The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-09-30 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

- _
tol,'esPondent wishes to know " why the Gas Company of this
tio o refuse to supply parties who have devices for illumina-
tql? ref use
larger meters and branch pipes, which, instead of
tidelng away the profits of the shareholders. would add con-
Door bly thereto, and would give the inhabitants of Liver-
te p, an opportunity of showing, their attachment and loyalty
life Queen. If they were giving the gas away, it would be a
..erent matter • but in this instance, where every one pays
j4trae,eter, they should show a disposition to assist the town,
ence ud of putting obstacles in the way. Contrast thediffer-
bo,_of tbe people of Manchester's company with this mo-
th
rve
00
Rh,7, all be happy at all times to receive communications

h oe°llo3good enougects of lo- h
to authenticates
or eneral intthenticateerest
the same by and if
their our frie
signa-
nis
'es, for our own satisfaction, we shall feel obliged.

tibetpoot -°--=)teutbarb,

TUESDA-Y

HORNING, SEPT. 30, 1851

NATIONAL

LORD PALMERSTON ON
PROSPECTS.
111,
hereditary talent, multifarious experience, great
retsonal attainments, and, need we add, graceful
tet„acmalappearance, Lord Palmerston is the ack now-
2f(ed head of her Majesty's Ministers. To many
il4 administration of different shades of politics
"a he given the benefit of his abilities, and the
.vantage of his excellent high spirits, for his lord-
lyip ta the Mark Tapley of every government with
tmeh he is connected, and, like that hilarious gen-
lit:lrian, is "jolly" in the most depressing eircum-
tr:neek His lordship, after many wanderings
and fro, found, about sixteen years ago, a most
4"
ItiPtonriate resting-place in the ancient borough of
t?ekton. The people of Tiverton are an honest
-t. who rather like being represented by a cabinet
mister, have no objection to a few clerkships, or
t'nensulship, and if they ever tolerate opposition to
t 1 Palmerston, only do so to remind him that
ti
e3' possess that " palladium of Britain," the
elective franchise. In fact, the member and the
°rough are well met. It is a quiet, gentlemanlike
tepresentation—disturbed only, at mint, by an er-
tAtie Chartist, and the electors would as soon dis-
t:lite the course of his policy as the cut of his
ttowsers—both which they consider inimitable. In
t
1.1143 dull season, his lordship determined to en-
Rhten the people of Tiverton, on affairs home and
I.4eign, trying his theories in the same way that
t7oliere tried the effect of his plays—by reading
'fight
to his old serving-woman—and extracting, as
'2ight be expected, considerable cheering from the
dherents of his party. By a figure, or rather a
1;1:lee of rhetoric, by no means uncommon, Lord
l'lnerston, after commencing about the Whigs,
Oceeded to detail a great number of reforms, as
llalettned them, with which, however, the Whigs
404 nothing to do; though, as regards the effects of
itetilhe of them, nothing more Whig-like could he
tot'', Conceived. He imagines, for instance, some
oe'Ru friends asking the very natural question,
ti,d/v it was that England was kept in such excellent
tti Let by the efforts of a few police, with "bits of
in:S" instead of requiring all the marching, drill-
le%and drumming with which one is perpetually
101,4,;ent ed on the Continent? And how does his
tha;enin reply to the unhappy foreigner ? Why,
to' it is all owing to the Whigs : and he proceeds
tioltilYatifY and mislead the ill-used alien, by telling
ptmtbat the people are quiet on account of the re-
-1141, of the Teat Act (1), ( might he not as well
og t° said the signing of Magna Charta ?) the passing
thehe Roman Catholic Bill of '29, the passing of
Fr municipal Reform Act, and the adoption of
e
bae Tradel Her Majesty's principal Secretary of
te for Foreign Affairs positively asserts that he
Nie, these seriously as reasons for British tran-
try It,Y to some innocent natives of a foreign coun-
tilativ°o had the absurdity to go to him for infor-
the 41- He did not for a moment tell them that
eoti Whigs, after all their liberality, finding the
tilit-4.1 quiet at their accession, managed to get up
teltittiat riots, and an Irish sedition, and that the
koclquietness of the country arose from years of
trot government, which modern experiments had
the et destroyed. But Lord Palmerston did admit
54 to the Roman Catholics, concessions had
etoZinaeless. Talking of the " boon" of Popish
isv;iPation, he says :
?,/ tiotueehave lately, indeed, in spite of that, been reproached
thlt°,l4,l,.tnealhers of that body, at home and abroad, with
h„t aft fee and persecution, because we thought it right
- =o
ato reign Sovereign should dispose of titles in
into
the'loprici Should cut up and quarter the kingdom
teby (loud cries of " Hear, hear"); encroach!ng
ski% 4,, POn the prerogative of our Queen, and trenching
%pct, ndependence of the country. (Hear, hear.) I
it, ti,,11 other respects, in regard to every privilege and
terthe per Catholics are as free, and upon the same footing,
tqe,c a°tPlants; and I wish that the degree of into-
of Pa..col°ll persecution of which some of our Catholic
tt,tetoie,,lntrYrnen have complained was the only degree
Viletie'lce and persecution which Protestants. had to
0,41', he ° m some of the Catholic countries of Europe
44 4,1_419! where Protestantism is an oetre, where
?tfie h,t), aOation of Protestant doctrine is ad crime (hear,
?1,1" Where the Bible is reckoned a dangerous book,
*I% 1411,P°41-1 is allowed to read, and which, when seized,
jr) ii()esof criminality on the part of the person who
,a1(o sessionf of it. (Loud cries of " Hear, hear.")
4tll. the south of Europe, of Rome, of Naples, of
' of he
of Portugal."
•ils i 8 a '
t melancholy tale from the Chief Foreign
i°,,e 514'1 of a great nation to have to tell, and to
14 add nothing as to his efforts to remove
qirie has
en Let any one look at the list of countries
‘trrierated, and see how miserable they are
e e
6c4le
411, -4g of nations, that Christian countries
t tyrParrett them to remain the tools of such
he io the spiritfolßome, and then reflect how differ-
our day from that in which the

proverb was in use, übi Christus ibi Patria. Eliza-
beth or Oliver would have had more to give to
such a subject than mere laments. If one of the
Queen's subjects in our own country revile the
Scriptures or the 11Nak of Common Prayer, he may
be brought to pUnishment ; but even with states
so weak as Naples, Spain, and Portugal, our go-
vernment will not remonstrate on the atrocities
they are daily committing against human freedom
and human nature, in their insane attempt to ex-
tinguish the dissemination of the word of God.
But Lord Palmerston further mystified his
" foreign friends," as he informed us, when he told
them that one of the great causes of English tran-
quillity is the Municipal Reform Act. It would
rather have startled the auditors of the noble lord
to learn that that act had never been extended to
the city in which the exhibition was held, but that
the government of that city consisted of lucky
licensed victuallers and speculative small trades-
men, whose administrative power in the city coun-
cils was about on a par with the politeness they
displayed at Paris, and at their ever-notorious
entertainment to the Queen. One would have
thought that after Lord Palmerston had cruelly
misled his foreign friends to the extent he names,
he would have been content, and have carried the
joke no further ; but that would have been a mis-
take. The spirit of waggery was too deeply en-
grained to permit him to overlook the chance of
saying that free-trade and the repeal of the Navi-
gation Laws were two other great inducements to
popular quiet in England. Had any of his ques-
tioners asked a fiftieth-part per cent. of the thou-
sands to be seen at the Exhibition .what they
thought the Navigation Laws signified—the answers
would have been worth recording. The allusion
to these two subjects, however, gave Lord Palmer-
ston an opportunity of reverting to the question of
protection, and of assuring the wise men of Tiver-
ton that protection was impossible. The following
is unworthy of the noble lcrd—it is mere League
vulgarity—it is not less stupid than Cobden, nor

more polished than Bright :
With regard to the reimposition of import duties on
corn for the purpose of protection, that is to say, for the
purpose, the specific and avowed purpose, of raising the
price of food for the purpose of increasing the profits of
the owners and occupiers of land, I venture, with all hu-
mility, to say that when you see the river Exe running up
from the sea to Tiverton, instead of running down from
Tiverton to the sea, you may then look upon it that pro-
_

tection is near at hand. (Laughter and cheers.) Gentle-
' ing that, I feel that I am foreseeing and ex-
- e of that which is

men, in

cries of " hear, near.") No man can deny that the cheap-
ness and abundance of food is eminently advantageous to
the labouring classes. (Hear.) The labouring classes are
the most numerous portion of the population.

Without being very old, a man may remember
Lord Palmerston denying the possibility of many
things which Lord Palmerston afterwards assisted
to bring about; but the cry impossible any man

may use. Lord Palmerston's argument is quite a
different thing. If the labouring classes were not
producers of that commodity the price of which is
brought down—namely, food—then the argument

could be understood ; but they are the producers
of the depreciated commodity, and where, then, are
they to get money to buy it. But Lord Palmerston
is not above the seditious cry that free-trade will
injure the landlords and the clergy, and he was
pretty loudly cheered when he announced it :

His composition for tythes is gradually diminishing in
proportion as the averages of the cheap years are begin-
ning to tell upon the amount which he has to pay. (Hear.)
His rent in most cases, where it was not very low indeed,
has been diminished. (Hear.) But after all, in the long
run, it is perfectly certain that it is a question between
landlord and tenant. (Loud cries of " hear, hear.") The
farmer hires the land of the owner ; he employs a certain
amount of capital in' working it ; ho must make interest
upon his capital, or he cannot live ; and therefore the
bargain must ultimately so adjust that he can make hig
fair interest out of his capital under the new and altered
circumstances in which he is placed. (Hear, hear.)

This may be an excellent argument for an oppo-
nent of the Church, and a man so free of territorial
cares as not to possess much more than, as Juvenal
says, pascetur unius lacertce—or, as it is translated
by his lordship's countrymen, not " as much as
would sot a lark ;" but it is at least a fair index of
the feeling of the favourers of free trade. Of the
new Reform Bill his lordship said nothing. Per-
haps Ministers may have thought better of it, or,

perhaps, like the Durham letter, it is Lord John's

own peculiar project.

THE REVENUES OF THE BISHOPS

IN one thing the Whigs have never been negligent
—the effort to bring any scandal upon the Church.
It is true they have been the chief patrons of all
the individuals through whom ecclesiastical offences
have come. If there is a charge of scepticism, or
of personal immorality, be assured it is against a
Whig-made dignitary ; and if there is a cry attempt-
ing to implicate the whole Church in the fault of
an individual, be assured it comes from the Whigs.
When the case of the Revenues of the Bishops was
first mentioned, we did not hesitate to offer our
strong opinion as to the duty of Churchmen in the
matter. Facts had been stated, and not denied,
that really brought a scandal on the conduct of
several prelates; but those would indeed have little
power of reason, and less morality, who charged
any such practices on the entire Church. The
Whigs, however, in their usual mode of insinuation,
have attempted this. They have issued an Order in

Council regulating in future the mode of deducting
from or adding to the annual incomes of sees, so as
to bring them to a certain standard ; and in this
they provide that when a fine for a renewal shall
amount to half the annual income of the see, it is to
be paid to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and
not to the Bishbp, though by the same order the
Bishop is liable to account for every farthing he
receives, and is made, in fact, the steward or bailiff
of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners I The insi-
nuation here is perfectly obvious. There can be no
doubt about it. The Bishops are supposed capable,
perhaps, of accounting for a few small sums ; but
anything so large as half their own annual revenue
is not safe in their custody. The Whigs we know
have a taste for Church property, and probably they
think they can take more care of it than its owners.
But, in truth, the whole order in Council is a
melancholy proof of how anomalous is the present
position of the Bishops of the Church. No judge
or general, or any civil servant of the Crown, is
brought into such subjection to the Privy Council,
as to his pay, as the Bishops, who are in no sense
the Crown's servants, are placed, as relates to their
revenues. They are to give an account annually,
and if the sum is less, receive an addition, and if it
is greater than the specified amount, hand over the
surplus. Nor are they allowed any discretion as
to taking fines. If the amount of the fine exceeds
£lOO, they are not to grant the lease without the
consent of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. In
fact, a more indelicate and more offensive set of
rules could not have been laid down for the gui-
dance, or rather the control of any set of men.
The whole matter has been managed purely in the
spirit that has always guided the present adminis-
tration. No matter what might have been the
alleged transgressions of the Bishops, or of any
one in their name, the rumour would never have
disturbed the Government had it not been made
the subject of a few scenes in the House of Com-
mons. The nominee of the Marylebone vestry,
who made those scenes, found that his conduct was
popular with that considerable body of the Whig
party whose religion consists in hating the Church
of England, and the Ministry, like the witch, offer
to " lend him a wind," and to profit by his gains.