The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-02-01 00:00:00

TILE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. 1/4 -c\N

i4Oittktiop.:of t4..sinking fund, than by showing what it had
ah•e'ady, aone to prevent thk;a4iiinttle,tion of the debt, and hOw
much of had been. actU4ly, extniguiShed by its oneratiiiu. If
it had not been for this instituftein, it. was his opinion that, in-
stead Of. tieing charged wifft-theinterest of the present national
debt, the country would be,Chariediiith the interest of the 120
millions which had been redeemed. The benefits of this wise
institution were not merely prospective and a promise, but the
country had already derived-the most considerable advantages
froth it. .It "was a sY4tem which the .nation: should cling to,
not "merely from the consideration of
_good faith to' those who
had advanced their money on the credit of its constant opera-
tion, and the security it afforded to the financial resources of
the country, but they shoUld be attached Co it from the advan-
tages that had been found to result from it, and from its posi-
tive and tried utility." - • • •• •
This was the expressed opinion of the whig Chancellor
of the. Exchequer, the Ilresent Lord President of the
`Council, in March, 1806.—Where is the sinking fund
now ?
His_lordship also introduced his,. measure of doubling
the property tax, with an observation which is highly in-
dicative of an.intimate knowledge of popular feeling.

"It was proposed," said his lordship, "at present to raise
this tax to Len per cent.;—he thought it would be better to carry
it to that point at once which might be considered its limit, in-
stead of proceeding by gradual augmentations, which would
make the public uncertain to what point the tax would be ulti-
mately carried. It appeared to him that ten per cent. was the
natural limit, beyond which it ought not to passoand that it
would be better and more satisfactory to the general feelings to
bring it at once to that point."
We recall these words as likely to afford a serviceable
precedent for Lord Grey in his present dilemma.
As to the Guildhall meeting, it was scant in number;
and despicable in character, but it has had one effect, that
of proving to Lord Grey that all his official exertions to
secure the return of the present candidates for the city
have been woefully misdirected,---they are all pledged to
the ballot, triennial parliaments, awl the overthrow of
the assessed taxes as immediate measures, and his lord-
ship will find, when he casts up Mr. Ellice's list atain,
•
that a very much greater proportion of his lords ip's,
friends will pursue a similar course than either of them
had the slightest suspicion of, when they made their first
calculation.—John 4u//.

cruel, tyrannous,, infamous,, and all that,. would these
measures be termed but we affirm that they, would be
mikiness itself compared with the murderous despotism,
the heart-rending irtjUstice.and'oppression which prevail
at" present. Better have severity under the law than as-
sassination 'and robbery in defiance of it. Better that
twenty men should be confined to their homes by. night
than one killed and two plundered. Better have no
masses-before the altar, thaminflammatory harangues in
the chapels. Better, in short, that Ireland should be
governed as St. Domingo is than it should be allowed to
Lbe an eternal plague-spot on the face of Europe.—Guar-
dian and Public Ledger.

THE " AGITATION" IN IRELAND.

The Times this morning publishes a long article, upon
the state of Ireland, rather better than those which it
has been in the habit of giving—for

Some truth there is, but dash'd and brew'd with lies,
To please the fools, and puzzle all the wise.

This article tells us, what is probably true—

"That in the Dublin Evening Post of Thursday last there, are
no less thau.22 distinct cases of attack upon houses and persons,
reported as having occurred within the preceding week, in the
counties of Wexford and Kilkenny only. The attempts upon
the habitations were in every instance for the plunder of arms;
those upon life or person seem to have heen from motives of
revenge.!
The journal quoted is again more.than probably right,
when it says of Mr. O'Connell :

" We never suppose that O'Connell wished for the general
spread of crime and violence among the Irish multitude; his
game has been to coerce the legislature into his measures more
by the apprehension of what an exasperated people might do
than by, the experiment of actual force. He is far too shrewd
not to be persuaded that the reign of the demagogue ends when
that of the bayonet commences; and that any positive collision
with the
.government would take away from loud and threaten-
ing declamations the whole of their ordinary influence."
So far the statements, or reasoning, of the Times de-
mand our acquiescence, but here we must stop.
We cannot acquit Mr. O'Connell of the guilt of a
state of' crime and outrage, merely because it is disagree-
able, or even in some respects injurious to him, unless we
know that he has not contemplated that state of crime and
outrage as an unavoidable incident, though not a means,
in the course which he is pursuing.
His Majesty's ministers, we firmly believe, no more
desired the burning of Nottingham Castle, the murders
at Derby, or the sacking and burning of Bristol, than
Mr. O'Connell desires the present lawless condition of
Ireland; yet, before all posterity, Lord Grey's. govern-
ment will stand guilty of these crimes, as the necessary
result of their speeches and acts ; and,. though certainly
we cannot charge Mr. O'Connell with making an argu-
mentative use of the crimes to which he excited, as
ministers did—or with employing• journals to inculcate
the propriety of violence and bloodshed, as Lord Grey's
cabinet employed the Times ; still we must hold him re-
sponsible for those scenes of misery whichhis native land
now presents, and which his conduct, aided by pusillani-
mity and treachery on this side, has tended to produce.
Mr. O'Connell is a sincere Roman Catholic, and as such
he is ambitious and intolerant in all that concerns his
church. Our religion is not ambitious or intolerant, and
therefore we are slow to believe that ambition and into-
lerance can make part of the religion of others. All
this, however, is error; all history vouches that ambi-
tion and intolerance are the essential characteristics of
the church of Rome. Very good men have been Roman
Catholics, and very good men have been both ambitious
and intolerant. The question is not, nor ever was, in
our judgment, in dealing with Roman Catholics, whether
we might' love the man—whether we might—trust him
in all that concerns the ordinary duties and courtesies of
life—whether we were not bound to render him all kindly
Christian offices as to any Protestant—but whether we
we were to place him in a position where his civil and
religious duties must conflict in fierce opposition, and
where, if the better influence (the religious) prevailed,
the result must be fatal to ourselves.

We have never disguised, and never will disguise our
opinion, that no sincere Roman Catholic can be a loyal
and contented member of a community in which the Ro-
man Catholic Church is not predominant; and that the
more amiable and more upright the man, the worse sub-
ject will he prove to the government of such a community.
Mr. O'Connell has, therefore, no right to complain of
us, if we say that we believe his object is to erect a
Roman Catholic ascendancy in Ireland, even at the risk
of severing that part of the empire from the British
crown; and though, no doubt, he, like every other man
of cultivated mind, would prefer effecting the most desired
change, if possible, by innocent means, he is prepared to
pursue the establishment of that Roman Catholic ascend-
ancy through danger, violence, and wretchedness, if ne-
cessary, ten times worse than any which his miserable
country has yet exhibited. That this gentleman may
not have his own schemes of private ambition, we are
not bound to prove; the ambition by which, and with
which, he works is the ambition of his church, if his own
concur, why he is only the more devoted to the cause of
his church try such concurrence.
The concluding advice of the Times betrays an amaz-
ing ignorance of the feeling of the Irish popish popula-
tion, and, indeed, of the principle of human nature.:—
" Onr solemn adjuration to the government of both islands is
as before—" dp justice ;" change places with O'Connell, put
him where you now are—in the wrong, reconcile the priests,
and set the repealers at defiance."

"Do justice" and " change places with O'Connell"
and " reconcile the priests," all in the same sentence !
Why, then, Mr. O'Connell has been " doing justice"
all this time, and justice only is necessary to reconcile
the priests. Many might think that a visitation of full
• justice would not be agreeable either to Mr. O'Connell
or his holy coadjutors, and that instead of causing the
learned gentleman to change places with ministers, a
visitation of full justice would consign agitators, priests,
and ministers all to. the one fate. However, this inquiry
is superfluous, because—putting aside the doing of jus-
tice, which is not merely possible, but obvious and easy—
the other steps advised are simple impossibilities.
Change places, with Mr. O'Connell ? No ; not if every
thing that the wildest imagination of the wildest Irish-
man were to be conceded. Mr. O'Connell, " the,Libe-
rator," " the Father of his Country," would still run
away with all the praise. Reconcile the priests ? Yes ;
when ambition and the grave are satisfied, then you will
reconcile a body of Romish clergy, believing that they
possess the power of preventing it, to a state of society
in which one Bible shall be allowed to go about untnuti-
latedone voice be heard impugning the infallibility of
Rome. No ; let something feasible, such as the refor-
mation of the morals of Paris by Mri Hume, or the con-
' version of the Emperor Nicholas by Lord Durham to
liberal principles, be proposed; but as well talk of drain-
ing the Atlantic, as .of reconciling the popish priests of
Ireland, without giving them the island under as abqolute
a sovereignty as ever Portugal or Paraguay was held.--
Standard.