The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-08-11 00:00:00

the people were involved. Lay down before us
your policy as a whole. Do not confine your reve-
lations to the one idea of protection. We want
something more comprehensive—more satisfying.
It is miserable folly to imagine, as Lord George
Bentinck seems to imagine, that it was their defec-
tion from .the cause of native agriculture which
sapped the strength of the Peel ministry. That
ministry was raised to power by the resistance of its
members, whilst in opposition, to the appropriation
clause and the Lichfield House compact of Lord
Melbourne's government. The commercial propo-
sitions of that government were only the last drop,
which c-mused the measure of their iniquities to over-
flow. Would a mere question of tree labour in
su“ar or coffre have influenced the return of the

powet ful phalanx of Conservatives who, in 1841.
overthrew the Whig-R idicals, and placed Sir Ro-
bert Peel in office ? No. Yet that qoestion was
the ostensible hinge of the movement. it is equally
true, that neither.the repeal of the corn law.of 1.42,
nor the prevention of assassination bill for Ireland,
was the real cause of Sir Robert Peel's fall. It was
a long and lamentable series of defec•ions from the
maintenance of Protestant truth—a long and lamen-
table series of contemptuous denials of the right of
the poor to Christian treatment, and of the la'iourer
to legi.la(it'e consideration for his comfort and social
and moral happiness—which alienated tram Sir
Robert Peel the sympathies and respect of the real
worth and wisdom of the empire. The stately oak is
not prostrated at a blow. The strong pillar does
not give way to the first impetus of the blast. The
supports of each must he first withdrawn or weak-
ened ; and so it was w th the now defunct ministry.
It had lost both its root and its supports in the
hearts of the people; and it fell, we trust never to
raise its apostate front, and again to delude a too-
confiding people.
The gov rninent, which it is proposed by the pro-
tectionist party to erect, must-have even a more ex-
tensive basis of popular opiniim in their favrotr than
that which was possessed by the government of Sir
Robert Peel at the d..te of its first admission to

power. The scarcity of administraive talent, and,
ahore all, of parliamentary tactique, among,t the
gentlemen of whom it is most likely to tie composed,
will readily he admitted; and ►his weakness st
he -eompeo.sited for hy,the moral atreogth of the
nation exerted in its behalf. Do we find, however,
in the views and known opinions of the gentlemen
u.nally acting with Lord George Bentinck, the

strong claims winch will lie required upon the res-
pect and confidence of th.l intelligible twisQes of the
people ? Dj we find in the past conduct of soole

of them a securit

testant Est blishment in Ireland ? Are they pre-
pared to offer the means of religious education and
church accommodation to our increasing popola-
tion—to lighten the toil of children in the factores
—to wash their hands of the iniquity of the New
Poor Law—to improve the social and physical con-
dition of the labouring masses—and to recognise
boldly, the principle that the statesman kis to legis
late for the welfare of the souls, as wed as of the
bodies and the pockets, of the people? We fear
much that here will be the shortcoming of the coun-
try party ; and we warn its members that, without
some more iotehligtble anti distinct pledge, with res-
peCt to these matters, than the clun;ry have vet re-
ceived, their appeal to the bulk of the conqitnencies
will be a vain one, anti their term of office, if office
be attained by theta at all, will be miserably and
emphatically brief.

We a-kihetn, ton, to weigh the consequences of

crisi, by professions, without a sincere resolve 10

•inn to the Liberal raTik4 of commanding talent, in
Sir Robert Peel and his minis,erial supporters,
combined with a leaden apathy in the people, caused
by repeated disappointment of their just hopes and
confidence in the statestnen of their own choice.
There is, happily, a chance yet kit for the redemp-
ti bn of past errtirs,--!he prosi ect of a noble anti
ful wand for the integrity of the institution,:
country. But that stand must he made

upon no such warow ground—no ti c h isolated
question as that of protection to the industt y of the
nation, excellent as is the prii:ciple of such protec-
tion. We have a religion to pre,erve, an estab ished
&lurch to defend, oppressed and suffering was .es
of our !mutilation t,) raise from the dust, and to

mid degra lation and tyranny; w
I the nol

haveAlin

with which we appear to have been entrusted hy
Providen..ei which ha 7, raised the people of these
islands so high in the scale of nation,,—i he desiiny

of spreading abroad, by our example and influence,
the hles,,ings of civilization and of the knowledge of
God and his truth. Will Lord George Bentmck
accept and prepare himself for this noble work ? If
not, better for England that his arid, and those of
his friends; are never pot to the helni of Rovern-
!tient. Another disappoirient of the jo,o, hopes of
the people can rdy produce, first, a Whig dlct.oot-
,hip, and when that can no longer he endured,
anarchy and revolution.

he Manchester Guardian, of Wednesday, re-
turns to the charge of, want of ciptirtesy towards the
Mayor of that.town,lt the authorities of LiverpOol,
in not transmitting earlier an invitation to the fes-
tivities in honour of the recent visit of Prince
Albert. Our explanatiOn, he says, is " partly ritlicu,
to 's, anti partly untrue," but he shall tell the how
and wherefore

" In 'be first place, it is absurd to say that an invitation
the mavoi of MaiicheAter made, it ni.c. ss ry to extend

e same eOttrte,y to any other mnhieipal offie-rs ; for
'ere is no other bornutati in the court y which stan•fs in
,e same relation to Livetpool as the borough of Alan-

We mhnit readily the superior claims of Manchester,
and that our neigi:bours have a rery proper sense
of the importance of their town to the commerce of
Liverpool. It. was acknowledtied by the fact of
.ihe
name of the Mayor of Manchester occupying a

place in tin; 11241 piaceu before
nittee. We do not, however, at all recognise it
xclusice claims to regard, still less the ground upon
chic

le corn-

these claims are urged. We do not know
hat the people of M inchemter contributed much to
the erection of the :iiitors' Home, to lay the found -
lion of which was one of the objects of the Royal
vir•it, or that they have any great claim upon our
corporate estate, from the funds of which air
Fes ivities upon the occasion were provided. Witb
iespect to the Albert Dock and warehouses, th(•
opening of which was the other great object of the
Prince's visit, we do not see the necessary connexion
of the Mayor of Manchester with these either. The