The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-07-14 00:00:00

ch attv

re, however, is a proposal as fair, as reason-
and as likely to combine the favourable opinion
eater number as perhaps human ingenuity
Here is scope for the sacrifice of
le attainment of a high

t for ti

e true

nother was once disco-

er read

.e up the indulgence of

life of her child. The
esent undertaking will try who is the true mother
•who values the good of thousands more than his
vn private or party views—who can trust God for
e guardianship of his Church through future years,
stead of relying only, for that purpose, upon his
vn devices and forethought—who, in short, would
hther let the patient die than abate one iota in the
meral wrangle of physicians.
The times certainly demand a very diffe-ent spirit,
id we are sanguine enough to believe that they will
eet with such a one. We have hopes, from the
sty, as well as the prudence of our fellow-towns-
_en. Four churches, we know, are not to be built
without cost, especially when the very prosperity of
the town, which is rendering them so needful, is in-
creasing so considerably the price both of land and
of labour.

own- affections to say

But if twenty thousand pounds are needed for the

purpose, let our aim be fixed upon twenty thousand
pounds; and twenty thousand pounds, we doubt
not, will be raised.

The Ministry of Lord John Russell may now be
regarded as formed. The bulk of its members have
been returned by their various constituencies with-
out even the semblance of an opposition being
offered to them ; and in a few days we may expect
to see the legislative machine set once more in mo-
tion and guided by Whig hands. In the meantime,
we may not be unprofitably employed in casting a

brief glance over the materials, of which the minis-
try is composed, and, from the slight hints afforded
probable

us, en(

.vour to detem

ie their mo

policy and measures.
In all past attempts to conduct the government
of Great Britain the Whig party have ever offended
the country, and their usual supporters, by their
exclusiveness, and the tenacity they have shown in
confining their appointments within the circle of
some half-a-dozen families. Nepotism has been

their characteristic, and the idea of jobbing is ever
inseparably connected in our minds with Whig
ascendancy. Unhappily for himself, Lord John
Russell has not been able to steer clear of this rock-
a-head. With two or three exceptions, and with a
somewhat altered distribution of their offices, the
present ministry is the resuscitation of the Mel-
bourne Cabinet. It has little of added popular ele-
ment; and absolutely nothing to win for it the
increased confidence of sober and reflective politi-
cians. The enlistment of Mr. H. G. Ward, of ap-
propriation clause notoriety, suggests sad remin-
iscences of that infamous contract, by which the
Church of Ireland was banded over for spoliation ;
and the selection of an untried man in the person
of Mr. Milner Gibson, remarkable only for one of
the most glaring apostacies on record, for so impor-
tant an office as that of Vice-President of the Board
of Trade, indicates, with tolerable clearness, that
our commercial policy is to be henceforth dictated
by those crude statesmen—the political tinkers, who
have made the Chamber of Commerce of Manches-
ter an assembly, whose mention is the signal for
inextinguishable ridicule and laughter. The remain-
der of the list is principally composed of the old
hacks of past years, whose administrative incapa-
city has been again and again shown to be antipo-
dean qualities with their large pretensions.
An administration thus composed can have in
itself little pretension to permanence ; and the mode
in which the responsibility for conducting the busi-
ness of the country has been distributed amongst
its members is not calculated to inspire confidence
in its efficiency. We cannot, for example, discover
any great evidence of the fitness of Mr. Charles

Woo'd for the office of Chancellor of the Exche-
quer. The only circumstance,in deed, which accounts
for his being in office at all, most people imagine
to be the accident of his relationship to Earl Grey.
As little are we able to discern Mr. Labouchere's
fitness for the Irish Secretaryship. Lord Palmerston's
appointment as Foreign Secretary is a thing of
course; but how the objections of Earl Grey, by
which the last attempt of Lord John Russell to
form a ministry were defeated, have been got over
the public are not informed. He was a dangerous
member six months ago ; but we should imagine
that he could scarcely change his nature as easily as
he changed his political opinions and alliances. Sir
J. Cam Hobhouse's recommendation for the Board
of Controul cannot be his former administration of
the duties of that office, connected with which the
nation has some unhappy recollections of disaster;
and, with respect to a number of the small fry, their
pretensions to their various offices are to be tried,
their past senatorial achievements containing little to
inspire confidence in their discretion or their ability.

It cannot escape observation that, with such 'a
ministry, in the present state of parties, the govern-
ment of the country must remain virtually in the
hands of Sir Robert Peel and his little band of Con-
servative supporters. Ultra-Whig legislation is ob-
viously impossible, unless the late premier is pre-
pared completely to reverse the policy, and surrender
the principles, of his past political life, and his ad-
mirers, the 120 gentlemen who so readily followed
him in his free trade movement, are prepared fur-
ther to stultify themselves. Mr T. B. Macauley, in his
speech to the electors of Edinburgh, stated truly
enough that the Whig party was the only one capable
at the present crisis of forming an administration ;
but even that self-satisfied gentleman would proba-
bly acknowfedge that his colleagues and himself can
only govern permissively. Their measures, and the
extent to which their principles shall be carried out,
are laid down for them. They are to carry out the
views of Sir Robert Peel. When they attempt to
go further—when they start anything original, and,
consequently, crotchety, the ex-minister will inter-
pose his veto and remind them of their subordinate
position.

- The little that we know, thus far,-of their forth-
coming measures, affords abundant proof of this
utter want of independence. In the purposed final
settlement of the sugar duties, the ministry is only
following to its conclusion the policy which dictated
the surrender of protection to native industry. This
is certainly to be the main measure of the present
session. The only further hints which we have, as
to coming measures, is the announcement that the
Government is about to devote itself to measures of
social amelioration. We may look for a sanatory
bill, of which, no doubt, the bill of Lord Lincoln
will be the foundation. We are to have an exten-
sion of the means of education for the people, upon
the old Whig pattern, which has found such favour
with Sir Robert Peel and Sir James Graham. We
are not, at present, to h:ve proposed to us the en-
dowment of the Popish Church in Ireland. That
pear is not ripe. It will not go down with the dis-
senting constituencies any more than with the ma-
jority of the Established Church; and is probably
reserved for a future master stroke of Sir Robert
Peel himself. The revenues of the Establishment
in Ireland, however, are doubtless doomed to be cut
down for educational purposes ; and Sir Robert
will support the robbery upon the plea of "perfect
equality," which he proclaimed in his retiring
speech. We are also to have a new settlement of
the law as between landlord and tenant in Ireland.
It is a part of the contract with Daniel O'Connell,
and accounts for his present wonderful good hu-
mour with the world, and for Dungarvon being left
uncontested for Mr. Richard Lalor Shiel, notwith-
standing all the past threats of punishment for his
recusancy. But beyond what is now chalked out,
Lord John and his colleagues are not to stretch
their fingers. Like children, they are to be per-
mitted to ride a few of their favourite hobbies—to
take a short airing upon the road of innovation ;
but the ex-premier is to hold the reins and to carry

the whip

We do not urge the fact of this control b

!d over them, t

is, or her, fears of the result of Whig
incapacity and want of constitutional principle. On
the contrary, we would urge them to increased
watchfulness and activity. The seeds of future dis-
aster may be sown, with a professing Conservative
looking on approvingly, and ready, at the proper
moment, to step in and consummate the ruin. The
history of past inroads upon the constitution is in-
structive as to the duty of loyal British men. Whig-
radical tampering with our institutions, and contem-
porary mismanagement of the financial affairs of
the kingdom, have, in every successive advent of
that party to power, paved the way to large en-
croachments upon the integrity of the former, and
for the admission to office of a subtle and plausible
minister, armed with powers dangerous to the liber-
ties of the people. Let us ask what circumstance it
was which enabled Sir Robert Peel to betray the

to lay. asi,

confidence of those who placed him in office, avow-
edly for the purpose of resisting the very measures
which he has just carried. It was his overwhelm-
ing majority in Parliament, and the impression so
generally entertained, that no other statesman pos-
sessed the ability to guide us out of the difficulties,
into which the partial adoption of Whig-radical prin-
ciples, and the incapacity of that party to administer
the financial affairs of the country, had brought us.
The bulk of the Conservative portion of his support-
ers voted for his corn importation bill, to preserve
such a minister in power. The nation had allowed
itself to be pushed to the brink of a precipice ; and
he alone was looked upon as the man who could
carry us over ; and if we fall asleep now—if we rest
confident that no mischief is being done to our in-
stitutions, because we see a Conservative party ap-
parently controlling a weak and incapable adminis-
tration—the time will come again when—our affairs
in utter disorder, the public mind exasperated, no
sound constitutional leader to fall back upon, and
no strong constitutional power organised—we shall
have to call in the aid of some talented worshipper
of expediency, to patch up our firLancial prosperity,
and to appease disorder and disconte,nt amongst the
people, by further inroads upon the ,5 ourcee a the
country's greatness and happiness.