The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-11-22 00:00:00

ITc Vart'o Corm>

THE MIDNIGHT CABINET.

(From the If.rning Pwt.)

Arrived /ast from Lamhton Castle. the Right Ron. the Earl
of Durhain.—Pashionable
A Cabinet Council was summoned hat night in Downing-street.
The ministers sat in deliberation till after midnight.—t-oari Circular.

They met—that gloomy conclave mot,
What time, with silent feet,
The quiet Night, her mantle jet,
Had flung o'er Downing-street :
And many an anxious brow wlus there.
And many an angry froWn,
The Circular to-night they bear—
" Lord DURHAM'S come to town."

Tho box that bore that ‘ummons dread
(No common Cabinet hack
Of old official Treasury red)
Was dark funereal black:
Nor bore it, as it used to bear.
Old England's Royal Crown,
G. 11. A. B. was written there,—
Lord Diatitam's come to town.

And round a board ten darksome men
Stood, with a haggard look.
And midnight's chimes were tolling wlien
Their silent seats they took ;
And first a tall grey-headed man
Ruse up, in classic gown,
And said, with visage pale and wan,
•• Lord Duan.tm's come to town.

" Bold-faced Rebellion, all unawed,
" Prepares the knife and hnincl.
" A restless spirit id abroad,
•• And darkens o'er the land :
" Treason puts on her boldest form,
" And Justice wears no frown,
" To calm the waves, to guide the storm,
' • Lord Dt. WWI'S come to town..

Awhile the chariot wheels were stay'd
" That bore us on to death,
'• Awhile a pause of fear we made,
" For counsel—and for breath ;
"Awhile the prelate and the peer
";Might brave the churl and clown,—
" My Lords! my son-in-law is here-:
" Lord Duailwat's come to town.

" My Lord I I. am not what I was,
" My strength and powers decline,
" To guard the altar and the laws
" Needs younger thews than mine;
" I've held the helm, while I could hold.
•' To-night, I lay it down,
" My Lords I—for I am weak and old—
" Lord Duanam's come to town :"

Ile at him down—that ancient man—
With brow of pallid hue,
And words of cold compassion ran
That gloomy conclave through.
" Hurra ! hurra!" I heard a cry.
" Haul England's standard down,
" To-night the tricolour shall liy—
" Lord Duau.tM's come to town !"

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

It was to be expected that the Tory journals should
Fly hold of the prosecutions instituted against some of
them by Lord Durham to vituperate both the ministers
and his lordship. They have done so accordingly, and
we must express our regret that they have received such
a handle. From the very first we deprecated any prose-
cutions, and we said that the charges were so absurd or
so trifling that we could not attach to them the slightest
importance, till we heard that Lord Durham had been
so ill-advised as to institute a prosecution. All Lord
Durham's affidavits will not beget a belief in the
world that both these charges were wholly destitute of
foundation, and were, even if untrue, of no importance.
He gives them credibility by the strenuous denial, and he
makes them of consequence by interestinc, the feelings of
all the press and all the public with the subject.
Lord Durham has recourse also, to attain his object, to
that very law which the eloquence of the Whigs has
made hateful in the land. We have great respect for
Lord Durham's political principles; we have quoted the
evidence of his private virtues, and we regret to see him
have recourse to an unpopular law—not to vindicate his
character, fur it needed no vindication, but to punish
some presumed libellers. We are very ready to believe,
from the testimony of his own lips, that he was not that
harsh, and arrogant, and vindictive nobleman which his
enemies described. We referred a few days ago, with
great pleasure, to his allusion to his own family, and to
the testimony borne by his brother, as decisive proofs
that he deserved to be Coved in private as he was respect-
ed in public, and we, therefore, regret more than we can
express, to sea him institute a prosecution which gives
the semblance of a justification to the charges of his
enemies. The worldetwill now suppose that they were
not so erroneous.

Of course Lord Durham is aware, or ought to be
actareas the libel law to which he has recourse equally
affects all the press—as what is done to the Standard to-
day may be done to the Globe to-morrow—that all the
press must of necessity, for its own sake, for consistency's
sake, be against this application of the unjust libel law.
He may, as we have before remarked, fail, from some
technical defect, in his object; and then, without any ad-
vantage whatever, he will have all the opprobrium of
seeking to put into execution a law which his party have
denounced, and which it is made a reproach to them that
they have not yet repealed. Instead of enacting and
keeping up libel laws against the press, it is the duty of
every government which is a government of the people
to allow it the utmost latitude. By its means alone can
such a government hope to learn those sentiments by
which it must regulate its conduct. We know that the
language of the press is too frequently painful to men in
pawet, but it cannot be otherwise, because it is the censor
of their proceedings. It is for them the only truth-teller;
and every shackle on its limbs is the suppression of some
important facts. To direct a law, which is universally
odious, against a part of the press, which is as indispen-
sable to society as merchants or farmers, is as unwise a
proceeding in a nobleman, desirous of popularity and of
the esteem of his countrymen as we can well conceive.—
Edinburgh Advertiser.

The Earl of Durham appears determined to make a
-wholesale attack upon the 'rory press. Nemo me impune
lacesset is his motto ; and, accordingly, girding on his im-
penetrable panoply, he sallies forth—not to the field of.
battle, but to a court of law. The Radicals, who, since
the Gateshead dinner, had regarded him as a sort of
leader in embryo, gave out that he had too great a regard
for the liberty of the press to proceed with his threatened
prosecution of the Durham Advertiser, whose only crime
was a facetious remark about his "sweeping away" the
village of Philadelphia—a thing nearly as improbable as
his swallowing the Durham Cathedral. An action has,
however, been instituted ; and that amiable and good-
.tempe" red nobleman has resolved on promoting the liberty
and happiness of his countrymen generally, and of the
press in particular, by applying to the Court of King's
Bench kr a criminal information against the author of
the sweeping piece of jocularity referred to. Not content
with this, his lordship has extended his legal fury to the
John Bull and Standard, who are no otherw:se implicated
in the affair than having copied the statement of their
provincial contemporary. It is true honest Bull has
often impaled the Whigs on the horns of a dilemma, and
that the Standard said " Lord Durham had nothing
humble about him but his birth and understanding,"—
rather a left-handed compliment no doubt; but it is a
sorry and despicable revenge to have recourse to a law pro-
cess. A cooling draught would have soothed his noble
irritation better than the verdict of a jury. All parties,
we perceive, reprobate this appeal of his Serene High-
ness to a court:of law-, inasmuch as his lordship's public
and political character alone has been the subject of ani-
madversion by the press. In this instance, the English
Whigs are merely following in the wake of their proto-
types the French liberals. Both have the word liberty
continually in their mouths, yet the thing itself they cor-
dially detest. Never was the French press under a more
despotic censorship than it is at this Moment. It was the
niain engine that raised the citizen-king to the throne;
yet, in the short space of three years, more state prose-
cutions against it have taken place than during the united
reigns of the three preceding sJvereigns. The Tribune
has been prosecuted ninety times ; and last week two
other trials were concluded in Paris—those of the Quoti
dienne and Renovateur, for merely reprinting the article
in the Tribune. This state of matters cannot long con •
tinue in either country, and in a short time will work its
own antidote.—Courier.

FATAL COLLIERY ACCIDENT AT WORKINGTON

(From the Carlisle Patriot.)

On Friday last, when both Lady Pit and Isabella Pit,
were in full work, the water broke through in a torrent,
and swept every thing before it. There were at the time
of the accident upwards of thirty men at work, some of
whom escaped immediately, and almost miraculously
from the torrent which rushed into the pit. The im-
mense body of water which flowed from the old w ork-
itigs for several hourg, added to the popular belief that
the sea had formerly broken into the workings which had
been penetrated, tended to excite a fear that all the pits
would be filled with water, and the consternation which
ensued is almost indescribable. After some time, how-
ever: the flood partly subsided, the water of course mak-
ing its way to the low bottom in Isabella Pit. Timely
notice had been given to the colliers at work there, so
t, at no lives were lost in t tat place, the men haVing• all
made their way up to the waft of the Lady Pit, which is
considerably above the low batoni. Those who were not
so fortunate as to escape. tibm the Mumbank seam, when
the flood . rushed in, were 22 in number.. and rich and
poor, old and loung, felt, interested in the fae of theSe