The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-01-03 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, JANUARY 3 1843

When Mr. Joseph Sturge, of Birmingham, with-
drew his annual subscription of a hundred pounds
from the Anti-Corn-law League, there were some, we
dare say, who imagined that the worthy quaker had, in
reality, ceased to fraternise with that factious body.
And when the same worthy individual threw himself
into the " complete suffrage" agitation, hoisted his
drab beaver as a new " cap of liberty," and called upon
the unenfranchised masses to join with him in a cru-
sade in search of the crotchetty points of the People's
Charter, disguised in milk and water, there were a few
who thought him very much in earnest, and concluded
that the heart and soul, and not merely the corporeal

" organisation" of Joseph, were in the cause. Both
these conclusions, however, are founded, we fear,
Upon the want of a due examination of all the circum-
stances of the case, and of a proper estimation of the
character of the worthy in question. We ourselves
most firmly believe that friend Joseph is as much a
member of the League now, as at any past period of
his life; and that the " complete suffrage" movement
of which he is, or aspires to be, the head, is in reality
a movement of the Anti-Corn-law League itself. Our
reasons for arriving at this conclusion we shall briefly
detail.

The Chartist agitation, our readers are well aware,
has long been a thorn in the side of the anti-corn-law
body. From the first moment of its existence, the
Chartist leaders have denounced its projects and pro-
fessions as selfish and hypocritical. They have proved
unruly custcmers at its gatherings. They would not
be fooled by its platform displays. They had an acute
perception, gathered from experience, in their own
cases, of the venal and slippery character of its orators.
The mountebank was jealous of the rival mountebank;
the demOcratic quack feared the corn-quack. They
could not both juggle and cozen together. Do our
readers not remember the astute movement by which
the League body attempted, under these circum-
stances, to get to the windward of the Chartist body ?
Do they not remember a meeting of the former body,
held in Manchester, at which an influential portion of
its members, with no less sagacious an individual than
Mr. John Brooks in their van, declared their adherence
to Chartist principles—disguised under the form of a
demand for " complete suffrage,"—and the manifesto
which was subsequently issued by the new association ?
They cannot. The manifesto in question was duly
chronicled by the press of Manchester, with the names
of its president, its council and its committee, com-
prising amongst their number many of the most active
of the Leaguers, and not a few of the League magis-
tracy of that town ; and, we have no doubt, a copy of
it might be found at any time in the archives of the
Home-office.

By this demonstration of sympathy the Leaguer&
imagined that they had muzzled Chartism ! They
were disappointed. The outbreak in the manufactur-
ing districts in August last—how brought about, and
for what purposes, we need not here express our
known opinions undeceived them. The Chartist
body would not allow their new allies to convert that
outbreak into an anti-corn-law agitation ; but de-
manded " their bond"—agitation for " complete suf-
frage"—and on non-compliance, on the part of the
startled inillocracy, with such demand, raised once
more their old banner—the Charter. They had 110
faith in the honesty of the League. They would not
trust them with their free trade in corn first. The
democratic) rogue would not trust the " rogue la
grain" with his portion of the spoil, but insisted upon
a division upon the spot; and such a course not being
convenient to the former, the Chartist, like HarrY
Gow, determined thenceforth to fight for his 00
hand."

Since that period, we have heard nothing of the
leading members of the League, in connexion.
with the " suffrage" movement. These gentlemetb
were a little afraid, perhaps, that, in their past cork'
nexion with it, they had somewhat committed that'
selves. It would not do for such prominent members
of a non-political body to be seen herding with the
O'Connors and Lovetts—the gaol birds of the Char'
ter. Friend Joseph, however, disconnected himself
from the League, and clung to the new movement'
He could agitate for the six points, whilst his late con'
freres kept their hands clean, and their persons free
from the pains of a premunire. And now mark even°
and coincidences 1 The League is straining nerve an
sinew to raise funds for its continued agitation-4°
overawe the legislature—to cozen the agricultural body
with lying tracts, and to betray the working classes
with deceitful professions. And in what is the %11/
quaker engaged ? In amusing the gulls and knaves
of the " complete suffrage" and Chartist parties Aviti:
A CONVENTION, in his own town of BirtningbaW;
Friend Joseph is tickling the cat whilst the mice
rug (11
with the cheese ! Could he be better engaged for the
cause were he ten times a Leaguer ?
We did purpose saying a few words upon the gib'
ject of this farcical convention this Brummageri:
Parliament ; but we must perforce abstain. We ca,n,
not, however, omit remarking with what propriety an
justice a few thousand pounds of the League rent
might be distributed amongst the needy
sPouters" complete suffrage" and Chartist—who have sho
such an aptitude, in the task of misleading the attel3,
in
sidious
efforts of the duped working classes from the insidiot°
ellbrts working of the League to drag them down ofpauperism and slavery ; and at the same time
--;

sheaving to the thinking portion of the middle classes'
how contemptible in talent, and yet how dangerous ii;
effect, would he such a Parliament as would 13
returned under the operation of that new constituti°o
which the Sturges acid O'Connors would frame for uss
But perhaps we are late in making the sugge3tj°ll;
The needy patriots, or some of them, have peril°.
already touched the League money.

In whatever direction we turn to survey the. rilanyt
festations of the national mind of France, we nieed
with eviaences of a feverish restlessness, accomPahlere
by a bitter hostility towards this country, which aio
anything but satisfactory objects of contemplation- i,v
her foreign policy we see a spirit of • aggression 8i
played—occasionally exercised upon objects the 113.:5;
contemptible, but even then, apparently, levelled aPi-ce,
the power, and intended to tax the patient forbeargilito
of Great Britain. The colonization, by her, of Alger.