The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-01-27 00:00:00

sacrifice might have conferred an infamous immortality

upon an amateur murderer ! It was som

)ne con-

nected with the present governmen

for, we repeat, there could be no personal motive. Was
the secretary mistaken for the premier himself, or was
it immaterial—provided the victim was connected,
however remotely, with the administration of Sir
Robert Peel—upon what particular head the blow fell?
These questions may be answered. We may be able

to trace to some intelligible design this, at present,
darkly-veiled transaction. It may be that the crime
had its origin in the moody heart of the assassin him-
self. It may be that he was but an instrument in
other hands. This much, however, we must impress

upon every member of every political party in this land.
If they do not wish the name :Ind the character of
Englishmen to be degraded in the eyes of mankind,
they will abstain from that savage tone towards poli-
tical opponents which is so well calculated to excite the
minds of weak and depraved men to the commission of
crime. We imply no charge against the Anti-Corn-
law League, or any other party, with respect to this
hideous crime. But we do again and again urge the
necessity—at a time when assassination seems to walk
to its foul purposes in open day—the overwhelming
-necessity of a moderation in the tone of political con-
troversy, and a check being imposed upon the tongues
.of hireling agitators, rampant millocrats, and especially
REVEREND ministers of the Gospel!

The debates in the French Chambers present indeed
a strange--a humiliating spectacle to the world. The
legislature of a great nation—the " liberal" party par
excellence—the men who boast their passion for
liberty—the philosophers and sages—stand forth, the
advocates of a breach of the national faith, of treaties
negociated by their own leaders—the leaders of the
latest revolution—and lauded to the skies, as the con-
summation of the national wisdom and greatness, by
their own journals, which would be disgraceful even
to a country semi-barbarous. They stand even in a
more infamous position than this. They dare to tell
the world that the tricolor of France shall for the future
be the passport of the slaver through the fleets of
Great Britain and of those of her allies who, in good
faith, join her in her noble efforts to put down the
trade in human flesh.

Let them succeed in this. Let the French monarchy
and government humble themselves before the revolu-
tionary faction, and abrogate the treaties of 1831 and
1833. What must be the issue ? One which England
cannot contemplate with satisfaction, and would scorn
to contemplate with fear. Whether France chooses to
waive her maritime rights, acquired by those treaties,
or not, England cannot resign her own—cannot he
blind to the course which her dignity and the interests
of humanity require of her. Her cruisers will exercise
the right •of search against every vessel carrying the
French flag upon the African coast; and the next step
—if indeed it be deferred so long—must inevitably be
a declaration of war between th 9 two countries. Such
a calamity, we repeat, no Englishman can regard with
satisfaction. No Englishman, on the other hand, need
fear its approach. Its first result would he the sweep-
ing of the French flag from every sea; its next the
singing of " the Marseillaise"—a strain in high favour
just now with the Jesuit and republican factions in our
own country—over the ruins of the Orleans dynasty.
Its last, the ripe in France of another military despo-
tism, which armed Europe would have to crush be-
neath her indignant heel.

Thanks to the " irritating" policy of Lord Pal-
merston, such is our position at this moment with
respect to the French nation War with France, or a
humiliating submission, on the part of Great Britain,
to the dictum of the profligate adventurers—the scum
which the agitation of the political cauldron has
thrown up to the surface of French society; to the
dictation of the unprincipled journalists who have
forced themselves into the French Chambers, and the
mobs of journeymen tailors, who haunt the cabarets of
the fauxhourgs : one or other of these alternatives we
must embrace. Need we predict which alternative
high-minded England will embrace ?
Since the above was in type we have seen the issue
of the debate in the Chamber of Deputies. It will be
seen, from our summary of French intelligence, that
the amendment for the abrogation of the treaties refer-
red to, has been negatived by a large majority.