The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-11-08 00:00:00

FRIDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 8, 1833.

The honourable occupant of Derrynane Abbey has at
length fired his alarm gun, by which we are to under-
stand that his hopes are blighted for the one-hundred aud-
first time, and that Lord GREY, having so many poor
relations to provide for, is totally unable to confer any very
lucrative place or places upon O'CONNELL and his family.
" I never" says the agitator, in his own happy and modest
way, "was a Utter repealer until I was made so by the
conduct of the reformed ministry and the reformed Par-
liament," and " yet," he continues, " the newspapers
in both countries have amused their readers by gravely
stating that I was about to take office under these men."
lie then adds, "This is inyfirst act of mewed agitation.
I raise the peaceful, the constitutional, the ever-unstain-
ed awl bloodless standard of repeal—l nail the colours to
the mast 1 1 "

So, my Lords GREY and WELLESLEY, this is what
you get, as. a token of what you are eventually to receive-.
for refusing to purchase the services of DANIEL O'CON-
NELL. Ea declares war -against you in the lofty tone of
an autocrat. He scorns office with an angry look like
that in the picture of the fox and the sour grapes, and he
formally announces to the whole world, which of course
comprehends all Ireland, that he never will serve his be-
loved country until he has the high satisfaction of seeing
Mr. Secretary STANLEY and Lord ANGLESEY hanged!
This latter announcement is, we confess, a little alarm-
ing. What Mr. STANLEY thinks of it we know. not ; but
we are not surprised that the ex-viceroy has taken his
somewhat hasty departure to a foreign country.
If O'CONNELL be serious, not in meditating the death
of these gentlemen, but in reviving the stormy question
of repeal, and making the echoes of the Corn Exchange
ring with the clamour of disaffection, then, in good sooth,
his Majesty's ministers have more work carved out for
them during the present winter and the ensuing spring
than they could reasonably have calculated upon. Resist-
ance to the taxes here—repeal of the union there—the
SAVAGES at work in London, and the LAwLESsEs in
Dublin—SWlNG in England, ROCK in Ireland—why all
this enough to drive Lord GREY into convulsions. It is
no wonder that the kind-hearted and benevolent Lord
DURHAM, seeing the distressed state of his near and
amiable relative, has come forward to offer his services,
and has condescended to accept office. We cannot see
how affairs are to be conducted, with due regard to the
public and family welfare, without the aid of the learned
and ingenious author of the first reform bill, which Lord
BROUGHAM, in a fit of sheer envy, tore all to pieces, and
threw into the fire.

But let us throw a veil over the weaknesses of human
nature. In sober earnestness we beg to say that we
should have no objection whatever to a repeal of the
Union, provided Ireland could be better governed than
she has been for the last ten years. We have no wish to
see any increase in the professional duties of the hang-
man, but we must crave permission to say that until some
men are hanged, and many more transported, there will
be neither rest, peace, nor security in Ireland. The idea
of that country being governed by a Parliament of its
own is preposterous in the extreme. Before Irishmen—
we speak of them generally—aspire to the offices of states-
men and legislators in their-own country, they must first
make themselves competent to manage their own estates
—they must provide for the wants of their starved te-
nantry, and evince a desire to introduce a wholesome sys-
tem of poor laws. They have had a Parliament of their
own al ready, composed of their greatest orators, and elected
by forty-shilling freeholders, Catholics being the majority;
and a more base, venal, and corrupt Parliament never
assembled on the face of the earth. Could they form
a better Parliament now? We say no; we do not say
worse, for that is impossible, but certainly not better.
What nonsense is it then to prate about an Irish Par-
liament ? Och

That the reform ministry and the reformed Parlia-
ment have .converted O'CONNELL into a bitter repealer
is one of those astounding facts for which we were not
prepared. But reasoning from the fact, a fortiori, we
should say that a little more reform would convert him
into a rebel. Such , a confession from so high an autho-
rity is worthy the attention of every class and descrip-
tion of patriots.

There never was a government in England so gene-
rally despised by one class and detested by another as the
present jobbing and grasping administration. Lord
DURHAM for pugnacity and petulance—for littleness of
mind and arrogance of manners—is a genuine Whig of the
modern school ; but we much question if Lord DURHAM
were prime minister to-morrow, whether he could bring
the present or any other cabinet into greater contempt ;
and this is saying-as much, in a guarded and respectful
way. as can safely be said under the present libel laws.
It is an undeniable though a . melancholy truth that the
open violations of the law, now so common, and the many
attempts to violate the law, some abortive and ()diets suc-
cessful, have one and all. without a single exception, had
their origin in the example and the avowea pouncai pre--
cepts of his MAJESTY'S ministers. From that fatal hour
when the KING'S Viceroy in Ireland encouraged the peo-
ple to agitate—to beat down the barriers of the consti-
tution—to menace the houses of legislature and intimi-
date the THRONE—from that hour—

" May it stand aye accursed in the calendar !
there has been no regard paid to existing institutions—
no respect for authority—no reverence for the KING.—
From that hour we have been doomed to witness a pro-
gressive usurpation on the part of a noisy and malignant
faction, who arrogate to themselves the title of "the peo-
ple." They are no snore the people of England than Sir
JOHN KEY is the only baronet, Alderman WOOD the only
Solon, Lord JouN RUSSELL the only dramatist, Lord AL-
THORP the only grazier, and Mr. MARK PHILIPS the only
weaver in England. It has so happened, however, and
this chiefly owing to the brick-bat and bludgeon system,
and partly to the truckling and conciliatory disposition
of the nobility and aristocracy, that these people have
seized the reins of authority, and usurped the sovereign
power of the nation.
The people of Ireland—or rather the Catholics of Ire-
land—demand a repeal of the Union! Who taught
themo sound high note of dismemberment ? The
conciliators
connived at their intrigues, who allowed
whothis
sedition to go unpunished, and who with all the moral
force of a Protestant empire to back them, tamely yielded
to the threats of a disloyal priesthood and their tools of
the Catholic association. This was the first vulnerable
stab which struck at the reformed religion of the coun-
try, and next at those safeguards which formed the best
defence of the British Constitution. Had these been
surrendered from a conviction that they were no longer
requisite, that all danger was past, and that no enemy
lay in wait to take advantage. of our supposed security,
the consequences might have been different--might have
been conducive to the social happiness of all ranks and
classes of the Protestant subjects of the House of Bruns-
wick. But so far from this being the case, the minis-
ters of that day capitulated without a struggle—without

any excuse—without any real or apparent. necessity—
without firing a gun; and to this moment no man,
among their friends, has been bold enough to assign a
good reason why they so tamely, we had almost said so
basely, yielded..
Alas! who can tell how far England sank in the esti-
mation of the whole world in consequence of that error?
When the. Duke of WELLINGTON came into office as the
prime minister of GEORGE IV., our beloved country
.stood the first, the greatest, the proudest, the most in-
fluential in Christendom. He had with him the best
wishes, the zealous services, the sanguine hopes and
sympathies of all the great and good. He was hailed as
a uouqueror, armed to the proof, making war upon a
pernicious system of policy. He rose like the sun all
bright and glorious, but his beams were speedily dim-
med and environed by cloud and storm. He disregarded
our ancient landmarks and went to wreck in a night—
amid the ferocious cheers of the party he bad - courted—
and the silent sorrow of the friends he had scorned.

Then began the tempest. Popery had triumphed in
Ireland—O'CONNELL and his band of traitors had achiev-
ed a victory—and all that was worth contending for
merged beneath the newly acquired but ascendant power
of the rabble. Catholic emancipation had this one good
effect, however, arising from retributive and unerring
justice. It kicked from their stools, and stripped of their
honours, those paltry renegades of the Protestant party
in Ireland who had advocated Catholic concession. It
turned them all adrift, as the wind does the chaff in the
winnowing machine of the farmer. They were rooted out
stock and branch. Fot their liberality they were out-
voted, beaten, laughed at, despised, and consigned to
oblivion. Professing Protestantism, and begging at the
monk's gate,—affecting liberality without understanding
the motives of the priests—doing the work of the fetid
and grovelling matriculates of Mayne' oth, who are edu-
cated, if educated it can be called, at the expense of Eng-
land—they were treated as brushwood and flung into the
fire. Do we say so ? Yes !—they merited all the oblo-
quy and infamy which have been cast upon them.

The successful resistance to the law in Ireland was
followed by resistance to the taxes in England. If law
can be trodden upon with impunity in Ireland, where the
rights of property or the KING'S taxes. are concerned,
why for a similar object should the law not be violated
in England ? This is, acting upon recognised conces-
sions, a home thrust. If agitation can save fourpence
in the pound upon rent in Ireland, why should it not
save threepence in England? The proposition, accord-
ing to the spirit of liberalism, is logically put, and no
man can reasonably question the truism that five shillings
saved by JOHN is equal to five shillings saved by PETER.
But who encouraged the people of England to combine
against the payment of taxes? The very same class of
patriots who instructed the Catholics of Ireland to agitate.
Concession raised the cry of repeal—reform and Lord
MILTON raised the yell of resistance. The people were
taught that all governments are bad, and that justice can
only be extorted by brute force. Lord DURHAM told the'
hole-and-corner whigs of Gateshead the other day, that
whatever the people set their minds upon they may ob-
i
taia, if they 'choose to exert their power. For "people"
read mob, and then the vernacular apothegm of Lord
DURHAM is translatable into tolerable English. The
mob have been told this over and over again since the
Whigs came into office. It was the regular pass word
during the mania of the reform bill. " Stop the supplies !"
bawled one fool; " Resist the taxes !" roared another ;
"March to Windsor !" growled a third; "To arms and
Hampstead Heath !" shouted the tinkers of Birmingham;
"Down with the Lords, and no aristocracy !" yelled all
the thieves of the political unions of London. Did the
government ever attempt to suppress any of these sedi-
tious or treasonable cries ? No ; on the contrary their
most active 'partizans were the first who raised them ;
and we find Lord EBRIXGTON, and Lord MILTON, the
Chancellor's brother, and the prime minister's son-in-law,
not only joining in some of these rebellious shouts, but
also in active correspondence, by means of Lord GREY'S
.franks, with the political unions. The ministers them-
selves were forced back upon the King by means of these
declarations of their active, but now called passive resist-

ance.

But this is not all. Another evil, arising out of the
example set to the people by some of the members of the
present administration, has reached a serious extent in
the metropolis. We allude to the recent practice of hunt •
ing down poor persons who sell unstamped publications
in the streets of London. There is a case before us which
is worthy of notice. A man of the name of Reeves was
brought before Mr. WHITE, the magistrate at Queen's-

, -
square police office, on Monday last, charged with selling
an unstampedpublication;.ealled the Police Gazette. The
informer was a polite constable. When the man was
seized, there was an attempt made by some three or four
hundred persons to rescue him, in which attempt some
blows and bruizes were given and received. We take
what follows from the Times report:—
" A larger bag of papers was handed to the Bench, containing
the Police Gazette, several other publications, and a number of
unstamped almanacs.

" Defendant.—l wish to know whether the two witnesses are
employed by the Commissioners of Startips ?

" Seivier.—l am not, your worship.
" The defendant contended at considerable length that with-
out a person was expressly employed by the commissioners they
could not seize any person selling uustamped publications.

" Mr. White referred back to the act of Parliament, and at
once overruled the objection.
" The defendant still denied the authority, and contended that
the selling of the Police Gazette was perfectly justifiable. It was
not a newspaper any more than the Penny Magazine, the Guide
to Knowledge, or any other of the penny or twopenny publica-
tions. In fart, the Police Gazette was sanctioned by the Go-
vernment, and it was purchased by those employed under Go-
vernment. If it was illegal, it was most singular that Govern-
ment should never have attacked it before. lily did they strike
at the poor man who retailed it in the streets ? why attack the
weakest part of the community? why not attack the proprietors of
hundreds of shops wholsold the same publication? He was a gold
chaser by trade, but could get no employment, and was compelled
to sell different works to support his wife and family. With
regard to striking the constable, it was false, and he had a dozen
persons outside who could prove to the contrary.
" Mr. White said, that he was clearly of opinion that the pub-
lication was a newspaper. He saw accounts from Lambeth-
Erk t•dlan, Rnw-street, and other offices, and as he
had conducted himself in such a violent manner to the omeeis,
he should commit him for the full period of three months to the
House of Correction.

"Defendant.—l did not behave with violence. I suppose you
will hear my witnesses, although lam a poor man. I have a
number of witnesses outside to contradict the charge of violence.

" Mr. White made no reply.
"Defendant.—l can prove, sir, that the charge of violence is
a conspiracy against me. That man (pointing to Scivier) I
heard say, at the station-house, to his companion, in a low tone
of voice, "Mind, he struck me." This, sir, is false, and I have
witnesses ready to prove that I went quietly to the station-house.
All I wanted to know from them was, by what authority I wa s
apprehended.
" Mr. White directed that all the legal papers should he de-
livered up to the defendant, and that the others should be
detained.

"Defendant.—These fellows have robbed me of about £3
worth of property; my wife and family must now go to the
workhouse; they have no other means of support. This is the
way that the poor-rates are increased by such tyrannical pro-
ceedings. (To the magistrate.)—l thank you, sir, for your
merciful kindness ! ! !
"The defendant was then removed."

Mr. WHITE'S idea of what constitutes a newspaper is
curious. We suppose, if he saw corn and hay in a gen-
tleman's parlour, he would. consider the parlour to be a
stable. This is police justice-and magisterial discrimina-
tion in London. His honourable worship, as Dogberry
would say, observes that the said Gazette contains "ac-
counts from Lambeth-street, Hatton-garden, Bow-street,
and other offices ;" that is to say, it contains the rubbish
gleaned in these very respectable courts, describing how
Peter Jones heat hi's wife, or Moll Smith assaulted her
husband, she, the lady, being at the time in a high state
of excitement from having drank eight glasses of gin and
three pints of beer, the price of which, sixteen pence, she
had that morning raised by pawning her husband's coat
and breeches. Is it trash like this which constitutes a
newspaper? or is there any particular crime in poaching
on the manor of the police courts ? His worship seems
to thinks so, and he is very sensitive on the subject. The