The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-03-12 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDAKO,

irbtirary and delipotic as it was, he did that *hich every
friend of liberty ought to do ?" It is thus the duty of
every friend of liberty to vote for Courts-martial instead
of redress of grievances. Was Sir John always of this
opinion? Did he ever dream of subscribing to such a
doctrine, until the Whig government, that gave him his
baronetcy—the Whig government that he so servilely
worships in return—thought proper to declare that
bayonets were better than bread for the persecuted peo-
ple of Ireland ? We shall see presently what Sir John's
opinions were two months ago.
Looking to what his present opinions are, as expressed
by his vote of Tuesday and his speech of last night,
it is with much gratification that we hear of a requisition,
already numerously signed, being about to be presented
to the Lord Mayor, calling upon his Lordship to grant
the use of the Guildhall, on an early day, for the purpose
of holding a meeting of the electors of London, to con-
sider the propriety of, requesting Sir John Key to resign
into the hands of his constituency the trust which he has
so signally and so speedily abused.
That this requisition will have the desired effect there
can be no doubt, when the ,electors, of London are re-
minded of a passage in the address of Sir John Key,
when a candidate for their suffrages. We find the pas-
sage quoted in a letter which has been forwarded to that
" honourable" Member, by one of his constituents, Mr.
Swain, who says—
"-I am disappointed and mortified, because, from the whole
tenour of the address put forth by you, before you were a mem-
ber of Parliament, I had reason to think that you would act as
a representative of the people, and not as the mere tool of the
Government ; for, on the subject of Ireland's wrongs, you say
in that address, I desire to see the discontent of that ill-fated
country removed, by giving to her EQUAL AND JUST LAWS.
The expense of maintaining LARGE MILITARY ESTABLISHMENTS.
IN IRELAND, TO KEEP DOWN THE PEOPLE, is amongst the penal-
ties which England pays for the misgovernment of the sister isle.'
"My object in thus addressing you is to give you an oppor-
tunity of explaining, if possible, how it is that you have so de-
troyed the hopes of those who supported you at your election;
as, until you have had such opportunity, I do not think fit to
join those of your constituents who are getting. signatures to a
requisition for the purpose of holding a meeting, not for the
purpose of 'allowing. you to explain, lint to claim porn you the in-
stant resignation of a seat which they think you totally unworthy
to fill."
After Sir John's " explanation" of last night, we should
hope that neither Mr. Swain, nor any other honest elec-
tor, will longer hesitate to take measures for rescuing the
constituency of London from the disgrace of such a con-
nection.

(FROM THE STANDARD.)
The day-light sitting in the House of Commons yes
terdav was occupied in receiving petitions upon the sub-
ject of the Irish Disturbance Suppression Bill. Nearly
all the members of " the association" made speeches,
which will be, of course, read by " the curious" in Irish
eloquence, and which they who are not fond of such exo-
tics do not want to hear about. To the latter class it
will be enough to know, that there were all the O'Con-
nells and all the O'Connors, the Roches and the Ro-
naynes, the Barreys and the Barron, the O'llwyers, the
Butlers, and the.Sullivans—all, in their various provin-
cial intonations and several dialects of guttural polysyl-
lables, rehearsing the indignant remonstrances of the in-
digeni of Ballymacuthroat and Kncekthief, Scullabogue,
Ballyragget, and Cappagh-hill, against the nefarious pro-
ject of giving security to life and property in Ireland.
We may add, that the primary objection of the majority
of the petitions did not ostensibly rest upon any confessed
love for murder and robbery. The ground of apprehen
sion put forward was, that if any general security was
given to life and property, by asserting the authority of
law, churchmen might insidiously avail themselves of it,
so as to render it extremely difficult and even-dangerous
to murder a parson, or rob him of his property, after the
bill should pass into a law.
The second reading of the bill, so much and so reason-
ably petitioned against, engaged the evening sitting of
the house.
Mr. Hume opened the discussion in a long speNh, in
which, of course, the church was proved to be the 4ause
of all the mischief, and the house was warned that they
could not hope to reform Ireland, any more than they
could expect to force episcopacy upon Scotland.
Mr. Hume pays an ill compliment to his own country,
and to his national church by this reasoning. The ar-
gument is, however, as silly as it is disrespectful. The
Episcopalians of England do not believe, or profess to
believe, that men have not full means of salvation in the
Church of Scotland, though, upon secondary grounds,
they prefer for themselves their own Episcopal Church.
The attempt to make proselytes from the Kirk would on
their part be, to say, the least, officious. Again, the Epis-
copalian people of England do not see that the Church
of Scotland makes men worse subjects or citizens any
more than it makes them worse Christians. . The Epis-
copalians of England would not, therefore, even though
experience has given proof that they might succeed in
the enterprise, engage in the attempt .to impose Episco-
pacy upon Scotland with that ardour and unanimity which
afford the only chance of success. The unnecessary
tampering with alnan's religion were, indeed, an act of
tyranny in which no really religious people could con-
scientiously embark.
The people of England, however, on the other side,
believe the doctrines of the Church of Rome to be
"damnable," and they know that these doctrines make
men intolerably bad subjects and citizens; and therefore
they would be justified before God, and in worldly policy,
in using all means—the mildest no doubt to be preferred
—for expelling the impious and anti-social superstition
from the bosom of the empire. If Mr, Hume knows
anything of history, he must be aware that the very ob-
ject which he holds impossible to be accomplished, has
been accomplished with the utmost ease -in the case of
that country the example of which he cites in proof of
the alined impossibility. Whatever indisposition Scot-
land may have manifested to submitting to Episcopacy,
her reluctance to get rid of Popery was not found un-
conquerable.
Let the same principle work with the same vigour in
Ireland, and the same result will follow. Let it be made
the. interest of the gentry and the paramount task of the
government to promote Protestantism, and Ireland can
be reformed as easily 'as Scotland or England. There
followed Mr. Hume's speech some droll exhibition of se-
veral of the new non-descripts imported.by the Reform
Bill.
Nothing can more strongly illustrate the thick ig-
norance in which the most studious theoretical investiga
tors of the state of Ireland involve themselves, than the
constant recurrence in their speeches to a rate of wages
and the like. There is, in fact, no rate of wages in Ire-
land—no general money payment for labour ; the miser-
able peasantry are subsisted by grants of small morsels
of land, for which their labour is mortgaged. They are
debtors almost from the hour of their birth—debtors- for
the soil on which they live--for the seed and other miser-
able means of cultivating it; and the demand upon la-
bour being in its nature indefinite, they are always deb-
tors for more than they can pay : hence they are always
desperate.

prevails in this country, and has prevailed tat tong., may
trace its origin in the unfortunate bill of 1819, com-
monly called " Peel's' Bill." We never considered it in
any other light than an act of robbery. The men who had
made their fortunes during the restriction of cash pay-
ments, were glad to see the ministers carving a measure
which made every pound they were worth in paper equal
to forty shillings in gold. Having made their fortunes
they were desirous to close the door upon those who
were following in their wake, in the hope of realizing
the same means. And they did close the door, which
they bolted and barred through the instrumentality of
Mr. Peel. They acted as some men who once were
slave-owners. They sold their slaves, and then became
philanthropists. They secured their own property, and
then endeavoured to deteriorate the property of others.
So was it with the honourable gentlemen of the cash-
payment school ; they converted their notes into gold,
and left those of smaller capital to struggle with the
difficulties which they were thus enabled to throw in
their way.
The consequences have been cruel and heart-rending.
Every fixed annuitant, all pensioners, sinecurists, place-
men, and mortgagees, have been benefited by Peel's bill,
while every other class in the community have been
pillaged. Six hundred millions of the national debt—
just think of this, courteous readerl—Six hundred mil-
lions of this accursed debt were contracted at the rate of
£56 in paper for the £lOO we are now bound to pay in
gold. The £56 so lent were not worth more than £36
in the present standard of money ; and yet for this £36
so lent we are obliged by Peel's bill to pay £lOO in
gold t
.How is it possible that any nation can stand such
extensive and unexampled fleecing? To call it robbery,
is to speak of it in the gentlest phrase. But it is not the
fundholder alone who has been benefited at the public
expense. All tenants with long leases, all settlements
made during the restriction, have been affected by Peel's
bill. The farmer that was bound to pay two pounds an
acre in paper, found himself bound by this bill to pay two
pounds in gold, which was nearly double the rent ac-
cording to the first agreement. Leaseholders of every
description were fleeced by the measure. Some took
refuge in the " Gazette"—thousands have struggled on,
and after expending the last farthing which they had
accumulated in former years, have either committed
suicide, or have died in the workhouse. The list of
insolvents has, since 1819, been more numerous than the
standing army twice told, including the militia. Private
compromises, from hard necessity, have been incredible.
Profits and wages have both fallen—labour has been
suspended—enterprise has lost its vigour—all specula-
tions have been ruinous, and the whole burden of the
doubled debt, and the diminished resources, have fallen
upon the industrious man.
It is time, therefore, to correct the errors of 1819.
We have been playing a losing game too long. In a
country isolated as this is, and unaffected by the political
or commercial revolutions of the continent, a paper cur-
rency is as safe as a gold medium. Why should there be
any restriction upon the issue of Bank notes ? Every
man's credit is his property ; and in a free country, as
this is represented to be, no person should be restrained
by law from turning his credit and property to the best
account. Lord Grey, we know, is favourable to a paper
currency. He has repeatedly declared himself to be so.
We therefore sincerely hope that the noble earl will have
the courage to benefit his country, by carrying his prin-
ciples into effect. It will be a happy day for England
when we return to the old system.