The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-06-11 00:00:00

FACTORY COMMISSION.

Lord STORMONT was anxious that what the noble lord (the
Chancellor of the Exchequer) said on a former evening as to
evidence taken before the Factory Commissioners should be dis-.
tinctly understood, as some misunderstanding appeared to have
taken place on the subject. What he wished to know particu-
larly was, whether he (Lord S.) and those around him -had e
member
un-
derstood the noble lord rightly or not, when they concluded
that he said, in answer tote noble lord (Ashley) th
for Dorset, that the evidence taken by.theCommassioners should
be taken down by a short-hand writer, and laid before that
house? He wished to know if such had been the noble lord's
statement, whether any order or directions had been sent to the
Commissioners that the evidence should be so taken?
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said that on the occa-
sion referred to he certainly had not expressed
the effect that the evidence as giv.en by the witnesses ought to
be taken down by a short-hand writer. What he had said was,
sthe evidence It
opinion that a short-hand-
-1 ahiadt
upon
e vtihdee
tableo uogf
that
hboeutsaek. e ndo n, so
Lord ASHLEY said that no doubt the noble lord knew best
1), however, con-
scientiously believed that
himself what he had said.thHe
nee(hLleorldorAd shhle ,
a said, that he had
the evidence should be taken by
writer ought . iytedtotobteakhei
was most
nion that the very la •
no hesitatio
important, in his op
If e (Lord Ashley)
n t oi nb
set aetmi npgl
was now to understand that it was
enot_the opinion of the noble
witnesses should be laid before that house. I I
a short-hand writer, he (thatLpt all nst reserve to himself
the right of protesting againsproceedings taken under this
lord and the Governme r(i tki
commission—(hear, hear).
IRISH PORTS.
Mr. O'CONNELL moved for leave to bring in a Bill to im-
prove the navigation of the rivers and the estuaries of Ireland.
—Leave was granted, and the hon. and learned member was
desired to prepare the measure. .
PROBATE DLTY.
Mr. COBBETT postponed his motion relative to this duty, and
other stamps, and at the same time begged to know from the
hon. member for Boston when he intended to bring forward his
motion for the repeal of the Septennial Act?
Mr. WiLics said he would bring forward his motion on the
20th of June.

NP.WSPAPER STAMPS.
COI. EVANS moved for a return of all the stamps issued to the
London newspapers for the last revenue quarter.
PORTUGAL—THE MINISTRY.
Colonel Davies began by assuring the house that he had
never risen to address it under feelings of such embarrassment
as at that moment. The importance of the question he had to
submit was great. as on it would depend whether his Majes-
ty's government should continue to pursue that course which, in
his opinion, happily for the country, it had hitherto pursued
with respect to our foreign relations, or whether we should, as
a government, be found once more in the train of the Holy Al-
liance. As a plain straightforward course was the most manly,
and at the same time the safest to be pursued, he would at once
avow that his great object on this occasion was to counteract,
by a vote of that house, the prejudicial effect of what had been
done a few evenings ago in the other House of Parliament.—
He admitted, in its fullest extent, the right of the other house
to express its opinion on any public question, but he claimed the
same right for the House of Commons, as representing the people
of the United Kingdom, and he felt that the house was particu-
larly called upon to express its opinion on this occasion; for if
they (the Commons) remained silent, the people of this country,
as well as foreigners, would think they were so from an acqui-
escence in what had been done elsewhere. He was also anxious
that the house, by its vote, should show to Portugal, to Europe,
and to the world, that the people of England, enjo3.ing as they
did the blessing.s of freedom, did not wish to withhold from other
nations a participation in similar blessings. The circumstances
which had immediately preceded the usurpation of Don Mi-
guel iu Portugal so well known, that he would not pay the
house so bad a compliment as to think it necessary to go into
them in detail. Much stress, he observed, had been laid on the
violation of the Foreign Enlistment Bill, and on the inertness
of ministers in not preventing those infractions of the law, but
he would beg to ask how had it happened that none of the acts
now complained of had been objected to before ? (llear.)
They were matters of public notoriety; they were done in the
open day, and accounts of them regularly appeared in the news-
pters. How happened it then, he asked, that these complaints
had not been made before this time ? r whysshould they be
made now, having been so long passed over i silence ? He
woats
buontwil
regardling toth
the
attributeito
n w t
etamkeontivoefsthteoseany
things man;a this particular
time, as an indication that the motiont but he could
n
troduced had been made for party purposes (hearhhey were in-
, hear), and
that these matters had been withheld until some opportunity
should present itself of using them with the view to drive minis-
ters from their places. ( Hear, hear.) Was it at all very im-
probable that, as it was known that certain popular measures
were about to be sent up from this house, it might have 'Seen
considered a good thing to strangle those measures by ousting
ministers, under a pretence very different from the real motive.
The object of the noble person who had brought forward the
motion elsewhere was, no doubt, to turn out the ministers. That
was a fair and legitimate motive when pursued by fair means ;
but when one of those means was a charge of a violation of good
faith, he would ask, had the conduct of those who made the
charge been so very pure on every occasion as to coaetitute
them fit and proper persons to bring it forward ? Those who
charged the present ministers with the breach of neutrality had
themselves acted more strongly. They had sent out an army
to Portugal, not, indeed, to take a part in the disputes of that
country, but, in compliance with the terms of ancient treaties,
to prevent its invasion by a Spanish force. Nothing had since
been done by his Majesty's government that went beyond that
act. But if the present government had manifested a strong
and decided feeling against the party of Don Miguel, would it
have been an extraordinary circumstance.? Had not the Mi-
guelites fired on British vessels that were merely 'occupied in
• trading transactions ? What, too, he would ask, bad been the
conduct of the Spanish government on this occasion ? Had not
their armies approached the Portuguese frontiers, and hail they
not afforded supplies to one of the belligerent parties ? Under
all the circumstances, he conceived his Majesty's government
had not taken an improper part, and therefore he was anxious
that they. should be supported by the vote of that house. He
felt convinced that irthe decision of the other branch of the le-