The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-03-08 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

years could have been put down by the ordinary process
of law. An extinguisher might have been put upon in-
subordination and incipient rebellion without extinguish-
ing the liberties of Ireland. The demagogue could have
been caught in his toils, and severely punished, without
invading the privacy of the peasants' cabin, and placing
the life,Jiberty, and property of every man and woman
at themercy of a single individual and his military courts
consisting of three subaltern officers.
All this must be the subject of deep regret; but as the
government have taken upon themselves the responsi-
bility, we abide the results although we cannot look for-
ward to the operation of the bill without serious appre-
hensions. These are much increased by reflecting, that
the Marquess of Anglesey is the Lord Governor of Ire-
land. In him we have no confidence. His whole politi-
cal life has been a series of inconsistencies and contra-
dictions, in which we see -nothing but furious zeal one
day, and inexplicable apathy on another. He is the sol-
dier on Monday and the quaker on Saturday. He draws
his sword against the Catholics on Tuesday, and he tells
them to " agitate" on Friday. He is all for peace on
Wednesday, and all for war on Thursday morning. On
such a general, or judge, or .umpire, or whatever be his
character, it is impossible, to place reliance, and we
strongly suspect that this will be the universal opinion
before the lapse of many months: He knows nothing of
the happy medium between temperance and excess-he
either does not go far enough, or he goes too far. Were
Lord Anglesey recalled, and the powers conferred by this
bill invested in a commission composed of three or more
noblemen :or gentle Men of distinguished abilities and
moderate politics, we should have -nothing to fear; but
these powers are not in safe hands, while. they are con-
ferred upon the present Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

RUMOURS of certain disagreements in the Cabinet
still prevail, and as Lord Althorp has denied that these
have had .their . origin in the suppression Bill, we are
inclined to place more confidence in the statement which
we were enabled to put forth in the last number of the
STANDARD.

The opinion is besides gaining ground, that certain
financial changes are unavoidable. That something
must be done to relieve the country, and give an impetus
to trade arid manufactures, is incontrovertible. This
relief can only be produced by reducing the taxes upon
industry, and those which press most severely upon the
middle classes ; or it may be effected by increasing the
amount of the circulating medium, thereby extending
the credit of the country, and raising the rates of
wages and profits. Increased profits increase the de-
mand for labour, and an extra demand for labour does
two things, firs,`, it raises wages, and second it reduces
the poor rates. But we shall have abundance of time
for discussing this subject hereafter.

LIVERPOOL MERCURY.—We have hitherto forborne to
animadvert upon matter which has occasionally appeared
in the columns of our contemporary; because differing
as we do Coto ccelo from the politics of the Mercury, we
have still always regarded that journal as being conducted
with honesty of purpose, and sometimes with no incon-
siderable degree of ability;;—in short, we have looked
upon the Editor as a fair and honourable antagonist. It
is not reasonable, we admit, to hold responsible the con-
ductor of a newspaper for statements and articles which
are avowedly supplied by correspondents ; yet it is un-
doubtedly his duty to guard his columns against being
made the medium of gross and offensive personalities,
and from being subservient to the base malignity of
anonymous and unprincipled slanderers. A letter ap-
pears in the last Mercury signed " Reformer." and who-
ever may be the writer he is wise in shielding himself
from the deserVed execration in which that man would be
held who wantonly insults the first merchant in our Town
—a gentleman who has devoted a long and arduous life
to the best interests of his country, and who is now in
the decline of years, cheered by the universal love and
esteem of every respectable man in this community. It
is a pity that the author of such baseness is not held up
to public exposure and contempt. For our own part, and
as connected with the press of this Town, we feel humili-
ated that any journal pretending to character and respec-
tability, should have given place to such a communica-
tion; and we would willingly persuade ourselves that
its insertion in the Mercury has been an editorial inad-
, vertance.

" The other objects of " Reformer's" calumny are gentle-
men known to be of the highest respectability as magis-
trates and individuals, and so far his venom is innocuous.
It might have been expected that the universaltestimony
which the Town of Liverpool bears to the conduct "of our
present excellent Chief Magistrate—his impartial and
exemplary discharge of official duties, would have pro-
tected him from attack. But it seems that neither 'pri
vate virtue, nor eminent public merit, is a protection
from the dark and cowardly assassin whose letter dis-
graces the columns of our contemporary.

VERACITY OF THE LIVERPOOL TIMEs.—In our pub-
lication of Friday last, we noticed a petition which had
been presented to the House of Commons, relative to the
Liverpool Corporation, and we took the liberty of ask -
ing, how many signatures were attached to the petition ?
We did not, when we asked the question, believe
there were more than twenty or thirty. The Liverpool
Times, however, says :
" The petition which Mr. Ewart presented in the House of
Commons on Wednesday,. from this town, was that agreed to
at a meeting of the merchants, brokers, and other dock rate-
payers held in the Cotton Sale-room in November last. It is
thus entered in the votes of the House Liverpool Docks—
Petition of Merchants, Shipowners, and others, rate-payers to
the Liverpool Docks, praying for an amendment in the consti-
tution of the Liverpool Dock Trust now vested in the • Common
Council of the Corporation of Liverpool, and fOr redress of al-
ieged grievances; referred to the Select Committee on Munici-•
Corporations.'—The petition, of which some persons seem
larnentaUy ignorant, was signed by about:MO of the most
respectable merenants and brokers in Liverpool."
We now positively assert, in contradiction to this un-
founded statement, that there were not THIRTY signatures
of any kind to the petition ! No—not thirty! and yet
the Editor of the Times has the hardihood to state that
there were twelve hundred ! "Lamentably ignorant," in-
deed who is it that is "lamentably ignorant'?" Not
the Editor of the Times—no, no I—there was no lament-
able ignorance in his statement. We wish we could
persuade ourselves that there was.