The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-02-26 00:00:00

POLITICAL MISCELLANY.

Lord Albert Denison, M.P. for Canterbury, who inhe-
rited the great bulk of his uncle's immense wealth, is to
be raised to the peerage.
Sixty-two members of parliament have claimed to be
wholly excused from serving on election committees, on
account of being more than sixty years old.
Already, we perceive, the petitions presented to the
House of Commons for the stoppage of post-office labour
on Sundays, amount to nearly six hundred.

On Friday night, LordAsiileyg;;;;;tiCe that on an
early day after Easter he should propose an address to the
crown on post-office Sunday labour.
The educational proceedings of the Privy Council are
expected to be brought before the House of Lords very
shortly by a noble lord universally respected.
AN ENGLISH BULL.—The Weekly Chronicle says, in
reference to a proceeding in parliament :—" Resolutions
were moved, and, after a rambling discussion, which led
to no results, they were carried."

During the past week a deputation of Irish Peers and
Commoners waited upon the First Lord of the Treasury
to urge the abandonment of out-door relief in Ireland.
Lord John Russell replied, that the measure was justified
by an existing, but gradually decreasing, necessity.
Lord Feversham had an interview with Sir Geo. Grey,
at the Home Office, and presented petitions to the Queen
from Malton and Reydale, in the North Riding of York-
shire, representing the depression of agriculture, and
praying for an early dissolution of Parliament.
In the present House of Commons there are the Whigs
proper, or Ministerialists, numbering about 260 ; the Peel
section, numbering about 90 ; the Cobden and Hume
radical reformers, numbering about 50 : the great agricul-
tural party, numbering about 265.
EFFECTS OF FREE TRADE.—Considerable sensation
has been caused in East Lothian by one of the Marquis of
Dalhousie's principal tenants having sold off his live and
dead stock, and disappeared, leaving his noble landlord
minus £lOOO in rent. On the agent hearing the report,
he instantly hurried to the farm, and on upbraiding the
tenant's wife with her husband's conduct, she replied,
" It was muckle better for the laird, who voted for free
trade, to lose his rent, than for my gude man to lose his
capital." This is a system of deep draining hitherto un-
known in this celebrated agricultural county ; but no one
knows what is to be the end, for wheat last Friday only
averaged 335. 7d. in Haddington market.
Protection meetings have been held during the past week
at Hinckley, Goole, and Reigate. At the last-named
place, on Tuesday last, Mr. Paul Foskett addressed the
members of the Reigate Protection Society, and expressed
his conviction that Protection must be restored, or national
bankruptcy will be the inevitable result. I make not this
assertion (said Mr. Foskett) unadvisedly,--it is my mature
conviction—a conviction also of thinking men in every
part of the kingdom, expressed at 183 great public meet-
ings which have recently been held on this subject, and
which were attended by 200,000, at the very least, of our
fellow-sufferers. Resolutions pledging the meeting to in-
creased exertion were proposed, and there was exhibited a
growing feeling of discontent at the operation of " free
trade" amongst the tradesmen of the town, who are gra-
dually losing their best customers. Two or three instances
of failures amongst agriculturists were spoken of with
:egret. •

"Thei Duke of Richmond had an audience of her Majesty,
,to present the thirty-four Protection addresses to the
'Queen -the issue of the recent meetings—praying far a
dissolution of Parliament, and attributing great distress as
:prerfilent from the operations of Free Trade. His Grace
also presented twenty-five memorials in favour of the
" Ten Hours Act." and praying that it might not be eva-
.l:led by the relay or shift system.
THR CITY OF LONDON ELECTION PETITION.—We un-
.derstand that this petition will be actively prosecuted,
with every chance of success. The counsel engaged are
Mr. Sergeant Wrangham and Mr. Merewether. In the
.present stage of the affair, it would not become us to enter
into any further statement on the subject ; but we have
every,:reason to believe that the decision of the upper
branch of the legislature will, from the result of the in-
vestigation, derive such an accession of moral strength as
to quash for ever the unseemly and unconstitutional suit
of " Baron Rothschild v. the House of Lords."—John
Bull.
PROTECTION MEETING AT DORCHESTER.--A meeting
of landowners, tenant farmers, and others, was held at
Dorchester on Wednesday, to petition for a restoration of
Protection. The proceedings were interrupted by dis-
graceful outrages, committed by a mob of fellows, who
broke the windows of the place of meeting, and severely
wounded many persons with stones. Everybody arriving
at, or leaving the place of meeting, was pelted. Two
large stones were flung into the high sheriff's carriage, but
he escaped unhurt. It was said that a boy amongst the
rioters was mortally wounded by a blow from a cudgel
inflicted by a farmer, but he was anaounced to have
revived before the night train left. One man, as will be
seen from a paragraph elsewhere, was so hurt that he has
since died. A few prisoners were made of the mob, which
appeared to be composed principally of grown up boys and
young men of the lowest grade. On the farmers adjourn- I
ing to the open air, the several resolutions were put and
carried unanimously, and an address to the Queen was
adopted.

SIGNS OF THE SESSlON.—Strange rumours were afloat,
in the early part of the week, which the division of Thurs-
day night has tended getatly to confirm, to the effect that
two of the most distinguished allies of the present admi-
nistration, in the Upper House, have determined for the
future to withhold their support from Lord John Russell's
cabinet. One of these, the noblest head of an old Whig
family, appeared among the proxies in the division on the
address, but it is understood that was the last occasion
when such use will be permitted to be made of his name.
The name of the other, a noble Earl, who has rendered
eminent services to the cause of the Whigs, did not appear
in that division at all, and will not, we believe, ever again
appear in such questionable company. Another ominous
fact is the absence of the name of " The Duke " from the
list of the division on the address. Considering how great
a stickler the illustrious veteran is for all matters of eti-
quette towards the Crown, the omission of his name on
the muster-roll on the occasion of acknowledging " her
Majesty's most gracious speech," seems to indicate a
growing conviction in his Grace's mind that the Queen's
government may be carried on, even though her Majesty's
pre sent governMent should be turned out.—John Bull.
MR. DISRAELI'S Monorr.—ln the majority against
this motion we find E. Cardwell, Sir T. B. Birch, W.
Brown, A. Henry, J. Heywood. J. Bright, J. Bro-
therton, Sir E. Buxton, R. Cobden, J. E. Denison,
Marquis of Douro, H. Goulbourn, Sir J. Graham, T.
Green, Lord E. Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor, L. Heyworth,
J. Hume, W. Jackson, Sir J. Jervis, G. F. Muntz, Sir R.
Peel, R. Thicknesse, T. Thorneley, Sir J. Walmsley, and
J. S. Wortley. Among the minority were J. W. Patten,
J. Hornby, Sir P. Egerton, G. C. Legh, W. T. Egerton,
J. Bailey, J. Bailey, jun., Hon. G. Berkeley, S. Blair, E.
S. Cayley, W. E. Gladstone, H. Grattan, G. Hudson,
Sir R. H. Inglis, Lord Jocelyn, Hon. Colonel Lindsay,
T. Meagher. F. O'Connor, G. Gandars, J. Sanders, Col.
Sibthorpe, R. Spooner, E. Stanley, Sir F. Thesiger, J.
Tollemache, and Sir. W. W. Wynn. No fewer than 23
whigs voted against the government, among whom Lord
Anson, Lord Nugent, and the Earl of Euston are the
most conspicuous. One hundred and five representatives
of agricultural constituencies voted with government. How
many will be returned at the next election ? Twenty-four
protectionists were absent from the division. Twenty-three
Peelites voted against the motion, the chief of whom we
have noted above, as we have those of this party, amount..
ing to seventeen, who voted against their chief. The
fact that, Viscount Anson, son of the earl of Lichfield,
and nephew of the clerk to the ordnance, and the Earl of
Euston, son of the Duke of Grafton, who has a near re-
lation in the royal household, both voted with Mr. Dis-
raeli, is sufficiently expressive of waning confidence in the
principles of Lord John Russell's cabinet, even among
his natural supporters. And among those who have
hitherto followed the footsteps of Sir Robert Peel, how
many noble defections are there from personal partisan-
ship to the country's cause ! To say nothing of Mr.
Gladstone, who, as usual, spoke on the wrong, because
he intended to vote on the right side, there are several
other conspicuous members of Sir Robert Peel's admi-
nistration and of his party among the minority. We
need only mention such names as those of Viscount Jo-
celyn, Viscount Mahon, Viscount Villiers, Sir Robert's
son-in-law, Lord Claude Hamilton, the Honourable Ro-
bert Clive, the Honourable Edwin Lascelles, the Right
Honourable Henry Lowry Corry, Sir Thomas Dyke Ac-
land, who, with several others, supported Mr. Disraeli's
motion, in opposition to their quondam leader. But
among the names which have thus resumed their proper
position, there is one which will be hailed with singular
satisfaction. We allude to the name of Sir Frederick
Thesiger, the Attorney. General of Sir Robert Peel's ad-
ministration.

A RAP AT THE MANUFACTURERS.—In the House of
Commons, on Thursday, Mr. Drummond said. he could
not help contrasting the way in which the manufacturing
and trading interests were treated when they were whining
suppliants. (Loud cheers.) Had they been sneered at
or mocked ? Had they been laughed at for not under-
standing chemistry ? (Cheers.) The counsel of the hon.
member for the West Riding amounted to this,—that the
present race of farmers should try agricultural experiments,
that they should pass into the workhouse, and then let a
happier and more enlightened lot of men succeed them.
(Laughter.) But was it not notorious that not a single
English manufacturer had ever made a single discovery in
the arts ? (Cheers and laughter.) They had, to be sure,
the Manchester school, with its peculiar doctrines. Did
any one ever hear of a Lavoisier or of a Fourcroy in Man-
chester? (Laughter.) Could they quote the name of
any one manufacturer who had written on the scientific
principles of his own business ? No ; it was notorious
that, to this day, these Manchester manufacturers knew
no more of the chemical nature of their dyes and pigments
than the blocks on which they were printed. (Cheers and
laughter.) Had not the house taken pity on their dense
stupidity and vulgarity when then confessed that nothing
but the cheapness of their wares enabled them to find a
market, for that there was not a man in England who
would not prefer the better taste and more beautiful ma-
nufacture of France, or even of the Chinese ? (Cheers
and laughter.) In mercy to them the house established
a school of design, but so little had they been enabled to
profit by it, that the last report stated that they drew as
bad as ever. (Laughter.) . . . . Some honourable
gentlemen seemed to think that a farm could be shut up,
or worked for three days in the week, like a cotton-mill.
(A laugh.) When honourable gentlemen opposite were
asked what they wanted, they said they wished the taxes
upon advertisements to be taken off. Yes ; they wanted
to be puffed in the newspapers. (Great laughter.) He
insisted that the tax upon beer should be removed, but
honourable gentlemen opposite said " No." When a poor
labourer, who got wet through in 2ao out of the 310 work-
ing days in the year, went home, instead of a glass of ale,
they would give him a newspaper to read. (Loud laughter.
This was their love for the poor! (Renewed laughter.)
This was the way in which free trade benefited the poor
man. He found it said in a publication of the Manches-
ter school—" We are not an agricultural country ; it is
manufactures that gives us our wealth—our population."
Wealth first, and the people afterwards ! (A. laugh.) He
would support the motion of his honourable friend the
member for Buckinghamshire, but this was nothing to
what they meant to have. (Loud cheers and laughter.)
They would have the excise done away with. The old cry
of " faith with the public creditor" had lost much of its
force. (A cry of " Oh, oh !" from an honourable gentle-
man on the ministerial side.) Whenever he saw gentlemen
with white waistcoats and brilliant eyes, he knew it was
quite impossible to control them. (Great laughter.) For
his own part, he did not care- for any insults to the land,
for land was as superior to manufactures as an oaken cudgel
was to a cotton thread. (Loud laughter and cheers.)