The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1832-12-18 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 18, 1832.

THE accounts from Antwerp are to the 13th inst., up
to which date little or no progress had been made in the
prosecution of the siege of the citadel: The. Globe says,
it is now understood, that no hasty or premature attempt
will be made, of a nature to produce an avoidable waste
of life, but that all the preparatory steps are proceeding
with composure and regularity, to the ultimate assail-
ment by storm, should the Dutch king carry his mon-
strous want of feeling to the extent of rendering it ne-
ce&sary. Such logic as this warns us to prepare for the
time when we shall be coolly told, that a couple of high-
waymen were proceeding with composure and regularity
to cut the throat of a traveller, whose monstrous want .of
feeling, in refusing to give up his purse, rendered it ne-
c .tssary We confess we have not 'patience to dwell upon
such disgusting apologies, for one of the most disgraceful
instances of national aggression, which ever stained the
page of history. The latest news from PortUgal will be
found in our London letter, and the intelligence brought
by the Ann Paley, from Lisbon, to which we refer.

THE result of the elections under the Reform Bill,
judging from the returns which•have now reached us, is
such as to justify the fears expresed by the real friends of
the Constitution, during the progress of that suicidal
ioeastue. In almost all the populous boroughs, the ex•
tension of the elective franchise has given the power of
returning members of parliament to a class of the com-
munity, whose prejudices are much stronger than their
reasoning faculties,- and who are consequently easily led
astray by these who, taking advantage of this weakness,
appeal to the passions and feelings in place of the judg-
ment. A senseless. and unmeaning cry has been raised
about free trade—destroying monopolies—emancipating,
Negroes—reforming the church—and many other sub-
jec.s, about the merits of which the people at large
literally Know nothing, nor have 'they any distinct idea
of what is meant thereby—but they read in the news-
papers that such things are abuseS and must be reformed
—they hear the same thing repeated by those who solicit
their votes, and the consequence is, that those who have
bean the more unsparing in their promises to remedy;
all their allegel abuses, have been the most successful
in their canvass, and we shall have a house of commons,
a very large proportion of the members of which go into
it, not to deliberate upon measures which may be brought
forward, and to decide what is most for the good of the
country, according to their own opinion, after hearing
the subjects discussed in all their bearings, but pledged
to vote in a particular way, regardless of the evidence
adduced. In this manner the fate of the East and West
India interests—of the agricultural and manufacturing
interests of this mighty empire,, is already fixed and pre-
determined—and by whom ? By .that portion of the
community which comprises the wealth, the intelligence,
the respectability of the country assuredly ? Not unless
we have been all our lives in error with regard to the
spirit of the British Constitution, the object of the
elective franchise has been, to enable the Commons of
England, to select men of talent—of integrity—of high
moral character—and of independent fortune, to represen t
them in the Commons House of Parliament; there to
deliberate upon all such matters as should come before
them affecting the honour or interests of the country at
large, and to decide thereupon, according to the best of
their judgment, after hearing all the information which •
could be collected upon 'the subject. Until the present
rage for Reform commenced, it was never dreamt that
the mere numerical majority of the people should possess
the deliberative power of the House of Commons, and
that'the members who sat there, were only attorneys to
record the opinion of their constituents. One of our
poets, whose predelietions were never suspected of being
too aristocratical, says, that

" 'tis the common lot of evfry
" That those who think should govern those who toil."

So we have hitherto believed, and the soundness of the
opinion ia.confirmed by the history of all ages. That the
converse of this proposition should be more true now,
or its practical application more beneficial than was found
to be the case in the democracies of Greece and Rome
we—do not think at all likely, and we look upon the
danger of the experiment to be so imminent, and the
hour of trial to be so near, that it behoves every man who
thinks the British Constitution, as it has descended to
us from our ancestors, worth preserving, to . lay aside all
distinctions of naine, and differences of minor importance,
and to unite upon principles truly conservative, as remote
from defending or perpetuating ablises on the one hand,
as from opening the floodgates of, revolutionary innova-
tion, under the plausible name of Reform, on the 'other.
Already do. we see on the walls of this' town, placards
announcing. a meeting to discuss: the propriety of a repeal
'of the union, with-Ireland,. and: to. raise a fund fbr the
widows 'and children of those, who have fallen in resist-
ing the collection of tithes in that Country. 'ls this any
thing short of fomenting rebellion, and holding out a
premium for resisting the laws of the country.? He must
be blind indeed, who does not see that the time is not far
distant, when We shall Stand in need of sound heads to
devise, firm hands and untlenching hearts to -execute those
measures, which alone can save the country from the un-
speakable horrors of a revolutionary civil war. That
furious- bigots .and unprincipled demagogues should re-
joice in the approach of such a state of things, can excite
no surprise-; but that Men of character—of property—Of
education—should become; accessary to measures obvi-
ously leading. to such consequencesis strange--is pass-
ing trange: well may we exclaim,'

• - "dart such things b 6,
"And overcome us like a summer's cloud.
" Without our special wonder l''

NEVER, surely, was a newspaper started in aily_town
vvilefe similar publicatiwis previously existed, under
auspices so favourable as our own.

t'Advo. eating, as we do, political opinions, so mue:i at
vatitince with most of our contemporaries, we laid our
actixize; with, now and then, getti. g a- rap over the