-
rent, and other necessary expences, there remains only
2W. a-day for the maintenance of each member of the
family of a shipwright of the first class, and of 2d. in the
case of other.mechanics of the second class." This was a
beautiful illustration of the new system; but as it pro-
ceeded from nothing but a body of " unwashed me-
chanics," the first Lord of the Admiralty made short work
of the matter, by announcing that the wages had been
fixed after due deliberation ; that the classification system
was the best in the world ; and that the men who were
dissatisfied might leave the yard This was a glorious
wing victory over a body of poor labourers, in favour of
economy, retrenchment, and reform; and we congratu-
late the country upon the fructifying influence it- must
have upon his Majesty's Exchequer.
Let the Trades' Union give up their persecution of the
masters, who do the best to employ therm, and look after
this.—Cltester" Couranr,

We noticed some time ago and made some extracts
from a pamphlet which was sent to us, entitled, " The
Safety and Advantages of Joint Stock Banking ; by an
Accountant." It has we find already reached a second
edition, which would seem to indicate that the sensible
and dispassionate tone of its reasoning had proved agree-
able to the public mind. Having heretofore so largely
quoted from it, we do not feel it necessary to draw atten-
tion to it at greater length. It may not be amiss how-
ever to commend the author for his good taste, in avoiding
to preface his new edition with all the particulars of the
high and sounding approbation with which the former
was received, or to arrange the complimentary para-
graphs of the daily press in its behalf with all the tact of
a Colburri or the perseverance of Solomon with his Balm
of Gilead. Another small brochure has also just been
sent to us, under the title of Considerations on Joint
Stock Banking, published by Fraier' and Effingham
Wilson, which states the liabilities of shareholders fairly
and boldly.

It is not, however, our intention to occupy the small
space disposable in our columns to-day with a restate-
ment of our opinions upon Joint Stock Banks or Joint
Stock companies in general. Without the slightest
spirit of partisanship either for or against particular spe-
culations, we have advocated the propriety of noninter
ference with the public,and laudable spirit for enterprise;
and in doing so, we have perhaps been sufficiently severe
upbn the mawkish sentimentality of certain journalism
which in other days laboured under the imputation of
more than common dalliance with schemers a venial
trespass, for which the only remedy is thought to consist
in a most indignant reprobation of former associations;
upon the same principle we presume that the . rouge of
twenty-five turns saint and chapelgoer at fifty, not that
she has become passionless, but because lovers and
wrinkles are rarely found together, and people do not
usually sin without temptation. Shares would assuredly
be in higher favour in many quarters if they bore the
same premiums as in 1825 ; it is our hope, as promoters
of legitimate speculation, that premiums will not as
heretofore anticipate, but wait upon divisions of profits,
and sure we are that in such ease none will risk but
those who can afford to lose, and are prepared to insure
success, so far as by caution and good management it is
possible.

- The discredit sought to be cast and the sort of opposi-
tion made to the establishment of Joint Stock Banks is
far from having been justified by anything in' the shape
of additional light shed upon the question. The liabili•
ties of a shareholder in all or any society are perfectly
understood by the hundreds of thousands of parties
ain-
terested in Great Britain, and a journal or a p mpbleteer
\
parading them now as a new discovery must st rely have
or expect a class of readers of the most stupid de cription.
It is probable that such is the fact, and that arguments
have been asserted with a view to the market upon the
most approved principles of trading.
Nobody will accuse us of undervaluing that. majekic
national establishment, the Bank of England, or the un-
doubted security and respectability of private bankers.
The first will suffer nothing by the rivalry of Joint Stock
Banks ; the latter will become stipulated into more ex-
tensive usefulness than at present, whilst they possess
in the less complex nature of their management consi-
derable advantages over more cumbrous associations.
Our faith is that the public and the State must gain in the
competition, and that is the real point of view in
which the question ought to be looked at. To the
parties who have distinguished themselves by a very
gratuitous and somewhat peevish attack upon Joint
Stock Associations, we trust the information will be
received with feelings of decpt resignation that for one,
the London and Westminster Bank will assuredly com-
mence operations by the Ist of January next, and that
the capital actually subscribed by people who can pay up
a hunched times the amount has already placed the en•
terprise beyond the reach of failure. We trust, and that
is our strong ground, that the trading community at large,
now little accommodated, will reap the benefit of it,
either among their old friends or with the new connexion.
—Guardian and Public Ledger.