The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-08-27 00:00:00

TUESDAY 310 RNING, AUG. 2, 1844.

The detailed information, which we now have
from the scene of operations on the coast of Mo-
rocco, has tended very materially to relieve the na-
tional mind. France, we know now, is not that
great naval power which we were taught to believe
she had become—which British senators and even
British sailors had mistaking,ly described' her ; and
her pet admiral, the Prince de Joinville, has shewn
in this affair, that there is more of the jackanapes
than the hero is his composition—that he is more at
home when blustering in a pamphlet than when
blowing up a fortress. The whole history of French
incapacity at sea—the whole series of her past de-
feats upon that element—does not present an in-
stance of failure so ridiculous and conduct so con-
temptible as is to he seen in this effort against Tan-
gier, which, in all its features, more strongly re-
minds 1.1,: of that great exploit of a former king of
France, who,

" with fifty thousand men,
Marched up the hill and then—marched down again,"

than any achievement on record.
France has never been, in her best days, a naval
power. She has striven to become so, ardently and
earnestly, for years past; and perhaps never were
her hopes more sanguine, that she had at length
obtained a prominent position upon the seas, than
at the present moment. If this, therefore, is a fair
specimen of her improved powers upon that ele-
ment; if the Prince de Joinville be a fair specimen
of a French commander, and his fleet a fair speci-
men of the efficiency of the French navy at the pre-
sent day; Great Britain need be under no appre-
hension of being reduced into the position prophe-
sied for her by The National, of " a third-rate mari-
time power," or of seeing her proud rival progress
very far in the course of aggrandisement abroad,
which she has marked nut for herself, and hae oc
late been pursuing. We need fear the influence of
no colonial empire which she can found ; but on
the contrary, we may almost rejoice, in the name of
the human race, and for the sake of the peace of the
world, to see her, by vain efforts in pursuit of ob-
jects which she can never secure, and which, if at-
tained, are unsuited to her genius and position,
draining that strength and those resources, which
might otherwise be directed, as in past times they
have been directed, so fatally for the liberties of
mankind. We may rejoice, whilst we laugh, to see
the antics which she makes with her toy, upon the
same principle that we should be gladdened to see
any dangerous and subtle beast of the forest play-
ing with his shadow, by the reflection that he was
thus detained from more dangerous and destructive
pursuits.
We make these remarks in no insulting spirit to-
wards the French nation. Naturally there is not,
and for the welfare of both there ought not to be
created, any great interests in the two countries to
induce them materially to clash with each other.
The true position of France—that by which, as a
nation, she may be rendered more unassailable and
powerful,—is one of strict and harmonious alliance
with Great Britain, for the preservation of the peace
of Europe and for the advancement of the civilisa-
tion of mankind. Each is interested in the other's
greatness. But let each aim to advance that great-
ness upon its natural element. Let France content
herself with being the first military power of Eu-
rope ; but England, with her vast colonies and com-
merce, must maintain her position as the first naval
power in the world—as the unchallenged mistress
of the seas. If we rejoice, therefore, at the exhibi-
tion which we have just seen of the vanity of the
efforts of France to rival us upon that element, it is
because we trust it may at length teach her the
folly of that course of petty aggression which she
has of late been making upon our commerce in va-
rious quarters of the globe, and convince her that,
if the insolence of her naval officers towards British
authority in Africa, in Tahiti, and elsewhere, has
not been so promptly repressed as perhaps it ought
to have been, and the injury done to British com-
merce would have warranted its being, it has been
no want of power, no want of confidence in the
strength of England's right arm of offence and de-
fence, which have withheld her from the effort.
Eventually, if France be not taught wisdom in time
—if she refuse to see what is her own true position,
and to acknowledge ours,—that effort must be
made ; and, with the vast power at the disposal of
England, the lesson which must be taught by its
result must be one of desolating and tremendous
effect. We have no wish to enter upon it ; but
forbearance, under continued insult and aggression,
becomes cowardice ; and that word must never be
used in association with the British name.

In another part of our paper we have entered
into an examination of the amount of the steam
force which England can, at any moment, detach
from her merchant and government service, and add
to her already powerful fleet. The calculation made
is, we are aware, imperfect, from the want of any
official source of information. It may serve to show,
however, to France, who, through the mouth of the
Prince de Joinville, has vaunted so loudly of the
superiority of the steam department of her navy, and
to a few grumblers and tremblers at home, how vast
are the resources which, on an emergency, our
country possesses. With such an armament as we
could fit up from the materials there pointed out—
from the conversion of the almost countless steam-
ers which navigate our shores, and carry on the
communication with our various colonies, into ships
of war—what power in Europe, or what combina-
tion of powers, could resist us for a month ? None
most assuredly : and let it be borne in mind, and
it must be a satisfactory reflection to all lavers of
peace, that this new and ready source of our coun-
try's strength is growing yearly, imperceptibly, with-
out pressing upon its resources, but rather serving
to develope them, by the stimulus which rapid com-
munication between countries gives to commercial
enterprise ; and that it can have no limit to its
growth, until the whole family of man are brought
within its action and its advantages. A nation,
with such an engine in its hand, cannot surely be
knocked down with a pamphlet, or terrified by a
fleet which has had enough to do to batter down a
few rotten walls at Tangier.

We have never joined in the note of triumph
which has been raised, by some of our conservative
contemporaries, at the imagined downfall of the
Anti-Corn Law League. Little as we respect the
motives, or fear the power of that incendiary body,
and little as we care for the doings and sayings, the
fussiness and impertinences, of the small clique of
boys and old women, who represent it in this loca-
lity, we have never gone the length of congratulat-
ing ourselves upon the fact of their total incapacity
for mischief. On the contrary, we view the retire-
ment of the League and the Anti-Monopoly Asso-
ciation of Liverpool from active agitation, as any
thing but matter for satisfaction. Whilst members
of such bodies protrude themselves upon the public
—set their small wits against the force of public
opinion—the chances are great that they make
noodles of themselves ; hut even such members,
however individually silly, when operating in secret,
with ample funds and industry at their disposal, are
capable of inflicting serious injury upon their oppo-
nents ; and their proceedings should be sedulously
watched, and actively opposed.
We are impelled to offer these remarks for the
consideration of the Conservatives of Liverpool, by
a conviction—a knowledge we may almost say—that
at this moment these parties are about inflicting a
serious blow upon the Conservative cause, through-
out the country, and especially in our own town.
A reference to the letter of our Manchester corres-
pondent will abundantly prove this fact so far as
that town is concerned. Whilst we are sleeping
upon the imagined security of our position, they
are industriously mining beneath us. Whilst
gentlemen in Liverpool are debating amongst
themselves the important issues, who shall be
Mayor and who Aldermen of the Borough after
next November, the Anti-Monopoly Association
are carefully strengthening the register for. their
own party, and preparing to snatch from them
the very prizes for which they are contending.
Already we are assured that, in some wards, a most
triumphant result may be, and is, confidently anti-
cipated from their labours. Our very Gibraltars"
beneath our feet, sapped by the are crumbling
ear-
nestness and energy of anti-monopoly influence.
We could point to half a dozen of these, which no-
thing but a prompt counter effort of
it Conservatism
Therepresenilti
can save ;—will that effort be ma de In the
temper of our party, we fear not.will
be affected wailing enough, after the evil has been
precipitated; but there will be no endeavour to stay
its approach.
-Why do we say this, and from whence do we an:
ticip,pte such a betrayal of duty ? From many of