The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-06-27 00:00:00

brink of insolvency, in order, it is shrewdly sus-
pected, to produce a colourable and fictitious
prosperity, which might be pleaded as the pro-
duct of our free-trade policy, and as realizing those
"exaggerated expectations of enlarged trade" which
were held out to us ; and the Bank, in its effort to
right itself, has produced the evil of which we com-
plain. Yet the finding of this intelligent Commit-
tee is, that the Bank is to be left alone ! We are
told, by one of the most thoroughgoing advocates
of the present system, the London Times—and it
is all the comfort we receive—that" the Bank has
acquired more feeling of its tremendous responsi-
bility, and a truer discernment of its real and ulti-
mate interests. No change is necessary to control
it in the exercise of its own enlightenEd discretion."
A more impudent assumption was never placed upon
record. It is, however, only an echo of the opinion
of her Majesty's very wise Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer.

DURING the debate, on Friday night, the Protec-
tionist leader, Lord George Bentinck again admi-
nistered merited castigation upon the Under Secre-
tary for the Colonies, poor Mr. Benjamin Hawes,
and held his face to the grindstone, whilst he ex-
posed further delinquencies in the dispatch-sup-
pressing line. Not one only, hut three important
dispatches, from Colonial Governors, containing
evidence which would have decided the question
before the West India Committee, had been kept
back ; neither produced to the Committee when
sitting, nor referred to by Earl Grey in his state-
ment in the House of Lords. The case was evi-
dently felt by the Premier to be too flagrant to be
treated in the ordinary ministerial way. The nail
had been hit too hard on the head to be easily
wriggled away from. The Premier, therefore,
mounted the ancestral chair, wrapt himself in the
robes of the Russell that " bled upon the scaffold,"
and stood for protection upon the honour and
dignity of himself and his colleagues, betraying,
however, in the act a portion of the innate littleness
and nastiness of his mind, which is evinced in the
following mean sneer directed against Lord George
Bentinck

"Now, I must say, generally," remarked his lordship,
" with regard to these matters, quite apart from the con-
duct of my noble friend, and generally with regard to the
conduct of men high in public office, that these mean
frauds, these extremely dishonourable tricks, which the
noble lord imputes to them, are not the faults and charac-
teristics of men who are high in public office in this coun-
t try. (Cheers.) They are characteristics of men who are
engaged in pursuits which the noble lord long followed.—
(Cheers, answered by " Oh, oh.") The noble lord very
greatly distinguished himself in detecting a fraud of that
nature with respect to the name or the age of a horse—
(great laughter, followed by loud cries of " Oh, oh")—in
which he showed very great quickness of apprehension.
(Renewed laughter, and cries of " Oh, oh !") But when
the noble lord comes forward and imputes to a man of the
character of my noble friend—(some cries of " Oh," which
were immediately drowned in loud cheering)—when he
imputes to a man of the character of Lord Grey—(renewed
cheers)—fraudulent conduct, with a view of suppressing
the truth, with the view of evading the disclosure of the
truth, I say he totally misconceives the character of Lord
Grey. (Much cheering.) He totally misconceives the
character of any man with whom I have been acquainted,
of any party who has been in high office in this country for
a long term of years, in throwing out those imputations,
utterly unfounded as they are—(cries of " Oh, oh !" met
by renewed cheers)—utterly unfounded as they are, I re-
peat again ; because to charge Lord Grey with anything
like fraud—with anything like meanness—is an imputation
to which he, of almost all men, is the least liable. (Loud
cheers.) I say it is true, generally, that no such charges
can safely be preferred."

The " mean frauds" referred to ; the "extremely
dishonourable tricks," as we are glad to perceive
Lord John Russell admit these suppressions of
evidence to be, used not to belong to the conduct of
"men high in office" in this country; and we trust
that such men as Lord Grey are above their practice
still. But the " mean frauds" and " extremely
dishonourable tricks" are practised by somebody,
nevertheless, and obviously for a purpose. If Lord
Grey's own hands are clean, as no' doubt they
are, it is his duty to see that those of his subordinates
in the Colonial Office—a suspected one, wherever
the case of the West India Colonists is in question
—are equally free from taint.
With respect to the personally offensive part of
the Premier's remarks, we leave him to writhe under
the keen and polished weapon of Mr. D 'lsraeli :

" I hardly know sir, whether I should deign to notice
some of the observations of the noble lord. (Cheers from
the opposite benches.) How one of his sneers against a
noble pastime of this country may be estimated by hon.
gentlemen in this house I stop not to inquire—(a laugh);
but this I know from his own admission, that the pro-
ceedings of my noble friend, in the very case to which the
noble lord referred, as on subsequent occasions in this
house, proved of good service—(cheers) ; and I believe
the same determined spirit of honesty--(renewed cheers)
—the same indefatigable spirit of investigation, the same
courage that will not be cowed (hear, hear,) by any bravo,
whatever may be his position—(loud cheering)—the same
high spirit that will not be bullied either in the ring or on
the treasury bench—(cheers)—the same acuteness, and
the same courage, may be brought to bear with great
effect in an investigation of the manner in which our
colonial affairs are carried on. (Hear, and cheers.) I ask
you to remember that that case in private life to which
the noble lord the first Minister of the Crown referred
with such excessive taste and such perfect temper—(loud
cheers)—led to this consequence—that some of the gentle-
men of England. as great noblemen as any of the noble
lord's colleagues, met together to express their gratitude
to my noble friend for his conduct, and to thank him for
having vindicated the purity of a pastime which has de-
generated with the spirit of the age. (Cheers and laughter.)
And who, sir, was the chairman of that meeting ? His
Grace the Duke of Bedford. (Loud and continued cheer-
ing.) But, because the Duke of Bedford is a steward of
the Jockey Club, because he was the chairman of the
meeting which did honour to my noble friend, and
founded that contribution which my noble friend, unlike
other public characters, refused,—(laughter, and loud
cheering)—and handed to that club whose honest feeling
he wished to improve, as he wishes to improve the moral
tone and honest spirit of the Colonial-office--(laughter
and cheers)—is the Duke of Bedford on these accounts
disqualified for the office of a Privy Councillor? (Hear,
hear.) Does the noble lord the first Minister of the
Crown shrink from his Grace of Bedford when any sub-
ject of importance, especially respecting the administra-
tion of our colonies, is concerned ? Does he never con-
descend to consult that man of great sagacity, experience,
and honour ?—or, when he meets him, does he say—
" Avaunt ! I and my colleagues are men of such high
character that we cannot condescend to speak to a man
who has been seen at Newmarket ? " (Laughter and
cheers.)

His Lordship will, by this time, agree with us
that he had better have been quiet.

The Chinese junk Keying will shortly be brought round
to this port.
Mr. Jackson has been chosen manager of the new
bank in the Isle of Man, which is to be celled " The
Bank of Mona."

The Baptist connexion are endeavouring to create an
interest at Birkenhead. With this view they have taken
the Craven-rooms as a meeting-'..ause.
We regret to hear that Mr. Sheridan Knowles is in a
bad state of health. He accompanies Mr. Driver, of this
town, in August next, to Madeira, to pass the winter.
On Thursday, a little boy, named Dalim, was drowned
in the canal through falling from a flat, of which his father
was a boatman.

Mr. Simpson will open the Theatre Royal on the 10th
of July, with the new play of " The Wife's Secret."
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean will appear.
About three week's since Daniel M`Monniss, living
with his parents in Prescot-row, was so severely burnt,
his clothes having caught fire during his mother's absence,
that he died in the Dispensary on Sunday week.
The Mail says that legal proceedings have been taken
against Mr. Henry Watson and Mr. Ravenscroft, to re-
cover the sum of £5OO from each, for having acted as
Commissioners for Birkenhead without being duly quali-
fied.

THE NATIONAL CONFEDERATION.—Meetings have
been held in several of the districts of the town last week,
for the purpose of organizing ward committees, and afford-
ing a working staff in connexion with this excellent asso-
ciation.

A deputation on Birkenhead Dock business, consisting
of Baron Goldsmid, Mr. Bailey, jun., M.P., Mr. Laird,
Mr. Pike, Mr. Cole, Mr. Maynard, and Mr. Waln, had
an interview with the Commissioners of Woods and Fo-
rests on Friday.
DERBY HOTEL.—We perceive that this commodious
house, near the Zoological Gardens, has been taken by
a new tenant, who appears determined to make the whole
of his establishment available in the best possible way for
the comfort and entertainment of his guests.
COUNTY VOTES.—Persons who are qualified to vote for
county representatives may be usefully reminded, that
from the 20th June to the 20th July is the period within
which claims must be sent in to the overseers of the town-
ships in which their respective qualifications are situate.
MANSLAUGHTER.—On Wednesday, an inquest was
held, in Birkenhead, on the body of Thomas Evans. who
was killed from a blow he received whilst fighting Joseph
Sherlock, the principal, and Samuel Pownall, William
Minshull, and William Sherlock, were committed by the
coroner for manslaughter.

On Thursday evening, some persons who had engaged a
coach near St. George's Church were thrown down by the
breaking of the pin which connects the carriage pole. The
horse took fright, and plunged madly down Lord-street :
he struck one or two lamps in his progress, but was stopped
in Whitechapel without having injured any one.
The District School, at Lane-End, in Waberthwaite,
near Ravenglass, after having undergone a thorough repair,
and been converted into a boys' and girls' school, was
opened on Monday last, by Mr. and Mrs. Fenby, late of
Chatham-street, Liverpool, who have been appointed to
conduct the respective departments, and under whose able
management the school is expected to rise to great impor-
tance.—Whitehaven Herald.