The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-09-24 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, SEPT. 24, 1844.

The statistical account, which we furnished a few
weeks ago, of the quantity of steam-power, employed
at present in the merchant and post office service of
this country, which might, in case of hostilities with
any foreign power, be converted into vessels of war,
has called, as it was well calculated to do, the se-
rious attention of government and the public to so
important a feature of our national resources. En-
quiries have been instituted, by authority, in this
and, we believe, in other ports, which have fully
substantiated the data we had given ; and viewing,
together with the existing large amount of our
steam marine, the rapidity with which the art, the
industry, and the wealth of this nation could multi-
ply it, if required, the impresssion has struck home
to every British heart nay, has gone abroad
throughout Europe—that, tranquilly as England
has reclined upon her strength for years past, amid
the undisguised mutterings of hostility from en-
vious and ambitious rivals, it has been from no fear
of her ability to bear the issue of a contest with one,
or all. The conviction has gone abroad, that,
against hostility from abroad, this country is im-
pregnable; that upon her own native element she is.
able at any moment to encounter and defeat the
world in arms; .and we may venture to hope, with
confidence, that, so long as she occupies her present
proud position, there will lie few nations willing to
jeopardise the peace of Europe by tempting her just
indignation—few so hardy as to stir the sleeping
Lion.

A proud reflection this to the lover of his country,
and scarcely a less welcome one to the lover of hu-
manity. But the thought will present itself—nay,
it ought to present itself, and demand the most so-
lemn consideration—in what direction are the vast
resources of this favoured land to be wielded ? How
is England to acquit herself, in the eyes of her
Almighty Creator, of the vast responsibilities, min-
gled with the blessings, which he, has been pleased
to lay upon her shoulders ? Glance for a moment
at her position, to enable us to weigh the amount of
these responsibilities. From a barbaric nation,
placed on the furthest confines of civilisation—the
Ultima Thule of ancient Europe—this little island
has advanced to the rank of the first power in the world,
M wealth, in civilisation, in liberty, in commerce, and
in arms. We have built up the mightiest and the richest
colonial empire the world ever saw. Our fleets are in
every sea : our name is respected, or feared, on every
chore. Nor are we even permitted, however willing
we might be, to remain stationary in our present
greatness—to say to the throbbing materials of that
greatness, "here is a limit beyond which ye may
not press." The very necessities of our position
compel us to go forwsrd. Within tic last tte ee
years we have brought within the sphere of our in-
fluence and command, rich territories, for one tithe
of the extent and wealth of which the whole civilized
world would have been, in other days, at arms ; and
the preservation of our conquests, menaced, as they
must inevitably be, by the jealousies of those Semi-
Barbaric powers, upon whose dark sway the light
of civilization will stream through and thus render
further conquests imperative, and almost unavoid-
able. Mighty then, as England is now, she must
be mightier, or she must fall ; and that fall must
shake the world. Her responsibilities therefore are
manifold and almost inconceivable in vastness. By
a wise use of her powers, what benefits may she
not shower upon mankind; by a misuse of them,
which will bring down her own ruin, what desola-
tion she must spread abroad amongst nations—
what a fatal blow will be struck against the progress
of civilization and, more important still, of christi--
anity !
The satisfactory working out of a destiny so im-
portant; the wielding aright of powers so vast, held
in sacred trust for the welfare of mankind,—for who
shall dare to say that a nation, so wondrously lifted
up, is not an especial agent in the hands of an over-
naling God ?—is surely a charge such as no states-
man—no minister of Great Britain, or of any other
land, had ever committed to his care; and which
should be directed by considerations far removed
from the mere party motives upon which the policy
of governments is ordinarily based. On the one
hand, the external resources of such a nation should
be wielded for the advancement of the permanent
interests, temporal and eternal, of the whole human
race. Whilst a selfish aggrandizement of our own
people should be shunned, we must guard against
yielding to the over-timidity, which would tempt us
to arrest that progress of our arms and our com-
merce, which seems designed, as an instrument
in a hand mightier than ours, to be the means of
carrying the blessings of civilization and Christianity
into lands now sunk in ignorance and superstition.
On the other hand, and above all, as the source of
all of which we are happily enabled to boast, the in•
ternal security of such a nation should be guarded
with a jealous, an anxious, an unremitting care.
External power, we must bear in mind, is incompa-
tible with internal weakness. No great nation ever
yet fell, whose vitality had not previously been sap-
ped from within. The page of history is replete
with warnings of this important fact, that, to be ex-
ternally strong, an empire must contain a happy, a
contented, and a virtuous people, proof alike against
the seductions of the traitor, the inflammatory ap-
peals of the demagogue, and the evil promptings of
their own human nature, or necessities. Hence, a
really wise government would sedulously devote it-
self to the removal of every cause, immediate or re-
mote, which tends to alienate the affections of the
masses from the governing power, to set their feel-
ings in antagonism to the security of property, or to
produce, in any degree, or by any agency, a feeling
of dissatisfaction with the institutions of their
country.
We beg earnestly to impress this latter view of the
subject upon the Government of Sir Robert Peel.
Granted that much has been done by the wealthy of
our land for their poorer fellow-countrymen—much
to improve their social:position, & to bind their sym-
pathies to the possessors of property—much to pro-
mote their comfort, to encourage virtuous habits,
to give independence of thought and feeling,—to
the Government nevertheless it is left to take the
lead in these good works, and by a wise and benefi-
cent policy to set an example of which, depend upon
it, once let this nation witness the results, and it will
not be slow to follow.
We must pause here. The subject, which we
have only glanced at imperfectly, is worthy of far
more space and careful consideration than we are
able to bestow upon it in the limited space of a news-
paper article. It calls, too, for better handling than
it can possibly receive from an advocate so unworthy
as ourselves.

We have little time, and less inclination, to pro-
long a controversy with a Conservative contempo-
rary, who appears resolved to shut his eyes to
correct idea of the position in which he stands.
.There are a few portions, however, of the attack
uiotr ourtelves, of which the Courier thought proper
to -delivv-himself on Wednesday last, instead of
giving an-"intelligible explanation of his conduct,
which we bust briefly notice.