The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-07-14 00:00:00

could stiuues

omit p efer meta fur the
cibrinnou 'mod. The true nu
.sere by her readine,.s to

• save II

selit untlettaking will try wl
uttod of •1

- _oti.ands more than his
own private nr party views—nil() can trust God for
qte gltaidian.hip,,f hi, Church through future years,
instead telying tmly, that purpose, upon his
%Itch dmicts and torelhott.lit—who, in short, would
la her let the patient ill, than abate one iota in the
general ‘vraligle iii pby,,ici„s

10 valuirs U.'.

he times certainly ilernAni a very diffe ent spirit,
and tve ate sanguine enotiA h. believe that they will
sneet with such a one. We hive hopes, from the
pint , as well as the prudence of our .fellow-towns-
'wen Four churches, we know, are not to he built
stif bout cost, especiaiy n hen the very prosperity of
the ton n, which is tendering diem 60 needful, is in-
Creasing so considerably the price both of land and
of labour.

But if twenty thousand pounds are needed for the

purpose, let our aim be fixed upon twenty thousand
pounds; and twenty thousand pounds, we doubt
not, will be raised.

The Ministry of Lord John Russ.7ll may now be
regarded as formed. The bulk of its members have
been returned by their various constituencies with-
out even the semblance: of an opposition being
offered to them ; and in a few days we may expect
to see the legislative machine set once more in mo-
tion and guided by Whig hands. In the meantime,
we may not I e unprofitably employed in casting a
brief glance over the materials, of which the minis-
try is composed, and, from the slight hints afforded
us, endeavour to determine their most probable

policy and measures.
In all past attempts to conduct the government
of Great Britain the Whig party have ever offended
the country, and their usual supporters, by their
exclusiveness, and the tenacity they have shown in
confining their appointments within the circle of
some half-a-dozen families. Nepotism has been
their characteristic, and the idea of jobbing is ever
inseparably connected in our minds with Whig
ascendancy. Unhappily for himself, Lord John
Russell has not been able to steer clear of this rock-
a-head. With two or three exceptions, and with a
somewhat altered distribution of their offices, the
present ministry is the resuscitation of the Mel-
bourne Cabinet. It has little of added popular ele-
ment; and absolutely nothing to win for it the
increased confidence of sober and reflective politi-
cians. The enlistment of Mr. H. G. Ward, of ap-
propriation clause notoriety, suggests sad remin-
iscences of that infamous contract, by which the
Church of Ireland was handed over for spoliation ;
and the selection of an untried man in the person
of Mr. Milner Gibson, remarkable only for one of
the most glaring apostacies on record, for so impor-
tant an office as that of V ce-President of the Board
of Trade, indicates, with tolerable clearness, that
our commercial policy is to be henceforth dictated
by those crude statesmen—the political tinkers, who
have made the Chamber of Commerce of Manches-
ter an assembly, whose mention is the signal for
inextinguishable ridicule and laughter. The remain-
der of the list is principally composed of the old
hacks of past years, whose administrative incapa-
city has been again and again shown to be antipo-
dean qualities with their large pretensions.
An administration thus composed can have in
itself little pretension to permanence ; and the mode
in which the responsibility for conducting the busi-
ness of the country has been distributed amongst
its members is not calculated to inspire confidence
in its efficiency. We cannot, for example, discover
any great evidence of the fitness of Mr. Charles
Wood for the office of Chancellor of the Exche-
quer. The only circumstance,in deed, which accounts
for his being in office at all, most people imagine
to be the accident of his relationship to Earl Grey.
As little are we able to discern Mr. Labouchere's
fitness for the Iri b Secretaryship. Lord Palmerston's
appointment as Foreign Secretary is a thing of
course; but how the objections of Earl Grey, by
which the last attempt of Lord John Russell to
form a ministry were defeated, have been got over
the public are not informed. He was a dangerous
member six months ago; but we should imagine
that he could scarcely change his nature as easily as
he changed his political opinions and alliances. Sir
J. Cam ilobbouse's recommendation for the Board
of Controul cannot be his former administration of
the duties of that offi 'e, connected with which the
nation has some unhappy recollections of disaster;
and, with respect to a number of the small fry, their
pretensions to their various offices are to be tried,
their past senatorial achievements containing little to
inspire confidence in their discretion or their ability.
It cannot escape observation that, with such a
ministry, in the present state of parties, the govern-
ment of the country must remain virtually in the
hands of Sir Robert Peel and his little band of Con-
servative supporters. Ultra-Whig legislation is ob-
viously impossible, unless the late premier is pre-
pared completely to reverse the policy, and surrender
the principles, of his past political life, and his ad-
mirers, the 120 gentlemen who so readily followed
him in his free trade movement, are prepared fur-,
ther to stultify themselves. IVI rT. 13. Macauley, in his
speech to the electors of Edinburgh, stated truly
enough that the Whig party was the only one capable
at the present crisis of forming an administration;
but even that self-satisfied gentleman would proba-
bly acknowfedge that his colleagues and himself can
only govern permissively. Their measures, and the
extent to which their principles shall be carried out,
are laid down for them. They are to carry out the
views of Sir Robert Peel. When they attempt to
go further—when they start anything original, and,
erntehet,, the ev-tninister will inter-
position.

The little that we know, thus far, of their forth-
coming measures, affords abundant proof of this
utter want of independence. In the purposed final
settlement of the sugar duties, the ministry is only
following to its conclusion the policy which dictated
the surrender of protection to native industry. This
is certainly to be the main measure of the present
session. The only further hints which we have, as
to coming measures, is the announcement that the
Government is about to devote itself to measures of
social amelioration. We may look for a sanatory
bill, of which, no doubt, the bill of Lord Lincoln
will be the foundation. We are to have an exten-
sion of the means of education for the people, upon
the old Whig pattern, which has found such favour
with Sir Robert Peel and Sir James Graham. We
are not, at present, to h ye proposed to us the en-
dowment of the Popish Church in Ireland. That
pear is not ripe. It will not go down with the dis-
senting constituencies any more than with the ma-
jority of the Established Church ; and is probably
reserved for a future master stroke of Sir Robert
Peel himself. The revenues of the Establishment
in Ireland, however, are doubtless doomed to be cut
down for educational purposes ; and Sir Robert
will support the robbery upon the plea of " perfect
equality," which he proclaimed in his retiring
speech. We are also to have a new settlement of
the law as between landlord and tenant in Ireland.
It is a part of the contract with Daniel O'Connell,
and accounts for his present wonderful good hu-
mour with the world, and for Dungarvon being left
uncontested for Mr. Richard Lalor Shiel, notwith-
standing all the past threats of punishment for his
recusancy. But beyon i what is now chalked out,
Lord John and his colleagues are not to stretch
their fingers. Like children, they are to he per-
mitted to ride a few of their favourite hobbies—to
take a short airing upon the road of innovation ;

but the ex-premier is to hold the reins and to carry

the whip. -
We do not urge the fact of this control being ex-
ercised over them, to induce any one of our readers
to lay aside his, or her, fears of the result of Whig
incapacity and want of constitutional principle. On
the contrary, we would urge them to increased
watchfulness and activity. The seeds of future dis-
aster may be sown, with a professing Conservative
looking on approvingly, and ready, at the proper
moment, to step in and consummate the ruin. The
history of past inroads upon the constitution is in-
s.ructive as to the duty of loyal British men. Whig-
radical tampering with our institutions, and contem-
porary mismanagement of the financial affairs of
the kingdom, have, in every successive advent of
that party to power, paved the way to large en-
croachments upon the integrity of the former, and
for the admission to office of a subtle and plausible
minister, armed with powers dangerous to the liber-
ties of the people. Let us ask what circumstance it
was which enabled Sir Robert Peel to betray the
confidence of those who placed him in office, avow-
edly for the purpose of resisting the very measures
which he has just carried. It was his overwhelm-
ing majority in Parliament, and the impression so
generally entertained, that no other statesman pos-
sessed the ability to guide us out of the difficulties,
into which the partial.adoption of Whig-radical prin-
ciples,
and the incapacity of that party to administer 1
• I •••• • • •

the financial affairs of the country, had brought us.
The bulk of the Conservative portion of his support-
ers voted for his corn importation bill, to preserve
such a minister in power. The nation had allowed
itself to be pushed to the brink of a precipice ; and
he alone was looked upon as the man who could
carry us over; and if we fall asleep now—if we rest
confident that no mischief is being done to our in-
stitutions, because we see a Conservative party ap-
parently controlling a weak and incapable adminis-
tration—the time will come again when—our affairs
in utter disorder, the public mind exasperated, no
sound constitutional leader to fall hack upon, and
no strong constitutional power organised—we shall
have to call in the aid of some talented worshipper
of expediency, to patch up our financial prosperity,
and to appease disorder and discontent amongst the
people, by further inroads upon the sources of the
country's greatness and happiness.

It is becoming more and more clear every day
that there is something wrong in our present system
of railway legislation, as there has been in all the
previous systems, of which this is called an improve-
ment. It is difficult to find any two committees
deciding upon the merits of rival schemes upon the
same principles ; laying down the same rules as to
evidence, or even determining, upon the same
grounds, the question—what are rival schemes ?
Committee A has a prejudice in favour of lines
brought forward and proposed to be worked in con-
nexion with existing railways. Committee B. is in
favour of the princiJe of separate management.
Committee C. supports projects which compete with
existing laws. Committee 1). thinks that cheapness
of locomotion is not secured to the public by the
formation of two lines where one, well worked,
would provide the requisite accommodation. E. is
in favour of cheapness of construction, at the expense
of directness of route and perfection of gradients.
F. would go as the crow flies, boring through hills
and filling up valleys. We have some impressed in
favour of lines which open out mineral deposits ;
some which look at the accommodation of passengers
as the only object to be cared for. We have the
friends of a broad guage and of a narrow guage,—
in short, the different views under which committees
legislate, may almost be called Legion, and their de-
cisions are not unfrequently (mite incomprehensible.
Independently of these differences of opinion, on
the part of committees, as to what should be the re-
commendation of a railway scheme to the sanction
of Parliament, there have now crept in political and
even private influences which, at. least, greatly
weaken the confidence of the public in the impar-
tiality of such tribunals. We see Members one day
giving evidence in favour of a line which passes con •
veniently through his property in some county, arid
the next day, perhaps, deciding upon the merits of
a line in which a member of the committee, which
sate in judgment upon that evidence, is deeply in-
terested, or even directly mixed up. The bias as to
the merits of this or that local scheme is not unfre-
quently a material portion of the claim of a Member
to the support of his constituency. Lord Ebrington
we saw, the other day, called to account before the
electors of Plymouth, and threatened with an oppo-
sition, because of his advocacy of o e particular
local project, in preference to its rival. His Lord-
ship's "influence" had been used in favour of the
scheme less popular with his constituents ; and how
used ? This is one of the mysterious processes which
the public want to have expl..ined and got rid of.
There is no such thing can enter• into the decision of
a question tried by any of the ordinary constitutional
tribunals of the land. What are the duties upon which
provisional committee-men, lawyers, and secretaries,
ordinarily employ themselves up to the moment of
presenting their schemes before a committee? In
securing this mysterious "influence "of noble Lords
and honourable Members. We hear of Cornp vies
who have strong Parliamentary influences—who can
pass any kind of project, to the preference of rival
schemes, however excellent, if brought forward by
parties who cannot hobnob with this Peer or that
Member, are unknown at Brookes's or the Reform
Club, and cannot chat familiarly with half the Mem-
bers they meet in the lobby of the House.
Of course we do not impute any malversation of
their important offices to the Members of the Legis-
lature, or any one of them. The character of an
English Peer, and of English Gentlemen, places them
above suspicion of being knowingly corrupt. Like
Caesar's wife, however, they ought to oczarpy a posi-
tion above suspicion ; and to enable them to do this
they must be relieved from the great responsibility
imposed upon them individually as Members of
Railway Committees, with powers so large, and so
capable of being worked to the advantage of friends
or localities, as are wielded by these tribunals.
Diffused, as railway property is now, through every
part of the kingdom—held as it is by the nobleman,
the merchant, the trader, and the smallest shop-
keeper—there are few men of the class from which
our Legislators are chosen who have not either a
direct or a collateral interest in some line, which may
be presumed, unconsciously to themselves, no doubt,
to bias their views with respect to the relative merits
of co-operating or of rival lines. To extricate indi-
vidual members from this, their unfair position, and
the difficulty into which it brings them, we should
suggest the appointment of some capable and inde-
pendent Tribunal, over whose decisions, however,
both Houses, in their collective capacity, might
have an over-riding power.

PRINCE ALBERT'S VISIT-THE MAYOR AND
THE TWO ROMAN CATHOLIC B SHOPS.

It is really irksome to have continually imposed on us
the task of correcting the errors or the inventions of our
contemporaries. We have in another column expressed

• - ___V: tha Niaunr
with respect to his alleged conduct in insisting upon the
right to invite the Rev. Hugh M'Neile to the forth-com-
ing banquet at the Town Hail. Whilst writing the arti-
cle in question we were not informed of the facts of the
case; but presumed upon the Mayor's character as a
high-minded gentleman that the correct truth had not
bee:, conveyed to our co temporaries. We have since
been more fully informed, and proceed to give the genu-
ine version of the matter.

A list of names of parties thought most eligible for in-
vitation was placed before the committee assembled, in
strict privacy and confidence, to make a selection. Of
course, none of these gentlemen anticipated that their re-
marks, upon the fitness of this or that individual, would
be conveyed to the public through the press. After going
through a portion of the list, including the two rectors,
the Rev. Mr. Bold and others, the committee came to the
name of the Rev. Hugh M'Neile. The M 'yor did rot
at all, as represented, use anything like dictation as to the
rev. gentleman. He stated that he did not see how his
name could be omitted after his services to the
charity, and left the matter entirely in the hands
of the committee by whom his invitation was unani-
mously agreed upon. A number of the names were
subsequently gone through, after which Mr. Rathbone
astonished the majority of the committee by proposing
that the two Roman Catholic Bishops of the district
should be invited. The attempt to fasten on the Mayor
alone the disinclination to invite these gentlemen, is
shamefully untrue. A large majority of the committee
ohjected to their invitation as Bishops; and his Worship
frequently remarked, that he wished anything which fell
from him to be viewed only as a suggestion, as he was
desirous of merely carrying out the wishes of the com-
mittee. Mr. Rathbone was reminded that many members
of the Roman Catholic church were already invited, in-
cluding Mr. Weld, Mr. Blundell, Mr. Chaloner, and
others. Subsequently Mr. Rithbone attempted to mo-
dify his motion, by proposing their invitation as Doctors ;
but, eventually, finding himself in so small a minority
upon the point, he withdrew his motion. Mr. Earle's
proposal of Dr. Raffles was dismissed, without anything
like the feeling alleged being. displayed by the Mayor,
who remarked that he had entertained the rev. doctor at
his own table, and was always ready to receive him there.
The rest of the statements promulgated with respect to
this matter are mere absurdities, got up app tre,tly by
some ingenious arid inventive brother of the quill, who,
having perhaps got a wind of what had occurred, was
good enough to supply the imaginative portion. One
part of these statements, as to the immense number of
returned cards and refusals to dine with the Mayor,
which are said to be lying on his worship's table. is
downright absurd. The inv;tat.ons are nut yet issued.
The cards, we believe, are not yet painted
Really, our contempotaries ought not to:degrade the
press by these pure inventions, which bear so much the
appearance of being intended to persecute a gentleman
whose chief offence is that he is opposed to them in poli-
tics. Surely, if even his wor,hip were inclined to
indulge his political feelings in the administration of the
hospitalities of the Town-hall, or in the performance of
his public duties, the Whig- Radical party are not the men
who ought to complain. The few Whig-Eadical Mayors
we have had in this town have not shown such very sensitive
nicety upon these points. At the present moment we
have before us an address of congratulation, issued by the
Whig-Radical Mayor of 'Manchester to the people of
England, upon the successful carrying of the late free
trade measures. Doubtless, were any one of the same clique
Mayor of Liverpool just now, we should have little of
delicacy used in following the same, or even a more ob-
jectionable course.

VISITORS AT CROXTETH.—The following noblemen
and gentlemen are at present staying at Croxteth, and will
remain during the week :—Hon. Mr. Balfour, Hon. Mr.
Forester, Mr. Glynn, Sir W. W. Wynn, Piince George
of Cambridge. Mr. and Mrs. E. G. Hornby, Duke and
Duchess of Montrose, Capt. Rouse, Earl and Countess
Eglington, Hon. Mr. Leslie. Lord Glands, Mr. and
Mrs. J. Townley, Hon. E. G. Mostyn, Miss Hornby,
Sir, R. Pigot, Bart.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge will honour
the Earl of Sefton with a visit at Crosteth this weak. His
Royal Highness %%ill arrive, we believe, on Friday.
ELECTION' OF COMMISSIONERS OF WALLASEY.--
The promoters of the Wallasey Improvement Act have
taken a very unusual and, as it appears to us, a very fair
and impartial course, in omitting from such act any no-
mination of the existing commissioners to art under it,
leaving them to be el-cted by the ratepayers. The follow.
ing gentlemen therefore retire, as they would have done
had no improvement act been past—viz., Mr. T. B.
Hughes, Mr. J. North,.Mr, K. Edwards, Mr. Edwards,
Mr. H. Meadows, Mr. J. Mawdsley, Mr. Thomas
Dean and Mr. J. Bewley. The promoters, nevertheless,
think it their duty to recommend a list, of which the
following are the names:—Messrs. J. D. Maddock,
Miles Barton, Thomas Dean, Thomas Lester, Liscard;
and Messrs. John Mawdsley, Seacombe; Henry Mea.
dows, Poulton ; and Evan Jones, Liscard. The re.
spectability of these gentlemen will ensure them, we
should suppose, the support of the ratepayers. The elec-
tion is to be held on Thursday next, at the Queen's Arms
Hotel, Liscard village.

CELEBRATION OF THE TWEIXTH OF JULY.

Ysterday having been fixed upon for the celebration of the
day of our deliveracce from Popery, by the defeat of James
11. at the Boyne, by William 111. of glorious memory, the
Orange Brethren of Liverpool assembled at their various
lodge-rooms, and proceeded to the :Monument, in London-
road, from whence they started at 9 a.m., and proceeded,
accompanied by several bands of music, and a number of
beautitully executed flags and banners, down London•-
road, along Lime-street, Renshaw-street, Berry-st eet,
Great George's-street, St. James's-place, Mill•4treet,
Warwick-street, Windsor-street, Lipper Parliament -street,
Smithdown-lane, to Wavertree, returning by Wavertree-
road, Edgehill, West Derby-street, and Pembroke-place,
to the Monument, whence they separated to their various
lodges. The proceedings, we are happy to say, were of
the most orderly discipline throughout. After dining in
their lodge-rooms, and going through the usual loyal
toasts, the evening was spent by the brethren in great
harmony.

IIt:,NER OF LODGE 42.—T0 commemorate thT, glorious
12 h of July, this loyal and respectable body of Ormge-
men met yesterday evening, at Mr. Marshall's, Edge-
hill Coffee-house, where upwards of forty of the order
sat down to dinner. The room was most tastefully de-
coratrd—fl•+gs emblematic of the order, and illustrative
industry, were gracefully hung irom the ceiling
and walls, and numerous vases of flowers were distributed

on the tables in a manna r that geve a refreshing as well as
a truly picturesque appearance to the apartment. The
chandeliers were surrounded by evergreens. into which
were gracefully entwined the choicest flowers of the sea-
son, not the least prominent of which was the magnificent
orange lily. The chair, as a matter of course, was taken
by the Master, and was filled in a manner alike creditable
to himself arid the society over which he presided. He
was supported on the right by no less a personage than
the Reverend T. D. Gregg, of Dublin, whose enthu-
siasm and frequent remariis were not onI; entertaining
but intellectual. The late Deputy Grand Master was
also present, as were numerous other equally impor-
tant individuals. A party of glee singers, some mem-
bers of the body, attended on the occasion, and their
efforts were such as to call forth most deservedly the
enthusiastic plaudits of all assembled. The dinner
was not only substantial but excellent, and to the
worthy host we do no more than a duty when we say it
not or ly comprised every variety of the season, but
those varieties (unlike west dinners) were well
cooked. After the cloth was removed, the toast of
" lie Queen" was given from the chair, and followed by
the glee, " God save the Queen." "The Queen Dowager
and the rest of the Royal Family" followed, and was most
enthusiastically received. Glee—" The Two Roses."
"The glorious, pious, and immortal memory of the great
and good King William, Prince of Orange." was then
drunk in solemn silence. Glee—" Lovely Night." Toe
toast, " The Grand Master, the Earl of Euniskiller,"
was received with the Kentish fire, and followed by
the glee " Bright sword of Liberty." The toast of
"The late Deputy Grand Master" was prefaced by a
short address from the cbair, and followed by the glee,
" Hail Smiling Morn." The late Deputy Grand Master
briefly replied, but in that brevity there was an expression
of uncorrupted feeling arid liberality that seemed to raise
the already buoyant spirits of the party, and the en-
thusiastic cheers that followed but faintly illustrated
the enthuastie joy it created. " The Worshipful Master
of Lodee 42" was given from the vice-chair (which was
most ably filled), and was ably responded to by the gen-
tleman proposed. Glee—" Spring's delights," To the
toast. " The Protestant Bishops anti Clergy of the Dio-
cese." coupled with the Rev. T. D. Gregg, the latter
gentleman repled at length, and we are only sorry that
the lateness of the hour prevents us doing that justice to
to his address that its merits deserve—for in a word he
illustrated the present state of Protestantism, and the
duplicity of popery. He showed the firm course he had
pursued, and the position to be taken, and displayed a
knowledge, a tact :ld talent, that in a few words it is im-
possible to describe. • The address was loudly applauded
throughout. Glee—" Good Night." Tire following
toasts we e then given :—" The Town and Trade of Liver-
pool." Glee—'"f o all re d ies." "Our Visiting Friends."
Glee—" Banish, 0 Maiden." " Lancashire Witches ;"
and followed by a solo, with self accompaniment, " The
Accomplished Young Lady." Numerous healths were
afterwards drunk, and at a seasonable hour the company
dispersed, each highly delighted with the hilarity of the
evening and the loyalty that had been unanimously dis-
played.