The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-10-17 00:00:00

to men in whose hands the destinies of this grea
country will not, on the one hand, be Frilled by
rash and sweeping innovations, or, on the other, its
growth in power retarded by an over-timid observ-
ance of exploded theories, and an over-anxious
clinging to opinions which, however sound they
may have been in other days, and under different
circumstances, are no longer those which should
guide the government of ENGLAND AS SHE IS.
It may be for good or it may be for evil, that we
are now placed in the position that, as a nation, we
must progress. As a nation, we are now irretriev-
ably embarked upon a course the end of which is
discernible by few—is, in fact, an indistinct vision
of mingled greatness and danger ; of vast power,
and its sudden prostration, from the very weight
and vastness of the elements of which it is com-
posed ;—but this we know : there is no receding
now. We must fulfil our destiny. We must go
on in that race for commercial supremacy over the
nations of the world, in which we have already pe-
rilled so large an amount of our social happiness
and security ; we must go on extending those mag-
nificent possessions, which already compose an em-
pire greater than the world has yet known ; we
must go on, alas ! devoting our industrious millions
at home to the wear and tear, the toil and privation,
which, we fear, are inseparable from such a struggle ;
and to guide us safely through such a course—to
ward off a premature explosion—it is not the rash
nd reckless theorist—it is not either the old-world
advocate of obstructive and backward policy—to
whom must be committed the charge of interests so
mighty, involving, in effect, the destinies of the
world ; but to the prudent statesman, who, knowing
and feeling his position, and the dangers which me-
nace his country on every side, from without and
from within, will not be turned from that position
by insidious temptations or open menace. Such a
man, we fondly hope, experience, to which we have
pointed, has shown that we possess in Sir Robert
Peel. He may disappoint our wishes upon some
points—points, too, which we think material—but
" take him for all in all" there is no man in the pre-
sent day by whom we would willingly see him re-
placed in his present station at the head of England's
government.

A fortnight ago, we told the government of Sir
Robert Peel that, to win the hearts of the sound
portion of the British people, to strengthen the con-
servative party throughout the empire, and, indeed,
to preserve it from utter and almost irremodiable
prostration, their poliay must be based upon strictly
conservative and protestant principles. Conserva-
tism, not only in the government but throughout
the land, must be true to itself ; it must cease to
court the treacherous applause of opponents, and
grieve the hearts and trifle with the hopes of friends;
it must desert the crooked paths of expediency, and
adopt and pursue the straightforward and manly
course by which alone the truth can be safely
reached, and the respect and affection of right-
hearted Englishmen can be secured. 'Were we
wrong in saying this ? Tire were not. The events
of the past week have proved that we were not. Ten
days ago there were thousands of loyal conserva-
tives throughout Great Britain, who distrusted the
government of their choice—who feared for their
country and her institutions, cummitted to such
keeping. One step in the right direetion—one de-
cided manifestation of a determination to maintain,
untouched and unsullied, the protestant faith and
the integrity of the empire—one overt act, as the
evidence of the resolve of England's government to
put down the treasonable agitation, by which these
were insultingly menaced—have gained, for Sir
Robert Peel and his colleagues, the confidence of
thousands—aye of millions—who, then fainting and
alienated, are now ready to rally to their aid, and to
bear them safely through even rebellion itself.
Can Sir Robert Peel, or any portion of his admi-
nistration, entertain a doubt that such has been the
result of their recent Irish policy ? If they do so
doubt, we only ask them to present themselves, at
this moment, before any assembly of their conser-
vative fellow countrymen, and to mark the warmth
of feeling with which they will be greeted, even in
quarters and from men who, a week ago, would
have received their very names with coldness and
ill-concealed dislike. We ask them even to mingle
with the world, and to see the looks of confidence
and satisfaction with which conservative now meets
conservative, as they discourse together on the oc-
currences which are agitating the minds of the en-
tire community. Would that they could have felt
the beat of the heart of universal England, as, for
the first time for years past, she knew that she was
no longer dishonoured amongst nations—that for
the first time she was no longer the mark against
which republicanism and popery could direct their
poison unrepelled—that for the first time for years
she had ceased to be held up to the ridicule of the
world, as a nation powerless to crush A REPTILE-
the meanest that ever crawled from the mud of a
hog or a ditch, and was nursed and bloated by the
warm sun to exhale its noxious odours upon the
air, and to insult the pure eye of heaven with its
obscenity. Such experiences—such objects—would
convince the coldest of the followers of expediency
that Englishmen have feelings, to be won and to be
offended, and that the path to the securing of those
feelings in their favour is the straightforward path
of consistent and bold honesty.
We could point to abundance of written and oral
evidence of the truth of the position which we have
taken, if such were wanted. It is not so however,
and yet we cannot refrain from giving the following
remarks, uttered at a meeting of what some conser-
ratives have treated as an impracticable body of
men—the Operative Protestant Conservatives of
Dublin. The same opinion, we may state, has been
given of the same body in our own town.

" Sir Robert Peel, indeed," observed the speaker at
the meeting in question, " had well atoned for his long
inaction by the well-timed step which he had now
adopted—a step no less unexpected than it was com-
pletely successful. The Protestants of Ireland—their
patience almost exhausted, and their forbearance in-
sulted by the parade of the repealers—had, perhaps,
been in the habit of speaking too harshly of Sir Robert,
but he had now regained their confidence (hear, hear)—
he had shown that his moderation was not cowardice,
and that his delay was not hesitation. (Hear, hear.)
He resembled a great minister in another age—one of
eloquence unrivalled and sagacity the most penetrating
—one who had all the difficulties and all the dangers to
meet that Sir Robert Peel had now to encounter. His
policy was the very same. At a time when a dangerous
demagogue gathered around hint the profligate, the
abandoned, the desperate, and the knave, and the safety
of the Roman empire itself was perilled by the conspi-
racy—at that time at the helm of affairs sat the cautious
and prudent Cicero—he suffereci the conspiracy to gather
strength, the leader to vaunt himself, and the blister of
sedition to come to a head. Many blamed him, hut the
issue proved his wisdom. May Sir Robert Peel, as he
has imitated Cicero's caution, imitate his firmness.
(Hear.)"
- - -

Such sentiments, we can inform Sir Robert Peel,
and his colleagues, are not confined to the operative
conset vatives of Dublin or of the empire, although
to that body we give the credit of, most firmly, and
tenaciously, and consistently, keeping them alive in
the hearts of the protestant communi•y. They are
the opinions of the conservative public of these realms;
they have even manifested themselves upon that
touchstone of public opinion, the Stock Exchange
of our metropolis ; they are the opfnions of the best
statesmen and politicians of Europe ; ai;d most fer•
vently do we pray that the lesson which they teach