The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-11-26 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

REFORMED PARLIAMENT AND REFORM MINISTRY.—
' One of the predictions of the last Parliament,' the pamph-.
leteer says, was, that a reformed House of Commons
would not consist of gentlemen. Never was there a more
unfortunate prophecy.' Never, on the contrary, we round-
ly aver, was prophecy more exactly fulfilled. Report as-
cribes this production to the collective industry of the
King's ministers ; but surely no English gentleman, let
his political opinions be what they may, could hazard such
an assertion as this. They may have forgotten the crow-
ings of cocks, the brayings of asses, and the cries of "Go
it, old Glory !"—They may have forgotten the disgusting
.. hibition which was made by the two members for Old-
I .m, on the night that Sir Robert Peel trampled them
i todust: But have they forgotten, also, the names and
f. •ces of all the opposition members who occupy the floor ?
:.lave they forgotten the unwashed visage of Mr. James
Kennedy, and the grimaces of Mr. Finn ? Have they
forgotten the presumptuous imbecility of Mr. Richards,
and the frantic capers of Mr. Fryer ? Have they forgot-
ten the discarded aspirates of "Lord Littleshilling," and
the " brutal" epithets of the Beggarman ?. If they have,
it would be well if they could make their country forget
them too :—but, alas we shall too long have reason to
remember that our most illustrious statesmen have been
superseded by vulgar upstarts, and that the splendid elo-
quence of former times has,

Like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Left not a wreck behind."

Albion and Star.

By a letter from Brussels, and from a correspondeng
upon whom we can implicitly rely, we hear that the King
of the Belgians is in a most desponding state. He feels
that he has made no progress towards a settlement on his
throne, and that after all the farce of negociations and
conferences, the King of Holland has maintained the
principle upon which he started, and that, in fact, the
dispute is just where it was two years ago, and the
struggle only now beginning.
The King admits to those in his confidence he is un-
happy, and that, although he of course dare not- openly
confess it, he looks with anxiety and regret to Claremont.
Some of the newspapers have said his Majesty has grown
heavy—heavy in heart, he may have grown, but he is
wasting away in body, and looks at least ten years older
than he did when he left this country.—John Bull.

A correspondent tells us—what we can hardly believe,
although he refers us to the head of the department for
authentication :—He says that our Government are sell-
ing back to the French Government, at the prime cost
of the metal, all the cannon taken by the English army
during the late war—thus at once arming a probable
enemy at the most moderate rate, and removing from
the country evidences of her victories which might excite
illiberal feelings of triumph, and opening a source of re-
venue which has, in the most unaccountable way, hi-
therto escaped the notice of all preceding statesmen.
We will not—we CANNOT believe this.—lbid.

BROI7GIIAM IN SOLITUDE.—The Times, in a leader by
the grateful Barnes, and in a letter from a hungry, brief-
less barrister, tells us, as a matter of praise, that the
Lord Chancellor rose at half-past ten the other morning,
having disposed of all the motions on the list. Cer-
tainly he had done so, but they were those in arrear
only. He had no original motions on his list—nor will
he have any. Vizard may look grim at this, but it is
true. No attorney, having his client's interest at heart,
will hesitate into which Court to carry his ease—that in
which Brougham sits " like an owl in the desert," or that
in which Shadwell's courteous assiduity, aided by Sug-
den's unrivalled knowledge and acumen, ensures de-
spatch as well as justice. Verily the Chancellor is in a
precious position. We all remember the facetious ad-
junct to the line,
" Me wound is great because it is so small—"
viz.

" Then it were greater were it none at all."
So Ifith the Chancellor—his fame as a lawyer, his repu-
tation as a judge, (at least so we gather from his para-
sites,) flourishes exactly in an inverse ratio to the busi-
ness brought before him ; so that when he has nothing to
do, in consequence of his Court being deserted, (as it
nearly is at present, and soon will be entirely,) the Baron
Brougham and Vaux will be the greatest lawyer and
judge this country ever saw ! Bacon ! Eldon ! what
dolts ye were!—"Hilariter celeriter," from which words
our " helter-skelter" is derived, would be no bad motto
for the Chancellor—excepting that, however celeriter he
may get through his work, we doubt much whether he
gazes hilariter upon his empty court. Helter-skelter is,
however, the order of the day; and the Chancellor is
not last in the race.—Age.

PROSECUTION OF THE PRESS.—Our attention is called
to this subject, by an article in a recent number of the
Pilot, Mr. O'Connell's special organ, complaining of the
announcement on the part of government to prosecute
the proprietor of- that- journal, for the insertion of one
Or more of the letters addretaedi through that journal, to
the people of Ireland, and bearing the signature of Daniel
O'Connell. The observations of the Pilot on this an-
nouncement we forbear to give—they can scarcely be
expected to be impartial ; but those observations dis-
close an interesting fact, (if we can believe it to be a fact)
namely, that O'Connell has been offered place, and that,
because he refused to accept it, this prosecution has been
revived. Half of this we are inclined to believe, the
other is more than apocryphal. To us, the fact of O'Con-
nell's negotiation for place is by no means disproved,
because, subsequently, he has denied it ; we never be-
lieved that he would have hesitated at a lie private or
political—well had it been for the country if the people
bad believed him incapable of truth. But what is the
secret of all this ? It is that the dust is thrown into the
eyes of the Protestants, that they may not see too closely
the machinery that is working against their rights and
liberties.—Dublin Warder.

There are one or two points in the proceedings of the
Town Council, on Wednesday laf,t, deserving of a pass-
ing remark, as tending to show that the municipal board
is not yet thoroughly purged of corrupt propensities, and
that religious absurdities are likely to form one of the
staple commodities which it will have to deal with in fu-
ture. We say nothing about certain members of council
refusing to walk to church on Sundays in an official ca-
pacity ; what we allude to is the announcement of a mo-
tion by Mr. Tait, " that the Protestant dissenting clergy
of the city shall be respectfully requested to attend, in
rotation with the established clergy, for the purpose of
constituting the meetings of council by prayer. Now it
appears to us that such a motion is quite useless. Who,
for one instant, will believe that the dissenting clergy—
who deprecate the union between church and state—who
consider religic'_l3 establishments as an anti-Christian
abomination, and religion itself degraded and polluted by
coming in contact with politics—will identify themselves
with an assembly holding opinions which they abhor, or
pray for the welfare and prosperity of a court who are the
sworn patrons and defenders of the established church ? •
These reverend gentlemen are far too modest, too unam-
bitious and self-denying, to take advantage of Mr. Tait's
proposal, or put themselves on a level with the established
clergy. Or, if they do, what will the public think of their
railing accusations against the church, and their sancti-
inouious abstinence from mixing, as a gospel ministry,

with the carnal concerns of a town council. But if Mr.
Tait means, by his motion, to do away with religious dis-
tinctions, why restrict the privilege to Protestant dissent-
ers. A Catholic or Jew has as good a right, and is as
proper a person, to officiate as chaplain, on Mr. Tait's
principles, as a Socinian or a Unitarian ; and if the coun-
cil are to show their liberality in this way, we hope they
will not overlook the claims of the tribe of Levi and the
Romish priesthood.
As to the motion of Mr. Lizars that the meetings of
Council shall be open to the public generally, we deem it
quite uncalled for, since they are present virtually in their
representatives, and by means of reporters for the press.
Another very improper proceeding is the addition of the
four medical membets of Council to the College Com-
mittee. Supposing they had no hostile feeling towards
the University, their very circumstances necessarily
place them in collision with it, and will prevent them
from forming a cool and deliberate judgment on subjects
connected with that institution. They will have every
inducement to misrepresent and find fault, because that
may form a step towards their own promotion. Of Trea-
surer Black's self-denying ordinance we have already
spoken in terms of commendation. On the division it
will be seen that even in the reformed Council there
were ten hankerers after city jobbing, loath to let go
the loaves and fishes of office.—Edinburgk Advertiser.