The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-05-31 00:00:00

he generation now rising. We are, as yet, without any
good classical seminary in the province, but the spread of
education in the ordinary branches of knowledge, is incon-
ceivably extensive and rapid. To what avocations shall the
thousands of boys, now at our schools in town and country,
betake themselves when they grow up to mau's estate? It
is certain that they will not labour in the field. In the ab-
sence of an European course of study, the bench, the
bar, the practice of medicine, the pulpit, constitute dis-
tinctions to which they cannot aspire. The higher offices
of the executive department, the home government will
always take care to fill with its own creatures. The lower
cannot satisfy the wants of one-twentieth part of the appli-
cants for employment. Then, the present generation of
agricultural labourers having died away or retired, who is to
supply their room ? How are the rising generation to be oc-
cupied in a way worthy of their extended information ? How
is the large class of persons which now hangs on by the staple
cultivation, to subsist? These are questions which it will be
well for the philanthropists of England to ponder, before they
determine upon converting this colony from a sugar-pro-
ducing settlement into the residence of mere yam-growers
and hucksters."

These are, indeed, questions upon which the serious
attention of the British people and the British Legis-
lature may well be bestowed ; and we trust that in the
movement, which we now see making, towards an
award of something like justice towards the West India
.proprietors, the condition of the emancipated negro
population themselves, aggravated as its present evils
will be by the refusal to adopt the steps necessary to
restore prosperity to the cultivation of these noble
colonies, will not be overlooked.

The Liverpool Journal either misunderstands the re-
marks which we offered on Friday, with respect to the
relative position of the Conservative party and Sir Ro-
bert Peel's government, or treats them in a very un-
candid spirit. To a Whig journalist it may appear
strange enough that Conservatives should complain of
the conduct of that government, upon some particular
questions, and determine, with respect to those qu,
Lions, to withhold from it their confidence and even to
oppose its measures. To a Whig journalist, accus-
tomed to trim his course with a delicate regard to the
safety of the frailest and most unstable government
which ever contrived to hang together so long after it
had exhausted the endurance of its supporters, it may
be a matter of difficulty at first to determine the ex-
tent to which, in the case of a strong government, the
dissatisfaction of sections of its supporters may be ex-
pressed, with respect to particular measures or the
maintenance of particular principles, without weaken-
ing its moral power or giving rise to the impression
that it is no longer possessed of their confidence upon

general questions. To this circumstance we must at-
tribute it—for we cannot think the Journal capable of
wilfully misinterpreting us—that we are represented by
our contemporary as overwhelmed with " sorrowing
despair" and a " cureless sorrow" by the measures
of Sir Robert Peel's government ; that we have " no
confidence" in the right honourable baronet, and are
only restrained by " sickness of the heart" from
"bursting into paroxysms of rage" against him.
We distinctly pointed out in the article in question
the grounds upon which we felt dissatisfaction, or he-
sitation, with respect to the accordance, by Conserva-
tives, of their implicit confidence to the present govern-
ment. Sir Robert Peel, we stated, had not acted up
to the wishes of many of his most ardent friends--(he
has acted up to the expectations of most)—in his treat-
ment of the factory question, in his treatment of the
new poor law, and upon those questions which are pe-
culiarly Protestant questions. With respect to these—
(we know of none other of material importance)—we
are prepared to offer our unflinching opposition to the
views of the majority of his cabinet; not with the motive
of harassing its steps—not with a view of weakening
it in public opinion; but in the hope rather of strength-
ening it, and at least warning it against the danger of
further concession to the principle of utilitarian Whig-
gery. We have no fears of any " suicidal " conces-
sion to the principles (I) of free trade. We stated, in
fact, that in his financial and commercial legislation
Sir Robert Peel had our entire confidence.

In urging, therefore, the Conservative party, or, at
least, that portion of it who think with us upon these
particular questions, to " maintain the cause itself ra-
ther than the men," we advised what is, with due de-

ference to our more politic contemporary, the only
course which an honest and consistent party can pur-
sue. But why, asks the Journal, if this advice is to

be acted upon, not cast off at once from our confidence
the supporters of Sir Robert Peel's government, if we
cast off from our confidence the government itself ?

" A government," remarks the Journal, in a tone of self-
delight, " is nothing without votes at its back ; and we should
like to have the one measure of the present ministers pointed
out which was not supported by the votes or sanctioned by
the acquiescence of Lord Sandon, Sir Howard Douglas,
Lord Francis Egerton, and Mr. Bootle Wilbraham. Who
has enunciated those suicidal' principles of free trade more
boldly (would that he had been something more than lip-
valiant !) than Mr. William Gladstone? Has the new' poor
law met with one syllable of opposition from the whole batch
of Lancashire and Cheshire tories ? Were these people sent
to parliament to vote at the bidding of the minister for any
measure which he might propose, and, as if he were an
Egyptian Pasha, to defy and rule both his sovereign and the
subjects of his delegated sway ?

" If the Standard really wishes to establish that character
for independence which it is now stickling for, it must strike
nearer home at the men who are the instruments of this
`suicidal' course. If Sir Robert Peel is mistaken, they are
criminal; if he is blind, they are base. No party duty binds
any honest man to support principles which he abhors, and
to be an actual participant in political crime."

In the first place, we shall reply to the Journal that
his facts are not true. We apprehend that neither
Lord Sandon, Lord Francis Egerton, nor Mr. Wil-
braham, are devoted admirers of the new poor law.
The former, especially, we believe, will not support a
bill, by whatever government introduced, which is not
essentially mitigated in its oppressive bearing upon the
industrious and unfortunate poor of England. Not
one of these gentlemen, moreover, can be suspected of
the peculiarly Whiggish predisposition " to vote at the
bidding of the minister for any measure which he may
propose, and, as if he were an Egyptian pasha, to defy
and rule both his sovereign and the subjects of his
delegated sway !"
When these members "nearer home" do err, how-
ever, little as the Journal may be disposed to give us
credit for the independence required in doing so, he
will find us prepared to pursue precisely the same
course with respect to them which we have proposed with
respect to Sir Robert Peel himself. What that course
will be our friends will have no difficulty in under-
standing from our previous explanation ; and we hope
—should the task unfortunately be imposed upon us—
(which we do not expect)—that it will be one with the
honesty of which even the Journal will be satisfied, al-
though it will not be so suicidal as to afford him all
the fun which he may perhaps anticipate.

We perceive by the notice paper posted at the door
of the Town-hall that the council is threatened on
Wednesday next with another " passage at arms,"
upon that everlasting subject of Whig-Radical cavil-
ling, the education question. The challenger upon
the occasion is Mr. R. V. Yates,--Sir Daphne of the
Dingle,—who will creep into the left-off armour of the
Abercromby Apollo, and astonish the education com-
mittee with his feats therein. The name of his esquire
we know not at the present moment. Report, hoW-
ever, gives the name of Mr. Bright of Gibraltar, who,
from
the grace with which he is known to wield a'yard-
stick, will no doubt demean himself within the lists
with fitting elegance and propriety. The principal
object of the " onslaught," we presume; is to post-
pone the period at which the new system of the edu-
cation committee may be fairly considered to be upon
trial,—which period, be it remembered, will not arrive
until the total cessation of this system of petty cavil-
ling at the proceedings of the committee, and keyhole
proceedings of the teachers in the
espionage of the proceedi
schools themselves.

The first issue to be decided is upon the following
motion, viz.—
" That a special committee be appointed to inquire into
the acts of religious persecution, alleged to have been com-
mitted by Mr. R. Stone, in ordering the children of Roman
Catholics and Dissenters, in the corporation schools, to
learn and teach the church catechism and to go to church ;
and if he be found to have done so, to inquire further,
whether he was instructed by any person or persons to do so ;
and also to inquire whether be neglected his duty in the
manner alleged—and that the evidence taken be laid before
the council."

" Religious persecution" ! What an important in-
quiry this will be ! The council surely cannot think of
horrifying the religious world by permitting the . as-
tounding facts which the committee proposed might

possibly extract from the tutored witnesses of Mr. R.
V. Yates. Seriously—the council cannot permit its
valuable time to be taken up, or that of a committee,
composed even of the most trifling and silly of its
members, to be occupied in disproving such pitiful
balderdash as has here been raked up by the eaves-
dropping member for South Toxteth.
The second proposition of Sir Daphne is—
That compensation be granted to those apprentices, for-
merly in the corporation schools, who were hound under
regulations which showed respect to their religious opinions
and promised them valuable instruction, and who were
turned out of the schools when they refused to be bound to
a master whose orders they could not conscientiously obey,
and who refused to give, or was incompetent to give, the
instruction promised."
By all means, we would say, allow the apprentices
in question compensation, although not a shilling is
their legal due! We would give something to sweep
away such remnants of the old system, which can
only clog the efficient working of the schools as at
present constituted, and serve as funnels to such ready
recipients of exparte slanders as Mr. R. V. Yates.
The third motion is worthy of the sublime philoso-
pher who devised it. It is—
" That a Time-book be kept in each School, in which the
Superintendent and all the Masters of that School shall enter
the hour and minute when they arrive, and the hour and
minute when they leave the School."
We would suggest an amendment, to be moved by
some Conservative gentleman, to the following effect—
" That Mr. R. V. Yates and the seconder of this
motion should be permitted to station themselves daily,
one at the south school and one at the north, within a
convenient hearing distance from the keyholes of the
school doors, in order to be enabled to report to the
council the proceedings of the masters therein, Mr.
Taafe being retained to put their reports into English ;
and that, to economize the time of the head master,
Mr. William Earle should be requested to escort him
in his drag, whenever his duties call him from one
school to the other."

It will be perceived, by a paragraph inserted in ano-
ther place, that Mr. Thomas Gladstone, late member
for Peterborough, and brother of our townsman, Mr.
Robertson Gladstone, is a candidate, in connection with
the Right Hon. J. C. Herries, for the borough of Ips-
wich, on the Conservative interest. The ex-members,
Mr. Rigby Wason and Mr. Rennie, are ineligible to sit
during the present parliament.