The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-02-15 00:00:00

around us on all sides in such profusion, that no one can,
with the slightest shew of reason, doubt the tremendous
evils which the press has lately produced. It may not be
without instruction to institute a short comparison be-
tween the state of the press from ten to fifteen years
ago—when it was deemed necessary, for the 'safety of the
country, to subject it to new restrictions—and its present
situation, when it is sought to relieve it from all fiscal re-
gulations; which, as we think we shall be able to shew,
is equivalent to placing it above the power of the law.
What was the conduct of a large portion of the press
at the period to which we have just alluded ? Of that
portion which was chiefly read by all classes in the state
below the respectable tradesman? It abused the King—
it reviled all Constituted Authorities—it vilified the Tories
—it equally vilified the Whigs—it slandered and ridiculed
the Clergy—it insulted the Law—it scoffed at Religion
—it derided Morals—it promulgated the most direct
incitements to every species of vice and crime; it called
aloud for general pillage and bloodshed, for the destruc-
tion of the Constitution, and of every sacred establish-
' ment in the country. There was nothing estimable in
the nation, either of persons or things, which was not
covered with its shameless falsehoods and scurrilities;
and its beastly praises were reserved alone for those pub-
lic men whose conduct and speeches harmonized with its
own views, and promoted its wishes. There was no ruf-
fian of the'French Revolution whom it did not defend and
eulogize, and there was no demagogue of its own time
whom it did not bespatter with its panegyrics. There
was no wickedness which it did not inculcate, no virtue
which it did not cry down, and no blessing of which it
did not labour to rob mankind. .

Frightful as is the catalogue, such was a portion of the
press from 1819 to 1823. What has it been in 1831 to
1833? Does it abstain from abusing the King? Yes—
so long as the King consents to be dragged in the train of
the revolutionist, but no longer. Witness occurrences
within the last year. Has it ceased to revile the Consti-
tuted Authorities Let the same answer suffice. Does
it still vilify the Tories ? The publications of any week for
the last two years will meet this question. Does it still
vilify the Whigs ? We are saved the trouble of going
back out of the present year for a reply to this enquiry.
Does it persevere in its slander and ridicule of the Clergy ?
in loud calls for the destruction of the Constitution, and
of every sacred establishment in the country ? in scurri-
lous abuse of all that is estimable in the nation, whether
of persons or things? or, in exclusive praises of those
public men whose conduct and speeches harmonize with
its own views and promote its wishes? To all these
questions we are constrained, by a regard for truth, to
answer in the affirmative. But here let. the catalogue
rest. It were tedious again to travel through the re-
mainder of the disgusting detail. Too true, however, it
is, that no evil existed in the conduct of the press in those
days, for which the present period will not furnish its
parallel. Had they their Registers—their Black Dwarfs
—the horrid blasphemies of Carlile, and numerous other
publications of the same description ? So have we the
—but no—we will not increase their mischief by adding
to their notoriety. The existence of numberless pe-
riodical, and other, works of the same demoralizing
character, is, unfortunately, already too notorious to need
our enumeration of them.

But there are features peculiar to the present time.
At the period to which we are referring in our com-
parison, we had ministers, who, to the honour of having
saved our beloved country from the assaults of its exter-
nal enemies, added the moral courage to plant them-
selves in the breach to repel the more dangerous attacks
of its internal foes. They were men who well under-
stood, and sufficiently valued, the institutions under which
we live ; and were ever ready to defend them from
violent encroachments. Unfortunately, and we grieve
to say it for our country's sake, their places are now
occupied by men who seem to make those venerable
institutions the mere foot-balls of their ambition—and
their gradual destruction the stepping-stones to the
acquirement or retention of place. And by what aid do
they effect these' their 'objects ? By what, but by the
aid of a seditious and cringing press, and of those
monstrous excrescences of the body politic—Political
Unions ;—associations alternately the servile sycophants
and the tyrannical .masters of the ministers ;—bodies of
men not merely. unknown to; and unrecognized by, the
constitution, but acting in defiance of its very spirit, and
in the teeth of the letter of. the .Law ;—men who one
day laud their sovereign to the skies as something super-
human—and the 'next beard him in his palace with trea-
sonable cries and revolutionary emblems ! And yet
these are the men to give the tone to the ministry of
this once great country !. Poor England ! how art thou
fallen 1 .

What are the,..conseqUences already to the nation ?
The lower ranks and the upper are placed in a state of
direct hostility to. each other ;—the former are inflamed
into a paroxysm of political frenzy, and are employing
their gigantic strength to make us commit political
suicide ;—public justice in some parts of the empire, has
been totally disarmed ,—the House of Peers has been
clamoured and threatened into a state of comparative
impotency, and swamped by the elevation of the syco-
phantic followers of the minister, and the rejected of the
people ;—the honour of the country has received a stain,
in its foreign relations, which nothing can efface ;—its
industry and enterprize are paralysed ; and a pestilence
is rapidly sweeping away its good feelings, its morals,
and its religion. The Throne is open to the return of
those. assaults which, as they have been before, may
again, at the bidding, or in defiance, of the ministry, be
directed against it; the Church is threatened with ruin,
from incessant battering, and every institution of the
State totters on its foundations. It needs not the spirit
of prophecy to foretell what will be the consummation if
this state of things (and the seditious part of the press
has had its full share in producing it) be suffered to
proceed. It must be the destruction of the Constitution,
and the total breaking up of society. This, we say, must be
the issue, unless the age of mirages be revived ;—unless
the immutable principles of cause and effect be inverted ;
unless the very same feelings and conduct lead to directly