The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-11-10 00:00:00

THE PEERAGE.

In one of Dr. Parr's pamphlets, who in his day was
characterized as a whig and something more, we recently
met with the following character of the British Peerage :
—" I wish to see," says the Doctor, " in our own country the
peerage preserved, but not to see peers wantonly or insidiously
multiplied. I wish to see them invested, not with teazing and
invidious privileges, but with' substantial and splendid rights.
Indeed by the spirit of the English constitution, they are the
supporters, not the creatures, of the crown. They ate legisla-
tors for the people, but not their oppressors. l'hey Matte a com-
mon interest with the people, and uncommon obligation to pre-
serve it. While their duties in public life, thus assist in
upholding the state, their manners in private life must be
allowed to adorn society. Habitually conscious of a dignity
which invites respect without imposing submission, they seldom
wound the feelings of delicate and independent minds, by the
gross insolence of wealth, or by the overbearing arrogance of
station. They are placed above those petty competitions for
importance, and those petty excitements to tyranny, which we
sometimes lament in the inferior ranks of our gentry. They are
not more rapacious than other members of the community as
landlords, nor more contentious as neighbours, nor more
immoral, I would hope, as men. They are at once too great to
be generally envied, and not great enough to he generally
feared. Such in favour of the English peerage, are the senti-
ments of a man, whose imagination, I. trust, is not easily
dazzled by the glare of opulence, and whose spirit, I am certain,
never shrunk from the frowns of power. From the natural
progression of those causes which infuse industry and wealth
through society, inequalities will arise, and having arisen, they
will lead to distinctions of some kind or other. But to me it
seems, that in circumstances, by which the peers of England
are separated from other citizens, and in those by which they
are connected with them, feudal institutions have been so tem-
pered and modified by the progress of civilization, and the dif-
fusion of general liberty, as to justify every impartial well-
wisher of his country in resisting all attempts to facilitate the
subversion of the peerage.
" I. doubt whether those who would destroy the peerage be
disposed to endure monarchy in any form ; and I ant sure that
they who would extend English liberty upon the principles of
the English constitution, will be careful not to drive a powerful
order of men, upon principles of self-preserration, into such a con-
federacy with the crown' as may prove injurious to that liberty."
—Sequel to the Printed Paper, 2nd edit., 1792.

RECEPTION OF THE CHISHOLM BY HIS

CONSTITUENTS.

FORT WILLIAM.---Last week, Chisholm of Chisholsn arrived
at this place to visit his constituents. His reception among us
must have been highly gratifying. A considerable number of
the constituency joined him on the way from the hospitable
mansion of Sir Duncan Cameron; and the cortege, as it enter-
ed Port William, had a very imposing effect. A respectable
company sat down to an excellent cold collation in the Cale-
donian Hotel, of which Colonel Ross of Tirndrish presided.
Among the company were Colonel Cameron of Letterfinlav ;
Captain P. Cameron, yr. of Fassfearn; Charles Stewart, Esq.
yr..of Ballichulish ; Colonel Cochrane; Mr. Smith, Glenevis,
&c. &c.—The King's health, proposed from the chair, was re-
ceived and drank with the warm.indication of loyalty character-
istic of Highlandmen. Then followed the healths of the Chiefs
and Proprietors connected with Lochaber. On .31r. Macintyre
of Kilmanivaig being called upon from the chair, he proposed,
the health of our excellent and talented Member of P4trlia-
ment." "We live," said the Rev. Gentleman, "in an age
which is destined to occupy a very marked place on the pages
of history. It is pregnant with mighty things for weal or for
woe, to generations vet unborn. The arts and sciences have
made in it a proud advancement, and with them great and gene-
rpl improvements have taken place. This, in itself, is gratify-
ing. Yet we cannot disguise from ourselves the painful reality
that the boasted attainments of our day are not free from an un-
ballhwed alloy, and that many circumstances have combined to
give an undue impulse, an oblique direction to the public mind
—that there prevails a feverish desire of inflicting empirical
experiments on our constitution, so' that the danger to which
we find ourselves exposed is, that in our professed endeavour to
improve, we may weaken or destroy the time-hallowed institutions.
of our envied country. It is evident, therefore, that our safety
lies in sending men of moderate, and at the same timeenlight-
ened views, to represent us in the great national council—men,
who, having themselves a large stake in the stability of our
affairs, will thus at once improve and preserve. lam firmly
persuaded that the county of Inverness has done itself great
honour, and the state some service, by sending to Parliament
our present worthy, pious, and enlightened representative,
whose health I have now the pleasure of proposing." The
toast was drank with loud applause. The Chisholm, in rising
to return thanks, thus addressed the company :—" I beg to re-
turn you my most sincere thanks, gentlemen, for the very kind
manner its which you have drank my health. My friend Mr.
Macintyre has so well, so concisely, and yet so completely,
stated the nature and objects of conservatism, that I feet it to be
wholly unnecessary for me to attempt to go over that ground.
Entertaining, as I trust and believe I do, a most sincere and
earnest desire for the instruction and improvement in evert, way
of all our fellow-creatures, I am yet must anxious and -deter-
mined, so far as I have the power, to uphold and protect the
long-established and venerated institutions of our country. It
is an old remark, and I am satisfied of its correctness, that if
ever the liberties of this country are ruined it will be by the
House of Commons. What have we at this moment, truly and
soberly speaking, to fear from the King, or from the House of
Lords'? The House of Commons is alone really and actually
irresponsible. To its growing preponderance, it will be our
wisdom to oppose ourselves by being ready to throw our weight
into the opposite scale of the constitution."