The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-02-20 00:00:00

coRRESPONDENI

Ti:, receipt yeAterday of sever.Al very 1e.,-,,rthy. reportts of int-
portant meetins b A • prevented the insert,,t) of a number of
etmmn,,icarions with which we have been' t'avcred.

Lot- ktuernool

TUESDAY MORAING, FEB. 20, 1814.

We commence this day the sixth year of our pro-
prietcrship of THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD; and,
upon such an occasion, we may be excused if we
take the opportunity of addressing a few words to
our readers and our numerous friends. The first
of these ...ast necessarily be an expression of.thanks
for support received, and good wishes fully appre-
ciated. The expectations, which induced us to
embark our propert:, and•our energies of mind and
boby, in this undertaking, have not been disap-
pointed, if even they have not . been so speedily
realised as we could have wished. The organ under
our contre' now ranks second to none in usefulness;
and, although we may not as yet stand so high in
that scale by which the world is accustomed to test
the value and influence of a newspaper, we are fast •,
treading upon the heels of those of our competitors
—few in number—who at present occupy loftier
positions, and have already outstripped many who
were at one time far—very far—above us. For this
measure of success, we thank the Conservative
public. We have striven to deserve their support;
and our efforts have not been unrewarded.

And now, as to tiv. future. Need we say that
" trusty and tried" friends of the principles of our
glorious Constitution in Church and State, as we
have been in times past, we shall remain in times to
come? Independent in our advocacy of Conserva-
tive principles we have been hitherto; and inde-
pendent we remain. No faction in the State—no
faction in our local community—have ever dictated
our coarse: no such faction ever shall. Our party
is the public. The good we seek is the public good.
The cause of the rich man is no more to us than
the cause of the poorest man, who is, at the same
time a lover of his country, and a friend of order
and of virtue. Enough, then, for the future. Un
solicited promises too often imply doubts of a jus
title to the belief of those to whom they are ad
dressed. We have no such doubts.
And now a word to our advertising friends.

can now, with every confidence, offer to them our
columns as the best advertising medium in the
town or district. Our circulation last week reached
within a few copies J f 3,000 ; it is week by week
steadily increasing, and is already the most exten-
sively circulated and extensively read Conservative
organ in Liverpool.

Our contemporary of Friday appears to imagine
that he has mistaken his vocation; that fate destined
him for the office of a great constitutional lawyer,
rather than for the editorial chair of the Mercury.
Under this delusion he has undertaken in his last
puWi,-at;on to set right attorneys and solicitors-

general, and the whole judicial bench of England

and of Ireland, with respect to the question, what is
or what is not " a conspiracy;" and has announced
to the world at large the startling fact, that by the
law as laid down by these eminent authorities, upon
the occasion of the recent prosecutions in Ireland,
we are all of us, who are associated for the attain-
ment of any particulrr object, amenable to convic-
tion and punishment ! Reform Bill agitators—
Anti-Corn-law agitators—Anti-Church-rate agita-
tors—Protestant associations—nay, " the Carlton
Club itself"—(why not the 'Wellington 1)—" are one
and all conspirators, and amenable to the law of
conspiracy, as laid down by Lord Chief Justice
Pennefather" t I And here is his ground for this
sweepincß conclusion. These associations have one
and all the object " to influence and overawe the
Queen's ministers, and intimidate the legislature."

With all proper consideration for our contempo-
rary's opinion, we must submit that no such con-
clusion can fairly be drawn from Chief Justice
Pennefather's interpretation of the law of conspiracy.
His lordship stated that " the law required that" (to
convict any parties of conspiracy) "a jury should be
satisfied that there was a concert between them, either
for the purpose of doing an illegal act, or else for
doing, or causing to be done, an act legal in itself but
to be brought about by illegal means." Certainly
this is specific enough, and reasonable enough ; and
it lays down a sufficiently broad line of distinction
between the cases of the Repeal Association and
those referred to by the Mercury. When Anti-
Corn-law agitators and others carry on their agita-
tion in a legal form, and with legal instruments—
when they propose to act upon public opinion, or
upon the legislature, in any of the modes pointed out
by the practice of the constitution, they are unas-
sailable by the law ; but when they go beyond these
limits—when they point to violence as the ultimate
weapon to be used—when they resort to displays of
physical force and military organization to intimidate
the legislature and the constituted authorities,—
then their agitation a.)sumes the form of a con-
spiracy. It is then an attempt to procure an object
legal in itself, by illegal means.

Upon this distinction the Lord Chief Justice was
very decided. Attending public meetings, however
numerous, was not in the eye of the law criminal.
His lordship remarked—

" If a man had grievances, or thought or fancied he had
grievances, it was no crime for a man to make a mistake
regarding his political situation respecting a grievance.
lie had a right also to communicate his sentiments on the
subject of his grievances not merely to his friends but
even to strangers. lie had aright to make these commu-
nications and complaints wherever he went, if they thought
fit ; and even if he should attend a public meeting, how-
ever large that meeting might be (although in that respect
it might be dangerous, owing to the consequences which
might follow)—at those public meetings there was no rea-
son why any man who had, or thought he had, a grievance,
should not make a statement of what he conceived he had
a right to complain of, and upon the principles of free dis-
cussion endeavour to get, by peaceable means, as many
allies and advocates in support of those alleged grievances
as he could produce. That was the law, and the morality
of the law, as stated by Mr. Baron Alderson, who also
said, • God forbid that the country should ever be with- '
out it.' Ile (the Chief Justice) would say so too. But
in order to disseminate the knowledge of those grievances,a
party should take care not to infringe upon the rights
and privileges of others ; and he was more bound to be
careful of the effect of what he did, if the assemblies
which he attended were congregated and assembled in
such masses and multitudes so as to excite terror and
alarm through and amongst the neighbouring people, or
amongst those who were bound to preserve and watch
over the frame and constitution of the country."

Agitation, therefore, carried on peaceably, need not,
as the Mercury would have us believe, lead to those
disastrous restrictions of the liberty of the subject
which he has painted in such sombre colours.

The announcement of last week, in the House of
Lords by Lord Wharncliffe, and in the Commons
by Sir James Graham, of the forthcoming Irish
policy of the Peel administration, has created a feel-
ing of serious apprehension and disappointment
amongst the Conservative party on both sides of the
Channel. Amongst our loyal brethren, in Ireland
especially, who, for years past, have battled so
stoutly, for the integrity of the empire, and, the secu-
rity of their Protestant liberties and religion, against
the aggressions of Popery; and who for months
past may be said to have slept with the torch of the
incendiary about their roofs and the knife of the as-
sassin at their breasts ; the fear is deeply felt that, by
their patience under insult nd their firmness when in
danger, they have enabled a Conservative governmen

..' ,•

to vindicate the majesty of the law—onl:• to witness
the Protestant institutions of their country bartered,
With a better grace, for the securing of a temporary
and hollow truce with their ruthless enemies.
We cannot say that we feel all the alarm which
the firstpromulgation of this policy—so far as it goes,
one of concession - has occasioned here or in the
sister land. And yet, calmly as we have reviewed
the measures proposed, in all their bearings, we are
little disposed to be grateful for them. The details,
of course, are not before us. We cannot speculate
upon the precise working of any of them. Yet we
cannot but see, in the meagre form in which they are
given to us, evidence conclusive of a disposition, on
the part of government, to embark afresh in that
fatal course of conciliation—towards a body whom
nothing save the concession of THE WHOLE of their
demands will ever tranquillize—by which this uni-
ted empire has already been brought to the verge of
a violent dissolution, and Ireland herself within
twenty-four hours of a bloody insurrection. Work
out the policy involved in these measures, to its
issue ; grant these stepping stones to the goal which
Rome has placed, and retains, before her eyes ; and
we feel that it is only a mockery to tell us that we
have not yielded up into the hands of the agitators of
Ireland a boon, for which they will be content to
hug their fetters in any prison to which the law may
consign them for their past misdeeds, and gloat the
while upon their coming triumphs.
That we may not be accused of misrepresentation,
or of undue alarm, let us briefly place before our
readers the substance of the measures announced.
The first in order is a measure to be founded upon
the report of the committee now sitting to inquire
into the existing relations between landlord and
tenant in Ireland. Upon the nature of this we can-
not at all speculate, until such report is laid before
Parliament. The reference of Lord Wharncliffe,
however, to the (alleged) fact, that " in the north of
England no tenant left a farm without a valuation
of his stock, and if improvement had been made by
him he was compensated"—a practice which the
noble lord said was " constituted by custom, which
the courts of law upheld"—leads us to anticipate,
notwithstanding the disclaimer of Lord Wharncliffe,
some measure approaching, in principle at least, to
that fixity of tenure, which has been amongst the
blessings (?) to result from repeal of the Legislative
We I Union.

The next measure, in order, is an increase in the
grant for the purpose of national education, upon the
non-scriptural system. We are told by Sir James
Graham that it is important that, in the schools
conducted upon this (to Protestants) obnoxious sys-
tem, there should be more constant inspection, and
training schools for teachers; and for these purposes
the additional grant will be asked for. We admit
that, if we are to have this system perpetuated in
Ireland, government is bound to see that, such as it
is, the education provided for the infant poor of
Ireland should be the best of its kind, and adminis-
tered by competent teachers. But first, before we
enlarge the annual grant, we are surely entitled to
know what such education has as yet produced for
the good of Ireland, What fruit has been borne by
this tree which repudiates the blessing of the full
light of Heaven upon its branches and the undiluted
living waters at its root ? What increase of fertility
has this fountain produced, from which the bigot and
the scorner, the papist and the infidel, may alike
praw congenial draughts ? We apprehend that the
reply, to these questions, so far as the past is con-
cerned, will not be altogether satisfactory; and, if
such is the case, the question may fairly be mooted,
and will be mooted, whether a Conservative govern-
ment, and a Conservative legislature, ought not ra-
ther to look round them for a better system, than,
by an increased parliamentary grant, and the pro-
mise of more efficient instruments for its working,
to bolster up a system which has notoriously failed
—as it deserved to fail—in its past operation. The
Protestant Conservatives of Great Britain will de-
mand an inquiry from Sir Robert Peel's government
upon these points ; and the demand ought to be
conceded!

Another measure announced, is one to alter the
law in Ireland, "in reference to gifts for charitable
and religious purposes," or, as it is explained by
Lord Wharncliffe, to decrease the " difficulty of
making over property, and placing money in trust,
for the purpose of supplying the Roman Catholic
clergy with stipends, and glebes, and building
chapels." Upon this proposition, we cannot re-
mark in the absence of fuller explanation than is at
present afforded us. The necessity, however, of
any such alteration of the existing law is not very
clear to us, unless it be for the purpose, as broadly
hinted at by Lord John Manners, last session, of
introducing more extensively into Ireland the
monastic system. Such a step, surely, cannot be
entertained by the present Government!
The last measure, to which we are called upon to
refer, is a registration bill, combining (according to
Sir James Graham) "a more extended county
franchise," but which, Lord Wharncliffe assures us,
would probably cause "a considerable diminution
of county voters," with a remission of the necessity,
in boroughs, of paying certain local taxes, as the
condition of receiving the franchise. Here, we are
in some degree of darkness; and any comment we
might be disposed to make is obviously impossible.
We have endeavoured to place the spirit and sub-
stance of the whole of these measures before our
readers as clearly and impartially as w.,s in our
power; and we must now wait to see them brought
in detail before Parliament, repeating, however, our
fear that they are not likely to prove steps in the
right direction towards that object which all men
ought to desire; viz.—the permanent pacification
of Ireland, unaccompanied by present or ultimate
danger to the Protestant Church in that land, and
the peace and security of the empire. These objects
are not to be secured by the violation of one—the
least—of those constitutional and Protestant prin-
ciples, by the profession of which a Conservative
Government was placed in power, and a rampant
anti-national faction prostrated, amidst the tri-
umphant acclaim of a delighted people.

His little lordship of the house of Russell has
taken little, thus far, by his new compact with " the
convicted conspirator" O'Connell; little of good,
at all events—little which is not calculated to damage
his reputation as a public man, and convince the
world of his utter unfitness to control the destinies
of this great empire. The debates of the past four
nights, upon his factious motion, have afforded us,
from the opposition side of the house, only a
nauseous re-hash of the speeches delivered—how
much more eloquently !—by the counsel for the
traversers; whilst the withering replies from the
Government benches have effectually dissipated the
film of falsehood and error, in which the proceed-
ings of the law authorities in Ireland have been
artfully held up before the gaze of the British
people. The Whig party, with Lord John Russell
at their head, are now the pledged supporters of
physical force appeals—of military organization of
the people in Ireland—of seditious proclamations,
and incendiary speeches—as the legal and safe
weapons for bending the will of the majority of the
empire to concessions, previously acknowledged by
a Whig-radical government as dangerous to the