The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-06-13 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 13, 1848.

WE are congratulated from every quarter that,
in the midst of revolutionary change which is dis-
tracting the rest of Europe, this great empire alone
has maintained its position and been able to repress
internal strife. Disturbers we have amongst us, no
doubt ; recklcss and frantic men, who would gladly
burry us into outbreak and violent change. But
as yet they have made no progress against the
general good sense of the nation. We are not as-
sured, however, that those who flatter us that we
are so secure exactly understand the real nature of
our position. On the contrary, we are confident
that, calm and satisfactory as everything appears
outwardly to be, we are, at this very moment, and
have been for years past undergoing a revolution as
effectual and as full of disaster as any which has
ever convulsed the nations around us.

There is this peculiarity in our case,—that we
proceed step by step to the same destination at
which other countries arrive by a sudden plunge.
Our revolutions are effected, not hy. the pike or the
musket, but by legislation. The pen of the jour-
nalist, the sophistries of the demagogue or philo-
sopher are effecting for us all the disaster which
our worst enemies could desire us to be visited
with. The Emancipation Bill of 1829 was as cer-
tainly a revolution as that of the three days which
seated for a time the Orleans family upon the
throne of France. The Reform Bill was a revolu-
tion ; and the changes which it has effected in the
policy of the country, and in the relations towards
each other of its various interests and classes, are
as signal as any which the force of arms could effect.
We have alienated our colonies by act of parlia-
ment; dissolved ties which the efforts of the world
could not have sundered ; prostrated a loyal and
honest yeomanry; scattered misery and suffering
amongst our manufacturing and labouring popula-
tion, and are steadily proceeding, by act of parlia-
ment, to undergline every institution in the land,
and the monarchy itself. Can the most sanguine
amongst us guarantee the immunity of any single
interest or class from the band of innovation ? It
is impossible to do so. We are as surely plunged
at this very hour into revolution as France herself.
And, what is most lamentable of all, we can dis-
cern no hope of a check in our career towards de-
struction. Day by day we are progressing further
towards the final break up of the empire. The
sole end and aim of all our policy appears to be
directed to hurry it on, despite of all warnings and
in the face of experience pointing distinctly to its
tendency. Have we a deficiency in our exchequer,
we proceed to strip some branch of the industry of
the country of its just protection against the com-
petition of the foreigner. Is the manufacturer
without work, our looms idle, our mills half filled,
our shopkeepers withont trade, our legislators
forthwith set about bringing down some other
branch of industry to the same condition. We are'
groaning under a load of taxation too heavy to be
endured ; and a Chancellor of the Exchequer
proposes an increased income tax, or some addi-
tional expenditure. We are buying in the cheapest
market, and supporting the industry of the
foreigner, whilst we tax ourselves double to keep
our own labourer in the workhouse. All confidence
between men is overthrown. The merchant sees
bankruptcy before him. The trader is living upon
his capital ; the working man upon the sacri-
fice of his tools or his furniture ; and still,
madly and an incapable ministry is
hurrying on to the carrying out of the policy
which has produced all this havoc and misery;
and the only prospect that we have, in the
case of any change of men, is that their successors
will deal more sweepingly with the little that is left
us of prosperity or property. They will have more
comprehensive measures for us; something that
will give us more rapidly the quietus which is in
store for us.

This must be the conclusion of every sane man
who has watched the recent proceedings of our
public men. Where are the Conservatives—our
Peel politicians ? Drifting in the wake of Whig-
gery and Chartism ; blindfold and helpless in the
leading of the political economists. Our boasted
Reform Bill has foisted upon us as legislators a host
of quacks of every description—Currency quacks
and Free Trade Quacks—Bowrings and Cobdens,
Thompsons and Foxes, and left the country with-
out a really English party in parliament. There is
nothing around which we can make a stand for a
single hour. A few good men and true we have in
parliament; but not the materials for a govern-
ment capable of saving the country.