The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-04-19 00:00:00

sidered to mean "my dear lore," and the poor Post is
instantly posted with 7s. 72d. on its back, and Lowe's
grandmother in all probability, not being quite awake to
the trick, is induced to dole out this sum for the benefit
of her country, and as an involuntary, contribution to
the salary of Prince Leopold, king of the brave Belgians.
Such are the mean and despicable shifts to which the
government have recently resorted, in order to prevent
the decline in the public revenue. Within the last few
days, we have received some hundreds of complaints on
this subject. Papers are subjected to a postage for
nothing at all, but the offence, committed in ignorance,
of _writing initials on the cover. In the whole course of
our experience we never heard of any official proceeding
more paltry, or more vexatious. It is conduct that would
disgrace a retailer of cheese pairings. It is not only
vexatious, it is not only despicable, but the contrivers of
it evince the grossest ignorance. Do they not know
that newspapers pay a stamp duty of fourpence, and that
all papers sent with these marks. of identity or friendship
upon them are in nine cases out of ten purchased for this
special purpose ? The revenue is actually benefited by
the infringement of the strict letter of the law. These
initials pay fourpence to the government every time
they are superscribed.
What miserable pettifogging is it then to endeavour to
suppress that which can in no other way effect the public
revenue, but for its advantage! Do the sumphs think
that by stopping these initials they will increase the cor-
respondence by letters? If a cipher can-convey all that
is worth transmitting, is it likely that a letter by post
would be written if the ciphering were put down by the
fiscal exactions of the post-office? Stupid the men are
who, are doing this needy work, but they can hardly be
so tremendously stupid as to'adopt the affirmative of our
proposition.
We have mentioned the names of Sir Francis Freeling
and the Duke of Richmond. As to the former he is too
honourable, and too sensible a man to be the originator
of this penny wise but pound foolish system, and we are
not inclined to believe that it originated with the noble
Postmaster-General. Sir Francis we know is, or rather
was, of opinion, that the revenue of the Post-office is in-
creased by the parliamentary privilege of franking; for
he has calculated that for every franked letter sent
through the Post-office, there are three transmitted un-
franked and charged with postage, that never would have
been written at all. Might not the same rule apply to
newspapers? The facility of their transmission in-
creases their consumption, and for every paper sent so
ciphered, another is bought and returned, which but for
the pleasure of the initials never would have been
bought at all, and by this means, the one being a decoy
duck to the other, the revenue is considerably bene-
fited. Lord Althorp, therefore, according to the golden
rule, that the greater the dunce the greater the absur-
dity, must be the author of this grinding measure, and it
is in vain to reason with him.

WE are among those who think that it would have
been much better for England, and the interests and hap-
piness of the people, if there had been no convention of
the third estate, no meeting of the Commons House of
Parliament, for the last fifty years; and• it is singular
enough that a similar opinion is entertained by Mr. Cob-
bett, the honourable member for Oldham. In this gen-
tleman's speech on Tuesday last, on the subject of the
criminal law, he states that "his project for amending
the law was to go back to the period when George the
.third ascended the throne, collect all the amended sta-
tutes since'that period, and fling the whole of them into
the fire." ! t •
We do not go quite so far as this, although we are pre-
pared to concede that if such an extensive conflagration
of acts of parliament were to take place, no injury what-
ever would be inflicted upon the community. It is a
most extraordinary fact that progressively with the relax •
ation of the laws, and the foolish concessions that have
been made to what is called public opinion, crime has in-
creased, vice has become more prevalent, the duties of
religion have been less respected, and demoralization
generally has extended its ramifications, and implanted
its destructive roots. It is a serious charge against the
wise men of modern times, that•all their favourite im-
provements have had a perverting influence on society.
The more tenderly they have watched and . watered the
germs of civilization, and reared the plants to maturity,
the more poisonous have been the fruits. The rod has
been spared and the child spoiled. The less they have
corrected the more vicious and corrupt has become the
pupil. They have stuffed him with what they call know-
ledge, but what we call folly, to repletion, and he has ex-
panded into a more finished reprobate. In short these
teachers of modern morality have produced all those hi-
deous evils at which they themselves now 'stand aghast !
But we shall, perhapS, be told that educatiOn, if more
generally diffused, would prove a sufficient corrective.
Now, what do these people mean by education ? Is it a
knowledge of the steam-engine, the elasticity of gas in a
balloon, the phrenological developement of a murderer's
cranium, the fleetness of the rays of light, or the distance
between the planet Jupiter and the fixed stars in the
northern hemisphere ? If this be the education that cer-
tain persons are desirous to give the lower classes of so-
ciety, and it seems to be• so, by what we find in the legion
of penny magazines, we have no hesitation in asserting,
that it is a most pernicious education, which is calculated
to inflate rather than improve the humble mind,—which
is calculated to make the superficial student vain but not
wise, and lead him into the belief that the sounder max •
ims of his father, and the rigid precepts of his mother,
were impositions which his superior learning ought to
hold in contempt.

Now we appeal to Lord Brougham, and the patrons
and professors of the London University, whether this
sort of scientific and mechanical quackery be not the sole
education which their votaries receive in their recently
established schools. Religion has been held in derision.
It has been scouted from the halls of modern learning.
The bible has been treated as the Doyles of Ireland have
too long been suffered to treat it, namely, taking it up in
the tongs and tossing it into the fire. Our youth--the