The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-04-15 00:00:00

POLITICAL MISCELLANY.

A Cabinet Council of three hours and a half duration
was held on Thursday at the Foreign-office.
Mr. Bright and Mr. Gibson will meet their constituents
in the Free-trade Hall to-morrow (Wednesday.)
AYLESBURY ELECTION.—CIose of the poll :—Bethell,
544 ; Ferrand, 518 ; majority for Bethell, 26.
Mr. Gore Langton, a Protectionist, was elected without
opposition M.P. for West Somersetshire on Thursday.
Mr. Bright has declined to become a candidate for the
representation of Rochdale. lie is determined to try his
chance again at Manchester.
Mr. Geach, of Birmingham, was on Tuesday returned
member for the city of Coventry, by a majority of 436
votes over Mr. Strutt, the late M.P. for Derby.
;MINISTERIAL. TRIUMPHS.—On Tuesday ministers ac-
complished another victory—they had a majority of nine !
On Friday night, on Mr. Disraeli's motion, they had a
majority of thirteen!

The treat Protectionist Meeting announced for the Ist
May, will, instead thereof, be held in Drury Lane Thea-
tre, on Tuesday the 29th April instant. The Duke of
Richmond, K.G., will take the chair.
ENNISKILLEN ELECTION.--on Friday, Mr. Whiteside,
(LC., was returned by a majority of 85 against 68 for Mr.
Collins. Both parties were conservatives, and the latter
gentleman is a very popular solicitor in the borough.
The House of Commons will rise to-day and adjourn
for the Easter Holidays to Monday the 28th inst. The
work hitherto done is utterly insignificant in amcunt and
character. The Lords, having little to do, will adjourn
from Monday to Thursday the Ist May. The whole
affair of legislation in the feeble hands of the Russell
Ministry is little better than a mockery.
THE INCOME TAX.—In the minority in favour of Mr.
Ilerries' motion on Monday night, we find the names of
Sir P. Egerton, W. T. Egerton, G. Greenall, J. Greene,
Lord J. Manners, G. F. Muntz, E. H. Stanley. Among
the majority for continuing this hateful tax, E. Cardwell,
Sir T. B. Birch, W. Brown, A. Henry, L. Heyworth, Sir
J. Walmsley, W. Ewart, W. Jackson, T. Thornlcy, &c.
It is stated that Sir Robert Peel wished to be present
at the Stanley Banquet, and was reluctantly dissuaded
from going. Ho has evidently thrown off his father's
creed, and joined the Protectionists. His speech on the
Papal! Bill was excellent, and he voted for Mr. Ilerries'
motion on Monday night, and for Mr. Disraeli's motion
on Friday.

IMPORTATION OF CORN AND 3TONEY.--It iS not a little
curious to contrast the present state of matters with that
existing in 1814-15, when the restoration of peace caused
the pressure of the debt which had been contracted du-
ring the previous one-and-twenty years, to be felt at once
in all its severity by the nation, aggravated by the blessing
of a large importation of corn. The following sketch is
from the pen of Mr. Doubleday, perhaps the ablest and

most lucid writer of his school The first trouble which
the triumph of 1814-15 brought upon the heads of the
ministers and their supporters, was of'a somewhat singu-
lar nature, being the plague of ' plenty and cheapness.'
Cheapness and plenty had, hitherto, been esteemed
among the first blessings of a state of peace. Amongst
the people, indeed, they were esteemed so still ; for,
amongst the illumination-devices, one of the most vulgar
was a great loaf, and a foaming pot of beer, with the
mottoes of ' I am coming down !' and ' I am coming after
you !' This vulgar state of matters did not, however,
suit persons who had now contracted a national debt of
eight hundred millions of pounds, and who now were still
paying taxes to the tune of sixty millions per annum.
They by no means relished the mottoes attached to the
big loaf and the cauliflower-headed pot of porter; and
when they saw them, in 1814, in the way of being realized
with all speed, their inward consternation was tremendous.
In short, when, after the opening of the ports, they saw
French corn, French sheep, French cows, French poultry,
and French pigs, besides butter, cheese, fruit, and vege.
tables, about coming over by ship-loads and boat-loads,
amidst rapidly falling prices and universal difficulty, both
commercial and agricultural, they were thunderstruck ;
and instinct, if not reason, told them that no time was to
be lost before something was done. They felt at once
that a highly taxed and tithed country, as England now
was, could not possibly carry on cultivation in competi-
tion with lightly taxed and untithed continental rivals.
As early as the autumn of 1814, therefore, they had got
together parliamentary committees to inquire into the
state and prospects of agriculture ; and these committees
soon came to the conclusion that, if the landed interest
were to stand at all, it could only be by means of protec-
tion, and a corn-bill. That these committees were right
in the abstract, I do not see how it is possible for any
reasoning man to deny."