The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-09-05 00:00:00

THE REGIUM DONUM.

A very amusing scene was exhibited in the House of
Commons on Wednesday week, on the occasion of the
grant of £1695, to be applied as the Regium Donum to
Dissenting Ministers, of different denominations in Ire-
land. Tis true that this grant is not " old as the hills ;"
it has, however, no claim to be regarded of recent estab-
lishment ; and although there has never failed in each
succeeding year of its apportionment, to be held up
"pious hands" in horror of its defilement, (because it is
such an irrefutable condemnation of the cant urged in
support of what is called the " voluntary principle,")
there has also never failed to be found more than enow of
candidates to participate in sharing in the " unclean
thing." For the grant in 1847, we find it stated that 166
Presbyterian Ministers, 443 Independent Ministers, and
461 Baptist Ministers, were content to submit to the re-
proach which is well due to those who preach one system
of morals and practise another; and yet we have no doubt
that the recipients of last year, will be as eager to secure
their quotas from the present year's distribution. The
amount that each receives, cannot possibly be large, and
if it could be taken thankfully, and not allowed after-
wards to be made a subject for hypocritical reviling, (as
everything opposed to voluntaryism is wont to be, by the
very classes who profit by its violation,) no one would
greatly begrudge the grant, but it is " too bad" for per-
sons to act as curs in snarling and biting at the heels of
benefactors, and as spaniels to lick the hands which dis-
tribute the favours of those same benefactors. On Wed
nesday night Mr. Charles Lushington was made the
mouthpiece of the voluntaries to implore the Chancellor
to omit the Reqium Donum grant from the estimate in
which it was intended to be voted; and Mr. Kershaw
made himself a very knight errant in voluntary chivalry,
by undertaking that the sum should be made up from
another source. Lord John Russell, however, (and he
has had tolerable practice for gaining experience in test-
ing the sincerity of the professors of the voluntary princi-
ple) most uncivilly declined to allow an opportunity for
such a display of high-minded indifference to a govern-
ment grant; and what must have been more annoying,
he added to his offence, by observing, "if he could see
any security that these sums to poor ministers would be
made up by the Dissenting body, he would give up the
grant from the government." There's an estimate of the
value in which the Dissenters' own champion holds their
abhorrence of government grants, and their real readiness
to provide for their discontinuance. But there was yet
one other way left to the voluntaries, in which they might
have made their consistency appear less inconsistent—
they might have mustered strong on the division ; instead
of which, they only reckoned 28 votes, the number oppo-
sed to them being 60, thus making the majority in favour
of the pretendedly not wanted grant 32.

SCOTLAND AND IRELAND

(From the Times.)

There is a country far poorer than Ireland in native
gifts—with bleaker mountains—a more sterile soil—a
ruder clime, and one half of its inhabitants born of the
same stock and inheriting the same traits as the Celtic
peasantry of Ireland. This once, like Ireland, enjoyed a
separate and distinct independence under the British
Crown. Like Ireland, it was united to England against
the prejudices and predilections of a majority of itsinha-
bitants. Like Ireland, its patriots mourned the day of its
union as a day of funeral and fatal calamity. Like Ireland,
it augured from connexion with England degradation,
poverty, and abject slavery. Like Ireland it rebelled ;
like Ireland, it was put down again. Like Ireland, it
waned and declined in prosperity for the first 30 years
after the Union. Like Ireland, it believed its happiness
and weal to be implicated and wrapped up in the posses-
sion of its native Senate and the tinsel mockeries of a
mimic Court. But, unlike Ireland—when petition was
rejected—when force was beaten down—when insurrection
was quelled—when treason was punished—when the feuds
and conspiracies of five-and-forty years lay mouldering
under the gory turf of Culloden or under the scaffolds of
Kennington and Carliae—then, when treason was a losing
throw and sedition an unmeaning sound, Scotland braced
her heart and energies to grapple with England in other
fields and another contest of a peaceful emulation and
civic competition. They won from England and English-
men the rewards and prizes which England and English-
men had proposed to the common ambition of the united
countries. They won places of high trust and high com-
mand in the furthest East and the remotest West. Each
new accession of dominion, and each new field of com-
merce, and each new gate of honour, saw the Scotchman
side by side with his English contemporary, striving and
struggling, and often winning in the great race of life.
The Senate saw a Bum and a MELVILLE wielding the
patronage of the Treasury and the Marine—the people
saw a MURRAY and an ERSKINE and a WEDDERBURN
administering justice in Westminster Hall—an OCHTER-
LONY, an ABERCROMBY, and a GRAHAME, leading British
troops to glory and conquest—and every department of
our public service in Europe and Asia filled with the
sturdy sons of that race-whom connexion with England
was to have doomed to servility, penury, and despair.
Nor were the signs of this prosperity unfelt in the father-
land of her most prosperous and adventurous sons. Glas-
gow and Greenock and Paisley sprung up in rivalry of
Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds. Edinburgh expanded
into the magnificence of a goodly capital, which Rome
might admire and London would do well to copy. The
fat fields of the Lothians became, under the genius of
enterprise and the irrigation of capital, svnonomous for
good husbandry and teeming produce. Within one hun-
dred years from her last rebellion Scotland has gained
more real power, more solid importance, and greater
wealth than she could singly have achieved in 1000 years
under the most fortunate dynasty or the most national
Legislature.

FREE TRADE OPPOSED TO THE INTERESTS

OF THE WORKING CLASSES

(From
.Blackwood's Magazine.)

A very pregnant instance of the sympathy which is felt
by the free-traders and political economists for the suffer-
ing of the lower orders, occurred during a debate towards
the beginning of May last. We specially notice the fact,
because it proves that, however two successive ministers
may have forgot their duty to the people, there exists, in
a higher quarter still, the deepest commiseration for their
distress, and an earnest desire to alleviate it in every pos-
sible manner. It appears from official documents that,
during the first three months of the present year, there
were entered for home consumption, at the port of Lon-
don alone, foreign silk goods worth £400,000, equal to
the employment of 31,000 weavers ; lace and needle-
work worth £40,000, or sufficient to displace the produce
of 4000 workwowen and sempstresses ; and 7000 dozen
of boot and shoe fronts, enough to keep 1200 cordwainers
in fell employment. So near as we can calculate, the
duty payable upon these articles, under the tariff of 1845,
would have amounted to £88,150 ; at present it is not
more than £65,575, thus entailing a primary loss of
£22,575 to the revenue. Such an influx of goods, at a
peculiarly unprofitable season, was tantamount to dis-
placing the labour of 36,200 persons, who were to be
thrown upon the public charity, without any other resource.
A short time after these facts became known, an order
was issued from the Lord Chamberlain's office, contain-
ing her Majesty's command to the ladies of England, that
in attending court they should appear attired in dresses
exclusively the production of native industry. Yes ! our
gracious Queen, whose heart is unchilled by the cold dog-
mas of political economy, felt like a woman and a sove-
reign, and resolved, on her part at least, to rescue from
famine and misery so many thousands of her poorer sub-
jects. It is most gratifying to know that this exercise of
the royal care and benevolence has met with its best
reward, for in the midst of all the distress which has
unfortunately prevailed, the class for whose benefit those
timely orders were issued have been kept in employment
and food : the example set from the throne has been
widely and generously followed. But will it be believed,
that this act of mercy gave huge umbrage to the free-
traders, and was fiercely commented on in their journals
as a gross infringement of the principles of enlightened
government ? Therefore, in the eyes of the Leaguers, it
seems a crime to interfere for the support of the British
workman,—and unjustifiable interference with Providence
to give work to the labouring poor !

But this is not all. Lord John Russell, on being asked
in the House of Commons whether he had any share in
this philantrophic action, or whether the sole credit of it
appertained to his royal mistress, was not slow in uttering
his disclaimer. "He had not advised the crown in the
matter,—he could only say that the order had issued from
the Chamberlain's office." After a vain attempt to show
that no extra quantity of goods had been imported, hut
that the apparent increase arose solely from the cessation
of smuggling, he proceeded to remark :—" But if more
goods are now entered, and thereby a particular class do
suffer inconvenience or distress, yet these entries must
stimulate the production and exportation of the classes
of goods for which the imports are exchanged." There
spoke the convert to the League—the truckler to Cobden
and Co. ! There, from the lips of a British minister, fell
the most un-British, the most unpatriotic doctrine that
ever yet was enunciated ! Said we not truly that the
whole object of free trade is to put down and exterminate
the non-exporting trades, for the exclusive benefit of the
few monster monopolies ? The Premier concluded an,
ungracious, halting, and discreditable speech with. tie