The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-08-29 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The pressure of our Assize Intelligence compels us to
83414 several comfnunieations, which otherwise wuuid
have appeared in this week's publi,:ati.n.
We are ohlig-d to postpone the report of Dr. Brett's two
last L cturrs at the Cullegiate Institution.

Ebe iLfurrpo• itanbarti.

TUESDAY MORMNG, AUGUST 29, 1843.

The session of 1843 has now concluded, leaving
as the result of the labours of Parliament a large
amount of legislation—some of it but half-consi-
dered, we fear,—whilst scarcely one great question
has been satisfactorily settled. Education, factory
regulation, Church Extension, with many other
measures remedial of the social condition of the peo-
ple, are left ❑nprovided for. The pacification of
Ireland can scarcely be said to have been attempted.
An extensively-organised system of outrage in Wales
is left to baffle the efforts of a handful of military
for its suppression ; and the causes, acknowledged
to be many, which have driven that proverbially
peaceable and loyal people into acts of almost rebel-
lion, are handed over to be discovered by the acute
vision of a Bow street magistrate. And in what
state is Great Britain herself? A widely-extended
conspiracy is directing the passions of the irritated
masses of the manufacturing districts to the de-
struction of the property of the landowner, as the
remedy for the existing distress of the community.
Turn-outs of labourers meet us on every side; and
are seized hold of with avidity as food for the
spread of the noxious principles of Chartism. Re-
peal of the Union is rearing its threatening front in
our large towns, wherever an Irish population is to
be found. In fact, to whatever quarter we turn
our eyes, the prospect is one, most unsatisfactory
and most deplorable.
As a set-off, indeed, against this complication of
evil and danger, we have the well-guaranteed
hope of an abundant harvest. The great staple
trades of the country, too, are manifestly improved ;
and are affording profit to the merchant and the

manufacturer, and remunerative employment for a
great portion of the people. Our leading. foreign
markets shew symptoms of returning activity, which
will further tend to promote the spread of prosperity
among t our industrious classes. But for these re-
sults we have only in a trifling degree to thank the
efforts of Parliament. They are the natural recoil
of a state of prostration and lethargy in commercial
affairs, aided no doubt in part by the judicious le-
gislation of last year. That of the present year has
been inoperative to produce them ; and we view,
therefore, the close of the session with feelings of
bitter grief and disappointment—feelings which we
confidently believe are widely entertained by the
Conservative people, who hoped for better things
from the Conservative ministry of their choice.
We hoped for, in the policy of that ministry, a
bolder assertion of the great constitutional princi-
ples which they were raised to office for the purpose
of carrying out. We looked to see a firm stand
made by them for the maintenance of the Monarchy,
the Church, and the Constitution. We expected to
see sedition put down with firmness, in whatever
quarter of the empire and under whatever pretext
it raised its unsightly and menacing form. We
hoped that at length the sacred duty of a govern-
ment to take measures for the amelioration of the
social condition of the people would he recognised
and fully acted upon. But where is to be found
the realization of these hopes ? Alas, we have seen,
in its stead, timidity, vacillation of purpose, half-and-
half assertions of principle, concessions to oppo-
nents, and desertion of friends. The integrity of
the empire is threatened ; and a pnasage in a speech
from the throne is the reply to the threat Immo-
rality and debasing ignorance are found to exist
amongst the children of the manufacturing popula-
tion; and the government withdraw the remedy
which they propose—a sound and scriptural educa-
tion, superintended by the clergy of the Church of
England—frighted by the paper pellets, the manu-
factured petitions, and the brawling platform oratory
of mingled infidelity, dissent, and factious avarice.
The same children are worn down by long hours of
toil in the heated factory and loom-shop; and the
remedy is withheld, because the League blusters,
and a few selfish Conservatives refuse to resigN pla-
cidly their property in the health and life of their
infant white slaves. Weak submission meets our
vision every where; and hence, amidst all the mass
of bills which have been hurried through Parlia-
ment at the close of the session, there is scarcely
one involving any Conservative principle, or over
which Conservatives can rejoice.
That the effect of this inauspicious state of things
has been most injurious to the Conservative cause
throughout the country we believe, and indeed have
reason to know. Men, lately the ardent and devoted
friends of the Constitution and of Conservative prin-
ciples, are now anxiously asking themselves—" Of
what avail our past struggles, and why struggle
still, when a Conservative ministry thus wantonly
and weakly throw away the strength which our
efforts have conferred upon them ?" And with too
great reason is the question asked! And most
fatal is the lukewarmness and apathy which the
impossibility of receiving a satisfactory answer is in-
ducing. Men no longer care to battle for the good
cause, when their energies lead to nothing, if not
worse than nothing; and we venture to predict,
that the time is not very far distant when this feel-
ing will be practically and strikingly displayed.
Whilst upon this subject, we may, without any
great impropriety, direct our attention to a some-
what similar state of things, existing as the result of
Conservative administration of the local affairs of
our own town. For two years, now, Conservatism
has been in the ascendant in the Council; and be-
yond
the settlement of the School question, where is
the evidence of Conservative government ? Of
wordy displays of Conservative zeal in debating we
have had quantum suff: and, indeed, a little more
than suffices moderate men like ourselves. But
when we come to an examination of practical mea-
sures—to the doings of committees and other mat-
ters—we find little to praise, and much to dishearten.
Like the ministry of Sir Robert Peel, these bodies
have put in their claim for extreme liberality—exces-
sive honesty—ultra purism. They have entered upon
their duties with the determination of exhibiting to
the world the newest practical mode of effecting the
destruction of their own party ; and they are suc-
ceeding, to the admit ation of the entire community
and the especial delight of the Whig Radical fac-
tion.

The men by whose zealous exertions a Con-
servative majority in the Council was secured, when
they see the liberality with which the patronage of
that body is distributed amongst their opponents,
whilst they themselves are disFieFago and slighted,
are asking themselves why they are supporters of
Constitutional principles when Radicalism is the
obvious path to the patronage of a Conservative
Council, whilst loyalty is a bar to even just consi-
deration. The Conservative tradesmen, when he
sees committee after committee, in which some rabid
Radical still exercises authority, distributing: the

majority of their favours amongst' his Radical cool

petitors, is disposed--tO question whether his worldly
interests are not rather damaged- than advanced by
Chealaesty of his political opinions. When they

see Radical organs chosen almost exclusively as the
medium of conveying to the public the advertise-
ments of the Council, to the exclusion of the faith-
ful supporters of loyalty and Constitutional prin-
ciples, men of all parties are disposed to doubt that
that body is a Conservative body at all, whi h acts
with such mistaken and suicidal liberality !
It is from no desire to advocate the principle of
exclusive dealing that we make these remarks, but
' only from a conviction that the present policy of the
Council is damaging seriously the Conservative
strength in the borough. We detested the exclusive
spirit practised by the late Radical Council ; but we do
not see that, in members of a Conservative Council,
it is wise or right to carry their fear of being termed
favourers of their own party to an extent which in-
volves the committal of injustice towards those who
have deserved favour at their hands. A mistake so
great was never committed by their opponents when
in power; and we fear that the approaching elections
in November will show that it has produced a
dangerous alienation of Conservative feeling through-
out the town. Indeed it is much to be doubted
whether the defeat, which the Conservative party
have sustained in the election in Toxteth-park dur-
ing the past week, is not " the straw thrown up,"
which shews the tendency of future events in our
political atmosphere.

We live indeed in changed times. Could any
Englishman over whom the grave has closed but
twenty, or even a dozen years, look back upon the
scene of his earthly toils and struggles, and mark
the altered position of his country and the changed
feelings of its people, he would start back amazed
to think that a revolution so vast could have been
accomplished, in a time so brief; and that a nation
could have looked on calmly, and even approvingly,
whilst its institutions, its honour, its security, and
its happiness, were being rapidly undermined and
threatened with utter annihilation. Men who min-
gle in the daily events of passing life mark not so
readily their tendency and their progress towards
any given consummation. An individual immersed
in the cares of the world forgets to mark his own
progress to the tomb. We see the child become
the man; the man in his vigour sink by degrees to
second childhood : but the changes strike us not
with that force which they would assume if we could
regard them with long intervals between. And thus
with the changes which occur in the position and
the temper of nations. The daily observer detects
them less vividly than one whose vision is with-
drawn for a time. The father who has seen his
child in infancy, and after long absence returns to
find him in the full vigour of manhood, is strikingly
reminded of the change which has taken place; and
he who left his country powerful, peaceful, and happy,
and returns to find it sunk in misery, and struggling
upon the verge of convulsion, would reboil with
dismay from the contemplation of that very state of
things which those who have aided in producing it
can scarcely believe to exist at all.

We ask of our readers to compare the temper of
the present times, and the position of their country
at the present hour, with its position a dozen years
ago. The monarchical institutions, the Church,
and the Constitution, were then fast rooted in the
hearts of the people. But are they so now ? Does
disaffection to the throne—does hatred to the Esta-
blished Religion of the empire—does republican
longing for the overthrow of the aristocracy of the
country—does contempt for law and order,—speak
now in whispered tones from the lips of the obscure
and vile only ? They do not. Tnese feelings are
paraded now in open day by men of very different
standing and character to the Hunts and Cobbetts
of former times. They fall upon our ears from the
lips of peers and members of Parliament. They
are obtruded upon our observation by men eminent
in rank, possessed of wealth, and of something
which may even he called virtue. And to carry
them out into practice—to realise designs which
men dared scarcely in past days hint at—we see
now on every side a host of wealth, of talent, and of
character, openly organised and actively exerting
itself in defiance of hostile public opinion and almost
of the law itself. No man in former days, above
the level of a tavern or a- street orator, would have
been found to propose openly the confiscation of the
rents of the landowner, the sacrifice of our noble
colonies, the spoliation of our National Church, and
the abandonment of an entire people to ignorance
and unalleviated toil; and yet we have now respect-
able and able men, moving conspicuously upon the
stage of the world, who hesitate at none of these,
which our fathers would have designated wicked
and dishonest measures.

But the most disastrous change of all, we fear, its 1
to be found in the temper of approbation with which
some are ready to view agitation for these objects,
and the feeling of apathy which leads others to ab-
stain from efforts to counteract its working. The
Conservative and loyal of the people of England look
on with folded hands whilst sedition stalks abroad
armed for the struggle which is to involve the ruin
of their country. The government of Great Britain
concedes step by step to the demands of disaffection
and disloyalty. The monarchical principle in our
Constitution is insidiously assailed ; and we throw a
sop in the path to feed the assailants. The destruc-
tiori of the Church is openly demanded; and we
hesitate to assert her claims to just and efficient
protection. The landowner is threatened with con-
fiscation; and he is left to struggle unaided against
the rapacity of his enemies. The people—the masses
throughout the country—are being year by year de-
pressed lower in the scale of comfort ; and we give
them, instead of protective legislation, a new poor-
law system ; they are misled by mischievous and
infidel teaching, and we refuse to offer them an ex-
tension of the means of religious instruction, because
we dare not boldly insist upon the claims of our
Church to be made the basis and the bulwark of the
people's happiness.

This is a disheartening state of things to contem-
plate ; for to what must it ultimately bring us ?
Unhesitatingly we maintain that it is, and that ra-
pidly too, bringing us towards a moral and social
revolution. Powerful as is Great Britain to contend
against all assaults from without—powerful as is her
army and navy, magnificent her empire, and mighty
her commerce—she is, in her internal position,
filled with the elements of weakness, decay, and ulti-
mate convulsion. An insidious poison has entered
into her once.unequalled constitution; and if the
working of that evil principle is not checked by a
prompt and a vigorous counter effort, we fear that it
will at no distant period be discovered that the re-
medy has passed away from our reach; that the
evil is no longer susceptible of cure.

MR. R. R. R. MOORE, THE LEAGUER.-Mr.
Cobden, we think it was, who, expatiated upon the
talent of this gentleman ine talking down the peo-
ple" ; but if a printed or,
ied
espondence which we
have now before us may be relied Mr. Moore must from henceforth beup
understoodo n a s correct,
to
possess another talent—that of making black into
white, fact into fiction and vice versa, in eminent
perfection. The entire correspondence itself
long for our columns, in their present crowded
state ; but we give its purport, for the benefit of
those weak people who may possibly attend the
Amphitheatre to-morrow evening, to be " talked
down" by this voluble and veracious Irishman.
At a recent meeting of farmers, &c., held at