2 SEPTEMBER 1837, Page 10

LIES OF THE MINISTERIAL PRESS.

Trim seems to have become a necessary department of an independent newspaper ; and the first use we make of it is to commence the pay- ment of a debt to the Ministerial journalists, which we, having had matters of more importance to attend to, have suffered to hill largely into arrear.

Under lies we include all kinds of deceitful and delusive statements, obviously made with a fraudulent purpose : wilfully to misrepresent a man's opinions or motives, is to lie : garbled extracts, framed to con- vey a different meaning from that of the composition as a whole, Is lying : calumnious insinuation is lying. The writers who adopt these foul practices, know that there are ex- ceedingly few real and well.informed politicians. Indeed, even among newspaper editors, whose profession is politics, there are so few whet form what they call their opinions independently for themselves, upoa evidence and reasoning, that if there are half-a.dozen in the Three King- doins, we know not where to find the results in their works. There is, however, a very extensive manufacture of newspaper politics; the process of which consists, for the most part, in repeating slavishly what a few of the "leading papers" think it for their interest, or the interest of their party, to put forth. The statements thus made and copied may be true or fales—few care which. The evening paper echoes the morning, the morning follows the evening, the country paper swears by both. Thus, a calumny once set afloat takes a long voyage. The originator knows this ; and if it fail from any cause to obtain the desired circulation, he can and does repeat it. A writer in one of the London newspapers, not very long ago, boasted of the ad-

vantage he had over the Spectator by publishing six times for our once. He, however, forgot the moral of the fable of the hare and the tortoise : let him and his confederates " double " as much as they please, we confidently expect to beat them, simply by pursuing a determined course of undeviating straightforwardness. In this our first instalment of debt repaid, we take three cases that fall within the week.

Ls I. The Morning. Chi onicle on Monday published the following

as one of its leading articles.

44 The compliments so liberally paid to the Spectator by the Tory press, for the remarkable candour of its admission,, seem not without cause to havr alarmed our Sunday contemporary. We are not, however, disposed to entel into any controversy on the justice of the suspicions expressed by our Libera contemporaries as to the object and tendency of the Spectator's labours. We way observe, however, that in its summary of the new Parliament, it states that in the towns of Lancashire the Tories have the ascendancy. The facts prove directly the reverse. There are fourteen boroughs in Lancashire sending Members which have returned 14 Liberals and 8 Tory Representatives to the present Parliament, giving a majority of 6 in favour of the Reformer.. "This is another instance of what has been alleged, that the Spectator, under the false guise of liberality, is playing into the hands of the Tories.' "

Here is insinuated the falsehood, that, to play into the hands of the Tories, the Spectator bad misstated the relative position of Whigs and Tories in Lancashire. That there was no such intention, the Chronicle knew perfectly well ; for the paragraph on which its lie is founded was merely a note or memorandum at the close of one division of our election-tables, in which tables the Members returned for each borough were given twice over, and just as the Chronicle classed them --even allowing Ministers the benefit of that very doubtful person Mr. FLEETWOOD of Preston. The meaning of the writer of the note was inaccurately expressed in the Spectator of the 19th August ; it was correctly stated afterwards in the pamphlet published by Mr. Ctarrost,—to this effect, that, taking the whole representation of

Lancashire, the Tories would seem to be the more numerous party. But, to quote the paragraph as it stood in the Spectator printed ten days before, will be sufficient to prove that the Chronicle wilfully mis-

represented the intention of it.

"It is remarkable, that not only in the county, but in the towns of Lan- cashire, the Tories should have the ascendancy. The four County Members are Tory; so are the two Members for Liverpool and Lancaster ; Warrington returns a Tory, and so does Blackburne ; Bury, Manchester, and Salford, are represented by Liberals. There can be no question that the masses in Lan- cashire, among whom there are so many Catholics and Dissenters, are de- cidedly Liberal; and if so, the state of the representation of that county proves that the Reform Act has been of little use, on the supposition that to enable the People to elect Members of similar opinions to their own, was the intent of Mat measure."

Notwithstanding this clear intimation of the reason for alluding es- pecially to the representation of Lancashire, in the very saute paragraph on which its " leader " is founded, the Chronicle chose to give it a precisely contrary aim ; and therein lies the falsehood.

We subjoin a table which shows how the representation-of Lanca- shire really stands ; the population being given according to the last returns.

Tory majority indicated by the election returns .... 507,000

Have the Chronicle's Whig friends reason to be grateful for the attention he has drawn to their position in Lancashire ?

LIE II. The Leeds Mercury, taking his cue from the Metropolitan Whig journals, was not ashamed to insert the following paragraph in his last paper.

"The Spectator grudgingly allows Ministers a majority of 16, by giving the returns to the new Parliament as 30 Liberals to 321 Tories. As a proof that there is something very erroneous in this statement, we may state that the Spectator stands quite lotus in its reckoning. The fact is, that the majority for Lord Melbourne's Government will be 40—either one under or over ; and that the reason why the Spectator only makes a majority of 16 is this—that several Members who were net down as Liberals by that paper in 1835 are given Out to be Tories in 1837, without any reason whatever being alleged fur such Potiniity; and also that several changes which have been made favourable to the Ministry are altogether overlooked in the table of the Spectator." We pass by the logic of Mr. BAINES'S paper, exemplified in his notion of what constitutes " proof," and the ludicrous self-sufficiency Which could lead him to state as a "fact" that the majority in the new House would be 40—either one under or over "—and come at once to

REPRESENTATION OF LANCASIIIRE.

Tory Liberal Tory Liberal

Members. Members Population. Population,

The COUNTY.

N. Lancashire...Lord Stanley.. 1 Patten 1 S. Lancashire ...Ld. F. Egerton 1 Wilbraham 1 Borough.. The Boxouctits, Liverpool Lord Sandon.• 1 Cresswell 1 - I 165.000 .... ....

Manchester ....Thomson - 1 1 .... .... 187,000 Phillips 1 1

Salford,. Brotherton. . 1 40,000 Preston Fleetwood .... — ...... 1 half of pop. .... .... 17,000 Parker 1 — halfof pop. MOM .... Bolton Boiling 1 half of pop. 22,000 .... Ainsworth .... - 1 half of pop. 22..000

Oldham Fielden —

Johnson 1 1 • • • • . • 32,000 Blackburne Feilden —1 — half of pop. 13,500 ....

Turner — 1 half or pop. • . . . .... 13,500 Wigan Potter 11 20,000 Stundiall — 11 Rochdale Fenton - 1 20,000 Warrington Itlackburne. 1 1.8,000 ...... Bury Walker 1 .. • .... 1.5,000 Ashton II Willey • ... • • • •

Lancaster Greene 1

Martyn 1 } 12,000 .... • • • • Clitheroe Fort - 1 .... .... 9,000

— — -- -- 12 14 897.50o 390,500 390,500

Dedneting —} the the Popu- lation of 650,000 .. • . • . • •

15,000

the lie. It is twofold—direct, and insinuated. First, the Spectator Is charged with removing Liberals from the Liberal list to the Tory list

without alleging " any reason whatever ;" and it is said that by this process we have reduced the Liberal majority to 16. Now let the Mercury give the names of the Liberals—referring, if he chooses, to his own list—whom the Spectator classes as Tories "without any reason whatever being alleged for such partiality." Until these names are pro- duced, the assertion of the Mercury we shall hold to be a lie direct. The insinuated lie is that our list was made out with "partiality" to the Tories, If any one Member claimed by the Liberals is placed among the Tories without reason, let his name be mentioned ; for in that way only can the imputation of " partiality" be sustained in the slight- est degree. At present it bears the true marks of a Whig lie.

LIE III. The following appeared, conspicuously placed, in the Ex- aminer of last Sunday.

" READY FOR Got NG ABOUT.—The Spectator is making up its mind, with a philosophy exceedingly edifying, ' to apply itself to such measures of practical improvement as may be attainable under a Conservative government. Whe- ther Whigs or Tories, or a coalition of both, be at the helm, Conservative, our Radical contemporary has predetermined, the government shall be for ' a good

while.' What the Spectator would term Conservative, it may be easy to fix

precisely ; but whatever it is, it is pleasant to find it is something that h. can take so kindly to. It is ' a more congenial vocation,' he says, in which be is now about to labour, than that in which be has hitherto toiled, with results so

little to his satisfaction. To promote such ' practical improvements' as are consistent with a Conservative government, is ' a more congenial vocation ' to

the Spectator than pressing for ' organic changes.' Why our contemporary should have put himself's° much out of the way in pursuing what it now ap- pears he had after all no particular taste for, may perplex simple folks: or why he should be so much out of humour with the consummation which he aticribes to the Whigs—a good part of which, however, might rather be ascribed to his section of Liberals, but which, after all, as concerns his small peculiar,' has only tran•ferred him to functions which he says he finds more congenial ' than Radicalism. It would in some measure help us to understand what shade of Conservatism the Spectator expects to obtain the ascendant, if he would give us some insight into the species of practical measures to which, for the future, he means to restrict himself. Are these to include or exclude the measures called for emphatically by the forniidable and increased phalanx of Irish Liberal Representatives ?—to include or exclude the measures called for with equal de- termination and union by the equally decided majority of Scottish Reformers 7— to include or exclude, finally, the claims of the Dissenters in England 7—on all which subjects the self.styled Conservatives have hitherto ranged themselves on the side opposed to measures of practical improvement.' Are the Conser- vatives to turn Liberal, or is the Spectator to turn Tory ?—or are the high con- tracting parties to meet half way, and split their differences?— Globe."

This is a joint-stock affair—the Examiner furnishing the lie, the Globe the balderdash. " Ready for going about ! "—ah ! the " wish was father" to that falsehood. Nobody knows better than the Examiner that there are no symptoms of readiness to "go about" in the Spectator; nobody more clearly discerns the entire consistency of the Spectator ; nobody can have a more acute consciousness, that it is not the Spectator which is "going," but rather the Examiner which has gone "about." Now for the Globe's share.

"What the Spectator would term Conservative, it may be [qu. may not be?] easy to fix precisely." There was no difficulty : the Globe knew where to find the Spectator's definition of the term. In the second paragraph of the article culled "Conservative Ascendancy," published on the Itlth of August, it was distinctly stated, that by a Conservative Government we meant "a Government of Tory prin- ciples and practice, whatever its professions might be ; a Government, of whatever men composed, decidedly Conservative of the present franchise —of the present plan of open voting under bribery and intimidation— of the present admirable state, in short, of the representative system as shown by this election—and filially, both of the Peerage as it is and of the Church as it is—in one word, a truly Conservative Government, though it should be composed either of Tories exclusively, or of Tories and Whigs in coalition, or of Whigs only." After this, we apprehend there is no difficulty in ascertaining the precise meaning of tne term Conservative as used by the Spectator ; and not any more in coming to a right designation of the present Government. " To promote practical improvements, a more congenial vocation than organic changes." This is not all : we said—" apply ourselves to such practical improvements as may be attainable under a Conservative Government, and an instrument of legislation miserably deft :live." The Globe cannot imagine why we have advocated organic changes, if to la- bour for practical improvements be our more congenial vocation : now we explained this on the ItIth of August—when we stated that we had ever regarded practical improvements as "the end of all political exer- tion, and organic changes as a means only" of removing obstructions to useful practical measures. It is our more congenial vocation to labour for practical improvements, because we would fain reap the substantial reward of political reforms—having no desire of mere change—utterly abjuring the policy of preparing good measuresfiff rejection, and scorn- ing the engineer who keeps on bombarding a fortress, which continually grows stronger under his attacks, with the self-same abortive artillery. And now that the expectation of that kind of reform which Mr. HUME and others thought to get by coaxing Ministers, though Minis- ters persevered in refusing it, no longer exists, it is to be expected that real Reformers will strive to obtain those administrative ameliorations which may be forced from any Government, AVhig or Tory ; but which, misled by the fallacious hope of organic reforms, they abstained from pressing upon the Illet.notaiNt: Ministry, and consequently, in the last session, got no reforms, administrative or organic. Should this, the old course of the Liberals under Tory Governments, be adopted, there would be reason to expect some gain ; and therein would our condition be improved. The Globe wishes to know the species of practical measures to which we mean to restrict ourselves ; and strings a number of very needless questions, which it is but too easy for us to answer affirma- tively. Yes, our support of practical measures includes all that he specifies, and all that we can imagine to be implied in his vague cate- gories : but will the cemserrative Whig- Tory Government propose them? To our apprehension, the new pamphlet, which the Globe was lauding yesternight, and which the Chronicle recommended as speaking " the sentiments of men in ofliee," says No, as plainly as such a thing can speak.