The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-07-26 00:00:00

HOUSE OF LORDS.—FanAv

Lord CAMPBELL gave notice that he would move on Mon-
day that no counsel who is a member of the other house of
parliament should be heard at their lordships' bar for or
against any bill pending before their lordships.
Lord SKELMERSDALE gave notice that on the next stage
of the Mines and Collieries Bill he would move an amend-
ment to the effect that women of mature age. who have been
accustomed to work in mines and collieries, be permitted to
continue the same employment.

In reply to question's from the Earl of Radnor and the
Marquis of Clanricarde, as to what hopes the government
entertained that the present distress would pass away, or
of its being relieved by the corn-Jaws,
Lord WHARNCLIFFE said the result expected from the
recent corn-laws was steadiness of price. He did see symp-
toms of improvement, but unless the government had suffi-
cient firmness to maintain the present law, prices must neces-
sarily continue unsteady.
The Bankruptcy, Lunacy, and County Courts Bills seve-
rally passed through committee, and were ordered to be read
a third time on Monday.
Lord BROUGHAM laid upon the table two bills, one to
facilitate voluntary arrangements between debtor and creditor
and the other to abolish arrest on execution where parties
were ready to make a full disclosure and surrender of their
property. The bills were read a first time.
Several bills on the table were forwarded a stage ; after
which their lordships adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—FRIDAY.
The Customs Acts Amendment Bill and the Exchequer
Bills Preparation Bill were severally read a third time and
staltnedr, that
eply
passed.
to a question from Lord Palmerston, Sir R. PEEL
he would, on Monday, inform the house whether
government would propose a grant in favour of the classes at
Exeter Hall.
. secondoedf
Mr. S. CRAWFORD moved, On the third reading
be read a third time thavtedi
atyhethPreoeomr
oLnatwhsAmendment Bill,
, as an amendment, that the bill
determination to prevent the bill Mr. FIELDEN
in opposing the bill,
motion, and expressed his
his power. Passing by every means in
Mr. MusTz,
Toy the resent one.
resent
matter
the late government, and would also said,ie it had overthrown
Sir J. GRAHAM said, it would have
for the government to have obtained a shoet?ta.
an e
by acting in accordance with the wishes of those who opposed
ived
popularity,
the bill, but in doing so they would have been guilty of a
• z
gross dereliction of duty. The present system of relie
the poor was incomparably superior to the old method,vaoltind-
had cured many enormous evils. To give it up, theref
would, in his opinion, be a zreat calamity to the country,
He gave every credit for sincerity to Mr. Fielden, who was
re-etni 1Y distinguished in his own neighbourhood for
Pthelinidnneenstsof his disposition, but he could scarcely think

fri:ra

•
out-Iran moil° ct administeelnif,
system, which adapted itself to the varying circuin,
stances of the various localities in which it was carried into
operation. _

Mr. O'CONNELL said that its unpopularity was to be
attributed to the cast-iron rigidity of the central controlling
power. He would in the next session of Parliament move
for a committee to examine into its workin,in Ireland.
Captain BERKELEY insisted that the bill had worked well,
which was denied by Colonel SUITHORP.
After some discussion the house divided, and the third
reading was carried by a majority of 103 to 30.
Sir 'l'. ACLAND moved a clause by way of rider, in order
to enable guardians to appoint local committees for receiv-
ing applications from poor persons in parishes at a certain
distance from the place of meeting of the hoard of guardians.
Sir J. GRAHAM acceded to the proposition, and the clause
was added accordingly.

On the motion that " the bill do now pass,"
Mr. FIELDEN moved as an amendment that it be printed
with a view to its re-committal. The amendment, however,
was negatived on a division, by a majority of 83 to 5, after
which the bill passed.

On the motion for the house resolving itself into a com-
mittee of supply,

Mr. M. GIBSON moved as an admendment that the house
should resolve itself into a committee of the whole house, to
take into consideration the distressed state of the country.
The hon. member, in support of his amendment, went over
many of the arguments used in the debate of the previous
evening. He thought it was a sufficient vindication of his
motion that a majority of the house had already declared its
belief that great distress prevailed throughout the country,
and he also thought that the house could not employ itself
better than in seeking into the cause of that distress.
Dr. BOWRING seconded the motion.

Capt. BERKELEY thot;ghCii;O;iidbe better to throw the
responsibility of upholding the corn laws upon the govern-
ment, than, by a fruitless repetition of motions for their
alteration, to impede the progress of public business.
Sir J. EASTHOPE spoke of the distress prevailing in the
borough which he represented; nearly one-third of the
frames being out of work, the value of houses deteriorated
from 30 to 35 per cent. and of machinery 40 per cent., while
the poor-rates had nearly doubled as compared with the year
1810. He did not think that emigration would afford ade-
quate relief to the distress, but still he was of opinion that
government had not availed itself of it to the extent they
might have done.

Mr. Hindu gave every credit to the government for pass-
ing the tariff, but while they were testing its efficacy the
people were starving. Even if corn were admitted free of
duty the people bad not the means of buying, and the landed
interest should beware lest, after upholding the present mo-
nopoly for their own sakes, they should find themselves ulti-
mately overwhelmed by pauperism.
Mr. FIELDEN, in supporting the amendment of Mr. Gib-
son, said the distress was so great that private exertions to
relieve it were utterly unavailable, and government should
therefore lend its assistance.

Sir C. BURRELL supported the original motion, and
Mr. -VILLIERS, at considerable length, supported the
amendment.

Mr. MuNTz said that trade was never so bad or so unpro-
fitable in Birmingham, or presented such small prospects of
improvement, as at the present moment. It was necessary
that the cause of the distress should be sought for and dis-
covered ; and if sought for, he had no doubt that it would,
without much difficulty, be discovered.
Mr. M. Plural's supported the motion, and said that
62,900 of his constituents had called upon him to lay before
the house the misery by which they were surrounded.
Mr. COBDEN moved the adjournment of the debate, which,
on a division, was defeated by a majority of 188 to 33.
Mr. HINDLEY then moved the adjournment of the debate.
Sir R. PEEL strongly opposed the adjournment, and com-
plained that he had been very unfairly treated in the way in
which these discussions were carried on. It was painful to
him to see the time of the house wasted, night after night,
by a repetition of precisely the same sentiments ; and he had
so recently stated the views of the government that he really
had nothing to say beyond repeating what he had said on the
previous evening. He was, therefore, treating the house
with no disrespect by remaining silent. He could not help
saying, however, that the continued opposition to the will of
the majority in that house was calculated to prove destruc-
tive to anything like a deliberative assembly.
Mr. COBDEN said that the majority in that house were re-
garded by the country with disgust, and contended that Mr.
Flindley was justified in moving the adjournment.
Mr. HAWES thought that a continuous attempt to resist
the opinions of the majority was calculated to prove fatal to
the constitution of the house as a deliberative assembly. He
still thought that some minister of the crown should have
spoken to a motion of such importance, brought forward by
the representative of the most important town in the king-
dom.

Mr. FIELDEN said the people were starving, and, if he
could, he would not give the government a shilling—no, not
a single shilling—until it did something for them.
. . _ _

After considerable discussion, Mr.- HINDLEY withdrew
his motion for the adjournment; and
Mr. COBDEN, at one o'clock in the morning, addressed
the house in support of the amendment.
The house then divided, and the motion was negatived by
a majority of 156 to 64.

THE MINISTRY AND THE CONSERVATIVE

PRESS

(From the Morning Post.)

Some remarks which we find in the Globe of Friday night
on the tone of the conservative press towards the present ad-
ministration, affords us a fair opportunity to say a word or
two upon the advantages and disadvantages which appertain
respectively to a strong government and a weak one.
Our whig-radical contemporary Clatters himself, or would
willingly, at least, flatter his readers, with the hope of the
restoration to power of his party, on the ground that some
portion of the conservative press expresses without reserve
opinions hostile to certain parts of the policy of the present
administration.

The fact is truly stated, but the inference deduced from
it is one which none but a weak, defeated, and desponding
party could possibly have drawn.
The animadversions of the conservative press upon some
of the measures of conservative government indicate the
earnestness, the zeal, the independnce, and the integrity of
its readers, in the performance of what they deem their duty
to the interests and the rights of the community ; but indi-
cate still more clearly their conviction that there is no dan-
ger whatever of so great a national calamity as the resump-
tion of power by any such administration as that of Lord
Melbourne.

It is one of the advantages of a strong government like
that of Sir R. Peel, as contrasted with a weak government
like that of Lord Melbourne, an advantage to which no ge-
nuine English tory can be indifferent, that the former re-
vives the monarchial principle, and gives to the executive, as
such, a considerable share in determining the course of na-
tional affairs and events. Sir R. Peel is not, as Lord Mel-
bourne was, a nominal Prime Minister of a nominal Crown.
This is a great change. We think it a change for the better ;
and while we dissent from some of the measures of Sir It.
Peel, and listen with regret to some of the expressions of his
individual opinion, we rejoice in this change, and do not he-
sitate to say that the man who does not rejoice in it, although
he may be, perhaps, an honest man—although he may be,
perhaps, a sensible man—cannot be an honest and loyal
English tory, but must be in his heart a republican.
Another of the advantages of a strong government like
that of Sir Robert Peel, as contrasted with a weak govern-
ment like that of Lord Melbourne, is that in the former
case the power of the party in possession of the government
is really wielded by the superior men—by the head, and not
as in the latter case by the inferior men, by the tail of the
party. Sir Robert Peel, Lord Aberdeen, Lard Stanley, and.
Sir J. Graham, have no O'Connells, Hawkeses, Warbur-
tons, Duncombes, or Wakleys's at their back, to whose opi-
nions they are obliged to defer. They can consult, and
together with their colleagues in the cabinet, determine to
propose to Parliament and can dare to press upon its adop-
tion such measures as they think likely to conduce to the
welfare of the country.
A third advantage of a strong government like that of Sir
R. Peel, as contrasted with a weak government like that of
Lord Melbourne, that it affords freer play to the action of
individual mind, and to the interchange of independent opi-
nion. Thus, the conduct of important sections of the con-
servative press, at this moment, from which the whig-radical
journals, after the weakness of the administration, may more
properly be regarded as a proof of its strength. The posi-
tion of the government is such, that its members can look
down from their elevation—from their place of power and
responsibility, upon the conflicting currents and varying
eddies of opinion beneath, not despising or disregarding
them, nor be yielding to their indications an instant and
implicit deference ; while the organs of public opinion can
animadvert with friendly freedom upon the conduct of the
administration, and speak plainly out what may be deemed
the errors and vices of its course, unrestrained by the appre-
hension that they will thereby give back the powers of the
monarchy into hands already shown to be incapable of wield-
ing them. Upon the various important points of national
policy, in respect of which it is our misfortune and that of
some of our conservative contemporaries to differ from the
present government, our opinions would unquestionably be
the same that they are were the present government in the
deplorable position in which that of Lord Melbourne con-
sented to drag on, session after session, a powerless and de-
based existence, forcing dead or dying men into the House
of Commons in order to secure themselves the measuring-
cast majority indispensabie to the prolongation of their
ministerial being ; yet it is, at least, probable that we and
our conservative contemporaries would in such circumstances
urge the points on which we differ from Sir R. Peel's admi-
nistration with a degree of restraint and timidity from which
it is now our privilege and our felicity to be entirely free.
It cannot be denied, on the other hand, that a very strong
government, like that of Sir R. Peel, is attended with some
disadvantages. The consciousness of strength is apt to en-
gender in the minds of the leading members of a powerful
administration an overweening self-will, preserving some-
thing of the appearance of tyrannical dictation; while those
of its friends who think it their duty to remonstrate and to
reason against any part of its policy, perceiving how well
established are the bases of its power, may occasionally be
led to impart to their animadversions a vivacity presenting
something of the appearance of unmeasured hostility.