The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1841-10-15 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

THE WING MES-ALLIANCE  That the anti-corn-law agitation, upon which the Whig party has thrown itself for support, possesses no deep or permanent hold upon the public mind it would be a waste of time to attempt seriously to demonstrate. For with whom, in fact, does that agitation originate ? Not, certainly, with any great and influential class in the community. Not even with the manufacturing interest as a body ; but with a section only of that interest—a comparatively small and morally powerless section—one which dare not unveil either the ulterior objects which it has in view or the immediate moving cause of its frantic struggles. The really influential portion of the manufacturing body either scout altogether connection with its efforts, or view them with a jealous apathy ; whilst the working classes, for whose benefit they are ostensibly made, regard them with open and declared distrust. These classes, in the manufacturing districts at least, will not allow themselves to be juggled by the specious plausibilities which form the staple of its daily tirades. They know well the rea object which is concealed beneath the cry of " cheap bread for the working man ;" and whatever may be their fondness for the abstract idea conveyed by the term cheapness, they have a goading and bitter experience which tells them that the substance, if it could be realized, will never be permitted to add one iota to the sum of the working man's happiness— will never be suffered to place one comfort within his reach which the reckless cupidity of his employer can abstract to his own uses.  As au engine of party annoyance, it is, alone, that the agitation of the league can be regarded ; for to any other object than the creation of a temporary effervescence upon the surface of public opinion it is manifestly incapacitated from directing itself. It is in possession of none of those elements of strength by which the success of great questions are brought about under a representative form of government. It has neither leaders to whom the people look up with respect and confidence, nor has it one powerful body amongst the people upon whose support it can unhesitatingly rely. The factious motives of unseating Sir Robert Peel's ministry set aside, we question if the undisguised object of the league—the withdrawal of all protection whatever from the agricultural body— would obtain the support of one-tenth of the representatives of the people in the present parliament ; and, most assuredly, we can see no prospect of such a change in our system of representation—none, at least, which the league would venture upon—as would consummate that object, in the overthrow of our existing industrial interests and the transfer of the property of the nation, and the substantial power of the government as well, into the hands of an aristocracy of new poorlaw philosophers and manufacturing capitalists.  The infusion of new elements of deinocraey into the constitution, the adoption of the ballot, the abolition of the rateplying clauses of the reform bill,—all or any of these expedients would not, we are confident, produce such a parliament as would be required to realize the dream of Mr. Richard Cobden and his fellow leaguers. Stich a parliament as would be returned the aid of these concessions to democracy would doubtless be prepared to rush with all due haste to the settlement of the corn-laws, the timber duties, or the sugar duties ; but it is equally certain that they would also be prepared to go much further—far, in fact, beyond the point at which the league would have them stop. The millowners of Manchester and Stockport are not disposed, for instance, to trust the settlement of the factory question into the hands of their own enfranchised operatives; and yet the working classes of the manufacturing districts would most assuredly be prompt in demanding such a settlement. They are scarcely more disposed to place the settlement of the poor-law question in the same hands. They are not anxious to see the propriety of taxing mill machinery seriously mooted ; or to witness the starting of a hundred other similar questions, into the discussion of which democracy would unhesitatingly plunge. NO, no; the manufacturing agitators, with the fear of Chartism before their eyes, have assuredly little hope of working out the objects for which they clamour so loudly, by the infusion of additional democracy into the constitution; and as little, we think, from any effort in a contrary direction. The parliament, which a reformer of the league school requires, is one which will devote itself to the securing of a free trade in corn, labour, and every other commodity; but will not enter upon the task of alleviating the pressure of the new poor-law upon the poor ;—a parliament of Unitarian philosophers—of men steeped in the heartlessness of the factory system ; and we venture to question, not whether the materials for such a parliament could be found—(for they are abundant)—but whether, until the character of Englishmen be changed utterly, it is possible in this Christian country to devise any system by which constituencies could be formed to return such a parliament, or a power strong enough to afford it protection from the storm of execration, which its acts in one session would drawn.  That the government of Sir Robert Peel is not willing to yield to the dictation, or to be terrified by the bluster of a party so utterly powerless—so hopelessly isolated—so thoroughly bankrupt in the sympathy or respect of any influential portion of the community—is scarcely surprising; but we may well wonder at the suicidal blindness of the whig party—or of the respectable portion of it, at least, if any such portion is remaining—in allying themselves with such a mass of vapouring and conceited helplessness. Surely neither Lord John Russell nor Lord Palmerston can have the preposterous folly to suppose that such an alliance will shorten by one day the period of their exile from the regions of Downing-street ! __Surely neither of these acute politicians  can ever dream of being borne into office upon the.shoulders of the paltry spouters of the anti-corn• law league, or floated out of the " slough of despond," which they now so worthily occupy, by any influence which can be exercised upon the public mind by the malthusian supporters of those twin abominations—the new poor-law and the factory system.