The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-02-19 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 19, 1833.

• THE EMnAuoo.—lr has rarely happened to us to feel
otherwise than proud of the title of Englishmen ; but,
among the few cases in which the mind has been disposed
to shrink from the pride of such an avowal, may be
ranked that which is connected with a debate in the
House of Commons on Friday last ; when, on going
into a Committee of Supply, Sir Robert Peel, pursuant
to notice, called the attention of the House to the ques-
tion of the Dutch Embargo.

In a speech replete with good sense and sound consti-
tutional information—a Speech, as Sir James Scarlett
said, with reference to its legal acumen, which would
have done honour to the profession—the Right Honor-
able Baronet exposed, in strong colours, the lamentable
course of policy which His Majesty's present Ministers
have thought proper to pursue with respect to our
ancient and sincere Ally—Holland. Tracing, with cool
research, the great advantages derived to our commercial
interests from the protection afforded to the persons and
-property of foreigners, from the time of Magna Charta,
through various important periods of our history, down
to the last war, he plainly demonstrated, not only how
inconsistent has been the course pursued, in this instance,
with that which has been the general, as it has manifest•
ly been the true policy of this country on former occa-
sions ; but as plainly exhibited 'that course ainne preg-
nant with evils of great magnitude to the country, not
less by the general diminution of confidence in the
character of the British Government, to which it must
give rise, than by the establishment of a precedent of
which other nations may hereafter avail themselves, to
our decided injury.

After promptly demolishing the argument—an argu-
ment falsely assumed—of the honorable and learned
Civilian, the Member for the Tower Hamlets, used in a
preceding debate, when quoting Lord Stowell's opinion
on the subject of Embargoes, the right hon. Bart.
laid down the line of policy adopted by this country on
various occasions of actual or apprehended conflict with
other powers.

In the course of his observations on the constitutional
character of 014 lets in Council, Sir Robert introduced
the opinion of Lord Erskine in 1806, who entered his
Protest against some measures, then in progress through
Parliament, to"the effect "that the power of binding the
people by any regulations belonged only to the Lords
Spiritual and Temporal and to the House of Commons,
in Parliament assembled ; and that any order to the con-
trary was a gross infringement of the rights and liberties
of British subjects." Not less happily did he quote a
Work attributed to the present Lord Chancellor, in which
it would be difficult to trace any resemblance to the max-
ims now acted upon with regard to Holland, by that
Ministry of which the noble and learned Lord is so con-
spicuous a Member. It is, however, of little use refer-
ring to that noble and learned Lord's opinion on any
question of policy, " Colonial" or otherwise, consider-
ing-the convenient faculty of perfect obliviousness pos-
sessed by his Lordship as to many of the sentiments of
his earlier years.

The second article of the Convention of the 22d Octo-
ber last delared, that, " If the King of the Netherlands
" shall refuse to enter into the engagement mentioned
" in the foregoing Article"—(that is, withdraw all his
troops from what the high contracting parties arepleased
to call the territories which are to form the Kingdom of
Belgium, on or before the 12th of November,)—" Their
" Majesties the King of the United Kingdom of Great
" Britain and Ireland, and the King of the French, will
" immediately cause an embargo to be laid upon all
" Netherland vessels within the Ports of Their respective
" dominions, and will order Their respective cruizers to
" detain and send in all Netherland vessels which they
" may meet with at sea; and a combined British and
French squadron shall be stationed off the coast of
" Holland, for the more effectual execution of this
•
" measure." •

Upon this article the Order in Council was issued on
the 6th of November, which detained all Dutch shipping
in British ports, and authorized their capture wherever
found. A quarter of a year has elapsed since this mea-
sure was adopted—Antwerp and its-dependent forts have
been taken—the French army, having effected the grand
ministerial Coup d'Etat, the chief -object of the under-
taking, has retired—Belgium has not evacuated one inch
of Limburg, or the other places belonging to Holland
which she occupies—no measures have been taken,
either by France or England, to compel such evacuation
by Belgium—no detention or capture of under
the Belgian flag has taken placebut Holland still re-
mains subject to the harsh and unjust proceedings' of the
British Ministry; for those proceedings are the act of
that body of men, in defiance of the protest, and to the
destruction of the interests of the merchants of Great
Britain—in* subversion of her true policy—to the dis-
grace:of her good name, and in direct violation of the
general Law of Nations.
_

We will venture to assert, that, if the suffrages of the
-whole oommercial body, and the general good sense of
the United Kingdom were individually taken upon this
question, an immense majority would subscribe to the
opinions—strong though they be—which we have here
expressed. Is it not enough, then, to justify the ex-
pression with which we set out, that we may rank this
among the.few instances in which We hesitate to pride
ourselves au being of a nation which is thus dragged by
her rulers, in subservience to a foreign policy, from that
straight-forward path of justice which has hitherto,
thank God, been the established course of the British
Government.

What were the arguments opposed to those of Sir
Rpbert Peel, and his able supporters, Mr. Baring, Mr.
Pollock, Sir James Scarlett, and last, though not least
effective, Sir Richard Vivy.-an? Neither the learned
Civilian—Dr. Lushington—the member for that parti-
cular metropolitan district, more than any other in the
British empire dependent -upon commerce=nor his
learned brethren, the Attorney and Solicitor General,