The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-01-04 00:00:00

SLAVERY.—The truth must be spoken, let it offend
whom it may. " We are told in this town, and it is gene-
rally maintained throughout the country, that the Dis-
senters and their Ministers have taken prominent part in
the elections, upon principles strictly Christian, in order
to relieve this country from the opprobrium which the
existence of Slavery brings on the name of our holy
religion.
Every one who makes it his business to study human
nature, in his intercourse with men, will be prepared to
expect, when pretexts of this kind are taken up whole-
sale by large bodies of persons, every degree of know-
ledge and ignorance, of honesty and dishonesty, in the
professions they hold forth.
There are, we doubt not, many cases of most sincere
and singleminded persons, who have voted for Radical
Candidates on the ground of a genuine hatred to slavery,
and who have not only professed this as their grand and
leading motive, but have felt it too.
But, if we are required to test the general wisdom and
sincerity of those who have taken up the cry for imme-
diate abolition, it is obvious that we must, to this end,
inquire, whether there was any place in which a Radical
Candidate was friendly to the continuance of Slavery—'
and if so, whether he was or was not largely supported
by the Dissenters ?
Look to Middlesex ! Mr. Hume is, avowedly, what is
termed a friend of the West Indians, and he is considered
as such by the West Indians themselves. We omit the
fact, that his conduct on religious questions in Parlia-
ment, has given the greatest offence to rightminded per-
sons,—and we look only to this one opinion, which, in
the geneiality of cases, has been represented by some
sections of the Dissenters, as the paramount objection to
voting for a candidate supposed to hold it.
Well : Mr. Hume is opposed by Lord Henley—a man
desirous of the abolition of slavery, and proposjng to go
farther on this question than the Government themselves.
What is the issue ? Of course, as this is the determining
question, these portions of the Dissenters support Lord
Henley against Mr. Hume ? No such thing : Lord Hen-
ley is driven out of the field, and dare not come to a poll.
The election comes on and, by the agency of the Dissen-
ters, Mr. Hume is returned to Parliament, at the head of
the poll.

Is then Slavery the cause, or is it, in many cases, only
the pretext of the course which has been pursued ? Apply
the test:—take the case of the Radical Antiabolitionists :
—look to the Middlesex Election. Avowedly hostile to
immediate abolition,—not especially zealous for the moral
elevation of the Negro by Christian instruction,—and
condemned by name, in the advertisements of the Agency
Antislavery Committee,—Mr. Hume is returned to Par-
liament for Middlesex, where the Dissenters are ex-
tremely strong, at the head of the poll.
We are justified in calling upon many singleminded
persons among the Dissenters to observe, how interested
parties lead them by the nose.

PORTARLINGTON ELECTION.—We perceive a long
article in the Liverpool Journal of Saturday last, in
which we find much that was not needed, and miss
just one thing which was needed—that is, an apology.

The facts are these. The Journal concentrated ,the
substance of a violent artiele in the Dublin Morning
Register, and made it its own; by stating it as if on
its own authority. Mr. Grant promptly contradicted the
falsehoods which the Journal had been kind enough to
take upon itself. The Journal replies, not with an
apology, which every gentleman would have thought
himself bound to make, as a matter of course, after
publishing an abusive statement without previous inquiry
as to its truth; but with a modest declaration, that
.‘ they Might complain that Mr. Grant did not choose to
reply So the charge in the Dublin paper, rather than to
the brief statement in the Journal."

What had Mr. Grant to do with the Dublin paper ?
He looked to the mischief nearest home. Doubtless it
would have been a good joke for the Journal, if instead
of exposing its wanton publication (according to its
own confession,) of invective, without evidence or in-
quiry, he had gone to seek a foe across the channel. He
knew better. No, no, let the Dublin folks look after
the Dublin slanderers ; we will take care of our own.
Mr. T. Gladstone was returned for Portarlington'
against the O'Connell, the. Government, the Corpora-
tion, and the Aristocratical interest, without bribery, and
in the teeth of intimidation, through the influence of
respectable and independent persons connected with the
place, who, while they were desirous of procuring repa-
ration for some presunied loCal grievances, likewise
wished to send to Parliament a man of moderate
opinions, endowed with faithfulness and ability to defend
them.

THE LIVERPOOL CHRONICLE.—We remember that, at
the period when—happy moment for the interests of hu-
manity !—the Albion newspaper commenced its career,
its Editor forthwith commenced a series of conflicts with
the Editor of the Mercury. Hard blows were given;
but, happily, there were heads yet harder to receive
them. Each did his best to belabour the other ; but the
sculls of the antagonists were too dense for fracture, and
the public, aware of their invulnerable character, looked
quietly on with a shrug or a titter, even as a parcel of
idlers behold, with little emotion, the reciprocating
thumps of Punch and Judy.

More serious matters are now in agitation, and we
have no time for child's play. To the criticisms of friends
desirous to amend our faults, we shall ever lend a grate-
ful attention; and from those of foes not void of under-
standing, we shall hope to derive some benefit. But we
must beg to stand excused, in the eyes of our friends and
readers, if we ordinarily refrain from taking notice of
attacks upon us, such as we have seen in the Liverpool
Chronicle of Saturday last, and such as, for aught we
know 'to' the: contrary, may have adorned its columns
every week since the Standard first appeared. When
we are forced into such collisions, we• shall speak in in-
telligible, though we trust not ungentlemanly language;
but our object is not to waste our readers' time and our
own columns in 'petty and ignoble warfare, for we wil-