The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-06-07 00:00:00

and compel ministers to resign. Unhappy nobleman!
His supplications were unheeded; the censure was passed;
the address was carried; and the LORD HIGII CHANCEL-
LOR OF ENGLAND is left in the unpleasant predicament of
either doffing his wig, or submitting to be laughed at.
The noble and learned Lord might exclaim with Beau-
mont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle—

" Heigh ho! Farewell, Nan!
I'll never love another lass again—if I can."

If Lord BROUGHAM keep his word, he is, at the pre-
sent writing, out of office, and no longer keeper of the
KING'S conscience ; but if he break his word, it is only
what Lord BROUGHAM has done oftentimes before, and
is likely to do again. _

The speech which the Duke of WELLINGTON delivered
on the above occasion is one of the most able and con-
vincing which that illustrious man ever addressed to his
fellow peers, or to his country. It is impossible to resist
his conclusions, or deny his facts. The picture which be
drew of our foreign relations was true to the life ; but it
is the most painful and humiliating one ever exposed to
public gaze. It exhibits Wii,LiAm the FOURTH of Eng-
land playing second fiddle to Louis PHILIPPE of France
—the GREY administration cringing before the ministers
of the citizen king—Lord PALMERSTON enacting the part
of flunkey to Prince TALLEYRAND, and Sir JAMES GRA-
HAM sitting upon the quarter-deck of a rotten seventy-
four, playing the bagpipes to the French admiral.
• The acts of piracy and robbery which have recently
been committed upon the shores of Portugal by a band
of refugee adventurers, aided and abetted by the minis-
tries of France and England, are both unwarrantable
and disgraceful, not merely on the score of humanity,
but inasmuch as they interfere with the rights of an op-
pressed and unanimous nation. It is not the question
here, and at this time of day, whether DONNA MARIA or
DON MIGUEL bas the better claim to the crown of Por-
tugal. We contend in favour of the latter, but that, we
-say, is not now the question. It is admitted on all hands
that DON PEDRO, the expelled of Brazil, the biiffeted by
his own father's black slaves, has no right or title what-
ever. All that is required to be known is—who is the
de facto king of Portugal ? This, again, is easily an-
swered. DON MIGUEL is, by the choice of the people,
by the united suffrages of his subjects, in that position.
He is the reigning sovereign.
Much has been said about the private character of this
Prince. He has been guilty of the sin of bull-baiting.
He has been accused of letting loose a living horned ani-
mal in an assembly of grave senators. Lord GREY calls
him a.perjured man, and the honest rogues of the Times
newspaper call him a monster. All this is bad and black
enough ; but we suspect that amongst mankind, as among
dogs, the strong have an instinctive propensity to worry
the weak. We hear of no such terms being applied to
LOUIS PHILIPPE of Paris. There is no perjury in his
case. He, we suppose, never swore allegiance to any
sovereign the head of his own family, and afterwards vio-
lated that oath by placing himself in the rightful seat of
his liege lord. No, no ! the citizen KING never did any
thing of this sort. On his shield of arms there is no
blot or stain. The son of Egaliti and Madame Fou-
CHERES are both as pure as " unsunned snow."
But despite all this we cannot resist thinking that DON
MIGUEL is quite as respectable a person, although not so
respectable a schoolmaster, as Louts PHILIPPE. Of the
two, for the sake of example, we prefer the first. DON
MIGUEL may not have studied MACHIAVEL, or EUCLID, or
PETER M'CULLOCH j but he is a king nevertheless; and he
holds his crown by a much more unexceptionable title than
doth he who now chaunts the Marseilloise in the palace
of the Tuileries. Does LOUIS PHILIPPE charge perjury
upon DON MIGUEL ? Not he; he leaves this to be done
by the consistent Whigs of England. They direct their
abuse against the Don, without reflecting that every
word of it falls like a death-knell upon the soul of the
king of the French. In rancorously assailing the one,
they challenge the right of the other. By intriguing to
dethrone MIGUEL, and make the people of Portugal the
slaves of PEDRO, they belie all the professed principles of
whiggery. They hoist the banner of divine right, and
attempt to pull down that which waves over the free.
choice of the people. They contend for that in ,France
and Belgium, which they deny to the inhabitants of Por-
tugal. The heroes of the three days, and the scum of
Paris, without consulting the national voice, placed
Louts PHILIPPE upon the throne of France. A theatri-
cal mob did as much for LEOPOLD in Belgium. All this
is deemed right by the liberty-loving and reforming
Whigs of England; but what is right in Brussels and
Paris is ruled, as the lawyers say, to be wrong in Lis-
bon. The mob is respected in the one case, but the na-
tion is despised in the other.
. The Duke of WELLINGTON proved beyond all dispute
or cavil, that Lord GREY and the government have con-
nived at the attempts made to overturn the government
of Portugal. Contrary to the law of nations, and in
express violation "of the foreign enlistment- act, 'minis-
ters have allowed bands of men to congregate in tem-
porary barracks in this country, to beat up for recruits,
to hire ships, and to fit out armaments in the Thames,
under their own noses, for the purpose of committing
hostilities against Portugal. Lord GREY declared that
he only knew of these proceedings from the newspapers.
The noble Duke showed that this could not be true;
for the government of which Lord GREY is the head,
issued formal orders, which could not have issued with
out Lord GREY'S knowledge, to release certain vessels

carrying arms and men which had been detained by the
officers of the custom-house. Here there was. direct
interference on the part of the British government in
favour of Don PEDRO and his pirates, and in violation
of the king's professions of neutrality. The indepen-
dent peers of parliament were so satisfied as to the fact,
that they did not hesitate a moment in voting the ad-
dress above alluded to to his MAJESTY.

But the Commons, we perceive, are to interpose their
authority. Colonel DAVIES, of Worcester, has given
notice of a motion on this subject, and that much in-
flated, but remarkably silly personage, Lord EBRINGTON,
has • magnanimously come forward, once more, to take
the swamping ministry under his protection. The ob-
ject, of course, is to move a counter-address. The
KING is to be pulled one way to day and another to-mor-
row. Lord KENYON holds his MAJESTY by the skirts,
but Lord ALTHORP, like a second MAW-WORM, proposes
that he shall wear a SPENCER. The two Houses are con-
sequently to be brought in collision in order to sustain
the one-sided neutrality of the imbeciles. Be it so, and
the sooner the better. This collision we have long fore-
seen, and, as come it must, it cannot come too soon, nor
at a better crisis than the present. But let Col. DAVIES
and Lord EBRINGTON both beware. He is a bold, but
certainly not a very wise man, who ventures to prop an
administration which is . universally execrated. Will
they. not take a lesaon .from the fate of Sir JOHN HOB-
HOUSE ? Does Gloucester not stand before their eyes,
with and without Hope y Are Sunderland and. Lord
DURHAM both forgotten? Is there no small still voice in
the- defeat of Alderman VENABLES ? DAVIES and Ea-
RINGTON may do their worst, but we beg to remind them
that the electors of Worcester and Devonshire are not all
slaves.

• Upon the first resolution of Mr. STANLEY, with rela-
tion to West India affairs, the House of Commons came
to a vote on Monday night, without a division. This
was a question of principle, and leaves all matters of
detail open to 'future discussion. It was thus
" That it is the opinion of this Committee, that immediate
and effectual measures be taken for the entire abolition of
Slavery throughout the Colonies; under such provisions for
regulating the condition of the negroes as may combine their
welfare with the interest of the proprietors."

It will be understood by the public, that the passing of
this resolution is upon the abstract question of taking,
measures for the abolition of slavery;--and on the pro-
priety of such a view in the abstract little difference of
opinion exists throughout the country, whether among
abolitionists or others. It remains to be seen if the
questions that have to be discussed will be decided in
such a manner as "may combine the welfare of the ne-
groes with the interest of the proprietors." If the whole
measure be so decided, then, we apprehend, it will be in
accordance with the feelings of the community at large.
If, on the other band, the House should have been en-

trapped into the passing of the first resolution, and be
hereafter driven into the support of future propositions
adverse to its expressed character, the country will have
reason to lament the acquiescence of the House in the
preliminary question. We would willingly hope that the
evidence which has been afforded of the magnitude of
the interest now under consideration will have opened
the eyes of ministers to the frightful evils which either of
their plans, as submitted to the public, would have cre-
ated. Impracticability, injustice, and spoliation, were
the only terms that would describe those plans in their
original form, or in any form in which they have yet
been presented to us; and until the proposition in its re-
modelled shape comes before us, our observations must be
limited to a limited examination of the arguments al-
ready employed in the debate, and to inferences resulting
from that examination.

This county has reason to boast of the share which it
furnished in Monday's discussion; in the eloquence and
statesmanlike views which marked the speeches made by
two of its native members, and by the noble Lord, one
of the representatives of this town. They were the
conspicuous features of the debate. Whether we look
at the business-like details of Lord SANDON, ushered in
and supported by most judicious arguments—or to the
manly and comprehensive speech of Mr. W. E. GLAD-
STONE, demolishing Lord Howicx's calumnious attacks
in the original debate, and demonstrating the fallacy of
other assertions derogatory to the character of the body
of West ' India proprietors ; whilst in terms of which
good sense and sound judgment were the internal charac-
ter, whilst their expression was distinguished by- no
common degree of eloquence and manner, he main-
tained the interests of the Colonists, and supported, at
the same time, every principle of just consideration for
the welfare and happiness of the negro—we say, whe-
ther these two speeches are regarded, or that most lu-
minous and comprehensive effort of Sir ROBERT PEEL,
which penetrated every branch of the question with a
clearness that must have forced conviction upon the
minds of all who heard it, the debate was one, with re-
ference to the part taken by the three persons named,
which cannot fail to be satisfactory to t! !e well-disposed
part of the population of the county generally, and of
this town in particular.
It would be needless to go into a minute examination
of the particular views which Monday's debate brought
to light. When the further and more detailed pro-
positions are advanced it will be time enough to con-
sider them. One opinion was, however, elicited from
the ministers, and to that they ought to be distinctly
bound—that no meastue could be effective, or by possi •
bility work well, which should not have the cordial
concurrence of the colonial legislatures. We must
also dissent from the flippant conclusion of Mr. STAN-
LEY) "that all that now remained to be settled was
a question of pounds, shillings, and pence." Mr.
STANLEY may be assured that there is much more to
settle than matters of money; at leas'_ that is the opinion
of ninety-nine out of every hundred who know any thing
practically of the colonies. Such loose and flippant
language ill becomes a statesman at any time; and upon
a question of so momentous a nature as that to which it
was made to refer, its 'use was in the highest degree im-
proper.

Whatever disposition we might have to augur some-
what more favourably of the views of Government on
this subject, as arising out of the debate of Monday in
the House of Commons, was materially changed by the
language employed on the next evening in the House
of Lords by the LORD CHANCELLOR, upon the occasion of
the presentation of a petition by the Duke of WELLING-
TOM, one of the most important petitions, from the rank,
talent, and wealth of the subscribers to it, that ever came
before the legislature. Oa this occasion, as well as on
the Portuguese question, the night before, the noble and
learned Lord seems to have taken considerable pains to
make himself ridiculous; and to induce little future
pendence either upon his talent as a statesman or his
integrity as a man. His figures were as false as his
reasoning; and the latter, if it meant any thing, amounts
to a contradiction of every thing he has heretofore (of
late) advanced on the subject of negro slavery. When
speaking of the Duke of WELLINGTON'S statement of
the losses to the revenue and in many other respectS
that would probably result from the measures now going
forward, he said, with reference to the revenue branch of
the question, that " the same sum would find its way into
the revenue if Sugar were brought from othercolonies, and
consumed ,to the extent, and under like circumstances, in
this country." Regarding this as a simple truism, what
must be the feelings of the man who, in reply to a solemn
caution to proceed with judgment in a case ofsuch vital im-
portance to the whole community, must have compassed, at
the preliminary to his conclusion, the entire demolition of
our own colonial interest, with its consequent mass of
misery and distress, and the unlimited extension, with
tenfold cruelty and hardship, of that trade in slaves by
other nations, which has ceased upwards of twenty years
ago on the part of Great Britain. All this, and much_
more, was overleaped by Lord BROUGHAM, for the mere
sake of proving that if four millions of cwts. of sugar
made in the British colonies, and paying duty at 245. per
cwt., would yield £4,800,000 of revenue, the same
weight at the same rate of duty would yield the same
sum, when imported from foreign colonies. This is a
specimen of Lord BROUGHAIH'S consistency humanity,
and love of countrY.

Lord INOESTRIE having withdrawn, Mr. LITTLETON
was returned for South Staffordshire on Tuesday. This
is a most unfortunate business for the honourable secre-
tary, for in the present unsettled state of affairs he runs
some. risk of not obtaining his promised peerage. If his
real friends had had any genuine respect for him, they
would have opposed his return, and thereby secured him
the coronet.

A very curious and edifying commentary on " the laws
of nations" was practically delivered at Portsmouth on
Sunday last, on the sailing of the liberated. Dutch prison-
ers, or deteniis, or what else they are to be called in the
PALMERSTON reading of this venerable code. The ships
being ready for sea, a bill was brought in by the agents
of his MAJESTY'S government for the costs • incurred in
supplying them with stores, provisions, &c., during their
captivity ; which the Dutch captains very naturally re-
fused to pay, under the antiquated notion that they were
stopped on the highg seas by the law of might, in opposi-
tion to that of right, in time of peace, and when they
never could have supposed that the English flag would
have flown from the mast of a pirate, or that English oifi •
cers would have received orders to act what on terra firma
would be called the part of highwaymen. On this refu-
sal being announced to the chiefs of the Custom-house,
these gentlemen threatened to fire upon the ships if they
attempted to get under weigh without first paying thew
shot; to which denunciation of war Mynheer declared
that if they did so lie would return their fire; and they
were in consequence permitted to depart without paying,
and without coming under any engagement to pay the
disputed demand. - In " these piping times of peace," a
battle in Portsmouth harbour between twelve Dutch mer-
chantmen and such portion of the royal navy of England
as chanced to be there, aided by the Latteries of that for-
tress, would have been an amusing spectacle. How, these
bills are to be paid still remains a disputed question, and
may furnish a new -subject for the display of Lord Pat-
MERSTON'S talents in the protocolling line.

In answer to those who are constantly clamouring
against the ecclesiastical and educational establishments
of this country as, burdens upon the people, it is, as ,
has been justly observed, a remarkable peculiari-
ty that the wants, elsewhere provided by the state,
are here mostly supplied by private benevolence.— -
Almost; the whole business of education bas • been
provided by private munificence. An annual, sum,,
not amounting to £lOOO, of late grudgingly dispensed
between the two universities, is the only contribu-
tion which the state furnishes for the purpose of Eng
lish education, while the two universities absolutely pay
to the state for their privileges about 43000 a year each;
so that. the government gains by the universities £5OOO
a year. Contrast this with the poor kingdom of Hano-
ver, where, as Mr. Pusey informs us, the university of
Gottingen alone. costs the government about £14,000
a year, and then judge of the liberality of such economists
as 11fIr. Hume, who rail against the costly establishments
of an impoverished people.—The same argument holds
good with respect to our ecclesiastical institutions. The
revolutionary journals rave about the iniquity of com-
pelling dissenters to support an established church. The
authors of these journals know that they are venting a
groundless falsehood at the moment they are uttering it;
they know that the dissenters no more support the esta-