The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-05-10 00:00:00

THI4, LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

We know not with what gout Lord Grey and his Ma-
jesty's ministers will read this account, but we are quite
certain that Lord Mulgrave is convinced befure now that
it was no farce

ANOTHER blunder ! It is not the second or the six-
tieth, that we have had the trouble and the misfortune
to put upon record, (for they are innumerable,) but it
is the last blunder of Lord Althorp's—that of Monday
last—to which we beg leave to call the attention of our
readers.

The bill to -appropriate the temporalities of the Pro-
testant church, to secular purposes, and give to Par-
liament the power of taxing property which Parliament
has no right to tax, any more than we have a right to
draw a revenue from the estates of the Duke of Devon-
shire or the Marquis of Lansdowne, was read a first time
in the House of Commons on Monday last. The debate
on this occasion was worthy of the reformed Parliament.
The loyal and constitutional opposition which was offered
to the measure was met by cries, horse laughs, fits of
coughing, rapping of canes, and trampling of cheap iron-
heeled boots, and other noises of so disgusting a nature,
that we quite agree with a London contetnporary in de-
scribing them as the vulgar ebullitions of an "unman-
nerly rabble." Lord Althorp, as all the world knows,
is the very personification of ignorance. A man may
• look stupid, *and yet be far otherwise in point of capa-
city ; but the noble Lord establishes by his acts the
vacuity of his face, and proves the obtuseness of that
intellect which nature, making a sport of humanity,
has marked in his expression. He may not be con-
scious of it—he may be morally an irresponsible agent,
—but the blunders for which he is officially responsible,
and the ignorance which brings the ministers of Wil-
liam the Fourth into contempt, are of so serious a na-
ture, that even the friends of the noble Lord must be
grieved at witnessing and tired of tolerating them.

But what is the last blunder? The Irish church bill,
we have said, was introduced on Monday night. The
preamble of the bill states, that certain rights of pa-
tronage have been voluntarily, and of course, gra-
ciously surrendered by the crown. In other words that
the king, quasi beggar as he now is, shall be stripped
of his right to appoint more than a limited, or rather a
reduced number of Bishops in Ireland. The king, as
every body knows, has a right to nominate the prelates
of the united church of England and Ireland. As "De-
fender of the Faith," he is the legal head of our Pro-
testant establishment. Nevertheless, over the property
of that church he has no controul. He may not alienate
it—he must not appropriate it to other than its specified
and ecclesiastical purposes. He is bound by a solemn
oath to protect and defend the rights, privileges, and
immunities of the church, which if he should fail to do,
he would violate the tenure by which he and the house
of Brunswie,k hold the crown of these realms.

But the concession of the king—the constrained and
involuntary concession of the king, is one thing, and
the usurpation of a minister quite another thing. The
Whigs, with their usual insolence, have attempted to
do that without the sanction of the Sovereign, which
we contend they have not the power to do, united as the
Monarchy is with the Protestant Church, even with the
sanction of any Prince of the House of Brunswick.
They have brought in a bill to deprive the King of Eng-
land of those temporalities which he holds, in trust, for
the maintenance of the church ; and either ignorantly
or arrogantly they have done this without the King's
consent. Mr. Matthias Attwood disposes of the bill in
the following very brief and sarcastic manner :

" The bill," he observed, " was based upon an assertion
which was totally unfounded. The preamble stated that his Ma-
jesty had been pleased to signify his intention to place at the
disposal of parliament his interest in certain archbishopricks
and bishopricks, whereas his Majesty had been graciously pleased
to du no such thing."

Mr. Wynn, Mr. Goulbourn, and others, contended
that the bill could not pass into a law without a message
from his Majesty, giving his distinct assent to the alien-
ation of his interest in the property of the Church, and
the speaker hinted that probably the king would be ad-
vised to do this during the progress of the measure
through the House.

Be it so—the King, we are taught, can do no wrong—
if the Church is spoliated, ministers alone are responsi.
ble—but we pass over this, in order to notice the con-
duct of Lord Althorp after this lecture had been read
him, and this, his last blunder, bad been pointed out.
He blubbered as usual, and complained that honourable
members treated him most unkindly in not informing
him of this mistake when they told him of the one he
had recently corrected relative to.the same measure. Oh
dear 1 • How very unkind ! They did not give him his
bread and butter early enough in the morning. The
schoolmaster did not teach him his lesson, and, there-.
fore, he could not repeat it—he could not say it—he
could not read it. 'What bullfroggery is all this ! Are
we to pay a minister a large salary for the performance
of his official duties, and at the same time provide him
with a tutor to teach him what these duties are ? This
would be paying the piper twice over. If Lord Althorp
do not understand • the business of his office, why is lie a
minister of the crown ? lf lie be deplorably ignorant of
all the forms and rules of legislation, as he has admitted
himself to be, why is he the leader of the House of
Commons? We are come to a rare pass when the House
of Commons has to do the work of the executive govern-
ment; and when the Tories are called upon to instruct
the ministers' on every subject, • and receive as their
reward only the abuse of the " base Whigs " and the
scum of the press. It would be as well, in our poor
opinion, if some Tories, would take a hint, and leave
the Whigs to do their own dirty work. There is hardly
any credit in saving these people from running their
heads against a wall, which they are sure to do in the end.

HERE is a text? "At this moment we regret to say,
that Sir John received a severe blow in the mouth from,
we believe, a turnip, and immediately retired." !.'
This catastrophe—or rather this affair of the Turnip
versus Sir John—occurred on Tuesday last when Sir
Jahn Cam Hobhouse, "with all his blushing honours

thick upon him "—no allusion to the filth of the market
and the rotten cabbages—appeared as a candidate on the
hustings of Covent Garden.
It is we confess a dastardly thing—a cruel, cowardly,
and ruffianly mode of attack—it is a shameless and vil-
lainous indication of robbery to pelt a man with turnips,
cabbages, carrots, leeks, or any other vegetable missiles,
and we, therefore, join our whig brethren in putting upon
record our hearty denunciation of such practices.
But let us breathe a while before we proceed farther.
By the way who began this mode of battering by means
of turnips? If we mistake not, it is of exclusive whig
origin. For the last twenty years it has been a favourite
mode of assault upon us, tories, by the Burdetts,
Broughams, Hobhouses, and all the popular whits and
radicals. For twenty years, in most of the large consti-
tuencies the tories have stood the pelting of the pitiless
storm, unbefriended, unlamented, undeplored by the
chattering turnspits, and the hungry hangers-on of office,
who now raise a wail over the sorrows of Sir John Cam
Hobhouse. It is little more than a year since the minis-
terial journal, the Tinzes, counselled its readers to repair
to the hustings armed with brick-bats and bludgeons. It
is not a year since the Duke of Wellington was nearly
murdered in the streets of London, the rabble having
been excited to the murderous attempt by the same jour-
nal reminding them of the fate of the unpopular De Witt
of Holland, who was torn in pieces by an incensed
mob.

T he Whigs, therefore, it is clear, began the bludgeon,
the brick-bat, and the turnip system, which, in the sad
course of events, has been brought to bear upon their own
hypocritical myrmidons. It is melancholy, we confess, to
see poor Hobhouse turned out of office and pelted with
rotten turnips, emblems of himself and the electors of
Westminster. But the worthy baronet knows. that as you
bake, so you must brew. He has too long witnessed the
pelting of otters, and has, in the heyday of his popularity,
ridden on the shoulders of that mob which is now ready
to eat him up, or toss him into the Thames.
The candidates for Westminster are Mr. Escott, Colonel
Evans, and Sir John Hobhouse. Yesterday the polling
was to commence, and we wait the result of the first day
with no inconsiderable interest.

WE regret to perceive that some sly rogue, who pro-
bably calls himself a friend, has been hoaxing our very
excellent old friend of the Morning Chronicle relative to
the Liverpool election. A long article condemnatory of
bribery, treating, drunkenness, and all other moral and
political sins, appeared in that journal of Wednesday, and
the freemen of Liverpool are presumed to be the guilty
parties upon the veracity of some anonymous scribe, who,
Under a disguised hand, circulates falsehoods, and reck-
lessly violates the ninth commandment.

We are sorry to see the poor Chronicle imposed upon,
particularly when we recollect that it is a memorial of
what the whigs once were and at present are—a powerful
party now sunk almost below contempt. Having, how-
ever, a regard for the Chronicle, in this, the last stage of
its dotage, we have much pleasure in gratuitously under-
taking its defence.

It is clear, from the perusal of the article, that our con-
temporary has been imposed upon. It is quite evident
that he has not read a single word of the printed evidence ;
for we have so high an opinion of his integrity, that had
he read it we are certain he would have flung it into the
fire, and been the last man to bring any accusation against
the ill-used and slandered burgesses of Liverpool. Had
he read the evidence, he would have found that no one
charge against these men has been substantiated. The
whole evidence against them is a tissue of falsehoods—
falsehoods bought by bribery—allegations purchased by
parties a thousand times more corrupt than those persons
whom they seem desirous to make the victims of their in-
justice, their ambition, and their factious politics.
In our• next we undertake to convince our contempo-
rary of the truth of these averments. We intend to dis-
sect the evidence to the very bone and marrow. It is not
our purpose to inquire into former elections. With these
we have nothing to do. We shall confine ourselves to
the evidence—we shall vindicate the freemen by the evi-
dence produced against them—we shall show the fraud,
the tergiversation, the open and glaring fillsehoods re-
sorted to, in order to rob men of the franchise they have
earned by servitude and descent, and who, but for the
exertions of the Corporation and their Conservative
friends, would, in their poverty, have been robbed with
impunity by what is called a reformed House of Com-
mons.

IT may not be generally known to our readers that
The Dublin Pilot is under prosecution for the publica-
tion of O'Connell's first letter to the people of Ireland on
the passing of the Curfew Bill. In a recent number this
quondam supporter and ardent admirer of a Whig re-
form-loving-Government says—

" We shall not, on our own behalf, object to any juror, merely
because he is a Corporator, Conservative, or Orangeman. In
every relation of life—whether as friend, acquaintance, senator,
minister, or juror—give us a Tory in preference to a Whig.
True, it may be said, the principles of Toryism are tyrannical.
Well, if we are to be domineered over, let it be by gentlemen—
who will not instigate agitation and then entrap and persecute
their dupes—who will not promise liberty and then trample on
law. Aye ; let us have, in every relation of life, Tories in pre-
ference to rascally Whigs—who add hypocrisy to despotism."

The disagreements of friends like these are always
amusing. •

The Pilot is severe, but the pilot's master is much
more so. Since the prosecution O'Connell has ceased
transmitting any more letters for publication in Dublin;
he seems to have the fear of the Attorney-General before
his eyes, or it may be possible that the press dreads the
extraordinary powers conferred upon Lord Anglesey.
O'Connell, however, has not ceased to write ; he has
addressed another letter to the people of Ireland through
the medium of " The True Sun," London paper, in which
he speaks of our right trusty and well beloved friends, the
Whigs, in these terms:—

" Well—they have now been in office since the 20th of No-
vember, 1830—two long years and a half: what hare they done
for Ireland ? Just nothing ! What have they left undone
against Ireland ?