The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-15 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS

with a call, we think we could furnish
ation he wishes to obtain, at a personal

him with the inforn
interview. _

We are requested to state, in explanation of a paragraph in-
serted in our last, about a distribution of coals, &c., at Wal-
lasey, that the money to provide those articles was contri-
buted by the various gentlemen resident in that locality.
We are quite unable to give any definite reply to "Curiosity."
We shall be little surprised if the good Bishop of Chester be
promoted to the Archiepiscopal Throne. It is said that in
the recent changes his Lordship was passed over expressly
in anticipation of the event, which could not have been, even
then, in the ordinary course of nature, considered far distant.
Several of the Landon papers mention Dr. Lonsdale, Bishop
of Lichfield, (promoted by Sir R. Peel,) as likely to be the
new Archbishop.
The truth is at length out, and Lord Minto's mission to Rome
has resulted in a bill being introduced for legalising the re-
ception of an Anibassador at St. James' from the Papal
Court. Arc our readers prepared to allow this bill to pass as
quietly as they seem to look upon several other inroads on
our Christian and Protestant Constitution ? We cannot be-
lieve it, but we have heard no signs of life so far. In other
places they are not so sleepy ; to give one instance--a public
meeting has been called for Thursday next in Marylebone,
for the purpose of protesting against all present and future
aggressions of Romanism, and all other assaults on our na-
tional Christianity. Lieut. Colonel Sir Digby Mackworth
Bart., J. P. Plnmptre, Esq., M.P., C. H. Frewen, Esq., M.P.
with other influential gentlemen, will address the meeting,
B. Bond Cabbell, Esq., M.P., to take the Chair.

Ebe tibtrpoot &tanbarb.

TUESDAY

MORNING, FEB. 15, 1848

The subject which has occupied the attention of
both branches of the legislature during the past
week—the condition of our West Indian Colonies,
and the means to be resorted to to prevent their
becoming uncultivated wastes—presents one of the
most flagrant instances of human folly which can
be conceived, or has been equalled throughout the
history of mankind. In the commencement of the
present century the possession by Great Britain of
these colonies rendered her the envy of the world ;
and formed one of the most important sources of
her great maritime strength and her wealth as a
nation. They produced for us, on an average of
several years, in addition to other tropical produce,
the total supply of sugar required for the consump-
tion of our people, and, in addition, had a supply
of upwards of 50,000 tons for the consumption of
other European countries, the transport of which,
both to the mother country and to the continent,
was carried on in British bottoms.

'The excitement created throughout the world by
the first sudden glare of the French revolution,
expended itself in this country in originating an
agitation, the success of which struck the first blow
against the prosperity of these colonies. We need
scarcely say that the agitation—the prohibition of
the traffic on the coasts of Africa, by which the West
Indies were supplied with negro slaves for the culti-
vation of their soil, is what we allude to. Unlike our
Gallic neighbours, we had no relics of the feudal
system to destroy; no oppressive barons, in the
curtailment of whose privileges we could find a
field for the exercise of our " liberal" or revolu-
tionary principles, which dazzled the world in those
days of political optimism and social demoraliza-
tion. The anti-slave trade agitation, however,—
the removal of the only blot to be found in our
institutions,—had a '

zitimate object in view, and
'-)p a large portion of the

d upon